statism watch

Oh, well, ok then. Let’s just forget the whole thing ever happened.

Flashback: Chicago study calls Taser’s safety claims into question

Canadian Press
April 28, 2009

A cardiology expert paid by the company that makes Tasers told a public inquiry Tuesday he doesn’t think Robert Dziekanski’s death was at all related to the controversial stun guns.

Dziekanski died on the floor of Vancouver’s airport in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007, minutes after four RCMP officers confronted him and stunned him several times with a Taser.

Dr. Charles Swerdlow, a cardiac electrophysiologist who receives compensation for sitting on Taser International’s medical advisory board, appeared at the inquiry by video conference from California.

Swerdlow said if the Taser negatively affected Dziekanski’s heart, it would happen almost immediately after he was stunned.

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Flashback: US government may take controlling share of General Motors

CBC News
April 28, 2009

The Ontario government might invest in General Motors because the province must be “very pragmatic” in thinking about ways to maintain auto jobs, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday.

About 20 per cent of the company’s North American employees work in Ontario.

But if the province or Canada bought a stake in the company, it would be small, Economic Development Minister Michael Bryant said. No final decision has been made, he said.

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Not guilty of taking snapshots in London – lucky for these guys they still have juried trials in England, but at best, this is a little more than a bloodied nose for the fascist UK anti-terror laws. Now, granted, two of these kids have been convicted of wanting to go and fight alongside insurgents in the middle east. But from a legal rights standpoint this is kind of an odd way to deal with the issue, since there’s such obvious conflation around the meanings of ‘terrorist’ and ‘potential enemy combatant’. And as the victims of 7/7 note below, this stinks of a cover-up - particularly considering the fact that a drill with a plotline identical to the actual events was being run on the day of the bombings. Funny how these confusing drills keep popping up during terror events when there’s a war the public needs to get behind. Happily, the natives are hopping mad now,  so there’s no more need to stir things up artificially. Brilliant!

Flashback: Pakistan lauds arrest of 7/7 militants on US tip, Britain denies suspect’s involvement | Prosecutors weigh options after hung jury in 7/7 UK terror trial

Rachel Williams, The Guardian
April 28, 2009

Jury clears men of conspiring with four bombers over London 2005 explosions that killed 52

Three British Muslims were today cleared of helping the 7 July bombers choose their targets by carrying out a reconnaissance mission in London seven months before the attacks that killed 52 people and injured almost 1,000.

A jury at Kingston crown court unanimously found Waheed Ali, 25, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, all from Beeston, Leeds, not guilty of conspiring with the four bombers to cause explosions, after deliberating for eight days.

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Sheer mindlessness, heaping on top of the existing the hysteria around firearms. Beware the deadly symbolism! Wet your pants in terror! How about this for an idea – why don’t we beware being a completely disarmed populace in an increasingly militarized culture. Gun owners in this country already have Harper messing with their heads, so is this really necessary?

Flashback: Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup

David Grossman, The Toronto Star
April 28, 2009

They don’t fire bullets, but deadly symbolism triggers call to keep them out of high school track meets

The starter’s pistol is under the gun, facing a growing clamour to end its use at local high school track and field meets.

And the movement to ban the gun because of its deadly symbolism includes someone who literally has pulled the trigger to start foot races for thousands of high school athletes across Ontario.

“We don’t need people standing around with (pistols) — those days are done,” said Brian Keaveney, a former teacher and an internationally ranked starter who has his own pistol.

Having guns in and around schools is bad optics, he added.

Keaveney has been joined in the call for the starter gun ban by some officials from the Toronto District School Board and Athletics Ontario, among others.

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