statism watch

Flashback: ‘Governator’ Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry Olympic torch | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Photographers claim assault at Toronto torch run | Olympic torch delayed by Toronto protest | Olympic torch protested in Montreal | Anti-Olympic activists decry ‘Orwellian’ treatment | Protesters block Olympic torch relay in Vancouver | Olympic security follows protester’s friend | 2010 Olympic security plans include ‘free speech’ zones | Olympic security boss puts protesters on notice | Activists seen as potential threat to Vancouver Games | CSIS Spying on Natives, Olympic Dissidents

CBC News
February 8, 2010

Anti-Olympic activists are making no secret of where and when they plan to protest against the Olympic flame as torch-bearers wend their way through Metro Vancouver. But the activists are not saying exactly what they’re planning to do.

The ironically named 2010 Welcoming Committee announced at a news conference in front of the Olympic countdown clock Monday that they would make their presence felt during the torch relay at least five times between Tuesday and Friday, the last day of the marathon cross-country run.

Police have said that protests would be tolerated along the torch’s 44,000-kilometre trek as long as they were lawful. [Ed. Note: Tolerated? We tolerate you, police, to protect our rights and enforce our laws. You are the public servants, not us.]

One protest leader hinted Monday that what activist groups had in mind in coming days would not be quiet.

“I think lawful is a code word for silent,” said activist Alyssa Westergaard-Thorpe of the Olympic Resistance Movement.

“They want silent protests as far away from the Olympics as possible and that’s not something we’re willing to go along with.”

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Your money, well spent on convincing you to enjoy giving away your money. (Someone go look up the ad agency responsible for this campaign, squeeze a little, and corruption will likely come oozing out of that deal too). You’re paying to be propagandized and it’s all perfectly legal.

Flashback: Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Tories, Liberals, Bloc approve HST for Ontario and B.C. | Anti-HST protest at Ontario legislature spills onto Toronto streets | More HST debate fallout after Ontario Legislature sit-in | Liberals to support HST bill | Tory HST protest halts Ontario question period | Federal HST tax bill to be introduced, plays politics with law | Ontario Tories walk out to protest lack of hearings on HST | Contentious HST bill introduced in Ontario | Food under $4 to be HST-free, Ontario says | McGuinty says HST doubters exist in Liberal ranks | If passed, HST locked in through 2012 | New HST tax is fair, McGuinty says | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Flaherty offers taxpayer-funded bribe to adopt HST tax, holdout provinces demur | BC, like Ontario, moves to harmonize taxes | Ontario Liberals pressing to hide new ‘harmonized’ tax in prices | Ontario to merge GST, PST in ‘harmonized’ tax hike | EU approves free-trade talks with Canada | Canada expects EU free-trade talks soon: Stockwell Day | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA

The Canadian Press
February 8, 2010

Ontario’s controversial move to harmonize sales taxes will be part of a new $1.6-million government ad campaign that’s poised to hit newsstands on Thursday.

The print ads, which highlight an income tax cut that took effect Jan. 1, will invite readers to “take a closer look at Ontario’s new tax package” by visiting a government website.

More than 400,000 people have visited the website, which will help residents figure out how the tax changes will affect them and their businesses, Revenue Minister John Wilkinson said Monday in announcing the campaign.

“This is the largest tax reform in over 40 years,” he said during a Liberal caucus retreat in downtown Ottawa.

“So it’s really important for people to make sure that there’s a source of information that they can go to get the facts.”

There is “misinformation out there” about harmonizing the eight per cent provincial sales tax with the five per cent federal GST next July, Wilkinson added.

Ontario’s opposition parties are bitterly opposed to the HST, saying it will hurt people who are already struggling during the economic downturn.

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Wow. The Force’s morale must be going through convulsions right now. And this journal has a lot of sympathy for the enlisted ranks – obviously this has nothing to do with them. But there’s something about power itself, and particularly the upper echelons of power, that attracts the most cunning sociopaths. They’re saying this guy could be a serial killer (though nothing has yet been proven). There is a thin, but important thread joining this vile story with those of the Cornwall paedophile ring, and that of Bishop Lahey, and Judge Ramsay. In other words, power corrupts, and it attracts predators – this is why it must necessarily be chained, whereas the rights of the people must be protected. Not the other way around, which is the direction we’re presently headed in. This is why we don’t want regular troops out on the streets doing civilian policing. This is why we need the state’s enforcement arms to be restricted and circumscribed, with substantial civilian oversight. Is that not fair? Is that not prudent? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Their shadow knows.

CBC News
February 8, 2010

Col. Russell Williams accused of killing 2 women, sexually assaulting 2 others

A military commander from Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two women.

Col. Russell Williams, 46, of Tweed, the top commander at 8 Wing/CFB Trenton, was arrested Sunday in Ottawa, Ontario Provincial Police Det.-Insp. Chris Nicholas said at a news conference Monday.

Williams has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jessica Lloyd, 27, whose body was found Monday off Cary Road in the municipality of Tweed.

Lloyd had been missing since Jan. 28 from her home outside Tweed, about 30 kilometres north of Belleville.

Ontario’s chief coroner is to conduct an autopsy on Lloyd’s body, which arrived in Toronto late Monday afternoon.

Williams was also charged in the death of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38, of Brighton, Ont., who was killed in her home Nov. 25. Comeau served with the 437 Squadron at CFB Trenton.

Nicholas said police linked the two slayings because of similarities in the cases. They do not expect to make any other arrests.

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This all sounds vaguely familiar, don’t you think?.Commentators – like idiot Palin – are running around in the American media with their neocon talking points scrawled on their palms about how Obama’s poll numbers would be improved if he ‘toughened up’ a little. So here we go again. Can we please break our conditioning and step outside of the left/right mind trap before the war machine in the Persian Gulf is loosed under left cover? It isn’t going to be any better an outcome if it’s Obama and his advisors – the same advisors providing advice to all presidents – pushing the button. Can we please not do this?

Flashback: Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Iran admits jailed protesters were beaten to death | Iranian commanders assassinated, Iran fingers Western intelligence | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Tens of thousands march in Iran | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

The Associated Press
February 8, 2010

Members of the United Nations are calling for new sanctions against Iran after it made formal notification Monday that it would enrich uranium to higher levels.

Iran insists the move is meant only to provide fuel for its research reactor.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner accused Iran of “blackmail,” according to media reports.

“Alas, we can’t apply anything other than sanctions since negotiation is not possible,” Kouchner is reported to have said.

“If the international community will stand together and bring pressure to bear on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work,” U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said at a media event in Rome on Sunday, one day before Iran made its official notification to the UN.

Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told The Associated Press that he informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of the decision to enrich at least some of its low-enriched uranium stockpile to 20 per cent, considered the threshold value for highly enriched uranium.

Soltanieh, who represents Iran at the Vienna-based IAEA, also said that the UN agency’s inspectors now overseeing enrichment to low levels would be able to stay on site to fully monitor the process.

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How did Bush family minion and ‘Mr. Universe’ golden boy land that gig? One wonders if the (alleged) Gropinator will be wearing his dressiest SS death’s head belt buckle for the occasion. Way to defuse the ‘Nazi Torch’ controversy, Arnold. The optics here are so wrong.

Flashback: Grisly Skull and Bones trophies to be auctioned | Nazi Olympics exhibit opens in Vancouver | Secret report details Nazi plan to create a European Union | Project Paperclip: The US Nazi Amnesty | How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power | The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics

CBC News
February 8, 2010

Schwarzenegger, Walter Gretzky part of star-studded lineup

The Terminator will run with the Vancouver Olympic torch.

Vancouver Games officials say California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the onetime actor who starred in films such as James Cameron’s The Terminator, will carry the torch this Friday, ahead of the 2010 opening ceremony.

The Great One’s father, Walter Gretzky, will also take part in the torch relay in its final hours, running in Vancouver.

The star-studded lineup for the final days of the relay also includes astronaut Julie Payette, who will run Wednesday, and singers Jann Arden and Michael Bublé on Thursday.

Rolly Fox, the father of Canadian hero Terry Fox, will bear the torch Friday near English Bay, after Seb Coe, a former Olympian and chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee.

The 106-day relay is in Langley and Surrey on Monday, as it makes it way toward Vancouver for the start of the Games.

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Probably, because the international central banks want to establish the same sort of consolidation over first world assets as they already have over the third world. Tim Geithner said so in June 2008, right before the first wave of this debt conflagration swept over the US, the UK, and their client states. Could this be any clearer? And Flaherty and his peers are running around on dogsleds and knocking over igloos up in Iqaluit, throwing up this big snowjob about the minor degrees of disagreement between these states as to precisely how they’re going to go about handing full control of the world economic system over to the IMF and World Bank. It’s ridiculous. And we’re all just sitting there watching the Superbowl, watching Idol or some fake reality TV show, thinking we’re in Valhalla. That’ll work for precisely as long as it takes for the stimulus to trigger currency crises, then this whole house of cards comes down and we beg for our money to get pegged to a global standard. How many rude awakenings do we need? Come on, people!

Flashback: The US budget: Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion red ink blueprint | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Consumer debt loads are the new concern | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Why Did the ‘Stimulus’ Fail to Help the US Economy? | Could Greece drag down Europe? | Record surge in UK inflation | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Canadians struggling to dig out of debt | Can’t say if federal stimulus is working: watchdog | UAE markets dive on Dubai debt woes | Dubai’s ‘big pyramid scheme’ grounded by debt load | A world awash in debt | U.S. banking troubles far from over | Ottawa on track for largest-ever deficit | U.S. markets fall on Dubai crisis | 1 in 10 Americans delinquent in paying mortgage | Personal bankruptcies still soaring | Credit card debt balloons | US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | Credit delinquencies up 24% in June | Bank of Canada declares recession over | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | More Canadians in arrears on credit payments | Canadian households $1.3-trillion in debt | Credit companies seek to avoid regulation, create global debit system | Canadian credit card delinquencies rising | Iceland’s government collapses | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown | Now the consumer crunch: falling credit limits, rising interest rates

David Oliver, Toronto Star
February 8, 2010

The inevitable “sovereign debt panic” finally struck last week, causing severe one-day drops in stock markets from New York to London to Toronto on Thursday.

Ostensibly, the epicentre of the crisis is Greece, in danger of defaulting on its debt payments to worldwide holders of its government bonds, or sovereign debt.

But the fear about state defaults quickly spread to Spain, Portugal and Ireland, fiscal train wrecks that together with Greece now go by the unfortunate acronym PIGS.

Even then, the scope of a potential second global financial crisis so soon after the credit crisis of 2008-09 goes far beyond the euro zone, the 16 nations sharing a common currency, the euro.

Last week’s dramatics could have been far worse. And they may yet manifest themselves in an ugly fashion in weeks to come if the euro-zone countries don’t rescue what Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou described last week as “the weakest link in the euro zone.”

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Flashback: Student Mock Parliament to be held in Montreal Parallels Integrationist Aims of SPP

Dana Gabriel, StatismWatch Contributing Writer
February 8, 2010

The North American Forum on Integration (NAFI) was created in 2002, and is one of many think tanks pushing for closer continental ties. In 2005, NAFI organized the Triumvirate, a North American model parliament which meets once a year. The exercise brings together university students from the U.S., Mexico and Canada with participants assigned the roles of legislators, journalists or lobbyists. Over the years, the mock parliament has debated and drafted resolutions on such key issues as trade corridors, immigration, NAFTA’s Chapter 11, along with the creation of a North American investment fund and a customs union. Infowars reported that last year’s Triumvirate gathering was cancelled due to the swine flu pandemic scare.

The Triumvirate 2010 will be held in Querétaro, Mexico. A description on its website states that, “This 5th edition will gather a hundred university students from Mexico, the United States and Canada to participate, from May 30th to June 4th, 2010, in an international negotiation exercise in which they will simulate a parliamentary meeting.” Some of the main objectives of the Triumvirate event include, “To allow participants to familiarize themselves with the functioning of democratic institutions as well as North American political, economic, environmental and social realities; to develop the participants’ sense of belonging to North America (and) to increase intercultural exchanges and promote the creation of academia networks.” This year’s delegates will address such topics as making smart borders more efficient, managing transboundary water in North America, as well as countering human trafficking and consolidating North American governance. While the model legislature is seen as an opportunity for students to better understand the political process and the challenges facing the continent, in many ways it mirrors actual efforts to further integrate the three countries. This includes the vision of a real functioning North American parliament similar to the European Union (EU) model.

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Glowing articles about ‘elite police’ squads, questioning youth and demanding their ID on the street. Good intentions or not, it’s a dangerous precedent, the thin edge of the wedge that eventually wipes out your right to not have to deal with internal checkpoints and police harrasment. You can bet there’s a lot more to this story on the ground in Malvern and paramilitary squads and random police raids are coming to your door (or apartment building) as well unless you, the privileged, speak out about this. Make everybody see: This is how militarized patrols started in other jurisdictions – now, the police carry submachine guns in London, UK. Now, the police carry submachine guns on the NY subway. Now, your bags are being searched to get on trains. Police around the globe feel empowered now to merely point to the existence of crime in order to swell their own operational mandate and justify treating everyone like criminals. The cameras and drones are on their way as well. This is the intended meaning of ‘the day the world changed‘. So remember, citizens, you do not have to identify yourself to police or submit to a search unless they have a reasonable expectation that a crime has been committed. Yet.

Flashback: Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | UK: From snapshot to Special Branch: how my camera made me a terror suspect | UK: Photographer questioned under anti-terror laws for taking pictures of Christmas lights | UK: Big fall in police use of stop-and search powers after outcry | UK Police in £9m scheme to log ‘domestic extremists’ | UK anti-terrorism strategy ’spies’ on innocent | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Olympic security follows protester’s friend | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | EU Plans Massive Surveillance Panopticon That Would Monitor “Abnormal Behavior” | Pentagon Caught Subverting Protest Group | UK: Big Brother state wants even more spy powers | Toronto TAVIS special police corps demanding ID on city streets | 50 Toronto high schools to have armed police presence | DoD Training Manual Describes Protest As “Low-Level Terrorism” | Lunchtime lockdown to promote healthier eating: T.O. school plan | UK: Police caught on tape trying to recruit climate activist as informant | UK police maintain databank on thousands of protesters | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Schools seek more police as crime drops | Former MI5 chief: UK Ministers ‘using fear of terror’ to restrict civil rights | Police presence in high schools makes the grade | UK: Calling the police to account for anti-photography law | Olympic security boss puts protesters on notice | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | Safety report author Falconer on armed police in schools: “Facile” | Activists seen as potential threat to Vancouver Games | Frequent school lockdowns raise questions | 27 Toronto schools to get armed police presence | Two trustees stand opposed to armed police in schools | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Armed police officers heading to high schools | Protestors added to database of terror suspects | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | $4 Million Earmarked for Cameras, “Respect” at Toronto Schools | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

Moira Welsh, The Toronto Star
February 8, 2010

TAVIS initiative joint effort of province and police

It’s Saturday night in Malvern, and a young black man is leaning over the side of a police cruiser, arms spread wide, crying for a bit of mercy.

“I never did anything wrong,” Dane Brown says as police officers put him in the back of their squad car. “I did nothing! I’m just here to see my baby mother.”

Brown’s indignation grows louder when Sergeant Steve Harrigan arrives to check on his officers, part of the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy. Harrigan leads a TAVIS Rapid Response Team of 16 officers who sweep into areas like Malvern or Jane-Finch, stopping people on the street, in parks, driving cars or in apartment stairwells. They are looking for guns, drugs or information that will lead them to gang-related crime.

Called “targeted policing,” TAVIS is the creation of the provincial government and Toronto police in response to 2005’s “year of the gun,” when gang violence erupted across the city.

Its mandate is to cut crime in high-risk communities across Toronto. One of the ways TAVIS does that is by stopping thousands of people in the targeted neighbourhoods, home to many minorities. This leads to arrests and a growing database of personal information that police gather from a practice called “carding.”

Officially called “Field Information Reports,” the collection of names, addresses, acquaintances and skin colour on small, white cards is a long-time investigative practice used by all Toronto police officers. TAVIS, however, was given the mandate of focusing on high-crime areas. As a result, its officers card more people, and are likely to card more blacks, than any other police unit.

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