1993

The People’s Parking Ticket Service

In the summer of 1999, parking attendants in downtown Kingston were rendered incapable of doing their jobs by a few youths following them on their routes, plugging in quarters to expired parking meters before cars could be ticketed [1]. These youth, members of the People’s Parking Ticket Service (PPT), would then place envelopes informing the drivers they had been saved by a ticket and ask for a small donation to support the PPT and the funding of a youth shelter in Kingston [2]. The PPT covered the cost of all the quarters going into machines and paid the youth minimum wage for their work [1]. As both a fundraiser and a direct act of protest against the City, this campaign was part of a large series of actions by the People’s Community Union intending to put pressure on the City to fund a youth hostel [2]. 

Founded in 1998, The People’s Community Union was an antipoverty organization dedicated to disrupting institutions of power and organizing against social inequality through direct action [3]. Organized largely through a zine called “The Long Hot Summer,” the PCU fought tickets given out to squeegeers and buskers, organized against the City’s dumping of toxic waste in Belle Park, and participating in efforts to create a more bike, skateboard and pedestrian friendly downtown through Critical Mass [1].

The organizing of the People’s Community Union in the summer of 1999 was about more than plugging parking meters and distributing flyers, it was about creative, proactive community organizing, and a demand for the needs of street youth to be treated with the seriousness they deserved. The Long Hot Summer was an action that proved the viability of organizing groups for more than single issue campaigns, and the value of alternative methods to challenge state authority. 

[1] Silburn, Matt. August 25, 2016. (member of the People’s Community Union, member of the Long Hot Summer campaign) in interview with Samantha Kilpatrick 

[2] Pilfold, Harry. 2016. (member of the People’s Community Union, member of the Long Hot Summer campaign) in interview with Samantha Kilpatrick 

[3] Silburn, M., “YOUTH, POOR, ACTIVE”, Alternatives Journal, 26:4, https://go-gale-com.proxy.queensu.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=queensulaw&id=GALE%7CA66964858&v=2.1&it=r