statism watch

Preparation for martial law is in its final phases. Note the mention of ‘civilian containment’ – at the very end of this article.

Flashback: Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie | British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies

Adrian Humphreys, National Post
March 04, 2009

The Canadian military has embarked on a wide-ranging plan to turn its reserve soldiers into focused units trained and equipped to respond to a nightmarish array of domestic threats, including terrorist “dirty bomb” attacks, biological agent containment, Arctic catastrophes and natural disasters.

The creation of seven units within each region of the country — including unusual all-terrain vehicle (ATV) squadrons and perimeter security teams to cordon areas of potential devastation — prepares reserve soldiers for operations on the “domestic front” while freeing regular force soldiers to concentrate on foreign battlefields.

“There is a recognition, certainly within the military and we have heard the government say, that domestic security is the number one priority. A number of these conclusions come from the post-9/11 world we live in,” said Brigadier-General Jean Collin, commander of the army in Ontario, during an exclusive interview with the National Post.

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Flashback: Bus decapitation accused was guided by voices, trial hears | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Second Greyhound stabbing suspect also required ‘psychological help’, media clamour for airport-style security renewed | Police drop off and pick up new Greyhound knife assault suspect | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | ‘Please kill me,’ bus beheading suspect pleads as history of psychiatric treatment surfaces | Psych tests ordered for beheading suspect | Edmonton bus terminal ‘wide open’, security needed: ex-security guard | Bus beheading ‘a mystery’

Patrick White, The Globe and Mail
March 4, 2009

WINNIPEG — In early September, 2005, Toronto police picked up a “dishevelled and confused” Chinese immigrant as he wandered aimlessly along the city’s Highway 427.

Over the previous months, the hard-working, church-going Winnipegger had begun hearing what he thought were commands from God.

The orders started as general advice, but gradually morphed into more bizarre instructions – buy land he couldn’t afford in Thompson, Man., travel to Toronto for work, and dispose of all his personal belongings, according to a psychiatric report released Wednesday in the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench.

Failing in his Toronto job search, the man was apparently commanded to return home. So he began walking. For several days, he followed the sun along Toronto’s highway system until police found him and, against his will, took him to the emergency room at William Osler Health Centre in Etobicoke.

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Don’t you dare talk back to someone in a uniform, slave. We are no longer public servants. No, the world has changed: we are officials, and you are a civilian, and you will show us the appropriate level of deference as befits our exalted station. Avert your eyes if possible. Speak with humility. Any deviation or defiance will be severely punished. And you’d better get used to it, because you’ll be seeing a lot more of us around to keep you scum in line.

Matthew Coutts, National Post
March 4, 2009

Canadian traveller says demand for politeness met with use of force

A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to “say please” when ordering him to turn his car off during a search.

“I refused to turn off the car until he said please. He didn’t. And he has the gun, I guess, so he sprayed me,” said Desiderio Fortunato, a Coquitlam, B.C., resident who frequently crosses the border to visit his second home in the state of Washington. “Is that illegal in the United States, asking an officer to be polite?”

The incident occurred on Monday at the Aldergrove border crossing, east of Vancouver, shortly after 12 p.m. Mr. Fortunato, a dance studio director, was travelling to his home in Blaine, Wash., to retrieve a wallet his wife had left during their most recent visit.

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Because that’s what the military is for – civilian law enforcement, right? All that training in how to kill people and break stuff is not just another transferable skill. This is a massive red flag, and the spin on how it’s not for the citizens of Barrie is quite simply, to get them out there and get you used to seeing them. Understand that this is a public relations campaign, just like the Olympics will be. Canadian liberty and the separation of powers is under attack. This is a call to all Canadians, and especially to those in our civilian and military services to, please, open your eyes, and help stop the militarization of your domestic culture now.

Flashback: Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | Military, Mounties teaming up to attract new recruits: Both forces aiming to beef up personnel | Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities | Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy | Ontario Police Chiefs travel to Israel to study police tactics | Steven Harper and the Bilderbergers Secret Meeting

Gail Swainson, Toronto Star
March 4, 2009

Police chief agreeable to having army officers help his squad to curb weekend rowdyism

BARRIE – City police and Camp Borden officers are discussing using joint street patrols to help keep the peace in Barrie’s busy entertainment district on peak weekends.

Teaming up with military police to patrol the bar zone is a concept “we wouldn’t have any real problems with,” Barrie chief Wayne Frechette said in an interview.

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That’s some pretty specific advice from God: ‘Thou shalt use an alias’… what is that? This incident and its followup came along, miraculously, at just the right time to justify additional restrictions and surveillance on your right to travel, which is slowly being restricted, surveilled, and taxed – see the links at the end of this article. But first, google ‘Manchurian Candidate‘ – are the similarities not compelling? And it cannot be denied that these programs have existed. See here and here. But even if we avoid speculation as to the provenance of this specific individual – who sat on a park bench in a trance for a day prior to selling a laptop with snapshots of military planes on it, shot from the air – simply observe the way in which we may be manipulated by the amount of coverage crime in our urban centres is now receiving since the beginning of the war. This despite a continued torrent of statistics that conclude it is, in fact, decreasing. This is true of Toronto and, by the way, Vancouver as well.

Update (Same day): The trial has ended already, with two witnesses (both psychiatrists) called and no counter-testimony presented. Verdict and sentencing are expected tomorrow. This may be the shortest high-profile case on record.
Update (2009/03/05): The verdict has been handed down – Li is to be consigned to an institution in Manitoba.

Flashback: Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Second Greyhound stabbing suspect also required ‘psychological help’, media clamour for airport-style security renewed | Police drop off and pick up new Greyhound knife assault suspect | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | ‘Please kill me,’ bus beheading suspect pleads as history of psychiatric treatment surfaces | Psych tests ordered for beheading suspect | Edmonton bus terminal ‘wide open’, security needed: ex-security guard | Bus beheading ‘a mystery’

Chinta Puxley, Canadian Press
March 04, 2009

Accused stabbed, beheaded and mutilated victim in an effort to ‘protect himself,’ court hears

WINNIPEG – The man who beheaded a passenger on a Greyhound bus was a victim himself, tormented by the voice of God telling him to do it, a forensic psychiatrist told a second-degree murder trial yesterday.

The voice told Vince Li to use an assumed name and get on the bus travelling from Edmonton to Thunder Bay, Ont., last July, Dr. Stanley Yaren said on the first day of Li’s trial.

Li chose to sit next to Tim McLean because McLean made a “friendly gesture” to him, Yaren said.

As the bus neared Portage la Prairie, Man., around 8:30 p.m., 40-year-old Li started hearing voices.

“A voice from God told him Mr. McLean was a force of evil and was about to execute him,” Yaren told the judge hearing the case.

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