By Nicky Young
From Ricochet Media
TORONTO — On day six of occupy INAC Toronto, the group is feeling stronger than ever.
Today, myself and other members of the group called for a flash mob outside to escalate actions and are calling for courage and a diversity of tactics. In only a matter of hours, we have seen hundreds of people join the [Facebook] event page. I think there are two things that contributed to the success of this movement:
One would be the support we’ve been getting from groups like #BlackLivesMatter, #IdleNoMore, #NoOneIsIllegal, Mohawk Warrior Society and others. #BlackLivesMatter in particular helped plan the action and some of the founders of the group were in on the occupation right from the beginning. This is the culmination of years of movement building.
The second key to the success has been a massive amount of media coverage coming from inside, thanks to Ricochet Media. Before the days of the internet, mainstream media was able to control the public narrative of flash points like Oka and Gustafsen Lake, where reporters were not permitted to enter the area and were forced to take information at face value from police. Some people say that the police give false information to portray peaceful protestors as terrorists. This group is far from terrorists. This group is led by mothers and there is even a three-year-old child here with their family.
The spirits on the inside are incredibly high; food donations have been flooding in — so much so that we spend a fair amount of time laughing at each other’s farts. Bonds between the folks on the inside have grown incredibly strong, we’re even winning over most of the security guards by sharing food and conversation with them.
The folks on the inside have been working on this issue for years, I photographed them marching through the streets of Toronto against the DeBeers diamond mine three years ago. Everything that goes out is checked by everyone, the group works with one heart and one mind and our strength is only increasing. The group is constantly in ceremony and that has also been a huge source of our success and strength.
The Two Row Times will continue to provide updates from #occupyINAC through Nicky Young as the situation develops.
