VIGILANCE

Power in the Darkness for your listening pleasure whilst reading.

I've been rethinking the events in Toronto last weekend. Initially, I was disappointed by the lack of cohesion the various groups of activists brought to the table. So many different Rights groups - each with a different agenda. Of course the media focused on the few violent acts and didn't print a word to champion the commitment of the activists behind the individual Rights groups who marched.

But out of the mayhem which ensued, there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. Fortunately, that light is shining on many aspects of rights which were circumvented and abused by both politicians and the police.

So to everyone that peacefully participated and suffered abuse at the hands of those meant to "serve and protect us" - while I'm sorry for your bruises and lacerations, it wasn't in vain - wear them like badges of honour. The not so hidden agenda of the Provincial leaders, Federal leaders, Toronto Police Chief and his keystone cops are exposed and there will be a call for accountability of their actions.

Perhaps at the most elementary level, what must be remembered is that our rights were not handed over on a silver platter. Most of us were born into a world where they already existed. Some of us fought long and hard during the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s.

And the fight to maintain the dignity and functionality of those rights has been a quiet battle. Most people want to read about winning and establishing rights, not maintaining rights.

Vigilance is necessary to remind the PTB, we will not surrender to them without a fight and we intend to keep these rights intact functioning socially, legally and intellectually.

As we witness these rights being subtly (and sometimes blatantly) challenged and eroded, we must appreciate the individuals willing to peacefully stand up and voice what many of us also think. Once we accept rights which have been bastardized, amended or which become conditional; or actions by those in power (or representing those in power -such as the police) we are accepting, and virtually handing over, the original charter of those rights. We will have then effectively surrendered. Pick a number, because that's all you will ever more be.


From Ron
Unlike windows, broken Rights not easily repaired
"A very serious event occurred this weekend, No not the breaking of some insured windows at Starbucks nor the torching of a few Buick Police Cruisers. No the event which all Canadians should be seriously concerned about was the ease in which the Ontario Government secretly passed a law which removed rights of free assembly, peaceful protest and the right to be in a public place without being subject to random search and random arrest without cause.

The very rights which people around the world, including Canadians, struggled long and hard to enshrine in our living experience. The very rights which Government websites tout and which young people are educated about in school. And you never know how important these basic rights are until they are snatched away as they were under the cloak of secrecy these recent weeks by a small group within the Ontario Government.

History has shown that things don't happen overnight. Changes are often done in an incremental fashion. Democracy, like social benefits, can be chipped away piece by piece until finally the sum of the incremental changes DOES result in a totally different form of governance. People lulled into complacency by the smallness of the incremental changes themselves become part of the canvas onto which large change is ultimately painted, to their own great detriment. When they finally recognize the sum total of the changes, it often is too late to act.

The shocking thing about this weekend's display in Toronto of of the erosion of well enshrined democratic rights is how comfortable MPPs and MPs (the so called representatives of the people) are in defending the erosion of the people's very own rights and how complicit the media is in either toeing the protagonists' line or shifting the people's attention to comfy stories like the Queen's visit to Canada.

On second thought, perhaps such actions by the political, corporate and media elite are not all that shocking when one steps back to think about how this thing we call Canada is really run. And for whom."

from Corinne
No arrests made under G20 rule change, Ontario says “There was not one arrest pursuant to the PWPA (Public Works Protection Act) – all arrests occurred under the Criminal Code of Canada.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/830030--no-g20-secret-law-police-powers-granted-ontario-says?bn=1

she comments...
This is duplicitous language of lowest order. This video of Charlie Veitch shows that when he was approached by the police the Public Works act was invoked to demand his ID. When he refused, he was arrested, and then he was charged under the criminal code for failure to comply, as you will see in this video.

And thanks to Bee Sting for this article.
(en) Canada, Montrealers arrested in Toronto ahead of G20 protest + THE SPOKE Issue 9

John from Manitoba sends the following article.
he comments...
"One word; sickening.
We really have to get rid of Harper and his crew.
More than a billion for this sh**, Humbug"

Seeing It All in Toronto -Still Free, Barely Holding On
Synopsis: Not all of us who are fighting in the streets here in Toronto are despondent, but a great many of us are. I am. We are experiencing in our neighborhoods what brown people have experienced for centuries around the world at our hands. It has come home to roost.

So the defamation begins.
Top cop calls rioters 'terrorists,' promises review

But lets call them on their deeds.
Porter: When police stick to phony script
So far in Toronto, the police show has unrolled according to script; we’ve seen the propaganda, the cache, the intimidation, the secretive new regulations, the scary military arsenal. . . .
Couldn't have said it better myself.