In Remembrance of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
- John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), in a speech at the White House, 1962

I write this on the eve of Remembrance Day, 2010, as PM Harper flies to South Korea for a repeat performance of the G20, as three days of testimonies unfold in Toronto and Montreal to question RCMP conduct, and the government continues to refuse a public inquiry into the G20. This judicial inquiry is morally imperative as it would enable the federal court to subpoena evidence from witnesses under oath to knit together the patchwork of incriminating evidence, establish the chain of command of policing during the G20, and finally assign culpability. Both parties are standing firm- this all-encompassing inquiry must not be allowed happen. It may be the only issue they agree upon at this time, having closed ranks to goose-step around civil liberties. Meanwhile, PM Harper is fiddling while Rome burns, selling more of our assets to multinationals in South Korea. Has it occurred to him that Canada is not his to sell?

I dedicate this article to my grandfather, who fought in the First World War, and was one of the few who survived the air force. He came back so shell-shocked that if his family spoke while he drove, he had to pull over to the side of the road to calm down. Within my extended family, several members have been awarded Orders of Canada for public service. I am, however, a vilified ‘protester’, as I believe that there must be a full inquiry into the G8/G20 Summit so that both levels of government are forced to be responsible for the gross abuse of police power, violation of civil liberties and powers of taxation, and desecration of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If the Charter cannot defend its own constitution and abrogation of civil rights, it is a constitution no longer.

It is exactly one week since I witnessed the voting down of the second reading of Bill 121, a public interest investigation into the G8/G20 Summit tabled by Welland’s NDP MPP, Peter Kormos, by 8 'ayes' to 28 'neas' in Queen’s Park. Upon the resounding ‘nea’ across the floor by the consolidated Liberals and Conservatives, there was a unanimous, audible gasp by those in the peanut gallery. Included in that singular voice was my own, and within an hour, having sped away on my round legs, I was listening to Chris Hedges talk about his new book, “The Death of the Liberal Class” at the Munk School for Global Affairs. His lecture was a play-by-play of what I had seen at Queen’s Park, and spoke directly to me.

Could it be, according to Chris Hedges, that the liberal left - unions, churches and universities, progressive political parties, and the press - has lost moral suasion as a guiding voice for democratic dialogue? Have we abandoned our moral compass in favour of corporate elitism? And have we allowed the gutting of ethics, and the erosion of civil liberties, for financial gain? As I watched the provincial NDP fight back at Queen’s Park, and be mocked for their efforts by the opposing parties, I thought no- it is worse- citizens’ rights are being viewed with contempt as they contest the streamlining of economic interests, the growing division between the rich and poor, and the destruction of the environment. As Chris Hedges notes, without a robust liberal voice to engage in this debate, there is a very real danger that things will degrade into violence as the middle and working classes become increasingly disenfranchised, angry and confused. Internationally, general strikes rage, generated by falsely imposed austerity measures imposed by the banks, and Chris Hedges predicts that the US, then Canada, will be next, on the front line. A cynical friend said that no doubt the Conservatives had a contingency fund for legal challenges as part of their G20 bottom line, a line item right after their $500, 000 worth of delegate party favours -glow sticks, hand sanitizer, and $100 pens.

At Queen’s Park, throughout the presentation of the bill, I was distressed by the disregard the opposition had for the NDP. They held extended conversations during their presentation, loud enough to be heard by me in the upper gallery, to show their displeasure at the possibility of the second reading of Bill 121. For me, as a Canadian citizen, it was a momentous historical occasion, for the Liberals and Conservatives, it was a $1.3 billion farce of the highest order, worthy of a William Hogarth cartoon - when Peter Kormos mentioned the editorial in the Star demanding a formal inquiry, a Liberal MPP turned to the fashion section, searching for it there. I watched her. A MPP from the Muskoka region, Garfield Dunlop, mentioned the success of the G8 in Huntsville, although I heard how golfers were losing balls off the green, and militia were crawling out of the brush, holding the golf ball up, and warning them not to hit off the fairway again.

I have always been wary of publicity stunts on the Ontario Parliament Network, the official channel of the provincial legislature, but I was glad that it was recording and broadcasting this debate for posterity, ignored as it was by the opposition. MPPs, please be aware that you are being observed. I have heard how the intellectual level of discourse, as transcribed in the Hansard, the official record, is the lowest it has ever been historically, but the resounding speeches of NDP MPPs, Peter Kormos, Andrea Horwath, and Cheri DiNovo , showed courage, a monumental standing up for the underdog. As I left the gallery, I made the universal symbol for typing to Cheri DiNovo. I will transcribe my own citizen’s Hansard of events, and I will remember this travesty of justice in the defense of the Charter, and my grandfather, who fought for a kinder, gentler Canada, and my right to protest. During the G20, police erased incriminating photographs on iPhones by resetting the factory settings to default, and stomping on memory cards, to erase incriminating evidence of police brutality. I refuse to let these memories be erased, but I am a pacifist, and want to believe that the Charter can rise to its own defense.

Later, at the lecture, deeply shaken, I asked Chris Hedges about the vilification of protesters, and he spoke of having his microphone cut off, twice, during a lecture, and being escorted off a university campus. The press reported that he had created a riot, and the university sent him his coat by mail. Protesters, intellectuals, academics, environmentalists- these are all epithets, just as a Liberal MP pointed out the eloquence of Peter Kormos was due to his background as a lawyer during the Bill 121 debate. Those who ask for educated discussion are discredited to enable bigotry and prejudice, as PM Harper plays his role as ideologue to evade facts, discourage analysis, and hold court through emotion. Elitists, treehuggers, latte-sippers, lefties, union members - these have all become dirty words – just read the comments section online, and see how democratic discourse has descended into name calling, supported by this new form of government.

There will be no justice until there is a public inquiry, which ties together the disparate inquiries into a coherent series of events enabled by a chain of command, and yes, assigns blame. We deserve to know what happened, and not to be distracted by the pomp and circumstance of yet another G20 Summit, quick on the heels of our own. Regulation 233/10, the five meter fence rule, will lead right back to the Premier McGuinty’s office, then to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Investigation of this fallacious law will prove PM Harper’s desire to cut away the backbone of peaceful resistance by targeting caring, educated and engaged youth to ensure their future political passivity. The young woman, hit by rubber bullets, may never return to Toronto, and sadly, these memories of the state of martial law have changed a generation's perception of police. As an educator, I will never forget this deliberate humiliation of over eleven hundred protesters, and as a citizen, I will never forget that my grandfather fought for naught, because I can be taxed to the hilt to have my civil liberties suspended for a political spectacle enabling police brutality, and civilian abuse. Canada is not safer since the Summits and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been allowed to be put into question, and with that, the fundamental rights of every citizen. Shame.

References:
Hedges, Chris. The Death of the Liberal Class. New York: Nation, 2010. Print.
Theo Moudakis, Opinion in Toronto Star, Public Inquiry November 1st, link at http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/883743--g20-summit-public-inquiry-still-required
Krystalline Kraus, "Activist Communique: Ontario G20 inquiry public members bill failed to pass second reading and the Summit cost totals", ‏link at http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2010/11/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-ontario-g20-inquiry-public-members-bill
The Hansard, November 4th, http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/house-proceedings/house_detail.do?locale=en&Date=2010-11-04&detailPage=%2Fhouse-proceedings%2Ftranscripts%2Ffiles_html%2F04-NOV-2010_L066.htm&Parl=39&Sess=2#P1300_294131

Green belt, tighten our belt: Contesting the Places to Grow Act

People living in vigorous cultures typically treasure those cultures and resist any threat to them. How and why can a people so totally discard a formerly vital culture that it becomes literally lost?
- Jane Jacobs, "Dark Age Ahead", 2004

Toronto has been divided and conquered, its downtown core sold for $60, the cost of the vehicle registration tax, for the right of those in the subdivisions to drive downtown with impunity. Good bye road tolls and bicycle lanes.

There is not a single campaign promise that Rob Ford can keep, but loyalty came cheap from those who live outside the subway system, lured by Ford's promise of extending the Sheppard line, and his campaign to end the “war on cars.” His electoral promises were flimsy and repetitive, but as former Liberal premier Bob Rae noted, Ford’s campaign was supported by the federal Conservative Party, and the hard-sell town hall phone technology developed by the ultra right Tea Party, and used to cull phone numbers from 7,000 would-be voters. Ford had lots of help, and he is paying off his campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis -- the real brains of his outfit -- with the position of mayoral chief of staff at City Hall (see CBC As it Happens’ phone interview for Ford’s first interview as mayor).

Rob Ford is the municipal piece of the Conservative puzzle, Tom Hudak, the provincial, and a majority with Stephen Harper would secure the Conservative trifecta for unregulated, rightwing government. Although Ford's “Stop the Gravy Train” platform seemed simplistic at best, it spoke in a crystal clear voice to those who felt that they have been done a disservice by Toronto City Hall -- you will save money under Ford, and you have been wronged by the downtown lefties, who have wasted money trying to establish sustainable transit systems, such as Transit City, and planting trees.

Stephen Harper partied gleefully at Ford's victory party as the Gravy Train will be helmed by his man now -- still a Gravy Train, but run by Big Business on the tracks of unbridled commerce, without restraint, or censure. The Conservatives are using the same penny-pinching campaign strategy in the TV ads for provincial candidate Tom Hudak, citing McGuinty’s EcoFee as the culprit. The provincial race could be won for even less than $60, for a tax, although badly conceived, which was revised immediately. How quick people are to form allegiances for tiny, temporary savings.

There was a less known campaign behind Ford’s 47 per cent vote win.

Regional developers footed 60 per cent of the bill for Ford's campaign to ensure their future victory in contesting the Places to Grow Act in 2014. The Places to Grow Act was enacted in 2005 by the Liberal government to protect 1.8-million acres that form the Green Belt, including the Oakridge Moraine, and its freshwater aquifers feeding into Lake Ontario, from aggressive subdivision development. This act will become in jeopardy as Conservatives consolidate and contest its growth restrictions to pay back their Ford campaign supporters.

Disastrous environmental policy is not the sole domain of the Conservatives, however. The Liberal’s Legislative Framework for Modernization has also undercut the Places to Grow Act. On Oct. 21, the Open for Business Act was passed by the provincial Liberal Party, which ensures exponential environmental degradation as Big Business is permitted to monitor itself, without full disclosure or recourse to the Environmental Bill of Rights on the part of watchful citizen groups, like Lake Ontario’s Waterkeepers, headed by the extraordinary lawyer, Mark Mattson.

One hundred small amendments were hidden away to guarantee “competitive advantage” over our right to protect our commons, as part of this modernization act. Mattson sent the provincial government a 100-page defense of the citizens’ right to contest major projects through the Environmental Bill of Rights; it was completely ignored. Both parties are culpable for the environmental race to the bottom this electoral year.

What will the new Ontario look like, if Ford and his developer supporters -- which, not coincidentally, include former commissioner for Ontario police, Julian Fantino, as the new Conservative candidate in Vaughan -- have their way?

Developers own thousands of hectares of farm, lakeside and moraine land, protected by the Places to Grow Act, and they are waiting for the full changing of the guard to Conservative so that they can resume building massive tracts of suburban mansions, circumnavigating the act. In the 1980s, my grandfather, who worked in real estate, prophetically called these “the ghettoes of the future.”

As Ontario's subdivisions are given renewed license to sprawl throughout the 905 region, they will add thousands of hectares of asphalt for highways to absorb heat, and enable toxic petroleum water to run off directly into the Great Lakes.

In the last three years, massive algae blooms have been seen from satellites in middle of our Great Lakes, a by-product of nitrogen fertilizer from the increasing number of lawns edging around the lakes from exurban development. Much of this fertilizer is used by golf courses, so that a tiny white ball can be better seen against bright green backdrop.

There has been 8.5 per cent loss in the Great Lakes of water through extraction for suburban development and golf courses, which use a staggering amount of groundwater. The Open for Business Act opens possibilities for water exploitation, even as lake levels go down and our population grows.

The cost of the increased infrastructure for this 905 exurban development for water mains, electricity, and highways will be passed on to the taxpayer in the downtown core, as well as increased commuter traffic, although none of these residents are benefiting from these services.

Good bye tax cuts by Rob Ford; this exurban expansion all but guarantees a higher cost of taxation to guarantee developers’ profit at civil society’s expense, as Ford cuts municipal services. Our streetcars are the envy of municipalities throughout the world, and we are getting rid of them? Why?

When the green belt will no longer be able to naturally cleanse and generate water, its aquifers destroyed by containment, extraction or diversion, development will create a loop in which we are forced to use electricity or gas to do artificially what nature, such as the Great Lakes, or the Green Belt around the Oakridge Moraine, does without human intervention. We have not developed the science or technology more efficient than nature, despite the ridiculous claims of climate engineering scientists. All of these costs to purify water will be passed on to the taxpayer, an additional gift from the developers to the downtown core. And as the Boreal forest in the 905 becomes fractured by expanding highways, it will become prone to disease, just as the Asian pine needle invaded the forests in British Columbia as logging roads cut through their stands.

In 2004, in her last work, “Dark Age Ahead,” Jane Jacobs predicted the newly enacted “Legislative Framework for Modernizing Environmental Approvals” with frightening accuracy describing the undermining of the "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm":

“Bad science is the elevation of economics as the main ‘science’ to consider in making major political decisions;

bad governments are more interested in deep-pocket interest groups than the welfare of the population;

and bad culture prevents people from understanding the deterioration of fundamental physical resources, which the entire community depends on.”

Any contestation to the Environmental Assessment Act is refuted as a conflict to competitive advantage by the government, and protected by the Freedom of Information Act, and “competitive advantage,” so immune to public scrutiny. Jacobs extrapolated from observing the lobbying tactics of Big Business that we would lose our right to protect future generations from asthma, birth defects and learning deficiencies, such as autism, all of which are on the rise, and directly linked to our environment.

It takes seven generations to judge precautionary measures for major infrastructure developments as recommended by indigenous peoples, but it has only taken one generation to lose our farms, our lakes, and our health through bad policy.

On Oct. 27, C-300, a private members bill by Liberal John McKay, which made mining, oil and gas companies accountable for their abuse of human rights and environmental violations, was defeated 134-140 votes in the House of Commons, a vote which the world watched in horror.

This is the quality of federal legislation which the Conservative Party will try to bring down the rungs through their provincial and municipal candidates. By allowing companies to self regulate, we have lost our international reputation, and a place on the United Nations Security Council. Michael Ignatieff did not appear for the vote, to show support for McKay -- and he wonders why the politically engaged do not consider him as a viable candidate?

We will be faced with the same aggressive tactics as the mining lobbyists from developers pushing for urban expansion, and the selling off Ontario’s green space, as the 100 amendments in the Open to Business Act whittle away our right to protect our commons -- clean water, land and air.

This is Rob Ford’s true Gravy Train, directing profits to his campaign supporters, developers. The rights for self-determination in central Toronto were sold off for $60, and false election promises, to suburban voters in a campaign, which deliberately misrepresented City Hall’s state of finances. As Atom Egoyan said, “This city is the envy of the world and we’re acting like it’s falling apart.” I feel a lot less safe riding my bike in this new Toronto.

Provincially, if voters are not careful, we will sell off even more of our environmental rights to penalize the Liberals for the HST, Green Act, and EcoFees, although by supporting Conservative candidates, we will not profit a penny from the profits of businesses to support education, healthcare or community services.

This is the saddest legacy from this municipal election, an aftershock which will reveal itself slowly to those who voted for Ford to be known as a betrayal, but predicted by those who did not vote for him.

There are dark ages ahead, and I intend to ignore Ford, and support progressive city councillors to enable the City of Toronto to plan itself, and protect the Places to Grow Act, and support the recent United Nations vote for the international right to clean water and sanitation.

No doubt when the recent verdict on the Places to Grow Act in Pickering is eventually contested, we will see if there are any teeth left in it as it goes head to head with the Opportunities for Business Act.

References:
Jacobs, Jane. Dark Age Ahead. New York: Random House, 2004. Print.
CBC As it Happens’ phone interview for Ford’s first interview as mayor at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHJGR4i7fhw
Kelly Grant, "Nick Kouvalis, the man behind the Ford campaign"
at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/city-votes/nick-kouvalis-the-man-behind-the-ford-campaign/article1738989/page2/
Places to Grow Act at https://www.placestogrow.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=5
Legislative Framework for Modernizing Environmental Approvals
http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTA5MDI3&statusId=MTYzNzE1
Mark Mattson, Waterkeeper.ca Weekly http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2010/10/27/why-did-ontario-kill-public-participation-rights/#more-19106
‘The End of Suburbia’, a documentary directed by Gregory Greene, describes this in detail at
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/
Open For Business Act Passes at
http://news.ontario.ca/medt/en/2010/10/open-for-business-act-passes.html
Bill C-300 – Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas Corporations in Developing Countries
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/bill-c-300-corporate-accountability-activities-mining-oil-or-gas-corporations-developing-countries
John McKay's Speech Moving 3rd Reading of C-300 at http://www.johnmckaymp.on.ca/newsshow.asp?int_id=80681
Province rejects proposed Pickering growth: Urban expansion onto valuable agricultural lands out of step with provincial limits on sprawl http://www.thestar.com/iphoneapp/article?assetId=882142

One Toronto, Now: An Election is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Only when humans are again permitted to build authentic urbanism — those cities, towns, and villages that nurture us by their comforts and delights — will we cease the despoiling of Nature by escaping to sprawl.
Andrés Duany, 'Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream'

I think of Rob Ford as a powder keg, masquerading as a beer keg. At first glance, he appears populist, pleasing, inexpensive, and easygoing, and then you realize that he is elitist, divisive, and explosive. (To see Rob Ford's behaviour on City Council, here is the 'Rob Ford's Maturity' youtube video which is going viral.) As former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson warns, the city risks “handing over the office of greatest local influence on the basis of anger and reaction, not that of responsible, thoughtful and mature policy”. Rob Ford has led a negative campaign against City Hall, and when people have been made afraid of the future, they fall back by default on conservative posturing, blinding them to socially innovative solutions. As George Smitherman seethed, "The City of Toronto’s motto is diversity is our strength. If Rob Ford is elected mayor, the first thing that will need to be done is change the motto".

Transit is by far and away the thorniest, and most important, issue in this mayoral race. Rob Ford's transit plan includes getting rid of streetcars, building suburban bicycle lanes, and extending the Sheppard subway line. By "stopping the war on cars" for his supporters, Ford has created skepticism toward Transit City's European-style Light Rail Transit system, without offering any viable alternatives. As Chris Bilton noted in Eye Weekly:

Ford’s focus on road repairs is admirable, but refuses to acknowledge that the reason we need to repair the Gardiner and the DVP is because they are used daily by 905ers whose taxes do not pay for Toronto’s road maintenance. And then there’s Ford’s totally worthless bike plan, which boasts 100km of off-road biking trails — mainly through the northernmost parts of North York and the far reaches of suburban Toronto — most of which would be completely useless to anyone trying to commute into the downtown core. Ford doesn’t seem to understand that cyclist commuters reduce traffic congestion (and transit congestion for that matter) and will ride on Toronto streets whether or not there are bike lanes. Trying to relegate cycling to a weekend pastime is not only delusional, but would make congestion worse.

Ford's slash and burn spending on transit initiatives will increase traffic congestion, air pollution, and road rage through urban sprawl, and benefit no one, while damaging everyone's health and Toronto's future economic prosperity. In addition, he is attempting to turn back the clock on Mayor Miller's legacy, Transit City, which forms the basis of network for the entire GTA, and democratizes accessibility for those who are underserved to have access to Toronto without relying on cars. Rob Ford's plan to extend the Sheppard Line has not been approved by the federal and provincial governments; Transit City has been, and is already being constructed, so the subway extension is an election promise impossible to meet.

Downtown, Ford will sell off bicycle lanes to SUVs, in a time of peak oil, when the rest of the world, including China, is building electric transit networks to espouse the principles of New Urbanism: Renewable Energy + Electric Transportation + Walkable Urbanism = Livable Cities. China, by the way, has canceled their contract with General Motors for the Hummer, knowing they would clog its arteries. China knows it does not want another 10 day traffic jam; Ford would be encouraging just that in Toronto.

I live in a triangle of three parks, Sorauren, MacGregor and Dufferin Grove, in Ward 18, part of Davenport Riding - recently singled out as 'a riding to watch' in all of the upcoming elections. Friday night suppers in Dufferin Grove are a magnet for first and second generation immigrants, designers, tradespeople, professors, those of many different genders, and priority youth - a neo-urban hippy community. This riding also has the largest growing immigrant population, and some of the greatest poverty, in Canada. We have had our growing pains, but my community believes in a bicycle lanes, farmer’s markets, and a 'Do it Yourself' culture, values which are a throwback to the Depression Era when each purchase was carefully considered, and household items were repurposed, reused, and shared through a network of neighbours. Parks are essential to the Davenport Riding. As Toronto becomes ever more crowded, they ensure equitable access to play for those who live in crowded conditions. Downtown parks are what make my urban life tolerable, and have stopped my flight to the suburbs.

One day, while watching the neighbourhood children make human pyramids in Dufferin Grove, a fridge magnet was thrust under my nose. I looked up and found it attached to Rob Ford. “Vote for me,” he said imperiously. I said “Not a chance, Rob. You know nothing about urban planning and environmentalism, the two things that matter most to this community.” “Call my office”, was his reply, and he stumbled off, with his three younger, identical acolytes in tow, like a lion stalking prey. As he approached a grazing herd of neo-urban hippies, they swiftly fled from his pack, loping like antelopes across the plains. I still wake up in the wee hours of the morning, giggling at this sight, until the seriousness of the upcoming mayoral election kicks in. I am afraid for the park system if Rob Ford is elected, and with very good reason, because the Toronto Islands are at stake as well. I love this park, and their beaches, and they are my most treasured part of Toronto.

The Toronto Islands attract 12 million visitors, including international tourists, a year to the waterfront. Ford’s decision to sit down with Porter Airline's Rob Deluce to discuss how to continue to expand the Toronto City Center Airport will jeopardize the right of those who love to picnic on the Toronto Islands- those who cannot afford to flee the smoggy heat of the city. Aircraft flying directly above the Islands, and Lake Ontario, bring international security risks, noise and air pollution directly into the city center, and by increasing traffic above this park, will detract from this green oasis. This constant air traffic will drop thousands upon thousands of tonnes of jet fuel into the Great Lakes, our drinking water. This water supply is not guaranteed to be our stable resource, as it is losing 1.4 million Olympic swimming pools of water annually. Particulate matter that goes up as smog, comes down as water pollution.

For the first time in Toronto's history, young children, who attend primary school near this airport, are acquiring asthma. Privileging the expansion of a short haul airport over less affluent citizens to enjoy the parks, schools or west end playgrounds, is a really an elitist position by Ford, as it assumes that people he represents own cottages, or do not live downtown. Toronto already has Pearson International Airport, and the TCCA is really only for those who do not live on the waterfront, or in the west end of the city, and do not care about either, for the sake of a couple of minutes' convenience in travel time. An unsustainable transit structure would be in play as proposed by Ford - cars battling bikes, and TCCA short haul flights prioritized over electric rail infrastructure on the Georgetown corridor. An electric, rather than diesel, Air Rail Link to Pearson would put downtown Toronto back into play on the world stage, rather than polluting the waterfront and west end, and every other mayoral candidate has signed a pledge to support the Clean Train Coalition, with the exception of Ford.

To build his Canadian version of the Tea Party, Rob Ford wants to get rid of 22 out of 44 councillors, and is actively canvasing rightwing councillors to support his candidacy. It would be to his benefit to fire those progressive councillors who oppose his bombastic style and supported Mayor Miller, and pad council seats with allies, so that he can impose his decisions without opposition. I think one of the ways to stop this juggernaut race by Rob Ford is to carefully elect a Toronto City Council who will voice our right to environmental protection through New Urban principles, so that Rob Ford's slash and burn transit and social service policies do not gain traction.

A significant number of Torontonians are not decided in their mayoral or councillor votes - I know that I am not - and I think that we have to come together as one Toronto, and start deciding on our mayoral and council candidates together as a united voice that loves this city, and wants it to prosper, rather than to be caught in a stalemate of consensus, and traffic gridlock, over the next four years. We need to elect a Mayor of Toronto, and City Council, who can predict the necessity for change, with enough foresight to ensure that Transit City is in place so that our city is resilient in this age of peak oil. It is not enough to say, as I witnessed Rob Ford say during a CP24 debate, "that we do not want 1 million more people in Toronto…we can barely take care of the people we have already". Population growth is inevitable, and his simple response is not good enough.

Curiously, the majority of Torontonians polled would vote for Mayor Miller once again if he were to run, so who are we going to choose to support Transit City, a green economy, social innovation and arts and culture? Who loves the City of Toronto, beyond personal gain, and who will defend us from unbridled growth, driven by the suburbs? I would say Joe Pantalone, with his 30 years of experience, but is to give Joe Pants a vote to take away a vote from George Smitherman, who appears to be the only real contender against Rob Ford? It gives me profound sadness to think strategically - I saw how quickly Joe Pantalone fought and won the redesign of an underground version of the Strachan Bridge from Metrolinx, and I think that we have spent so much time talking about Ford that we have ignored the magic powers of the feisty Small Wonder. Of all the mayoral candidates, I truly believe Joe Pantalone cares for Toronto the most.

However, in this time of crisis, I think we are forced to carefully band together to ensure that progressive city councillors are in the majority so that Rob Ford will be unable to hold dominion within City Hall. The Mayor is only one vote, and although he sets the tenor of City Hall, Ford will forced to reach consensus if we elect councillors who will contest his environmentally retrogressive bylaws, although as Councillor Ford, negotiating has been nigh impossible for him to do. We need to unite soon so that we have a fighting chance to have our downtown voice heard. It is up to us, as those who want to breathe, live, walk and ride our bikes safely in this city to determine how we are going to vote as a block, for both councillors and mayor, so Ford does not divide the left down the middle to take the far right.

To this end, I ask all those in agreement check out these sites, and join Facebook campaigns, so that we can work together as a unified, downtown vote, and decide what to do:

OneToronto.ca http://www.onetoronto.ca/ Watch 'Facts not Fury'- a video counterargument to Ford's negative campaigning at http://youtu.be/2Kn5YFnPc6E Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/OneTorontoca/160160227330948
People Plan Toronto at http://peopleplantoronto.org/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/peopleplantoronto
Toronto Cannot Afford Ford http://www.torontocannotafford.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151516278207363

An election is a terrible thing to waste. Otherwise, four years of Rob Ford may drive people like me, a proud, leftwing, latte-swilling, arts and culture loving, downtown greening, smog-reducing, neo-urban hippie from my natural urban habit, and force me to flee to the ever-expanding suburbs to get my taxes worth of clean living. We need to be One Toronto, and to come together now.

References:
‪OneToronto.ca ~ Toronto is our Home, don't TRASH TALK it!‬
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-DxAcFLwU8
Rob Ford's Maturity Level at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOi2wIUCTnA
Principles of New Urbanism at http://www.newurbanism.org/newurbanism/principles.html
Chris Bilton, 'It’s on: the mayoral race gets serious' at http://www.eyeweekly.com/city/mayoralrace2010/article/101166
Steve Rennie, 'Yearly water loss could fill one million Olympic pools', at http://detnews.com/article/20100512/METRO/5120371/Great-Lakes-water-levels-drop-worries-boaters--shippers#ixzz11EG19NfN

This is not my Canada; This is not my Media

There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest.
Paul Craig Roberts
Good-Bye: Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It

At the end of September, Rick Salutin, an award-winning, left-leaning columnist, was fired by the Globe and Mail. His second last article, 'Stephen Harper – the last Straussian?' received over 590 comments. The first sentence is pure Salutin:

People keep asking why Stephen Harper acts as he does, it looks so buttheaded. He seems to muck up his own prospects: firing decent people, lashing out, raising the partisan rhetoric, proroguing Parliament haughtily, binging on military toys, mauling the census – he’s a bright boy, it’s hard to figure.

I am curious why the Globe and Mail is not publishing the numerous letters questioning why Rick Salutin was fired for writing articles of such gravitas, and supporting his twenty years of incisive political analysis. Indeed, Rick Salutin's final paragraph in his last article, 'Rob Ford and the loss of Hope', was censored by the Globe and Mail, as farewells are 'not permitted'. Rick gives a clarion call against Rob Ford coming to power, and states 'It's the failure or shortfall of hope that leads to fear.' As the London School of Economics responded by letter to the Queen, when she asked why their experts had not foreseen the economic meltdown of 2008, that 'it was a failure of imagination', so it will be for Toronto if we elect Rob Ford, and turn back the progressive policies enacted during the past seven years under Mayor Miller. Our actions will show that we no longer believe that our city that it can be a better place to live, and we will permit it to be ruled by suburban interests, rather than responsible urban planning and engaged environmental and social stewardship. Collectively, we care much more than Rob Ford for our city, and we have much more knowledge of how it can be run.

Is such a censored dismissal Straussian, Globe and Mail? Hundreds of thousands of readers, and Rick, deserve a proper explanation. 'Redesigning' is not enough. PM Harper pays $75,000 of our tax money to have a new media company monitor negative online comments, and no doubt, he just pressed the panic button to notify them to quickly repudiate the readers' indignation and howls of support for Rick. You can read the online comments here. Off with his head, the Conservative Privy Council Office said, and the Thomsons agreed. It doesn't pay to be controversial.

In their attempt to attract younger Internet savvy readers, who are not accustomed to investigative reporting, and prefer larger pictures, the Globe and Mail has revamped the newspaper to have a more glossy tabloid look and feel, with one of the issues that 'define Canadians' extolling the bright future of the armed forces. In the Globe's recent 'Canada: Our Time to Lead' TV ad, touting the redesign, a young woman, riding a bicycle on a country road toward the camera, says that 'Canada is not defined by universal health care or peacekeeping'. Funny- last time a poll was run in Canada, 80% of respondents said healthcare is the crown jewel, and distinguishing attribute of Canadian society, and why we accept high taxation levels. This subtext of this ad asks us to envision a new Canada, militarized and 'open for international business'- a corporate Canada we are beginning to know, driven by unsustainable, neoliberal policies for endless exploitation. Who will take care of us when media corporations own us, and our messaging? Curiously, Irshad Manji, 'Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare' has been chosen to replace Rick Salutin. The independence of the fourth estate is no longer.

This silencing of the media opposition is just another instance of what I have known for some time- the leftwing media is being censored and sidelined, soon to be extinguished, as part of the campaign against freedom of information in Canada. PM Harper holds a stranglehold on media relations stronger than any other prime minister in Canadian history. The scientific community's head, and right to speak, is on the block, as well, as the byzantine process of asking for scientific data has been enforced, no doubt, to control press releases about the recent, peer-reviewed report about the poisoning of the Athabasca River due to the runoff of the tarsands' tailings ponds. It is hard to speak when your head has been cut off.

On July 27th, I launched a formal CRTC complaint regarding the inequitable coverage of the G20, which prioritized images of police cars burning over issues peacefully presented by non profit and non governmental organizations. On August 16th, I received a phone call from a bigwig in one of the major Canadian TV networks. His tone was pugilistic, and twenty-five minutes later, after he mocked my commitment to march, I felt discredited, and verbally beaten up, for defending my rights to have adequate, or any, media coverage of the civil society response to the G20. I was told that footage of the 'violent riots was fresh, new, important and newsworthy', whereas the democratic discourse surrounding the dismantling of civil society, and fire sale of Canada to private interests, was a tale told again, and again, and was simply not newsworthy. 'Anyway,' I was told, 'the people in the Labour Parade on Saturday did get 30 seconds of airtime.' Let's divide 25-40,000 citizens by thirty seconds each, and see if they can get a word in edgewise.

I hung up the phone feeling that the onus was on the left to provide more and more flamboyant spectacles of protest, and that the left, by its nature diverse in its concerns, is beholden to provide a unified message for easy media consumption. It is the job of activist organizations to be credible public relations firms, and perform theatrically, for a few seconds of media coverage, although the pockets of our opposition run deep, lined with our tax money being readied to be used against us, such as hiring a new media firm to troll online comments, or looping clips of a police car burning ad infinitum. Whoever controls the media, controls the mind (Jim Morrison).

What is newsworthy was the current exponential speed, impact, and secretiveness of the media campaign attempted by the Prime Minister's Office to extinguish our democratic right to free speech through a Category 1 news channel, SunTV, nicknamed 'Fox News North' by Margaret Atwood. Fox has repeatedly undercut President Obama during his time in office, and its unrelenting critique of his administration is often perilously close to slander. SunTV would be a mirror image of Fox News, and a house organ of the Conservative party, as developed by Kory Teneycke, Mr. Harper’s former director of communications. Next, the Conservative Party will try to beam this news channel into schools as part of the curriculum, just after students rise for the new national anthem - 'O Say can you See'. 'No, I cannot, I do not have access to different media sources and opinions. I am blinkered by the government.' The public outcry has been swift, and there are over 87,000 signatures on a petition against this news channel initiative on Avaaz.org.

As a new media professor, I am aware that investigative reporting has become increasingly expensive for news networks, and print media, as media content becomes less profitable because of online access to primary source coverage, and decreased advertising revenue (read Clay Shirky's 'Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable'). I was reminded by the TV network representative that the alternative press culls from the mainstream media's content through search engines, yet his company bears the brunt of employing stringers on Parliament Hill. If I had had greater presence of mind, I would have reminded him that the alternative press reporters were denied access to the Fake Lake media press resort during the G20.

Disenchanted after the phone call, I was left feeling that mainstream media assumes that involved analysis regarding policy is considered too complex for the average citizen. This is condescending in the extreme, as evidenced in the brilliant citizen media reportage in the Real News Network, Democracy Now, and Tyee, which use the web and Youtube as outlets for distribution. I have turned to citizen media to supplement my media diet, and found such gems as Kevin P. Miller's "A QUESTION OF SOVEREIGNTY", which defends John Turner's nationalistic views of Canada. Historically, it recounts Mulroney's free trade agreement in 1988, and Bills C-51 and C-6, which have formed the basis of the yet-to-be passed Bill C-36.

Bill C-36 needs to be stopped for the following reasons, according to Kevin P. Miller:

In the new Bill C-36, Health Canada has proposed that the powers provided to Parliament should be forfeited so that Canada can “honour its international agreements and commitments.” If Bill C-36 and similar Bills are adopted, foreign entities, multinational corporate interests, Codex, WTO and WHO would be free to write self-serving laws that affect Canadians — and they could do so by bypassing Parliament completely.

Perhaps this is what they mean by 'Free Trade' — 'free' of oversight by elected officials.

In three weeks, PM Harper will attempt to hammer the last nail into the Comprehensive European Trade Agreement, which will make us the only company in the world which has free trade agreements with both the US and Europe, undercutting our sovereign ability to control international trade agreements, provide municipal services, and employ our own citizens. The government is dismantling regulation federally through C-36, and sub-nationally through CETA.

And despite signs, signs, everywhere signs, all 8,500 Economic Action Plan signs, carefully monitored by PM Harper and his Privy Council Office, with obligatory, Monday updates by eighteen, overstretched departments and agencies, that my quality of life is better under the Conservative regime, I know that there has been more environmental destruction during my lifetime than any other generation, and that PM Harper, and his ongoing advocacy of the tarsands, thus oil consumption, is directly related to why over three hundred diesel, rather than electric, trains daily will be running blocks from my house, and directly through and beside seven west-end parks, affecting my community's health, until 2020. Rob Ford, of course, cannot be convinced that the upcoming cost of 33 diesel engines and 11 ARL vehicles is three times that of electric, and that the final tally is even higher, once electric vehicles are bought in 2020 to replace diesel.

One of these Economic Action Plan signs is planted in front of the field house in MacGregor Park. I have written about my neighbourhood park, MacGregor Park, extensively in my blog, and enclosed this Youtube clip of children performing there:

I recognize this sign for what it is - part of a false advertising media campaign generated, controlled and tightly monitored by the federal Conservative Party. This flimsy sign is just another testament to the federal, and provincial, disregard of environmental and urban planning policy in citizens' best interests, constrained by the tightening of restrictions on access to environmental information, and the loosening of these regulations to privilege sole-sourced contracts to their corporate allies. Prisons, fighter jets, and the creation of a Conservative news network are more important than the right of children to play without harm to their health, and Ontario's right to clean, quiet, sustainable transit. The direct cost to me? At least $1000.

To finish as I began, another quote by Paul Craig:

Wherever one looks, truth has fallen to money.
Wherever money is insufficient to bury the truth, ignorance, propaganda, and short memories finish the job.

The policies being tabled will affect us long after the memories of the Action Plan have faded. Afterwards, we will ask "Where is my Toronto? Where is my Canada? And where is my media?" if we do not speak in defense of the dismissal of Rick Salutin, in support of a progressive mayor, and against the passing of C-36, and the final round of CETA, now. Unlike PM Harper, I believe Canadians are fully capable of determining our own international trade agreements, contracts for municipal services, and need for univeral healthcare, all of which require sovereignty, and a strong Mayor of Toronto working on our behalf.

Call to Action:
To defend Rick, please email: letters@globeandmail.ca, jstackhouse@globeandmail.com, nacampbell@globeandmail.com, sstewart@globeandmail.com

To support the fight against CETA, please demand permanent exemption for municipalities from CETA by supporting the Council of Canadians, and emailing your city councillors to support the Logan Lake Resolution, and also to vote against C-36.
More at http://www.canadians.org/action/2010/CETA-1709.html

References:
Paul Craig Roberts,'Good-Bye: Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It' at http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/03/26/good-bye-truth-has-fallen-and-has-taken-liberty-with-it/
Rick Salutin,'Stephen Harper – the last Straussian?' at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/stephen-harper-the-last-straussian/article1710880/
Rick Salutin, 'Rob Ford and the loss of Hope', at http://rabble.ca/columnists/2010/09/rob-ford-and-loss-hope
Globe TV Ad, 'Canada: Our Time to Lead', http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/canada-our-time-to-lead/article1736099/?from=1735276
Bruce Wark, 'Rick Salutin out as Friday Globe columnist' at
http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/2010/09/29/rick-salutin-out-as-friday-globe-columnist
Kathryn O'Hara, 'Canada must free scientists to talk to journalists' at
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100929/full/467501a.html
Clay Shirky,'Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable' at
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/
Jane Taber, 'Margaret Atwood Takes on Fox News North'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/margaret-atwood-takes-on-fox-news-north/article1692853/
Avaaz.org Petition, 'Canada: Stop "Fox News North'- Close to 100,000 signatures, and important to sign!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_fox_news_canada/?cl=716944315&v=7018
Kevin P. Miller, 'A Question of Sovereignty',
http://www.aquestionofsovereignty.com/ and
http://web.me.com/kevinpmiller/kevin/KEVIN_MILLERS_WORLD/Entries/2010/8/26_A_QUESTION_OF_SOVEREIGNTY.html
'Green Pan Am Games, Green Parks and the Right to Play' at
http://railroadedbymetrolinx.blogspot.com/2009/11/green-pan-am-games-green-parks-and.html

Stiffed with the Bill: A Private Banquet at Civil Society's Expense

"With a stroke of the pen, a government can destroy the social safety net built carefully by generations."
- John Hilary, Executive Director of the War on Want
Left: A trade union picnic banquet before the G20 Rally on Saturday, June 26th

An untendered contract for $16 billion for unneeded fighter jets. $1.3 billion spent on security for the G8 and G20 Summits. 116 votes passed quickly by Premier McGuinty - time for consideration approximately 8.2 minutes each - to pass unheard of laws to criminalize dissent, days before the G20 Summit. A federal Conservative Party which filibustered the vote for a full public inquiry into police conduct during the Summits, calling all 25,000 protesters 'pro-violent'.

The provincial Liberal government's MacDonald Block offices raided on July 15th by the OPP - specifically, Ministries of Transportation, Economic Development and Trade and Community and Social Services - launching an investigation into “irregular financial transactions” between the provincial government and outside vendors. And the only good news - on July 30th, there was the sudden withdrawal of SNC-Lavalin from the $1 right of way contract for the Air Rail Link. The full responsibility for the ARL has been transferred to Metrolinx, whose Chief Operating Officer Rob Prichard is being replaced by Bruce McCuaig, with the possibility now of the ARL becoming electric. Preemptive?

Canada's national deficit stands at $54 billion, yet there were $6 billion in corporate tax cuts this year. A 13% HST has been imposed which means that the average wage earner will have even less discretionary income to spend, so that companies can have even greater tax cuts, ostensibly to invest in new jobs. New austerity measures, recommended by a right wing think-tank, the Conference Board of Canada, to cut many thousands of public sector jobs in health care, education and social services in the next three years, while testing an unproven job creation scheme subsidized by the HST.

Have you ever felt that someone else has held a private banquet at your expense, and stiffed you with the bill, and tip? A bill which now has the Harmonized, also known as the Hated, Sales Tax added? Is any of this HST going toward maintaining public services? No. It is an additional tax to enable banks, corporations and the military to fortify themselves at civil society's expense, and the public sector's demise. As someone pointed out, a wartime levy.

Canada is becoming militarized, and as we witnessed during the G20, this military state can work against its citizens as well as its aggressors. Provincially, the HST is streaming more funds into the pockets of corporations, with a tax deduction to them as they ransack Canada for its resources, and externalize the cost of destruction of our environment, and no one is fighting to defend the imperative civil right for the full environmental assessment process. On June 8th, Bill C-9, the Budget Implementation Act was passed, which contained several provisions enabling the National Energy Board to conduct their own environmental assessments for oil and gas developments - which is like asking my students to mark themselves. This bill was passed during the BP oil spill, with minimal outcry by the Liberal Party.

And what does it mean when 11,000 jobs from the public sector will be cut by 2013?

A close friend of mine told me that when his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, his family thought it prudent that she was placed into a private, rather than public, nursing home, assuming that the care was better. A few months later, they found that she was terribly neglected, and moved her into a public home. Surprisingly, they found that public sector care was much better than private, because the public nursing home was regulated by the government.

These are the public sector jobs - in nursing homes, schools, hospitals, transit, municipal services - which will be slashed to feed the bailout by the government for financial mismanagement incurred by the banks, which, incidentally, are making quite a healthy profit this quarter. The banks rebounded quickly, but our public sector, subjected to this drummed up, specious logic of emergency bill austerity measures, will not. Rather than requesting that the banks repay the debt they owe taxpayers by instituting a novel, and effective, infinitesimally small Robin Hood tax on bank transactions to tackle poverty and climate change, we will pay for these cuts with our society's health. PM Harper opposed the imposition of the Robin Hood tax before the G20 to ensure his illusory future job as CEO of an American corporation, with Canada as a subsidiary, specializing in natural resources.

Of course, there is no interest in a long census form by the Conservative Party. They have stopped representing Canadians, particularly lower income Canadians, long ago. Their goal is to have corporate taxes cut down to 15% by 2012. What does this mean? As the social safety net is eroded, the federal government is anticipating growing dissent from those they are contesting the need to collect data about - those who are lower income, disabled and on a fixed income- to justify building a larger military-industrial complex to suppress those who are disenfranchised. Part of this Orwellian speech model is to publicly conflate protesters with vandals in the public mind so that they ramp up their expenditure on weapons of war, as opposed to building public transit infrastructure for the rabble. Sustainable, electric rail transit throughout Ontario could have been handily built with this promised contractual money for fighter jets, but was not deemed worthy. No explanation needed.

We can look forward to much more violence in our cities as basic needs are no longer met, as they have robbed Peter to pay Paul, and the Pauls are a tiny fraction of the population, secure behind a costly fence which cost $9.4 million, almost double the quoted $5.5 million by SNC-Lavalin. During the G20, the Toronto police were handed a blank cheque by the federal government, enabling the purchase of a substantial arsenal for a police state, so that the military has been fortified to quell growing dissent. It is not a coincidence that this police arsenal will be kept in Toronto, one of the hot spots of the thinking left, but it is a pity that Mayor Miller, who has felt the brunt of this G20 fiasco on police credibility, did not defend the protesters who were speaking in his best interests for the environment, transit and social justice.

Historically, when a society's parliamentary process is suspended and disrupted, trade unions undermined, and people of property, such as the right wing press, banks and big business, are privileged, these policies are the precursors to a fascist state. I use this term with full cognizance of its weight and implication. Parliament has been prorogued twice by PM Harper within thirteen months, and the formal request by over 50,000 citizens, including lawyers, Amnesty International, and the Civil Liberties Association, for the full, public inquiry into the tactics and cost of the G20 and G8 Summit has been denied by PM Harper and Premier McGuinty. The Liberals stood up against the census, but did not speak out for a public G20 inquiry, which shows implicit support for the military apparatus being put in place. Spines, please.

In Journey to a Revolution, Michael Korda writes of the Hungarian Revolution:

"the general object of fascism was to stifle dissent, and bolster the existing establishment, while producing much drama in the way of rallies, parades, and propoganda, and the occasional foreign adventure to siphon off the energy of the lower middle class and the working class, who might otherwise have moved towards radical social reform".

The Olympics? The G8 and the G20? The Pan Am Games? Bread not circuses, anyone? In addition to ceaseless pageantry, PM Harper deliberately prorogued parliament a second time to enact a bill, more powerful than NAFTA to undercut our sovereignty, the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). This far reaching bill will provide sub-national access to municipal services, and undermine the public sector even further, losing thousands of good, Canadian jobs to international outsourcing.

Put it together. Civil society is no longer is prioritized by our government, our country is being sold off to corporations and banks, enabled by a newly armed police state, and expanding prison system, and jobs in our public sector are about to be slashed for international corporations to profit through CETA. This is a Conservative agenda campaign, military in execution, orchestrated by PM Harper, against local economies and the right to self-determination. Provincially, Premier McGuinty is designing his own policies through corporate gladhanding of governmental contracts.

Meanwhile, all over the Internet, discussion postings on news articles are polarized - are we allowed to protest, or not? And I think- for those who are Conservative - your rights are next. Although your values have been upheld by this minority government, I have noticed your online responses can only discredit the protesters by saying that they do not know what they are talking about, and labeling them as unemployed and shiftless. Name calling. Ad hominem attacks. And when you call someone names, all discussion ends. A primary school tactic used by bullies on the playground, undercutting fundamental rights upheld by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for the right to assembly, and free speech, which you are using to discredit serious concerns about the democratic process, and silence those who are brave, engaged, and well-versed in international policy.

I have never been so concerned about the future of Canada, and I am hearing this from many of those who lived through the events of the past seven weeks in Toronto. Nowhere is the civil society being served or protected - by our police, by our elected representatives, by our city councilors, our Mayor, or by our media. When I read letters on the editorial page ranting about the public sector salaries, I compare these costs to the multi-billion dollar bailouts given to the banks, the golden parachutes given to bank executives, and the inflationary pageantry, and corporate contracts, for the Vancouver Olympic Games and G8 and G20 Summits. Compare these taxpayers' expenses to those supporting our civil society, and quality of life. At least the public sector provides essential services, and is forced to be accountable.

I am an ethical citizen, yet my voice no longer matters. The moral and financial costs arising from all this pomp and circumstance, and the insidious HST, have already deeply hurt me. I have no government representation - not in Premier McGuinty, or Prime Minister Harper - and neither do the vast majority of Canadians. I cannot afford, and do not want to pay, for cuts to the public sector under these new, jerry-rigged austerity measures so that a self-selected corporate elite can pad their pockets, banks can prosper again, and a military empire, outfitted with new, massive $10.65 billion prisons, can arise from the ashes, and I am not sure I can. I am too busy counting my pocket change to pay the HST on my electricity, gas, transit and groceries to join the banquet, while predicting that I will be stiffed with the tab as the more important guests flee the table.

I ardently believe, though, if you held a poll of Canadians and asked them if they wanted to live in a country which valued the military, corporations and banks more than our health care system, social services, education, transit system and environment, even the most deeply Conservative Canadian would say 'no'.

References:
Shout for Global Justice, John Hilary speaks at 30:00, link to
http://vimeo.com/13227243
The War on Want, link to http://www.waronwant.org/
Jeffrey Simpson, 'Just what we need: a $16-billion fighter jet', link to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/just-what-we-need-a-16-billion-fighter-jet/article1641373/
Robert Benzie, 'Cabinet rushed secret G20 change, documents show', link at
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/840529--cabinet-rushed-secret-g20-change-documents-show
Steven Chase,'Tory filibuster seeks to block hearings on G20 policing', link to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tory-filibuster-seeks-to-block-hearings-on-g20-policing/article1637756/
Keith Leslie,'Questions linger over OPP raids Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne confirms Transport Ministry was a target', link to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/questions-linger-over-opp-raids/article1652761/
Tess Kalinowski, 'Province vows rapid rail link to Pearson by 2015 Pan Ams', link to http://www.thestar.com/article/842240--province-to-run-rail-link-to-pearson-airport
Michael Korda, 'Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956', HarperCollins; 2006. page 54. Link to http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Revolution-Personal-History-Hungarian/dp/0060772611 More at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/books/Heilbrunn.t.html
The Robin Hood Tax, link to http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/how-it-works/ and http://robinhoodtax.ca/
David J. Climenga, Bill C-9: 'Earmarks' have no place in Canadian legislation, link to http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2010/05/earmarks-have-no-place-canadian-legislation
Heather Scoffield, 'Canada says no to 'Robin Hood' tax at http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/canada-says-no-to-robin-hood-tax-91683444.html
Stephen Hui, 'Statistics Canada head resigns over long-form census controversy', link to http://www.straight.com/article-335208/vancouver/statistics-canada-head-resigns-over-longform-census-controversy
Lauren O'Neill, 'G20 fence costs $9.4M, nearly double original estimate', link to http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/833495--g20-fence-costs-9-4m-nearly-double-original-estimate?bn=1
Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, link to http://www.canadians.org/trade/issues/EU/index.html

G20 Toronto Song of Peace and Redemption

"You will not recognize Canada when I get through with it."
- Prime Minister Harper

This is one of the few things PM Harper has said which I hold to be true. Over the past three weeks, I marched on eight demonstrations, until Sunday, when I collapsed from heat exhaustion. I no longer recognize Toronto, or Canada, because of PM Harper's actions, and for the last two days, I have been disoriented as if I have been caught in a tornado, and landed head first and upside down in a city which I do not comprehend. This new city is a militarized state which can suspend civil liberties to impose a summit, with a history of violence, to enable a group of self-selected economic leaders to streamline economic revenues into the hands of the corporate elite, and exclude the rights of civil society to share in this profit. I was so politically naive, I had not even heard of the Black Bloc until days into the People's Summit workshops.

I marched for hours beside youth who had degrees in International Studies, organic farmers, grandmothers, trade unionists, First Nations leaders, and media activists. I had involved conversations about the International Monetary Fund, food security, child poverty, privatization of public assets and natural resources, and the pollution of native lands and waters through mining. We knew why we marched, and in great detail, but later, not why we were arrested for Breach of the Peace. And we watched the cameras watching us, and cameras became the protectors of pacifists, like myself, who wanted to nothing to do with the riot police, but wanted to bear witness to the brutality perpetrated on others, who were often non-confrontational as well. This 6 km, $5.5 million, zinc-bathed steel fence was commissioned by the government from SNC-Lavalin, which is paying $1 for the right of way to run 140 diesel trains daily in the Air Rail Link through west-end Toronto. (This is my nod to what I am supposed to be writing about in this column exclusively, and how everything is interconnected in terms of government contracts in the military-industrial complex.)

Although CSIS had ascertained that there was no terrorist threat for either the G8 or G20 Summits, on June 14th, Premier McGuinty secretly revived and passed a war bill from 1939, the Public Works Protection Act, to enable Chief Bill Blair to draw an invisible 5 meter line to mark an area outside this 3 meter high fence. This fence protecting the red zone of the G20 Summit became a net to catch protesters, who passed within this outlawed area, and police were able to invoke the Public Works Protection Act during their arrest. It was only after the G20 that the public was made aware that only protesters who were behind the fence could be lawfully detained by the police, and this law had no legitimate power, thus was used to suspend civil rights arbitrarily.

The media has completely ignored our stories of non-violent, educated resistance, and this possibility for equitable coverage was superseded by the Black Bloc burning police cars, and smashing store windows, with still less damage than the hockey riots in Montreal in April 2008, after the Montreal Canadiens playoff victory over the Boston Bruins. With the Black Bloc's direct actions, they took away our rights to be heard, and as a media activist and pacifist, I believe the citizen who sang the G20 Song for Peace has infinitely more value than the erasing of our social message by hammers, combat boots, and tossed lighters.

This elderly gentleman represents to me what I love about Toronto - he had the courage to sing his own peace song, alone, with a bullhorn, with his revised lyrics to Woody Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land', because he fought for our rights in the Second World War, and was saddened to see our rights taken away by the state, police chief Bill Blair, and Premier McGuinty. At the top of this chain of command is PM Harper, who decided to hold the G20 Summit in the center of Toronto, despite the formal request by Mayor Miller to hold the Summit in the walled Canadian National Exhibition Stadium. This courageous singer can show his face, and walk alone to represent civil society's unrepresented majority, whereas the Black Bloc chooses to remain anonymous, and run in a pack.

I believe in ingenious protest, and the creation of visual metaphors to engage the media to compete for the small amount of air time allocated to the opposing discourse, as the amalgamated, corporate controlled media has swung far more right than the average Canadian citizen. All the mainstream news media - radio, print and TV - completely ignored the Shout out for Global Justice held by the Council of Canadians, and the People's Summit forum held at Ryerson, and other social forums held over the month leading up to the Summits. The CRTC should be notified that this complete lack of coverage on social justice policy was inequitable- they allowed the Black Bloc to dominate the media, as much as the police did by allowing the police cars to burn for 1.5 hours for the international photo op. Where were the riot police's water cannons then? Were they only to silence citizens? Based upon the Miami Model, military tactics learned from oppressive regimes, police brutality and kettling were used to corral protesters during a non-violent event that was promised to be in a Free Speech Zone, located in front of our provincial legislative buildings in Queen's Park. The irony of it all.

During the past two weeks, I have analyzed the mainstream media deficit regarding alternative social policy forums, and could not turn my eyes away in horror. During the union march on Saturday, I marched with two vibrant young women, and sang the Star Wars battle theme as we passed the police, who were outfitted in full Darth Vader riot regalia. We saw the visor of the leader of the squad tremble, and realized that he was giggling at our shaky, out of tune rendition.

An hour later, the Black Bloc rampaged, a small percentage of vandals who have criminalized the term 'protesters' for a new generation of educated, engaged citizens, and hijacked our rights to be heard by the mainstream media. The Black Bloc played right into the hands of PM Harper, and helped him justify the $1.5 billion cost for security, spoiling the event for the rest of us. During the Saturday play by play on CityTV, police Chief Blair felt it necessary to hold Sid Ryan, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, accountable for encouraging families to bring their children to Saturday's union march, as if Sid Ryan could control the Black Bloc. This was a passing of the buck for police responsibility, and a deliberate undercutting of the labour movement by Chief Blair, I think.

As a civil society response to this suspension of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and arresting of 1079 protesters during the G20 Summit, six of us have built a repository of citizen media, The Real G8/G20, to privilege our different perspectives, and focus on the Bolivian call to arms from Cochabamba for the rights of Mother Earth. This online forum is designed to enable the ongoing transformational, social policy making and activism that arose during the Summits, but was sidetracked by violence, and the media preference for sensationalism. For all of those who had the courage to protest peacefully, and want to add to the discourse of social, environmental, trade, and water justice to add Toronto's official voice to the People's Agreement of Cochabamba, I salute you with my metal water bottle.

As one of my fellow protesters said to me on Saturday, "We are the people who will not look away". These are the people I valorize by writing this column, and by volunteering to organize this online forum. I encourage you to submit material to the The Real G8/G20, and add to a movement which sets its own social policy and media representation beyond a police state, and militarized civil society. As Dr. Vandana Shiva said, as she threw her sari over her shoulder as she walked off the stage at the Shout Out for Social Justice, "This too shall pass". We must make it go away together.

Highly Recommended References:
G20 Toronto Song of Peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSAdg3LEiGk (A special thank you for the citizen who sang this, and the person who posted this video.)
People's Summit, link at http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/3671
Mary Ormsby, 'Fortress Toronto: Secrets of the fence', link at http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/825908--fortress-toronto-secrets-of-the-fence
Public Works Protection Act, link to http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2010/elaws_src_regs_r10233_e.htm
Linda McQuaig, 'Police, bankers exempt from austerity', link at http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/829902--mcquaig-police-bankers-exempt-from-austerity
CRTC Complaint and Inquiry Form, link at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/rapidsccm/register.asp?lang=e
Catherine Porter, 'When police stick to phony script', link at http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/828876--porter-when-police-stick-to-phony-script
Star Wars battle theme, link at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aet9wYHaufk&feature=fvst
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, link at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#anchorbo-ga:l_I
People's Agreement of Cochabamba, link at http://pwccc.wordpress.com/support/
The Real G8/G20 Submit Content, link at http://therealg8g20.com/
Dr. Vandana Shiva at the 'Shout Out for Global Justice', link at http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2010/06/features/watch-shout-out-global-justice

Seasick or Seachange: The G8 and G20 Summits

Only when the last tree has been cut down;
Only when the last river has been poisoned;
Only when the last fish has been caught;
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
- Cree Prophecy, oft-quoted as the rallying cry for the environmental movement

A belated happy World Oceans' Day. A plume of oil 228 km away from its source in the Gulf of Mexico has been found, and scuba divers are encountering oil masses the size of softballs. This oil spill is seven times the size than that of the Exxon Valdez, and is still growing. So far, 9.5 million litres of oil have been spilled into the Gulf.

ABC News has shown footage of the first days of the oil spill, which BP chose not to make public, which documented far more oil leaking than initially admitted by the oil company. Human error and omission on the part of BP has exacerbated the scope and size of the oil spill because of their slow response time, poor management of containment measures, and inability to coordinate clean up efforts with the thirteen American natural resource agencies, waiting for instruction from this British oil company. The Americans have written a letter to BP saying they have two days to contain the spill.

As oil begins to wash up on shore, white Florida beaches and marshes are blackened. Generations of fish will have birth defects, or not be able to reproduce, and coral will die, as far away as Cuba, suffocated by a coat of oil. A genie in the bottle has been let loose by unregulated offshore drilling, a legacy of the Bush era, and Barack Obama is powerless to defend American natural resources against British corporate interests, and force this renegade oil well to be capped.

When I was a child, I was given a technicolour atlas of Canada, and told that we had the second largest land mass in the world, and more resources than we could possibly ever use - that we were awash in timber, fish, and wheat. In my lifetime, I have seen cod disappear on the east coast, wild salmon become scarce on the west coast, and pine beetles ravage west coast forests. Americans are facing the probable extinction of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, and this oil spill will have repercussions as far away as Vancouver.


Several months ago, while I stood in line at the grocery store, I overheard a child say that we will not have fish in twenty years. He may be right. We can extract oil, but we can never generate life, or recreate ocean species, and our oceans have changed their temperature and acidity by absorbing our greenhouse gases. A revered Canadian journalist Alanna Mitchell writes brilliantly about this in her book 'Seasick'. She titled her book after witnessing the reaction of an oceanologist, who upon hearing of the radical chemical alteration in the world's oceans, threw up, and was sickened for weeks by thoughts of the scientific repercussions on the reproductive capacity of ocean life in the increasing number of dead zones.

In Canada, one million wild salmon swam upstream this year in British Columbia's Fraser River, when ten million were expected, shocking the First Nations communities and fishing industry. The government has launched a formal enquiry into the salmon farms, agricultural run off, and changing temperatures of the oceans, yet refuses to regulate oil sands' tailing ponds, which leak millions of litres of toxins into the once pristine Athabasca River. Upon hearing of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an oil industry representative said that it will make Canadians think of the oil sands as a cleaner source of oil, as if leaching toxins into the Athabasca River is better than spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Are not all water systems interconnected?

As PM Harper spends $2.1 million to build a Fake Lake as a backdrop for journalists to sell off the 'Muskoka Experience' to international interests for the G20, I have witnessed climate change in this lake district firsthand. There have been two hurricanes within the past five years in Muskoka. A century old tree fell down within two inches of a neighbouring cottage, and entire swathes of old growth forest have been ripped up throughout this region. Historically, there have never been tornadoes of this magnitude in Northern Ontario - this is a direct result of climate change, and our unlimited desire for oil. Meanwhile, PM Harper is touting Huntsville and the rest of the Muskoka Lakes region as a tourist destination, encouraging more traffic, exurban expansion, Big Box Stores, and oil consumption, both on and off the water.

During the past ten years, I have watched Muskoka become a suburb of Toronto, and lose much of its rustic charm. You can buy pillows embroidered with Muskoka chairs made in China in its gift shops, purchase pre-fabricated birch canoes, and watch Sea Doos roar through shallow inland bays, tearing up clam beds in their wake. Tourist traffic can protect a region through revenue, but in many cases throughout Muskoka has not, as some of those who vacation there have no vested interest in preserving its natural beauty, environment or heritage, as they are just passing through, interested in cottage culture as a commodity, far more than the actual experience.

In a few years, I honestly wonder what natural resources Canadians will have left after the Conservative and neoliberal 'Open for Sale' agenda has taken full affect. As world leaders ask that the environment be included on the agenda of G20 international trade summit, and PM Harper refuses this request, this media spectacle is a harbinger of what we will leave future generations- a Fake Lake with plastic Muskoka chairs, a small pool with chlorinated water, and a sky with artificial stars as a backdrop for TV journalists as they describe our Canadian natural vistas - when a short walk away is Lake Ontario, one of our great inland seas, which we have done little to protect environmentally, and in which many of its 179 fish species have become extinct (see FishNet for a fascinating art project on this issue). In America, Jean Baudrillard may have it right- all we may have left is the false front of what was once culturally important, and contained our heritage, like the storefronts along main street in the Wild West movies, or the view of a kiddy pool version of Muskoka Lake, from a dock no longer owned by us.

I would hope that the G8 and G20 Summits become a forum to discuss global fiscal initiatives to enter a post carbon future, including curbing transportation emissions, to protect the world's natural resources for future generations, but this discussion did not happen during Copenhagen, and has been suppressed once again. In effect, $1.1 billion in security measures have been paid by Canadian taxpayers to hold 18 hours of meetings to privatize our assets and sell off our natural resources to resolve our debt, while incurring a debt of over $2.1 billion for the summit. Dissenting voices have been discredited by the media as 'protesters' rather than as peaceful citizens with a sincere desire to represent our country's best environmental and social interests. Business as usual in the suicide economy is the agenda in these summits, despite the possibility of economic growth through the international coordination of sustainable environmental policies, and development of green technologies.

Whether oil is absorbed as carbon from the air into our oceans, or exists as greenhouse gas emissions in our air, we need to discuss going toward a post carbon future to protect our health, and this carbon orgy must come to an end. With a Fake Lake as a backdrop to our media campaign for the G8 and G20 Summits, PM Harper, and our leaders, are about to sell off our country's natural resources, and right to self-government through the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, as if our country is a tourist attraction for the fire sale of our citizens' hard earned assets. Politically, our land, air, and water should be protected by us, because they belong to all Canadians as our birthright, beyond present federal policy and corporate agenda, or we will be left with only memories of what was once our country, like the fading technicolour on the resource rich map of my childhood.

O Canada, I stand on guard for thee.

This article is dedicated to my nieces, Jesse and Sally, to whom I read on the dock each summer.

References:
Live feed footage of Gulf of Mexico oil spill, link to
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/live-gulf-oil-spill-video-feed_n_583682.html
Alanna Mitchell, 'Seasick', link to http://www.mcclelland.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771061165
Claire Ironside and Angela Iarocci, ' FishNet Art Project on Species in the Great Lakes', link to http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson/freshground/fishnet.cfm
David Korten on the Suicide Ecoomy, “Economies for Life”, YES!Magazine, Living Economies Issue. Fall 2002, link to http://peoplenotprofit.org/livingeconomies.htm

Jean Baudrillard on the 'aesthetics of disappearance' in America, Excerpts 2 Link to http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/america-excerpts-2/
Important information on the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Link to http://www.canadians.org/trade/issues/EU/index.html
and Maude Barlow explains how the proposed Canada-EU trade agreement would deprive all levels of government of their ability to invest money in local economies, through programs such as Ontario's Green Energy Act. Link to http://www.canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=850