Tag: Protest

In the Face of the Unthinkable

Yesterday on Democracy Now! Emily Henochowicz was interviewed. Which for personal reasons, yesterday marked the 14th anniversary of my accident, was rather symbolic. For those unaware, Emily is a “twenty-one-year-old American art student who lost her eye [while in the West Bank] in May after being shot in the face by an Israeli tear gas canister at a protest against Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla.”

Now it isn’t my intent to get drawn in to arguments about what happened, I’ll refrain from comment, this time. Rather I’d most like to comment on the aspects of her story for which we share a connection, seeing what August 5th represents for me every year. Having the unthinkable occur and being forced to live the rest of a life with the result. I can, most definitely, relate.

And empathize…

Continue reading In the Face of the Unthinkable

Incredibly Damning

Three points of interest I’ve stumbled upon concerning the G20 Summit, happening in Toronto, this weekend…

  1. First the sweeping power police have been “temporarily” granted. According to The Toronto Star, “[t]he province has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation that empowers police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search.”
    But not only that, this regulation “was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature [yay democracy!]. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an “extraordinary request” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. […] The regulation kicked in Monday and will expire June 28, the day after the summit ends. While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 — one week after the regulation expires.”
  2. The Security wall erected to “protect” the world “leaders” from protestors. I think the much more relevant question is, where the hell is our protection, from them? But beside the point.
    Stephan Christoff (in his interview on today’s Democracy Now broadcast) said that the “three-layer massive security fence around downtown, [was] constructed by a corporation, SNC-Lavalin from Montreal.” The very same Canadian corporation who “produced millions of bullets between 2003 and 2005 for the U.S. Army at the same time of the invasion of Iraq.” Shocking. That is if you’ve never read Yves Engler’s book The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, where he details this (I believe), and a number of other instances, where Canada’s was and is, most definitely, involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
    And, “bringing it home,” Stephan went onto say “[s]o this is a corporation that’s inherently tied to the military-industrial complex internationally and also has been tied to the clampdown on dissent here in Toronto.”
  3. And, lastly, the emphasis on violence, and its condemnation in relation to the protests, by my Government, specifically. This is something I made passing reference to in my previous post, the absurd irony of it all. Let’s see, it’s perfectly acceptable for the G20 to turn around and use the very thing they “deplore” to implement the same policies people are protesting?

I don’t know about you, but this is so very interesting, not to mention incredibly damning…