Direct actions work. The past two weeks have seen multiple Palestinian solidarity actions shut down Liberal fundraisers and galas with fascists. They have drawn attention to illegal land sales, Canadian companies arming Israel, and the racist violence of Zionists here in Canada.

Our hosts go over some of these actions, the tactics they used, the responses and the results.

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Resources:

• CIA Handbook on Sabotage
• Referenced Episode: Courage Needed: Advocating for Palestine
• Referenced Episode: We Keep Us Safe - Blueprints of Disruption
• World Beyond War: Kraken Technology Action Statement
• Independent Jewish Voices Response Letter to Selina Robinson
• UPDATE: Aid Funding Restored
• CBC: Real Estate Events in Thornhill
• CBC: Trudeau Meloni Event Cancelled

Welcome to Rabble Rants. I'm Santiago Gelo Quintero and alongside Jess McLean, we're going to unpack

the stories that have us most riled up and challenge the narratives around them. If you're listening

to this rant on the Blueprints of Disruption feed, we're happy to announce that these rabble

rants now have their own feed under that very name. We've linked it in the show notes to

make it easier for you to find. So we have a call to action for us. Can you subscribe to

us there, but also share us? Share us with a friend, a comrade, another agitator, maybe

someone who needs a little encouragement to disrupt. Point them our way, will you? Let's

get to today's episode. We've got some good news. A lot of victories to share, a lot of

actions over the past week or two that have yielded tangible results for the pro-Palestinian

movement in Canada. We're gonna start with two in Toronto, where protesters managed to shut

the events down, as well as draw some really interesting attention to the movement. And

possibly movement in terms of... the Canadian federal government's positions. So let's get

to them. Outside the AGO on March 2nd, protesters, they were successful. There was supposed to

be a big gala there. It was Prime Minister Trudeau was welcoming the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia

Maloney. I feel like that was like a twofer, because I mean, anywhere Trudeau goes obviously

is fair game, but then you throw a whole fascist. prime minister and it's just you don't really

need any more excuses to shut this one down and they did such a good job. Yeah, I cannot

believe that we had. Well, you know what? That's not true. I can't say that. I can't believe

it. It's more that I'm incredibly fucking frustrated at the reception that we give to a literal

fucking fascist.

That obviously should not be surprising. You know, we applauded a fascist in parliament.

We're supporting a fascist regime in Israel. At the same time, there was something about,

you know, I quite like the AGO. That's the art gallery of Ontario. We're always so- I go there

when it's free sometimes. Yeah, I, bringing the Italian Prime Minister there felt very

just like- Ick. Fuck you. Yeah, like very ick, very icky. Seeing that it got shut down, but

also seeing all of the discourse online afterwards was so funny. Like, I don't know how many times

we've mentioned him on the show that MP Marco Mendicino, he tried to get all the Italians

really riled up about this, like feeling like they were victimized. And I obviously it was

framed as anti-Semitic. You know, I want to talk a little bit about the tactics, though.

I was watching it. I was not there. I was watching it on the live stream. Kudos to whoever was

hosting it. I the art gallery of Ontario has many, many entrances. Obviously, it's like

main entrance. And ideally, these folks would have been photographed kind of going in, standing

tall in their pretty outfits through the main entrance, their chosen entrance. And so that

was where. protesters seem to start. You know, at the beginning of every action, you don't

quite have the numbers that you do, maybe half hour, 45 minutes in, once people know that

it's on or get down there. And so they had one entrance blocked, but it quickly became apparent

that security for the attendees were going to bypass that entrance and use one of the many,

many back doors, side doors that the AGO had. And the response of the activists on site there.

was impressive. They quickly realized what was happening, saved the proper amount of numbers

for one entrance, and then quickly moved participants around the building, stopping at each entrance,

stationing enough people there, and then continuing on. And they just continued to kind of bolster

these numbers strategically in places that made it almost impossible for the guests. to get

in. And then when security really tried to push the issue, when the big guns came out, when

Hamad Hussein showed up, they tried to clear a path through the one entrance and then the

protesters used an excessive amount of noise. I shouldn't say excessive because it was successive.

It was just really, you could see it was really jarring for the MP, even for their security

detail and the cops, they were just flinching and just like... They just wanted to turn away

from it. And in the end, that's exactly what they did. People got great footage of the MP

of, now this is the Minister of International Development. This is the man responsible for

cutting the funding to UNRWA, to the UN Refugee Funds for people of Palestine. And they were

all turned away. And in the end, it was canceled. They canceled the event. And I guess Marco

Mendicino didn't get his chance to rub elbows with his favorite fascist. He got particularly

worked up, but yeah, like you said, a lot of people, the Sun was using its typical pro-Hamas

language to describe the protesters. You know, this is one of those, those occasions where,

you know, how everyone likes to bring up the, what would you have done during, you know,

Nazi times and stuff. Here we have a literal OG Italian fascist. It can't be more clear

than that about whose side people are on. And can I just say like the whole Marco Mancino

thing? I mean, first of all, I lived for a long time in an Italian neighborhood. My Italian,

my partner's Italian, and every Italian that I've talked to has found this incredibly funny

because Italy does have the fascist history. It also has a very rich anti-fascist history.

And to assume that Italians are just gonna go along with the pro-fascism is... incredibly

misguided and we saw a ton of that on Twitter. You're going to play Bella Ciao? Oh, yeah,

absolutely. I was a big fan of some good, you know, anti-fascist. That's been waiting in

the wings. Yeah. So that was that was really funny. It's also one of the things that this

shows, you know, is the disruption of events when you have the right numbers and there's

actual politicians there. who have images that they need to preserve. Yeah. Those are a recipe

for success. Right? They are. Like, that was really bad press for Trudeau, for MP Hussein.

It was an embarrassment for the Toronto police. Uh, another funny story. So, obviously, the

event got shut down. They couldn't control the situation, thankfully. At some point, they

even had... many of their horses, all the king's horses and all the king's men seemed to be

out there trying to push the crowd back. And after the event was shut down and the protesters

dispersed, the police lined up at the main entrance for a photo. So it was just them, no one around

them. They were holding down the situation and that image was taken after the protests. So

They were trying their best to improve their PR around that because all the money that they're

given and they still couldn't make way for PM Trudeau to get through to his gala dinner.

And I don't imagine that went over well for them. So I hope some cop somewhere is really

upset. And that makes me happy. I think that's a I think that's the funniest part, too. Right.

I wonder what impression is left on, you know, Georgia Maloney. Like, I hope he's like, oh,

you know. They can't even control a small little uprising at an art gallery? What is this? Rookies.

Like, you know...

Another successful shutdown though, just the other day. Krista Freeland, we never need any...

That's all you need to know. She was showing up somewhere, so you can shut it down. That

is a green light. But she was also with Yara Sachs, that's the MP for York Center. And she's

been a particular treat during all of this. And they were planning a $750 a plate fundraiser

that I think a lot of folks might want their money back, or not. I mean, they're just throwing

their money at liberals anyway. So their conscience is not an issue. But protesters, again, you

know, used the amount of numbers that they had, formed a human chain, linked arms, they were

singing. They attempted to block the entrance, but police apparently were there to enforce

the bylaw of the amount of clearance you need to give a business if there even is one. I'm

not sure what their justification there was, but they cleared a space so pedestrians could

get by. Some folks did get in, but in the end, Christopher Eland did not show up. And when

the folks at, I believe it was Eglinton Lawrence, Don Valley for Palestine, our friends over

there. asked police if Yara Sacks had made it in the MP for York Center, and the cop didn't

know who she was. And so that was a fun little moment for everyone to just shit on her a little

bit. Yeah, I thought, again, I was watching that on the live stream and one, not only were

they successful in shutting it down, but they had the forethought or what not, a planning

of having banners, clear banners that describe the purpose of the event. And those people

were outward facing to the public, and the rest of people's energies were focused on the restaurant

and the attendees in there. But then anyone passing by, driving by, taking photos, knew

exactly why everyone was there. The messaging was kind of facing out, right? So yeah, it

was this tiny entrance. I think just like one entrance, Yorkville's pretty small. So it was,

I think, a little bit easier to shut down than the ADO, but nonetheless. I think it's becoming

clear to these liberals that they are not going to be able to fundraise as usual. There is

no business as usual at all for these MPs, especially if they've got public events that have been

broadcast in any way. So kudos to those folks there that move quickly on that one. This is

exactly what we like to see, right? People like Garcia Freeland shouldn't be able to go absolutely

anywhere without being met by a crowd, much less a schmancy dinner. in the middle of the

city. No, you know, like I hope that if they want to be able to successfully fund their

fundraisers, they're gonna have to go into the middle of nowhere where no, you know, a town

of 50 people with a singular restaurant and bring in some private chefs or something to

be able to pull that off because in the city, no, they should never ever be able to do that.

And they're not, right? At least not here, not Vancouver. There's a lot of core places that

are doing a great job of pretty much making those folks persona non grata On top of other

institutions that are really fucking around. Uh, so to our next action Uh, it's part of

a larger action That is in new jersey and new york as well because there are real estate

agents Endorsed by keller williams. They're called my home in israel Here in Ontario, there's

a realtor, Darren Rich, who is using spaces at synagogues to hold sales, real estate sales

of illegally occupied Palestinian land. These are Zionist settlements that have been deemed

illegal. And the receipts are all over. I'll link you to folks that have taken screenshots

of the real estate listings as they were up. Because of the amount of attention that this

has gotten, they've been taken down. Keller Williams, the real estate investment company

there, is trying to distance themselves from the people actually holding this. Either way,

it was part of their network and their listings. And this, I imagine, is a fucking crime. So

you have folks in Canada buying illegally occupied land. And... During this fucking genocide,

the fact that they'd have the gall to have these events right now makes me so fucking angry.

Like I'm starting to shake talking about this one. Also because I was there in Thornhill

when an action organized by Gada Sasa, we've had her on our show before, we called it Courage

Needed to Advocate for Palestine, that episode actually dropped on October 5th. And it's so

ironic that like a few days later, it was like, became so obvious how much courage it would

actually take. This was a hard one to organize for Gata because it was inside a synagogue.

It had originally been planned for a community center, but the city got with of it was like,

hell no, that is way too hot potato. You got to move it. And so the realtor was managed

to secure space at the BAYT synagogue in Thornhill. And obviously. with the movement being painted

as anti-Semitic with everything they do, the idea of advertising a protest outside a synagogue

was a hard one. People are trying to manage image and I'll admit, when it was at the community

center, you know, I told Gata I would be there. And then I did second guess for a moment, going

when it was moved outside the synagogue. And then I asked myself, What the fuck am I worried

about? Am I worried about like image? Am I worried about the anti-Semitic label? Because I get

that every time I post about anything anyway. And I felt really silly and it was not a good

moment for me to even have those doubts. That action wasn't able to shut it down because

the numbers weren't there at the beginning. A consideration is not only about personal

image and times like that. But I imagine part of the worry was also about how the movement

itself might look. Because, you know, we know what's going on here. We know why they chose

to move it to a synagogue of all places, right? It's being set almost as a type of bait. Like,

come shut it down if you dare, right? They have these statements lined up already. It's not

just about the personal choices, but it's about the movement. And it's something that I don't

think it's silly to be thinking about that. I think it's important to always be considering

how our actions might affect the movement. But in this case, you sit there, you think about

it, you make the decision and you go. But I think it's okay to have doubts for a second

there. In terms of the movement, if Gata calls me into battle, I'm going. you know, if she

has given me the green light on something. But yeah, I do understand the kind of issues that

are built in there. Thankfully, though, there is another not thankfully there's another sale,

but there is another sale set for today, expecting a counter protest as well here in Thornhill.

And then there was one last week in Montreal where independent Jewish voices did. mobilize

against that sale. Now I don't think anyone was successful in shutting down the events.

I apologize if I'm incorrect, but they surely aren't doing these sales in the dark anymore.

And hopefully there's some repercussions here because I know that the listings have been

removed from Keller Williams website, but we know that the sales are still going on through

My Home in Israel Realtors. And with all of what we know coming from the ICC. I can't believe

that authorities haven't, oh, I can believe it, but it's very hypocritical that they're

considering granting injunctions against protests against illegal sales. Like injunctions are

usually because, you know, there's been economic hardship, they've got to keep business going,

there's something that needs to keep happening. And so you issue an injunction so it can keep

happening. And they're thinking of green lighting. There's also talks going on that involve IDF

soldiers in Montreal, like talking about how great it is to be in the IDF. And those are

recruitment sessions. And again, any protests outside of there have been labeled as we can

imagine that they've been labeled, but surely that is also illegal. Well, I know it is. I

know it's illegal to recruit for a foreign military service. on Canadian soil, but this has been

going on for a long time. It used to happen at York University. But the fact that it's

still happening now during the genocide, when they can imagine what the mobilization against

it would be, is fucking maddening. But they, none of them are without resistance. We can't

talk about the Thornhill action though, without talking about the violence, the hatred and

the vitriol that was there. So all y'all have probably heard about the nail gun. A man, 27,

in the parking lot of where folks were mobilizing to go down to the blockade, firing a nail gun,

yelling like, fuck all Palestinians, and otherwise getting physical with people. And that was

not even close to the only act of violence and real agitation. that went on there. Just to

kind of paint the picture for folks who haven't maybe seen the videos or photos from it, the

police eventually did push the pro-Palestinian side to the other side of the street. So it

became impossible to actually shut down the event. The numbers weren't quite there. I would

say the numbers maybe matched, but if anything, the pro-Palestinian side was outnumbered and

it became a bit of a speaker battle. They had speakers set up on both sides. and the Israelis

were pumping out dance music, other kinds. They were just really celebrating, waving IDF flags

and yelling the most horrific shit you can imagine in the faces of people who've lost family members.

Like Santiago, they're like, how about 100,000 children? Why not more? Yeah, yeah. It's, I've

heard the same things. being set up plenty of counter protests around the city. One thing

though about this, the message behind this event, selling off land in occupied Palestinian territory,

was not something lost on anyone who was there. What I mean to say by that is that this was

kind of a symbolic thing for them, where it was almost, it wasn't even about selling one

or two parcels of land, getting to do that while in Canada. That was an intentional thing. It

was a giant fucking middle finger. It was a message. And that was clear when you see, I

mean, I wasn't there personally, but when I saw the clips of everything that was being

said there, everything that was happening there, it was incredibly clear that this was a message.

It had the real feels of those videos of IDF soldiers kind of holding up Israeli flags and

declaring the land theirs. And they had obviously a lot of police presence and a loud speaker.

And the Zionists across the street felt no ways about calling everyone on the other side Hamas

supporters, jihadists. Like there was hate speech and incitement to hatred and violence. from

those microphones and, you know, the police obviously are not there to protect us. We've

talked that about many times. And so the attempt was to drown them out. At some point, folks

even tried to strike up dialogue using the loudspeaker with the Zionists. And I thought, I hate talking

about the tactic, like, negatively, but let's try to be constructive, because we've already

talked about keeping your focus on your own people. And that really wasn't happening there.

I think once it became clear that the sale could not be shut down, it was about like maintaining

spirit on your side or perhaps shifting tactics. Because it was just like the screaming match

back and forth of the same talking points that we have on social media and they would respond

with the same ridiculous responses that you would get in your replies. And it's just didn't

really I don't think people really wanted to hear that over the loudspeaker. It wasn't doing

anything. The best moments were, there was incredible community accountability down there, both in

dealing with the violence. Like if you've seen the video of how they responded to the man

with the nail gun, they charged him. There are folks that went chest to chest and were ushering

him out of the space and filming him and trying to contain him as best as possible at their

own personal peril. And also, at one point, the police attempted, well, they did grab a

pro-Palestinian protester carrying them by the arms and legs away. And at no moment were they

not surrounded by a mass of people screaming at them to let her go. And eventually it was

just impossible for the police to move anymore. And they actually kind of handed her over to

protesters who dragged her. almost to safety. It was a bit chaotic and formed a protective

circle around her and formed a protective circle around them. And on top of that, they were

handing out food. It was, there was just a lot of community spirit down there, but there was

a real knowledge that if we were going to need to be safe, that was our job. Even though there

was a line of police on either side, the amount of times they allowed Zionists to cross the

street and come into our group and a cost. and yell and scream and push and unaccounted for.

You know, just made it very clear to everyone, thankfully, down there, that was the community's

role. And I think there's nothing that kind of lays that bare. It's when like you participate

in something that actually replaces the police need that you understand that there is a possibility

without them. So that exposure for people is important, as awful as it is. Yeah. Yeah, I

think there was a lot of symbolic victories that came from that. Both in showing, as you

mentioned, you know, showing who keeps us safe, we fucking keep us safe. You know, we know

that. But I think also exposing a lot of hypocrisy. And I think it was effective in exposing the

hypocrisy. One, because we know when, you know, everyone knows about the Mount Sinai incident.

Well, you know. when I say that the claims that Mount Sinai was targeted, everyone's heard

about, you know, politicians coming out and condemning so hateful speech on the Palestinian

side, you know, whatever they claim from the river to the sea really means, right? Here

you have an instance where there's actual, no possible other interpretation except hate speech

going on. You have actual violence going on. You have international law being broken literally

right there. The silence or both the silence and the twisted narratives from politicians

and from the media were incredibly clear. One, many of the articles written about the nail

gun incident. Had some of the most vaguely possible written headlines that any rational person

who was reading it would probably assume that the person with the nail gun was a pro-Palestinian

protester. Yeah, CP24 was man arrested for assault with nail gun at pro-Palestinian protest. He

wasn't at the fucking protest. He was part of the counter protest and it was kind of a step

away from the actual. protest, but it purposely misled. It wasn't even vague. It was like it

was purposely written so that you would think that. Yeah, yeah. And there's all kinds of

studies about the power of headlines, right? How many people actually read the content of

an article versus reading the headline. Maybe they read the first couple of sentences. That

is incredibly and intentionally misleading. Is there no repercussions though, like for

CRTC? Like you're the journalism student here. Like that headline was so purposely misleading.

There's nothing. No, no, no. It's advertising. No, because of the, because of the fact that

the, it was a significant event and it was happening quickly, you know, they could argue like the

public needed to be informed, but there's no thing, there's nothing that can be done because

it's not actually factually incorrect. It's just misleading. Right. And you can. So all

we can do is there like try to ratio those assholes. Yeah. Yeah, we can. Clarify. But yeah. Secondly,

is the fact that there was incredible amounts of silence from the vast majority of politicians.

Olivia Chow being one now, Olivia Chow, I'm just going to take a second here because some

of the folks from Eglinton Lawrence, you know, they ran into Olivia Chow. And they got the

opportunity to ask her about why she has stood by and has not taken down her statement about

the so-called anti-Semitism at Mount Sinai. Now, she said that she would only answer off

the camera and then told them off the camera that, you know, because of her anti-racism

training, that essentially, even if something doesn't occur, it's important to speak out

against it. regardless of whether or not it was, you know, accurate or not. Well, Olivia,

where's your statement about the actual hate speech going on against Palestinians? And the

nail gun. Like, Jesse Brown has the nerve to talk about the Montreal protest of the same

sale and completely leave out what had happened a few days earlier in Thornhill. same issues,

same kind of mobilization, same realtors. And he has lots to say about the issue in Montreal.

Not a word about the violence and not a word. Also, all these outlets that are reporting

on this protest and the nail gun, they're failing to really pick up what is being protested.

So then it does appear that they're protesting a synagogue because They're not picking up

the fact on the stolen land. Like these are villages in the West Bank. And because one

of them did give it good coverage, one of them interviewed Gada and interviewed one of the

well, the CBC did have Gada on. I know she was able to speak along someone from do say no

to genocide. Yes. And they also had one of the realtors. Yeah, the comments by the realtor

were. incredibly weak. They were very much not prepared to speak on this whatsoever. And that's

the thing is that when you actually, you know, I get told every fucking day of the week that,

you know, you got to cover both sides of things. And it's funny because then I pull up articles

about the topics I want to write about where nobody's talking about both sides, whatever.

I'm not salty about that whatsoever. But... Here's a case where they actually fucking spoke

to us, which they never do, usually, right? But they actually spoke to, gotta, they actually

spoke to Jews saying no to genocide, and they had the realtor. Okay, perfect. How did they

look in comparison? Anybody watching that walks away knowing exactly what's going on, because

you see the shitty fucking arguments they have, because they got nothing. It falls apart under

the slightest amount of actual scrutiny. They have nothing. There is nothing. Well, we just

talked about that the other day on the phone, right, where it was like, well, no wonder they

don't respond to you, who's going to respond to you? Because there's no defense. Like, you

can't write a line. I don't care how good your PR person or your lawyer is. There is no statement,

especially on camera. Like, I can imagine a written statement. You can just drop some.

gobbledygook like Selena Robinson did, and like walk away and not answer any questions, but

to agree to get on camera and try to defend selling illegal land also at an event where

someone used violence in that way. But talking about the condemnations or lack thereof, even

Jagmeet's was really the only one that I saw. And that came three days after the fact. They're

always very quick on one end, and then they probably need to confirm a million times over

on the other end. They're like, oh, a nail gun. I think we can speak out against this one.

Yeah, that seems safe. That seems safe. But I would wonder how people would feel about

their place of worship being used for this kind of sale during these kinds of times. And the

congregation there released a letter. that said the war against Israel spilled over into Thornhill

today. And so they are openly, seemingly openly declaring themselves as part of the war, as

defending Israel from within Canada. But one thing that this brought up, not just the nail

gun, it was a lot of agitators came over and tried to pick fights. And we do need to teach

each other more self-defense. We talk about tactics, we talk about a lot of skills that

are great to pick up for activism. Building databases is one, you know, marshaling is one.

There's all, there's so many, there's so many. But I feel like some MMA. Jesse, you a fan

of Dead Prez? Yeah, I know of them, but I, like, you're gonna make me sound uncool now, so you

better edit this out. No, well. Well, I bring them up because when it comes to this, I think

people should definitely, first of all, go listen to the album, Let's Get Free by Dead Prez.

Go listen to that. Is that vinyl you're holding up? Yes, it is. And then I would recommend

one of the rappers in the group, Stickman, he has a book called The Five Principles, A Revolutionary

Path to Health, Inner Wealth, and Knowledge of Self. I recommend checking this out because

they were huge in terms of talking about what when it comes to, you know, self-defense, being

in the right mindset and approach to actually being able to, to stand up during these times

to defend ourselves, to fight what we, what needs to be done to keep ourselves, you know,

healthy. I think they're, they're a great resource for that and their music is incredible. So

I'm just going to take a second to plug my favorite album of all time. I'll also, at this point,

recommend Frontline Medics, if folks want to follow them on Instagram, because they provide

a lot of tactical advice in terms of frontline protesting, even from how to configure yourself.

It almost looks like battle plans. And really it is. So check those folks out. There'll probably

be lots of links in today's show notes, because we want you folks replicating what we're talking

about. That's the whole point of the show in general. And today, I don't know today being

March the 7th, folks out East and in Toronto have been blockading Kraken Technologies. So

there is an office in Toronto that was shut down, their headquarters in St. John's, and

they've got a factory just outside of Halifax. Kraken Technologies is responsible for something

called Catfish and... That particular technology allows Israel to use unmanned ships to enforce

the blockade on Gaza. So when Justin Trudeau says we provide non-lethal means or technology

to Israel, these are the kinds of things they get away with calling non-lethal, as though

you can call the blockade of a people's non-lethal, as though it has no social murder. built into

it whatsoever, right? Like there's no, nothing wrong with cutting off food and supplies to

a densely populated area. One that is now under bombardment. These are the kind of ships that

fire on Gazan fishermen as they try to get fish. So non-lethal my ass. So kudos to folks like

World Beyond War for organizing that and all the affiliates that were involved. But you

know, again, they took a small amount of people to shut down the offices in Toronto because

it's just like... one headquarters that looked like maybe 10 people there. Same with the blockade

that shut the morning shift down for two hours outside the Halifax factory. It wasn't a massive

amount of people, but they had a very long banner. They spread themselves out. You know, they're

talking to the workers who are trying to get in. I believe they're like slowing it down.

I'm not sure if it was a hard picket or not. Maybe we can get somebody on to. to give us

the scoop. The idea was, you know, it was coordinated across the country to a degree, and they were

very good at sending out coordinated press releases and photos as they were there. And so everyone

started talking about it. And not only were they talking about the action, but they backed

it up with all of this information on why they're shutting it down. And it's perfect timing because

just two days ago, you know, folks on the other end doing what they can do. launch a lawsuit

against the Canadian federal government to get them to stop sending arms over to Israel based

on the ruling of the international court that is contributing to genocide. And so it's a

combination of all of these pressures that will hopefully get people to the next kind of step.

I know folks really celebrating the reinstatement or reported reinstatement of UNRWA funding.

That hasn't been confirmed as of while we're recording this, but it is rumored by the CBC

that that, and the department did have a press conference scheduled on that topic to reinstate

the 25 million payments and also increased financial contributions. So this is a complete reversal

of the position that they had just a few weeks ago where they cut off funding and were trying

to paint the organization as some sort of bed of Hamas and use that. during, while people

are starving to cut off aid. And then that same minister, he has the nerve to go over to Jordan

and pose with Canadian food air drops while they're cutting funding. Same with the US air

drops of aid. It's just so maddening to see them try to get votes. I know people are being

fed and they'll take something like is better than nothing, but the amount of legs that kind

of goodwill gets is often erases the harm that they're doing. But yeah, so there's been other

political repercussions as well from all of this pressure. I will revisit the MLA Selena

Robinson issue just momentarily here because she has now resigned from the NDP entirely.

She's going to sit as an independent. She's already kind of told us she's not going to

run again. So we've pretty much already done with her. But on her way out, she issues this

four page letter. I hinted towards it earlier, it's just trash. She throws some of her callings

under the bus. I mean, I'm no fan of the NDP. They might be well deserving of it, but the

point is she didn't take any accountability. She's still conflating the issue as like Muslims

and Jewish people and how those communities have to come together. And I've seen a lot

of that shit from the progressive left. trying to promote conferences that are bringing Arabs

and Israelis together to move forward. And I'm just not here for that. The way that they're

painted is because they're including Zionists in these discussions. And first of all, it's

not between Muslims and Jewish people. We're talking about the state of Israel and Palestinians,

which, yes, is predominantly Muslim, but they encompass other religions. And this conflict

or whatever... word you want to give to it isn't based on the two religions, like whatsoever.

Gladly though, a lot of fallout. It's become very uncomfortable to be a politician that

supports Zionism right now. And that shift is really becoming more obvious, I think, day

by day. Yeah. And I think you look at everything we talked about so far today as a whole. I

think this represents shift, I think, for sure. Where, first of all, look, I love, I love seeing

people in the streets, the kind of response that Toronto and other cities have gotten,

you know, I've gone down to my fair share of weekend protests. But we always talk about

how the need for actual disruption and what we've seen here is the growth of and success

of actual disruption. And that is incredibly important. The fact that the narrative is being

harder and harder to be controlled. You know, like there was a protest at a synagogue. We

know the reasons for it. We've talked about it here. But at the end of the day, there was

a protest at a synagogue and that didn't turn into a huge anti-Semitism story. The Mount

Sinai got more anti-Semitism blowback than the synagogue did. I think that's because of the

nail gun. No, absolutely because of the nail gun. But, you know, the nail gun doesn't come

out. when there's non-disruptive protests, you know? And I'm, look, I don't want the nail

guns to come out at all. Like, I'm not an accelerationist here, you know? I don't wish to incur violence

upon ourselves in order to make a point. I'm never gonna want that. But what I'm saying

is, you know, there was a disruption at a synagogue and it didn't get nearly as much anti-Semitism

blowback. as one would expect. This is the kind of momentum that needs to be kept building

on. And you know, it's going on as we speak, like as we're recording this episode right

now. This is how we get change. I think it's, there's a lot to be hopeful here. Okay, then

I'm not gonna go straight to the warning I had for folks. I'll first share two tactics that

came to light this week for me that I'm gonna quickly just share because they can be easily

replicated. And I'm here for that. So, folks on the New York subway enter with lots of people

and electric drills, ads ready the place that match the size of the ads you typically see

on transit. Obviously a transit worker perhaps helped them with the hex bolt or whatever bolt

they needed, either way, and they quickly entered the subways, changed all the advertisements

to kind of satire or really overt messaging about the genocide in Gaza. and then disembarked,

right? Got the necessary video to promo without faces and the work was done. I don't know how

long it takes transit to clean that up. But it's just an example of probably very low resource,

very low time commitment and quite a lot of impact because it's replicated then on social

media, right? Not everybody has to get on that subway car, but everyone sees that, is inspired

and kind of gets on the bandwagon, so to speak. Another one is, I know we've kind of talked

about it before here when we had Dimitri Lascaris on, in terms of confronting ministers, but

it's been used a few times and most famously folks might have seen the video of people disrupting

a New York congresswoman's meeting and it looks like it's in a church and you know a white

man is sitting in front of a masked young protester. screaming, you know, sit down, sit down. Okay,

so that video there, the tactic I'm talking about is planting people that aren't obviously

protesters, right? So they're dressed for the occasion, they're smiling and nodding along

with the program. And then someone stands up and accosts and confronts, and they're obviously

removed by security. You let the event resume for enough time for folks to feel comfortable,

and then you disrupt again and again. And again, and it's rather than everyone standing up,

making a scene and all being ushered out at once, you really do make it impossible for

them to hold the event because then everyone's also very anxious and they're waiting for the

next person to stand up. And it's just, it really must frazzle this shit out of politicians.

Mm-hmm. No, and that one was the one in New York that you're talking about, that one was

really funny because I mean, seeing these old men, they were just losing their heads. Like...

The way that one guy was shouting shut up. And I feel bad for their poor wives sitting beside

them. I mean, she kind of laughed at first. I feel like she was prepared for that. But

they were having to be like, no, shut up. Stop it. Stop making a fool of yourself. Come on.

And I felt bad for them, to be honest. Well, don't. No, the wives, I mean, like a lot of

town halls and things, a lot of these meetings are, you know. primarily attended by older

retirees. They're not used to facing that kind of actual blowback at these events. I think

it's absolutely great for them to actually have to face that. They're not getting it on Fox

News at night. Have you seen the one with Lockheed Martin CEO giving a guest lecture, I suppose,

or taking questions from a university class? So they're all in their tiered seats staring

at, it's remote. He's on. camera and the students all start their questions so respectively and

on topic and then right at the end they work in a so how closely will I be contributing

to the genocide of Palestinians? You know, I understand, you know, this is how the structure

works and this would be my tasking and you know, when you guys I think it opens the video that

you're watching. It was a question about. the F-35 fighter jet, how it was designed, and

how many children do you think you've killed with that plane? You know, and he doesn't know

what to do. I imagine the professor sweating so bad. Satire is one of our most powerful

tools. You know, shout out to Basim Yousef. Everyone remembers his interview with Piers

Morgan. Satire is an incredibly powerful thing. We need to make... as much use of satire as

we can because they don't know how to fucking respond to that. They get it when we're angry,

you know, they're like, oh, we got this, you know, we'll just yell back and it's a yelling

pissing match. But you bring up satire, you put a smile on your face and you, you know,

they have no idea what to do with that. When you look so collected, I know I am guilty.

I lose myself sometimes, you know, I go to the front line and just scream, that's not helpful.

It's a bit of a release, but when you do it kind of in that really calm and collected way,

it disarms them as well. Not only are you stymying them with your wit, but yeah, they really just

don't know how to match that energy at that point. I'm going to end the episode with a

bit of a warning for folks. I don't know, maybe we should have started with the warning. I

hope you all stuck around then. And it's not new to our movement, but I think it just came

to light and was really obvious, so it's not. like a tin foil hat moment, it's kind of validated

for folks that movements will be infiltrated. There was a collective, I'm not even going

to name them because they probably think they're bigger than they are. They claim to be global,

whatever. They put out a call for agents embedded behind enemy lines at pro-Palestinian protests.

So I imagine... They're trying to recruit folks that can attend rallies and appear to be allies

and be anything but. So whether it's surveillance or kind of agitating from within, perhaps planting

signs that would delegitimize the movement or doing actions counter to the purpose of that

particular action, you know, turning nonviolent actions into violent ones. Either way, whatever

their intentions are. Folks should be aware that people are actively recruiting for things

like this, and the police are absolutely already doing this. And so it's not to scare you, but

being aware is like the very least you could do, that it is a possibility, right? Because

then it's in your mind. But there are a few steps that you can take, self-promoting, but

we've done two, or we... Our first, very first episode is called We Keep Us Safe. There's

lots of tips in there, you know, on terms of how to structure your movement into cells,

how to have some correspondence above ground, some below ground, varying levels of access

to protect yourself against possible infiltrators or people who have not the best intentions,

let's say. And, cause you kind of limit the amount of damage that they can do. Yeah. It's

a thing. It's a thing that hopefully you don't spend too much time stressing over though,

because they really are meant to just slow you down as well. Not only to like compromise the

movement, but spending energy on or perhaps restricting yourself in ways that you can't

grow because you're so worried about infiltration is also a detriment. So it's like finding that

balance. Vouching is another way that you can help prevent infiltration. Someone must know

them somewhere, right? Like someone within your movement has... met them or done something

like that is very helpful. I've been asked to vouch or vouch for people or have been vouched

for to enter certain circles. Just kind of keep that in mind as you're organizing out there.

Yeah, yeah. It's learn what the typical tactics are of people who infiltrate, you know, they're,

they have scripts, they have things that they do. It's you have to learn to be able to identify,

have things that set off red flags for you. Part of it is just keeping each other accountable,

right? Because one of the tactics that infiltrators like to do is, you know, escalation. Um, I

think back to the black Panthers, they tried to get them to commit acts of quote unquote

terrorism. And some of the infiltrators, right? They wanted to, you know, go through several

bombings and stuff. They're trying to push the black Panthers into that. And there was a lot

of pushback from inside of the organization against that. Like, no, what the fuck are you

talking about? That these are the kinds of things that you see. Um, so. read about the tactics

because they haven't changed all that much and there's definitely ways to tell. One of the

things Santiago that you reminded me of when you started that statement there was the handbook

for CIA operatives. It's we'll link it and it's just how to slow down an organization. So not

necessarily the tactics of entrapment. It's not that overt, but it's on how to hold a movement

back. And it's fascinating because if you read it, it reads like the NDP. It reads like every

meeting you've ever, every chair of every meeting you've ever had within the NDP. It's like always

send something to committee, talk really long about nothing. Haggle over the minutes. And

the wording and resolutions. And it's just eventually, like you just can't do anything. And they're

like cement feet. And I recently learned. that Gloria Steinem admits and is known to have

been a CIA operative within the white feminist movement. And her goal was to keep it focused

on gender and women's issues. You scare quotes, you know, women's issues instead of class.

They wanted to make sure that all of that mobilizing that was going on around the women's liberation

movement did not spill over to any kind of class consciousness. And so that, amongst other things

that she did for the CIA, that was one of her roles. And so sometimes the infiltrators are

your heroes. They are not just somebody who's entered a meeting is yelling from the back,

we should burn it down, you know, or like, it's sometimes it's ideologues that seem very convincing

and will steer you away from doing what you really kind of need to do. And so I thought

that would be an interesting thing to bring up because, yeah, it's not just always some

shady guy who looks like a cop. Gloria Stein could be infiltrating your movement. So watch

out for those white feminists. Yeah, I would check out, there's a movie, Judas and the Black

Messiah, about how an infiltrator led to the death of Fred Hampton, leader of the, well,

the chairman of the Chicago Black Panther Party. in those it's often people who can get quite

close, right? And I also, I have to warn, like it's also not about living in such fear that

we start suspecting everyone and solidarity is our most powerful tool, right? It's just

about being aware and keeping an eye on things and thinking what exactly are the things that

would be detrimental to the movement? What are the things that will bring us harm? and looking

out for those things. You might not be able to catch an infiltrator, you know, but it's

about keeping the movement safe and you don't need to know who the infiltrators are to do

that. We have to still be able to trust each other to make sure, you know what I mean? Like

I don't want people to get, I don't want people to get super paranoid, you know? Yeah, I know.

Balance, there's balance. Like, you know, there's a study about our ability to tell when people

are lying to us and essentially, something like 58% of the time we can tell which is just slightly

better than guessing. I think if you factor in the amount of neurodivergence that are within

these movements and reassess that lie radar again I think it'll be a lot higher. Like being

able to tell if we're being lied to? Oh I know when I'm being lied to. Oh yeah. I know for

sure I won't always tell you I know because I need to save that superpower. You can't know

I have it. Definitely, definitely, I have almost complete faith in that. My LIDAR. As we know,

neurodivergent people are drawn to activism. There needs to be a study. I'll talk to Lulu,

because she doesn't have anything else to do. That's a joke, she's the busiest person I know,

but we'll get Lulu back on the show to talk about autistic resistance later, but yeah.

Shout out to all those NDs out there keeping it down. That is a wrap on another episode

of Blueprints of Disruption. Thank you for joining us. Also, a very big thank you to the producer

of our show, Santiago Halu-Quintero. Blueprints of Disruption is an independent production

operated cooperatively. You can follow us on Twitter at BPofDisruption. If you'd like to

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