Stephen Harper is Guided by the Beauty of Our Weapons

Someone shared this Leonard Cohen video on CAPP yesterday, and it just fits nicely with what Canada has become under Stephen Harper. Guided by the beauty of our weapons.

These summits have turned into such a fiasco. We have a mentally ill man who found that his paranoia was justified:

A 53-year-old chemical engineer who apparently suffers paranoid fits of thinking someone is after him, likely never imagined it would be the army of Toronto Police who descended on him Thursday as a possible terrorist. Garry McCullough was pulled over in his car and quickly swarmed by heavily armed police as he turned on to Scott St. just east of Yonge St., in the city’s downtown shortly before noon Thursday.

... “When he is on his medication, he is a perfect gentleman — he dresses well, goes to church and has lots of friends. Then he thinks he doesn’t need the meds anymore.” And that’s when he thinks someone’s after him.

We have an undercover police officer spying on a group of students engaged in peaceful protest at Ryerson:

An undercover RCMP officer had to be escorted out of Ryerson University's student newspaper office by campus security on June 23 after she refused to
leave when asked. Around 4:30 p.m. RCMP officer Leslie Tull attempted to use the Eyeopener's office to monitor about 10 quiet G20 protesters in Ryerson's student union building.

Dressed in plain clothes, Tull refused requests to leave while asking several staff in the office if they knew how many exits the building had and if the protesters could be kicked out.

And a seasoned journalist being treated ... well ... the way Stephen Harper always treats journalists. Like enemies of the state.

There's security, and then there's G8 security _ complete with hundreds of police officers seemingly bored out of their minds. "Excuse me, sir, can you open the trunk of your car?" one young officer asked as he motioned for me to pull over Thursday evening.

Alarm bells went off in my head as I was about to enter the "interdiction zone," dreaded by the poor residents living near the site of Canada's G8 summit. Living inside the zone has meant a five minute drive home from downtown Huntsville could easily take half an hour or more.

Alarm bells are going off in my head all the time now and should be for all of us.

Welcome to the new Canada.