Top ten new proposed Toronto Tourism slogans

After the G20 Toronto Tourism has Ten New Slogans to encourage tourism.

10.
The five meter rule only applies to Tim Hortons donoughts.
9.
As long as you're behind a fence, no one will touch you. It's our promise
8.
The likelihood of getting arrested for wearing black has dropped dramatically.
7.
The police promise that they won't beat up any more people for singing O' Canada on the street.
6.
Taking pictures is legal again!
5.
Burning police cars no longer a problem.
4.
We won't search your bag! (unless you have a French accent)
3.
If you are detained, the menu has been upgraded!
2.
The illusion of civil rights has now been almost fully restored.
1.
Five meter law? There never was any five meter law you silly goose!

What Rights?

The lessons learned from this G20 summit in Toronto are clear. We, The People have no rights whatsoever. If the state can remove our rights as it suits their needs, then those rights do not actually exist.

I am not a legitimate protester, nor am I vandal. On Friday I was an observer, bearing witness. By Monday I had been transformed into an irate citizen, appalled at the stripping of our basic constitutional rights.

I will never look at a police car in the same way again.

People arrested for taking pictures? Illegal searches expanded throughout downtown? Innocent people being woken in the middle of the night with guns in their faces by incompetent police without a warrant?

But the most appalling thing of all are the people who would blindly accept this violation of our collective rights. The thing that most disturbs me about this reprehensible debacle is the blind selfishness and obedient complacency that allowed the offenses to occur.

For those who support the suspension of  civil rights in the name of security, your lazy acceptance of the status quo is an affront to all the blood that has been spilled in the name of your freedoms.

Freedoms that were removed by the Government of  Canada this weekend in the blink of an eye as you stood and watched.

Your indifference is a far greater threat to our democracy than the burning of a car.

Shame on you, and shame on all of us.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com

There Is Only Us

My first inclination was to glibly mock the shock of others. "Surely you are not surprised that  a G20 summit would produce violence and police?" But my real feeling was surprise at my own sense of shock.

One of the reasons that I adore Toronto is that within the city, I find the world. Every facet of our common humanity is represented and in daily increments we share that, each of us teaching the other.

On Friday I went downtown to find a vast area of our commonality closed off by the state and an eerily deserted city district, as if some horrible thing was about to happen. And on Saturday it did, with all predictability.

The presence of the Black Bloc and their palsied ignorance only serves the purposes of the state and their appearance at this event  is about as surprising as ants on butter.

 They are a distraction and a boon to the government as it scrambles to justify the outrageous cost of this debacle. And the photo-op moments came when the police inexplicably abandoned three cars in the middle of a major global protest and then let them burn while the world watched.

A billion dollars and there is still no cop when you need one? I think not.

The Black bloc, the burning cars, and the smashed windows are not the issue or the image that the world should see. The following two images should be the real lesson of this lost weekend.

People being searched for having the temerity for carrying bags in the downtown district, blocks away from the perimeter fence where the five meter kangaroo law that was passed in secret  by the government on June 2nd that was not revealed to the people until it was violated in a Kafkaesque moment on the eve of the summit.

This obscenity against the principles of our constitution was then arbitrarily extended throughout the downtown core.

The Black bloc and its aftermath are little more than a distraction, so that your consent may be manufactured to allow those in power to do this, and by extension and in a very subtle way making each and every one of us more compliant and afraid.

But it happens incrementally, and like the frog in the water, we pay no attention until it is too late.

Suddenly, a secretly passed law that was meant to be applied within a five meter zone of the perimeter fence was being applied throughout the downtown core.  When the powers of the state are under stress, it doesen't take long for them to change the rules to suit their needs.

And that scares me way more than any burning car.

I have more pics and more to say, but I sense that I am like most Torontonians. We need some time to digest what happened, but there will be huge fallout from these events.

As for those who would so compliantly surrender hard won liberty:  if you let the state do this, what will you allow them to do next in the name of "security"?

http://www.goyestoeverything.com

Protest This

The day began well enough, in fact it began joyously. As I watched Ghana score in extra time to beat the USA in a World Cup cup match, I jumped from my chair and raised both arms in the air. In that instance my mind flashed on the places that I had watched soccer in Ghana.

From a sports bar in Accra, to theatres in Cape Coast and Tamale, to a flickering screen at the staff canteen in Mole National Park, visions of these places culminated in that instant after the goal. What a scene of unbridled joyous human expression it must be, and I don't mind telling you I got a little vaklempt.

After the game I flipped over to a local news channel to see the wanton destruction and criminality running amok on the streets of my home. As I worked the bar tonight I observed a wide range of opinions on the destruction in downtown Toronto. Maybe I was cranky and maybe it was too humid for my liking, but I felt something that I didn't like.

Now, I don't want to get all Wavy Gravy on your ass, but during a set tonight Cheryl Beatty commented that there was a lot of negative energy in the city. Yup, thats what I'm feeling. The air feels oppressive, and I don't mean that in a political way, I mean it in a human way.

Now I recognise that the overwhelming majority of the protesters are peaceful, and I support their right to be present and heard, but I also respect other peoples stuff, even if I don't like those people. Those that gleefully disrespected other peoples stuff should be charged with incitement to riot and anything else the police can think of.

Make no mistake, we all saw your faces, it is only a matter of time.

As for those who protest, most of you are nothing more than a self gratifying and churlish mob of smug fist shaking douchebags who pretend to care about certain issues only because you are told to do so. Sadly you lack the attention span to actually engage the system.

Caring about an issue and wanting to appear to care about an issue are not the same thing. And lets face it, if you really cared you'd put a little more effort into it than your streetside fools errand.

We live in a democracy and mechanisms do exist that encourage you and all your friends to participate. It is not that difficult to get your name on a ballot and stand up for what you and your friends believe in. I know, because I've done it.

But it would take more effort than heading downtown and sloganeering for a few hours, while pretending to yourself that you are affecting change. The real people who can do that are on the inside because they engaged the system.

If you don't do that, you don't have a hope and you'll be nothing more than a useless fist shaker for the rest of your life.

Its not about the fence, its about the gate.

Now if you'll excuse me, The Queen is expected and the state of the grounds simply will not do.

Man, I wish I was in Ghana.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com

O(mygod)CANADA

Image by Downing Street via Flickr

While I have no inclination to protest anything, I do have the right to freely walk the streets. I have no intention of smashing anything, nor am I affiliated with any group.

Check that, in the full interest of disclosure, I am affiliated with one group. I have a birth certificate that affiliates me with Canada, which is theoretically backed up by a constuitution. Apparently the government of Ontario (which has no jurisdiction) decided that they would pass a "regulation" that violates the constitution.

OK, now I'm mad. Unfortunately, the argument has been framed that all protesters are wackos, and the reductionist media commonly refers to protesters as a circus. Except at the circus, people don't get shot and the violent animals are kept separate from the audience.

I think protesting is useless, but I realise that protest is an important anchor in a healthy democracy and I support the right of all people to protest peacefully.

The following words are from our constitution.

 Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

 Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.

But this is not what is happening downtown as the Emporerati prepare to gather. If the leaders of the world are afraid to walk amongst the people, perhaps the legitimacy of their mandate should be brought into question.

This is what is happening in the downtown Torontostan:

Man held in wire cage.

Cha ching

Northern Ontario Man Arrested For Having  Northern Things In Southern Ontario

Run! He has a weird looking car!

Helping Children Is Not Permitted (but if you don't look like one of "them", its OK)

Asians and whites are free to proceed.,

This Guy Was Arrested For Tweeting, Then They Went After His Wife

I like this guy, he's a shit disturber, whose only crime is trying to get you to ask questions about your world. Unfortunately, he is being held by authorities

Ya know, I truly have no intention of protesting anything at the G20 Summit. However, I do plan to freely express my rights as a free citizen to wander freely in my own hometown. I had no intention of protesting, but when the state arbitrarily violates my constitutional rights, its a problem for me. A big problem.

I support the right of all citizens of the world to aspire to the democratic privilege that I was born into. The arbitrary seizure of my civil rights by the state is an affront to my credibility as a Canadian, or maybe George Carlin is right.

So I will be taking my camera and ID down there tomorrow after the soccer. I'm just wondering which soccer jersey is  most likely to get me detained illegally. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Canada? Or should I just screw with their heads and put on the Angola jersey?

Yes, it is entirely possible that I could be arrested because the cops don't like the shirt I'm wearing. Hopefully the $930,000,000 security budget includes dealing with all the lawsuits that will flow from this event, and if you think it is even remotely acceptable that an innocent citizen should be illegally detained because of his or her T shirt, then you are the answer to the question of how genocides can happen.

Please comment on facebook, and I will adorn myself accordingly.

"The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is that good people do nothing"  Edmund Burke

These motherfuckers have gone too far.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com