It has become quite clear that the only “rights” one possesses in a “liberal democracy” are the right to be abused and violated; the right to be groped and fondled; and the right to be arbitrarily detained and charged. In and around 900 peaceful protestors have been arrested in Toronto just over the past 3 days. For more on this, kindly refer to the video above.
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27 June 2010
Source: Comment is Free
It’s not just the $1bn policing; the failure to tackle the financial crisis or climate change exposes a forum without credibility
To a foreigner, the Canadian police are a confusing bunch. With Toronto locked down for the G20 summit, several of them have been cycling around the deserted streets on mountain bikes presenting what we would see as the very picture of community policing. Yet side by side with this benign image is an intimidating, militarised presence that many Canadians feel has been deliberately cultivated in order to undermine their right to protest against the G20 and its damaging impacts.
The security operation on the streets of Toronto has provided Canadians with the greatest single talking point of the G20 gathering this weekend. Many locals are furious at the $1bn price tag for policing a summit which they never wanted to host in the first place. As John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty pointed out, that same money could have paid for five years of the provincial food supplement programme that has just been scrapped in the latest round of austerity cuts.
The high level of militarisation that has been witnessed over the past couple of days has also been a major talking point, as Canadians are not accustomed to seeing such weaponry being so openly paraded at civil demonstrations. One small protest against poverty and homelessness in Toronto itself was quickly surrounded by vast numbers of police in full riot gear, including mounted police. More chilling still was the visible presence of heavily armed officers touting tear gas rifles and other firearms; police have also confirmed firing plastic bullets and pepper spray capsules at demonstrators on Saturday night.
Many Canadians have become suspicious of police tactics since (more…)
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7 June 2010
Source: The Toronto Star
OTTAWA—A fake $2 million indoor lake by the Gardiner Expressway is the latest example of the Conservative government’s summit spending spree that some say could hit $2 billion by the time world leaders fly out of Toronto on June 27.
Dogged by the worst deficit in Canadian history, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is throwing around money it doesn’t have on summits in Huntsville and Toronto that are ironically devoted to coming to grips with huge government debt.
“This is supposed to be a meeting about dealing with the international debt crisis. We’re supposed to be leading the world in showing austerity and we invite them to our doorsteps to sit around a $2 million fake lake — it’s pretty ridiculous,” said Liberal MP Mark Holland.
Opposition critics on Monday raised several questionable expenditures in the House of Commons — from a new washroom dozens of kilometres away from the Hunstville G8 summit to paved roads to nowhere. Even though construction hasn’t started yet, it is the phony lake complete with Muskoka chairs, mocked-up canoes and changing scenery at the CNE grounds that captured the most attention.
“Whether we are talking about a $100,000 gazebo, a $200,000 welcome sign, a $300,000 toilet, a $400,000 steamboat refit, $20 million for fiddlers and flowers, or a sidewalk to nowhere that is 84 kilometres away, the wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money by the government for 18 hours of meetings is seemingly endless, Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner told MPs. “But now, la pièce de résistance, there is a $2 million phony Muskoka lake for journalists.”
“As Canadians continue to tighten their belts to deal with rising interest rates, as thousands remain unemployed, the Conservative government is blowing money on projects that in most cases have nothing to do with the G8 or (more…)
Filed under: "canada", Caribbean, Central America, Global, Indian Subcontinent, Local, South America
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An open letter from Barrio Nuevo, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity, Coalicion Venezuela Estamos Contigo, Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance, Grupo Cultural Victor Jara.
31 May 2010 – Toronto
We, organizations in Canada that have been working for years in solidarity with the Bolivarian process and have been responding to misinformation against Venezuela and the revolution. We have also been strong admirers of Eva Golinger’s standard of investigative journalism and advocacy against imperialism. Today we are compelled to address what appears to be some misinformation in her piece titled ‘Sri Lanka’, printed in the Correo del Orinoco on Saturday, May 15.
Eva Golinger’s article makes a number of claims, including that the Canadian Humanitarian Appeal for the Relief of Tamils (HART) is a front group for the now defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
This is a bold , not to mention dangerous and ultimately false assertion.
As organizations on the ground here in Canada, we know this organization to be largely first generation youth of Tamil origin who have been working tirelessly to educate people on the situation of the 300,000 internally displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka as well as those in forced migration. The charge that Eva Golinger is labelling on them is the same that our own (Canadian) government … the reactionary government of Stephen Harper … has been looking to place on them for some time now.
In Canada, where groups like the LTTE are categorized as terrorist — just as they categorize Hamas in Gaza, the FARC in Colombia and many other groups globally — carries what could be a lengthy jail sentence. It is disappointing to see such un-validated claims considering Eva Golinger’s record of (more…)
