Tag Archives | Toronto

Guerrilla Art Collective Fixes Toronto’s Downtown Advertising Pillars

By on August 21, 2012 in News 18

The company Astral Media paid off the city for the right to install irritating “info pillars” displaying bland maps — and advertisements — throughout downtown. The group cARTographyTO took it upon themselves to correct matters by breaking into and altering the pillars to feature art-maps, created by Torontonians (with examples below), that are decidedly more thought provoking and visually pleasing. They explain:

cARTographyTO replaced ads in Astral Media “Info” Pillars with art-maps created by Toronto residents and local artists. This site-specific art, donated by over 30 concerned citizens (and supported by many times more), offers new possibilities for these spaces, and information about the surrounding neighbourhoods. This is a response to sidewalk billboards, and the erosion and privatization of public spaces.

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What Is The Black Bloc?

By on June 28, 2010 in News 16
Photo: The Schumin Web, September 24 Protests

Photo: The Schumin Web, September 24 Protests (CC)

At this weekend’s G-20 summit, small bands of protesters wearing black clothes broke off from the main protests to rampage violently in what is known as Black Bloc tactics. Kristen Chick reviews just what that means, for the Christian Science Monitor:

The Toronto Star reports that the tactic, common in international protests, involves protesters dressing in black and moving as groups to perform violent acts, then removing the black clothing to blend in with the larger protest crowd to avoid apprehension by the police. On Saturday, dozens of such protesters huddled together in a park to change into their street clothes, leaving the black garments behind and disappearing into the crowds.

The Star reports that many of the “Black Bloc” protesters Saturday were anarchists. Many have attended protests peacefully throughout the week before their rampage Saturday, reports the Star.

Expressed through an assortment of chants, the group’s causes are many: They’re anti-capitalist, anti-police, anti-colonial.

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Police State Lockdown In Toronto For G20 Summit

By on June 25, 2010 in News 9
Photo: Sherurcij

Photo: Sherurcij

Here we go again, another suspension of civil liberties as the elite nations of the world gather in Toronto. Why do we put up with it, and if Canada, usually a bastion of human rights, allows it, who’s going to call a foul? Report from the Globe & Mail:

At City Hall, employees arrived at work to find a burly security guard demanding their access pass before they entered the normally unlocked doors. At a downtown law firm, lawyers were told to leave their suits and high heels at home and dress casual-like to avoid being set upon by anti-capitalist rioters. At one provincial government office, bureaucrats were told in late afternoon that the building was going under “lockdown” because protesters were in the neighbourhood. Many scooted for exits to avoid being trapped in the closed-up building.

All of a sudden on Monday, our calm, mild, pacific city took on a changed feel as the security noose tightened in advance of this weekend’s G20 summit.

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