statism watch

This just keeps getting better, doesn’t it? You can read the nauseatingly breathless story on the unveiling of the ‘weapons cache’ here. They even displayed the homeless camper’s crossbow and chainsaw, even though they admitted weeks ago that guy had nothing to do with the G20. One can only speculate where Blair and his force may have produced the machetes from.

Related: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest – for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

The Canadian Press
June 30, 2010

Toronto’s top police officer misled the public by displaying fake weapons used in a medieval-themed role-playing game to help justify their actions during G20 protests, their owner said Wednesday.

Brian Barrett said everything in the backpack police confiscated from him “was safe enough for toddlers.”

Barrett’s “spell-balls,” foam-covered batons and scale-mail vest were among items police Chief Bill Blair showed reporters on Tuesday.

“He turns around and states that they are specifically dangerous terrorist items that were solely intended to hurt police,” Barrett said. “That’s unacceptable to me.”

Barrett, 25, of Whitby, Ont., was en route to a west-end park for a role-playing fantasy game called Amtgard when police stopped him at Union Station on Saturday.

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Quick, check under the bed, bomb more Pashtun civilians, ohgodwhateverittakes please save us.

Related: Washington Post: CIA Psyops Unit Created Fake Bin Laden Video, Discussed ‘Gay Saddam’ Campaign | U.S. can’t confirm latest ‘bin Laden’ tape authentic | Bin Laden not in Pakistan, says prime minister | U.S. ‘missed chance’ to capture bin Laden in 2001 | Another dubious Bin Laden tape: Obama ‘powerless’ in Afghanistan | Has Osama Bin Laden been dead for seven years – and are the U.S. and Britain covering it up to continue war on terror? | A Sibel Edmonds Bombshell – Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Until 9/11 | CIA: Bin Laden still in Pakistan | Al-Qaeda Chief In Iraq: Captured, Killed, Never Actually Existed, Now Captured Again | IntelCenter Releases Video of Former CIA Employee Zawahiri Threatening America | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Purported bin Laden tape decries Israel’s anniversary | Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden Murdered | New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery | U.S. Government Caught Red-Handed Releasing Staged Al-Qaeda Videos | Swiss scientists 95% sure that Bin Laden recording was fake

CBC News
June 27, 2010

CIA Director Leon Panetta says al-Qaeda is probably at its weakest since the Sept. 11 attacks because of U.S.-led strikes, with only 50 to 100 militants operating inside Afghanistan and the rest hiding in Pakistan’s mountainous western border region.

Panetta said Sunday the U.S. hasn’t had good intelligence on Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts for years and that the terrorist network is finding smarter ways to try to attack the United States.

Of greatest concern, he said, is al-Qaeda’s reliance on operatives without previous records or those living in the U.S.

“We are engaged in the most aggressive operations in the history of the CIA in that part of the world, and the result is that we are disrupting their leadership,” Panetta told ABC television’s This Week.

The rare assessment from the U.S. spy chief comes as President Barack Obama builds up U.S. forces in Afghanistan to prop up the government and prevent al-Qaeda from returning. About 98,000 U.S. troops will be in Afghanistan by fall.

Panetta initially said in the interview that the Taliban leadership was at its weakest point since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when it escaped from Afghanistan into Pakistan. He later corrected himself to say he was talking about al-Qaeda.

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All of the articles surveyed on the day’s protest (of those written today) feature, upfront, the activities of a cadre of Black Bloc political vandals numbering somewhere from 50 to 100 people. Compare that to the rough estimate police on the scene made of the number of marchers, somewhere from 15,000 to 20,000, and you’ll have an idea how unbalanced the coverage of Saturday afternoon’s demonstrations have been. Run those numbers – the ratio of peaceful to non-peaceful marchers was somewhere around 150:1. Given the fact, StatismWatch is just going to run with the most sensational of the articles, that published by Sun Media. Why not? The writing is transparently inflammatory on a rebels-without-a-clue template, features some interesting details, and you’ve been given a drinking-straw sized view of the day’s events in any case. It simply throws the features of the day’s reporting by the mainstream media in its entirety into sharper relief. And the coverage of the mass march of peaceful demonstrators? That’s nowhere to be found. Several letters to the Star pointed this out, but after searching through four pages of Google News, the search was called off. Balanced journalism is missing and presumed dead.

The police brutality later on in Queen’s Park was absolutely astonishing as well, with passerby and peaceful protesters trampled under the steel-shod hooves of police destriers, justified apparently by the search for Bloc members that police say melted into the crowd.

Read three timelines of the day’s and week’s events here and here and here. More to come as StatismWatch continues boiling down the weekend’s coverage.

Related: Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest – for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

The Toronto Sun
June 26, 2010

The streets of Toronto descended into anarchy Saturday as the city’s police chief warned of more mayhem on the last day of the G20 summit.

Hard-core, balaclava-wearing anarchists burned police cars, smashed and looted stores and threw bricks, bottles and bags filled with urine at police Saturday.

Two cruisers were set alight at King and Bay Sts. and another two cars went up in flames on Queen St. near Spadina Ave.

Violent protesters left a trail of shattered glass along Queen St. W. and then up Yonge St.

The stench of their vinegar-drenched clothes, soaked in a bid to ward off any teargas, followed the anarchy through the streets.

Police Chief Bill Blair said late Saturday as protesters continued to trash city streets that 130 people had been arrested and warned his officers would hunt down all the vandals.

He also confirmed that police used tear gas.

Mayor David Miller condemned the “criminals” who vandalized the city’s streets, expressing outrage at the way some protesters chose to make a political statement as world leaders met here for the G20 summit.

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“Lies and theft/ Guns and debt/ Life and death/ IMF” – Vampires by Thievery Corporation

What’s the balance of outstanding loans between the IMF and G20 countries? Well, it turns out they have a webpage for that and the present total is 51 billion in credit outstanding accounts. That’s priced in ‘SDRs’, the house scrip of the IMF, which aspires to be a sort of world Federal Reserve. So in this communique, they’re simply giving their clients a little friendly advice to pay up. Can you imagine if this institution, its interventions and predatory loans the cause of so much turmoil in the developing world, won its PR campaign to get international transactions denominated in SDRs? Soros, DSK, Sarkozy and others are hopping with urgency for the  Petrodollar replacement. The IMF would be the top creditor to the world, essentially taking over the Federal Reserve’s role and extending its services, so helpful to the USA, to all nations. Hopefully DSK would be gone by that point, a small mercy. Have you read his bio? Domique Strauss-Khan is a dyed in the wool collectivist, scion of the socialist party in France, a veteran of the “Yes” campaign for the EU constitution, a top globalist. If the IMF takes over the printing of currency, this guy becomes a sort of Alan Greenspan to the world. And if you thought Greenspan was creepy, check out old DSK.

The IMF’s business primary business is setting up military dictatorships to drain the resources of a country dry. DSK and the IMF both fulfill the archetype of the wight, the vampire – he with his insistent SMS, they with their SDRs and SAPs – “Structural Adjustment” austerity programs. Hey Canada, there’s a new banker in town and you’re not going to like what he puts on the table. You thought turmoil followed the G20? Just wait until you see an IMF riot. That’s why Harper spent a good chunk of the 1.2 Billion it cost to stage the IMF on security hardware. They’re just getting ready for the really angry mobs all the military studies are predicting when people figure out how they are being bled dry. (It would go some way to explain why Harper appears so bloodless. It should come as no surprise he’s for austerity programs as well.)

Related: G8 Summit: Leaders divided over tackling national deficits | The End of The Great Bailouts is Approaching | The Real Meaning of ‘Economic Austerity’: IMF/World Bank devastation | For G20 leaders, fiscal austerity is the new normal | IMF says Spain taking right steps towards stability | Harper urges austerity, Obama stimulus in urge for G20 to boost economic recovery | Carney warns of ‘age of austerity’, global outlook ‘getting worse’ | Spanish bailout readied as EU chief warns ‘democracy could disappear’ in debt ridden states | Europe embraces the cult of austerity – but at what cost? | | British face big spending cuts as coalition shows unity on austerity | Impact of $47B stimulus minimal: Fraser Institute | More stimulus spending coming | Federal budget watchdog disputes Flaherty’s forecasts | Hope keeps Flaherty’s balanced budget afloat | Tories hand out $75 billion worth of ’spending restraint’ | Stimulating our way into debt crises | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Flaherty’s economic plan blasted as leading to taxation or cuts | Idle job market hurting recovery, Flaherty warns | No new stimulus, economy ’stabilized’: Harper | Lower tax haul helps widen Ottawa deficit, $56.2B shortfall expected | Can’t say if federal stimulus is working: watchdog | Liberals call stimulus numbers ‘fiction’ | Ottawa on track for largest-ever deficit | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Economic picture still not very bright, and more layoffs are in store, manufacturers say | G20 to pledge continued ’stimulus’, examine international reserve fund | Aspiring government economists must reveal views on stimulus plan | Fund me or axe me, parliamentary budget officer says | Stephen Harper trumpets economic report card | Carney says G20 must stay the course on stimulus | Ottawa’s deficit plan would hike EI premiums | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | Flaherty sees deficit, debt, and timetable to return to surplus all expanding | G20 agrees to continue economic stimulus measures; Geithner shops international reserve accord | Federal deficit hits $7.5B in April-May | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | G8 leaders see no early end to stimulus | Flaherty looks for way to end stimulus | Stimulus cash is flowing – down a hole? | Harper lays out stimulus spending in progress report | ‘Reduced pace of deterioration’ indicates economy on the mend: Flaherty | Federal deficit to top $50B | Stimulus needed now, Bank of Canada says | US Congress reaches deal on economic stimulus package | $12B for infrastructure forms key pillar of stimulus package | Brace for a big, ‘comprehensive’ budget: Harper | Transport Minister Baird calls for dramatic action on stimulus package | Obama calls for ‘dramatic action’ on stimulus package | Flaherty vows short-lived deficit, consults corporate chiefs on spending initiatives | Harper government plans deficits as deep as $30 billion | Britain to introduce massive stimulus package | Deficits ‘essential,’ Harper says | Flaherty eyes sale of Canadian government assets | Flaherty lauds Keynesian global ‘economic stimulus’ strategies

Heather Scoffield, The Globe and Mail
June 26, 2010

Sacrifices would be great, but rewards would be enormous, with millions of new jobs, widespread reduction in poverty, and stronger global growth, paper says

Yes, Israeli insurgency against British occupation in land they considered it their G-d given right to hold (sound familiar?) was called terrorism in its day. Go look it up. The insurgents? terrorists? freedom fighters? of yesteryear are in power today in the Likud party, and practically every other state besides. Occupation. Apartheid. Insurgency. It’s the oldest game. Those who don’t learn from history (and can’t see the standard kneejerk tactic of established power in labelling all direct action as ‘terrorism’) are doomed to repeat it. And to wallow in ignorance besides.

Related: Bloody Sunday report released, UK soldiers may face prosecution over ‘72 massacre of Irish | Gaza flotilla attack: activist releases new footage | Freedom flotilla assault timeline unclear, Israel holding confiscated video evidence | Israel’s seizure of Gaza aid boat Rachel Corrie sparks further condemnation | Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | Israel to reject UN call for flotilla raid probe, MV Rachel Corrie under steam | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Protests in Middle East, Europe, follow deadly Israeli attack on flotilla as UN convenes emergency session | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Finklestein: This Time We Went Too Far – Truth and Consequences in the Gaza Invasion | The truth about the Mossad | Dubai police call on Interpol to help arrest Mossad head | Terror of innocent Britons named as assassins: Why choose us, ask men whose identities were stolen during alleged Israeli hit on Hamas official | Chomsky says Israel, ‘US military base’ | New book details Mossad false flag assassination attempt on Canadian passports | UN body endorses Gaza war crimes report | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester

Daniel Tencer, Rawstory.com
June 26, 2010

A little-noticed comment in a New York Times interview with Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has critics arguing that it shows the media has a “double standard” when it comes to terrorism.

In an interview published Tuesday, Livni, the leader of Israel’s centrist Kadima party, boasted that her parents, both members of the Zionist militant group Irgun in the 1940s, were the first couple to be married in the newly-formed state of Israel.

“Both of them were in the Irgun,” Livni said. “They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons.”

To which New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon responded: “It was a more romantic era.”

“I’ve met interviewer Deborah Solomon — smart lady,” writes Philip Weiss, who brought attention to the comment on his blog. “I wonder whether she was inoculated, as I was, by Zionism, and to what degree. This is typically one-sided.”

Weiss points out that Irgun, which was fighting for the creation of a Jewish state, was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946. That attack killed 91 people, including US and British nationals, and is believed to remain to this day as the most deadly militant attack in the history of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors.

Irgun’s membership was absorbed into the Israeli Defence Force after the creation of Israel. Its political arm is a predecessor to today’s Likud party, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prime minister of Israel.

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Related: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers | US Senator: China Can Shut Down The Internet, Why Can’t We? | Internet ‘kill switch’ proposed for US President | U.S. seeks international organization in battle against cyber terror | Homeland Security’s Cyber Bill Would Codify Executive Emergency Powers | Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets | Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | US appoints first cyber warfare general | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | Cybersecurity event seeks to spur international talks | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Canadian researchers reveal another botnet in China, call for state cybersecurity | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Should Obama Control the Internet? | Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
June 25, 2010

Earlier this year, we noted that government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton had been making the rounds ringing up the moral panic over “cyberterrorism,” without any significant evidence of it actually existing in any real form. The key to all of this was the hiring of former director of national intelligence Michael McConnell as a VP, whose main job seems to be scaring the press into repeating Booz Allen fear mongering talking points and attributing them to him without even bothering to mention that he’s employed by a company that is making a ton of money from this fear mongering. And, boy, has Booz Allen raked in the money. Since the fear mongering began, the firm has secured at least hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts.

Of course, that’s good for the firm, but what about its investors? Well, now that it’s scared the government and the public into handing over all this cash, it looks like its investors want to cash out. The company has now announced plans for an IPO so they can walk off with the cash, built off of scaring the public over a supposed threat for which they have little actual evidence. What a deal!

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Did that headline get your attention? That’s National Post. How about this one: Man arrested near G20 security site. (Sun) Toronto Police Arrest Man With Weapons Near G-20 Zone (Bloomberg) Man with weapon-laden car held near G20 venue (Hindustan Times) And those are just a few of the national and international headlines making a big deal out of what was basically a homeless schizophrenic dude driving through Toronto in a crappy car, a fact that was not hard to divine. None of those sources have any sort of linked updates, but that’s how the news serves as a vehicle for propaganda – it gives people who merely scan headlines the wrong impression, because you need context for understanding. It was CityTV that revealed the guy was a homeless dude living out of his car – which explains the camping and hunting implements – and so that’s the article we’ll run with here. Always go to local news if you want the detail. Note that this journal is not saying the police weren’t doing their jobs in this case, harrying innocent campers on their way through downtown. The point is how the story is immediately picked up and how it plays to both domestic and foreign audiences, far more likely to remember the splash than the retraction.

Related: Sacco and Vanzetti in Ottawa: How Media and Police are Politicizing the RBC Arson Case | Ont. police track suspicious fertilizer purchase | Explosive chemicals not stolen prior to Olympics after all: RCMP | RCMP hasn’t closed book on missing potential explosive as Olympics loom | GPS game blamed for Ottawa bomb scare | ‘Bombs’ in Ottawa this weekend are just for training | Art student released on bail after bomb hoax

CityTV News
June 24, 2o10

A man arrested with suspicious materials near the G20 security zone is not linked to the G20 summit, authorities say.

Around 12:30pm Thursday, police pulled over a silver Hyundai Elantra near the Novotel hotel on the Esplanade, where workers had been picketing. The two events were unrelated.

It was a routine traffic stop, but officers soon discovered a chainsaw, sledgehammer, baseball bat, crossbow, arrows and gas canisters in the car. None of the items is illegal, but when the man could not say why he was driving around with them so close to the G20 security zone, he was arrested.

They shut down traffic to the area and the Emergency Task Force, hazmat and decontamination units were called to the scene.

Sources say the man is schizophrenic and lives in his car with his dog. He has been identified as Gary McCullough, 53, of Whitby.

McCullough has been charged with weapons dangerous. He will be appearing at the Finch Ave. courthouse Friday at 2pm.

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It’s good to know this history. Everyone should take a course in media studies at some point in their life to see just how easily we are manipulated. Just look at how the threat of the evil rioting bombing protesters has been played up and heralded in the media in just the last couple of weeks. Exhibits A-E: Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Police arrest ‘middle-aged white guy’ in G20 security raid | US issues G20 travel alert for Toronto | Ont. police track suspicious fertilizer purchase | America would send troops to G8/G20 if required

Related: Police push ahead with firebombing investigation | Three held in bank firebombing may face terrorism charges | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Bank firebomb suspects hung out briefly at Ottawa cafe | Toronto banks review G20 security after Ottawa RBC fire | RBC firebombed as protest, group claims

Jesse Freeston, Toronto Media Coop
June 23, 2010

In August 23rd, 1927, Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Massachusetts. The two were convicted of a double-murder committed during an armed robbery. The trial and media coverage focused on the political ideology of the two men, treating as secondary the material evidence related to the crime itself. The two men were members of the Galleanist Anarchist movement, and the trial was a watershed moment in the campaign to delegitimize the global anarchist movement as a whole.

The politicization of the trial extended to Judge Webster Thayer, who allegedly referred to the defendants as “anarchist bastards.” This is one example of the many ways that the pair’s political activities and beliefs were invoked in a way that prohibited a fair trial from proceeding. Some of the most renowned thinkers of the day spoke out against the prejudice surrounding the trial, such as Upton Sinclair and Walter Lippmann. Fifty years later, a Massachusetts government commission confirmed the trial had been unfair and Governor Michael Dukakis declared a “Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Day.”

Sacco and Vanzetti come to Ottawa

On Saturday, Ottawa police announced the charging of three well-known Ottawa activists in connection with the May 18th arson of a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada. What follows is not a comment on the event in question, nor the guilt or innocence of the accused, but a condemnation of the treatment of the accused by the media and Ottawa police.

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It’s irritating to have to give this neocon apologist a platform, but Marcus Gee has had the point he’s making handed to him on a silver platter, and it’s news in and of itself that such a divisive piece has been printed. He’s also taking the opportunity to engage in some fairly transparent spin, however. Let’s break this down and try to stick to the facts.

1. Not all G20 protesters are failing to condemn violence. This may be the position of the umbrella group TCMN which has anointed itself the representative of everyone on the streets, but it certainly isn’t the position of individuals. 2. What anarchists and left-identified activists mean by violence is not violence against persons, but against property. Which this journal, incidentally, condemns as both unprincipled and counterproductive while we have free speech, but the point being let’s not misrepresent their position. That’s intellectually dishonest. 3. Don’t give us this police sob story. The documented incidents of police ’socking’ people and then charging them with assault to cover themselves are legion.

If it bleeds, it leads – indeed, and perhaps Mr. Gee and other members of the media should look in the mirror as they continue painting the entire activist community with the same brush – deadly dangerous rioters – as a distraction from the arguments being raised. If a brick gets put through a window this weekend, all the cameras will rush right over and we’ll have an opportunity to hear about it for weeks on end. In the meantime, we should be looking at the larger problem – the violence being done to the charter rights of Toronto’s citizens as they’re swept aside.

Related: Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest – for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Marcus Gee, The Globe and Mail
June 23, 2010

The fact is that activists find the violent fringe useful

On the eve of the big summit, G20 protesters are complaining bitterly about all the security – the helicopters, the water cannons, the ugly fence, the countless cops. What they fail to acknowledge is that most of it would be wholly unnecessary if they simply agreed to renounce violence, something they consistently refuse to do.

The other day I encountered veteran local activist Anna Willats at a pre-summit Creative Queer Resistance rally on Queen Street. I asked her: Are you against violence at the summit?

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Okay, fair enough Mr. Strong. Let’s have a look at that fine, nuanced, sophicticated distinction between government and governance that we plebes can’t possibly grasp. Just for you. From the Merriam-Webster online:

gov·er·nance (n.) \ˈgə-vər-nən(t)s\
See government

Perhaps, next, we should look up doublespeak. Or doublethink, for those who buy his line. Who’s he kidding? The EU was sold as being merely a system of economic cooperation as well. While the UN and international relations wonks use the term ‘governance’ in a wider context to apply to “corporate governance, international governance, national governance and local governance”, there is no real daylight between the two, unless the intention is to imply states are to be run as corporations. Which, on further reflection, is probably not too far from the truth. Nice try smearing everyone who disagrees with you as ‘right wing’, though. Tell us another story, Mr. Strong.

Related: Canada commits $400M to climate change fund | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Canada part of Copenhagen climate deal | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | Copenhagen climate summit releases draft final text | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Canada agrees to contribute to $10-billion climate change fund | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Leo Hickman, The Guardian
June 23, 2010

What I do want, says the man self-labelled ‘the planet’s leading environmentalist’, is for nations to co-operate fully on issues they cannot deal with alone

Maurice Strong, the founding executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme and self-proclaimed “world’s leading environmentalist”, has hit back at his critics in a rare interview with the Guardian.

Responding to internet speculation and repeated attacks by prominent rightwing climate sceptics that he is using the climate change issue to establish a global government, the 81-year-old Canadian, who organised both the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 and the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, said his only motivation was to alert the world that mankind’s current actions are environmentally unsustainable.

“I’ve always made it clear that I do not believe that global government is either necessary or feasible,” said Strong, who was a key official at the UN for decades until his retirement in 2005.

“What I do believe is that we need a system of global governance through which nations can co-operate and deal with issues they cannot deal with alone. Maybe that statement is too sophisticated for some, but it shouldn’t be.”

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