The Star Phoenix gets it

via

Its taken a long time, but the meaning of Canada's G20 tragedy finally seem to be sinking in.
Here's today's Star Phoenix editorial:

But as embarrassing as Vancouver was to the nation, what happened in Toronto is much more serious and frightening.
Although the internally prepared report by the Toronto police service, which was released late Thursday, owned up to errors, it is a long way from accepting responsibility for the mayhem that overtook Canada's largest city during the G-20 meeting last year.
It wasn't just the downtown businesses and the burned police cars that hurt Canada's reputation. It wasn't even that the police willfully pulled back during the worst of the riots, presumably so they could corral, 'kettle,' arrest and beat nonviolent demonstrators who were a safe distance away.
What hurt Canada the most that weekend a year ago is the blow that was dealt to our constitutionally protected rights to assembly and speech.

Yes. That's what we were complaining about a year ago.
Of course, the editorial goes on to blame "poorly trained police" who "lacked the fundamental understanding of Canada's tradition of human rights", so they still don't understand that this attitude emanated from the top, not the bottom.

Great line of the day

Orwell's Bastard discusses the Toronto police pity-party G20 report:

So Bill Blair's had some time to reflect on last summer's G20 clusterfuck, and good and loyal servant he is, he's graced us with a report. Among other things, he praises his officers for "facing danger and extreme provocation."
Indeed. Takes a special kind of guts to stand your ground in the face of a small woman blowing soap bubbles.

Emphasis mine.

Homophobe mayor

Marcus Gee rails against Rob Ford's decision to be the first Toronto mayor in 20 years to skip the gay pride parade:

Since becoming mayor, he has spurned every attempt by the gay community to reach out to him. He declined to come to a ceremony marking an international day opposing homophobia. He turned down many invitations from gay and lesbian groups to attend next week’s ceremonial flag raising for Pride Week, assigning city council’s Speaker to go in his place. It took him months even to do something as simple as sign the Pride Week proclamation.
Whether he means to or not, he has left the unfortunate and probably mistaken impression that he has a problem with gays and lesbians.

No, Marcus, it's not a mistake -- he DOES have a problem with gays and lesbians, like all homophobes do.

It's a cookbook!

The Conservatives are looking for a bureaucrat to lead the RCMP, not a policeman.
Because everybody knows how well respected bureaucrats are -- by the Harper government, by rank and file police officers, and by the Canadian public.
Its like watching Lloyd Bochner get on the spacecraft.

Milking it

Hmmm -- a low-key story in April about 17 Chinese cows with extra lysozyme enzymes in their milk has now morphed into a worldwide sensation about how a herd of 300 cloned cattle are producing near-human breast milk.
Is this a marvelous investment opportunity or what?

Two years?

In 2004, almost 5 million Canadians voted Liberal.
In 2011, only 2.7 million voted Liberal.
By the time Liberals finally choose a new leader in 2013, I wouldn't be surprised if there are at least another million Canadians can't remember who this party is or why they ever voted for them.
Why are they waiting so long? It seems because they're afraid of the Harper Conservatives:

They were persuaded [to wait] by former leader Stephane Dion, who reminded delegates of the hatchet jobs done on him and Ignatieff by relentless Tory attack ads. Liberals, he argued, must not choose a new leader until they've amassed the money and organization needed to fight back against the inevitable Tory onslaught . . . If Liberals choose a leader before undertaking any rebuilding, Dion said, "The leader will be without any protection facing the Conservatives."

And Dion also says:

"the only good news of this disastrous (election) result" is that Liberals have plenty of time to pull themselves back together.

How naive, to believe that Harper actually won't call another federal election until 2015.

Vancouver riot -- video game edition

The Tyee finds the most bizarre "coverage" of the Vancouver riot by the NMA News agency from Taiwan:

Great line of the day

New York State senator Roy MacDonald is one of the Republicans who is going to vote in support of gay marriage:

“You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing,” McDonald, 64, told reporters. “You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing.
“I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I'm trying to do the right thing, and that's where I'm going with this.”

Next year country

Thanks, Canucks, for giving us a great series.

Well, duh!

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say.
A million here, a million there, pretty soon it adds up to some real money!

Nice to see

Nice to see the United States and Canada united at last -- in our hatred of the Miami Heat and our joy at the Mavericks win!

Great line of the day

Steve V writes about Harper's delusional foreign policy hubris:

Irrelevant on climate change, non existent at the United Nations, playing NO role in key diplomatic initiatives, retreating from traditional development and aid, apart from the military angle, we've fallen badly in the eyes of the world. . . . while Conservatives wave the flag at home, enamoured with our supposed international greatness, remember abroad that flag isn't placed so prominently on backpacks anymore, and that's far more telling than rhetoric.

Lighten up

Oh, come on, folks. He can't fly commercial, but if Stephen Harper wants to take his daughter to watch a Stanley Cup game, why shouldn't he?
If we had had the chance to do that with our kids, we would have done it in a heartbeat, and it would have been an unforgettable memory.
Just too bad it had to be THAT game.

Try to imagine how little I care

Some days its difficult to find something in the news I care about.
Because one thing I don't really care about very much is whether consenting adults have affairs, talk sexy on the phone, take sexy photos of themselves or their lovers, consume Viagra, bathe in green tea, advertise on Craigs List, or otherwise indulge themselves in odd or embarrassing scenarios.
As long as its not abusive or exploitative or illegal, their behaviour is really of concern only to the spouse and the children, even when its one of those awful erotic asphyxiation deaths.
That goes for Anthony Weiner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, George Rekers, Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, David Vittner, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Clinton, David Carradine, Sharon Smith, Princess Diana, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt . . .
Glenn Greenwald raises a good point about the Weiner media circus:

... the pretense of substantive relevance (which, lame though it was in prior scandals, was at least maintained) has been more or less brazenly dispensed with here. . . . This is just pure mucking around in the private, consensual, unquestionably legal private sexual affairs of someone for partisan gain, voyeuristic fun and the soothing fulfillment of judgmental condemnation. And in that regard, it sets a new standard: the private sexual activities of public figures -- down to the most intimate details -- are now inherently newsworthy, without the need for any pretense of other relevance.

“Please help me feel safe in this city again”

The Morden inquiry into the G20 debacle is going to be the only official public review we will ever have about what happened in Toronto a year ago.

The review, launched by the police services board last September, aims to tackle questions that remain on the minds of many Torontonians almost a year after the summit last June: Who gave the orders that led to the “kettling” of peaceful protesters at Queen St. and Spadina Ave.? Why did police disperse demonstrators from the designated “Free Speech Zone” at Queen’s Park? Who is responsible for the miscommunication of the so-called five-metre fence law?
It will also examine the issue of officers removing badges, the conditions at the temporary G20 jail on Eastern Ave., and the police board’s role in planning and oversight of police operations for other large-scale events.

Just so nobody forgets what it was like:

And how terrified the police were of the DFHs: