Exclusive: Afro-Indigenous Rising Collective releases ten demands amid imminent threat of eviction from Dufferin Grove Park
Written by: Aidan Jonah
Early yesterday morning, the City of Toronto issued an eviction order to the AIR Collective, a police abolition collective, which was previously occupying Nathan Phillips Square. They are currently at Dufferin Grove Park. The Canada Files obtained their official list of demands, which an anonymous organizer said was “inspired by the Black Panthers Ten Point Program.”
Here is the list of the AIR Collective’s ten demands:
Defund the police
Disarm the police
End all pipeline activity on sovereign Indigenous land
Relieve/freeze/remove rent during COVID-19
Eliminate mass surveillance in racialized neighbourhoods
Eliminate usage of past criminal history to discriminate against racialized folks (housing etc.)
Make restitution
Decriminalize sex work
Reallocate funds to neighbourhood work
Abolish police and prisons
In its second eviction notice to the AIR Collective, the city stated that the time of the eviction is scheduled for July 23 at 9 a.m. If the collective does not follow their demands, “the Notice will be enforced in accordance with the provisions of the Tresspass to Property Act, R.S.O. 1990 c. T21 and/or by any other legal means available.” Under the Tresspass to Property Act, a person who refuses to vacate the premises could be fined up to CAD $10000.
The City of Toronto specifically emphasized that they will immediately shut down any encampments set up in Toronto, if the AIR Collective would attempt to move to another location, upon being evicted from Dufferin Grove Park.
Here is the full eviction notice:
“We are planning to stay at the encampment and be arrested,” said an anonymous organizer from the AIR Collective. “We will be holding police abolition events over the next few days, along with a dance party style event on Wednesday night and Thursday morning to bring as many people into the encampment before police attempt to evict the collective.”
“With the lifting of the ban on evictions in August, we’ll be seeing many evictions of people who have been put in a vulnerable position due to COVID-19,” said the organizer. “The City of Toronto is so desperate to clear all the encampments because with many people set to be homeless, they are very likely to organize and join up with the encampments, which would then become a difficult force for the city to control.”
The AIR Collective is calling for supporters and allies to join the encampment, or support their efforts in whatever manner is possible for them.
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