Matt Gurney: ‘Supporting documents’ for CBC’s bombshell NSA scoop don’t support the story much at all

...There is no proof of “widespread surveillance.” Clearly, an operation was being conducted. But no hint whatsoever is given to how widespread the surveillance was, or was not. You can’t tell from this document.

Further, there is nothing to back the CBC’s claim that the “spying at the Toronto summit in 2010 fits a pattern of economic and political espionage by [the NSA] and its partners [in Canada].” Beyond the generic statement that the NSA “is actively assisting executive protection and event security, and providing support to policymakers,” the document contains nothing approximating an even semi-complete operational plan or list of objectives that could then be fitted into any broader pattern. The closest we come is a generic list of services the NSA could offer, and the document itself notes the list is not exhaustive.

Indeed, it’s only clear upon rereading how little information the Nov. 27 report ever really claimed came from the NSA documents...

Read it all at NATIONAL POST 

Man suing Toronto police for G-20 beating was carrying ingredients for a Molotov cocktail

TORONTO — Prosecutors and defence lawyers for a Toronto Police officer accused of assaulting a man at the G20 protests three years ago appear to agree the man’s red water bottle is a key to the case.

In a three-page “agreed statement of facts” introduced Monday at the start of Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani’s trial, all the lawyers signed off on a paragraph which reads: “Adam Nobody dropped a red water bottle behind the police line. Police saw him drop it and seized a red water bottle.”

Forensic tests later showed the liquid inside was composed of ethanol, water and a trace of toluene, and was easily ignited.

Vile, violent American scum to be extradited to Canada to face G20 charges

I hope I didn't violate a Hate Speech law by inciting hatred of Yankees.

Some of my best friends are Americans. But not these

Toronto Star's Zerb lauds violent anarchist criminal halfwit - gee, who'd have thunk that?

Let’s begin with the title where she labels Hiscocks a “G20 Activist”. To label Hiscocks as an activist is to insult all of the people who do hard work to make change in this world. She was convicted for the same activities as Alex Hundert- training people to damage buildings and stores in downtown Toronto, and how to ‘de-arrest’ people from the police. The word for what Hiscocks did was ‘criminal’, not ‘activist’.     

Next, without questioning her poor logic, Zerbisias explains Hiscock’s complaint how she was unfairly put into maximum security without any sort of an explanation why. Are they kidding? Hiscocks was put into maximum security because she’s an evangelist for promoting violence and chaos on the streets of Toronto. It’s quite simple really- your average Grade Five student could understand this.    

Hiscocks crossed a serious line by teaching and encouraging kids to ‘de-arrest’ each other- a violent act by its definition.  She put a lot of young and impressionable kids at risk. She’s is in her late 30′s, the people she was training were often just out of high school. Encouraging younger people to getting into physical confrontations with the police is the height of irresponsibility.

Anti-G20 activist sentenced to jail for eating children after luring them to her gingerbread house

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Well, not really. She just looks like the sort that would do that (Warning: Graphic Image)

G20 protest ringleader Amanda Hiscocks says she has no respect for the legal system, and her supporters demonstrated that in spades Friday, throwing a Toronto courthouse into chaos for nearly two hours before the accused was jailed for 16 months.

..Judge Budzinski, who repeatedly interjected during her address, suggested Ms. Hiscocks was hypocritical to denounce elitism while advocating a method of protest that violently invaded public space and silenced opposing views.  “The group itself [was] becoming an elite and taking over the city… Violence distracted from any legitimacy in the message,” he said of the G20 riots.

Here is Amanda Hiscocks' statement she prepared to be read at her sentencing.

She is a volunteer coordinator at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Public Interest Research Group. The various Canadian University so-called "Public Interest Research Groups" are bodies that students are, with the complicity of radical-dominated, professional paid student union leaders, forced to fund. The Public Interest Research Groups are hotbeds of fanaticism that celebrate violence and demonstrate little regard for democratic values.

If only our Immigration officials followed the lead of their US counterparts

Syed Hussan of the nutcase illegal alien advocacy group No One is Illegal is an immigrant to Canada.

Syed Hussan shows his gratitude
for being allowed to immigrate to Canada

His appreciation for this country providing him a safe haven takes many forms, including  disrespecting peace officers and his organization's efforts to help others circumvent Canada's generous immigration policies that he was able to use to his advantage, as well as activity that led to his arrest for being an organizer of violent protests during last year's G20 conference in Toronto,

He wrote a column recently at rabble.ca complaining of his treatment by US Homeland Security and Customs and Immigration agents. They held him at the border for 9 hours and then turned him back.

It shouldn't have taken as long as 9 hours, but Immigration Canada could learn a lesson there.

More domestic terrorism from the Canadian Looney Left? The New Socialist has no problem with the morality of violence as long as it's an effective tactic

"if we remain too fixated on the optics of staying ‘peaceful’ – even in the face of unparalleled state violence, such as was witnessed during the G20 Summit – how can we realistically hope to advance social change?" Ali Mustafa


In an article in the New Socialist titled "Where Do We Go from Here? The G20 Summit, Black Bloc, and the Canadian Left" one Ali Mustafa is concerned about the direction the Canadian Left is taking and its continued inability to "radicalize" the masses.

If routine demonstrations consistently fall short of the radicalism that many among us would like to see, it is not necessarily due to any lack of political will on the part of organizers but more likely because the objective conditions at present are simply not conducive to do much else. Yet if we remain too fixated on the optics of staying ‘peaceful’ – even in the face of unparalleled state violence, such as was witnessed during the G20 Summit – how can we realistically hope to advance social change? The overall failure of the Canadian Left to meaningfully engage the broader public (and oftentimes each other) inevitably limits the range of ‘tactics’ that will be available to us. As a result, the basic goal of the Canadian Left so far has been not so much social change but simply looking to avoid the loss of any more ground politically (the labour movement being a particularly clear example of this troubling trend).



By contrast, whether targeted property attacks amount to a morally legitimate ‘tactic’ is not the question per se but rather, under the given balance of forces, are they at all strategically effective?

I came across this article through a link at rabble.ca. Of course radicalization might become even more difficult if the assessment by Linda "Paranoid" McQuaig is correct that "the media already blasts Canadians with a steady chorus of right-wing ideas" and it's going to get even worse when Quebecor launches its conservative news channel.

You can read the full article at The New Socialist

Scenes from a Protest

There was a protest yesterday afternoon at the north part of Queen's Park, in front of the Ontario Legislature, where a modest-sized crowd of about 1100 demanded an inquiry into police tactics during the G20 convention in Toronto.

The usual suspects were there, with the MC being Judy Rebick, who lead the crowd in inane chants that sounded like they were composed by an uncreative 8 year old.. (video uploaded through Blogger/click the play button):

One of the chants Judy taught the crowd was indicative of the aged activist's lost grip on relevance: "I've got a Vietnam-like chant I want to teach you: one, two, three, four, we won't take this shit no more!'

A few in the crowd muttered it a couple of times at Rebick's prompting from the microphone, but most seemed embarrassed by her juvenile composition and her pathetic attempt to invoke the dated single victory of her generation of activists. A victory that predated the birth of most of the crowd.

But not all. Four members of The Raging Grannies made an appearance. They weren't exactly raging, but they were very nice and grandmotherly. Now if they really want to be popular, they should bake some cookies and bring them to their next protest.

Some people let their freak flags fly..

There was a funny incident were I spoke with the guy carrying this classic American Revolutionary Flag:

I jokingly asked him why he was carrying a Tea Party flag, and he explained he was up from the US and

happy acknowledged that indeed the Tea Party uses the "Don't Tread on Me" flag as a symbol of opposition to excessive government control.

We were overheard by some aggressive young lesbians in their 20's who became agitated at the presence of a Tea Party symbol at their socialist action against the oppressive forces of capitalism. I explained to them that the flag was originally created during the American Revolution as a symbol of resistance to state tyranny, and then the whole notion of it being 'American' bothered them, but from that point, they confined their distaste to relatively muted grumblings.

The would-be rabble-rousers speaking on-stage spent a lot of time trying to inflame Gay passions against the police and "capitalist oppression" and there did appear to be an over-representation of the sort of crowd one would expect at a "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" meeting.

Speaking of which, I for one am always impressed when a woman has thicker and darker leg hair than me. Quite a few women at the protest outdid me in that regard, such as the one with the white top in the picture to the left, whose calves you can see in the close up below. (Warning: I hope you're not eating while you look at this)

And as far as other familiar faces go, these people were here..

 As you can see, KAIROS was critically hurt by having their federal funding eliminated. Their sign really sucked.

But some people who haven't spent the last few years relying on government largesse were able to use their ingenuity and talent to come up with more imaginative efforts:

 

In fact, with the question tree (above), its creator tried so hard to get so many points across, it all became indiscernible and irrelevant. Perhaps a good metaphor for the entire protest.

I did really enjoy this group of three from the paper puppet theatre, who got more media attention with their side show on the lawn than most of the speakers on stage.  While I wouldn't presume to challenge their sincerity, they didn't seem to have a comprehensive grasp on the reason for the protest and I wouldn't be surprised if their appearance was more clever marketing than outrage at the police.

The police who were present at the Queen's Park portion of the protest I saw numbered all of seven. Three on bicycles and four on horseback. They were remarkably good-humoured, particularly considering they had to endure a hot afternoon of ferocious denouncements of their profession.

The grand finale to the event was when Syd Ryan took the stage. The Labor leader gave a performance of frantic demagoguery. Hysterically screaming into the microphone in a frenzy of fear-mongering, Ryan made ludicrous comparisons between the police in Toronto during the G20 and British military police killings in Northern Ireland in the 20th Century. Here are some of his shrill theatrics I caught on video

(video uploaded through Blogger/click the play button):

The numbers of the assembled group formed but a fraction of the numbers attending the upbeat Afrofest, occurring simultaneously on the other side of the Legislature Building, in North Queen's Park. This protest event was populated in about an even mix of two age groups, middle-aged verging on senior citizens and people of about student age in their late teens/early twenties. Looking out upon the inconsiderable gathering forming the anti-police protest, one thought struck me more than any other, and maybe you can guess what it was from looking at these last two pictures and the ones that preceded:

This event had speaker after speaker ferociously denounce "state and police oppression" and "capitalism" and a few other expected things with a religious fervor. In fact, at times the event took on the appearance of a bizarre parody of an evangelical church service with some of the audience passionately parroting the last words of the speakers' sentences.

Speaker: "We endure this oppression every day!"

Followers: "Every day!" 

But what really struck me, looking out at, as well as mingling with and listening to the crowd and the speakers who were denouncing class, race, sexual and political oppression, was that here, in the heart of the heart of the most multicultural city in the world, in one of the freest societies to have ever been, that virtually one hundred per cent of this gathering was comprised of white, middle-class socialists.

There are legitimate concerns about state abuse of power during the G20 convention in Toronto. They merit serious investigation. Unfortunately, the protesters most worked up about the issue are the ones most likely to undermine the credibility of these concerns.

And with that, I decided I'd had enough pontificating for one afternoon and went to the fun side of Queen's Park to enjoy Afrofest with real people. I'll put some of those pictures up later.

All photos and video in this post © 2010 Eye on a Crazy Planet

The funniest YouTube G20 incident captured so far is...

UPDATE: And later...






UPDATE 2:  It just occurred to me, this guy reminds me of the comedian, Rip Taylor:

Now remember kids, it's not nice to rape your fellow protesters

It appears there was a great deal of concern among the people at the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, one of the organizational clearing houses for G20 protests, about protesters sexually assaulting each other.

Given some of the violence perpetrated by a number of the protesters, these seem to be valid concerns.

They had a rather detailed sexual assault policy in place, which, strangely, did not involve calling the police in the event of a sexual assault.

The protesters must be concerned that the agents of state oppression (police) who are actually trained to investigate and bring charges regarding these offences might not understand the actual causes of sexual assault, which are stated as:

"Sexual assault is rooted in broader systems of oppression such as patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, transphobia, homophobia, and colonialism – and is not separable from them in how and why it is perpetrated, experienced and dealt with."

I'll bet you never knew that capitalism, transphobia, patriarchy and colonialism etc. were the causes of sexual assault in North America.

One marvels at the delusions under which these people operate.

YouTube Scenes of Violence from the G20 in Toronto

Here is a collection of videos showing some of what happened over the weekend:

A Peaceful G20 Protest

The angry anti-globalization crazies could learn from the transgender protesters.

This was a fun, non-violent protest, unless you count the off-key singing as an assault on the ears.