G20 Summit

[Johann]

*WARNING* I'm a hothead on this topic and my words will be harsh. It is warranted.


The G20 summit was held in Toronto over the weekend (as everybody knows) and I'd like to express how it felt to be in the city when this debacle unfolded.

For about a week prior to the summit I noticed changes to the downtown core. All mailboxes were removed. Then bus shelters. Then garbage bins- they taped plastic bags to telephone poles- just like last year's garbage strike! awesome, huh? Then all PARK BENCHES were removed. Then major statues were moved by crane (for fear of defiling). Windows were boarded up all over downtown- what the fuck is going on here?
Is there a Level 5 Hurricane on the way??
Then the armies of cops started to appear, day after day. RCMP, other provincial cops, York region cops, gazillions of police officers.
With each passing day towards the summit citizens started to stop going downtown unless they had to. The vibe was so negative and oppressive.
I started to get angry. Who organized this? Who was the genius who decided Toronto was the city where this was going to be held? Disrupting local businesses and citizens lives beyond belief so a few empty-headed "leaders" can sit around a conference table and make piss-poor decisions on the world's behalf? Fuck I was getting mad. I don't protest in the streets because that is simply pointless. I've never seen a protest that went well, that got something accomplished. You're just asking for a baton upside the head...

It was truly sickening to see the destruction caused by some "anarchists" but it was even more sickening to see the lack of police response.
Cop cruisers were set on fire, with radicals stomping on the roofs- where were the police? That's right: nowhere near the scene until the cars had been burning forever. Where were the cops when so many windowfronts were smashed? When the shit was going down? That's right: on some other non-vital street, in their riot gear, waiting for a clue or message on what to fucking do.

And now we have our douchebag Mayor Miller grovelling to Harper about compensation for damages, which I'm sure Harper really cares about..
Our PM calls the summit a "resounding success", and that these types of meetings will always attract "hoodlums".
Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, but where do you get off brushing this disaster off? You charged the taxpayers 1.3 BILLION for your little meeting, left a major city reeling from a police state environment which resulted in unprecedented vandalism and destruction.
All for what? And we were given how much notice that this was all going down? Next to NONE!
A shitty "conference" that you could've easily done by video? Get all heads of state on a timing to be "Live" on satellite and voila! No damage to property, people's sanity or police cars! But Shithead Harper does not care at all. He is a true psychopath. I see through him so much it's insane. He has no conscience whatsoever. I'm disgusted that he is Canada's Prime Minister. But we have no one else either. The Liberal party is all but extinct and the majority of ignorant Canadians think Harper is doing a fantastic job. It's sad beyond comprehension.

Did you know that special fancy license plates with the G20 logo were made for special cars?
Did you know they spent 1.2 million on a fake lake that the leaders wouldn't even SEE during the summit? It was at the media pavillion!
Did you know that they spent almost a BILLION on security alone? And that they "secured' JACK FUCKING SHIT FOR THAT MONEY???

I asked 4 different cops on the street why they picked Toronto. Here's the answers I got:

1. It was coin toss
2. It's "good for business"
3. I don't know
4. It's "our turn"

The cops had no answer as to why Toronto was chosen. No one fucking knows. They shut down one of the biggest cities on the planet (imagine the disruption to business and lives!!!!) for NOTHING. For Fuck-All. I'm still pissed off about it. No one has apologized to the citizens of Toronto for being subjected to such insulting chickenshit.
I couldn't walk around my city for three fucking days because a bunch of empty-headed morons decided that they would hold a meaningless pow-wow. A pow-wow on the global economy no less!
How does it fucking look spending truckloads and truckloads and truckloads of money when you're trying to be "fiscally responsible?!??!
FUCK RIGHT OFF.
(I told you I'm a hothead on this one..)

I want Stephen Harper on his knees before the Canadian people. He owes us big time.
But he doesn't care.
He's " a person without conscience"
He only cares about himself.
When the world economy truly tanks where will he be and what will he say?
"I told you so?" HA
he will be saying
"I GOT MINE".

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for this, Johann. A sad sequel to Luminato. Which was free, and made people happy. A time when being a hothead is totally justified.

The prominent weekday US leftist/liberal news program and commentary Democracy Now has been broadcasting from Toronto this week.

Monday: http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2010/6/28
Tuesday: http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2010/6/29

The vandalism showed that the repression AKA "security" didn't work. I didn't get from Democracy Now the details of removing mailboxes, bus shelters, and even statues. That is nightmarish, and recalls the prettying-up done in Iron Curtain countries for outsiders' visits; helping do that got the artist Christo (a Bulgarian by birth) started on his ideas of transforming environments in art pieces/events like Running Fence, the Central Park Gates, the Wrapped Reichstag, and so on. Oscar said this would have happened in any town where this was held. But that's not true. It's different depending on the organization of the protest, the style of the repression, and many other factors. This is a bad one. And it comes at a particularly bad time.

Smart ideas of yours to have the G20 done by closed TV conference. One defect: obviously this is a show of strength, and 'fiscal responsibility" is for the common man, not the people at the top. They can spend billions on swaggering. Even though to us money doesn't look very well spent. It makes sense that Naomi Klein (a Canadian) was on hand to comment on Democracy Now. http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/28/naomi_klein_the_real_crime_scene
Klein wrote the book on Disaster Capitalism: make all the mess you want; whoever gets to do the cleaning up will make a bundle.

I'd be about as scared to go to Canada as to Mexico at this point but for different reasons. After hearing bll about the Mahar Arar case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar), I'd not trust Canadian authorities. In Mexico, the drug cartels rule, and as an American I might be kidnapped or assassinated.

If I write a political commentary realted to this I'll use your post as a reference.

[Johann]

The head of police security in Barrie Ontario called the operation a "complete success" as well.

How the fuck do you call a billion (?) dollars in damaged property and a furious public a "complete success"?
Is it because you were thrown a $900, 000 000 bone? maybe?
I stayed at home for quite a bit of the summit (as per police orders! Stay Away Perp!)

The police didn't know how to do anything except bang their batons against their plastic shields before they did an "advance"
It was pathetic beyond belief. The National did a piece on a Toronto female bike cop who worked the summit and she said at one point
"It's depressing. It feels as though they've taken over the city" (the protestors). All the while these officers are standing around lollygagging.
I used to be a soldier, and there's a thing called "tactics", things called "SOP's", "in theatre" operational directives that you are supposed to employ during certain situations. I saw absolutely none of that from the legions of police.
It seems like they were all just asked to show up. Stand around, hold a helmet, look like an Alpha male asshole as much as possible. That seemed to be enough. No clue on how to handle violent protestors.
The vibe I got from the police was "I'm not paid enough for this shit"
Is this what citizens/taxpayers deserve? Where's our money's worth for that billion dollars?
And get this:
STEPHEN HARPER is now saying that the federal government is not legally bound to pay for the massive damages to property.
Uh, let's get this straight:
A FEDERAL conference causes a billion dollars in damages to local businesses and private property and you don't owe a dime?
YOU'RE FUCKING FIRED SHITHEAD.

[Johann]

There is also a massive scandal going on right now with regards to the Chief of Police Bill Blair's decision to not tell the public at all about the types of searches near the security fence. Not to mention the targeting of gays and certain others by the police. People are fucking OUTRAGED here in Toronto.
The public was out of the loop until the summit was right on top of our heads.

It's a world-class city, we're recovering rather quickly from this disaster because we fucking rock, because we're always excited about the next big thing happening here (ROGER WATERS: THE WALL LIVE Sept 15th!!!) but the stain of this massively disgraceful display of fiscal and mental irresponsibility ain't coming out with Tide.

[Chris Knipp]

The general point this illustrates is that spending a lot of money and doing good planning and organizing are two totally different things.

The more ominous one is that any operation of this kind moves the place toward a culture of repression.

And then third, what is happening to the world's economies? Will enforced global belt-tightening lead to a repetition of the Great Depression of the Thirties?

[Johann]

Exactly. Our PM knows this too. This is why I hate his guts so much.
He knows and yet he recklessly and psychopathically spends like a drunken conservative asshole.
You're only PM once, eh? Gotta stick it to the peons!
That word: "CONSERVATIVE"- ha ha ha. How "Conservative" are you Steve? My God does he suck..

He even mentioned the "delicate" nature of the world's economy on live TV.
If it's so fucking delicate, Mr. Asshole, then why didn't you tighten your fucking belt? be a Leader in fiscal responsibility? Or how about even having an IDEA that helps the WORLD, even a smidge?
Oh, that's right: that was your PREDECESSOR, Paul Martin, former finance minister and LIBERAL LEADER.
He handed you a surplus when you took power. But you had so much contempt for him (and Canada it turns out) that you had to blow that surplus to Kingdom Come, didn't you? Erase any and all similarities with sanity and "good government", right?
You fucking Calgarian Oilman Asswipe.
You don't speak for me or millions of others in this Awesome Country.
You speak for ignorance and elite bullshit.
When you meet your maker the truth will be driven into your empty pathetic soul.

We are headed for a massive Depression. Great question/point there Chris.
Just look at Greece. If that ain't the writing on the wall...
And who does Wall Street look at today? The Great White North. CANADA.
Canada's banks are rock solid. Our structure is very sound. Stock brokers are investing in only one sure thing: CANADA
That's a fact.
Americans have sneered at us/ignored us forever and now we seem "favorable" for investing. It's quite funny and sad actually.
Ask any stockbroker you know: "Is Canada worth investing in?"
See what he says.

[Chris Knipp]

"Is Canada worth investing in?" I will remember and will ask the right person.

I don't know about Canadian politics. Nobody cares here. Why are Canada's banks so much more solid than the US's?

[Johann]

Canadian politics are embarrassing. You don't have to care. You shouldn't care.
I want to be so proud of my Leaders but it's fucking impossible. They make it impossible.
They get into Parliament and they surrender their brains.
How crazy is it that I want Jack Layton to be PM?????

We have no one to hold their feet to the fire. The Governor-General might as well be a sock puppet. She's a lovely Lady, but about as useful as a broken wrist. Canadians are too busy with their lives to follow politics too closely. I hate that I myself don't know enough.

Our banks handled the financial crisis extremely well. Our citizens understand what a bank is for and what it can do.
Seriously- Canada is seen as a "ROCK" for investing.
Definitely let me know what that "right person" says Chris.

[Chris Knipp]

I only ever went to Canada when I spent a summer working on the Detroit News and went up to the Stratford Festival, when I heard Glenn Gould play a Bach keyboard concerto and saw a play by Shakespeare. I'm trying to remember the novel I read when I was quite young, by an English writer I think, about a man who lived in exile in Canada during WWII. Quite a few Canadians wind up down here, dno't they, including some well known movie actors? But it's a blank to us.

I think the financial solidy is not just that the banks "knew what to do" at the time of the financial crisis, but that restrictions prevented the myriad unsafe investment techniques and "shadow banks" that brought down the US financial sector.

I won't see my financial advisor for another month but I will definitely bring up the subject of Canada. I have done pretty well through it all but there are always new worries now. Paul Krugman, the Nobel laureate economist and liberal op ed columnist for the NY Times, wrote a column full of doom this week. He is a Keynsian. Therefore he feels that belt-tightening is exactly the wrong approach. He has been writing this for the past two years. I think he is right, but his view has not prevailed.

His column is called "The Third Depression." You can read it here. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html?adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1277924654-5LvTINBna15uQsBBlc6HPA) The G20 summit is part of the problem.


And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

He has believed that it could be averted, but he's beginning to think it's too late.

I highly recommend this column by Paul Krugman, and following his writing for the Times in general. It doesn't take a genius to grasp what he says, but ideology keeps the movers and shakers from perceiving the good sense of his views.

[Chris Knipp]

The novel about exile in Canada during WWII was Wyndham Lewis' Self Condemned (1954).


Lewis spent the war years in self-imposed exile in Canada, a period chronicled in his novel Self Condemned (1954), which describes the gradual alienation from society of Dr Rene Harding, a historian whose brand of anti-democratic élitism parallels Lewis's own.

Read more: Wyndham Lewis (Percy Wyndham Lewis) Biography - (1882–1957), (Percy Wyndham Lewis), The English Review, Blast, The Review of the Great English Vortex, Tarr http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/4772/Wyndham-Lewis-(Percy-Wyndham-Lewis).html#ixzz0sMkAobBK

http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/4772/Wyndham-Lewis-%28Percy-Wyndham-Lewis%29.html

This colored my view of the country.

[Johann]

Excellent stuff Chris, as always. Thanks for the links.
These things must be discussed and addressed.

Yes, no "shadow banks" here in canada- that seems to be a big problem in the USA.

"Deeply discouraging" is putting it mildly about the G20; there is a real genuine disgust here over what happened.
And Harper conveniently is squired away from it. It's as far from his mind as an NDP majority is.
I personally think he has a hate-on for Toronto.
I think his contempt for this city is barely concealed.

Bottom line: we're in serious trouble.

[Johann]

Todays Toronto Sun has reporting on the "fallout" of the G20 disaster.
Joe Warmington has an excellent article on the lack of police response.

get a load of this:

The order was given to "not engage" with violent protestors because "they're too intimidating"

Yeah. Take a moment to read that again.
a few hundred intimidated a force of 19,000 police. Who were covered head to foot in kevlar.

There are quotes from Toronto cops on how everybody was talking over everybody else on the radios, and how the Montreal riot guys were "LIVID" that they were ordered not to engage. They really wanted to get in there and get business done. But they were hampered by a keystone cops Command structure. That just makes me so PROUD! I wanna puke. I saved the paper and will add direct quotes tomorrow

Peter Worthington, stalwart old school military trumpeter brushes it all off, saying the only ones put out by the conference were the public and business owners. Time to retire from your armchair, Peter. You support Harper when he's so obviously a retarded elitist clown? I'm so tired of that old man's "perspective". Hey Peter: I was a Patricia. Do I have your respect? No? You can never take that away from me. I served and I know "shit from shinola" to use a phrase you might know. I ain't no radical, I ain't no "hippie", although I am in favor of peace. I am in favor of busting heads when it's warranted but when is it ever? I'm sick of the waste and negligence and incompetence. This is the 21st Century. the "New Millenium". Toronto is "a city of the future" according to former Prez Bill Clinton. Why the fuck was the city subjected to such disgusting arbitrary chickenshit? why was no one informed properly so that all possible outcomes could be properly anticipated?

Who was steering the G20 aircraft carrier?????


the "Black Bloc" was. And by the looks of things, maybe they should be applauded (all things considered) because they showed just how out of touch our PM is, the police were and how sticky eggs are to get off your face...

[Chris Knipp]

"intimidating" is interesting.

[Chris Knipp]

Back to the bigger fallout: to the global economy, poverty and jobs --


A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

There's a front page NY Times commentary piece (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/economy/30leonhardt.html?_r=1) today I had not read but just have: "Governments Move to Cut Spending, in 1930s Echo," by David Leonhardt (NYT June 30, 2010) (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/economy/30leonhardt.html?_r=1)

Remember the Einstein saying, "Insanity is repeating the same action and expecting different results"? In their recent decisions, the rich nations financial planners appear to think they can do what was done in the late Thirties that prolonged the depression and are hoping that this time it will be different. Leonhardt doesn't pretend to have the answer, he's just worried, as is the financial market and Wall Street, by this collective move ty the rich countries.

It's not that they're utterly wrong, only that their timing may be bad. Leonhardt belives is that the stimulus must continue, because it's too soon to end it. It's also extremely bad to do all the deficit cuts and austerity measures country by all the rich countries at the same time. But the stimulus cash infusions should be accompanied by long term spending cuts and tax increases, just not all the latter right now by everyone (this is at the end of the article):

In an ideal world, countries would pair more short-term spending and tax cuts with long-term spending cuts and tax increases. But not a single big country has figured out, politically, how to do that.

In other words, they're improvising, hoping that copying from the past and hoping this time it'll work better. They don't really know what they're doing. And they've got the economic future of the world by the balls.

Leonhardt begins:

The world’s rich countries are now conducting a dangerous experiment. They are repeating an economic policy out of the 1930s — starting to cut spending and raise taxes before a recovery is assured — and hoping today’s situation is different enough to assure a different outcome.

In effect, policy makers are betting that the private sector can make up for the withdrawal of stimulus over the next couple of years. If they’re right, they will have made a head start on closing their enormous budget deficits. If they’re wrong, they may set off a vicious new cycle, in which public spending cuts weaken the world economy and beget new private spending cuts.

On Tuesday, pessimism seemed the better bet. Stocks fell around the world, over worries about economic growth.

He goes on:

As is often the case after a financial crisis, this recovery is turning out to be a choppy one. Companies kept increasing pay and hours last month, for example, but did little new hiring. On Tuesday, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence fell sharply this month.

And just as households and businesses are becoming skittish, governments are getting ready to let stimulus programs expire, the equivalent of cutting spending and raising taxes. The Senate has so far refused to pass a bill that would extend unemployment insurance or send aid to ailing state governments. Goldman Sachs economists this week described the Senate’s inaction as “an increasingly important risk to growth.”

The parallels to 1937 are not reassuring. From 1933 to 1937, the United States economy expanded more than 40 percent, even surpassing its 1929 high. But the recovery was still not durable enough to survive Roosevelt’s spending cuts and new Social Security tax. In 1938, the economy shrank 3.4 percent, and unemployment spiked.

Given this history, why would policy makers want to put on another fiscal hair shirt today?

The reasons vary by country. Greece has no choice.

He adds that Spain is in the same situation, and Britain may also be. But not all countries are (and so I would say they ought not to proceed according to the same schedule.

I highly recommend reading this article, as well as scanning Paul Krugman's op-ed pieces over the past year and half, which can be accessed starting here. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html)

[Johann]

Here's a brilliant, on-target letter to the Toronto Star (dated today, July 3/2010) from Piotr Trela:


"Let's check Stephen Harper's claim against some numbers:

The cost of the security- 1 Billion or more; the number of violent thugs- perhaps several hundred.
This means that he spent on average between 1 million and 2 million of taxpayers' money on each of the thugs, and STILL let them ransack
downtown Toronto.
With justification like this, who needs disgrace?

If the world leaders still need their photo op, a stage to deliver promises they don't intend to keep (of the 25 billion in new aid promised by the G8 in 2005 to be made by 2010, less than half materialized) and to schmooze, put them on a cruise ship or a military base (Me, Johann: AMEN!).
The saved billion could then be then used to actually help the poor, instead of merely talking about how we are going to help them.
(AMEN again!)

Furthermore, the saved billion would be new money, as opposed to the 1.1 billion for maternal help announced with big fanfare at the G8 by our
Prime Minister. If you haven't noticed, in his 2010 budget Harper froze aid for the next five years, which means that any new aid initiative, like maternal health, will have to be financed through cuts to the already existing aid programs.
TALK ABOUT ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL TO MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE YOU REALLY CARE!"




*ME, Johann*:

This is as clear as you can get on how retarded and cruel and evil and sickening Stephen Harper is.

I'll say it again:

YOU'RE FUCKING FIRED, SHITHEAD.

[Chris Knipp]

Damaging statistics. Strong words.

[Johann]

I've been collecting the newspaper clips from the fallout. (More to say this week)

There is no conservative in power in Ottawa who's based anywhere from within the city limits of Toronto. FACT.
What does that tell you?
It tells you that Harper won't lose a single shred of political capital by being in Toronto.

I got a lot to unload on this subject. I hope this is the beginning of the end for PM Harper.
There is a snowballing outrage happening here up North.
You can't fathom my hatred for who he is, what he's doing and what he represents.
Stay tuned.

[Chris Knipp]

Don't worry about that, I'll stay tuned.

[Chris Knipp]

Here's a video compendium of footage posted by bloggers of the G20 repression. Signs of the power of the Internet.

http://www.vimeo.com/13097041

[Johann]

Much thanks Chris.

I'm gathering a bunch of things together and I'll post again with some very relevant nee: salient points about how bad this really is/was.

[Chris Knipp]

Look forward and also any further public reaction in Canada.

[Johann]

An independent investigation into unlawful Police actions from the G20 has finally been ordered, after the police said they would do their own investigation into abuses of power, specifically the detention of civilians who had nothing to do with the summit or it's protests.
At the intersection of Queen and Spadina one night the cops coralled everybody who was at the intersection and arrested them all.
Can you believe that?

Local Toronto cops have been quoted in the papers saying that Police Act charges would rain down on their heads if they did what they say they did- "Chief Bill Blair knows this too. The shit will hit the fan.." The outrage over police abuses of power reached a fever pitch this week, with many going to the media (tv/newspapers) to express the very palpable disgust.

WHO POLICES THE POLICE?
WE do.


I'll post more soon (when I have more time:)

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks, Johan. I would like to see a complete run-down.

[Johann]

complete run-down?

[Chris Knipp]

I mean I hope there will be a thorough report, articles, perhaps a film about the whole event and the excessive repression and "security" ficaco.

[Johann]

Oh Yes- this is a 3-hour Michael Moore op-ed waiting to be made...

This is a scandal actually.
This should have buried Stephen Harper as the "Worst Prime Minister EVER"
But Canadians are blind to his fucked up actions.
They don't seem to be aware of the magnitude of the G20 debacle at all.
I'm getting an American/Xenophobic vibe from my fellow Canucks on this and it worries me.
We can't keep our heads in the sand on this. Willful ignorance is not acceptable for this type of scandal: police abuses of power and Executive Branch abuses of power are the worst kind to have to endure. It must be eliminated, actually. With extreme prejudice.
Who's gonna do it if you got your head in the sand?

And this is a Prime Minister who said he "wanted more accountability in Ottawa"?????
Fucking Fired, man. Fucking FIRED.

[Chris Knipp]

I guess I was thinking of something along the lines of the 2008 film BATTLE IN SEATTLE. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_in_Seattle) This is a movie that I have unfortunately not seen, only heard a bit about. I don't know much about the whole series of events. I think it would definitely be logical to look at the two events in relation to each other and for demonstrators to evaluate their strategies in Toronto in relation to what happened in Seattle in 1999 and the relative differences in police coverage, etc. Don't know why I did not see BATTLE IN SEATTLE. It must have had a very brief run.

As for Stephen Harper, I can't comment. I know nothing. A rightwinger, isn't he?

[Johann]

Yes. Very Right-wing.
He learned much from Bush. (They are both assclown oil barons and probably have carbon-copy brains).

As you can tell, I use a sledgehammer often, just like George Carlin recommended.
"I don't use a rapier with Bush- I use a sledgehammer. It's the only thing that these fuckheads deserve"

[Chris Knipp]

Good quote.

[Johann]

Did you know that cops arrested a girl for blowing bubbles at them? Yeah. She had a small bottle of bubbles (with the stick-blowing-thingy) and the cops were LIVID- you can see the one cop ordering her to put it away in a clip from the National (CBC website). She keeps blowing bubbles at them and they take her down! Zap strap her hands! Into the paddy wagon with you! It was disgusting.

And then there's the mother of 2 who had her hand shattered by police when she was arrested.

And on and on. These are just 2 stories from the G20 disaster. The police were incompetent fuckheads for the whole summit. That much is painfully clear. The only hope we have is that the independent investigation results in countless firings and charges and jail for the police who broke the law in so many different ways that weekend.

Right now I want to be Caligula, who wanted to behead a kingdom with one blow.
I want all GTA cops (and the ones from out of town who acted out of line) beheaded with one blow.
Then we can start a new, fresh recruiting drive that attracts men and women with brains.

And the upper-eschelon Cops?
I got a *special* plan for them..

[Johann]

And they still haven't put any benches back in any parks yet. People are sitting on the grass in most parks.
G20 was over two weeks ago!
I asked a City worker who was mowing grass "where are the benches?" in Allen gardens and he said "We don't know. Many people have been asking but we have no answer.."

Thanks again, Harper! We can't even sit on a fucking park bench two weeks after your "G26 million suckers" summit.
I say again, OVER:

You're FUCKING FIRED, shithead.

[Chris Knipp]

It's not the Sixties. No summer of love in Toronto.

Why was Toronto so different than Seattle? What happened in Seattle that was so different? How was the protest organization different? Is it just a very different place? Is Toronto actually an enclave of the right, and Seattle pretty liberal overall?

[Johann]

I admit I don't know anything about the summit held in Seattle.

As for Toronto, we are a Liberal's paradise. We accept any and all immigrants. We are weed friendly. You could walk down the street with an open bottle of any liquor and swig away. 9.9 times out of ten the police won't even look at you.
The police are so uninterested in doing paperwork that if you wished, you could do lines of coke at your table at Yonge & Dundas square and not even an on-site security guard would do a single thing. (Unless 20 people complained at once).

I really hate to say it, but if you want to kill someone, do it in Toronto. It'll be years before anyone even notices, let alone that would get a police investigation. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN IN THIS CITY- remember that. There are no police here. Zero. None.
I have no faith in them whatsoever. You'd have better luck getting help from the girl working the counter at Tim Hortons.

I often say to people "There are no police in Toronto". None.
If you call the cops for something, see how long it takes them to get to your location.
I'll bet you $500 they won't even show up.
If they do, it'll be three hours later, long after your "emergency" needed tending to.
And if you ask what took them so long, you can expect "we have other calls of priority" to be the answer.

Toronto's police are smug, arrogant, and almost always have an attitude. I think they train them to be that way.
Don't even crack a joke with a Toronto cop- they'll arrest you for disturbing the peace.

Toronto is an enclave of the right? HA HA HA!
Not by ten gazillion miles!!!

We do have our Right-Wing Freaks, like all cities, but they really have no power here.
They just make their millions and shut up, unlike everywhere else where they make their millions and NEVER shut the fuck up...

[Chris Knipp]

That's very interesting. But all this repression for G20 was from above city level, wasn't it.

"Life in Toronto" sounds like a good topic for a TV series, in the style of :"Weeds."

[Johann]

It was above city level, but the Toronto police were a huge part of it.
I'd love to know what kind of directives they were handed beforehand, if any.

And I'd also like to know how many Toronto police officers were disgusted with what happened.
How many are muzzled? How many were told "the lid is on"?
The whole force? Only riot cops? What?

The Police should be #1 for expressing their outrage over what happened, I gather.
But are they?
No.
Because they were a major problem in and of themsleves! Because they were given a Billion dollars for their trouble. And it really bothers me.
There is no place for that shit in a major metropolis inthe 21st Century.
As citizens and as taxpayers and as HUMAN BEINGS we deserved way way way better than we got.
And I want heads to roll for it.
(Just like the BP spill)
but we all know that won't happen any time soon. Life is Great, isn't it?

[Chris Knipp]

Maybe we both need to see Stuart Townsend's 2007 film BATTLE IN SEATTLE (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0850253/). Or maybe better to see the documentary by Rustin Thompson 30 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Frames_a_Second:_The_WTO_in_Seattle_2000)

[Johann]

They should've shown it to every cop before the G20 arrived.

That's another thing I wondered about this whole thing:
Have Toronto police never in their whole lives dealt with violent protestors?
They knew that they were going to be arriving with bells on, didn't they?
How the fuck did they not know what was going to happen?
How were orders "not to engage" even on the dinnertable?
It should've been de facto, with lots of media warnings to the public, then everybody wouldn't have been so outraged.
We would've said "Yeah! nail those fuckers! smash 'em double hard with your riot batons!! Who do they think they are, coming here and destroying shit that ain't theirs??"

Hell, the whole city would hold a parade for those cops.

But no.
We hold a funeral for democracy and decency..

[Chris Knipp]

I don't know if you can really say that. YOu thinnk if the city had tried to put it about that there were going to be violent protests and vandalism the public would have wanted the police to repress them demonstrators violently? Or is there something here I'm not getting?

Let's begin by acknowledging that the task the city or the government had was not easy. But whenever there is a gathering of the rich nations, a very repressive atmosphere is established. Or they have it at some elite spa, like Gstaad or somewhere, Doha, some princedom, which is maybe better .

[Johann]

Here's a couple letters to NOW magazine, reprinted in their entirety (re: G20 fallout)


From Vanessa Brustolin (Toronto)

I am absolutely disgusted at the events which transpired in Toronto during the course of the G20 summit, as well as all levels of government's response to calls for a public inquiry (NOW, July 8-14).
As a citizen, I am outraged.
Everyone has fundamental freedoms. Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.
The media's portrayal of events has been sensationalized and coloured by repeated airings and has caused most Canadians to think of protestors as nothing more than hooligans who got what they deserved.
I fear that many across the country have missed the point.


From AK Rhodes (Toronto)

We Were Lied To
Here's my two Amero's worth on the G20. We were lied to as citizens of Toronto, Ontario and Canada. Which means our government thinks that we are idiots. And remember, silence equals consent in our culture. The focus has been on the (alleged) thugs and rioters. What is not mentioned are the lies. Think of the implications: if you were detained for the G20 but not charged, you aren't officially the police responsibility in lock-up. That means officially they don't have to look after you (food and water) and they don't have to provide legal aid (denials of help and phone calls), which means that your rights were never violated in the first place because no law was broken. Something to think about.

[Chris Knipp]

if you were detained for the G20 but not charged, you aren't officially the police responsibility in lock-up

If that is the actual policy, it should be challenged in court.

[Johann]

You wouldn't believe the amount of lawsuits that have been launched in Toronto.

[Chris Knipp]

That was predicted earlier this month but details are still pending.

[Johann]

YOu thinnk if the city had tried to put it about that there were going to be violent protests and vandalism the public would have wanted the police to repress them demonstrators violently? Or is there something here I'm not getting?


No. I'm saying the outrage could be diminished. Obviously the public wouldn't want the cops to smash heads no matter what, even with warnings.

Something must be made VERY clear here: there were two distinct types of protestors:

1. Peaceful, law-abiding who had every right to protest
(even though I feel taking it to the streets for this kind of thing doesn't do jack shit for anyone. I'm down with your cause, just not down with protesting in the streets. Why? Well look at what it got you! Aircraft carriers full of grief!)

2. the Black Bloc. Those violent shitpump thugs dressed in black who did all the damage to property- including setting cop cars on fire.
They were a concentrated group, who planned what they were gonna do long before they got here.

The public should've had warnings from the authorites about the Black Bloc or just about violent protestors in general- then the business owners and citizens could've prepared for it in some way. We had no fucking warning! All we were told was "G20 is here this weekend" and we watched with our own eyes the transformation of the downtown core into a fucking ominous, oppressive FORTRESS. It interrupted more than just a nice summer.
It created a fearsome tempest that hasn't stopped since Harper left town, saying "Fuck You Toronto, Fuck You Canadians! BYE!!"

Everyone had their pants down: cops, politicians, the public, EVERYONE.
It was revolting.

[Chris Knipp]

Iheard that but I didn't know it was callled the Black Block.

So then 1. They shouldn't have had this in Toronto. But I guess somebody made a lot of money out of it.

[Johann]

Here's some editorials from today's TORONTO STAR (Tues. Aug. 24/2010):


GROWING CASE FOR G20 PROBE


Christopher Miller was charged with mischief for writing "shame on you" in charcoal on a sidewalk at police headquarters.
National Post photographer Brett Grundlock was charged with obstructing police and unlawful assembly while doing his job.
And Robert Gamble was charged with disturbing the peace after he yelled "Arrest the war criminals! Investigate 9/11!".

The Crown dropped all these charges, and more, on Monday as hundreds of people paraded through Ontario Court in the aftermath of the Group of 20 summit protests that rocked downtown Toronto on June 26 and 27, during which some vandals torched police cars and smashed shop windows.
The sheer flimsiness of some of the charges ought to embarrass the Toronto police and other forces that arrested more than 1,000 people, penning them up in wire cages for much of the weekend.

Ultimately only some 300 were charged. And while the 17 alleged ringleaders and others still have a date with the courts, prosecutors were eager to drop or "divert" charges for scores of people if they agreed to give to a charity, do community service or sign a peace bond.
This winnowing process reflects well on Ontario Court and its reluctance to criminalize dissent. But it does nothing to ease concerns about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's profound unwisdom in holding the G20 in downtown Toronto, turning it into an armed camp of empty streets.
Or Premier Dalton McGuinty's decision to grant the police enhanced powers of arrest without properly informing the public.
Or the police stategy that first let vandals run amok, then cracked down on non-violent protestors.

These are far-ranging matters of political responsibility and civil rights that only a full inquiry can properly address, not the slew of low-level probes now underway by the Toronto police, the Police Services Board, the Ontario ombudsman's office and Ontario's new Independent Civilian Review and Public Complaints Process.
Each is looking at a PIECE of the problem.

What's needed is a broad public inquiry by Ottawa or Queen's Park into this wretched chain of events, from the Prime Minister's fateful decision to turn Toronto into an armed camp, to police tactics that ranged from laissez-faire to abrupt mass arrests.
WE DESERVE A FULL ACOUNTING.


****ME, JOHANN****:

AMEN.
Let's get on it so that heads can fucking roll over it. Starting with our idiot Prime Minister's.

[Johann]

BLACK BLOC NOT SURPRISING (letter to the editor by Dennis Ryan)

Re: anatomy of the G20: what went wrong


Any analysis of the G20 summit seems to paint the Black Bloc somewhere between anarchists and thugs.
But, in reality, it's much worse:
these are young people who have lost faith in present day government and economy. AND WHO CAN BLAME THEM?

Remember the sub-prime fiasco, the greed that prompted it, the financial institutions that fell with too many innocent victims, the massive bailout by taxpayers, further insulted by the bonuses that were paid out?

ARE WE SURPRISED THAT A GROUP LIKE THE BLACK BLOC EXISTS?
I'm not.


****ME, JOHANN****:

AMEN, DENNIS!
Fucking A-MEN..

[Johann]

POLLS ARE JUST TOO DEPRESSING (letter to the editor by Peter Anastas)


It is said that a country gets the government it deserves.
Ours promised us clarity and gave us obfuscation.
They promised open debate but have continued the concentration of power in the PMO's office to the detriment of parliamentary democracy.
They have progressively circumvented parliamentary procedures.

In addition thay have shown an inclination to shoot the messenger when the message is incongruent with their philosophy, for example, the isotope reactor, Afghan prisoners, the census debacle and Veteran Affairs, to name a few.

Yet, THEY GAIN IN THE POLLS!
It is just too depressing.


****ME, JOHANN****:

AMEN Peter.
A-Fucking-Men.

Stephen Harper is FUCKING FIRED.
Fired for lying.
Fired for thinking Canadians are stupid and ignorant.
Fired for shameless power grabbing.
Fired for his smug smile that hides the truth.
Fired for making me waste my time typing this shit- I should be praising my Government, not criticising it.

HARPER is FUCKING FIRED.
He's up in the Arctic today, trying to show he gives a shit about Arctic rights.
Leave him up there alone on a huge ice flow.
And since he has no problem with the seal hunt, give him a club so he can kill some seals to fucking eat.

[Johann]

Back to the bigger fallout: to the global economy, poverty and jobs --


In an ideal world, countries would pair more short-term spending and tax cuts with long-term spending cuts and tax increases. But not a single big country has figured out, politically, how to do that.

In other words, they're improvising, hoping that copying from the past and hoping this time it'll work better. They don't really know what they're doing. And they've got the economic future of the world by the balls.

Leonhardt begins:

The world’s rich countries are now conducting a dangerous experiment. They are repeating an economic policy out of the 1930s — starting to cut spending and raise taxes before a recovery is assured — and hoping today’s situation is different enough to assure a different outcome.

In effect, policy makers are betting that the private sector can make up for the withdrawal of stimulus over the next couple of years. If they’re right, they will have made a head start on closing their enormous budget deficits. If they’re wrong, they may set off a vicious new cycle, in which public spending cuts weaken the world economy and beget new private spending cuts.

On Tuesday, pessimism seemed the better bet. Stocks fell around the world, over worries about economic growth.

He goes on:

[b]As is often the case after a financial crisis, this recovery is turning out to be a choppy one. Companies kept increasing pay and hours last month, for example, but did little new hiring. On Tuesday, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence fell sharply this month.

And just as households and businesses are becoming skittish, governments are getting ready to let stimulus programs expire, the equivalent of cutting spending and raising taxes. The Senate has so far refused to pass a bill that would extend unemployment insurance or send aid to ailing state governments. Goldman Sachs economists this week described the Senate’s inaction as “an increasingly important risk to growth.”

I highly recommend reading this article, as well as scanning Paul Krugman's op-ed pieces over the past year and half, which can be accessed starting here. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html)


I re-read this and it may be the most important post in this thread Chris.

Everybody should read this & contemplate it. Thank you VERY much for these quotes and links.
I wish we could put a Filmleaf memo out to all world leaders to read it. It's that important and it's that DIRE.

But no one listens. And then when the shit hits the fan, they make excuses and point fingers and squabble and quibble and piss and moan and groan and roll over like sacks of shit.

This is REAL. The G20 was a COLOSSAL failure on so many levels.
If it takes outsiders and internet writers to point out the obvious to those who should be in the know, then you bet your fucking ballsack a Depression is looming. And looming larger than anyone imagines.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for supporting my points, which rely on Krugman and other liberal economists who don't think "deficit cuts" will resolve the economic problems. They say a holding-back policy was what made Japan's recession last a decade instead of a couple of years.

Apropos of politics, here is my list of items to consider when evaluating the new US administration. New note: today I heard it cost John McCain $21 million to buy his reelection in Arizona, and he preached elimination of "Obamacare" among other joys to his cheering supporters.

I posted this on Facebook yesterday:

Here are some of the main things that need to be done (by "Obama," or Washington under a strong leadership (does it have one?):

1--Most urgent economic steps: A- create jobs to stimulate the economy from the bottom up, B- Regulate the financial industry forcefully so another recession/crash is prevented, C- provide aid to local governments to deal with their debts so essential infrastructure and services don’t' crumble away all over the country

2-Provide a public option in health care so the people have an alternative to the insurance companeies -- which was the most important thing (and would reduce costs for everyone)

3-Close Guantanamo, and not have military tribunals, especially not of prisoners who were 15 when they committed their alleged crime, a violatioin of international law

4-Get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell ASAP (how much longer do we have to wait?)

5-Set an example in combating global warming, instead of being behind China and other world powers, committing to only a 3% reduction when a 13% or 30% one is essential

6-Take substantial action to resolve the Israel-Palsstine conflict, and back up those nice words in Cairo early in the year so they don't sound so hollow as they do now

7-Get out of Afghanistan instead of getting deeper into it (though escalating the war there was one of Obama's promises he has definitely kept)

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for supporting my points, which rely on Krugman and other liberal economists who don't think "deficit cuts" will resolve the economic problems. They say a holding-back policy was what made Japan's recession last a decade instead of a couple of years.

Apropos of politics, here is my list of items to consider when evaluating the new US administration. New note: today I heard it cost John McCain $21 million to buy his reelection in Arizona, and he preached elimination of "Obamacare" among other joys to his cheering supporters.

I posted this on Facebook yesterday:

Here are some of the main things that need to be done (by "Obama," or Washington under a strong leadership (does it have one?):

1--Most urgent economic steps: A- create jobs to stimulate the economy from the bottom up, B- Regulate the financial industry forcefully so another recession/crash is prevented, C- provide aid to local governments to deal with their debts so essential infrastructure and services don’t' crumble away all over the country

2-Provide a public option in health care so the people have an alternative to the insurance companies -- which was the most important thing (and would reduce costs for everyone)

3-Close Guantanamo, and not have military tribunals, especially not of prisoners who were 15 when they committed their alleged crime, a violation of international law

4-Get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell ASAP (how much longer do we have to wait?)

5-Set an example in combating global warming, instead of being behind China and other world powers, committing to only a 3% reduction when a 13% or 30% one is essential

6-Take substantial action to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, and back up those nice words in Cairo early in the year so they don't sound so hollow as they do now

7-Get out of Afghanistan instead of getting deeper into it (though escalating the war there is, in fact one of Obama's promises he has definitely kept: it would be one of the best ones for him to renig on)

[Johann]

It's pretty scary that "they really don't know what they're doing. And they've got the economic future of the world by the balls". Amen to that.

What's worse, digging in deep to fix known problems (LEGITIMATELY, without haste) or keep doing what you've been doing until the whole house goes up in flames and everybody's quality of life goes bye-bye?

John McCain is a sad, rich, walking corpse. He's about as "maverick" as a pony with rickets.

On your points:

1. How do you create jobs when corporations are the ones who control washington? They're the very folks who can keep that job statistic wherever they want it, no? and what jobs are they? and who would get them? These are huge questions with seemingly easy answers...
It seems like it's like attacking a mountain with nothing but a plastic fork..

2. YES. Absolutely, 100% without question GET IT DONE. It's a no-brainer. It's so painfully obviously right that I have nothing but hatred and contempt for those who don't want it. Ship those fuckers off to Mars. Those heartless *GREEDY* (yes GREEDY) idiots don't realize the common decency of such a thing.

3. I thought it was closed. What's the hold up?

4. Amen. Is this the 21st Century? Coulda fooled me...

5. Amen. But let's make that percentage 50 or 60. Taking care of the Earth should'nt even be a question.

6. Another no-brainer.

7. Another no-brainer. what is the point in throwing billions at a permanent war zone? For an ungrateful people? THERE IS NONE.
GET THE FUCK OUT OF AFGHANISTAN.

[Chris Knipp]

Glad you agree on the importance and feasibility of moving on most of these points I've listed. Back to #1, creating jobs to stimulate the economy: you asked:
How do you create jobs when corporations are the ones who control Washington? They're the very folks who can keep that job statistic wherever they want it, no? and what jobs are they? and who would get them?

Yes, corporate power in Washington is an obstacle. But this is where the executive branch can exert power, if it chooses. I'm sure you know the FDR story. Most assert that the Depression was not ended by the New Deal but by World War II, but the New Deal, though FDR did not jump into it right away and it met with much opposition, eventually helped millions make it through, and left a legacy of public works. An article (http://www.miller-mccune.com/politics/why-job-creation-agencies-stay-off-the-table-15385/)by Emily Badger on Miller-McCune, "Why Job Creation Agencies Stay Off the Table," reviews the history, and pros and cons, of government job creation to stimulate the economy. It's complicated, and of course the right is against it, but it can be done. There is plenty of money. A fraction of what is spent in Iraq and Afghanistan could provide millions of domestic jobs. Online links between "Obama" and "New Deal" you will find mostly from 2008 and 2009, not this year. Sad that a Democrat president is afraid of being linked to FDR! But spending money to create jobs and stimulate the economy was something even FDR was afraid of at first.

But the point is: Why isn't more being done, whether through local communities rather than camps, broadband network building instead of roads, something to stimulate the economy through government-initiated work programs? Getting anything through Congress is an uphill battle. This is why public action is needed. Too bad the Democrats didn't come up with an LBJ-style President, with serious clout in Congress. But the public has clout, if it just chooses to exercise it, and even if the poverty and unemployment levels are not as high as during the Great Depression.

#3 You thought Guantanamo was closed? No way. That project is on hold, and since it was announced, the abuses of prisoners have risen. A NY Times article (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/guantanamobaynavalbasecuba/index.html)of two months ago: "In Congress, resistance to closing the prison has grown, and some senators have seen few efforts by the Obama administration to overcome it." They still think the prisoners are terribly dangerous (including the then 15-year-old), and don't know where to send them. British ones were released a long time ago.
Of the 779 people who have been detained at the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, 597 have been transferred and 176 remain, according to an ongoing analysis by The New York Times. In addition, six detainees died while in custody.

#6 I would hardly call resolving the Israel-Palestine problem a "no-brainer." It's a thorny problem.

#7 (and related issues) In some ways it seems harder to see the difference between the Bush II and Obama administrations vis-à-vis the US global war machine. It seems the new administration has moved pieces around on the board and changed some of their functions rather than removing them. The very far from left wing site "Global Security" lists a recent entry (http://sitrep.globalsecurity.org/articles/100817645-afghanistan-descent-into-reali.htm) summarized thus:
The effort in Afghanistan is in danger of losing touch with reality. It is stuck in a deepening rut, rushing towards a receding objective. The effort requires that the United States find an answer to the challenge, and find it NOW, so that next year troops can be drawn down and the effort brought to some kind of conclusion. Somehow everything may turn out OK. Interesting, this comes from the opposite place but winds up talking a lot like Nir Rosen! Only he concludes we should be patient and stay the course, and Nir says its' useless, get out. A recent speaker I heard on Democracy Now said that the US perpetual war system of today is aided by the fact that this idea of "winning" any "conflict" (not war, notice) has for some time been withdrawn from use. Hardliners who still believe in the idea of "winning" want to get out when they see that "winning" is not possible. And Afghanistan, like Vietnam, is a classic case of that. Did the US "win" in Iraq? Well, the US succeeded in destroying the country's infrastructure, killing hundreds of thousands and creating a million refugees, and killing Saddam Hussein. That's an accomplishment. Results seem less dramatic in the gnarly terrain of Afghanistan.

[Johann]

The Israel-Palestine "problem" is a no brainer that it shouldn't even exist.
This is human folly through and through.

I don't know about you, but my hatred for the ignorance and stupidity of the human race is quite large.
Henry Rollins says it is healthy to have a healthy level of hate for things that deserve it.
Far too many people don't know how to employ hate properly.
Henry taught me that most people have no idea how to deal with someone directing pure hatred at them.
They freeze up. Their first reaction is "That dude's a wacko! He's unhinged". AU CONTRAIRE.

Gore Vidal was 100% correct in his assertion that no one remembers anything on Monday morning.
Clean slate. Blank brains.
I'm so fuckin' tired of stupidity. And I'm bombarded with it every waking moment it seems.
How does one simply "live with" such fucked up people?
99.9% of the people on this planet don't know what the fuck they're doing from one moment to the next.
And the futility of solving this dilemma is so fucking gargantuan that one just surrenders.
I actually long ago gave up trying to understand why the human race always chooses the fucked up road.
Leaders and huge corporations get paid big fuckin' bucks to erode the planets' eco-system, destroy belief in faith, honesty and decency and make giant strides to keep wars going at full tilt (all for money)

If a man like Hunter Thompson eats his own bullet in the name of American disgrace, then everybody needs to wake the fuck up.
So far this century has been quite horrifically repulsive to live in.

Most "culture" today is imaginary. Any real culture is deep underground and personal, far from the madding crowd.

Justin Bieber making millions for selling steaming turds of CD's is enough to put a revolver in your mouth.
Reality TV makes me want to puke.
Movies are getting worse every year (with a scant few exceptions).
The internet, for all it's positives, is actually another bonanza for exploiting weakness in the human condition.
If they can make money off you, they will. And they do.

The great crime of the human race is creating "invisiblity" with regards to money.
Nobody knows what everybody else is doing. (Sometimes we do know, but then what? The damage is done and Bernie Madoff eats and sleeps in prison until he expires...Yay.) But maybe Madoff's a Hero- when asked about his victims he said "FUCK MY VICTIMS. THEY WERE GREEDY".

[Chris Knipp]

Sounds like you''re having a bad day. Don't know what you're getting at in that last post.

Back to #1: The administration may be making more significant action to create jobs than I acknowledged. Figures are disputed though.

A Wall Street Journal article (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/) shows other president's record. Bush was the worst; Clinton the best.

[Johann]

What was in that coffee?

Ken Russell's THE DEVILS sunday night!
UNCUT awesome.

[Chris Knipp]

I'll stay tuned.

[Johann]

I watched the Chief of Police for the City of Toronto last night on a local channel LIE THROUGH HIS TEETH.

Bill Blair was confronted with hard facts and memos from the OPP about the "inconsistencies" that the Toronto Police deluged the G20 with by an unrelenting host (whose name escapes me) and the Chief just did not know what to do. So he lied. He spun it.
SPUN IT HARD.

The fallout on the G20 is finally getting some serious notice. The Chief said a few weeks ago that officers on his force who acted out of line could not be identified (they had no name tags??) so the Toronto Star decided to post front-page close-ups of said officers with the headline "DOES THIS HELP, CHIEF?" When asked about the headlines, Blair just dismissed it and said that the important issue is that Toronto police acted "in honesty" during the G20.

Blair's resignation has been demanded for weeks now and he refuses to step down.
I'm still royally pissed off about that fuckin' "SUMMIT"
It was one of the most sickening things I've ever witnessed.
Stephen Harper should be fired for it, Chief Bill Blair should be fired for it, and Premier Dalton (Fuckhead) McGuinty should be fired for it.
All three.
McGuinty won't comment on the G20, except to say that all was well.
Harper won't comment on it either, except to say that all was well.
He was rockin' the house at the NAC this week, singing shitty songs to his base of Conservative Clowns for a Christmas party.
How much more embarrassing can this Prime Minister be?
It's so revolting my liver hurts...

The civil liberties that were STOMPED ON last June need swift punishment meted out for the ignorant and oblivious "leaders" who organized this travesty.

"If the civil liberties of everyone are not safe, then the civil liberties of NO ONE are safe"- that's something I'd like to tattoo on Stephen Harper's forehead. But for a power-grabber like him, that quote might as well be from a martian.

The Ontario Ombudsman said this week that The G20 is an event in Toronto that will LIVE IN INFAMY

Indeed.
Let's proscecute.
Put some stank on it.

[Chris Knipp]

Kind of a lot like the US up there, isn't it?

And like where the US is, such as the UN climate conference in Cancun, just over, where it seems US cops hassled demonstrators and journalists who covered demonstrations found their passes re revoked.