I Heart Rob Ford

Well, well, well, it’s been quite a week or two. Rob Ford supposedly smoking crack on video. Doug Ford’s past as a supposed hash dealer exposed – along with the drug related charges and violence connected with his other siblings. This follows and endless string of scandals, foibles and general foolishness on the part of the mayor of Toronto. What fun!

 There has been lots of handwringing about Ford embarrassing our great city on the world stage. We need a better mayor, they say. Nonsense, I say. Of course, we could use better political leadership. But that wasn’t what was on offer in the last election. We had the choice between Ford and Smitherman. And Smitherman is a right wing liberal who just happens to be a) gay and b) a very smooth operator. If Smitherman had been elected he would have been just as much of an austerity mongering hatchet man as Rob Ford. The difference would have been that he would have been effective. The incompetence of Rob Ford has ensured that his wacky agenda has been derailed at every turn – even by this largely spineless council (remember the unanimous vote to commend the police for their handling of the G8 fiasco?). Fools give confidence to the weak. Sad but true.

The other element that is heartening is that, ignoring Rosie DiManno’s jibes about Ford’s supporters being mindless dupes, working class people have not been that impressed by the scandal-mongering of the media. Doug Ford, scumbag that he is, is partly right that the media are going after the Ford brothers because they can’t touch their politics. The media by and large don’t disagree with their austerity agenda. They hate them because they have the kinds of personal “flaws” that plague many working class families. We all have relatives who struggle with substance abuse, mental health issues, etc. etc. So, when the media attack Ford for these things people feel like the elite are snobbishly attacking them – and they are. Remember all the brouhaha about Bill Clinton screwing around with Monica Lewinsky? Nobody cared. It had no impact on his popularity. The left shouldn’t fall into the trap of this kind of moralistic snobbery, which does little to build the left or opposition to the right. Stick to principles.

And, most deliciously perhaps, is that Rob Ford’s incompetence has helped deepen that growing crisis of the right. The expenses scandal that is engulfing the Harper Tories and the meltdown of the Ford mayoralty could be the tipping point that devastates the right wing in Canada in the way that the sponsorship scandal unwound the Liberals. The only real obstacle is the tepid opposition of the NDP, which has waged their usual race to the middle in order to appear respectable enough to govern. That worked really well in the BC election where a double-digit lead was thrown away. But the NDP are like the embodiment of that old definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result. If the left actually stood up and fought the right they would galvanize people to join them. By refusing to be any different the NDP merely ensures that they will fail endlessly. Let’s hope that someone talented steps into the breach, at least in Toronto, and wipes out Ford Nation. My biggest fear is that the left will all fall in behind Karen Stintz and her centre-right agenda. Stintz might win but we’ll hardly be better off (transit aside) and we’ll have far less entertainment.

Rob Ford Shouldn't Be Removed On A Technicality

I've been thinking about this a lot since the decision came down to oust Rob Ford over a "conflict of interest" technicality a couple of weeks ago. I have a feeling that this might be controversial or get me into trouble so let me just start by saying that I'd love to see Rob Ford ousted. In fact, when I first heard the news, as I was working in a local coffeeshop, it improved my mood immeasurably. But, like a night on the town, eventually the hangover sets in and sobriety replaces the joy of intoxication. Of course Ford's terrible in pretty much every sense - he's a bigot, he's a neo-liberal service slashing bastard, a corrupt influence-peddler and he's incompetent. I could go on.

But the problem with Rob Ford being ousted for what is, really, a stupid technicality that doesn't begin to touch on his real crimes, is that he can portray himself as a victim. He could use that, horror of horror, to be re-elected. I mean, look at what they got him for - voting in a council meeting to reverse a fine of a few thousand dollars.

Now, he probably should have paid the fine. He has gone totally unpunished for his cavalier attitude to using his office for personal projects and for personal convenience - whether for his high school football team or getting landscaping done around the family business. But the vote of council was clearly and unequivocally in his favour, with or without Ford's vote. And nailing him for raising money - even on City Hall letterhead - for his football team is such small potatoes, with potentially politically damaging blowback, that it's a no-brainer to let it slide.

No, Rob Ford should be ousted by the people of Toronto - in an election or through mass mobilizations that force him to resign. And he should be exposed for the corrupt, dishonest, hypocritical and incompetent git that he is. Sadly, part of the problem has been a weak-kneed left on council - who only started to stand up to Ford when a right-wing liberal like Karen Stintz made a stand against Ford's hare-brained transit schemes (following him and brother Doug's hare-brained waterfront ferris wheel scheme). Prior to that they were cowed by bluster about Ford Nation.

Nor have most of the unions taken the opportunity to stand up to fight Ford. Garbage collection in the west end of the city was privatized without a peep by CUPE.

A stronger political opposition would easily expose Ford for what he is. A decision by a judge on a silly and petty side-issue won't. It will strengthen him. There, now I've said it: Support Rob Ford. With a better rope.

Rob Ford Isnt The Mayor, He's A Reality TV Show

Cue circus music: "It's the Rob Ford Show"

OK, OK, I get the joke now. For most of the last two years I've watched in horror as our metropolis was being run like a bingo game for compulsive cheaters. It was bad enough that his raison d'etre seemed to be to shut down as many programs and services as he could before some kind of finish bell went off in his head - Transit City, garbage collection, etc. etc.

Besides that, the guy is just so damn embarrassing. I mean, him and his sidekick brother think that a giant ferris wheel is what we need on our waterfront. They run a regular radio show where they muse about the media conspiracy against them. He won't even talk to the Toronto Star or send them his itinerary of public events. Can you believe the gall of the media, to actually scrutinize the actions of public officials?

But as bizarre as his behaviour became, he still had supporters. Even when his incompetence allowed city council to reverse his major election platform promise: to kill Transit City. Along with most of his other initiatives (including his attempt to stage a coup against the head of the waterfront restoration agency, who didn't like the ferris wheel idea). So Rob kicked it up a notch. Not only was he frothing about the Red Menace at City Hall - along with Giorgio Mammoliti, who plays an uber-loopy Igor, to Ford's bumbling Frankenstein - he was openly and defiantly slacking off work and using city resources like they were his personal property. I realize now that this just couldn't have been real. It must have been staged.

Remember, this is the guy who was all about cleaning up the gravy. That was his damn election slogan. Now, tell me, is it gravy to cut out early several times a month - even during important council meetings - to go and be a volunteer coach for a high school football team? Don't we pay teachers to coach high school football teams? Wouldn't you say paying another person - the mayor - to do a job already done by a paid teacher is, you know, gravy? Add to that the fact that Ford hired some former university football player in his office who drives a city vehicle to practices and games to help out on the city dime.

And what about the rushed infrastructure work done around Rob Ford's business in time for their fifty year anniversary party? Do you think that any old business could have called up the heads of the works department and gotten them to come by and do all kinds of work - including work that wasn't technically in their jurisdiction?

But it was this whole bus fiasco that gave away the game. I mean, his football team was getting a school bus in 45 minutes and they were right outside of a high school. Could they really not walk fifty metres to wait in the change room (presumably there is a visiting team change room) or the cafeteria or something. Did they really need to throw an entire busload of passengers off of a TTC bus to "rescue" his team for inclement weather? And then to divert another bus after Ford made a phone call to the head of the TTC?

This can't possibly be real. It's some kind of candid camera type reality show where they push the limits of credulity to the absolute maximum. Then, if the mayor's supporters still defend him with a straight face, somebody jumps out of the bushes and yells: "SURPRISE! You're on Mayor of the Madhouse!" Or maybe some other name: The Pathetic Partisan, Fool Me Twice, I'll Believe Anything You Say As Long As You're A Right Wing Sociopath Like Me.

What do you think the name of the Rob Ford Mayoralty Show ought to be? And what will it require to get it taken off the air?

Mayor Ford Is Mad. Mean Mad. And, Oh Yeah, A Racist.

I'm mad, really mad!

Mayor Ford wants to clarify his comments from the other day, following the tragic shooting in Scarborough. Here's what he said at the time:

Asked how he planned to force gangsters out of Toronto, Mr. Ford said: “I don’t know and that’s what I’m going to sit down with the prime minister and find out: how our immigration laws work. Obviously I have an idea. But whatever I can do to get them out of the city I’m going to, regardless of whether they have family or friends, I don’t want these people, if they’re convicted of a gun crime, to have anything to do with the City of Toronto.”

But, we got it all wrong see. He's not anti-immigrant. He's just mad. Darn mad. Mean mad. Muley mean mad, in fact. And he's not gonna take it any more. In fact, he's so made that when he tried to explain what he really meant, he didn't make a damn bit of sense.

Maybe I’m not an expert on, you know, the ministries, but I’m saying that if it’s foreign affairs or immigration and citizenship, I want to talk to the PMO to find out if we can – and maybe we can’t. But I’m just trying to clarify that if you’re caught with a gun and convicted of a gun crime, I do not want you living in this city any more. To find out that information you have to go through the PMO, and that’s what I’m doing. So, I’m not an expert in this but I’m trying to resolve the issue that’s at hand.

I'm open to all translations of this backpeddling, mealy-mouthed gobbledygook. However, what it sounds like to me is the following: "What I really think is that immigrants are responsible for gun crime but I can't say it so I'm going to try and say it without saying so that my supporters know that I agree with them that it's the immigrants but people who aren't my supporters - like those jerks at the Toronto Star - can't say that I'm saying what I'm really saying, which is that it's the immigrants."

What he ought to mention is that he voted against multiple gang prevention initiatives. He'd rather stir up racism and fill up the jails with alienated, poverty-stricken youth than deal with the real source of the problem. As city councillor Adam Vaughn notes, that just won't do:

“If all we’re going to talk about is more jails, and building more jails, and not better housing, and building better housing,” Vaughan said. “The cutting has got to stop, because the cutting is contributing to the problem.”

Ford can spin his racism any way he likes and he can try the "I'm just too stupid to really understand the meaning of what I'm saying" escape route. But he stands exposed - again - for what he is: a small-minded bigot.



Toronto Mayor Ford clarifies his comments on gun criminals and immigration - The Globe and Mail:

'via Blog this'

Like You Needed To Be Told The Ford Bros Were Full Of S**T

Here was Mayor Rob Ford's equally odious brother, Doug Ford at the transit debate on Wednesday: "The St. Clair streetcar is a total disaster."

Ahem..oh, really?

Much maligned St. Clair line not so bad after all - The Globe and Mail: "Since the June, 2010, completion of the right-of-way from Yonge Street to Gunns Loop, overall traffic and peak-period volumes have fallen sharply; transit ridership has jumped 13 per cent, while service frequency has improved; and collisions and personal injuries have plummeted by a third, according to city and TTC data compiled by The Globe and Mail. The St. Clair line now ranks eighth for productivity (boardings per hour) among the TTC’s 150 surface routes (the top spot belongs to the Spadina LRT), according to Mitch Stambler, the TTC’s manager of service planning."

Jeez, we thought Mel Lastman was embarrassing.


'via Blog this'

Thank The Occupy Movement For Mayor Ford's Transit Defeat

I'm mad! Muley, mean mad.

Of course I know that it was a revolt by city councillors against the hare-brained, disastrous transit "policy" of Toronto Mayor Rob "I love gridlock" Ford. And it was the sweetest of sweet defeats against the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum who like to think that they run the show like little Mubaraks. Here was Ford's handpicked chair of the TTC sticking the mandate he gave her right back up his honour's rump. It rarely gets better than that. And Ford's attempt at anti-democratic bravado - that the decision of the democratically elected council was irrelevant - looked pathetic and dumb. Even one of his biggest allies on council on this issue, Denzil Minnan-Wong, called him out on it.

But let's be honest, City Councillor got the unity and the spine to take on Rob Ford because of the Occupy movement. Since even before the election the councillors have been on the defensive in the face of the right wing on city council. The "left" voted in favour of Giorgio Mamollitti's motion in support of the most expensive and disastrous police clampdown in the history of the city after the G20. Even though there were already widespread reports of police kettling and arresting innocent people in a roundup that put the October Crisis to shame; of bursting into the homes of innocent people in the middle of the night; of press conference with so-called weapons (like the guy whose role playing, foam arrows were confiscated) that were supposedly confiscated, etc etc ad nauseam.

And after the election of the dynamic duo Ford Brothers it was even worse. Everybody thought they were Skeletor to the left's Wimpy. The left did nothing to stop garbage privatization. Nothing. Oh, they got an impact review that is meaningless because it will be too late to do anything by then.

What happened to change this around? What stiffened spines and made middle ground types - like TTC Chair Karen Stinz - align with the left on council? A small thing: Egypt had a revolution and the Middle East from end to end exploded into open revolt. That victory had the knock-on effect of inspiring movements in other parts of the world - like the Greek general strikes and the Indignados who occupied city squares in Spain. Here in North America, and in Britain, it was the Occupy Movement that was the manifestation of the inspiration generated by Egypt. Occupy Toronto's consistent mobilizations and ability to keep an occupation in a downtown park going for weeks and weeks, building the idea of the need to fight for the 99% on the agenda, had an impact on the political culture of Toronto - and of the continent. It's no accident that Obama started talking out of the populist side of his mouth, using language appropriated from the movement.

And so councillors began to take on Ford, challenging him. Then there was the very successful campaign by the library workers union and the outpouring of opposition to Ford's cuts agenda. And even if the city workers settled for a deal that included significant concessions, in particular for young workers, Ford felt less confident to really go after core union rights. There was also a sense with the Ford brothers' bungling of the waterfront redevelopment project that they were a problem for even the business community, cost them allies amongst the Toronto ruling class.

All of this has fed a cycle of ever larger gaffes and ever larger defeats on the part of Ford. And that has increased the confidence of the opposition on council to take Ford on. It helps that Ford has all the political acumen of a punch drunk bar brawler. When his punches are connecting they do a lot of damage and he can win the support of people who love to see a born loser win. But it doesn't take much for his swings to turn wild and do nothing but hit air and throw him off balance. Then, like now, he just looks like a pathetic bully.

My prediction is that Ford is never going to win a second term. He's used up his political capital and his allies - most of them toadying opportunists or freakshows like Mamollitti - are going to start jumping ship in a Stinz-like fashion. What is needed is for his negative momentum to be maintained by an emboldened council, which can start to dismantle his entire agenda, delicious piece by delicious piece. Given their, shall we say, weak past that's not guaranteed. To keep spines stiff on city council we need more revolution in Egypt and more Occupy, under whatever name they want to use, at home. Struggle can finish off this staggering bully once and for all.

Mayor Ford: User Fees For Everyone...But Him

You probably don't need me to tell you that Rob Ford is a hyprocrite and a liar in addition to being a mean-spirited prick. All that is apparent every time he opens his mouth. Nonetheless, it is useful to see the many ways in which he brings himself into disrepute, hopefully amongst the deluded suburbanites who thought that he was their "get tough" man who really cared about ordinary people.

The fact that he was a millionaire ought to have provided a hint. But not everyone reads the news that closely. However, some of the little treats that have emerged about Rob Ford's over the top - apparently - election expenses have been an interesting angle on this. What the article below reveals is that while Rob Ford and his Gollum-esque brother flounce about peddling user fees on everything from basic services for seniors and poor parents, Rob Ford doesn't seem to feel that user fees apply to him.

During the election, Ford racked up an impressive $13, 362.26 in sign infraction fines during the election campaign. However, even though he applied to appeal the fines past the deadline, those fines were nonetheless waived. All of the other candidates who were fined ponied up. This fine ought to also count against Ford's election expenses and, of course, was not. For a guy who's concerned about over-spending at City Hall, he's not much for keeping his own books in order. But then, as I wrote the other day, this is the guy who hired KPMG to audit the city's books - a company that can't seem to stay out of court for its inability to... audit its client's books.

Oh, Mayor Ford's office had no comment about the fines or the write-off.

City officials waived fines related to Ford’s election campaign - The Globe and Mail

KPMG - Helping Tax Dodgers & Corporate Fraudsters Everywhere

The Ford Bros Circus of Stupid decided that the best way to figure out which services we ought to toss on the bonfire was to hire auditing firm KPMG. Well, that's not quite true. Doug Ford has said that they want to "outsource (privatize) everything that's not nailed down." But perhaps he thought it best to find a fig leaf of objectivity for his mission of slash and burn. KPMG is that fig leaf.

But if it's a fig leaf, it's a pretty flimsy one. KPMG has a long history of corrupt and incompetent business/auditing practices. Back in 2005, KPMG admitted selling illegal tax shelters in the USA that allowed corporations and rich bastards to avoid taxes, and thereby helping to make the kinds of cuts they are now recommending necessary. According to this summary:

KPMG admitted to setting up fake tax shelters for it's wealthiest clients, which helped them evade paying $2.5 Billion in tax dollars throughout the 1990's. If that wasn't enough, KMPG was accused with the obstruction of justice as investigators tried to piece together the facts of the accounting scandal.

Nine people from KPMG ended up being charged for tax evasion and obstruction of justice, eight of them were former partners in the firm.

KPMG was also accused - and remember they were hired for their skills and reputation as an auditing firm - of covering up a bribery operation at engineering corporation, Siemens. Somehow, the auditing firm didn't notice a slush fund worth nearly €2 billion.

Debevoise, the firm of independent US lawyers appointed by the Siemens supervisory board to investigate bribes paid by the company, reported back last week. According to the German publication Sueddeutsche Zeitung, they have uncovered €1.2bn of bribes paid by the Siemens telecommunications business between 1995 and 2006 and a further €300m of illicit payments made by its power generation arm.
Now Debevoise is set to look into the role of KPMG, according to sources close to Siemens. The supervisory board wants to know why the apparent bribes were not noticed by KPMG given their scale over many years.

Back across the pond in the USA, the mortgage company known as Fannie Mae launched a suit in 2006 for $2 billion against KPMG because of $6.3 billion in accounting errors that led to Fannie Mae firing KPMG back in 2004.

In 2005 KPMG had to pay out $22.5 million to the Securities & Exchange Commission for helping Xerox cooks the books to the tune of closing a $3 billion earnings gap - i.e. fraud.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Check here for more examples of KPMG's incompetence and corruption as an auditing firm, which has dutifully served its corporate masters to hide money, hide losses, hide bribery and just plain smooth things out for the rich and powerful. And we're supposed to take their recommendations seriously?

Gee Skewers Ford

I was about to write another pithy dismembering of the lies and stupidities of the mayoralty of His Honour Rob Ford. But then I read today's article in the Globe & Mail by Marcus Gee and, frankly, I couldn't have said it better myself. We may all remember Ford's bluster during the election about how he would eliminate Miller's land transfer tax and license registration fees because he, Rob Ford, cares about the taxpayer. Yeah, you guess it, it was all bullshit and Ford has turned around and is raising those same funds from different sources.

Once he became mayor, one of the first things he did was announce a freeze in property taxes and an end to the vehicle registration tax. But user fees come from the same pockets of the same overburdened folk that taxes do. His platform said nothing about higher user fees. Of course, it said nothing about service cuts either. Mr. Ford “guaranteed” there would not be any. Now we are facing the threat of both service cuts and higher fees.
His administration has already raised fees by $23-million to balance the 2011 budget and help make up for the loss of revenue from the vehicle tax. Fees for a host of programs went up about 3 per cent. The current review of fees is bound to recommend yet further hikes, putting more pressure on taxpayers.

I suppose that in some ways, while it is further proof that Ford is a sociopathic liar, it's consistent with his own view of the world, where defending the right to drive an automobile is sacrosanct, while those socialistic "services" like swimming and yoga for seniors are sapping the moral will of our great city. We need a strong dose of the real cost of things so that we will work harder, compete smarter and pay for everything as individuals, rather than pooling our resources to make life better for all - except insofar as it's for boosting the number of frontline cops to keep us in our place when we get pissed off by the fact that there's nowhere to take our kids on the weekend that won't cost an arm and a leg.

Today's article follows on from one last week that exposed the fact that Ford was either stupid or lying when he was throwing around the numbers viz labour costs as a proportion of the city budget, which I also covered here. Kudos to Gee for exposing Ford's fundamental dishonesty in driving through his agenda for the millionaires.

No revenue? No problem. Right, Mayor Ford? - The Globe and Mail

Rally for a G20 Public Inquiry

Hey there - I got this through good, old Facebook, that great mobilizing tool. We need to keep up the pressure for an independent, public inquiry and, even better, the resignation of Police Chief Bill Blair - the lying dog.

***************
Join us in a peaceful protest on Canada Day.


Over the course of the the G20, police have ignored our civil liberties through illegal searches, detentions, and mass arrests -- with Chief of Police Bill Blair making up the law and misleading the public as he went along. Countless people have been profiled, harassed and many people have been beaten on the streets and in their homes, shot at with rubber bullets and gassed without provocation.


The Toronto 900 are the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history and have been denied basic legal rights of access to lawyers, phone calls, food/water, medications while being kept in cages. There are accounts of detainees being taunted, female prisoners strip-searched by male guards and threatened with sexual assault, a prisoner who is deaf denied an independent sign language interpreter, and specific targeting of Aboriginal, Francophone and Queer prisoners.


The political prisoners need to be released immediately. We need an independent inquiry over the criminalization of dissent. We need to take our city back.

Those of you not in Toronto: We will be having solidarity protests in various cities on the 17th. Please join this group and help organize and spread the word!

http://www.facebook.com/specialshi?v=wall&story_fbid=751379792437#!/event.php?eid=139227296091761

Not on facebook? Go to http://torontoparticipates.ca/ for details!

THIS IS IMPORTANT! GET THE WORD OUT! TELL YOUR FRIENDS! EVEN IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT YOURSELVES!

Newsflash: Cops Break Law To Stop Lawbreakers

When I read Toronto cop boss Bill Blair's media offensive to demonstrate that their dress rehearsal for a police state was necessary I felt angry. But, you know, this dude is so damn crazy that I can't decide if I'm scared or relieved that there is no sane plan behind all this suspension of civil liberties.
Now, it seems, the police lied about what our rights were during the G20 summit. Now, I'm no lawyer but I can't imagine that it isn't illegal to deliberately mislead the public about what are and are not the laws of the land. It seems pretty straightforward, I can't go into a theatre and yell fire and the chief of police can't arrest me for breaking laws that don't exist.

Admitting this seems like the act of a man who has seriously lost the plot. I think that there is a very sound basis to force this Machiavellian freak to resign.

G20 Golfball Terrorists Threaten Our Way Of Life

Weapons seized in G20 arrests put on display - The Globe and Mail: "The “weapons” included items not normally considered dangerous, including bike helmets, bandanas, golf balls, a baseball bat, bamboo poles, a drill and goggles."

Oh my God - apparently some people had golfballs and were going to hit a birdie at the G20. Good thing we spent $2 billion on this boondoggle. Why, if those cyclists with their helmets had headbutted the world leaders, who knows what would have happened. And that's why we had to suspend the civil liberties of everybody in the same time zone as the summit and raid the homes of veterinarians (after all, who knows the damage that a well-thrown cat could cause amongst the G20 pigeons!).

Seriously. Who the fuck are these people? Arrows with sacks that were going to be lit on fire? Really. I guess that these would-be Russell Crowes and Kevin Costners are unfamiliar with the basic laws of physics, thinking that they can fire a flaming sock on the end of an arrow. This is just a media offensive to justify an absolutely disgraceful attack on the rights of anybody with a functioning brain.

I had the misfortune of suffering from insomnia last night and happened upon an interview with Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair justifying the Sunday night attack on anybody who happened to be in the neighbourhood of Queen & Spadina - one of Toronto's busiest downtown corners.

"This was not a site where somebody casually walked up to catch a bus. It was clearly a large and dangerous demonstration."
Ah, so there's the rub. It was dangerous. And how do we know this? Well, the people did sit in the road and sing the national anthem before the cops charged them. And, as everyone knows, the national anthem is a pretty terrible song, musically speaking. And when sung by a large crowd that could only be construed as a premeditated assault.  But then, Blair's leap of logic to justify forcing people to sit in a torrential downpour, or face threats of gang rape, or be denied basic civil rights, including the right to go potty or not have your hands turn blue from zipcuffs, is acceptable because all right-thinking people support him. After all it is only "advocates for the anarchists [that] are offended. I can live with their offence."
This guy should be forced to resign and Mayor Miller, the "progressive" mayor, should be forced to apologize.

Protest police abuse of power: 5:30pm today at Police HQ, 40 College St

Got this in my facebook inbox from the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War this morning. Worth passing along.

Please forward widely.

Items in this message:
1) Protest police abuse of power
2) Support the G20 arrestees
- - - - -
1) Protest police abuse of power

Protest police abuse of power during the G20 Summit in Toronto
Show your solidarity with those who've been arrested
Defend civil liberties

R A L L Y
Monday, June 28
5:30 p.m.
Toronto Police HQ
40 College Street

Be there to defend our rights to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom to dissent!

Event on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122237507819100
- - - - -
2) Support the G20 arrestees

Appeal for broad political support for the G20 arrestees

From: http://movementdefence.org/G20appeal

The MDC’s Summit Legal Support Project is appealing to the movements it supports to mobilize a show of political strength and solidarity for the over 900 people arrested in the last four days. The Toronto Police and the ISU appear to have lost control of their 'prisoner processing center,' denying arrestees meaningful and timely access to counsel while beating and arresting those peacefully protesting their detention outside.

Despite assurances to the contrary, only a handful of people have been released, including those held for many hours without charge. Arrestees are given incorrect information about the bail process they will be subjected to, and friends and family members gather hours early at the courthouse, located far from the city center and inaccessible via transit. Our lawyers call in and are told that there is no one available to make decisions or wait for hours at the detention centre, only to be denied access to their clients. Hundreds of people are in custody and we know from experience that the vast majority of those charges will disappear and yet the cell doors remain shut.

We need to step it up and build a political response. We need many more voices – especially prominent ones – to say that the abuse and incompetence at 629 Eastern Avenue must stop. We must demand that all levels of government take control of the police forces under their command. We need to ensure that courts and crown attorneys act to enforce constitutional rights rather than collude in their violation.

Free the Toronto 900!

The Movement Defence Committee

For more information, visit:

http://movementdefence.org/G20appeal

What the media ignored: 25,000 peacefully demonstrate against G20 policies in Toronto

Toronto's Blackout: Neo-Liberal System Failure?

In case you haven't heard or lived it, Toronto's west end had a black-out beginning Thursday night and lasting for about 24 hours, on the coldest night and day of the year. Our house was in the thick of it and we were forced to endure something quite miserable. Thursday night I had to stay up from 3am till 9am tending our gas stove to keep the house warm so that my partner could get some sleep and our newborn wouldn't freeze to death. I know, I know, (well, now I know) you're not supposed to use a gas stove to heat the house because of the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. Luckily our old house leaks like a sieve, so not much danger of running out of fresh air. But if running a gas stove in a house is so dangerous, why the hell is it allowed at all? I have on many occasions been cooking a big meal and had all four burners and the oven going all afternoon, including in our old duplex, which meant it was all happening on one floor. Do you mean to tell me that I could have killed us all, or made us very sick - and this is permitted? Something seems out of whack with this.

But a bigger question in all this is why the hell doesn't the Toronto electricity grid have any built in redundancies? Apparently a sprinkler went off at a transformer station near our house and they had to shut down electricity because of the flooding, turning out the power on 100,000+ people. So, let me get this straight: I could go into a transformer station with a $2 disposable lighter, hold it up to the sprinkler system and shut down all the electricity for an area and population the size of a small city? I'm glad I didn't know this when I was a mischievous and troubled teenager, the temptation might have been too great. 

Seriously, though, how can a first world city not have any back-up or extra capacity throughout the system that would allow power from other transformer stations to take up the slack? Perhaps I'm just demonstrating my ignorance by asking the question but it seems like an obvious one - especially after the disaster of the 2003 blackout. 

The answer I fear is that it is a side-effect of neo-liberalism. That is, it is more profitable to have less fail-safe systems, less redundancies built in to cover unusual - though not rare - eventualities like power lines and transformer stations knocked out by storms, fires or faulty plumbing. I suspect that the primary measure of service management is the quantity of profit that is generated for the corporation, not the service provided for the population. I haven't heard of any deaths as a result of tens of thousands of people losing heat on the coldest night of the year but it was certainly a possibility. Just down the street from us, for instance, is a seniors' home. They are particularly vulnerable to hypothermia. 

I hope that I'm wrong in my assumptions. But, if the failure of the system is the result of having created an "efficient" grid, then we should be exposing the fact that implicit in this definition of efficiency is the assumption that the risk of an "acceptable" loss of life is worth higher profits. And any human system that places profit above human life is indeed a system that has failed.

Photos From Toronto Demo

It was hard to say but there were certainly several thousand people outside the Israeli consulate this very chilly morning, demanding an end to Israel's slaughter in Gaza. Our whole house made it out to the rally - including my daughter Beatrice. It was the first protest for our little rebel grrl.

Jorge, Ian, Kathryn & Bea, Silja

Kathryn, my partner, & Baby Bea

Beautiful placard design

The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War placards - putting the heat on our Prime Minister

Now this, this was my favourite placard. Someone should do one with Stephen Harper.

Jewish Women Occupy Israeli Consulate in Toronto

Toronto: Wednesday January 8, 2009 Time: 10:25 am

A diverse group of Jewish Canadian women are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto. This action is in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.

The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard. They are demanding that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.

Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.

Protesters are outraged at Israel′s latest assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government′s refusal to condemn these massacres. They are deeply concerned that Canadians are hearing the views of pro-Israel groups who are being represented as the only voice of Jewish Canadians. The protesters have occupied the consulate to send a clear statement that many Jewish-Canadians do not support Israel′s violence and apartheid policies. They are joining with people of conscience all across the world who are demanding an end to Israeli aggression and justice for the Palestinian people.

The group includes: Judy Rebick, professor; Judith Deutsch, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace; B.H. Yael, filmmaker; Smadar Carmon, an Canadian Israeli peace activist and others.


Spokespersons for the group will be outside the Israeli consulate.


For more information contact:
Dr. Miriam Garfinkle
Phone: 416-731-6605
Email: mgarfinkle@sympatico.ca

Cathy Gulkin
Phone: 416-697-0768
Email: cgulkin@rogers.com

Judy Rebick
Phone: 647-388-1053