Now that we are subscribing to the Toronto Star, I have the luxury of lingering over the paper as I finish my morning coffee. Given the many posts I have written over the months about the abuses of our Charter Rights by both the McGuinty Government and the security forces given the task of protecting the G20 politicians and dignitaries, I always keep an especially watchful eye out for stories pertaining to those abuses.
In today's edition, the Star's lead letter, written by Richard Taylor of Toronto, draws a sharp contrast between the way Egypt dealt with its protesters during the recent uprising and how our police dealt with peaceful protest last summer in Toronto. I highly recommend the letter, effectively reminding us as it does of how serious was the abuse of Canadian citizens exercising their democratic rights. As I have written before, it is one of the main reasons, given its collusion with the security forces, that I cannot support the provincial Liberals in the next election.
The Star also ran some profile on Chris Bentley, the attorney general who skulked around enabling secret police powers for the G20 and who has since been strangely silent on his scuzzery.
ReplyDeleteIt's like i've said elsewhere: Our media gatekeepers normalize criminal behaviour until you don't even know why you're protesting.
I wouldn't give Egyptian authorities too much credit. Egyptian police killed hundreds during the protest and I wouldn't be surprise if the Egyptian military caused a small number of deaths. (Fortunately there where no deaths during the Toronto G20, although there could have easily been some, like the one person who died during the London G20.)
ReplyDeleteA similar thing happened in Canada when the military replaced the Quebec Police during the Oka crisis. The military really deescalated the situation.
I think it is because the police tends to attract more violent people then the military. There are a lot more opportunities to beat people being a police officer then in the military unless there happens to be a war, which it pretty rare, even in dictatorships. Also, as a police officer you deal with terrible people every day, which can change people.