'It is time to earn back our place in the world'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:55 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Ignatieff lays out his foreign policy vision to an audience in Montreal.

But none of this will be possible without the talents of every Canadian. Foreign policy is no longer reserved for diplomats, development workers, and soldiers. We used to talk about a “whole-of-government” approach. Our Global Networks Strategy requires a “whole-of-Canada” approach instead.

The next generation of Canadians will be the most international ever. Young people studying and working abroad will be Canada’s best ambassadors, and their experiences will shape the future of our country. We must rebuild our leadership in the world so that our young people can be proud again to live in a country that helps to improve our world.

And we must always support the youth of this country, when they go abroad to serve Canada. They are our finest representatives.

In the centre of our engagement with the world, we must restore our finest Canadian traditions, inspired by peace, justice, and mutual aid. We must show the world – and ourselves – that Canada can inspire us again.

Newsmakers

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

A perfect wedding for one
Chen Wei-yih, a 30-year-old living in Taipei, waited for the right man. But he never came along, so in a triumphant gesture aimed in part at upending clichés about unmarried women, she rented a hall, bought a wedding dress and will marry herself on Nov. 6. The Facebook page for “Only&Only’s Wedding” has won her loads of new friends. And yes, there is a honeymoon: Chen will travel with her new, better half to Australia.

Still Wayne’s world
It would have been the biggest English divorce since Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Shaken Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told a press conference that his star attacker, Wayne Rooney, intended to move to a new professional soccer club instead of renewing his contract. Rooney had quarrelled with his boss over an ankle injury, and told Sky Sports he had concerns over “the continued ability of the club to attract the top players in the world.” The fight raised the possibility of Rooney defecting to a Man U rival—perhaps the most despised of all, Manchester City. But after two days of uncertainty, Rooney relented and signed a deal that will keep him in the famous red kit until June 2015.

He said it once. He’ll say it again.
He has no chance of becoming the next governor of New York, but this gubernatorial candidate’s stump speeches have won him Internet fame, a parody on Saturday Night Live and even a toy action figure based on his likeness. Jimmy McMillan heads a political party called The Rent is Too Damn High Party, and in appearances he hammers away at his party’s one and only platform plank: the rent is too damn high. “Our children can’t afford to live anywhere. There’s nowhere to go,” he said during one televised debate. “Once again, why? You said it, the rent is too damned high.” He even won over front-runner Andrew Cuomo, who during the debate admitted: “I’m with Jimmy: the rent is too damn high.”

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'Officer Bubbles' files $1.2 million lawsuit against YouTube

By macleans.ca - Monday, October 18, 2010 at 11:53 AM - 0 Comments

Known as “Officer Bubbles,” Toronto Police Constable Adam Josephs—who earned the nickname after a video was posted on YouTube that showed him threateing a G20 protester blowing bubbles at him—has filed a $1.2-million lawsuit against video sharing site. Josephs is seeking $1.2 million in damages, and the identity of the user who posted cartoons in reaction to the original viral video, as well as those of 24 other commentators who he says defamed him. The cartoon versions of the original footage depicts a policeman wearing a name badge reading “A. Josephs” going on an arresting spree, targeting Santa Claus and U.S. President Barack Obama, among others. If the cartoon was intended to criticize overzealous police force during the G20 this summer, this lawsuit may illuminate what some see as abuse of anonymity granted to online commentators.

National Post

YouTube

The Commons: Vic Toews makes a funny

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 27, 2010 at 6:57 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. It should not ever be said this government goes about its business too quietly, that it attempts to hide or conceal its true feelings or intent. Indeed, to the contrary, it wears its gleeful disregard quite proudly.

Consider, for instance, today’s display from Vic Toews. Take note particularly of the really, very hilarious thing he said. Continue…

What you can do with a lot of money (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 24, 2010 at 1:49 PM - 0 Comments

The Globe, Star, Post, Canadian Press, CBC and CTV take turns pointing out their favourite expenditure lines from the G8 and G20 reports. The government commends itself on its transparency in this regard.

The matter, rather predictably, led this morning’s QP scrimmage. Here’s the exchange between Ralph Goodale and John Baird. Continue…

What you can do with a lot of money

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7:32 PM - 0 Comments

For a billion dollars, this country got to host the G8 and G20 summits. It also got the supplies necessary to organize a pretty kick ass rave.

The highlights include $2.8 million for rental cars for the RCMP; $1.4 million on communications “cabling;” and $439,000 on portable toilets. Then there was $14,000 on glow sticks and $85,000 for accommodation and snacks at Toronto’s swank Hyatt Regency hotel.

The expense reports tabled in the House today can be downloaded in three parts: here, here and here.

The Commons: Picking up wherever it was we left off

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 20, 2010 at 6:40 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. It will no doubt shock you to learn that there remain profound disagreements between the major political parties as to the future direction and management of the country. What’s more, it seems still that when the members of these parties are placed in close proximity and offered the opportunity to speak publicly, they regularly refer to each other in loud tones and critical terms.

Thankfully, everyone is agreed that something should be done to make things somehow better. If only everyone else would agree to act differently than they do.

And thankfully, for however long we wait for this conundrum to resolve itself, there will still apparently be Tony Clement to amuse us. Continue…

What of that weekend in Toronto?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 3, 2010 at 4:25 PM - 0 Comments

The one question Michael Ignatieff most noticeably punted at the St. Catharines town hall I attended last month had to do with police actions and civil liberties during the G20 conference in Toronto and here—setting aside our previously stated concerns about the use of analogy in political rhetoric—Doug Bell wonders where the Liberals are on this issue.

The largest mass arrest of Canadians in history and the Grits primary concern is that the cops were overwhelmed. It would be as if Martin Luther King in his letters from the Birmingham jail wrote to Police Chief “Bull” Connor complaining about the stress he was putting on his department’s German shepherds.

At a wintry moment in the history of Canadian civil rights, the Liberal Party is AWOL.

Police actions that weekend are now the subject of a rather large class action suit, while Toronto police chief Bill Blair has conceded that the kettling of 250 people on Queen Street was perhaps not resolved expeditiously enough.

Toronto Police Chief admits mistake during G20

By macleans.ca - Friday, September 3, 2010 at 12:33 PM - 0 Comments

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair admitted that his force made a mistake on Sunday, June 27 when they boxed-in roughly 250 people during the G20 summit and held them for four hours in the pouring rain. “When I became aware of [the ongoing containment], I said, ‘That’s it, release them all immediately and unconditionally,’ and that was done. But it probably could have happened sooner,” he told the Globe and Mail. Police resorted to the “kettling” technique when they surrounded both protesters and bystanders on all four sides of the intersection of Queen and Spadina Streets in the late afternoon. Chief Blair said police were justified in kettlling the crowd at that point; it just should have ended sooner. Blair’s remarks came the same week a Toronto lawyer launched a class-action lawsuit seeking $115-million for roughly 1,150 plaintiffs alleging police failures during the three-day summit. A separate $45-million lawsuit was launched earlier this month by 800 people arrested that weekend.

Globe and Mail

Scenes from the G20 courthouse

By Stephanie Findlay - Monday, August 23, 2010 at 5:47 PM - 0 Comments

Over 300 people crammed into a Toronto courthouse on Monday to face charges related to last June’s G20 protests. The judges went through the cases rapidly, withdrawing charges against dozens of people and remanding other cases to a later date.

The alleged ringleaders, including Mandy Hiscocks, Alex Hundert, Leah Henderson and Jaggi Singh, were in and out of the courthouse in little time. Their court dates—along with those of another core group of 17 accused—were among those that were remanded. Peter Rosenthal, the lawyer representing Jaggi Singh, said he’d “never seen so many remanded for one court date.”

The back half of the first floor hallway courtrooms was filled with francophone Quebecers, with one courtroom holding proceedings in French while another was designated as bilingual. “People got arrested for having a Québécois license [plate],” said Jacynthe Poisson, a student at UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal). Poisson was charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and was among about 90 people who were arrested Saturday morning while they were sleeping in a gymnasium at the University of Toronto.

Vanja Krajina, 22, is among those who won’t have to return to the cramped courtroom. Krajina was arrested at the corner of Queen and Spadina while walking by herself to meet her boyfriend. She was charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and was also facing explosives charges, which she says were due to her having saline solution for her contact lenses in her bag. Those charges were dropped today.

Others weren’t so lucky. Alison Peters, 24, was charged with obstructing a police officer and unlawful assembly. She could have settled for a $50 fine, but insisted on fighting the charges. “I was being trampled by horses,” she said. “That’s when I was arrested.”

Police officers were stationed throughout the building and in the courtrooms, patrolling the hallways with batons and plastic handcuffs. Despite the heavy security presence, the mood was mostly festive. Jason Dippel, a supporter of the protesters, was handing out cupcakes, while other activists set up a buffet. “We want to provide food and comfort for people,” says Katie Bell of the Toronto activist group 24/7 G20. Bell says the food was arranged through private donation.

One police officer who worked at the detention centre where the activists were held dismissed those complaining of mistreatment as “mouth pieces.” He said detainees at the film studio-cum-jail ate better than he did, were given water if they needed it, and had access to thousands of dollars’ worth of trackpants, sweaters and socks to keep them warm. The officer, who didn’t want to be identified, now consider their ordeal as “a big joke.”

The state adrift (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 13, 2010 at 12:21 PM - 0 Comments

Chris Selley considers civil liberties and partisanship.

In all these cases, the real villains are governments that believe, with ample justification, that they can do whatever they want to whomever they want, whenever they want. Governments don’t care what party you voted for, or what you think about the war in Afghanistan, or whether your bookshelf’s stuffed with Noam Chomsky or Ayn Rand. If they think it’s in their best interests to steamroll you, they will. Ideological partisanship dilutes by half the democratic force of the revulsion we feel — or should feel — when they do. It enables the very thing we all claim to detest when it happens to people we like. The answer lies in sticking up for people we don’t like too.

Life after the G20 protests

By Nicholas Köhler and Stephanie Findlay - Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Darren Calabrese/CP/ Photograph by Andrew Tolson

Leah Henderson was in bed when she heard the police break down her front door and tell Alex Hundert, her fiancé, and Mandy Hiscocks, the couple’s friend and fellow activist, to hit the floor. It was just after 4 a.m., and Henderson, who is 25, had a second or two to wonder whether she should get her pants on; when she saw the red dot of a gun scope bounce down the hall toward her, she decided against it.

This was in the early morning of June 26, the day that protests against Toronto’s G20 summit would devolve into a chaos of smashed windows and blazing police cruisers, much of it wrought by militant Black Bloc demonstrators. Crown prosecutor Vincent Paris has described Henderson, Hundert and Hiscocks, part of a small group of activists arrested during pre-emptive raids that day and now facing G20-related conspiracy charges, as “executives” of an anarchist group that helped organize the havoc. Their arrests, he added, followed a 14-month police investigation.

Continue…

Toronto woman launches G20 class-action lawsuit

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 9, 2010 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments

Toronto office administrator Sherry Good is now the face of a G20 class-action lawsuit filed Thursday against the Toronto Police Services Board and the federal attorney general, who represents the RCMP. The lawsuit seeks $45 million in damages for all those wrongfully arrested, detained, imprisoned or otherwise held by police during the G20 summit at locations across the city. Good’s lawyers say the Ontario Provincial Police may also be named at a later date. Good said she was walking home from work on the evening of June 27 when she decided to join an informal demonstration. She was caught by a police technique known as “kettling” when about 250 people were encircled by a wall of police officers at the intersection of Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave. Good was released without charge, but said she suffered from stress and panic attacks as a result of the incident. The next step involves the court’s approval of the class-action lawsuit, which could take more than a year.

Toronto Star

Say no evil

By macleans.ca - Friday, July 30, 2010 at 2:00 PM - 0 Comments

Leah Henderson and Alex Hundert might be going back to jail. Their purported crime: speaking to the news media. Ontario Provincial Police released the two anarchists on bail July 19, following their arrest before the G20 summit in Toronto. Since then, the pair have made several “public statements” that the OPP claims are breaches of their bail conditions. Curiously, the police force wouldn’t specify which of their statements were verboten, and claims Henderson and Hundert have every right to speak to the media. “Speaking to the media, speaking in public is not an offence,” said an OPP official.

Montreal Gazette

Mitchel Raphael on G20 fallout, including a gay Pride homage

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 3:40 PM - 0 Comments

May wasn’t expecting the Queen
The usual sea of red Liberal T-shirts in Toronto’s Pride Parade was diminished by a sea of purple T-shirts on Liberals backing former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister George Smitherman, who is running for Toronto mayor. Liberal MPs marching in this year’s parade included Bob Rae, Carolyn Bennett and Rob Oliphant. All helped carry a giant Canadian flag; Rae and Bennett also carried Israeli flags in solidarity with members of the Jewish community who were upset over the parade entry Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. Armed with giant water guns, Belinda Stronach rode with Rick Mercer on top of the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research truck. The boldest statement at the parade was made by gay media publisher Brandon Matheson, who dragged a man dressed in riot police gear down the street on a leash, an homage to the G20. With Green Leader Elizabeth May in her rickshaw was a recent new member of the Green party, a drag queen wearing a “Queen Mum” sash. May had been told only to “expect royalty.” While Queen Elizabeth II was in Toronto at the time, May notes “I knew [Her Majesty] was not going to show up.” May will be back in Toronto for the Green party’s biannual convention in August. Because the party’s current rules mandate a fixed four-year term for its leader, it has to decide whether it will announce a 2010 leadership race at the convention. May says the feeling is a race would be silly now considering the strong possibility of an election within a year. May says several Green party rules need to be updated now that the goal is to get Greens elected, and not just be policy wonks.

MPs watching lots of YouTube?
Vancouver MP Don Davies, the NDP’s public safety critic, has spearheaded a push to have the standing committee on public safety and national security reconvene in order to look at the events that occurred in Toronto at the G20. “For a billion dollars we were led to believe there would be no violence and a respect for civil liberties,” says Davies, who had two of his constituents detained by police and allegedly roughed up after they were trying to raise awareness around public education. Also on the committee is MP Maria Mourani, the Bloc’s public safety critic. During the G20 she received calls from parents who could not find kids who had gone to Toronto to protest. Now she is getting calls from Quebecers who were in Toronto, complaining about such things as strip searches and being targeted because they were French. “It’s not finished,” says the MP. “More and more witnesses are coming forward. A lot of people feel very humiliated.” She says she has two of her staffers working full-time on post-G20 issues. Don Davies says social media have played a key role in the aftermath of the G20. “The issues have been kept alive and broadened by YouTube,” he notes. Depending on the route chosen by the public safety committee, Davies says he foresees watching a lot of videos, not common in a committee used to just oral testimony. “I think the videos will make it easier for us to investigate.” Davies also hopes to access footage taken by security cameras set up during the event. Davies notes auditor general Sheila Fraser will be looking at the G20 in the coming months.

Taking back the intersection
Large protests over alleged civil rights violations at the G20 continue in Toronto. On Saturday, people “took back” the intersection of Queen and Spadina, where riot police famously held people for hours in the rain. On July 17, Canadians Advocating Political Participation (CAPP) have rallies planned in three cities—Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. CAPP morphed from the group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament. While the Toronto and Vancouver chapters have been active since the prorogation rallies, the Ottawa group has been resurrected in response to the recent events.

Middle-aged anarchists

By Nicholas Köhler and Stephanie Findlay - Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 3:00 PM - 0 Comments

JAYME POISSON/Toronto Star

Back in the summer of 2002, a quiet, middle-aged Ottawa public servant named Roger Clément began offering the use of his shower to a group of young squatters occupying a derelict Tudor home not far from his modest flat in the city’s occasionally gritty Centretown district. To Marc Sauriol, who owned Clément’s building, the gesture was yet another aggravating display of his tenant’s anti-establishment bent. “I always thought it was ironic that he worked for the federal government,” says Sauriol, who asked Clément to stop inviting squatters in to use the water. “He was always protesting it.”

Those squatters, half Clément’s age, had set up camp at 246 Gilmour St. as part of a protest timed to coincide with the G8 summit in Kananaskis, Alta. The occupation, shut down by police a week later, was designed to highlight what the group argued was a lack of affordable housing in Ottawa, and it targeted a building that had sat vacant for seven years—hence the group’s name: the Seven-Year Squatters. Over the course of that week, 20 or so protesters unfurled banners from the Tudor home’s roof, planted a garden and reinforced the building’s sagging floors. Later, in the raid that evicted them, police broke a back window and hurled canisters of tear gas into the building.

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Civil liberties are in the eye of the beholder

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 6:52 PM - 0 Comments

On Monday, the Conservatives filibustered an attempt to by opposition parties to start hearings into the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history.

On Sunday, the Conservatives demanded hearings into their own decision to change the census, in part so that, in the words of Maxime Bernier, the opposition parties can “explain to Canadians why they want the state and the government of Canada to know lots of details from their private lives.”

Speaking of freedom from state tyranny

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 16, 2010 at 5:13 PM - 0 Comments

While the haze still lingers, that weekend in Toronto now has a soundtrack, courtesy of Broken Social Scene and some enterprising videographer.

This video was made as a response to the G20 Summit in Toronto June, 2010. The rest speaks for itself. It was sent to us by a lover of our music who wants to remain anonymous. We are very proud to share this mash-up with you.

Video after the jump. Continue…

Protests continue over G20 drama, plus what Belinda Stronach did before the G20

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, July 16, 2010 at 12:56 PM - 0 Comments

Large protests over civil rights violations at the G20 continue to happen in Toronto. Last week,  people “took back” the intersection of Queen and Spadina where riot police famously held people for hours in the rain. On July 17^th, Canadians Advocating Political Participation (CAPP) have rallies planned in three cities – Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.

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Bob Dechert is the only thing standing between us and the total destruction of Canada

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 12:32 PM - 0 Comments

The Conservative backbencher who, in December 2008, warned of possible “treason and sedition” now frets that new evildoers might use our very own Parliamentary democracy against us, infiltrating our minds with their words.

Bob Dechert, a Conservative MP, said he is concerned anarchists or other demonstrators could use Commons hearings to build sympathy. “They want to have the media attention to talk about how they were handled by the police and perhaps try to get out the message they didn’t get out during the protest because of the silly things – and actual very criminal things – they did to try to disrupt those summits.”

The investment dealer's story

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 9, 2010 at 9:57 AM - 0 Comments

To the tales of the TTC worker and the amputee and the civil liberties monitor and the reporter and the photographers, you can add the account of the investment dealer.

I spoke to one 38-year-old investment dealer who went down to have a look at what he thought was a designated protest zone at Queen’s Park. He moved too slowly when, for reasons that have yet to be properly explained, a line of riot police advanced to clear the area. Four police pushed him to the ground, cuffed him and put him in a police van. He says he spent the next 21 “dehumanizing” hours in custody, much of it in a cramped cell at Eastern Avenue. “People’s legal rights were shelved for the purpose of controlling the extent and size of the demonstrations that weekend,” he says, still shaken from the ordeal.

The Liberals seem to think Vic Toews should be the first to testify when the public safety committee commences hearings.

Lech Walesa mixes it up

By Nancy Macdonald - Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters

The strangest election in Poland’s post-Communist history took another wrong turn last week with the entry into the fray of famed anti-Communist Lech Walesa. The former Solidarity leader told Poles it would be a “disaster” if they elected Jaroslaw Kaczynski: identical twin of Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president killed in an April plane crash.

“Kaczynski is an irresponsible and dangerous politician,” Walesa said, shattering the sympathetic calm that had blanketed the campaign. It launched mere weeks after the tragedy, which wiped out much of the country’s political and military elite. “We could pay a high price if he wins,” he added.

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Dalton Trudeau

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 9:05 AM - 0 Comments

The Ontario Premier gets comparative.

In a closed-door meeting with MPPs on Wednesday, McGuinty deflected questions from members unhappy at the heavy-handedness of police in dealing with protesters—and the government’s complicity in failing to correct the mistaken impression officers had been given more powers.

“He told us, ‘Just remember, the same guy who gave us the Charter also gave us the War Measures Act,’” said one startled MPP, noting the premier also refuted calls from several members to strike a public inquiry into the G20 debacle.

In fairness to Pierre Trudeau, the War Measures Act was enacted in 1914, he merely invoked it in 1970.

For the sake of comparison though… Continue…

If you went down to the woods

By Nicholas Köhler - Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

LUKE SHARRETT/AFP/Getty Images

Of all the excitement that accompanied the arrival of the G8 leaders to the lake-strewn cottage country around Huntsville, Ont., nothing, for romance or intrigue, could match the military men hidden in the wilderness around Deerhurst Resort, the golf destination that hosted the affair. Not even the lingerie, complete with riot shield and rifle, on display at Petticoats, a Main Street store that sells women’s intimates. And no doubt some of the yarns spun around the camouflaged soldiers are true.

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