Thank You Natalie Gray. You are Indeed an Inspiration

I posted the other day on a young woman who had faced an horrific ordeal at the G-20, but instead of hiding under the covers in fear, she faced her fears and spoke at the rallies protesting the abuses.

She is not a thug or an anarchist, but a bright and articulate young woman.

The video of her speech was posted on CAPP and I found it very inspiring. I'm so glad that I can now put a name to this young heroine.

Natalie is sharing her story on Rabble, and is launching a lawsuit. I will be pulling for her all the way.

At the end of June, I went to Toronto to exercise my civil rights and march in active opposition to the G8 and G20 meetings being held there. On Sunday June 27th, I attended a jail solidarity protest that was peaceful. Without warning a line of riot police started moving towards us, and while running away, I was shot twice with rubber bullets, then arrested and incarcerated for 30 hours. I have been charged with obstruction of a peace officer. I have never been more terrified, more dehumanized or more in pain than I was that day. I wish my story were unique.

I wish her story was unique too, but sadly it is all too common.

And after much denial, the police now admit that they did indeed use rubber bullets on peaceful protesters. It was tough to deny with so much video evidence.

Rubber bullets were fired at the crowd outside the Eastern Ave. set up during the G20 Summit, a Toronto Police spokesman said Tuesday — one day after releasing erroneous information. Mark Pugash corrected a statement he made Monday to the Toronto Sun saying no rubber bullets were fired outside the temporary prisoner processing centre, saying he had received the wrong information.

And Joe Warmington, who first broke the story that the police were told to "stand down", when they were in a position to stop the vandalism, is again raising the question about the untendered 453 million dollar contract that Stephen Harper gave to an American firm.

Just how much of the $453-million RCMP budget from the federal government did Contemporary Security Canada receive for its contract for last month’s G8 and G20 summits? Could this work — given to a previously unlicensed company with roots in British Columbia and Utah — have been accomplished for less by licensed Ontario security companies? Was the tendering process fair and were appropriate conflict of interest guidelines followed to see who got to work the Hunstville and Toronto events? And how many out of town people were flown in?

Auditor General Sheila Fraser will be investigating the matter. Harper may wish he had jumped into "fake lake" when he had the chance.

Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry now has 56, 682 members. Be sure to join and show your support.

Stephen Harper's G-20 Debacle Now Includes Sexual Assaults

Before anyone suggests that the police are incapable of such misdeeds, I will remind you of a recent report:

An internal RCMP report shows that 56 members of the force were formally disciplined during the 2008-2009 fiscal year for a range of code of conduct violations, including soliciting a prostitute, sexual assault, masturbating in a vehicle and impaired driving.

So when allegations are made that women were sexually assaulted during the G-20 from hell, we have to take them seriously.

Allegations of abuse by women detained during the G20 summit are included in an alternative report presented Thursday into how Toronto police investigate sexual violence against women. “The word of the police is not reliable,” said the activist known as Jane Doe at a news conference Thursday to detail those allegations. Women “hesitate to come forward because of fear of violence.”

The police watchdog is promising an investigation, but this is one situation that will require more than a rug and a broom.

1.3 billion dollars was spent so that the police could target, arrest and beat up anyone who opposes Harper's reign of terror, and I will stay on this like Jason Kenney on a gay man.

The group demanding a full public inquiry now has 56, 129 members and growing. Please join and show your support.

Even Green Haired People Have Mothers Stephen Harper

Bruce Anderson of the Globe and Mail asks today: Will census cost Harper skeptical centrist votes?

Any one such decision may not influence many votes; the real issue is whether too many of them, over time, have a corrosive effect. Do they leave the accessible but sceptical voter feeling they can trust the idea of a Harper majority to govern for the centre, or not?

Anderson makes a good point. I think as the media and pundits weigh every bad decision this government makes, based solely on that single issue, they are missing the big picture. And I think that wonderful young woman with the green hair, who is telling her story of unprecedented abuse during the G-20, will represent Stephen Harper's downfall.

Please watch the full ten minutes. It's worth every second. There are several very compelling statements that the government should be paying attention to, because despite his best efforts, Stephen Harper cannot simply walk away from this.

Bill Blair and Dalton McGuinty must also shoulder some of the blame, but so too does Harper. Was it his decision to tell the police to stand down and leave the vandals to do their job? He used those images to justify the enormous cost of security, and yet with such an enormous cost and nineteen thousand police, why was there so much vandalism? We certainly didn't get our money's worth, but did he?

And she is not the first to suggest that certain groups were targeted. Those kinds of complaints are all too common. Bogus signs, staged photos, all appear to be directing blame, until viewed in the light of the day. I even saw one gentlemen being arrested because he was wearing a 'Save the prison Farms' T-shirt. This government does not allow dissent.

"We are hurt, we are sad and we are angry" the young woman says to applause. "We are enraged, inspired and united."

It might be very easy for the Harper government to dismiss this young woman with the green hair. She is clearly not one of their base they pander to, or the centre, they are trying to woo. But they are forgetting one thing:

"We stand here with our parents,

We stand here with our siblings

We stand here with our children

We stand here with our friends

We stand here with our lovers,

We stand here with our cousins.

We stand here with our neighbours,

We stand here with our Co-workers."

And look at the ages of the others that show up now and then. Not street punks as they have been described by many in the media, but voters. Lots and lots of voters; who are hurt, sad, enraged, inspired and united. And they are not all from Toronto, which seems to a nemesis for Harper's base, but from across the country.

The following Horsey cartoon, was directed at Sarah Palin and represents those marginalized by neoconservatives, who remind Palin that they are Americans too.

All of the above groups have been dismissed by the Harper government, because he forgot that they are Canadians too. And while as Anderson suggests: " .... the real issue is whether too many of them, over time, have a corrosive effect", I think that Harper has been corroding his support by forgetting that even people with green hair and piercings have mothers, fathers, cousins, siblings, friends, etc., who are now all united in anger.

I think she is wonderful and part of a broader grassroots movement for change.

Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20 now has 55,827 members who cannot be ignored.

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, which began as a protest over Harper's power grab in December, is now a group motivated to get rid of this destructive government. We have more than 212,000 members who are ready to mobilize next election.

Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper has almost 5,000 members who are more pro-active. We raise money, and whenever we get enough, we run ads in newspapers reminding Canadians of what Stephen Harper stands for. We have a website and forum, and are also ready to mobilize next election.

One of the girls from CAPP and Unseat Harper has designed T-Shirts and other items that will help us get the word out.

Harper's Reform Party was started with a grassroots movement, and it will be a grassroots movement that will be his downfall.

Because we are angry and we are united in a common cause.

And as the man yelled out at the end of the video above: "Bye, bye Harper".

There is Something Very Wrong With This Picture.

The Business Insider posted an article this week: The G20 Plan for Prosperity: Rubber Bullets and Shredded Social Safety Net.

The Toronto G-20 summit sent a message to poor and working people in Europe and North America. “You will pay for the global financial crisis through cuts to your social safety nets. There will be no taxing of those who actually caused the crisis and made fortunes in the various bubbles over the last decades.”

... This was bad enough. But there was another message, too, sent through the Canadian police: “If you don’t like it, how about a rubber bullet?” It looks like G-20 countries will deal with opposition to their plans through martial law and police brutality ... I was there in Toronto, where police turned the downtown center into something resembling martial law.

I mentioned this in another post, because the same thing happened in Ontario when Guy Giorno was chief of staff for Mike Harris. He is now chief of staff for Stephen Harper. The government cut 21.6% from welfare payments forcing many into the streets. Of those homeless people 22 died in those streets. Harris refused to address protesters but instead had his riot squad beat the crap out of them. Jim Flaherty later came up with a perfect solution. He was going to make homelessness a crime, but not by providing homes in the traditional sense. He was going to just throw them in jail.

Lisa Taylor, Associate Professor at the School of Education, Bishop’s University, wrote an op-ed piece for the Toronto Star, pondering what she could now tell her students about civil liberties, given that weekend's events:

Recently, a student newspaper reporter asked a professor what every undergrad should do as part of the university experience. My colleague suggested taking part in student cultural life — join a club, put on a play! Giving back to the local community — volunteer at a local community centre or shelter! And becoming an active citizen — develop informed views on the issues most important to you! Decide how to live out your values! Go to a demonstration!

Recounting this anecdote, my colleague asked herself: Would she offer undergrads the same advice now, after the largest mass arrest in Canadian history? Of course she would — but that teachers are asking ourselves this question this should worry us as Canadians. As educators, our job is preparing active citizens with a strong concern for civic institutions and a sense of duty to participate in democratic processes of public debate, community and civic organizing and shaping policy.

Given that we spent 1.3 billion for security and yet Toronto was anything but secure, we can only assume that the vandals were not the targets of the riot police. It was the civic minded.

With rumblings of massive cuts to social programs, is this government warning us not to oppose them? Will rubber bullets again be used to silence dissent?

Bob Hepburn also asks an important question: Why is Harper escaping G20 aftermath scot-free? I mean he was the one who decided to hold it in Toronto. He was the one who gave a 453 million dollar untendered contract to a firm with links to the oil industry. And he is the one who does not allow dissent.

Whether he likes it or not, Harper may well discover his election prospects forever entangled in the aftermath of the G20 summit. So far, though, he has managed to escape the post-G20 fallout, which includes calls for public inquiries into police actions that weekend, the threats of lawsuits against the City of Toronto and demands for compensation for lost business and destroyed property.

Indeed, since it ended nearly three weeks ago, Harper has said nothing about the summit. Instead, he’s spent the last weeks merrily travelling across Canada, enjoying the Calgary Stampede and hitting the summer festival circuit.

He has left the hapless Dean Del Mastro to try and clean up his mess.

Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20 now has 54,567 members and they have no intention of leaving Stephen Harper out of this. He used images of burning police cars to justify the expense and the abuse. He's got some explaining to do.

I want to leave you with something though. Back to the original posting about the effect of the decisions made at the G-20. Our government is going through with enormous tax cuts for corporations. They are planning on spending billions to implement their new crime bills, despite the fact that Canada has the lowest crime rate in our history. And they are handing out another untendered contract for 16 billion dollars to buy military jets.

This is from a letter to the editor in the Hamilton Spectator.

I was absolutely appalled at the image of a seven-year-old little girl standing in line at a soup kitchen in Hamilton. We don't live in a third world country and we should not have children going hungry in this city. Our politicians are spending so much time, effort and money to build a stadium. Our priorities are twisted. We think nothing of using taxpayers' money to spruce up our image. Why don't we filter some of that money to those who really need it? What's more important, stadium or hungry children? There is something very wrong with this picture.

800,000 Canadians currently use food banks. Of that number, one-third are children.

I agree. "There is something very wrong with this picture."

Police to Release Names of Suspects Possibly Involved in G-20 Violence

With the Facebook Group Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry.. at almost 54,000 members, the police are now using some of the photos and videos presented by the public to round up and arrest potential suspects. I hope they include this guy because there is undisputed evidence that he was involved.

This was such a black mark on our country and has once again divided citizens between those who believe that the police could no wrong, and those who witnessed and accepted police wrong doing. I would have at one time fallen into the first group, and still have faith in this country's police officers.

But the G-20 weekend has shaken the roots of our men and women in uniform, and only a full public inquiry will restore our confidence.

It's unfortunate that they were given the orders to stand down, because they could have apprehended the vandals when they were in the act of vandalizing.

We must also make sure that the police use those videos to weed out the the "bad guys" within their own ranks.

Canwest Global Gets Caught Red Handed and Red Faced

Blogger extraordinaire Northern Insights, has uncovered an interesting bit of "fake journalism" during the G-20. Some of the images of the so-called vandalism in Toronto, were borrowed from vandalism during the Olympics. Check out the images. The same Vancouver Sun box was knocked over in Toronto. Quite a reach.

This just keeps getting better.

The weapons haul was fabricated:

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.

The Black Bloc were allowed (encouraged? paid ?) to run amok.

We need an inquiry and Dean Del Mastro needs a real job. Enough is enough.

Dean Del Mastro and His Training Manual

In 2007 it came to light that Harper's Reformers had created a 200 page book for their MPs that instructed them on how to make sure that nothing ever gets accomplished that doesn't fit their narrow agenda.

Among the advice contained in the book is that the Conservative Party should help pick committee witnesses and that the chairman ensure witnesses suggested by the Conservative Party of Canada "are favourable to the government and the ministry." The book also advises chairmen to "meet with witnesses so as to review testimony and assist in question preparation." It also suggests witnesses be included from Conservative ridings across the country and the chairmen make sure the witnesses' local MPs take the place of a regular committee member for the hearing.

The book contains advice on how to grind committees to a halt, whether it be by recognizing a Conservative MP just before a vote and letting them speak as long as they wish to stall the vote, or adjourning a "disruptive" committee. The instructions to the committee chairmen may explain in part some of the events that have taken place over the past couple of weeks. The official languages committee has become paralyzed as a result of a series of events that began when chairman Guy Lauzon abruptly cancelled a hearing into the effect on language minorities of cutting the Court Challenges program.

The work of two other committees ground to a halt Thursday as a result of Conservative MPs filibustering to stop discussion on the censorship of documents related to Afghan detainees and of a private members bill to prohibit replacement workers being used during strikes in workplaces that fall under federal jurisdiction.

Dean Del Mastro has memorized the book from front to back and as a result has accomplished absolutely nothing.

In an attempt to make sure his record is not broken, he has also chosen to do nothing about the G-20 anti-security measures that cost 1.3 billion dollars, but failed to secure the city of Toronto.

Maybe instead of reading his damn manual he might want to read the Vancouver Sun where they revealed that the police "could have apprehended the anarchists" at anytime but were told to stand down.

What do you think of that Dino? Is that in your book?

Or watched the video where citizens were chasing Black Bloc and they were allowed to escape behind police lines? Is that in your book Dino?



Or how about the cop caught smashing the police car? Was that in your friggin' book?

Canadians Demanding an Inquiry in to G-20 is now has more than 53,000 members. And guess what Dino? Some of them are from Peterborough. I assume you've heard of the place.

And thousands of Canadians marched against your government trying to turn Canada into a Police State. I assume you've heard of Canada. Nice little place. Used to be a democracy.

So put your manual away Dino and get out and look around. Talk to people not within your narrow circle, but ordinary Canadians. You must know a few, right?

You might just have an "opinion", and not a bloody manual that tells you what your "opinion" should be. Next time, don't bother showing up at all. Just leave the book. We already know how it ends.

Updates on Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20

The group Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20, now has more than 52,000 names. Be sure to join if you haven't already. The more people committed to this the better, as it will send all levels of government an important message. We want a pubic inquiry.

So for a few more videos and updates:

Chain of command questioned in G20

Now that the smoke has cleared on the G20, no one is quite sure where to point the finger of blame or who should be answering to allegations of alleged excessive force and disregarded civil liberties. “It’s as if whoever was in charge is using Black Bloc tactics. They’ve taken off their uniform and dispersed into the crowd – nowhere to be found,” said Toronto police board member Hamlin Grange.

We've given them a few good clear images of people smashing things, one of whom we believe is a cop. And a word of advice. Never blow bubbles in front of an angry cop.



Many people sided with protesters.