These resources were compiled in a context of unprecedented Palestine solidarity organizing (and accompanying state repression) across so-called Canada in 2023-2024.
A quick overview of your rights and safety tips before, during, and after an action, via Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto:
Instructions on exactly what to do if you're contacted by the police or arrested:
Counsel Call: Short podcast episodes prepared by Toronto movement lawyers and organizers at the Community Justice Collective with specific, clear, and timely instructions.
How to respond to the increase in criminalization, what to do if arrested, and more:
How to protect your phone and what to do if it is seized:
Worried about your house getting raided by the police? Here's how to prepare:
What to prepare and consider before, during, and after an action or arrests have taken place
Things to prepare and consider before, at, and after an action or arrests to stay safe. We can manage risk. We should think about what risk we can take on and consider what tactics make an action more/less risky. We can plan for arrests. A good plan will help us get everyone released as safely as possible. We can prepare to take care of each other after arrest. Access online by clicking on the images above, or download the pdf here.
Campus Protests: How to think through risk and prepare for repression
Note that this is a US-based resource so specific legal information may not apply outside of the US but the general tips and approaches to security in the context of campus encampments and actions certainly do.
Toolkits to empower anyone navigating the criminal legal system in Ontario - with or without a lawyer - especially those who are also racialized, living with a disability, or who are autistic or neurodivergent.
Have you experienced anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian racism in the workplace?
The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association has put together supports for:
- reporting cases of workplace antipalestinian racism
- a legal referral list
- a Know Your Rights in the workplace resource when it comes to your ability to engage in speech or action that supports Palestine
Have you been punished by your employer for speaking out?
More in-depth information on keeping each other safe
- Resisting Fear, Arrest, and Repression. PDF of a zine to demystify the decisions, processes and risks around arrest in the context of political work so that we can be informed, courageous & dangerous; together.
- Confidence Courage Connection Trust: A proposal for security culture. Online and downloadable here.
- Know Your Rights: a guide for activists. This guide prepared by the Movement Defense Committee is intended to provide you with an overview of your rights when dealing with the police.
- Movement Defense: Legal Information for Wet’suwet’en Solidarity. A know-your-rights and movement-based legal defense resource put together in the context of the Shut Down Canada actions of 2020.
Arrest Handbook: Extensive information put out by the BCCLA on your rights when interacting with police on topics like arrest, detention, search and seizure, and youth and the law. The Handbook (and more concise Pocketbook) is available in English, French, Punjabi, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
