[Omd] reportback from infotour

[mattm-b at resist.ca]

sorry i missed the meeting.  i was exhausted yesterday and still pretty
wiped today.  i forgot my ativan so i basically had a 3 day long anxiety
attack.  but all is well again.

in any case here's the news:

we raised an additional $365 for legal funds, etc.
and a reminder that we have $300 for us at opirg ottawa

i went to guelph (sat. jan 29)
toronto (sun. jan. 30)
and kitchener/waterloo (mon. jan 31)

there was about 15 - 20 people at the sat and sun events, both of which
were organized by the anarchist black cross.  i got to (re)connect with
sara f. karen emily and gordie and emily all of whom used to live in
ottawa.

the event in k/w was smaller, only 5 - 6 people from the anti-war at
laurier and from the spot collective wihich works with street yout and
doing gang-to-gang work.  i reconnected with dan kellar there.

so aside from the money we raised i think it was helpful in creating some
more and/or some tighter contacts with folks in these cities.  we could
think of doing another tour sometime maybe around june 18?  with more time
and more planning i think we could raise more money.

aside from the strictly financial possibilities, people were really eager
to hear exactly what had being going on, exactly where everyone's case was
and why, and a lot of people wanted to know about the police infiltration.

so with a bit of though and if we have the energy i think it could be well
worth doing this kind of a tour again.  ideally we would try and find some
other folks to do it with, folks who could talk about g8/g20 stuff as well
as, ideally, folks who could talk more generally about prisons and
political repression.

and in k/w i got to chat informally with folks there about their
experiences of being inflitrated (there were 2 infiltrators down there). 
the parallels were pretty interesting...it was all interesteing.  in any
case myabe i'll get more into that at the next meeting.

also, if we don't already have some, we should make some pamphlets with
the most current info.  we should also reconsider making a website, doing
it in a way that it won't negatively effect roger's chance of parole and
finally i think i sold some t-shirts...i am going to check in with
everyone and see how many they might like to buy.

again sorry for missing the meeting i am just still recovering from the
last bit.

in sol,
matt