In another time & place, I'd be your shaman, oracle or sage. This time & place isn't the only 1 that counts. July is Mad Pride month. http://bit.ly/9EG9UT

Just say NO (thank you) to the stigma.

The G20 Protest that was Stolen from the Peaceful Majority and Never Told - June 26, 2010 - Toronto, Ontario from Michael Napiorkowski on Vimeo.

"I attended the peaceful protest march in response to the G20 on June 26, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario and continued with the peaceful protest into the night. The movement was huge, powerful and filled with amazing energy. The messages were strong and creatively expressed through signs, music, dance, poetry and pure solidarity. However, I was saddened by the media's shallowness of coverage and obsessive focus on the acts of vandalism by a small group to the complete exclusion of the peaceful majority who carried a strong and extremely important message to the world, so I decided to share another perspective with the footage and images that I captured during the weekend. I purposely left out the broken windows and damaged police cars that I encountered along the way because they do not represent anything that the majority were protesting or experiencing. There was a horrible disservice committed against democracy during the weekend by the mainstream media, by oversized and overreaching security presence, and by the unjustifiable fear that was instilled in the minds of the public by the government. These courageous protesters should be applauded for being actively engaged in their democracy and seeking justice for the marginalized. They are the ones who are truly looking out for us, for our children and for future generations." - Michael Napiorkowski

Meet Officer "Bubbles" in the vid below. He epitomizes the Toronto police and G20 Security people. He's rude, intimidating, coercive and disproportionately aggressive. I suspect his behaviour is jerky in other ways as well. He cares little for Charter Rights and Freedoms and he has the sense of humour of an angry two year old. Take a look at the young woman he is being mean to. Are you kidding me, Officer Bubbles? And catch that first look by the female officer beside Officer Bubbles as she realizes what kind of spiel he is about to do. Is she embarrassed to be standing beside him or am I reading too much into her facial expression?




Officer Bubbles got under my skin even though his behaviour is mild compared to the criminal behaviour of many other police officers, the ones who assaulted and injured peaceful citizens, who ripped a prosthetic leg off an amputee (because he might take it off himself and use it as a weapon!), and the ones who tossed innocent citizens into cages, denied them legal counsel, food, water and sanitation.

The following vid is from the same neighbourhood of Toronto. My daughter used to live there. It got me thinking about how this kind of oppression could be mounted in anyone's neighbourhood, anywhere in Canada. In asking police forces to serve and protect us, are we safe from them and those who control them? Do you want to trade the security provided by police services for the loss of Charter Rights? Is that a fair thing to ask of a population? What if it is not even being asked? What if it simply is ordered, part of a big plan by unseen individuals?



Of course police forces across the country are watching Toronto to see what they can get away with in the future. The cages purchased for the G20 and used to detain a thousand in Toronto can be easily transported to any location in Canada -- far easier than building jails for mass arrest. Canada now has the capability to incarcerate masses of people in short order -- anywhere in the country. That is what the G20 has done for us. The mechanisms and tools are in place. A billion dollars didn't buy just security for the G20 bosses. It bought the tools, procedures and protocols for trammeling dissent and incarcerating hundreds, if not thousands. It bought a big step toward the police state that the conspiracy theorists keep yammering about. A billion dollars of our money has been used to buy what is needed to oppress us.

The only thing missing is the legal right to behave as they did and yet, the police acted as if they did have the legal right to behave as they did. The often brutal "catch and release" strategy is abhorrent as well as patently illegal. Is it a precursor to the legalization of extraordinary police powers at the whim of politicians or even police chiefs or upper level bureaucrats?

We cannot let them get away with the illegalities and injustices of the Toronto G20. We must support all initiatives to bring to justice the criminal elements among police, their leaders and their political bosses. We must not only take back the streets, but take back our country. It is more than a matter of shameful behaviour by a police force. Much more. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been violated multiple times. The police have committed assault multiple times. Citizens have been deprived, humiliated, victimized and traumatized by those who are charged with protecting them. Peaceful dissent has been re-framed as criminal behaviour, though it is the response to peaceful dissent that has been criminal.

We are being tested. Some people want to be able to exercise absolute authority over us at some point in the future. Is this such a far fetched notion now?

This letter is reproduced in its totality with Gretta's permission.

********************************************************************************

July 8, 2010


Prime Minister Stephen Harper; The Honourable Vic Toews; The Honourable, Dan McTeague; The Honourable Wayne Arthurs; Mr. William Blair; Mr. Alok Mukherjee

Dear Sirs,

As a Canadian who cherishes our right to freely express ourselves and who upholds the rule of just law, I write with a heavy heart. It is weighed by the stark images I’ve seen and stories I’ve heard from direct eye witnesses of so many of our civil liberties being denied, again and again, by police officers as they carried out their duties in downtown Toronto during the weekend of the G20. My son, having just celebrated his 19th birthday, was one of those taken out of a peaceful crowd of protesters by police, kicked, stomped upon, arrested without charge, and held for 24 hours in a cage without legal counsel or medical attention. His arrest is recorded on YouTube but, as in other recorded situations, police hid their actions behind shields and impermeable lines thereby preventing the public from filming what they were doing; all you can hear is his cry, “What did I do? What did I do?” It is terrible to watch.

I would like to know what it is that he, and hundreds like him, did to deserve the treatment they experienced at the hands of those charged with protecting them. I would like to know why he was pulled down while part of a peaceful crowd. I would like to know why he and others who were with him were beaten as they were being arrested. I would like to know why when my son asked for medical attention, an officer told him he hoped his wound would get infected. I would like to know why, when asked for his badge number, that same officer replied “Fuck you.” I would like to know why, when my son stared at him that same officer told him “Stop looking at me or I’ll kick you in the chest again“, both threatening my son and identifying himself as one of those who kicked my son during his arrest. I would like to know why officers did not tell my son what he did that caused his arrest.

I would like to know why the Eastern Avenue temporary detention facility was a place of overcrowding, debasement, and humiliation. I would like to know why civilians detained there were not allowed the medical attention they needed, were not allowed consideration for special needs, were not given toilet paper, were held in cuffs that caused their fingers to tingle for hours, were referred to only by number, were not provided enough space to lie down or sleep, were not allowed a phone call or legal representation, were allowed to soil themselves if they were not able to use the exposed toilets and then allowed to remain in a soiled state, and why some had to resort to creating shoulder to shoulder body walls to protect their privacy. I would like to know why they were not allowed to contact legal counsel or even family members.

I would like to know why “finding members of the Black Bloc” is offered as though it is an acceptable justification for mass arrests of innocent people. I would like to know why the Black Bloc was allowed to run a 24 block rampage in the centre of our city undeterred by police. I would like to know why police, who are purported to have already infiltrated the Black Bloc, did not move to prevent their destructive actions. I would like to know why police cars were left unattended for hours before the Black Bloc torched them. I would like to know why photo journalists were able to get so close to such violent criminals but police are reported to have fled from them. I would like to know why the interests of those who sought to bring their concerns peacefully to the attention of this city and the G20 leaders who were meeting here, were surrounded by police while the Black Bloc was ignored. I would like to know why police are filmed in the attire of Black Bloc members and if, as has happened before in Canada, they were acting as agents provocateurs.

I would like to know why Toronto was put at such a level of risk by holding the G20 in its downtown core that it merited a 1 billion dollar security force. I would like to know why the distinction between the fence and those buildings protected by the invoking of the Public Works Act was not clarified for the public. I would like to know why police continued to arrest and impede individuals within and beyond 5 metres of the fence throughout the weekend of the G20. I would like to know why arrests were made as far away from the "secure" area as Queen and River Streets. I would like to know why a York Regional Police Officer advised civilians who were not within 5 metres of the fence, that they were “not in Canada” with his colleague from the Toronto Police Force adding that they were in "G20 land". I would like to know why civilians were not allowed peaceful passage in a land that is Canada where people do have rights. I would like to know why police on horses were allowed to ride through a protected area, trampling pedestrians in the process. I would like to know why David Miller and Dalton McGuinty dismiss demands for explanations, arguing instead that police acted appropriately. I would like to know what further information they had that allows them to think that way; current public information does not, in any way, support the abuses of civil liberties that police exercised. I would like to know why our country's media has not focused on the gross injustices perpetrated and continues to allow the majority of Canadians to believe they were at risk and that the mass arrests were a necessary response.

I want to know what really happened, what when wrong, why, and who is responsible. I want to know that the government and the forces involved in the ISU, Integrated Security Unit, are doing everything in their power to identify those who acted inappropriately, discipline them, and then develop plans to help rebuild our trust, particularly that of a generation of youth who appear to have been targeted throughout this weekend. There are many, many things I and thousands and thousands of other Canadians would like to know. Perhaps one of the most burning among them is “How could this happen in Canada?”

More than anything, though, I want to know that this will never happen again. Given the obvious dismissal of recommendations issued by the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee in 2005, however, I fear that this kind of assault on dissent is growing rather than diminishing in Canada. I want to know that my fear is unfounded.

I am ashamed of the treatment Canadians received at the hands of those entrusted with ensuring their safety and, if our governments will not take action and call a public inquiry that will find answers to these questions and so many more, I will be ashamed, too, of my government.

Yours,


Gretta Vosper (Rev.)
Mother
Canadian
Minister, West Hill United Church
Founder, Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity
Author, With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important that What We Believe
(HarperCollins, 2008)

There's something rotten in Toronto and it ain't Toronto.




The G20 protests in Toronto this weekend have degenerated into a series of sickening scenes. Something is rotten here and I don't know what it is. Certainly it is more than the criminals in black. That's right, I don't support dressing up in black, hiding one's face and smashing everything in sight. I will acknowledge that the amount of damage done by these dorks is nothing when set along side the damage done by the folks in the G20 meeting room, but that's another issue. The guys dressed in black with their faces hidden are criminals. No argument.

The pre-G20 bombardment of the public with news of the incredible arsenal of weapons at the disposal of the police and of the astronomical amount of money to be spent on security was sure to be a draw to people who are inclined toward seeing what could happen. Some people would take it as a challenge. Is it stupid to do all of that advertising in advance. Yes it is, unless it is a tactic that is part of a larger strategy. What could that strategy be?

Are you involved in some goofy, power & control strategy Mr. Harper? In any case, what a dumb place to hold a G20 Summit -- a setup, start to finish. As a citizen I will deliver my rebuke in the next election and encourage others to do likewise. I don't recognize Canada anymore.

Odd that the black clad guys wore a similar kind of boots as police. Not a conclusion, but during the Quebec City Summit protests, the boots were one of the clues of police provocateurs among the peaceful protesters.

Who is behind those black clad guys? We don't know. The term "anarchist" is probably incorrect. Has anyone talked philosophy or politics with even one of them? Enough said.

Odd that whenever the black clad guys were running amok, there were no police anywhere nearby or were there any brought into their proximity. And yet, there were police available to ride a tight row of horses into a crowd of peaceful protesters in a designated protest area.



Watch what happens as these folks are singing the National Anthem.



How about the arrests of journalists? And then there was the beating and arrest of the Guardian reporter. I've been in touch with a rep of his family in England by the way. I may be asking billblog readers to consider donating to legal fees regarding his mistreatment by certain police officers. I will let you know.





WTF?




Are these people criminals?




What has happened in Toronto, what is still happening as I write, is an abuse of power and more. Is it a setup, an op to allow enforcement and suspension of Charter rights? Is it a test by power and and control freaks somewhere? Your suspicious scribe suspects that it's part of a larger strategy.

But if I assume no hidden agenda, there's still this: To treat as criminals any citizen within reach because real criminals did some shit is criminal itself.

Could have been different. The citizen protesters didn't need to be treated like that. Courtesy and non-violence breeds the same. And vice versa, which is what happened. I don't believe that the shit that went down was completely a spiraling consequence of the dorks in black.

There are protests almost daily in Toronto. The problem is not with Toronto.

"Keep the peace in peace." - Ric Troyer

"Powerful speech given by Elizabeth May, national leader of the Green Party of Canada, to 500 people at the Green Party's "Countdown to the G8 and G20 - Climate Rally and Info Night" on June 7, 2010 in Victoria, BC. Four days later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper relented and is allowing climate to be discussed on the G8 and G20 agenda in Ontario." — from Youtube blurb for this video from The Green Party of Canada

I am falling behind. A picture is worth more words than I feel like saying.



[sigh]

Yes the billblog has been silent for a month. It happens. Your inconsistent yet perplexing scribe has little to say about this. Curves balls have come, left their mark and gone. Some were fun. One was sad. Some were just plain difficult. And then there's that thing about some people's brains having minds of their own. I love that line. I crack myself up.

Here's a list of things I feel like mentioning just to get another round of the billblog going:

1. Brasstronaut. You've been nominated for the Polaris Prize. Wow. Congratulations. Big congratulations.

2. I'm trying to keep on track working on a second tapestry. Here's the first one. It took five years. The second one is different, a leg up in difficulty and I cannot predict the time of its unveiling, if that ever happens. It's always uphill for some reason.

3. I got caught up on a comment board on the Globe and Mail website hoping that the commenters would be kinder and more intelligent that the ones on the CBC comment boards. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

4. I have been canvassing for Elizabeth May twice a week for a couple of hours each time, since November. I want Elizabeth May to sit in the House of Commons and be the first woman, in that male-dominated legislature, who is not answerable to an old boy network. Or to an old boy. Men's legislative groups are so passé and pathetic to boot. My proof: history.

5. I haven't done much with the garden this year, so far, but it's growing well. Not much of the growth is edible or recognizable. I need Zak living across the parking lot to keep my gardening motivation up.

6. This is so incredibly crappy. Burning sea turtles alive and preventing their rescue is way, way beyond the call of rottenness. Talkin' to you BP. I reported this to Sea Shepherd, got a reply with minutes from Scott West. Listen, if you know of violations against marine life you can use the Sea Shepherd inform email address on THIS PAGE.

7. Speaking of Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson and the crew of the Steve Irwin are spending the summer in the Mediterranean Sea going after bluefin tuna poachers. Lots of news about that effort, Operation Blue Rage, on their website. They just freed 800 captured tuna, were rammed for their trouble.

8. Speaking of Sea Shepherd, I have to ask: Where are the freaking governments? No government has stepped forward to investigate the sinking of the Ady Gil. Anyone know of another vessel sunk without a subsequent investigation? Talkin' to you, Australia and New Zealand.

9. Justice for Robert Dziekanski. It's coming.

10. While I was working this afternoon, an extra-weeny, obviously youthful Rufus Hummingbird stopped at the feeder by the window for a while. I fell so in love.

OK. Blog post done. Bedtime. C-U soon.

And here's an email from Alex Morton:

Hello

Please see this video on the Get Out Migration.  Watch it with pride...this one is about you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf1M-WGvfCg

The biggest environmental rally in the history of BC and government has not reacted. We may need to do this again. We may need to run for political office to protect our salmon, natural resources and our communities to survive.  Below is my letter to Gordon Campbell. Please build our community, let your contacts know they can join us in keeping this part of earth alive...salmonaresacred.org "What you can do" The Petition.

Thanks to all of you, you are awesome in the true sense of the word, look at all the signs, faces, towns, peaceful and powerful.... Life on earth is up to us.

alex

May 17, 2010
 
Dear Gordon Campbell
 
On the afternoon of May 8, 2010 thousands of British Columbians from all walks of life, from the far reaches of Kingcome Inlet, Hope Town and Gwyasdums, from Port McNeill to across the Strait of Georgia and from the bays and watersheds of Vancouver Island traveled to your office to tell you that we want salmon farms out of our ocean, because we want our wild salmon. Everywhere in the Pacific Ocean where salmon farms do not exist (Alaska and the western Pacific) wild salmon remain abundant, even the Fraser sockeye that do not pass salmon farms are thriving.  The people of BC want their salmon back.
 
Someday we are going to learn how Canada’s governments were sold on corporate salmon raised in public waters in cages that prevent public access when the Constitution states no one has the right to privatize ocean spaces, nor own a fish in the sovereign waters of Canada.   In 1989, fish farms were handed to the province to simply side-step the inconvenience of the Constitution, but this era is over and the industry remains fundamentally unconstitutional. Farm salmon enable dams on the Fraser River, oil wells, clear-cuts, open pit mines and I think this is why the bureaucracy has blindly pushed it no matter which government is in power or what scientists, lawyers, First Nations and everyone else has to say.  I think Ministry of Agriculture and Land’s handling of salmon farms needs thorough scrutiny.
 
Mr. Campbell, you did not cause this problem, but you have inherited it. The era of cheap oil is over with the people on the Gulf of Mexico being the first hit with what will be a cascading degradation of planet earth that all our children will inherit.  You cannot morally chose a salmon that robs one ocean, to pollute a second one while consuming fuel because it feeds Atlantic salmon in BC on fish from Chile.  You must choose the salmon that comes home to us without oil consumption feeding us, our forests and creating oxygen.
 
Norwegian salmon farming corporations are holding this coast ransom using the excuse “jobs”, when at the same time they are mechanizing to reduce their payroll.  Nothing about this industry appears legitimate to me.  It does not make food. It depletes global supply.  It is not sustainable as it is running out of cheap fish to grind into pellets.  It is not benign as it intensifies disease and pollutes. 
 
I do not believe the assurances from the Provincial Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAL), nor the Federal Pacific Biological Station that salmon farms are not damaging Canada’s public fishery resources. I believe their research has been skewed and suppressed. I eagerly accept any invitation to argue these points in a court of law.
 
The Norwegian salmon farming industry is consuming massive quantities of Canada’s wild fish with no accounting, or licenses. If you think I am wrong, let’s have a look.  Put cameras and observers on every fish pen as it is pulled to the surface, on every packer pumping out the pens and on the assembly line as these fish are gutted.  Commercial fishermen have accepted and borne the costs of this scrutiny to protect wild fish and the Norwegians can too. Why did it require an order from the Department of Justice to make DFO lay a charge against Marine Harvest for unlawful possession of wild salmon? Something is very wrong here.
 
Why won’t MAL test Atlantic salmon facilities for the Norwegian ISA virus? How can MAL say sea lice in Nootka Sound are not drug resistant without producing a single test result?
 
My colleagues from the First Nations, scientific, legal, environmental and political communities have all tried to bring reason to the Norwegian salmon farming industry, but the government sponsored level of secrecy surrounding it simply grows.  The only reason for secrecy is activity the public does not like.
 
If we remove corporate farmers and the European shareholders from this equation the solution is simple:
 
1-    Rescind the leases under all salmon farms in British Columbia and place covenants on these sites in trust for future generations, as they are BC’s most productive coastal wild fishery grounds.
2-    Invite Norway to graciously bow-out and go face the calamities they are experiencing in Chile and in their own shores.
3-    Protect aquaculture jobs by WISELY developing a sustainable, community-based land-based industry
4-    Use the best knowledge we have and actually restore the resilient wild fish, not enhanced fish, which are very unlikely to survive climate change.
 
If the people of British Columbia are your primary concern, there is no rational obstacle to embracing these solutions please start rescinding leases immediately.
 
There is something very wrong with this situation and it is only a matter of time before we figure it out. Lets move forward. Given their track record in Chile these Norwegian companies are not sustainable anyway. The state of the planet is a very serious concern and it is immoral to further degrade public resources that we will need on in the coming decades. This is about food-security and to pretend it is anything less is deceptive. In a world depleted of easy oil no one is going to be moving fish from the south Pacific to make less fish in the North Pacific, but we will most definitely be thankful to have millions of wild salmon returning to us for free!
 
Thousands of people showed up in person to deliver a message to you. Get salmon farms Out of BC waters. We await your response.
 
Sincerely,
 
Alexandra Morton
Salmonaresacred.org
 

8AM, Sidney BC, 8 May 2010. We started walking to Victoria. Some had been walking for days, for hundreds of kilometres down the length of Vancouver Island.



This canoe was in the procession. The team with it had paddled down the Fraser River from Hope BC, across the Strait to Sidney. In the photo above, Alexandra Morton is walking with the canoe team and her dog is getting a lift.

A one kilometre long procession of protestors walked from Sidney into Victoria, taking up a full southbound lane of Highway 17. Motorists and cops were in good humour, totally supportive, smiling, honking, and only one middle finger was sighted.

People joined along the way. A busload arrived from Vancouver. We headed into Centennial Square in downtown Victoria to rally. By the time we got to Centennial Square it was full of supporters waiting for us.

After speeches, First Nations welcomes and blessings, we moved on down Government Street to the BC Legislature where even more people had gathered and were waiting. How many in total? Based upon gatherings in that very place that we have attended in the past we guess around 10,000 people though others put it closer to 5,000. It was the largest environmental demonstration in BC history. Most of the media underplayed this event although it was, I repeat, the biggest pro-environment demonstration in BC history. WTF!



In this photo, demonstrators are pouring onto the Legislature lawn. This went on for 45 minutes at least.

Warning to legislators: We represent air, fish and fowl, mammals and insects, birds and creatures of all kinds, waters and soils, fungi and ferns, trees and plants. We represent biodiversity in land and marine ecosystems. We represent the generations of humans to follow. You represent corporate interests. See the problem here?

Norwegian fish-farms, hundreds of them, are seriously messing with BC marine and coastal eco-systems. We insist that they get out. You are in our way.

For TV coverage of yesterday's event go HERE. Note that the denial machine is up and running. Watch your media for it to crank into a full PR campaign now.

Future billblogs will discuss BC fish-farming. In the meantime, for the most excellent photo gallery, click HERE.

The "Get Out Migration" is mere days from Victoria BC. Here's is Alex's latest missive. It is powerful.

******************************

Walking through the communities of Vancouver Island on the Get Out Migration has been a powerfully emotional experience. We are walking to tell people that if they simply stand up and make themselves visible to government, there is no reason we have to lose our wild salmon.  But as we walk into towns with our flags flying, brilliant salmon signs, singing “we are walking to Victoria to save our fish,” an entirely unexpected thing is happening.  People are coming up to me and holding me - crying.  They are speaking about schools without children, independent livelihoods lost, communities dying. This is about much more than fish.
 
This is about the independent way of life that built these communities going extinct. As we walk I see a land of beautiful clear streams, fertile soil green with life, air sweet with flowers and then I enter towns so burdened by global corporate markets that they can no longer thrive on the richness of this land.  There is something very wrong here, it is painful to witness and people are sad.
 
Somehow we have become blind to our public resource - millions of salmon flowing annually to our doorstep, feeding people and our economy province wide. We have somehow been convinced that Atlantic salmon, dyed pink, vaccinated, fed Chilean fish, in pens where we cannot catch them, infesting our fish with lice - are better. We believe there are jobs even as the Norwegian companies are mechanizing as fast as they can to reduce the number of jobs.  When people see us they know we have been duped and they don’t know how to turn this around.  The Get Out Migration has been protected, blessed, gifted and honored by the First Nations who know best what has been lost. Everyday more people are joining our trek - weathering storms in tents, waving at thousand honking motorists on the road to Victoria.  Our ranks swell as we enter the towns, white doves have been released, First Nation canoes parallel us, songs have been written, feasts laid out, flotillas surround us, people are awakening.
 
Do we still live in a democracy?  Our essential rights and freedoms are being lost as foreign shareholders decide our fate, what happens on our land, dividing our communities, in an equation where they get more as we get less.  As our salmon go so we go, they are a lifeline to the powerful natural world that gave birth to us.  We must lead our governments back to where we can survive.  Walk with us.  Be there for our salmon, our towns, our children for yourself. If you want to be represented you must represent yourself.
Alexandra Morton
www.salmonaresacred.org 


May 4  12:30 Costco Nanaimo, 4pm Maffeo Sutton Park, 7pm Agi Hall, Gabriola

May 5 Ladysmith 6pm Legion

May 6 LadySmith to Duncan City Square 5pm

May 7 Mary Winspear Theatre 7:30pm

May 8 Sidney to Victoria:
8am start Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre
2pm Centennial Square
4pm Rally for Wild Salmon BC Legislature (Parliament Buildings)


******************************************

No matter where you live on this planet, please stand up and be counted by emailing, writing or phoning our British Columbia and Canadian Federal Legislators. Do whatever research you need to do but please, if you understand the stakes here, lend your voice. PETITION SIGNING HERE

Everyone Loves Wild Salmon Don't They? from Alexandra Morton on Vimeo.

Lice Infestation on Fraser River sockeye from Twyla Roscovich on Vimeo.

For more information go to http://salmonaresacred.org .