Ontario's 3 Union Boss Stooges

The anarchists have taken the traditional labour role taken by the Mafia and biker gangs in the past- they’re simply criminal muscle to do the dirty work the rank and file don’t have the resolution to do themselves. The only real difference between what happens now and the tactics of the past is that the optics are different. In an increasingly transparent deception, anarchists use phrases like ‘social justice’ or ‘anti-fascist’ to cover their dark aspirations.

Many unions hide behind a the same veil of cognitive dissonance . It’s not the rank & file- most of them would be seriously shocked and angered if they knew what’s happening with their money. It’s the Trotskyite and other pro-violence executives who are behind the problem- they all too often use union resources to promote their partisan political activities. In January Sid Ryan, who’s closely tied with the NDP, openly admitted this- saying that the labour movement will no longer have peace with Ontario Liberals.

At Thursday’s Rally Sid Ryan, Tony DePaulo of the Steelworker’s Union, and Ken Lewenza of the Canadian Auto Workers all made very passionate speeches, and all three yelled out complaints that the cops were doing their jobs- Ryan, in particular, has a history of angry tirades towards the police. But then, only moments later, Ryan and Lewenza  start getting into a pushing match with the police- screaming at them while trying to block a privately owned road.

Read the whole article at GenuineWitty 

The liars and bullies behind last week's Ontario Liberal convention protest

Last Saturday was the “Rally For Rights And Democracy” in Toronto. It was organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour- Sid Ryan was the major star of the day. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) had a major presence, as did the Steelworkers, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), teacher’s unions, and the notorious Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

Most of the people were decent folk, union members who flocked together to defend their (enviable) privilege.

Read the rest of this great report by Greg at GenuineWitty

News Flash: Occupy Toronto filled with mentally ill people who show incredibly bad judgement

It's no secret that the "Occupy Toronto" encampment at St. James Park is largely populated by mentally ill people that are being manipulated by the fanatics of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and their Union financiers.

But what is curious is the extent of this manipulation and the terrible judgement being demonstrated by both the occupants and those who pretend to be concerned for their well-being.

The muddy, cold exposure of the environment at Occupy Toronto is not one of respite. Imagine an outdoor asylum run by lunatics and that is what you'll find in St. James Park.

A reporter for rabble.ca, a radical neo-Marxist propaganda website which is heavily invested in the "Occupation movement," interviewed a few of the squatters. These types of interviews are particularly revealing because the subjects disclose a lot more to people they perceive as being sympathetic than they do to people in the established mainstream media .

Katie Toth wrote for rabble.ca describing the accounts of  some of Occupy Toronto's people with serious psychiatric issues:

Tamara Dippel is a participant in Occupy Toronto who identifies as having mental health issues including social anxiety.

"What people don't realize about what's going on is people like me and others who have illnesses are putting our lives on the line," she says. "We know we can't handle things the way other people can."

Dippel says she's drawn to Occupy Toronto because she sees problems with the current economic system. She's now concerned about the lack of stability that could result from an eviction, especially for those with mental health issues.

"I'm really worried about the mental health of people here," she says. "These people are very vulnerable. We have a hard time handling conflict and we have a hard time handling stress."

It would seem obvious that someone who has a "hard time" handling stress and conflict might not be doing themselves a favor illegally camping out in a public park in a pointless protest that is inviting an inevitable conflict with neighbours, police and the municipality.  And yet they are guided to remain by union and activist strategists who see a benefit to their organizations from the conflict.

Toth provides the account of another mentally ill occupier:

"Right now there's really no other place to turn," he says. "A lot of them have been turned away from mental institutions because apparently they're not mentally unstable enough. And that's not true." 

He describes the positive support he's experienced. 

"Here, everyone is accepted no matter what their mental health situation is," says Barker. "We try to help everybody out." 

Barker, who identifies as having multiple personality disorder and depression, says that Occupy has become a place where people with mental illnesses of all kinds are respected.

They may be respected for being bodies to show numbers, but people with serious mental illnesses require care and support of trained medical and mental health care workers, not the kind that  professional anti-capitalist activists can provide.

It's unfortunate but predictable that these vulnerable people are being used as pawns by unions like OPSEU and CUPE and their Marxist activist allies. These professional agitators are unlikely to change the world with their cacophony of disparate causes, all of which scream out for more taxes and government spending in a time of national debt and the need for austerity. But at the end of the day, the people manipulating and capitalizing on the Occupy movement, like Syd Ryan, Michael Moore and Naomi Klein, will sleep at night in their expensive, comfortable homes. Meanwhile,  the sufferers of psychiatric illness whom Occupy's celebrity spokespeople use as expendible tools will bear the cost of these narcissists' excuse for more attention.

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