In Toronto there are over 2000 evictions every month, many because people cannot afford to meet the expensive rents for most Toronto units. In order to address this situation directly, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and allies organized a squat during the July, 2002, Catholic World Youth Day events. The takeover of an abandoned building, appropriately dubbed “The Pope Squat,” was timed to coincide with the Pope's first mass address.
With local civic leaders and young visitors alike proclaiming Toronto as some kind of urban utopia, the Pope's visit provided a great opportunity to reveal the reality of “Toronto the Good” for a global audience. A week before his arrival the Mayor publicly declared that the homeless should be swept from the streets in time for the start of the Youth Day events.
With the world's attention on Toronto for the entire week of the Pope's visit it was a perfect time to get word out about this situation. At the same time, the fact that the world was watching provided the possibility that the City and police would be less aggressive in their response.
The Pope Squat put forward a number of demands on provincial and city governments:
Allow the squatted building to be used for social housing;
Inspect and order repairs on all unsafe and substandard housing;
Stop economic eviction: raise the minimum wage to $10/hour and restore the 22% cut from social assistance;
Bring back rent controls;
Build 2000 units of social housing every year.
At the same time as these demands were put forward the squatters also stressed that their intention was not to turn the squat over to any level of government to manage but rather to self-manage the space as social housing and a community resource centre.
The evening of July 25, 2002, a large assembly of over 500 people turned up for a rally and enjoyed a meal provided by the Mohawks of Tyendinaga before marching to the building which activists had opened for the squat. The building, located in Parkdale, a poor neighbourhood in Toronto's west end, had been abandoned for a couple of years. Prior to that, in 2000, the building had been the home to a number of people who were evicted by city officials with little fanfare.
Discussions with Parkdale residents in the weeks leading up to the squat suggested a good deal of support for the action and an appreciation of the need for dramatic steps to secure affordable housing.
After much discussion it was agreed that people should stay and try to win the building as a self-managed space rather than turn it over to the City or Province to, perhaps, turn into government-run housing. People also wanted to be sure that the building not be given up while the homeless people who were squatting had no available alternative for permanent housing. As long as turning over the building meant putting comrades back on the street it was an absolutely unacceptable option.
Among the more significant actions during the tenure of the squat was the CUPE solidarity Sunday. This event saw several locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees provide round-the-clock assistance, food and entertainment for the squat over the entire Sunday. Events included a labour forum which brought together unionists for a “soapbox speakout” about the situation of labour in Ontario and possible ways to work towards solutions which will advance anti-capitalist struggles in the province.
On Tuesday, July 31, the Canadian Auto Workers pledged $50,000 for renovations. The money was contingent upon the City giving its approval to the renovations and upon the granting of more donations from other unions. Still, the CAW funds put pressure on the City to allow squatters to go ahead with their plans without interference. The fact that squatters were raising their own funds to do repairs took away any Council argument around lack of available City funds. As a show of community support and commitment to transform the squat into a permanent living space it also weakened the legitimacy of any repressive response from the state.
Friday, August 2, the CAW organized a rally and march of unionists along the original march route of a week before. Members from several unions, including CUPE, Steelworkers, Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, Elementary Teachers' Federation, took part in a mobilization of 100-200 people. Notably the Mine Mill CAW flying squad made the trip all the way from Sudbury to stand in solidarity with OCAP and the squatters.
Guerrilla gardeners came by the squat to plant a lovely garden where there had been only an overgrown mass of weeds on the building's front lawn. Guerrilla gardening and squatting are both acts of recovery of unused urban spaces and the de-privatization of spaces which can then be turned over to public use.
Similarly, the first days of the squat also saw artists and non-artists alike take part in a mural painting on the front of the building in an act of shared public creativity which broke down the divisions between artist and audience. The mural also made the connection between housing as privatized space and the privatization of creativity in the restricted spaces of galleries and museums.
Other events included a day-long street festival which filled the squat's yard with a variety of sound ranging from protest folk to experimental rock. Community oriented events throughout the week included movie showings on the side of the building. Friday night screened the revolutionary movies The Murder of Fred Hampton and The Battle of Algiers. A yard sale raised over $400 and brought several neighbours over to take at look.
Naomi Klein and her partner CBC host Avi Lewis give the Canadian premier of their documentary on political and economic repression in Argentina. The short but intense video which commemorated the life of Gustavo Benedetto, a young unemployed man killed by security guards, was well received by the 300 or so people who watched it in the backyard. Lewis and Klein properly drew connections between groups like OCAP in Ontario and the piqueteros, unemployed and poor people in Argentina, fighting against the machinations of global capital which would obliterate them.
As is often the case in such participatory forms of community-building, decision making developed through trial and error and experiment. Community assemblies were held in the yard every evening around 8:00 p.m. and involved upwards of 60 people. Squatters gave reports and updates of the day's activities inside the building before the assembly took up discussions of strategies for dealing with issues involved in keeping the project open.
People put in tremendous amounts of time and energy building support in the neighbourhood prior to the opening of the squat. Every apartment in Parkdale was leafleted and people went door-to-door speaking with residents. The weekend before the opening a community picnic was held which brought out over 300 people, many of them from the neighbourhood.
The Pope Squat signaled a partial shift in strategy towards a focus on constructing alternatives, on do-it-ourself institution building, rather than protest-style demands made upon government institutions. In this regard the squat was an aspect of constituting dual power structures in which participants build the capacity to meet their own needs. The pope squat was an integral part of preparing the facilities to house a self-managed social housing and community centre.
The biggest problem with squat was the failure to maintain and build connections with neighbours in Parkdale. While much outreach work had been done leading up to the squat, it was very difficult to get people to continue door-to-door outreach after the building was taken.
In fact the neighbourhood response provided one of the most encouraging, and significant, aspects of the squat. Most showed a real interest in the squat, and expressed hopes for its continued success. Hundreds signed petitions calling for the City to meet the squatters' demands. As the days progressed more and more neighbours visited the squat and offered words of support and encouragement.
In November, the provincial government finally moved to evict the squatters and take control of the building. Armed guards still occupy 1510 King Street. The government has decided it has hundreds of thousands of dollars to guard an empty building rather than spend nothing just to let people build a home for themselves.
OCAP and allies have not let the Province's actions stop their work of building squatting movements in a country where all squatting is illegal. This emergent squatting movement is partly the result of widespread frustrations among anti-capitalist activists, whether focused on fighting global capitalist institutions or on local manifestations, with the reactive or oppositional character of most recent actions. Squats represent positive and constructive acts of building community-based alternatives to capital in the here and now of everyday life. Making a real contribution to meeting peoples' human needs rather than condemning capital for failing to meet those needs offers a glimpse into how things might be done differently while materially beginning the process of providing real social change (as opposed to social critique). The Pope Squat served as a rallying point for many groups to come together and rebuild alliances.