Kingston, Ontario: Report from March Against Prison Construction

From End the Pic

Wednesday, November 2nd – Today we saw the first march specifically against new prison construction in Kingston, organized by local prison abolition group, End the Prison Industrial Complex or EPIC (http://www.endthepic.wordpress.com). A major prong of EPIC’s strategy is to take action against private companies profiting from prison construction contracts. This is a report-back of today’s action in hope that this strategy will be experimented with elsewhere, leading to a sustained resistance against new prisons being built in Canada.

http://www.endthepic.wordpress.com/

oday’s action was a march against NORR Limited, an international architectural firm (part of the Ingenium Group) with an office in Kingston that took on the work of designing new maximum security units at Collins Bay and Millhaven for a combined $2.4 million dollars (NORR has produced design documents for the Prison for Women, the Collins Bay Redevelopment, and Kingston Penitentiary. Further research shows that the NORR office in Toronto is the designer for the new Southwest Detention Centre in Windsor, and the new OPP Headquarters).

The sun was shining and the turnout, around 35 people, was not bad for this city. In attendance were a mixed bag of abolitionists, anarchists, occupiers, indymedia, people from the “save our prison farms” campaign, and unaffiliated troublemakers.

The event was opened with two speeches from EPIC outside the #occupykingston headquarters at Confederation Basin. One person spoke about leaked blueprints for the new prisons, and in particular how new cells are being built double-bunked (government lied about this), single-security institutions are becoming multi-security institutions (superprisons), and the increased use of segregation and isolation in the new units. A second speaker introduced NORR and announced the plan for a short march to the NORR Office on Gore Street, across from Block D; a 50w sound system kept the rhythm (instructions to make your own: http://zinelibrary.info/node/27031/4online.tk).

http://zinelibrary.info/node/27031/4online.tk

We arrived at the NORR Office, and it turns out that they were not expecting us. About a dozen people entered the foyer of the office, blaring music and yelling about prison construction as the bewildered office manager attempted to hold the interior door shut, architects gathered to peer at us through the glass walls, and one particularly upset employee frantically called police and proceeded to photograph people through the glass (about half the people who entered wore bandanas in anticipation of this). EPIC had prepared an open letter, which was posted on the interior door facing in. It is posted on the website but it is essentially a demand that NORR publicly state that it will not bid on future prison contracts, or else continue to be a target in EPIC’s campaign against prison expansion.

As people re-grouped outside, David Jefferies (architect and office manager) and another architect came out from the office to address the crowd. This led to a bizarre exchange where they attempted to explain why they were good people, how they bore zero responsibility for prison construction, and that they were actually “on our side.” Some of the more ‘benefit-of-the-doubt’ types in the crowd (this was a very ideologically mixed group) engaged in a debate with them while others stood around awkwardly trying to determine what to do next. After a 10 minute exchange those who wanted to continue the conversation stayed, while many of us, having accomplished what we intended (invading the office and delivering the message) decided to leave and march back to the occupy camp. The police eventually showed up, but only kept watch as the people remaining behind were basically engaging in a polite conversation.

Despite the strange interactions and tensions at the end of the afternoon, today’s action against NORR ultimately felt like a decent short-and-sweet action to kick off a campaign with an emerging strategy. Tonight the possibility of an effective resistance movement feels stronger than it did this morning.
In the months to come EPIC will attempt to expand as an independent, radical force in Kingston as well as build coalitions across political difference with a philosophy that respects the diversity of tactics. This will be difficult capacity-building work, but could yield exciting results.

http://www.endthepic.wordpress.com/