Editing Squamish Five (section)

== Campaigns ==
[[File:Gerry_Hannah.JPG|thumb|Direct Action member and [[Subhumans (Canadian band)|Subhumans]] bassist [[Gerry Hannah]]]]

The group's first action was in 1982: vandalizing the [[British Columbia Ministry of Environment]] offices.<ref name="threat">{{Cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Dwight |chapter=Direct Action |title=Terror Threat: International and Homegrown Terrorists and Their Threat to Canada |pages=23–25 |date=2007 |language=en |isbn=978-1-55002-736-5 |publisher=Dundurn Press |location=Toronto |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/terrorthreatinte0000hami/page/23/mode/1up |df=mdy-all }}</ref> They began training with stolen weapons in a deserted area north of [[Vancouver, British Columbia|Vancouver]] and stole a large cache of [[dynamite]] belonging to the Department of Highways.<ref name="ef-belmas" />

On the morning of May 30, 1982, Hansen, Taylor, and Stewart travelled to [[Vancouver Island]] and set off a large [[bomb]] at the Dunsmuir [[BC Hydro]] substation. The damage was extensive, causing over $3 million CAD in damage and leaving four transformers damaged beyond repair.  Nobody was injured.<ref name="Antliff2004">{{cite book|author=Antliff, Allan|author-link=Allan Antliff|title=Only a Beginning: An Anarchist Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Of-9Yjbf5OgC|access-date=May 16, 2009|publisher=[[Arsenal Pulp Press]]|year=2004|pages=75|isbn=1-55152-167-9}}</ref>

=== Litton Industries bombing ===
{{Main|Litton Industries bombing}}

In October 1982, the five filled a stolen pick-up truck with {{convert|550|kg|lb|abbr=on}} of dynamite and drove from Vancouver to [[Toronto]]. Their target was [[Litton Industries]], a company producing [[Guidance system|guidance components]] for the controversial American [[cruise missile]]s many feared would increase the risk of [[nuclear war]].<ref name="Antliff2004" />

=== "Wimmin's Fire Brigade" and Red Hot Video firebombing ===
{{Quote box
| quote  = Red Hot Video is part of a multi-billion dollar pornography industry that teaches men to equate sexuality with violence. Although these tapes violate the Criminal Code of Canada and the B.C. guidelines on pornography, all lawful attempts to shutdown Red Hot Video have failed because the justice system was created and is controlled by rich men to protect their profits and property. As a result, we are left no viable alternative but to change the situation ourselves  through illegal means.This is an act of self-defence against hate propaganda. We will continue to defend ourselves
| author = Wimmin's Fire Brigade, Press Release, November 22, 1982
| source = 
| width  = 50%
| align  = right
}}

The bombers fled Toronto for [[Vancouver]] and ceased their activities as they moved underground together. On November 22, 1982, they emerged as part of a larger group under the name ''"Wimmin's Fire Brigade"''.<ref name="Antliff2004" /> They subsequently [[Molotov cocktail|firebombed]] three franchises of Red Hot Video, a chain of video pornography stores which had attracted the attention of [[feminist]] activists and the local community and was accused of selling [[snuff films]] as well as violent and [[paedophilia|paedophilic]] pornography. The majority of the stores closed or changed names.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Hansen |author-first1=Ann |title=Direct Action: memoirs of an urban guerrilla |date=2001 |publisher=Between the Lines |location=Toronto |isbn=9781902593487 |page=301}}</ref>

Ann Hansen alleges in her memoirs that the police were surveilling them at the time of the Red Hot Video action, which would mean the police broke the law to get the evidence needed to proceed with the charges on the earlier bombings.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Hansen |author-first1=Ann |title=Direct Action : memoirs of an urban guerrilla |date=2001 |publisher=Between the Lines |location=Toronto |isbn=9781902593487 |page=348}}</ref>