“It’s synonymous with Shrine, circus and Shrine is like bacon and eggs,” said Bob McGregor, recorder for the Ramses Shrine Temple in Toronto, which includes the Oshawa and District Shrine Club as a member. He explained that Shriners conduct dedicated fundraisers throughout the year for children’s hospitals, but the circus is a fraternal fundraiser to cover the expenses for the organization.”
“No being should suffer for another being’s entertainment and that’s exactly what this is,” he said. “It’s cruel punishment for the purposes of capitalist entertainment.”
This train of thought has allowed for the emergence of the Kingston Animal Rights Affinity under the auspices of Occupy Kingston.
“The reason why we are doing this is because the animals are part of the 99%, just like most of the humans on the planet. People tend to forget that humans are animals,” he said.
Over 50 protesters hit the streets in front of the WFCU Centre, holding signs and chanting to draw awareness for animal cruelty.
“We are protesting the Shrine Circus in Windsor,” said Ashley Vallance, a real estate agent from Vision Realty. “We’re hoping we can get enough voices to be heard and hopefully next year we can keep the Shrine Circus from coming back.”
Previous to this years campaign Rik Kubiak would have been an unlikely candidate for the first entry into our wall of shame. However, as a result of his actions and behavior during the two weekend stay in Etobicoke, Rik Kubiak quickly catapulted himself up the ladder of Shriner shame. Our first interactions with Rik came on Saturday June 30th, 2012 as Rik alleged that demonstrators were trespassing on Woodbine Centre property. This claim would be repeated over the course of two weekends, and eventually end in police officers, on Friday July 6th, instructing Shriners/TZ Productions and Mall Security to leave demonstrators alone as they engaged in a legal, peaceful demonstration. Rik was aware of this command.
When police left on July 6th Rik ignored this request and approached demonstrators taunting them and claiming that they are all “paid” to demonstrate. On July 7th, he followed this up by again confronting demonstrators - repeating “Hey Assholes” as he approached demonstrators at which point he assaulted a demonstrator by grabbing a megaphone and shoving it in their face. After being asked by mall security to leave, Kubiak left, only to utter threats as he walked away, “If that’s what you call assault I will show you assault.” All of this was caught on camera and can be seen here.
Kubiak is retired from the Peel District School board and is currently President of the Bramalea Hillybilly Shrine Club, Chairman/Director of the Rameses Shriners and hired Electrical Designer and Engineer of the Shrine Circus. Rik is a major player in this Circus and a retired educator. He now faces assault charges as a result of the demonstration. We hope his actions, and their consequences, will send a message to all Shrine Circus/TZ Productions staff - YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
There has been some discussion recently regarding the Coalition for Circus Animal Freedom (CCAF) and it’s position on animal use. Although we have stated that we reject all animal use in interviews we have done this summer, we have lacked a full public statement. To be clear, all of the organizing hub for the CCAF are ethical vegans and the CCAF is founded on a rejection of all animal use for human gain. We will offer support to anyone who asks, however, we hope that advocates in each town respect this and are following, or moving towards, this same path.
The Coalition for Circus Animal Freedom is made up of grassroots groups in Ontario who have joined together to organize against Shrine Circus/TZ Productions.
