The Last Exile

Offered without comment.

Generally speaking, I am a law and order type but the one thing I have zero tolerance for is when agents of the state callously abuse the coercive powers of the law to subvert the law of the land. The civil suits from the G20 are going to be a horrendous burden on the taxpayers of this country because the security services acted in a fashion which put their conduct above the law they had sworn to uphold. Think I am wrong – just think Officer Bubbles. Secondly, it’s going to be very hard for the government to successfully win any of the suits brought against them considering the number of ‘legal monitors’ which were arbitrary detained among the 1100 plus arrested and detained, and then, mostly released without charge. The Hill Times Online

Civil liberties lawyers and Parliamentarians are gathering evidence they say will show Toronto police systematically violated legal and human rights as they quelled protests with the largest mass arrests in Canadian history at the G20 leaders’ summit in Toronto last month.

The evidence includes eyewitness accounts from lawyers who acted as monitors during the protests where police arrested 1,105 people, including bystanders, lawful protesters and some of the legal monitors, but released more than 900 with no charges.

Up to six lawyers who volunteered as monitors with the Osgoode Hall Law Union were swept up by police and have provided affidavit-style evidence to organizers about the abuses they witnessed in the notorious temporary prison Toronto police set up in an abandoned film studio, says Adrienne Telford, one of the organizers. The Canadian Civil Liberties Union had up to 50 legal monitors at the protests and is compiling information.

Go ahead and rant about the violent antics of the so-called Black Bloc rioters but remember this; 15,000 security officers allowed the Black Bloc to riot contrary to in downtown Toronto without a single police officer lifting a hand to stop the riot for over 90 minutes. The Black Bloc could have been easily been apprehended and stopped in their tracks, but instead, security forces chose to stand down regardless of potential threat to human lives and willful destruction to property. There were many law abiding citizens in the stores and restaurants the Black Bloc attacked but security forces chose not to intervene. Now the Toronto Police are spending umpteen hours and funds from the public purse attempting to hunt down and arrest the so-called Black Bloc. It would have been far easier on the public purse to arrest them in the act rather than harassing innocent citizens for wearing black and carrying backpacks long after the Black Bloc had disappeared much like thieves in the night.

I have no idea who Michael Taube is. I suppose I could google him to find out – if I really cared enough to want to know. Really I learned all I needed to know about him from his Toronto Star opinion column. There is just so much foolishness to spread around that I am conflicted on which little bits of choice stupidity to highlight first. So let’s co-opt the middle.

First, Blair did a good job overall in containing the violent behaviour of radicals and anarchists like the Black Bloc. The police were able to control the left-wing fringe elements — and prevented others from turning into an angry mob. No deaths occurred at or near the G20 summit site. Reinforcements from the military and RCMP didn’t have to be called in.

It’s a thankless job for the boys in blue to keep our streets safe. If they use excessive force, they are condemned by some people. If they allow violence to escalate, they are condemned by others. By most accounts, Blair was able to maintain control and prevent both scenarios from coming to fruition.

(…)

Yet unlike the violent behaviour of anti-globalization activists in Seattle and Quebec City, left-wing radicals did not succeed in turning Toronto into a war zone. For that, we should be thankful, and not resentful, of the police’s successful plan of action.

I am going to break conservative ranks and say the apparently unsayable; the Toronto Police didn’t do a ‘good job’ in policing Toronto during the G20 Summit and I am damned tired of every conservative ninny and Liberal whinger suggesting it was so when it was so clearly.

If anything, the suppression of Charter rights and arbitrary arrest and detention of over 700 citizens is proof of just how badly the citizens of Toronto were served by Blair’s boys in blue. When you arrest a uniformed TTC worker going to work or have to gang up and beat up an amputee who is handcuffed – you don’t quarter marks because a leader at the G20 Summit didn’t die on your watch.

While there are those sanctimonious conservative rubes who throw around tidbits of foolishness and attempt to justify their descent into totalitarianism by saying things like – if you didn’t want to be arrested – don’t go out of your home, don’t stand around watching the demonstrators, take pictures or wear black, carry a backpack, or live, breathe and sit on a downtown city bench. Well, I would like to remind you that Freedom of Association and Assembly are as much charter rights as Freedom of Religion and Conscience. You want people to pick and choose which charter rights to barter off in the name of security – well then, I will only give up the Freedom of Association and Assembly as long as you are willing to give up Freedom of Religion and Conscience.

I could rant on and on and those ‘law and order’ self-styled Christie lickers still probably wouldn’t get it. So instead, I’ll quote commenter ‘Eric from the Torontoist’ and see if he can speak sense to your ‘higher power’. (h/tip Fern Hill – Dammit Janet)

As a serving member of the Canadian Forces and a combat veteran, I can say with absolute clarity and conviction that i am disgusted by the actions of the supposed “other half” of our nations security, the civilian shield to the army’s sword. I managed to fight and win battles while vastly outnumbered, against a heavily armed, mobile, guerilla force with as few as 10 fellow Canadians. 10 Canadian taxpayer funded and trained, government employees fighting and dying to prevent the lawlessness and injustice the so-called Black Bloc seems only too willing to promote. 10 Canadian ambassadors (because that is what you are when your wear and salute your nations flag) that knew their jobs and acted as consummate, trained professionals in all things, which incidentley is why i am alive to type this. The enemy we fought was entrenched within a civilian population and knew only too well the problems that could be created by putting innocent Afghans in the center of the conflict. So as is our duty and our job we let them bait us and let them crow and then when we had a shot we took it WITH NO CIVILIAN CASUALTIES. How could I know? Because we were the medical center for the region and we visited the villages regularly.

Knowing when to apply force and how to apply it can be a very simple thing when you assign value to the thing you are leveraging that force against. Am I prepared to kill the human being who is placing the IED or recoiless rifle that will kill three of my brothers? 3 of my fellow Canadians who have answered the call to defend what we so often take for granted half a world away? Without pause yes, and I will for the rest of my life, I took an oath that does not end with a contract.

When you put that uniform on you are no longer John Smith of Toronto. You are a member of the Canadian Forces, just as you are a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, or an Ontario Provincial Police Officer. A government employee who’s mandate and training is to PROTECT the public. Not to protect themselves from threats within the public. It is their job as the civilian arm of our nations security to be the blue line between those that would see our way of life burnt to it’s end and the Canadians who see more than a simple flag.

Instead they formed a black wall and responded to WORDS with unrelenting, armed and often random VIOLENCE.

I don’t care if Osama Bin Laden himself is hiding on Queen Street like Waldo… you don’t just drop an airstrike on the village.

You PARTICULARLY don’t do it after the entire village sang Oh Canada in fear.

I understand the effect of an unsuspecting ambush tactics to confuse and demoralize… but when the first three ranks of ‘protestors’ are waving peace signs standing outside the gap wearing American Apparel and drinking starbucks… I might tailor my tactics accordingly.

People have said that they ‘understand’ why Police might have been on edge due to the events of the day before…

Bullshit.

I understand that i watched friends die and then the next day went out and did my job with the professionalism expected of someone who claims to serve his country and as in holland i gave chocolate to children while the engineers rebuilt.

When you back people into a corner… they will fight and sell their lives dearly to escape.

The ‘kettle’ is a useful tactic to isolate ‘riot ringleaders’ but with even minor coordination it can simply be turned into a turnstyle type processing operation as opposed to a way to jack up arrest counts to justify budgets and manpower.

Too little too late from the Police especially after the complete lack of presence as the city they are paid to protect, burned the day before.

A number of extremely reputable journalists and civilian truth mongers have been given unprecedented ability to expose the absolute incompetence of both the police leadership and of the individual line trooper.

This is as sure a black stain on their official colors as it was a death knell to the Canadian Airborne after one of their members killed a Somali boy. I would hang my head in shame if i affected any part of Sunday’s riot operation, willing or not.

I have a relative who was caught up in the crowd. Just a student who is young and wants to take inspired photos, and does it damn well. He was detained (not arrested) But I have seen his footage and i am disgusted.

I did not put my life on the line and watch my best friends take their last breath to come home and watch the largest gathering of law enforcement this country has ever seen… cowed to the point inaction as the city and its citizens endure the wanton destruction to their homes and business, only to have it answered by a heavy handed and indiscriminant hammer blow against quite possibly the very same people they so utterly failed to help previously.

I understand that to put a riot line in front of the black block may have caused injuries and violence.

Well… they asked for it. Says so right on their sign.

Guess what else. That’s why you took the oath of service to your country. If you don’t want to get injured on the job… be a yoga instructor.

Excuses are quite common apparently everyone has one. I would advise anyone reading this to write their local MP and ask what your government is doing to police it’s members and policies that have utterly failed in their duty to this country. I was in the city all weekend and if i had a dollar for every group of 6 police officers i saw sitting on corners shooting the shit… I would probably have enough to hire a ten man infantry section for the weekend to lead the police through some drills, of how to serve the nation they are sworn to defend.

This should not be taken as a sweeping assault on the police as i even have a few relatives and many friends among their ranks. But just as I would not stand for injustice within my own house… I will not stand for it in theirs. I have met countless officers who uphold our laws with dignity and professionalism. I would gladly give my life for anyone of them. What will not stand is when under the guise of ’security’ police are given sweeping powers with no chance of reciprocity, the need to explain themselves or chance to defend against bullying tactics employed on a peaceful gathering of my country’s citizens.

I don’t give a flying squirrel if they were threatening, or there were reports of weapons. You have full body armour and shields. Suck it up. Besides, you should be happy. Bricks move a lot slower than bullets. I support our law enforcement as i support our troops. But my support is not a blank cheque to be held cheaply against the values and rights you trample as surely as you stepped on our flag. You will find me a tenacious opponent and one now who wants to know just how that cheque i did write you was used… and i think after saturdays impotence and sundays ignorance someone has to pay the piper…
and this time, it won’t be me.

Can I get an amen?

Who fracking knew when you buy dish soap you now have to pay an Eco Fee but it’s not a tax according to Steward Ontario. Non-profit agency regulated by the Ontario government to manage ‘waste’ disposal that very few had heard of until the ‘eco fees’ hit you at the cash register on July 1st. Try figuring out just how these ‘stewardship’ councils were created and good luck with that. Toronto Star

Checking her receipt as she left a downtown Canadian Tire, Chris Colorado noticed a new charge. Her $1.99 bottle of dish soap was accompanied by a 13-cent “eco fee.” The levy for thousands of new products, from pharmaceuticals to fire extinguishers, quietly came into effect July 1, the same day as the harmonized sales tax.
But unlike that tax, provincial agencies have done little to publicize the new fees, catching consumers like Colorado by surprise. “I’ve never heard anything about this fee. No one’s talking about it,” she said. “The fact they just put it without us knowing, I don’t think it’s honest. I don’t like it.”

Manufacturers must pay the province a levy for recycling their products. Some companies are passing these costs, ranging from a few cents to several dollars per product, onto consumers. Stewardship Ontario, the agency overseeing the eco fees, began its $2.5 million public education campaign at the beginning of the month, which consists of posters and radio spots, as well as a group which tours public events and provides information about the program. “We would rather spend the money to educate people than to spend the money months ahead to say, ‘Hey, there’s a new eco fee coming,’ ” said spokeswoman Amanda Harper Sevonty. “Our message to consumers isn’t about the eco fees. Our message to consumers is about here are the materials and what to do with them.”

(…)The fees now cover all aerosol containers from hairspray to whipped cream, pharmaceuticals, syringes, mercury-containing devices and other toxic, corrosive or flammable products. The start date of the new levies was set when the program came into effect two years ago and by coincidence fell on the same day as the HST launch, Harper Sevonty said.

(…). However, Harper Sevonty stressed that the fees aren’t a tax. “They are the program cost to collect and manage this material out of the waste stream,” she said.
The companies that produce the goods are being charged a levy, which pays for the hazardous waste to be properly recycled instead of being dumped into landfills. It’s up to the manufacturers and retailers whether to download the charge onto customers, she said. At Queen’s Park, Environment Minister John Gerretsen defended the recycling fees as “the right thing to do.” “It’s not a tax. The government does not see one penny of it. It all goes to the stewardship councils to make sure that all of these materials do not end up in our landfill sites,” the minister said.

Yadda, yadda, all sound and righteous fury coming from the environmental fascists aside, if it’s not a tax; why is this fee coerced out of my pocket book via government regulation Ontario? I really don’t care which branch of a governmental organization/agency gets the levies thieved from my pocket. Personally, the only thing left that I can do is hold out a faint hope there is a special place in hell reserved for McGinty. Until then, the provincial motto needs to be changed from ‘Ontario, yours to discover’ to ‘Ontario, McGinty’s to punder’

This program is going to be another one of those stupid government programs which will keep taking money out of my pocket like a open sucking chest wound. Let me give you a hint as to why. The nearest station to where I live in downtown Toronto isn’t serviced by public transit and is a 51 minute hour walk away according to google maps. Has anyone worked out the environment footprint left by those who drive out (times the number of households 60-100,000?) in the downtown core to these Orange Drop sites? Just sayin’.

I can’t speak for other Ontario cities, but here, in the Centre of the Universe, we already pay for waste disposal under municipal taxes. Then of course, who knew the plastic bottle I bought my dish soap in isn’t to be put into the blue box program but taken to an orange drop? I fully expect someone to tell me I can still put my plastic soap container into the blue box program but I would just like to point out; why pray tell then is there an eco ‘fee’ put on the purchase of the bottle? A tax by any other name is still a tax.

But for once, I had full-power. It is really rather remarkable that my power didn’t go out considering from spring on till late fall we suffer a power outage at least once, if not twice, a week. And some people think there is no G-d.

The fall-out from the G20 Summit, much like the protests against the police conduct, have yet to end in Toronto. As more time goes by a clearer picture emerges of the so-called ‘thugs’ detained by Police. Toronto Star.

A TTC fare collector spent a “terrifying” 36 hours in custody after being arrested in uniform on his way to work during Saturday’s G20 summit protests. Benjamin Elroy Yau, 37, said he was walking along College St. to the Queen’s Park subway station before his 6 p.m. shift when two police officers “tackled” him to the ground and yelled at him to stop resisting arrest.

“I told them I wasn’t resisting arrest, that I was on my way to work. I was in full uniform with TTC shirt, pants, full ID, my employee card, everything,” Yau said on Wednesday. “They said, ‘Really? Well, you’re a prisoner today.’ ”Moments before, another man had run into him but kept going, Yau said, adding that man was also arrested. There was no protest in sight and not many people in the street, he said. Berating Yau and swearing at him for being an “embarrassment” to the TTC, officers dragged him half a block in handcuffs and shackles and threw him into a paddy wagon, he said.

After a TTC supervisor arrived to vouch for him, he thought he’d be released but was sent to the Eastern Ave. detention centre instead. “I was petrified, I was shocked. I was essentially arrested for going to work,” said Yau, who is still traumatized by the experience. “It was just martial law. I had no rights.”

For those unfamiliar with Toronto’s geography Yau was not arrested anywhere near the ’security zone’. I certainly hope the billion dollar price tag for the G20 Summit includes a provision for the 714 people arbitrarily arrested and detained but released without charge.

A final link, to the Christie Blatchford fluff piece interviewing Police Chief Bill Blair. Read it or not but I can summarize it for the lazy by using a quote from Samuel Johnson; patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

It is said timing is everything in life so imaging slaving away to write this little gem of a post:

I know I’m coming rather late to the party, but really, I’ve been trying to say something about the rioters and vandals we saw in action in Toronto over the weekend during the G20 summit that hadn’t been said already.
Yes, they’re thugs.  Clearly, they don’t have jobs.  Of course, they won’t be punished to the severity they deserve.

Then it struck me just how Orwellian all this is.  In fact, if you look, you can see layers and layers of Orwellian imagery in the G20 violence.

On the top, and most obvious, is the bitter irony.  In George Orwell’s 1984, the government was vicious and violent and act without restraint on a captive populace who had nowhere to go to avoid that viciousness and violence.  In Toronto at the G20, the police were trapped, forced to defend a fixed position, while the “populace” exercised far more freedom of action, and decided where to get violent and when.

Another Orwellian aspect to the weekend was just how the violent demonstrators whipped themselves into a fury, not unlike the “two-minute hates” that Winston Smith witnessed, and participated in.  From the G20 Toronto Community Mobilization Network, you can almost hear the breathless excitement as the author discusses using violence six weeks ahead of the summit:

And to hit the post button on the very day the Chief of Police admits he deliberately mislead the public. If only the stupid ended with Angry’s Orwellian tome. If anything, I suspect it will go on and on and on. The Globe and Mail

Toronto Police staged a display of weaponry to demonstrate “the extent of the criminal conspiracy” among hard-line G20 protesters, but several of the items had nothing to do with the summit. Facing criticism for their tactics, police invited journalists on Tuesday to view a range of weapons, from a machete and baseball bat to bear spray and crowbars. Chief Bill Blair, who told reporters the items were evidence of the protesters’ intent, singled out arrows covered in sports socks, which he said were designed to be dipped in a flammable liquid and set ablaze.

However, the arrows belong to Brian Barrett, a 25-year-old landscaper who was heading to a role-playing fantasy game when he was stopped at Union Station on Saturday morning. Police took his jousting gear but let Mr. Barrett go, saying it was a case of bad timing.

In addition to the arrows – which Mr. Barrett made safe for live-action role playing by cutting off the pointy ends and attaching a bit of pool noodle covered in socks – police displayed his metal body armour, foam shields and several clubs made of plastic tubing covered with foam and fabric.

Mr. Barrett said he was “appalled” at the placement of his chain-mail beneath a machete. He regularly takes public transit from his Whitby, Ont., home to Centennial Park to play the game, called Amtgard, while wearing the 85-pound armour and is worried people will think: “Oh my God, that’s one of the terrorists from G20.” Police also displayed a crossbow and chainsaw seized in an incident on Friday that they said had no ties to the summit. When asked, Chief Blair acknowledged they were unrelated, but said “everything else” had been confiscated from demonstrators.

Oy vey.

Let’s play what do the following Canadians have in common.

A student is blowing bubbles and drawing peace signs in chalk on a sidewalk, a medical student is riding his bike home after studying in a coffee shop, a university student is taking pictures, a mayor candidate tries to get a better look at the ongoing demonstrations, a young woman is sitting in front of bank talking with friends – passing the time until her ride comes, a journalist taking pictures, a math teacher attends a prayer vigil, an off-duty security guard goes out with his girlfriend for dinner – and it goes, on and on.

What galls me is that the leaders and their entourages from totalitarian societies or from countries where women aren’t allowed to walk the street uncovered and unescorted by a male relative can visit my country and by their mere presence in my neighborhood trump my charter rights and freedoms.

Most days I love being a mother but there are times when I would love nothing more than to say to hell with the needs of the Tribe and join the protest down the street. The Toronto Star:

At least 1,000 demonstrators have assembled in front of Toronto police headquarters at 40 College St. to rally against the police response to G20 protests. Demonstrators chanted “Shame!” and “2-4-6-8. We don’t want a police state!” at the hundreds of officers who have formed a line in the westbound lanes. College Street is blocked between Bay and Yonge Sts. Before the protest began, police officers were questioning and searching people in the area. Activists Naomi Klein and Judy Rebick are expected to speak at the rally, which was held to protest alleged police brutality and how some G20 demonstrators were detained without charge.

I loathe Naomi Klein and have little respect for Judy Rebick but the government and the police need to be held accountable or there will simply be nothing worth inheriting.

This is simply unacceptable in an alleged ‘free society’.

No one in Toronto from the Mayor to the Chief of Police to the ordinary people who lived here wanted the G Summit held here – and certainly not in the downtown core. Toronto has no shortage of more appropriate venues for the G-Summit such as Exhibition Grounds or even the Downsview military base. If it had to be held in a large urban centre; I would have proposed the site of the Vancouver Olympics.

Look, its no real secret that there would be rioting in Toronto if the G-Summit was held here…well, it unless you are a CUPE member. Rioting has happened every time a G-Summit has been held in any large urban area. I suggest that the Prime Minister knew it too and this explained why the smaller more intimate G8 was held outside of Toronto. There have even been Canadian security papers written explicitly against holding it in a large urban setting and I quote the Times Colonist:

It is not surprising to me that security for the international summits in Muskoka and Toronto June 25 to 27 will cost $1 billion. I was part of a team of experts hired to study the costs of the 2002 G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta.

What is shocking to me is the fact that the current government has decided to proceed with the locales in spite of the exorbitant cost and unnecessary risks posed by these locations. The cost factor and the security risks were clearly spelled out in the report we produced, a report that was no doubt provided to the Harper government before the location of the G20 summit was decided.

I am not surprised or shocked at either the outrageous cost (the current incarnation of the conservative party certainly spends like drunken dippers* on a bender) but I was rather taken back on why the federal government insisted Toronto had to host the G20…over the objections of just about everyone.

Now I venture forth, now and then, from the Centre of the Universe and have traveled across the country from time to time. I recognize and acknowledge most of the country really, really hates Toronto. I get that. I really do. Sometimes, I even hate Toronto. It is understandable in a way. Toronto is the centre of so many things in such diverse fields from finance to the arts to scientific research. Toronto often takes the limelight when it comes to showcasing Canadian cities – perhaps unfairly even.

Toronto is often at odds politically with everyone but those citizens in Quebec, and often, to the horror of the rest of Canada. Add in the fact that Toronto is a largest number of citizens. This makes our political clout often appear unfair to those Canadians residing outside Toronto who do not have the numbers on their side. This breeds resentment and bitterness in non-Torontonians. Often, it makes them downright hateful. I suspect I am now challenging Saskatchewan….

Let’s just call it the Toronto Derangement Syndrome or TDS for short. There is certainly no shortage of suffers of TDS in this country. I suspect our current Prime Minister has a serious case; which outside of stupidity and rank incompetence is the only rationale explanation to justify his insistence the G20 Summit be held in Toronto – over the sane, rational objections of just about everyone else. It is no secret the citizens of Toronto have rejected the current Conservative party and have thwarted the current Prime Minister’s search for a majority government in election after election.

I suspect the Prime Minister decided to get a little of his own back. He wanted to see the city punished and the violent images of rioting broadcast all over the world. Nothing like a riot and outright criminality run amuck to help destroy tourism and tarnish the reputation of one of the few large urban and eminently livable cities in the North America. Too bad his TDS got the better of him as he has just killed any hope of the CPC carrying the vote in Toronto for at least the next 3 generations.

*dippers – Canadian nickname for New Democrat Party members (The Canadian version of socialists)