Deeper Shade of Green

Now, more than ever, Canada needs you. It is all too easy to dismiss many of the things happening in the world as insurmountable, our our actions as insignificant. However remember than ANY action in history that changed societies and the world started either by one person or a small group of people.

At the recent G20/G8 meetings, some very disturbing things has happened. By now, many of you have seen videos of burning police cruisers and somehow thought to yourself that all that ONE BILLION spent on the summit was somehow justified, since we have such radical elements in our societies, and that we must, after all, guard ourselves against them.

I think it would be very educational for all of us to look into facts a little more and be our own journalists.

1) Media in Canada is owned by very few corporations. Their owners are mainly right aligned. Journalism as we know it is near dead in Canada with only few occasional journalists digging for the truth…you know, what journalists are supposed to do. And when they try to dig for the truth, often, if it is really embarrassing the government or digging a little too close for comfort, senior editors pull the story.

Remember, first signs of dwindling democracy is slow and steadfast censorship of media. Case in point: on May 8th, British Columbia saw the largest peaceful demonstration in its history on the lawns of the parliament…this was to protest the predominantly Norwegian owned fish farms that many respected scientists deem responsible for near collapse of wild salmon runs (and if they collapse, just as the cod did in Atlantic Canada, BC is doomed). Basic and sound investigation puts the estimates of the demonstrators at 5 to 7 thousand people. Leading large newspapers in Vancouver delegated the story to page 20, significantly lowered the number of demonstrators, and some even said “nearly thousand protesters” showed up. Thus, 4-6 thousand people were magically erased….making the issue seem very unimportant. The leading front page story? Some story on a local rugby team win. We see this sort of media censorship across Canada

2) G20 meeting accomplished absolutely nothing. The main focus was of course the economic crisis. Proposition (by no less than our amiable PM) put forth was for countries to reduce their debt by half by I believe 2012 or 2013. However, it was warned that countries should be careful, because in certain instances, reducing debt too fast could be worst than throwing more money at the problem. Thus countries were cautioned to proceed the way they thought was best, but recommended to reduce the debt. Price tag for such awesome consensus: $1 billion

3) Previous G8/G20 meetings have cost a mere fraction. I remember roughly, but recent Japanese cost was around $350 million, and before that London’s was around $30 or so million.

4) Part of the 1 billion price tag included something like $30+ million spent on an artificial lake to “impress” foreign media, which tried to recreate Canadian wilderness, complete with sounds, imagery and projection screens. In a publicity stunt to highlight the reckless and daring spending spree, the Council of Canadians applied to the government to have the lake named “Harper’s Folly”

5) Business was invited to the summit and politicians expressed interest in more of business involvement in the summit in the future. The people? Left out in the street, behinds barricades of cops, locked out of the process

6) In 2008 I believe, the G8 meeting in Montebello, Quebec, saw “Agent provocateurs” – undercover police officers, dressed as masked anarchists incite the crowd, so that the police could swiftly move in and justify excess force and thus disperse any demonstrations. At first the government denied this, but the crowd singled the three cops out (one was carrying a large rock). When these “anarchists” were arrested, their boots clearly showed police-issue boots. Quebec police had to formally admit that these anarchists were, in fact, under cover cops and tried to excuse their actions (very lamely). This has proved what many knew for a while: That police, with the tacit approval of the government and even opposition parties, routinely uses agents provocateurs to incite the crowd and justify swift response by the police.

This is really troubling, as freedom of assembly is enshrined into our constitution!

7) Politicians have started to use heavy terminology and suggestions of how peaceful protesters should be treated. Especially conservatives MPs. Few times already, they have said that given protesters should be treated as eco-terrorists, giving the notion that they should be prosecuted in court under full extend of law as applied to terrorists. Ed Stelmach, premier of Alberta, has said as much while few Greenpeace activists in 2009 were detained and awaiting trial because they chained themselves to heavy machinery and caused Shell’s operations to shut down for a day in Alberta’s Tar Sands. He said this while the charge was still pending and under review; from what I know politicians are not supposed to comment while the accused are before court so as not to taint the judges or jury’s opinion.

If we do nothing, I fully expect that people like myself – concerned citizens – will one day in a decade or so, get thrown in jail on suspicion of eco-terrorism simply by having a petition drive or marching during a peaceful protest.

8) There will always be a select few who will go far and and beyond what many other peaceful protesters will do. But we don’t need a 1 billion security price tag and tens of thousands of cops to protect ourselves against those few. Incidentally, black clad protesters who set police cruisers on fire in Toronto during the G20 were given free rain for an hour and a half….meanwhile, peaceful protesters were literally swarmed and attacked by police, without a cause or provocation real quick. If you don’t believe me, as an example (there are many more out there)

Watch this video: Peaceful Protest at Toronto\'s G20 (2010) summit heavy handedly dispersed by police

This video shows very clearly how police acted in many cases….I watched it and had tears in my eyes…tears because this beautiful country is seeing its democracy vanish into air. In the video, as soon as the crowd finishes singing O Canada, the police swarms them.

Angry? Pissed off? Powerless? These are some of the feelings you will probably feel. But know one thing. We are not powerless. We are powerful. But we have to stand up and be counted. We have to send a clear message to our politicians, demanding an inquiry into 2010’s G20. Demand to see breakdown of the costs, the justification of the insane amount spent, the unjustified behaviour of the police officers.

Do it because you love this country. Do it because you want your kids, grandkids to enjoy the same freedoms you have enjoyed thus far. Do it because it’s right. Do it because you stand on guard for Canada.

Find your MP and contact him/her here