Well, its about time. Ontario ombudsman Andre Martin describes the G20 arrests as "the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history". Joe Warmington says Toronto police chief Bill Blair should resign.
...because of this phony secret law that was “likely unconstitutional,” people were beaten, punched, arrested, detained, strip searched, humiliated and shot at with rubber bullets, tear gas or pepper spray. History will show the real criminals got away. And then police turned on their own citizens.... It is a disgrace that before Marin’s report, not one public official questioned any of this obscene abuse of policing privilege by people who are employed by us to uphold the law.
Although there were many heroes that awful day, one man stands out. His name was Vince Coleman, and he was a railway dispatcher ashore. When he learned of the burning ammunition ship, he realized that a loaded passenger train was on it's way to the waterfront depot, and would be there in a few minutes. Instead of saving himself, he ran to the telegraph key and quickly tapped out "Stop trains. Munitions ship on fire. Approaching Pier 6. Goodbye." He was killed a few seconds later in the explosion, and is credited with saving at least 300 lives.
I finally updated my blogroll with some new links over to the right there. Moved the previous new links into the other lists. By the way, there's a big flap going on at Daily Kos about Blackwaterdog and progressive sites that are supportive of Obama vs progressive sites that are not. Oh, well, at least Balloon Juice is safe -- oh, wait...
...those jealously protective of the privileges of unaccountable state power will tell us that people will die if we can read their email, but so what? Different people, maybe more people, will die if we can't.
Just when I am convinced about how predictable everything is, something like this happens: NASA Finds New Life Form. There is still wonder in the world.
With all the police violence at the G20 protests, this video finally seems to have triggered the media's gag reflex:
This is the video which Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said must have been tampered with to delete some supposedly awful thing done by Adam Nobody. So now the Special Investigations Unit is reopening its investigation. The National Post editorial board writes:
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair ... suggests the few seconds of footage missing from the video of Mr. Nobody’s arrest “very likely … sheds light on why the man was arrested, and why force was used.” OK. But he doesn’t know, and we can’t help noticing he doesn’t seem very interested in finding out. In any event, last we checked, freedom from police brutality is not a right Canadians waive while being arrested.
The Nobody video shows a half-dozen officers arresting him; yet no one can identify the officer throwing the punches, and a bogus badge number was written on the arrest sheet. This looks like police shielding themselves, before, during and after behaving badly. It’s worrisome. And indefensible.
We are long-time supporters of Chief Blair . . . We have also said there shouldn’t be a full inquiry into policing at the G20. But Blair looks like a scrambling man spinning stories. It makes us think he’s hiding something. A police source told the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington, “The chief has lost the room.” On this one, the chief has lost us.
And maybe we're all realizing now that the police violence at the G20 protests was more than just a few "bad apples" In today's testimony to the Public Safety Committee, Mike Leitold, a lawyer with the Law Union of Ontario, described the broader pattern of illegal searches and harassment of activists in advance of the G20:
“We received reports leading up to the demonstrations” of 29 instances involving visits by RCMP officers to the work places, schools or homes of protest organizers, he said. In the week leading up to the G20, he said, the Law Union received dozens of reports of young people being surrounded by armed police while walking down the street in Toronto and forced to undergo searches “without reasonable grounds” by the officers. Leitold said the police also repeatedly cited “fictitious” powers to justify questionable searches during the summit. An inquiry should find out who ordered what he described as a “blatant pattern of bad-faith searches” by police and “a pattern of proactive targeting of activists that began well in advance of Saturday, June 26.” He also raised concerns about the use of “excessive force” by police during demonstrations at Queen’s Park and what he said was the breach of rights of those who were detained, including their inability in many cases to access a lawyer quickly or to be brought before a judge “in a timely manner.” It’s vital to find out how this happened and who directed police conduct during the G20, Leitold said.
You know, I read a couple of stories about this type of thuggish police behaviour toward protesters prior to the Vancouver Olympics. Maybe its more than a pattern, its a procedure. Is Scary Cop Lady the new face of Canadian policing?
Well, at least the Liberal win in Winnipeg North should help to derail the developing narrative that Ignatieff is losing by-elections -- though some will still cling to it.
As much as I disagree with using recalls to try to punish politicians for being politicians and voting their party line -- that's what elections are for -- I can understand why people in BC are very angry about this kind of ridiculous stuff too:
Elections BC’s drafting of new recall rules after anti-HST organizers had already submitted their petition against a Vancouver Island MLA reeks of incompetence and “amateur hour,” says a political scientist.
What do they think, that they can stop these recalls by nitpicking the petitions? It's just bizarre. If I ran the circus, Gordon Campbell would be gone tomorrow, and the HST would be gone the day after that, and then everybody in BC could just take a vacation from politics until after Christmas. But no, the BC Liberals are determined to let a stupid HST decision destroy their party. They are going to let Campbell stay and stay and stay, and they going to continue to argue and argue and argue about how great the HST is really, and meanwhile dozens of their MLAs are going to be embroiled in recall campaigns....at some point, don't you think someone would call a halt? BC politics, still crazy after all these years.
In the majority of the cases, the officers accused of police brutality exercised their right to refuse to be interviewed by the agency. The SIU said that it was difficult to prove any criminal liability in the cases because many of the officers could not be identified, because they weren't wearing badge numbers and were wearing similar-looking clothing. In one case, the agency concluded that a 27-year-old man who sustained an eye fracture during a scuffle was the victim of force used by a police officer. The same officer was believed to have arrested the man, but when the agency went to look up the police report, they found the badge number that was recorded to not exist.
Why is Harper afraid of a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan? Because there's obviously something he's not telling you and a debate would require someone to answer some very embarrassing questions.
There is something anti-democratic, backroom, end around, to this whole affair. No matter the rationalizations, the stench is there and it is very, very real. It has become even more bizarre now, that we have people lauding this process and bastardizing the word "bi-partisan". Frankly, it's a joke at this point to say the Liberals support this Afghanistan extension. As a matter of fact, it looks like most Liberal MP's don't, which explains the detour tactics employed ...
POGGE notes "this ode to Bob Rae" from this morning's Globe and Mail, and says:
What's described here is a conscious attempt to avoid parliament and the people. The article celebrates a process specifically designed to ignore public opinion and get the deal done, or as close to done as possible, before the public even knows what's going on. We've been rendered impotent and irrelevant by our own elected representatives and this article glorifies it.
And the next election, all these politicians will be pontificating about how important it is that the public be engaged with the political process and come out to vote.
...despite the fact that he spent the first two years of his presidency doing back flips to get even one Republican to vote for his program, even as they demonized him as a socialist and a coward, he is assuming responsibility for the failure and earnestly promising to do better. And just like before, when the Republicans rebuff his every gesture, the American people will see someone who is unable to fulfill his promises and will blame this failure for all their problems. If Obama wanted to be like Gandhi or Jesus he should have started a movement or a religion instead of becoming a politician. Politics is about persuasion and power, not transcending human nature. He's going to lose in two years if he doesn't start using the power of his office to fix this economy instead of moping around about "tone." If he doesn't fight, the only politicians the voters will see fighting for them are the Tea Partiers.
Americans hate losers. Voters in other nations will sometimes give a politician another election to prove himself. Americans will not.
