THANKS TOOKER

The wind is whipping dark clouds across the sky, grainy beams of sunlight stab through like searchlights.

It's unseasonably warm for March 5, 18 degrees in these global warming times.

A full moon ascends to dominate the troubled night sky.

And the news comes to me, Tooker is dead.

I knew Tooker, as anyone active in environmental issues in Canada might.

He was a dynamo, creative, funny, daring, inspirational.

He also suffered from depression.

Hard to believe for those who knew Tooker through his public actions.

He was a powerful force for good, for the planet, and god knows we need more like him.

But Tooker was one of a kind.

When local activists invited Tooker to speak at a sustainable transportation series at the public library, he wanted to come to town early to take part in a protest event. He wasn't one to merely talk, action was integral to his being.

A few of us quickly scrambled to pull together an event to commemorate victims of car culture in the city.

On the day (three years ago this month) we held a memorial march from Wellington and King streets to City Hall. Tooker walked down the left-hand lane of King Street with about 40 of us; at City Hall plaza he made a speech.

We presented a list of cyclist and pedestrian "demands" to a city councillor, then staged a mock die-in.

Tooker had brought his ever-present bicycle with him on the GO bus from Toronto, having to argue his way past newly enforced regulations outlawing bikes from being carried in the storage compartment of the bus.

He brought a banner, blood red with bold white lettering: "Stop the Carnage"- he brought his own bull-horn. He could almost be a one man revolution.

That night at the library he gave an entertaining, passionate, inspiring talk.

Next time I saw him, he and his partner Angela were helping with a demonstration in Toronto against Ontario Power Generation (OPG), one of Canada's worst polluters - Tooker had his video camera with him at the meeting, helping to record the little actions that make a difference, the actions that don't always make it to the dailies or the network.

I knew he suffered from depression, had seen from a distance the terrible toll it took on him, sapping energy from his body, numbing his enormous vitality.

I'll remember him at his best. His public life was lived like a hammer crashing on an anvil, when Tooker got involved sparks would fly.

The sparks of his life have kindled smaller fires in the hearts of many others in places where he worked to save and protect our sick planet, to creatively confront power where it had gone unchallenged.

Whether it was the day he got arrested in Montreal for sitting on an abandoned couch which he dragged into a parking space at the side of the road, or his spirited run for the Mayor's chair in Toronto (he came second to Mel Lastman), his term in office as an Edmonton, Alberta councillor, the time he burned his passport in protest of Canada's shameful role in the UN Climate Change Conference in Den Haag, the Netherlands (then got himself arrested for trespassing at a nuclear weapons base and deported back to Canada), or delivering table scraps to Mayor Lastman's office after the cancellation of a city composting program, Tooker was an inspiration, always pointing the way to a more liveable future.

In an article he wrote about activism, Tooker found inspiration in Henry David Thoreau's timeless essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."

Thoreau wrote "Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine."

Tooker answered "I take this as a license - indeed a duty - to push harder. To take chances. To be bold. To cross the line."

He certainly, without fail, gave it his all.

The last communication I saw from Tooker was a comment he posted to Hamilton Indymedia, October 30, 2003. I had just reported on arrests occurring in Red Hill Valley.

Tooker wrote:"Just want folks to know that there are people all over the place that are with you in spirit. Keep at it. Don't give up. The last thing this world needs is another expressway. In Halifax I'm with ya, -Tooker." Tooker's death is of course a tragic loss for those who knew and loved him.

But patient, abused Mother Earth has lost herself a dedicated son, and for that we should all mourn.

May his spirit live on.

OUT OF THE BLUE

Undercover police stir the violence pot at Red Hill and their bosses get promoted.

Tuesday, October 28, 2003. As police move in to remove valley protectors at Red Hill Valley "Protester Ted" is making "oinking" noises and loudly calling police "fucking pigs." His aggressive behaviour is out of synch with the nonviolent groove that has seen the demonstrators weather the months long valley occupation with power and grace.

"Ted" is "arrested" by police with two others, and after disappearing for about 20 minutes, Ted is back at the Mount Albion site with his yellow "trespassing" ticket in hand.

"Ted," it turns out, is also known as Detective Ted Davis to his comrades with the Hamilton Police where he is Staff Sergeant in charge of Intelligence.

Ted sounds taken aback when I call him on his office phone, "Where did you get all this information from, how would you know to call me?" he wants to know.

(I don’t have the heart to tell the head of intelligence that he was seen recently on the local news station CHTV, being interviewed about undercover police work infiltrating gangs.)

When asked about his undercover role, Ted gets tightlipped and answers "I’m not at liberty to talk about any of that" and refuses to confirm or deny his involvement.

Ted’s not talking but he certainly made a lot of noise at the first day of arrests in the valley.

According to eyewitness accounts "Ted" was "trying to initiate some kind of confrontation" with police.

Six Nations valley protector Donna Powless said she was disappointed by the police behaviour at the Mount Albion site.

"Our people were peaceful, nonviolent, and then we have this person out of the blue come and making these remarks and being very rude and trying to agitate the police there and get things stirred up" she says.

Other witnesses like Alessandra Brown report that while "Ted" was yelling at police, police approached and asked "Ted" who he was.

"Then ‘Ted’ started yelling ‘who the fuck are you, I have a right to be here!’ and stuff like that" reports Brown.

The Hamilton Spectator report of the incident states that three people (two men and a woman) were arrested and notes that police "declined to name those arrested."

No wonder.

The last time Red Hill defenders saw "Ted" was when he was flashing his badge and helping make arrests during the massive police raid on the Longhouse November 6.

Radical Change of Heart

Humble Armies

The Dirt on Environmentalists?

TREE FORT

CYCLING SUBCULTURES IN HAMILTON

With the World Cycling Championship in town, View takes a look at grassroots cycling initiatives in Hamilton.

After the last race has been won and lost, the big wheels of the local bike-world keep on turning. Once the spectator stands are taken down, why not hop on your bike and become an active participant in the city's living cycling civilization. 

Recycle Cycles has been straightening spokes and packing bearings in the basement of Erskine Presbyterian Church (19 Pearl N.) since 1998. With volunteer labour mainstays Dean Carriere and Neil Croft at the right end of a spoke wrench, they've kept thousands of bikes out of the landfill and under Hamiltonian's bums. This is the place to go to get help doing-it-yourself, a community-based, non-profit, all-volunteer bike repair workshop. It's also the place to go to get a cheap working bike or to pick up some handy bike repair skills. Croft is the shop's cycling philosopher and Carriere the heart and soul (and in the running for the happiest-man-alive award. Must be something in the chain grease?) 

Started with help from the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) McMaster, Recycle Cycles is the hands-down best place to go with your bike when your chain gets jammed on a Saturday morning. (Saturdays 9am to 12pm. Call 905.577.7753 to arrange donations, et cetera.) 

Critical Mass arrived in Hamilton in May 1998 with a 70 cyclist ride from Westdale to downtown. The monthly ride gets an average of 30 cyclists out on the last Friday of the month at 5:30pm at Hess and George Streets. The goal of the ride varies from rider to rider, but it generally ends up being a celebration of cycling in the city as cyclists make their way through downtown streets en masse. Typically the Hamilton season runs March to October. This year's March ride was under the banner Pedal For Peace in opposition to the bombing of Iraq and more generally against excessive fossil fuel consumption for transportation. The ride brought out Hamilton's police service to keep a wary eye on the antics of the peace-pedal-pushers. 

Critical Mass was originally a San Francisco thing in 1992, but has since spread to cities around the world. The film We Are Traffic: A Film About Critical Mass, which documents the rise of the phenomenon, has been shown by Transportation for Liveable Communities (see below).