This is the first official campaign for Property Taskforce: www.abandonmentissues.ca

Last night we had our campaign launch and the room was overflowing with over 150 people, including local city councilor Gord Perks. Allan Lissner displayed 3 diptych photos on housing themes, St. Christopher House brought maps of socio-economic neighbourhood change, and we had a slide-show running of around 50 images of abandonded buildings. We also displayed our own map, with pins stuck in reflecting the location of abandonded buildings in town.

The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) recently handed down a decision to deny the residents of West Queen West Triangle in Toronto the right to plan for the growth and sustainability of the artist community based there.

Active 18 formed to oppose condos proposed for the site that did not take into consideration the surrounding neighbourhood, need for green space, or the historical and living importance of a heritage building on the site that houses about 80 artists and businesses. Active 18 were "YIMBY"s who are not afraid of development in their community, understanding the need for density to combat urban sprawl and smog from commuter traffic.

A mondo grow-op bust in Oshawa, Ontario gave Queen's Park an opportunity to exercise a powerful new "legal weapon" called the Civil Remedies Act, Toronto Star reported on January 19th.

The plan to confiscate the private property of "criminals" in order to compensate the "victims" of crime was introduced by Ontario's Attorney General Michael Bryant. The Act "allows the attorney general to have civil courts freeze, seize and forfeit the proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity to the Crown."

Just read Rebecca Tarlau's article on Bolivia and the real revolutionary leaders of Latin America: the people on the ground. Describing community assemblies and the power of massive mobilizations, Tarlau focuses on the list of demands poor people are making in their community councils, including the nationalization of oil and the retraction of private property rights. She points out that you can change a government, but to really address the problems in a society, you have to structurally change the way people participate in a society to ferment a culture of freedom built on a common vision.