Videos from May 11 Racism, trespassing, harassment and using children on the picket line

This post was made on Oct. 8, 2014 and back dated to when the events in the videos took place.

This series of videos, now 4 days into the strike, shows more of the disruption Artspace members had to endure for about 12 hours of the day.


This first video starts at 6:35am.  The replacement worker vehicle has already been blocked for an unknown length of time.

Clips are from two different security cameras, and much of the commentary is directed at the security guards themselves.

How strange that a group that demands "dignity" and "respect" displays such a visceral level of disgust and hatred towards others.





The next video is from several cameras, beginning with security video taken at 9:20am, from inside the meeting room security was using for their headquarters.

In the first clip, AUPE staffers David Malka, Deb Arcand and Jaime Urbina-Maclean can be seen. Later, a picketer identified as Rachel Shepherd (she can be heard spelling her own name) joins them.  She is seen slapping the bottoms of two different picketers, including a striking SAIL employee and Jaime Urbina-Maclean, and heard making racist comments directed at the security guard.  An old AUPE video from another labour dispute identifies her as co-chair of Local 47.

Also present is AUPE VP, Karen Weier.

The final clip was submitted by the driver of the red van the picketers also blocked.  Though several Artspace members were targeted for extra blocking and verbal abuse, this member is one of the few who was able to record any of it.





The misconduct continues, this time in video beginning at 10am.  The verbal harassment and racist comments become increasingly shocking.  The picketer calling replacement workers n***** has since been identified as striking SAIL employee, Lorna Hunt.






Moving on to videos starting shortly after 4:30pm, they are events that all took place at about the same time.

The video shows the replacement workers first being blocked (in the Artspace private parking lot driveway) from leaving their shift, then others being blocked on the street from starting their shift.

In these videos, you can see children with picketers in the pee patch - built for Artspace members to take their dogs - and actively encouraged to take part in the verbal abuse of replacement workers.





While this was going on, an Artspace member took video from their townhouse window, some distance away.

In this, not only can you hear how disruptive the noise levels were for the entire block, but you can also see the children that are taking part in verbally abusing the replacement workers.  They are children of striking SAIL staff.

After the replacement worker vehicle leaves, the picketers continue to engage in a verbal altercation with people living in the Inner City townhouses.  Like most Artspace members, they have no involvement in the labour dispute.




While all that was going on in the front, AUPE organizer, David Malka, went to the back of the high rise where he trespassed on private property belonging to a third party.

While Artspace members on the South side of the high rise were able to escape the bulk of the disruption, they still had to put up with finding AUPE picketers in the back lot, watching their homes and taking photo and video into Artspace private property.




Numerous complaints had already been submitted about picketer misconduct, and police were visiting daily.