Anarchist Zach Ruiter wearing a mask marching in front of GE-Hitachi
Tonight was the night that the anarchists converged on West Toronto- much to the dismay of the local residents. It all started a couple of weeks ago when Zach Ruiter, an anarchist, started publicising the fact that there’s a uranium processing plant at Lansdowne & Dupont. The plant has been there for over 50 years, and the information about it is published on the Internet- but, Ruiter came out screaming that it’s a secret plant…
The evening’s festivities began at the entrance to the plant. About 8-10 people showed-up for the protest, they were outnumbered by the 12-15 police officers who were there. The anarchists grumbled a lot about the large police presence- quite ridiculous considering how much damage the anarchists have done in this city in the past. This is a nuclear plant- imagine if they didn’t have enough security and something happened?
A very small crowd…
While the (small) crowd was gathered in front of the plant I took some time and talked with some of the neighbours across the street. At first they thought I was one of the anarchists and they were very stand-offish. I explained to them I was reporting on the event, and not part of it, and they quickly warmed-up to me. So I asked them their feelings on what was going on.
While they weren’t impressed to have a uranium processing plant across the street from their houses, they were even more unimpressed with the people running the event. They complained about the meeting the day before saying that Ruiter was way too alarmist and that much of the information he was sharing was inaccurate.
They also said that Ruiter got a lot of flack from the residents at that meeting. This is very curious, because it exposes the Toronto Star’s bias in-favour of the anarchists. In their article about Wednesday’s meeting they mentioned that one of the local residents was unhappy with Ruiter. That’s not quite true according to what I was told, many of the residents were vocally unhappy with him. I guess this is to be expected, the Star has spent a lot of time promoting the anarchists in the past.
After the demonstration, the protesters marched to the local community centre and began the evening’s meeting. There were about 100 or so people there, half of them were with the anarchist/lefty crowd, and the other half were from the neighbourhood. The locals were rather uncomfortable with the lefties, particularly with the wacky ones, like the old lady walking around with a radio frequency detector and telling people to put their phones into airplane mode.
The background music playing before the meeting started was from Occupy the musical- this was the first hint that this meeting was not about the locals. When Ruiter announced that the meeting was Livestreamed by Occupy Toronto there was a collective sigh from the local residents- this was when they began to understand who was behind the meeting.
There was some entertainment before the panel began speaking. The Raging grannies were on-stage and sang a few songs. Here’s a video:
I won’t bore you too with the details of the speakers. They began with a line-up of politicians from federal, provincial and local government. The local representative was a very nervous looking city councillor named Cesar Palacio- he’s conservative leaning, and as I was told by someone I met there, he has generally voted along with mayor Rob Ford.
Suddenly things were beginning to make sense- I was wondering what the anarchist’s ulterior motive was (they usually have one). The lefties have been trying to punish Ford ever since he was voted in. This situation didn’t make Palacio look very good, he should have been on-top of it. I could imagine that if there was a lefty city councillor in this ward we may not have had such an assault.
I went up to Palacio during the meeting and asked him if he knew that it was being run by anarchists. He looked at me nervously and nodded. From what I could see, this is a man who was filled with fear that his career was over. And, it may just be everyone – left, right & centre – should be genuinely upset that he wasn’t on top of such an important fact.
That said, as much as we should be angry with Palacio, we should probably be even more disappointed with our neighbourhood’s MP- Andrew Cash. Nuclear regulation is under federal legislation and Cash should have been aware of this plant. As a message to MP’s across the country, we should boot Cash out of office at the next election.
Let me get back to the anarchists- because they’re an important part of the story. Zach wasn’t the only anarchist in the room- there were many. In fact, there were a couple of very significant anarchist leaders amongst us, and a very high-profile supporter. All of them are sympathetic to the violence that occurred during the G20.
Zach is an unfluential member of the anarchist community. I first learned about who he was after watching one of his videos chronicling an anarchist field trip to the student strikesin Montreal earlier this year. Most of the strikers were students who acted peacefully and lawfully during the strike. The anarchists were anything but peaceful though. One of the more memorable moments was when they invaded the Université du Québec à Montréal, spray painted the walls, interrupted classes, and assaulted to women.
Zach made another video that caught my attention. It was about an incident in a Toronto court where George Horton, a G20 vandal, was being sentenced to 10 months in prison. The video included a who’s who of Toronto’s pro-violence anarchists- including two of the people who were at the meeting with us on Thursday night.
The first person who appears on the video is Julian Ichim, the anarchist who led the interruption of the Remembrance Day ceremonies last week– he’s also currently being prosecuted for crimes related to the G20. The next person on the video is a man who I refer to as “Flagpole Alex”- he violently assaulted me this summer to the point where I needed staples in my scalp. Alex (who’s last name is still a mystery) is currently on the run from the Toronto Police.
The next interesting character on the video was in the room with us last night. Her name is Sakura Saunders– a self-identifying anarchist. If you listen to Saunders on the video you will hear her saying about Horton: “I mean, all he did was kick the door of a police car!” Saunders is a trust fund kiddie who has somehow morphed to promoting violence on the streets of Toronto- the exact opposite what my neighbours in this ward want to see.
I’ve saved the most interesting person on the video for last. Roy Brady of the Council of Canadians (CoC) was speaking at the meeting on Thursday night. The CoC’s have an uncomfortably close relationship with anarchists across Canada. I spoke on the phone with the CoC’s Executive Director Garry Neil last year and he personally admitted that they were responsible for bringing the anarchists into their protest at the 2010 Olympics. Here’s a video in case you don’t know what happened that day:
There was one last anarchist who joined us on Thursday- her name is Ashleigh Ingle, a teacher at Toronto’s exclusive Dragon Academy, and the author of a paper titled No Photo Ops With The Fucking Cops. Ingle is a leader of the anarchists- I first saw her at an anti police march leading the chat “No Justice, No Peace, Fuck the Police. Here’s a short video of that day:
One of the best tricks of the anarchists is what I call the fuzzy bunny attack. They will attach themselves to a cause that many people find to be quite appealing as a way to get support from outsiders. Once the outsiders have joined them, they have the perfect ‘human shield’ to protect them as they engage in what they lovingly refer to as ‘smashy, smashy’.
I can’t speak for what Zach Ruiter’s intentions are in this protest- I can only guess. That said, my instinct tells me that he genuinely cares about this cause. I totally respect that, I too have very strong issues with nuclear power. I’ve been writing about it since last year when I uncovered that Cameco had a uranium contaminated ship in Vancouver’s harbour- less than a kilometre from my house. I’ve also reported extensively on the disaster at Fukushima.
Zach could be a great asset to the battle against this plant. Equally, with his deep connections and support of people who have exercised street violence, he could be a very valuable ally. There are many people in the community who are uncomfortable with this part of Zach’s background.
We all need to be reassured that violence will never be a part of any action against the GE-Hitachi plant. Personally, if he gives us his word on this, I will have no issues having Zach work in our community.
Can you do this Zach? If you can, then we should all embrace your leadership and work with you- if not, then you have no right to come into our community…
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I wish to start by stating that i am a supporter of Nuclear power and energy . i wanted to start off by saying that because while i am a support of this form of energy, i do understand and respect other persons viewpoints on this subject.
What i do NOT respect is the mis-information that is being stated about this particular site and what this form of energy is all about. Nuclear energy is used today, and each and ever inhabitant on this planet is directly influenced by it. We use nuclear energy in our medical diagnostic and medical imaging systems, we use nuclear energy to cure certain types of cancers, hell, if you have a wrist watch with a luminous dial, you are wearing radioactive particles . The sun emits radiation. Nuclear energy is not the monster some claim it to be.
The plant in question, while its function is obviously not known to me other than the fact that it is there, has been there in that same area for more than fifty years. the residents already knew what they did long before our alarmist anarchist Zack broke them the news. Zack, you really need to get your head out of your anarchist ass once in a while and see what is really going on around you, because dude, you missed this boat by about thirty years . ( guessing that you are about 20 years old, give or take a few )
The negative aspects of this form of energy is well documented , both here on this blog and throughout history , however, while there have been some serious negative effects as a result of human stupidity , the positive effects have seemingly been ignored for the sale of sensationalism .
Regardless of what position you take on this issue, it is important that the facts, all of the facts be made clear, known and be open, for discussion of varying viewpoints , as well, open to addressing other possible alternatives.
Furthermore, did anyone take the time to look into what is actually meant by “uranium processing” that is being done at this plant? When anything nuclear is referred to it is easy for fear mongers like these anarchists to conjur up images of Hiroshima, Three Mile Island, Fukishima, etc. It turns out all that is happening at this plant is cutting up of uranium into little pellets which are used in rods that are placed into reactors at Bruce Nuclear.
What Zach and his mary little band neglected to tell anyone is that uranium is bascially harmless until it is placed in a reactor. There are about a half dozen electroplating plants in my city which are far more dangerous than this plant. Heck, solar panal plants are far more hazerdous than this plant.
Thankfully The Torontoist chose to write an article which is a counter balance the biased Star:
http://torontoist.com/2012/11/should-we-worry-about-lansdownes-radiation-station/
The collective sigh says it all doesn’t it. Many of these “Anachists” are so self-righteous and narrow minded that they honestly beleive that everyone will think exactly as they do. All that needs to happen is for them to hear the brilliance of the leftist-activist doctrine and people will be convinced. So they yell louder and march more to try and spread their brilliance to the sheltered masses. That collective sigh says it all though. People have heard you and they want nothing to do with what you are preeching.
Those people did not go to that meeting to be talked at by a bunch of politicians. They did not go to have Zach and his comrades tell them what their opinions should be. They certainly did not go down there to listen to a bunch of hippies from the 60s sing smarmy songs. They went down there to ask questions and be heard. Two things they did not seem to get.
These people also do not need you to censor what they read and hear Zach. From what I read on the Facebook page (before you deleted these posts of course) is that most people actually wanted to hear from GE-Hitachi. Ironic when you consider that it was not the big evil corporation that prevented people from hearing the truth. It was you Zach.
In case you are wondering, this is the kind of factory that people should be worried about: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/11/17/montreal-acetone-factory.html
There are plenty of legitimate nuclear issues which you could take on. Where there is an actual danger. That is, if you actually care. I have a feeling though from looking at all your posts that nuclear safety is secondary with you. This all seems like another socialist attack on a corporation. And that you are using peoples fears and feelings around nuclear energy to manipulate them. Whatever your true motivation is one thing is certain. That this entire event has turned into a giant anarchist epic fail.
This is my riding. I’m not sure if it was Zach, but on the Lansdowne just before this meeting, someone started announcing loudly to the other riders the imminence of this protest and meeting, and insisting that we should attend right now if we lived nearby. They kept it up loudly all the way up the street till Dupont. While I appreciate the passion – I guess; I’m assuming it’s genuine – the stridency is definitely a problem, and people like Zach do themselves no favours by turning bus rides into pulpits.
There have been four public meetings (including the GE Hitachi Open House); all of which purporting to be for the community and to protect its members. All four of the meetings were tragically ambushed by far-left leaning activists, all whom carried agendas which were far beyond the scope of the community and much more a part of the national and international nuclear policy realm. Typical intimidation tactics included using webcams to record responses, close-up photographs, crowding the meetings with like-minded political thugs and the selective use of propaganda.
Particularly disturbing during the Dec. 10 meeting was the dismissal with cat-calls and constant interruptions of any knowledgeable experts or specialists and the inference that they are paid conspirators working in support of the nuclear establishment which all degraded the forums into circuses of swirling and confusing anarchy. And while the true knowledge base from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the professor of Nuclear Safety were all shouted down as heretics when they categorically professed quantified safety figures, the instigators in the crowd lauded the doomsday scenarios of a retired mathematics professor and psychiatrist Dr. Jim Deutsche…both of who are well known as radical activists who don’t seem to hold any nuclear safety qualifications what-so-ever….it was insanity!
This bully behavior, thinly veiled as freedom to speak, is offensive!! Shame Jonah Schein and Andrew Cash for allowing it to fester as it has. Take a stand as you were elected to do!!
Correction…not the December 10 meeting, it was the Saturday, December 8th meeting.