Harper gags Canadians with their own money

From the Real News Network:

There is a North-America wide strategy to take away the right to mass protest.

Canada to Egypt - "Don't beat up your protesters!"

From David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary:

Laugh-out-loud ironies dot Cannon’s sanctimonious sermon to Mubarak

In the mean time, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s office issued a statement advising the world that Canadians “urge all parties to refrain from using violence and the Egyptian authorities to respond to these protests peacefully."

After all, he presumably meant, Cairo’s no Toronto, where the protesters are really dangerous!

Police State Canada

This is video from the protest marches during the G20 summit in Toronto. One billion dollars was spent for "security" at these summits. In spite of the huge outlay, supposed "Black Bloc" protesters smashed windows and committed other crimes while the police did NOTHING.

After a police car was set alight - one that had been mysteriously left abandoned with an empty tank and the gas cap off - it was left to burn. Once again the police did NOTHING.

When peaceful protesters started to march and journalists tried to record the scene, the police weighed in with batons and attacked, brutalized and arrested nearly one thousand people who had done NOTHING.

The treatment of women held in detention at the hands of male police officers was described by one journalist. It is enough to make you sick.

But don't worry. The cops got lots of new toys to use against the next bunch of upstart citizens who dare question anything their thuggish leaders should decide. There are water cannons, police cannons and high powered assault rifles just in case you might get uppity.

Police State Canada from bill johnson on Vimeo.

Welcome to the police state

New York city is coming under ever more surveillance, by camera, blimp, plane and unmanned drone. Big Brother is indeed watching.

Here's Nick Turse's years-long tussle with the NYPD, for doing - nothing, really, except really, really cheesing them off.

And just in case you think it couldn't happen here (I'm kidding, of course):

According to Dwyer, for at least a year prior to those demonstrations, "teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe" to conduct covert surveillance of activists.

I don't believe for a minute that this was done without the knowledge of Canadian governments and law enforcement agencies. Not only did they know about it, they probably helped.

All for our security, of course. Question is, who do we need protecting from? And who do we go to when we need protecting from our government and police?

Support the troops...by getting rid of those bloody yellow ribbons

As the militarization of our society continues apace, yellow ribbons are blooming all over municipal vehicles like toadstools after rain. Yellow ribbons mean supporting the Harper Conservatives and their neverending War in Afghanistan, a branch plant of War on Everything (U.S.). As if the recent revelations about the RCMP and the Sureté Québec aren't bad enough, we are now seeing the military solution as the only solution to everything, including domestic policing.

So, what happens now? Like the Toronto Police Union campaign to sell window stickers to show support for them, one wonders what happens if you don't buy one. More tickets? Less action if the car should be stolen? No help if the police see a motorist in trouble who doesn't carry a sticker?

Transfer that into people who don't sport yellow ribbons, wear red on Fridays (my favourite colour, by the way, and I'm intensely angry that it has been co-opted by the shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later brigade), or other knee-jerk (with emphasis on the "jerk") reactions to pronouncements from Our Glorious Leader.

From the Coucil of Canadians:

There is a growing trend among municipal and local governments across Canada to endorse the “Support our Troops” campaign by placing decals on ambulances, fire trucks, police cars and other municipal vehicles, or by supporting “Wear red Fridays” and other similar actions. At our latest count, 18 local councils have either passed resolutions, had city management allow the decals—usually yellow ribbons that say “Support our Troops”—on government-owned vehicles, or are considering allowing them.

This is disturbing considering that the “Support our Troops” message is a political statement of explicit support for the current mission in Afghanistan – support that isn’t shared by a majority of Canadians.

The Council of Canadians opposes the “Support our Troops” decals because it is unacceptable for public vehicles to carry any political message, let alone one that promotes the views of the governing party. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that “Support our Troops” implies support for the current mission in Afghanistan. In other words, the campaign excludes people, like the Council, who support our troops by demanding that they be brought home immediately.

...[T]he Council of Canadians is also deeply concerned that the use of public resources to endorse the war in Afghanistan represents a militarization of our society. Propaganda expert and University of Carleton professor Randal Marlin told The Hill Times recently that the overall impact of the “Support our Troops” message is “the suppression of dissent… and encouraging military solutions to problems.”

Write now and let your majority voice be heard. No more U.S. wars, no more punching above our weight, no more of this crap. Stop it now, get our soldiers back where they belong so they can protect us if we need them, not in some desert somewhere learning how to be good snipers.

Okay, now that you know we're lying, we'll tell the truth

How are you supposed to trust people like this?

And they're the ones with the guns and the power.

Of course, the minister for Public Safety, Stockwell Day, tells the protesters to file a complaint and refuses to have anything to do with it himself. Who exactly is he protecting? Don't tell me - I already know, and it sure as hell ain't us.



From the Toronto Star this morning.

With the proof caught on video, Quebec provincial police were forced to admit yesterday that three undercover agents were playing the part of protesters at this week's international summit in Montebello, Que.

But the Quebec police force denied they were attempting to provoke protesters into violence. Rather, they said the three were planted in the crowd to locate any protesters who were not peacefully demonstrating. Police said the trio's cover was blown when they refused to toss any objects.

... [T]he police said after viewing a video clip from YouTube.com and video shot by police officers, they were able to confirm the three were Quebec provincial police officers.

Earlier, both Quebec police and the RCMP denied any of their officers were involved.

Earlier yesterday, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day rejected opposition calls for an inquiry into the role of suspect agents at the North American leaders summit.