Delayed Report: August 10th Noise Demo at the Grand Valley Institution

With pots and pans, megaphones, boomboxes and other noise makers, dozens of people descended on the Grand Valley Institute in Kitchener on Tuesday August 10th in solidarity with communities across the continent and prisoners everywhere, and to show opposition and resistance to extreme apathy, indifference, negligence, and inhumanity of the prison system- to oppose the very existence of prisons. With a small audience inside the fence and open windows, it is hopeful that the message was heard inside. With the rapid response of armed and uniformed gang members, the demo continued on to the street where information was dispersed to passersby.

Since the death of Edward Nolan in 1974 and the 1976 death of Robert Landers, both prisoners at the Millhaven prison in Bath Ontario, August 10th has been an important date in the struggle against prisons. What was once the start of a hunger strike behind the cages of the prisons is now a day where people both inside and outside resist.

With the 'government''s oppressive mandate to ' crackdown on crime' it's only become more apparent that if ever there was a time for prison resistance, the time is now. We've seen even more increased policing of specific, targeted communities, raids on shelters of all kinds, increased abuse and repression at all angles. With the recent arrests and charges of the G20 and the response to the 490 Tamil Refugee's, this day of action was particularly urgent.

August tenth was a moment to come together to oppose the state's mandate to oppress, silence, marginalize and violently attack/threaten those who don't fit their mold: real communities with real people, real needs, real passion and real lives. It is a call for continued resistance of this orwellian police state. There is hope in one another, hope in each other that is not surrounded by barbed wire and chain links, except when those borders and fences are falling down. Let no one else die imprisoned. Let no one else be imprisoned! Until we are all free, no one is free! No one can be left behind!