RBRight to Breathe Act
Spice on the tacos. None in the air.
Councilors Sameer Kanal and Candace Avalos want to ban chemical weapons like tear gas in Portland. Act, play, and score points for your district.
Updated todayStart here
Three quick reads, a 3-question check, and your next step. Underlined words are tap to define.
What is tear gas?
Tear gas is a chemical irritant fired as a cloud. It burns eyes, skin and lungs, and the cloud drifts with the wind, up to a mile, into homes and schools. Militaries have been barred from using it in war for about a century.
What would the law do?
The Right to Breathe Act is an ordinance from Councilors Sameer Kanal and Candace Avalos. It would prohibit police from using chemical weapons like tear gas in Portland, with fines up to $15,000 per use and a right to sue for anyone injured. Tools like pepper spray and Tasers stay available.
What can you do?
Pick your district, send two lines to your councilors, or watch a clip. Each step takes under a minute and earns points for your district.
Check yourself
My talking points
Your path
Top Stories
Right to BreatheK12KPTV FOX 12 · Feb 6Councilor Kanal moves to ban tear gas citywideAfter federal agents used tear gas heavily on protesters at the South Portland ICE facility, Councilor Sameer Kanal announced a plan to bring a citywide ban to the City Council. That plan became the Right to Breathe Act.
Read at KPTV FOX 12
Right to BreatheK12KPTV FOX 12 · Jan 31Union rally meets tear gas at the ICE facilityA crowd in the thousands, including members of more than 30 Portland-area unions, marched to the South Waterfront ICE facility. Federal agents fired tear gas and pepper balls, and the mayor and several councilors condemned it.
Read at KPTV FOX 12
Right to BreatheOPBOPB · Jan 27Councilors push the mayor to enforce chemical-munition penaltiesCouncilors Angelita Morillo and Mitch Green asked Mayor Wilson to move faster on the City’s new penalties for chemicals spreading beyond the ICE building.
Read at OPB
Right to BreatheAXAxios Portland · Feb 2Judge hears protesters’ case against federal tear gasProtesters and journalists represented by the ACLU asked a federal judge to limit when agents can use tear gas, flash-bangs and pepper spray near the ICE facility.
Read at Axios Portland Citizen PortalCPCitizen Portal · Jul 10Health experts tell the Council: consider a local banA four-person panel of public-health and environmental experts told the Committee of the Whole that crowd-control chemicals can harm people and ecosystems.
Read at Citizen PortalCouncilors on the record
Statements and posts from the people who vote on the Act. Kanal and Avalos sponsor it. Others have condemned federal tear gas use and have not yet taken a public position on a ban.
No tear gas on our streets.IGInstagram · Oct 9Kanal asks people who were tear-gassed to share their storiesCouncilor Sameer Kanal posted that chemical weapons banned on the battlefield have no place on Portland streets, and pointed people to the sign-up page. Neighbors replied with their own experiences.
See the post on Instagram City of PortlandPDXPortland.gov · Feb 2The full Council condemns tear gas used on protestersA Council statement called the gassing of protesters unacceptable and said members are exploring state and local options to hold federal agents accountable.
Read the statement
Right to BreatheKOINKOIN 6 · Feb 2Pirtle-Guiney, Koyama Lane and Green respond to the weekend gassingThree councilors spoke about children, seniors and veterans caught in the gas, and called the response unjustified.
Read at KOIN 6
Right to BreatheKATUKATU · Feb 1Green marched and was gassed; Koyama Lane asks for accountsCouncilor Mitch Green said he was in the gas at the union march and wants to document the impact. Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane invited people who were gassed to contact her office.
Read the storyPick an action by time
Swing votes
These councilors have no public stance on the Act yet. Steve Novick chairs the committee that will hear it. Every note to them earns double points.
Text a friend
Email your 3 councilors
Pick your district at the top of the page and your three councilors fill in here.
Call script
Call 311 or 503-823-4000 and ask for the office of your councilor. A staffer or voicemail will take your message.
Window sign
Letter size. Save it, print it, tape it up facing the street.
Share your story
Councilor Kanal's office wants to hear from anyone tear-gassed in Portland. The team's form has a box for your story, and it stays with the office until you say it can be shared.
Watch
Clips from the fight over tear gas in Portland, each with the short version of what was said. Press play to earn points: 5 per chamber clip, 10 per news clip.
0 of 15 watched
In the chamber
Kanal opens the chemical weapons hearing
In 10 seconds: A councilor opens a hearing on how chemical weapons affect health.
Councilor Kanal opens Item 3, the public health impacts of chemical weapons, and introduces the panel that follows.
Full meeting →+5 pts
Banned in war, allowed on residents
In 10 seconds: Tear gas is banned in war and allowed on city streets.
A panelist points out that CS gas is prohibited in warfare under the Geneva Conventions, yet law enforcement can use it on the people they serve.
Full meeting →+5 pts
A building full of gas, a patient who never recovered
In 10 seconds: One gassed building left a patient with lasting lung trouble.
A pulmonary doctor describes a patient whose building filled with tear gas. She never regained control of her disease and could barely live in her own home.
Full meeting →+5 pts
Start here
There were strollers in the cloud
In 10 seconds: Medics treated families after the gas, including children in strollers.
A street medic recounts decontaminating media, clergy and families after gas. Describing the scene, the medic breaks down: there were strollers.
Full meeting →+5 pts
Her former students were gassed
In 10 seconds: Students she once taught were gassed while marching with their parents.
Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane says her former students were gassed without warning while marching with their parents.
Full meeting →+5 pts
Crowd control without chemical weapons
In 10 seconds: Crowds can be managed without chemical weapons.
A councilor lays out that there are many ways to control a crowd that never involve chemical weapons, and says of tear gas, "I don’t think teargas does that."
Full meeting →+5 pts
Block by block through the cloud
In 10 seconds: Gas clouds spread, so they reach everyone nearby.
"You can’t tear gas one person," a councilor says. A medic follows with the field view: clouds so thick they cleared the area block by block, and a woman carried out unconscious.
Full meeting →+5 pts
No way to tear gas one person
In 10 seconds: Gas cannot be aimed at one person, so it reaches everyone around.
Kanal makes the case with the room itself: there is no way to tear gas one person in it.
Full meeting →+5 pts
Drafting the ban: cloud versus directed spray
In 10 seconds: The ban’s wording separates a gas cloud from a directed spray.
Kanal works through the definitions the ban needs, separating a gas cloud from a directed spray.
Full meeting →+5 pts
Spent canisters in the chambers
In 10 seconds: A resident brought the spent canisters into the room as proof.
Tyler Fini of Jobs with Justice carries bags of spent munitions, collected on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, into council chambers.
Full meeting →+5 pts
Start here
The canister that melted her pants
In 10 seconds: A canister landed at her feet and melted her pants.
A resident testifies that a tear gas canister landed at her feet, spewing flames so hot they melted her pants.
Full meeting →+5 pts
In the news
Start hereKPTV FOX 12 · Feb 6, 2026
Kanal: ban tear gas across Portland
In 10 seconds: A councilor announces a plan to ban tear gas citywide.
Councilor Sameer Kanal says he will bring legislation to ban tear gas citywide, after a weekend of heavy gas use by federal agents at the South Waterfront ICE facility, with children in the crowd. He calls gas "indiscriminate" and says it "poisons children and elderly folks." Kanal, who has asthma, asks why soldiers are barred from using it yet it is allowed on people in Portland.
Watch on YouTube →+10 pts
KATU News · Feb 2, 2026
Councilors ask gassed marchers to come forward
In 10 seconds: Councilors ask people who were gassed to share their stories.
After tear gas, flash bangs and other chemical munitions hit the Jan. 31 union march near the ICE facility, Councilors Tiffany Koyama Lane and Mitch Green asked anyone affected to contact their offices. Green says he wants accounts, especially from families with children, "to start to document and compile evidence," and expects the city to "use every single tool that we have."
Watch on YouTube →+10 pts
KGW News · Feb 3, 2026
A federal judge limits tear gas at the ICE building
In 10 seconds: A judge limits federal tear gas use at Portland’s ICE building.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon issues a temporary restraining order after protesters, represented by the ACLU, sued. Federal agents may not fire tear gas, pepper balls or rubber bullets at people unless they pose a direct threat to officers, and may not aim at heads, necks or torsos unless deadly force is justified. Mayor Keith Wilson calls the limits "an important first step" after "unconscionable levels of force against a community."
The order ran two weeks, with an evidentiary hearing set for March 2 on a longer injunction. Court reports in March show the judge continuing the restrictions.
Watch on YouTube →+10 pts
KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco · Feb 2, 2026
Portland tear gas, as the West Coast saw it
In 10 seconds: A West Coast news show covers the tear gas at the Portland march.
The West Coast Wrap carries the Portland story to a Bay Area audience: hundreds of protesters marched to the ICE detention facility to demonstrate against the immigration crackdown, and federal agents answered with tear gas. The weekend it covers is the one that led Portland councilors to start collecting testimony and, days later, Kanal to announce the ban.
Watch on YouTube →+10 pts
Then play
Taco games that count
Play a round, learn something, and send a short message to your councilors when you finish. Your points count for your district.
- Spice or Gas? Learn which chemicals Portland police and federal agents fire at people.
- Talk Back Practice answering the arguments opponents will bring to the hearing.
- Taco Cart Feel how far a gas cloud drifts past the people it was aimed at.
- Weigh In Vote on statements about tear gas and build bridges with people who see it differently.
- Order Up Make a shareable receipt that tells your followers which councilor to call.
Scan to sign up
Play a round, then sign up on your phone at tinyurl.com/RestrictTearGas to help ban tear gas in Portland.
Weigh In
Vote on short statements. Build a bridge when the other side agrees with you, keep a streak, finish a round of ten.
Talk Back
These are the arguments opponents will bring to the hearing. Pick the stronger answer and you'll be ready to testify.
They sayReady to talk back?
Spice or Gas?
Some of these belong on a taco. Some get fired at Portlanders. Swipe right for spice, left for gas, or tap. You have 60 seconds.
Ready?Tap start. Twelve cards, one tricky one.
Taco Cart
Catch the toppings, dodge the clouds. Drag or use the arrow keys. Every level the clouds drift wider.
Cart closed
Order Up
Build your order and get a receipt for your Story.
Tortilla
Filling
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How many
Email the council · two minutes
Speak up
Write the Mayor and all 12 councilors, then sign up with the councilor's team so you hear when the hearing is set.
Why it matters to you (tap any)
Send to (subject: Please support the Right to Breathe Act)
Sign up with the team +20
Pin it, tell it, share it
Put it on the map
Pin where it happened, add your story, then attach a clip if you have one. Pins are anonymous and rounded to about a block.
Who used it
When
Federal agentsPortland policeNot sureHas a recording0 pins
Tap the map to drop a pin. +30
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Your story saves on this device as you type. Nothing is sent until you choose to send it.
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Add audio or video to your pin
Record on your phone or upload a clip of what happened. Recordings go privately to Councilor Kanal's office and never play on the public map. The map only shows that a pin has a recording.
Drop a pin on the map first, then attach a recording to it.
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Common Ground
Vote on short statements about tear gas in Portland. The board surfaces the ones that supporters, undecided people and skeptics all agree on, the way Taiwan used Polis to settle its Uber fight in a year. The councilor's office gets a map of where Portland already agrees.
The issue, side by side
Read each side at its strongest, then vote. Opening a tab earns points.
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