All out for Byron!
May 15, 2012
361 University Avenue
Toronto.

Hi everyone,

First of all, thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! I had a great day and I am going to tell you all about it in my next post.

Today, though, I want to talk about Byron Sonne. Byron was arrested on all kinds of serious (not to mention seriously trumped up) charges related to the 2010 G20 summit. for background information on the case, check out the excellent website http://www.freebyron.org.

At the moment I'm being distracted by the bad pop music coming from the TV as well as being bad, it's muffled because once again we're on lockdown and it's coming through the door of my cell. My cellie got out this morning so I'm all alone in here, you'd think that would help me focus on work but instead it seems I'm distracted by the lack of distraction.

It looks like we might be in here all day. All day I will be forced to look at the sticky bun sitting on my window sill. Will I eat it? Or will I save it for later? Such are the big questions in the air here in cell 12, unit 2F.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the overly scheduled and tedious days here. For the most part every day is the same, but every so often little things happen. This post is a look at the more random events of the past few days -- the good, the weird, the completely fucked up. Behold the many faces of Vanier!
 
February 23
 
As I write this we are locked down because a new 32 inch flat screen TV is being installed on the range. It seems like a strange thing to spend money on for various reasons, among them:

Today is Family Day.

It seems like an appropriate time to talk about how the state uses the criminal justice system and the prison-industrial complex to rip apart families in poor, marginalized and targeted communities. Ostensibly, this is to protect the families of the upper and middle-classes - you know, the people who count.

Today, February 4, we didn't get let out for breakfast. Or after breakfast

LOCKDOWN.

When this happens, the hatches in our cell doors get opened so the range workers can pass our food through. (range workers are inmates who've been around for a while. They do laundry, clean the range and help with meal distribution). Then the nurse comes and passes the meds through. When that happens there's usually a guard too, so when they got to us my cellie took the opportunity to ask her why we were locked down. "There's something going on," she replied. Wow, really? What a spectacularly informative answer, thank you.

Well, I've been here almost four weeks now, I'm all settled in and I've got the routine down. So now it's time for me to answer the question I get asked the most by folks on the outside: "So what do you do all day?"

Come, spend a day on Unit 2F, in the maximum security wing of Vanier with me!

The other day I opened a book appropriately entitled Liberation. On the very first page, written in pencil, was this:

Why I am here?
How long am I going to be here?
How do I get out of Prison?
Who put me here?
Who do I speak to, what do I say?
Who will help me?
What do I need?
What type of help do I need?
Where do I go? for help.
When do I get out?
When does someone tell me what I am supposed to do?