John, I am so infuriated.

John, I am so infuriated to hear you speak so blithely about the 'inappropriateness' of the inquiry into the well-documented police violence at encampment evictions, which are themselves violent by nature.  This is not what taking responsibility for your mistakes looks like.

You say that raising public awareness achieves nothing while at the same time you are raising public awareness for your own position--so which is it?  Your prose runs deep with this sort of hypocrisy, internal contradiction, and statements that can't even be false like saying that encampments "aren't safe"--compared to what?  No possible alternative will exist for many this winter.  No city program will completely remove the need for outdoor shelter, and 'zero encampments' literally means 'zero tents' (I asked 311) which is part of why it’s both extremist and logically inconsistent with the unanimous 'human rights' approach to encampments--and when our council contradicts itself, citizens have no option but to intervene, since anything follows from a contradiction, which effectively removes our democratic will from our city's actions--or do you have a different position on paraconsistency in law? 

You say that media protest of police violence costs money and does not create housing--but the police violence that happened on your watch also costs money, indirectly kills and directly injures and traumatizes many, and also does not create housing--but protest against this waste of resources can divert those resources to housing and away from maiming the public.

I've explained how mass clearings on one day will predictably reduce safety.  ENCAMPMENT CLEARINGS ARE "NOT SAFE", to use your language.  The *relative* absence of protestors at the Alexandra Park clearing (a mass eviction) was due to, beyond the chilling event from the previous week’s police violence, a greater degree of consent from those relocated. But where consent is complete, the amount of force required is zero and thus the involvement of police is wholly inappropriate--never send violent, armed police to a peaceful encampment again, send help.

You complain that your social media critics do not attend public meetings--yet you had no questions for me on Monday at the police services board meeting, why not?  What I proposed was complex and nuanced and your silence baffles me.

What other meetings should those concerned attend to have the most productive conversation possible, where all good ideas are addressed regardless of their origin?

In Anger,
Adam Golding

Pirate Party of Canada
Anarchist Piano Lair
Toronto Coalition for Housing (TorCH)
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