Justice In the Suburbs: Climate Justice, Abolition and QTBIPOC Liberation

MAR 2021| ISSUE NO. 1

JUSTICE IN THE SUBURBS OF PEEL

CLIMATE JUSTICE ABOLITION QTBIPOC LIBERATION

Land Acknowledgement Our work is grounded in Peel (Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon), which is the Treaty and Traditional Territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit. Peel has been under the care of many nations, including the Anishinabeg, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, the Petun, & many other Nations recorded & unrecorded, for thousands of years. It is home to many Indigenous Peoples from across Turtle Island.

The current treaty holders are the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and this territory is subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant. This is an agreement between the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee that binds them to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region. The absence of a knife within this Treaty describes the need to maintain peace for the benefit of all. As settlers ourselves on lands currently known as Mississauga & Brampton, we come to this land by Head of the Lake (Treaty No. 14) and Ajetance Treaty (No. 19), as well as Treaty 13. We must go beyond simply naming things, and work towards disrupting the violence of settler colonialism. There is no climate justice, abolition or queer and trans liberation work without Indigneous sovereignty. NonIndigenous folks have a responsibility to act in solidarity with Indigenous struggles for selfdetermination and consistently centre Indigenous sovereignty in our movements.

"We have to act with the urgency of the moment and the patience of a thousand years.”

- Mariame Kaba

About the Zine Conceived of at the tail end of summer 2020, this zine is inspired by those in the front lines of the abolition, climate justice and QTBIPOC liberation movements.

While political activism and organizing continue in different forms in the midst of a raging pandemic that continues to claim lives, we have come together to collaborate and dream of futures without the police, prisons, colonialism and capitalism.

Art is a powerful tool for processing our reflections and imagining the futures we want to create in the Region. The urgency to act on climate and to address the issue of police brutality is clear. We prompted artists in the Peel Region to think about the visions they have for abolition and climate justice in Peel, how have they been looking after each other and their communities during this time, how they have been processing and dealing with grief from police violence, and how can we bridge abolition and climate justice work.

QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour) activists have always been at the forefront of these movements and our liberation is bound together. As the RCMP invades, terrorizes and arrests Indigenous land defenders, climate justice requires the abolition of imposed colonial systems of law and order that have monopolized violence and power through the police, the criminal justice system, the racist child ‘welfare’ system that removes children from families.

We have witnessed the power of organizing in the suburbs led by Malton People's Movement, calling for police accountability for the murders of D'Andre Campbell, Ejaz Choudry, Jamal Francique and the anti-Black police violence against Chantelle Krupka and Michael Headley. No justice, no peace. Abolish the police.

History of Policing in Peel In so-called Canada, the policing system was imposed through French and British colonialism and early organizations such as the North-West Mounted Police which preceded the RCMP. They were used to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands onto reserves and to make way for building colonial infrastructures.

The police and prison system were never about community safety, they were tools of colonial oppression and protectors of property and capital.

The Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) is named after Robert Peel, who is known as the father of modern policing. Peel Police was established in 1974 when the Region was created & covers Mississauga & Brampton (OPP covers Caledon). It is the 4th largest municipal police service in Canada. Black and Indigenous communities in Peel are disproportionately harmed by Peel Regional Police. The Peel District School Board Review found that Black students were arrested and charged in schools. There are numerous examples of violence and misconduct by Peel Police officers including perjury, assault, interference, etc. Peel Regional Police have a massive budget of nearly half a billion ($445.8 million), slated to increase to $462.5 million in 2021.

Source: https://thepointer.com/article/2020-11-27/police-budget-balances-fight-against-increasingly-complex-crime-and-calls-for-new-funding-model

Climate Justice Peel:

grassroots group of young people across the Peel region who seek to build an irresistible and powerful movement to stop the climate crisis by confronting its root causes: capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. We draw our power from each other and our communities. @climatejusticepeel

QTBIPOC sauga: a grassroots gathering of queer and trans, Black, Indigenous and people of colour communities from across Peel. @qtbipocsauga

Collaborators trick magazine:

founded by three women based out of Tkaronto, Canada, with the goal of redefining creative storytelling. any and all subjects, no matter how taboo, are explored and celebrated at trick. our goal, simply put, is to create a safe space for all kinds of art. @trickzine

Malton People’s Movement: a collective of people committed to resisting police violence and building community power in Malton specifically, and in Peel/GTA broadly. @maltonpeoplesmovement

ABOLITION “Abolition is about presence—the presence of lifegiving systems that allow people to thrive and be well, that prevent harm and better equip communities to address harm when it occurs.”

- Ruth Wilson Gilmore

CLIMATE JUSTICE Climate justice is about recognizing that the roots of the climate crisis lie in core structures of colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy. If we ask ourselves who is at the frontlines of the climate crisis, we find that it is not the rich, but Indigenous peoples, the poor and working class communities, migrant workers, racialized communities, and disabled people who are affected the most.

Addressing the crisis requires us to transform the world as we know it.

Zine Workshop In February 2021, Climate Justice Peel and QTBIPOC sauga organized a casual community conversation about the themes of the zine. We discussed what abolition, climate justice and QTBIPOC liberation in the Peel Region could look like. We invited a local artist and zine expert, Pree, to facilitate an introductory zine-making session with our participants.

Our workshop was made possible by the TakingITGlobal #RisingYouth grant.

Title: Fingerprint "My vision for a climate justice future is of everyone’s voices being heard and of a community that supports each other. I want everyone’s unique perspectives to be heard in this fight for a better future. This piece shows a pattern of lines that was inspired by my fingerprint. I want to see a future with everyone’s fingerprint, where everyone’s climate story matters."

ABOUT THE ARTIST: My name is Suhaavi Kaur and I am from Brampton. I enjoy creating art that inspires me and I hope it will inspire others to ask themselves questions to seek the answers for a better future for all.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: "I am Sam - 19 disabled, brown, queer and trans artist. I love zine-making and love playing with colours and stories about my identities."

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Pree (they/them) is an artist educator currently based in Tkaronto, originally from Tiohtià:ke. They're a child of immigrant settlers from Punjab. They have an interdisciplinary arts practice under the name: Sticky Mangos. @stickymangos

"This particular piece responds to how crisis help is inaccessible for disabled QTBIPOC, the vision for abolition being that we are able to take care of each other and are the most capable to do so."

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Blake (they/them) is a disabled qtpoc focusing on the ways the state pushes marginalized folks into crisis and how we are most capable of looking after each other.

Emergency action organized by Malton People's Movement, calling for justice for D'Andre Campbell and for families affected by Peel Police violence.Dec 29th, 2020. The blue was in honour of D'Andre Campbell, his favourite colour.

e r o M n r a e L

Are Prisons Obsolete - Angela Davis The End of Policing - Alex S. Vitale Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California Ruth Wilson Gilmore We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice Mariame Kaba Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present Robyn Maynard Marvellous Grounds: Queer of Colour Histories of Toronto edited by Jin Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa, and Syrus Marcus Ware

t s i n o i t i l Abo g n i n Visio On June 23 2020, Climate Justice Peel held an online teach-in and collective visioning session featuring Andrea Vásquez Jiménez on Abolition in Peel. Andrea is the co-director of LAEN (Latinx, Afro-Latin-America, Abya Yala Education Network who has been leading the campaign for #PoliceFreeSchoolsONWide.

During the collective visioning session, we asked everyone these questions: What do I need to feel cared for? What do we already do well to take care of each other and hold folks accountable? We collected the answers and organized them into themes and here is how these questions were answered.

Thank you to our funders We would like to thank our funders Rising Youth TakingITGlobal, QTBIPOC sauga and Climate Justice Toronto (CJTO) for their generous contributions in helping us bring this zine to life.

@proletariat_pataka: fermenting abolitionist futures // rough sketch inspired by @halfatlanta.jpeg’s pickled pig feet playlist // june 12, 2020

“If we really want to stop the climate crisis in its roots, it means also abolishing the very systems that make extractive technologies and settler colonial extractive projects possible.” - Simran Dhunna

Source for quote: https://www.caledonenterprise.com/community-story/10160597-climate-justice-peel-on-what-abolishing-the-police-has-to-do-with-climate-action/