Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Starting To Wind Down...
Kheiriddin: Today’s anarchists are just cowards (2)
June - 28 - 2010 6 Responses
Anarchists. They think they are the coolest thing, tricked out in balaclavas, bandannas, punk style and black clothes. Reminds me of the garb we wore in college, except the bandannas weren’t a tear gas shield, but a hair accessory. We didn’t run riot in the streets, either, just skulked past our exasperated parents, who were [...]More on the G20 Street Party
A band of black-masked, malicious, and potentially dangerous ne’er-do-wells did their radical best to get a racket going: torched a couple of police cars, did their petty “let’s smash the windows” trick, insulted the police, intimidated spectators, and tried to order the press around.
The world has seen this knob of losers and self-nominated “anarchists” before; they gave themselves the comic-book brand “Black Bloc” long ago, and they have been the noisome tail to the dog of every high order world meeting for well over a decade.
"conditions for detainees at 629 eastern ave are illegal, immoral and dangerous"
deserter's haven
Insight Into How Other Nations Deal With Protesters...
Putting down protesters
Demonstrators demand electricity after seven years without.
Maliki's response: They should have gotten parade permits.
—Iraq Pundit
Demonstrators demand electricity after seven years without.
Maliki's response: They should have gotten parade permits.
—Iraq Pundit
Mini Gay Pride protest in Moscow foils security services
By Andrew John.
Thirty Russian lesbian, gay and bisexual activists foiled the police and FSB security services by holding a 10-minute “flashmob” Gay Pride march on one of Moscow’s major thoroughfares, Leningradsky Street, this afternoon.
Thailand: Using Motorcycles For Protest Marches | |||||||||||
 If you're going on a protest march, why walk? Better to use your motorcycles, as these folks in Thailand are doing. You drive your point across much stronger, and you get to ride your motorcycle.... | |||||||||||
Outside Of Toronto The Big News Was...
Toronto police chief offers no apologies for G20 tactics
‘I have to tell you I've been overwhelmed with e-mails, letters and phone calls of support … certainly, advocates for the anarchists are offended. I can live with their offence,’ Chief Bill Blair says...the anniversary of the death of Micheal Jackson.
TRUE! For The First "Few Minutes"...
...and then they turned it over to the hoodlums.
Smash and burn and democracy
Margaret Wente
G20 protests: We gave the black-clad thugs everything they wanted
Thousands stood up for humanity
Thousands of people march peacefully along College Street on Saturday to protest the G20 summit
Richard Lautens/Toronto StarTue Jun 29 2010
Anti-summit marchers braved hooligans, police and even the weather to push a people’s agenda.
I am sure if it had been a strike and "the hooligans" were trying to cross a picket line the marchers would have taken swift and appropriate action.
The Real World Class City...
Pride Week, Caribana Parade, Santa Claus Parade, Labour Day Parade and a multitude of celebrations organized/sponsored by the city. IMHO it is a successful attempt to divert the voters/taxpayers attention from the incompetence of those we keep sending back to Toronto Silly Hall.
Controversy dogs Pride parade
It’s time to put the anger and recriminations of the bitter G20 protests behind and embrace a more joyful image of Toronto, Mayor David Miller said Monday as he raised the Rainbow Flag of Pride Week.
Where Is The Condemnation Of The Real Culprits...
...John Clarke and OCRAP; Sid Ryan and the OFL and the leaders of the NGOs who organized the protest marches but did little to monitor and control the participants. Thousands marched peacefully. A couple of hundred created all the mayhem and damage. The math would indicate that the peaceful marches could have exerted some restraint on the troublemakers.
Blair got it wrong: Warmington
“Please stop referring to Parking Enforcement officers as parking Nazis” — Chief Bill Blair.
Anarchists were 'stupid' — Blair
In the wake of a tumultuous weekend that saw the city’s streets filled with protesters, Toronto’s top cop says he’s extremely proud of his officers and the thousands of others from across the country for the work they did providing security for the G20 summit.
G20 turns Toronto into city of wimps
Jonathan Kay: In Toronto, we are in the midst of a spasm of civic mortification. Over the weekend, I listened to radio reporters breathlessly tell listeners tear gas had been used on the streets — as proof the city was enduring some apocalypseNational Post editorial board: Time for the protesters to grow up
June 28, 2010 – 5:30 pm
Peaceful protesters at events such as last weekend’s G20 summit in Toronto generally plead ignorance at the violent protesters in their midst. Maybe next time, they’ll try harder to out them. The radicals are casting a shadow over the legitimate protesters’ causes — to the extent that the whole protest movement is now seen by many Canadians as a political front for vandalism and other forms of criminal behaviour.
When Canadians see images of masked agitators smashing plate-glass storefronts, igniting police cruisers and jumping up on statues and street lamps, they don’t ask themselves whether the activists’ myriad political causes justify such displays of anger; they simply root for police to get the thugs off the street. Which is exactly what the police eventually did.
Overall, we think the police acquitted themselves well. And they deserve the thanks of Torontonians for the service they rendered the city.
Read More
When Canadians see images of masked agitators smashing plate-glass storefronts, igniting police cruisers and jumping up on statues and street lamps, they don’t ask themselves whether the activists’ myriad political causes justify such displays of anger; they simply root for police to get the thugs off the street. Which is exactly what the police eventually did.
Overall, we think the police acquitted themselves well. And they deserve the thanks of Torontonians for the service they rendered the city.
Read More
Monday, June 28, 2010
Damned If The Do And Damned If They Don't...
The thing I find amazing is the lack of information of how many people were hospitalized over the two days and I think I would be buried in such reports if the police had intervened more aggressively and I would rejoice if those injured were only the anarchists and their fellow travelers.
G20 Street Party Follow-Up
Not that I agree with the Liberal idiots about $1billion security for the G20 being a "boondoggle", but to put things in a paraphrased context...I paid $1billion for security and all I got were spectators in body armour.
If that isn't the mother of all boondoggles, I don't know what is.
If that isn't the mother of all boondoggles, I don't know what is.
QAIA Needs to Lookup Definition Of Apartheid...
Homosexual hate speech
We read:
If you want to see apartheid in the Middle East, go to Saudi Arabia and experience the severe restrictions on Christians there. There is nothing similar in Israel.
We read:
"A group of about 35 journalists, politicians and members of Toronto’s Jewish community gathered at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre this morning in reaction against Pride Toronto’s (PT) June 23 decision not to censor the term Israeli apartheid from this year’s Pride celebration.
It was a press conference held by gay lawyer Martin Gladstone and “representatives of the organized Jewish community.” Seated with Gladstone at a long table were representatives from the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canada-Israel Committee, the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, and mayoral candidates Rocco Rossi, Giorgio Mammoliti and Rob Ford.
Gladstone said he will resume lobbying Pride’s corporate sponsors, warning them, “You can’t separate the message of a sponsor from what happens in the Pride Parade.”
Source
If you want to see apartheid in the Middle East, go to Saudi Arabia and experience the severe restrictions on Christians there. There is nothing similar in Israel.
TO Makes World News...
Chatter: What we're hearing
By News Desk — GlobalPost Editors
Published: June 27, 2010 07:27 ET in home
To receive the morning chatter by email, let us know at editors@globalpost.com.Published: June 27, 2010 07:27 ET in home
Need to know: Kyrgyzstan is holding a referendum on a new constitution amid fears it could inflame ethnic tensions. The proposed constitution would give parliament more power and set the stage for a general election in September.
Want to know: The NYTimes begins a series chronicling the yearlong deployment of the First Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, based in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. It will examine the battalion’s part in the surge in northern Afghanistan and the impact of war on individual soldiers and their families back home.
...and you have to love the headline:
Dull but important: Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters at the global economic summit in Toronto Saturday, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers. Police arrested more than 150 people.
World Vision activists dressed as "pregnant with promises" G8 leaders demonstrate ahead of the G8 and G20 summits in downtown Toronto, June 24, 2010. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters) 
G20 preview: What to watch for in Toronto
Expect cops. Lots of them.
...Girl On The Right:
Just because: Madonna's embrace of Jewish mysticism has transformed Israel's bohemian hub....Girl On The Right:
There are riots in downtown Toronto. Windows have been smashed and a police car set on fire. Not that I have any real issue with rioting…
In fact, if you are a Metallica fan and you have the video set A Year and a half in the Life of Metallica, chances are you’ve seen me, standing in front of a flipped police car, brushing my sweat-soaked hair out of my face.
However, I’m not 16 any more. And in both riot cases mentioned above - the GnR riot and the Stanley Cup Riot - I never went there with the intention of wreaking havoc. I went for entertainment purposes. Things just kind of… happened.
G20 protesters, on the other hand, come here with no other purpose than hell and destruction. My city is under siege, and I am resentful.
I don’t want Obama here in Toronto, but only because I think he’s unqualified to be president - not because I hate America. I don’t want a security fence in my downtown core, but only because I have no patience for anarchists. And I certainly don’t want my civil rights suspended just because I walk in the wrong place at the wrong time - but again, those decisions can be traced back to the anarchists.
I can’t put it any more clearly than “get the fuck out”, can I?
Posted by: Right GirlIn fact, if you are a Metallica fan and you have the video set A Year and a half in the Life of Metallica, chances are you’ve seen me, standing in front of a flipped police car, brushing my sweat-soaked hair out of my face.
However, I’m not 16 any more. And in both riot cases mentioned above - the GnR riot and the Stanley Cup Riot - I never went there with the intention of wreaking havoc. I went for entertainment purposes. Things just kind of… happened.
G20 protesters, on the other hand, come here with no other purpose than hell and destruction. My city is under siege, and I am resentful.
I don’t want Obama here in Toronto, but only because I think he’s unqualified to be president - not because I hate America. I don’t want a security fence in my downtown core, but only because I have no patience for anarchists. And I certainly don’t want my civil rights suspended just because I walk in the wrong place at the wrong time - but again, those decisions can be traced back to the anarchists.
I can’t put it any more clearly than “get the fuck out”, can I?
Wacky: Stressed-out city executives looking to get away from it all have the chance to buy their own rural village in New Zealand, complete with a pub and population of 40.
Initially I Thouhgt I Had Pulled Up The rabble.ca Blog...
My blogger-husband & I ordered to stop videotaping on public sidewalk, by Toronto cop today, badge #3478 (video)
# Kathy Shaidle : 2010-06-27- June 28, 2010| ByrabbleTV|Dave Coles, president of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union, warns police not to move on peaceful protesters.
Anarchists Are Yesterday's News! Steve Janke Brings Us Back To Reality...
Multiculturalism: What benefits?
With regards to the controversy regarding CSIS director Richard McFadden's recent revelation that China is using racial and cultural chauvinism, along with cold hard cash, to recruit sympathizers among the ranks of Canada's elected officials and government bureaucrats, many people seem surprised.Odd reaction, that.
So many people simply not paying attention. Oh well.
In any case, The Ottawa Citizen editorial board does not suggest McFadden is wrong. China is spying, British Columbia is likely the hub of the spying given the large Chinese population, and yes, it's immigrants:
China openly specializes in economic espionage, as Canadian companies such as aerospace giant Bombardier have discovered. There have been recent reports of Chinese technicians stealing secrets at one of Bombardier's Montreal plants, and of Bombardier negotiators being spied upon during trips to China.But then comes the obligatory warning to anyone who might jump to conclusions:
While Fadden didn't name names, he did suggest that the problem of foreign influence is particularly conspicuous in British Columbia. The province is part of the Pacific Rim and is the Canadian epicentre of Asian immigration.
The danger of Fadden's warning is that it might be used, not by CSIS but others, as an argument against multiculturalism and immigration. That would be a mistake. Canada's diversity is a source of national strength, and has produced far more benefits, economic and otherwise, than costs.So there are costs, the editorial board admits. Those could be easy to quantify. The billions lost to industrial espionage (lost contracts, competition against cheap knockoff products constructed from stolen Canadian designs, and so on), millions and millions more spent on language training and other immigrant services, and then the millions and millions spent on paying immigrants to continue to speak their own language and act as per their old customs through multiculturalism grants.
And that's just the straight up costs. Let's cut everyone a break and not include costs to the justice system that accrue when we import foreign gang culture into Canada. To be fair, criminals are criminals, not matter what language they speak. Let's assume that if a Chinese gang wasn't running the drug and prostitution trade in a Vancouver neighbourhood, some other gang would. Maybe it costs more for the police to fight a Chinese gang in a Chinese neighbourhood than it does to fight, say, a biker gang featuring native-born thugs. I'm going to assume the cost is the same.
Not everyone would be as generous in their assumptions as I am being.
But against that, the editorial boards declares that the "national strength" that comes from multiculturalism and the other benefits, "economic and otherwise", not only balance the costs, but produce "far more" benefits.
So I challenge the editorial board of The Ottawa Citizen to lay it out. Explain a benefit that could only come of official government-sponsored and taxpayer-funded multiculturalism that outweighs the costs.
Far outweighs, if you please. I want to see the dollar figures. You set the bar, not me.
Explain how our national strength is enhanced by neighbourhoods where no one speaks English. Explain how our national strength is enhanced when French Canada has jealousy guarded its identity over the past 150 years, while English Canada is embarrassed to be, well, English, for fear of annoying immigrants.
Heck, we don't even call it English Canada anymore. Now it's the "Rest of Canada". Like the leftover bits. I hate that phrase.
Look, maybe multiculturalism is a big help. Who knows? I don't think The Ottawa Citizen editorial board knows. I don't think it has the slightest clue if it helps or not. It just assumes it does. More than that, the board is worried at the thought that it does not help. And below that is the gnawing fear that instead of just being expensive and harmless, official government-sponsored and taxpayer-funded multiculturalism is expensive and harmful.
Harmful? Like maybe we've set ourselves up to be patsies in the face of foreign powers with our open-door immigration policy and our efforts to make certain people can afford to not feel a sense of belonging to Canada through official government-sponsored and taxpayer-funded multiculturalism.
If the editorial board of The Ottawa Citizen doesn't want readers to start wondering just how we've actually benefited from open immigration and official government-sponsored and taxpayer-funded multiculturalism (as opposed to limited immigration on the basis of economic benefit to Canada, and the natural and cost-free process of assimilation of immigrants into a made-in-Canada Canadian culture), then maybe the board ought to just keep quiet about it.
Declaring that we're all far better off, as if it's just obvious to everyone, is just going to draw attention, and evoke questions that I'm certain many people would prefer never get asked (much less answered).
Let's Take A "Tea" Break...
Brunch with the G20 spouses
The Globe's Christie Blatchford talks about breaking bread with some of the world's most recognizeable and powerful women
We Gave The Council Clowns The Weekend Off But It Is Monday Morning...
News, tips, gossip and analysis of municipal politics
Friday, June 25, 2010 11:56 AM
The pre-G20, non-G20 wrap
Kelly Grant
You know who I feel sorry for? Jazz musicians. And not just for the usual reasons.
The stage and tents are up outside city hall for this weekend’s Toronto International Jazz Festival. But, like the rest of downtown, Nathan Phillips Square is so eerily quiet you’d think Viljo Revell’s hovering spaceship of a council chamber had beamed up every earthling in the vicinity. Unless the alien forces of the G20 relent by tomorrow, the jazz fest will be like a backyard jam session, with swanky tents.
Things are equally slow inside City Hall. Today’s licensing and standards committee meeting was moved to the North York Civic Centre, where Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong’s chocolate lab puppy Strider trotted around chambers. (No sign of committee member and mayoral candidate Rob Ford, at least according to the TV feed.)
There is life elsewhere, namely in the social media universe. A new study analyzing the major mayoral candidates’ performances on Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets has found Rocco Rossi is outpacing his competitors, thanks to his army of online volunteers and fans.
Interestingly, the study was done by Northstar Research Partners, which employs John Laschinger, the wizened election guru running Joe Pantalone’s campaign.
So how did Mr. Laschinger’s candidate fare in the analysis? Meh. His mentions were 5 per cent net positive, better than any candidate other than Mr. Rossi, but 81 per cent were neutral, suggesting the deputy mayor doesn’t excite much passion one way or another in the social-media world. In the real world, however, Mr. Pantalone picked up one whopping endorsement this week: the CAW.
Finally, council is about to lose its sense of humour. Scarborough Councillor Brian Ashton has decided not to seek re-election. The 26-year veteran’s farewell press release was classic Ashton. But he was more sober in an interview, saying he’s grown disillusioned with his powerlessness of late.
“It used to be that individual council members, depending on their ability and creativity, could pursue their own agendas very effectively,” he said. “Under the last number of years with the centralization of power in the mayor’s office, the impact of amalgamation ... I’ve found it much more difficult for individuals to use their skills.”
Mr. Ashton has been marginalized since 2007, when he voted against new land-transfer and vehicle-registration taxes, prompting David Miller to kick him off executive committee. Still, his sentiment is not an uncommon one, especially among veterans to the right of council’s left-leaning majority.
But he's not sour. "[I've] had such fun that it probably should be illegal."
The stage and tents are up outside city hall for this weekend’s Toronto International Jazz Festival. But, like the rest of downtown, Nathan Phillips Square is so eerily quiet you’d think Viljo Revell’s hovering spaceship of a council chamber had beamed up every earthling in the vicinity. Unless the alien forces of the G20 relent by tomorrow, the jazz fest will be like a backyard jam session, with swanky tents.
Things are equally slow inside City Hall. Today’s licensing and standards committee meeting was moved to the North York Civic Centre, where Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong’s chocolate lab puppy Strider trotted around chambers. (No sign of committee member and mayoral candidate Rob Ford, at least according to the TV feed.)
There is life elsewhere, namely in the social media universe. A new study analyzing the major mayoral candidates’ performances on Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets has found Rocco Rossi is outpacing his competitors, thanks to his army of online volunteers and fans.
Interestingly, the study was done by Northstar Research Partners, which employs John Laschinger, the wizened election guru running Joe Pantalone’s campaign.
So how did Mr. Laschinger’s candidate fare in the analysis? Meh. His mentions were 5 per cent net positive, better than any candidate other than Mr. Rossi, but 81 per cent were neutral, suggesting the deputy mayor doesn’t excite much passion one way or another in the social-media world. In the real world, however, Mr. Pantalone picked up one whopping endorsement this week: the CAW.
Finally, council is about to lose its sense of humour. Scarborough Councillor Brian Ashton has decided not to seek re-election. The 26-year veteran’s farewell press release was classic Ashton. But he was more sober in an interview, saying he’s grown disillusioned with his powerlessness of late.
“It used to be that individual council members, depending on their ability and creativity, could pursue their own agendas very effectively,” he said. “Under the last number of years with the centralization of power in the mayor’s office, the impact of amalgamation ... I’ve found it much more difficult for individuals to use their skills.”
Mr. Ashton has been marginalized since 2007, when he voted against new land-transfer and vehicle-registration taxes, prompting David Miller to kick him off executive committee. Still, his sentiment is not an uncommon one, especially among veterans to the right of council’s left-leaning majority.
But he's not sour. "[I've] had such fun that it probably should be illegal."
How Much Advertising Can You Sell If...
...if all you are offering is Sesame Street, King Of The Hill, et al?
Protest coverage: all live, all the time, all shallow
It was black vs. black on the streets and no one asked why
Globe and Mail Update Published on Sunday, Jun. 27, 2010 3:59PM EDT Last updated on Sunday, Jun. 27, 2010 4:04PM EDT
In the 77th minute of the pulsating World Cup game between Ghana and the U.S.A. - then tied 1-1 – the text crawled across the TV screen. G20 protests, violent clashes. Some people looked at their iPhone or BlackBerry. Some glanced out the window. Nobody moved.
It was happening, is all. The customary theatre of the protests. Without even seeing the footage we could all picture it – kids in black hoodies and bandanas throwing stones, breaking windows and, probably, setting a police car on fire. That’s precisely what it was, of course.
See, the G20 is the Oscars of the protest-world. Tons of media attention, not much context. Photo-ops and fame. And television coverage of the G20 Summit and the protests in Toronto has been drearily predictable, and mostly as mindless as Oscars coverage. The protests – representing nothing more than infantile, pay-attention-to-me-Mommy exhibitionism and destruction – are photo-opportunities as much as the politicians’ statements and handshakes, are photo-ops. Getting on television is pretty much the point of everything, and television loves live, violent action as it loves movie stars.
Thus, so much of our TV news seemed to be salivating at the prospect of protests. Dramatic footage! Riot police! Gangs of roving youths. Running battles on the street! And it became stupendously obvious in the lead-up to Friday and Saturday that local TV news was worshipping at the altar of local police authorities. Local TV news tends to gravitate toward authority on a daily basis anyway, but in Toronto in the last week the sense of paranoia fostered by the police was absorbed and spread to a ridiculous extent.
As a result, obvious questions were never asked. No context for the rioting and destruction that was to come on Saturday in Toronto was ever provided. This was an occasion in which all the shallowness and predictability of TV news was glaringly illuminated.
Far as I can tell, nobody ever asked anyone in authority – government or police – if the grandiosity of the security preparations in downtown Toronto wasn’t an invitation, a challenge even, to the pseudo-anarchists to attack and do their worst. Nobody in the TV news racket seemed willing to ask why, if “security” was the main concern, the G20 was being held in the core of a major city in the first place.
Nobody on TV was prepared, or indeed intellectually equipped, one suspects, to see the enormous fences and the extreme disruption of downtown life and business, as a symbolic act of hostility against a population, and as symbolic examples of the remoteness of the powerful from ordinary people.
Further, nobody on TV was ever willing to suggest that there is a bizarre symbiotic relationship between the forces comprised of black-clad riot police and the “Black Bloc” anarchists. I mean, seriously – these are two groups of guys getting dressed up in black to go out and do some damage to somebody or something. No matter what they tell you, me or those perky TV news reporters, these all just guys itching for a showdown.
While I’m at it, it would have been useful if some TV pundit had suggested that anyone planning to protest in Toronto during the G20 would make a point with more pith and less aggravation if they’d simply stayed home and issued a press release. Thus the staggering $1.2-billion cost of summit security would have been revealed as the ludicrous excess it surely was.
But nobody was going to make that suggestion and nobody was going to stay home. Everybody wants to be seen on TV, making a speech, cheering, carrying a banner or pointing a finger at somebody else. Look, ma! Top of the world, ma!
What we all saw on TV, eventually, was perplexing - empty streets, burning police cars, the smashing of shop windows, vast armies of police moving this way and that, in a bizarre dance. Some reporters expressed shock - the ones who have never been in the middle of a truly terrifying clash between authorities and protesters. We saw $1.2-billion of taxpayer money evaporating, and nobody asking: Why?
It was happening, is all. The customary theatre of the protests. Without even seeing the footage we could all picture it – kids in black hoodies and bandanas throwing stones, breaking windows and, probably, setting a police car on fire. That’s precisely what it was, of course.
See, the G20 is the Oscars of the protest-world. Tons of media attention, not much context. Photo-ops and fame. And television coverage of the G20 Summit and the protests in Toronto has been drearily predictable, and mostly as mindless as Oscars coverage. The protests – representing nothing more than infantile, pay-attention-to-me-Mommy exhibitionism and destruction – are photo-opportunities as much as the politicians’ statements and handshakes, are photo-ops. Getting on television is pretty much the point of everything, and television loves live, violent action as it loves movie stars.
Thus, so much of our TV news seemed to be salivating at the prospect of protests. Dramatic footage! Riot police! Gangs of roving youths. Running battles on the street! And it became stupendously obvious in the lead-up to Friday and Saturday that local TV news was worshipping at the altar of local police authorities. Local TV news tends to gravitate toward authority on a daily basis anyway, but in Toronto in the last week the sense of paranoia fostered by the police was absorbed and spread to a ridiculous extent.
As a result, obvious questions were never asked. No context for the rioting and destruction that was to come on Saturday in Toronto was ever provided. This was an occasion in which all the shallowness and predictability of TV news was glaringly illuminated.
Far as I can tell, nobody ever asked anyone in authority – government or police – if the grandiosity of the security preparations in downtown Toronto wasn’t an invitation, a challenge even, to the pseudo-anarchists to attack and do their worst. Nobody in the TV news racket seemed willing to ask why, if “security” was the main concern, the G20 was being held in the core of a major city in the first place.
Nobody on TV was prepared, or indeed intellectually equipped, one suspects, to see the enormous fences and the extreme disruption of downtown life and business, as a symbolic act of hostility against a population, and as symbolic examples of the remoteness of the powerful from ordinary people.
Further, nobody on TV was ever willing to suggest that there is a bizarre symbiotic relationship between the forces comprised of black-clad riot police and the “Black Bloc” anarchists. I mean, seriously – these are two groups of guys getting dressed up in black to go out and do some damage to somebody or something. No matter what they tell you, me or those perky TV news reporters, these all just guys itching for a showdown.
While I’m at it, it would have been useful if some TV pundit had suggested that anyone planning to protest in Toronto during the G20 would make a point with more pith and less aggravation if they’d simply stayed home and issued a press release. Thus the staggering $1.2-billion cost of summit security would have been revealed as the ludicrous excess it surely was.
But nobody was going to make that suggestion and nobody was going to stay home. Everybody wants to be seen on TV, making a speech, cheering, carrying a banner or pointing a finger at somebody else. Look, ma! Top of the world, ma!
What we all saw on TV, eventually, was perplexing - empty streets, burning police cars, the smashing of shop windows, vast armies of police moving this way and that, in a bizarre dance. Some reporters expressed shock - the ones who have never been in the middle of a truly terrifying clash between authorities and protesters. We saw $1.2-billion of taxpayer money evaporating, and nobody asking: Why?
Today It's Vandalism And Destruction of Property! Tomorrow...
...will it be those who curtail their activities and/or speak up about their methods. We label them as "anarchists" but you have to wonder if "suicide bombers" are training from the advanced playbook of anarchy/terrorism.
Vandalism a central part of anarchists’ tactics
Full Story...
I Am Waiting For The Reports Of How Many "Citizens" Were Hospitalized...
...due to the actions of the "police." I won't hold my breathe...
Jonathan Kay on the extraordinary professionalism of Toronto’s G20 police force
June 27, 2010 – 2:23 am
Some of my American friends have been emailing me to ask whether “Toronto is burning”? On YouTube and Twitter, they’ve been following the “highlights” of Saturday’s G20 riots — the wrecked cars and the broken storefront windows — and assumed that Toronto had become one giant Watts.
It’s not. This is one of those stories the social media has gotten wrong: a million tweeters all tweeting up the same three burning police cruisers and few dozen wrecked storefronts. The number of protestors wasn’t even that big (even if the media insists on calling the protests “massive.”) The estimate I’ve seen thrown around is about 10,000. To put that figure in perspective, the number of protestors who swarmed Quebec City at the Summit of the Americas in 2001 was approximately 100,000 — tens times as large.
At around 7pm last night, I biked south down Yonge Street, where a lot of the violence took place. I was surprised to see that the main commercial drag was thronged — with shoppers and diners going out on the town. Yes, I saw boarded up windows at Burger King, Starbucks, Money Mart and the “Club Zanzibar” strip club (Marquee: “Forget G8. Try G-strings”). Tim Horton’s and Swiss Chalet had been smashed, too. But the other businesses were mostly open. At the intersection of Dundas and Yonge, a band was playing. Smiling people were posing in front of the scattered vandalized stores and taking pictures. The whole area was in tourist mode.
Read More
The RIGHT To Freedom Of Choice Was Not Suspended...
...and the choice I made was to forgo my planned trip to the "war zone" to take pictures and all of my activities over the weekend were planned to avoid traffic chaos and possible involvement in any of the "protest" activities. I decided I could live without the bragging rights of being at the G20 protests. My sympathies go out to the "innocents..."
Police aren't going to apologize
Toronto Police aren't saying sorry to those who were detained for marching in Sunday's protests or for their tactics of moving crowd control.
It’s not everyday one is witness to martial law on the streets of Toronto.
This is what anarchy looks like: Editorial
The masked, black-clad criminals who rioted in downtown Toronto Saturday, as they always intended to do, had no agenda other than violence and destruction.
Balancing civil liberty with public safety
Sun Jun 27 2010
The G20 summit weekend showed the tough balancing act between protecting civil liberties and keeping the public safe.fulemionce
This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore fulemionce.
sick of the media injecting themselves into news stories - the most absurd thing I saw this afternoon was a Citytv reporter claiming to be trapped at Queen & Spadina, then minutes later leaving with his cameraman and security staff simply by asking the police to leave and showing his credentials. Make up your mind media, youre either objective reporters or youre the story - leave the journalizing for the bloggers and amateurs
Summits violence nothing new
The type of violent demonstrations that rocked downtown Toronto during the G20 summit have happened elsewhere during previous summits.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
We Have Been Passing Ourselves Off As "A World Class City" So...
...we finally get a chance to prove it.
John Clark's (OCRAP) relatives come for a visit..
...and NP columnists comment;
John Clark's (OCRAP) relatives come for a visit..
...and NP columnists comment;
Chris Selley’s Full Pundit: Won’t you shed a tear for Toronto?
June 25, 2010 – 2:20 pm
The nightmare begins…
You always wanted to be in the centre of the universe, didn’t you, Toronto? Well enjoy the next few days, L. Ian McDonald says in the Sun Media papers. He does thank us Torontonians for taking on the burden, but we can’t quite shake the feeling he’s making fun of us. (Might just be that legendary inferiority complex, though.)
The G8 and G20 summits amply demonstrate Stephen Harper’s transformation from a tax-hating, China-lecturing economic libertarian into a pragmatic statesman, Susan Riley argues in the Ottawa Citizen (though he might, of course, be faking it). Climate change and Israel are the issues where he’s still ostensibly “out of step” with … well, she doesn’t say with whom he’s out of step — with Susan Riley, perhaps! But on those issues, as she says, there’s very little daylight between him and Michael Ignatieff. (Liberals pounding their fists on climate change really is an insult to the intelligence.) So the more chances Mr. Harper gets to look prime ministerial, the less chance the opposition has of unseating him. Then again, Riley says “Canadians don’t vote based on how a leader performs at these international gabfests.” So … yeah.
Read More
You always wanted to be in the centre of the universe, didn’t you, Toronto? Well enjoy the next few days, L. Ian McDonald says in the Sun Media papers. He does thank us Torontonians for taking on the burden, but we can’t quite shake the feeling he’s making fun of us. (Might just be that legendary inferiority complex, though.)
The G8 and G20 summits amply demonstrate Stephen Harper’s transformation from a tax-hating, China-lecturing economic libertarian into a pragmatic statesman, Susan Riley argues in the Ottawa Citizen (though he might, of course, be faking it). Climate change and Israel are the issues where he’s still ostensibly “out of step” with … well, she doesn’t say with whom he’s out of step — with Susan Riley, perhaps! But on those issues, as she says, there’s very little daylight between him and Michael Ignatieff. (Liberals pounding their fists on climate change really is an insult to the intelligence.) So the more chances Mr. Harper gets to look prime ministerial, the less chance the opposition has of unseating him. Then again, Riley says “Canadians don’t vote based on how a leader performs at these international gabfests.” So … yeah.
Read More
Posted in: Canada, Full Comment Tags: Canadian politics, Chris Selley, Full Pundit, G20, G8, CSIS, summits, Richard Fadden
The world has no doubt already heard more than it cares to know about the G20, but as Day One dawns it’s difficult to ignore the epic silliness the Harper government has imposed on Toronto in the name of … well, beats the hell out of me what it’s in the name of.
As Don Martin ably describes — from the deck of the city’s biggest tourist attraction, which of course will be closed — $1 billion in security precautions buys you a post-apocalyptic city emptied of all normal life, where hordes of cops earning triple time wander around trying not to look bored. Read More
Kelly McParland: The summit of silliness
June 25, 2010 – 10:23 am
GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images
Now, how frightening do these cops look?
Students from George Bown College take
photographs after their convocation ceremony
n downtown Toronto, as police with riot gear
patrol the streets ahead of the G20 summit.
Students from George Bown College take
photographs after their convocation ceremony
n downtown Toronto, as police with riot gear
patrol the streets ahead of the G20 summit.
As Don Martin ably describes — from the deck of the city’s biggest tourist attraction, which of course will be closed — $1 billion in security precautions buys you a post-apocalyptic city emptied of all normal life, where hordes of cops earning triple time wander around trying not to look bored. Read More
Posted in: Canada, Full Comment, World Politics Tags: Stephen Harper, Kelly McParland, G20 summit, Maude Barlow, national security
Get Off Your Arse, Open the Door and Take Advantage Of...
Family fun for G20 weekend
Plus
Pride Guide
Gear up for Pride Week with toronto.com's guide to the festivities: where to stay, dine, drink and party.Read More
FRIDAY: June 25
TD Toronto Jazz FestivalHarry Connick Jr. headlines this year's fest, with top jazz acts at outdoor stages, lounges and music venues across the city.
ALSO ON FRIDAY
- On stage: Jitters
- Drama & Desire: Artists & the Theatre
- Summer Designer Clothing Sale
- On stage: The Ultimate Sacrifice
- More Friday Events
SATURDAY: June 26
The Warrior Emperor & China's Terracotta ArmyThe ROM showcases a collection of 10 life-sized sculptures and 250 artifacts from China's famous Terracotta Army, discovered in 1974 in an underground tomb.
ALSO ON SATURDAY
SUNDAY: June 27
Cooking Fire Theatre FestivalCombining theatre, food and the great outdoors, this fest features live performances and organic meals prepared on Dufferin Grove's wood-fired bake ovens.
ALSO ON SUNDAY
- Dream in High Park: Romeo & Juliet
- Harry Connick Jr.
- Esthero
- Wild Toy Animal Hospital at the Zoo
- More Sunday Events
A Simple Request To Porter...
...don the uniform and protective gear of a Toronto police officer and communicate with protesters from the front line and then post her comments.
Porter: When police stick to phony script
June 26, 2010Catherine Porter
They call it the Miami Model.
But it could be called the Genoa model, the Pittsburgh model and, after this weekend, the Toronto model.
It refers to police tactics used in Miami seven years ago, during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit, and, more importantly, the protests erupting on the streets outside.
Manny Diaz, Miami’s then-mayor, called the police methods exemplary — a model to be followed by homeland security when confronting protesters.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International called it a model of police brutality and intimidation.
Protesters were beaten with tear gas, sticks, rubber bullets . . . You can watch police stun cowering protesters with Tasers on YouTube. Last year, the city agreed it had trampled citizens’ right to free speech by forcing marchers back from planned protests and settled out of court with Amnesty International.
What is the Miami Model?
I called Naomi Archer to find out. She is an indigenous rights worker from North Carolina who happened to be giving a lecture on the Miami Model yesterday at the U.S. Social Forum — the G20 for community activists.
Archer, who was in Miami as a liaison between protesters and police, has a 40-box checklist to identify the Model. Here are the main themes.
• Information warfare. This starts weeks before the event. Protesters are criminalized and dehumanized, and described as dangerous “anarchists” and “terrorists” the city needs to defend against.
“Often, a faux cache is found,” says Archer. “They are usually ordinary objects, like bike inner tubes, camping equipment, but the police make them out to look threatening. It lays the groundwork for police to be violent and it means there’s a reduced accountability of law enforcement.”
• Intimidation. Police start random searches of perceived protesters before any large rallies. They are asked where they are staying, why they are walking around. Police raid organizer’s homes or meeting places, “usually just before the summit, so there’s maximum chaos organizers have to deal with,” says Archer.
“All this is meant to dissuade participants. The best way to make sure you don’t have a critical mass of people taking over the streets like in Seattle is to reduce the numbers at the outset.”
This is usually made possible by last-minute city regulations, curtailing the right to protest. In Miami, the city commission passed a temporary ordinance forbidding groups of more than seven to congregate for more than 30 minutes without a permit.
• “They threw rocks.” That’s the line police use after tear-gassing or beating protesters most times, Archer says. Urine and human feces are variations on the theme. But it’s always the protesters who triggered the violence. A popular police tactic is called “kettling.” Officers on bike or horses herd protesters into an enclosed space, so they can’t leave without trying to break through the police line. Take the bait; you provoke a beating or arrest. And of course, there are the famous agent provocateurs, outted publicly two years ago in Montebello. Police officers dressed up like militant protesters to protect the peaceful crowd, they say; Archer says it’s to instigate trouble.
In Montebello, one of the three cops dressed in black was holding a rock.
“It’s the same lies every single protest,” she says. “It’s justification by law enforcement for their violent actions. This is a propaganda war.”
• Job well done. At the end, regardless of the bodies clogging the temporary holding cells and hospitals, the police always congratulate themselves. And by the time the cases go to court, the story is long forgotten and the circus has moved to a new unsuspecting town.
More than 270 people were arrested in Miami during the summit seven years ago . How many were convicted, in the end? I called the American Civil Liberties Union to find out.
“None,” said lawyer Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, who was the president of the Miami chapter back then.
So far in Toronto, the police show has unrolled according to script; we’ve seen the propaganda, the cache, the intimidation, the secretive new regulations, the scary military arsenal. . . .
Next up, rocks. Will we all believe that one too?
Catherine Porter usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: cporter@thestar.ca
99.7% Of Torontonians Hold Similar Positions As Michael...
G20 protesters clueless
Put down your bricks and get a job — globalization is not a bad thing
Last Updated: June 25, 2010 12:00am
If you’re an honest grunt looking for someone to blame for the bloated mess this weekend in Toronto, look no further. And if you’re a fellow traveller who thinks there’s cachet in running amid the teargas, think again. You’re full of it.
You have no credibility. You are not on the side of the great reformers of modern history — Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi. You are not striking a blow in defence of the poor. You are not helping women, blacks or aboriginals.
You are smashing stuff. If you like smashing stuff because doing so makes you feel good, then you’ve this count in your favour: You’re one of the honest ones.
It all started in Seattle in 1999. A group of international trade ministers and finance gnomes gathered at the Washington State Convention and Trade Centre. They were quickly joined by about 40,000 protesters, angry about a variety of things but focused mainly on the great evil of globalization.
And of course they were joined by a small but determined band of anarchists who love nothing more than to, as Alfred the butler says in the second Batman film, “watch the world burn.” The conference was a disaster. The anti-globalization movement, such as it is, was born.
Are the international finance gnomes evil? Not really. Mainly they’re boring. Anyone who bothers to crack an economics text will know that globalization and free trade have lifted more human beings out of poverty than any other idea in history.
The reason is that trade creates wealth and jobs. Jobs allow people to feed their families and buy extras, produced by other people, which in turn employs those people. And on it goes.
It’s not rocket science. It’s why the Chinese liberalized their economy a generation ago. It’s why the Soviet Union fell on its sword in 1989. It’s why Singapore, which was once a fetid swamp, is now one of the wealthiest places on the planet.
It’s why so many genuine humanitarians the world over are concerned with bringing more trade, investment and micro-business to sub-Saharan Africa and other terribly disadvantaged places, such as Haiti.
In truly poor countries, anarchy is just another word for fascism. The strongest warlord takes over and beats everyone else over the head. Or kills them.
But our good-hearted, anti-globalization protester doesn’t know any of this, nor does he care. His eye is fixed on the emblem of all that he loathes: A pinstriped banker carrying a briefcase filled with greenbacks, or perhaps blueprints for world domination by big business, the media and governments everywhere.
(Now, I’m a member of the media and I work for a corporation, which makes me by definition part of the conspiracy. So be sure to take everything I say with a big grain of salt.)
Are the leaders of these 20 nations worthy of such opprobrium? No. They’re just people who happened to get into politics. Some are competent, some not. Mainly they’re concerned with trying to keep their jobs. In order to do that they have to try to get living standards in their countries tracking up rather than down. Hence, trade.
You may have noticed, dear protester, that the word “jobs” has popped up several times here. This is not a coincidence. Rather than tossing bricks to feed your inchoate fury, you might think of getting one.
There are some available in Canada, last we looked. Thankfully for us.
michael.dentandt@sunmedia.ca
The Other Side Of The Coin...
Canada's youth hope for the best
Last Updated: June 25, 2010 8:40pm
A delicate situation.
A situation which raises the question of national security.
When Canada became a part of the Group of Eight, it agreed to one obligation; Canada must host the G8 Summit when the time came. This is our time. And the decision was made to host it in Toronto.
As per tradition, this year’s G8 and now G20 Summit will bring in protestors by the thousands. Protestors pose a major threat to the established security system in Toronto, dedicating focused time to finding just one minor crack in security, and breaking it open until it has become a gaping hole; a breach in security.
The G20 Summit approaches threateningly. It mocks our capacity for national security, stimulating the stretch of one’s imagination to find ways for our security protection to go wrong. And the thought occurs; will there be terrorism? Will innocent lives be lost?
The answer lies in the hands of those whose duty it is to serve and protect— the police force. The G20 presents a strain on its resources; however precaution upon precaution is being taken to ensure the safety of the city. What with the no- fly zone being put up surrounding Toronto’s most vulnerable structure to terrorism— the CN Tower, and security fences being erected around buildings which will be amidst the epicenter of the protests, Toronto can only wait and hope that these protestors will decide to behave more civilly than usual.
But will they? Probably not. On record, the G20 Summit is one of the most controversial conferences to this day. And this can hardly be avoided with the topics being discussed there. Financial matters? Economic matters? These are undoubtedly among the most controversial matters debated upon in Canadian Parliament today, in the discussion of issues like welfare, taxes— issues, really, that force one to take a side on, and therefore issues which can only be settled to the dissatisfaction of many.
With all this danger, however, comes a well- intended occasion during which leaders of the world collaborate and strive to make the planet a better place. And in recognition of all the effort going into Toronto’s safety and preservation during the 2010 G20 Summit, one can only hope that the event proves worthwhile…
- Sasen Efrem, Rebecca Etienne, Katerina Mizrokhi, Iffah Elnaz are part of YouthWorldIMPACT
Gee Whiz Michele How Come No Touching Profiles Of The Pros...
...who travel to a multitudes of protests and are reluctant and secretive about the sources of their funding. You have to wonder how the backgrounds of Henrik, Brad, Paul, Sandra, et al match those of suicide bombers in the middle east? And the OCRAP lackeys contend they have a right to march, confront police, disrupt traffic and trample on the rights of the other 99.07% of the Toronto citizenry.
G20 protesters — The good, the mad and the cuddly
Last Updated: June 25, 2010 6:48pm
Such is the G20 arsenal of Sandra Smith, a 57-year-old protest veteran who spent four days in jail the last time demonstrators and Toronto Police clashed at the infamous Queen’s Park riot 10 years ago.
“No, I’m not scared,” she shrugs on this hot sunny day in Allan Gardens. “I’ve already got myself beat up so I know what it’s about. I was beaten from head to toe and 2 1/2 years later, they dropped the charges against me.”
Anti-poverty activists, gay and women’s rights crusaders, social action warriors, anarchist rabble-rousers — a volatile cocktail of demonstrators gathers in the leafy park to begin their weekend-long demonstrations against the G20.
At the helm is John Clarke, the ever-incendiary leader of OCAP, who is obviously itching for a violent showdown.
But what about these other people?
Estranged from her family, Smith is a sweet, middle-aged woman who has been at the forefront of many a demonstration. She’s especially proud of taking over a Don Jail guardhouse in an unsuccessful bid to get it turned over to the homeless.
“We have to stand up,” she explains. “Why are children going to bed hungry? Why are people homeless? I want things to really change and I want the people to win.”
Well-meaning, she’s your mother earth kind of protester. “I don’t believe in government. I believe in people taking care of each other.”
One of the people she’s trying to take care of is Paul Smith — no relation — who is of the more frightening activist variety.
The 31-year-old part-time landscaper is feeling light-headed in the summer sun and gratefully takes her water bottle.
He’s wearing a white T-shirt that he’s emblazoned with the eye-catching slogan: F--- the G20. Stop New World Order 666.”
He also has a video camera so he can capture the mayhem he’s sure will ensue.
“I’m scared,” he concedes, as his eyes dart nervously at the hundreds of police officers who have encircled the crowd.
“I don’t want the police to treat us like they did (at the G20 summit) in Pittsburgh where riot police were throwing people on the ground. It was all over YouTube.”
Yet he’s determined to challenge the downtown security wall. And why? Because, he explains, G20 leaders are planning a single world government to control us and implant us with computer chips.
“It’s scary stuff and it’s true,” Smith insists.
On a more rational plain nearby, Brad Drake is handing out postcards about a youth group he runs to engage teens in labour issues.
The 43-year-old is a protest veteran, and a labour agitator who helped organize newspaper carriers years ago.
By day, he’s a produce clerk who must depend on the generosity of his parents because he can’t make enough to raise his daughter. “For a working person, that’s wrong,” Drake argues. “I should be able to make a living.”
So he harbours a simmering anger at being shut out of this city’s prosperity — a mestastasizing bitterness that he believes is shared by many demonstrators.
“More and more people are feeling desperate,” he warns. “Pushing it to the next level seems to be their only option. I don’t know how we’re going to avoid confrontation.”
Henrik Vierula knows how — by offering his free hugs.
On a rainbow blanket, the 22-year-old aspiring massage therapist is strumming his guitar and offering cherries and healing love to passersby.
“Rather than throwing themselves at a line of cops, they can just come and hug each other,” explains the Ottawa man, his head wrapped in a blue scarf.
“To protest aggression with aggression is futile in my opinion. I know some people coming here won’t be satisfied until they get their bruises; they’ve bought their gas masks and they won’t be happy unless they get to use them.
“But,” he says with a beatific smile, “I’m not looking for a fight.”
Read Mandel Wednesday through Saturday. michele.mandel@sunmedia.ca or 416-947-2231.
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About Me
- Unhypentated Canadian
- I lean to the right but I still have a heart and if I have a mission it is to respond to attacks on people not available to protect themselves and to point out the hypocrisy of the left at every opportunity.MY MAJOR GOAL IS HIGHLIGHT THE HYPOCRISY AND STUPIDITY OF THE LEFTISTS ON TORONTO CITY COUNCIL. Last word: In the final analysis this blog is a relief valve for my rants/raves.