Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Casserole Protest and the Two Solitudes



As a guy who has one foot in each solitude, I know that the Québécois tend to be a little more exuberant than Canadians in the rest of the country.

Especially when it comes to sex, or standing up for their rights. Or beating casseroles in the street in the middle of a raging thunderstorm eh?

But pas ce soir câlisse. Not tonight baby. 

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Police Execution of Paul Boyd



I think this is the most disturbing video I've ever seen.

Paul Boyd, a mentally ill man in Vancouver crawls towards police after being shot seven times.

And is finished off with a shot to the head.

The Quebec Students and the Occupy Movement


On my way home today I visited the park where Occupy Toronto once lived. And I could hardly recognize the place.

The old gazebo where so many passionate speeches were made, and so many dreamed of a better world, was quiet now. 

And where there were once tents huddled together in the cold...

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Triumph of Thomas Mulcair


The Cons and their stooges in the right-wing media have gone after him like a pack of rabid hyenas.

They have attacked the man, claiming he was too angry and divisive to be a leader. 

They have mocked him for pointing out the dangers of the Dutch Disease, that is ripping the guts out of our manufacturing sector and hollowing out our country, just to make Alberta rich.

Quebec, the Con Media, and the Greek Obsession















It's funny eh? When I see pictures like this one I see people standing up for their rights, telling a corrupt government to take their fascist bill and shove it, or just joining others to demand a better world.

But most of the Con media only seem to see a mob, dangerous terrorists, and above all GREEKS !!!! 

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Quebec and the Not So Quiet Revolution


There was another amazing freedom party in Montreal tonight.

Thousands and thousands of people marched peacefully through the streets, beating pots and pans. Defying the police to arrest them for taking part in an illegal demonstration.

And what struck me the most apart from the incredible energy, was the diversity of the protesters. Now it's not just students, it's middle aged people, it's seniors, it's EVERYONE.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Quebec and the Spirit of Resistance


A massive thunderstorm hit Montreal this evening. The heavens really opened up.

But that didn't stop thousands of people from parading through the streets, beating their pots and pans.

Even though in a city full of riot cops armed with a fascist bill, anything could happen.

More than 2,500 people have been arrested in a months-long dispute that has catapulted the province onto international news pages, which is at least five times the number jailed during the 1970 FLQ crisis that saw martial law declared in Quebec. 

Friday, May 25, 2012

Quebec: The Mad Emperor and the Klown Media


They were out in the streets of Montreal again tonight, for another casserole protest or cazerolazo

The 31st night protest comes as a growing number of Montrealers join a neighbourhood-wide cazerolazo - casserole protest. 

 Since the weekend, hundreds of people in the island's central neighbourhoods have taken to their balconies, porches and sidewalks with pots and pans.

Refusing to be intimidated by last night's mass arrests. 

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Con Mob and the Sad Case of David Wilks


Oh.My.Gorilla. I told you the Con mob was scarier than the Sopranos eh? Just look what they did to poor David Wilks. 

One moment he was criticizing Stephen Harper's sinister Trojan Horse budget.

A Conservative backbench MP has publicly broken ranks with the government and said the massive budget omnibus bill should be split up — but says he is powerless to change it.

The next moment he wasn't.

The Casserole Symphony and the Royal Canadians



In many Montreal neighbourhoods this evening people were banging pots and pans in another casserole symphony of protest. The latest tactic in this awesome  struggle. 

It's a nightly ritual known as les manifs aux casseroles, that sees hundreds of people step out of their homes, armed with pots and pans. At the stroke of 8 p.m., they start to bang on their kitchenware.

And just about everybody in the province was talking about yesterday's massive demonstration.

Meanwhile in the rest of Canada, judging from the coverage on the CBC, this was the Big Story.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Day They Turned Montreal Red


And so it came to pass. On the 100th day of their amazing struggle, they refused to be intimidated by a totalitarian bill, and turned Montreal RED.

A sea of students, their numbers swollen by trade unionists, teachers and other supporters, flooded through the streets of Montreal in a massive turnout marking the 100th day of a protest movement that is growing broader and bolder. 

Reported estimates placed the number of protesters Tuesday at between 100,000 and 250,000.

And it was awesome sight...

Quebec and the Big Freedom Party


It's just after 8pm in Montreal, and the reporter from CUTV is talking to a young mother who is taking her two kids to the 28th nightly demonstration in a row.

Even though she knows she could be arrested, for defying the Charest government's totalitarian Bill 78, like so many were the night before. 

About 300 people were arrested and 20 were injured during overnight protests in Montreal in defiance of Quebec's contentious Bill 78, which cracks down on student-stoked demonstrations sparked by the province's proposed tuition hikes.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Jean Charest and the Great Distraction


When I see pictures like this one of my beloved Montréal on a warm Saturday night.

On sedate St-Denis street of all places.

And I read what kind of peace the Quebec government's totalitarian Bill 78 has brought.

The adoption of emergency legislation to end Quebec's escalating student crisis stoked fiery debate across the province overnight, from highly charged street protests that lasted into the wee hours to harsh editorials and some calls for civil disobedience.

When I read how police pepper sprayed the peaceful patrons of a bar. On a patio of all places. 

Or watch the video...

Friday, May 18, 2012

The Naked Emperor and the Con Regime


If I had painted this picture of Great Ugly Gorgeous Leader, I would have put a crown on his head, and made his buttocks more fleshy, like one of Picasso's women.

Or the ridiculous Con prude James Moore.

But apart from that I quite like Margaret Sutherland's Emperor Haute Couture. 

I think it captures the power structure, and the moral corruption of the Harper  regime better than anyone has ever done before. 

Mulcair and the Attack of the Con Hogs


Well I see the Big Oil Cons have finally released their attack hogs. 

The Harper Conservatives have finally unleashed the attack dogs on Tom Mulcair. They've pounced on the newly minted NDP leader's musings about the economic impact of Alberta's oilsands to paint him as a divisive, ill-informed, irresponsible enemy of western Canada who is unfit to govern.

And that in the absence of  Great Napoleon Leader, James Moore led the charge, with this humungous hog fart.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Vic Toews and the Bill that Wouldn't Die


OMG. That'll teach me to stroll through a graveyard in Con Canada, when a Harper moon is in the sky.

First I read that Vic Toews' internet snooping bill had quietly died.

The Internet surveillance legislation sponsored by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has disappeared down a dark legislative hole. For all intents and purposes, the bill is dead. 

And then when I read this story I wanted to shout hooray for the internet !!!!!! 

Jimbo Flaherty's Nightmare Taxi Ride


When you are numbed to the horror of Harperland, it's easy to laugh at little Jimbo Flaherty. The nasty Con garden gnome is a natural comedian.

"I was brought up in a certain way. There is no bad job, the only bad job is not having a job," he told reporters. "I drove a taxi, I refereed hockey. You do what you have to do to make a living."

I mean can you imagine getting into a cab and discovering that Jimbo, sitting on a box the size of his Trojan Horse budget, is your DRIVER? That's hilarious eh?

Until you remember that he is a brutish Con ideologue who once threatened to jail the homeless. And now he's going after the disabled.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The McCarthyite Cons and the Dutch Disease



OK. So I was wrong.

When Christy Clark became the latest Con stooge to denounce Thomas Mulcair,  for simply pointing out that the Dutch Disease is killing our manufacturing sector, I said it could only mean one thing.

Big Oil and its Con puppets were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

But I forgot I was living in the sinister petro state of Harperland. 

Where the bottom of the dirty oil barrel goes all the way to China.

And I forgot about the Con Senate... 

Sunday, May 13, 2012

The Quebec Students: If You Can't Beat Them Cane Them

Well I suppose it was inevitable eh? Ever since the Quebec students began marching, the Con media has been attacking them like a pack of rabid hyenas.

The Con liberal Andrew Coyne called them a violent mob. The windy little teabagger Rex Murphy called their protest a self-indulgent parody. 

The petty-bourgeois hack Margaret Wente did her ghastly Marie Antoinette impression.


But now Michael Den Tandt has gone one deranged step further, and called for the Quebec students to be caned.  

Dr Mulcair and the Dutch Disease


Ever since Thomas Mulcair warned that the Dutch Disease is killing this country, every shabby oil pimp and Con huckster in Canada has been lining up to denounce him. 

And now we've finally reached the bottom of the dirty oil barrel.

Christy Clark, the Liberal Conservative ConLiberal Premier of British Columbia is calling Mulcair goofy.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Peter MacKay and the Libyan Fiasco


Oh no.Try to keep this one confidential eh? Because if the Russians find out, they'll invade us tomorrow. 

But it seems that Peter Dumbo MacKay, our Minister of War, is having trouble crunching massaging the numbers. Again.

Amid allegations the Conservative government intentionally lowballed the price of the F-35 stealth fighter project, newly released National Defence documents indicate the full cost of last year’s Libya mission was nearly $350-million — seven times what Defence Minister Peter MacKay told Canadians it cost. 

Friday, May 11, 2012

Stephen Harper's Massive Meltdown


Well so much for all those carefully staged photo-ops of Great True North Leader surveying his frozen dominion. So much for his grand plans to assert our arctic sovereignty.

Six years after the Harper government declared the Arctic to be a new operations area for the Canadian military, the army has struggled to find enough parkas, cold-weather tents, lanterns and heaters to equip forces that take part in its annual summer exercise.

Can you believe that? We couldn't hold the Russians off for more than two days two hours because we don't have enough PARKAS? 

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Obama and the Cruelty of Hatred


It was long overdue.

“At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Mr. Obama said.

It won't make any difference to gay couples in many states like North Carolina.

But in a country as homophobic as the United States it was a courageous gesture. 

And for that I am grateful. 

Andrew Coyne and the Quebec Students


They staged massive peaceful demonstrations for twelve weeks, hundreds of them were arrested for no good reason. 

Many of them were beaten and gassed. One of them lost an eye.

Despite the violence and the hatred directed at them they still managed to work out an honourable compromise, and only rejected it after being betrayed by Jean Charest's corrupt government. 

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

The Harpo Hate Monster and the Liberals


Oh. Mein.Cabaret. It's showtime in Harperland. The Cons are screening their latest attack ad. 

And this time the Harpo hate monster is going after the NDP !!!

But wait what's this? Despite the creepy Halloween theme, the critics are panning it. Not because it's clearly a product of Stephen Harper's deranged mind. And morally repulsive.

But because it's not  SCARY ENOUGH !!!! 

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

The Quebec Students and the Savage State




Uh oh. It  looks like my Quebec student's victory celebration party, from which I'm still recovering, was a little premature.

Students in a half dozen colleges and 10 university faculties and departments voted to reject the agreement on Monday after the Charest government boasted of having won the battle. Students at other schools are set to vote on the deal throughout the week, but the trend is clearly running against it.

The Cons and the Trojan Horse


Well, let's put it this way eh? It wasn't exactly democracy's finest hour.

First the Cons rolled their Trojan horse budget, packed to the rafters with non-budget stuff that will gut our environmental laws, into the House of Commons. 

Then when the opposition demanded the bill be split up so it can be properly studied, James Moore, fresh from mutilating the CBC, replied by twisting stretching strangling the truth. 

Sunday, May 06, 2012

The Quebec Students and the Great Victory


They marched for three months. In the cold of February and the chill of the Maple Spring. Many of them were roughed up, or arrested for no good reason. 

For most of that time the corrupt Charest government refused to talk to them, just tried to divide and conquer.

They were infiltrated by a handful of hooded thugs who tried to smear their movement as violent. When the students were overwhelmingly peaceful... 

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Stephen Harper and his RoboCon Monsters



I always wondered whether Stephen Harper would be brought down by the monsters he created.

And in that regard I must say I'm extremely encouraged.

The digital trail left by the suspect behind misleading robocalls to Guelph voters on election day 2011 has sharply narrowed, with Internet records linking the mysterious “Pierre Poutine” to an account held by a worker from the campaign of local Conservative candidate Marty Burke. 

Friday, May 04, 2012

The Quebec Students and the Angry Canadians


At first glance they are two very different stories. Quebec students stripping down to their underwear, and then meeting with the government.

Hoping that they can also make the Education Minister an offer she can't  refuse.

And the British criminal Conrad Black cavorting on the grounds of his massive mansion, after being released from the Big House.

Rob Ford:The Con Bully Strikes Again


When I read this story about Rob Ford's latest bully eruption.

Rob Ford is not denying Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale’s allegations that the Toronto Mayor charged at him with his fist raised during a Wednesday night confrontation on public property behind Ford’s home. When asked by the National Post if Dale’s story was true, Ford suggested he was so upset at the time he couldn’t quite remember his actions.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Stephen Harper's Big Majority Party


It's been one year since Stephen Harper stole an election and finally got his majority. 

And you should have seen him at his Great Majority Party today, wearing a silly hat, and blowing his own trumpet. 

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Peter MacKay and the Flying Piano


I always knew that sooner or later Dumbo MacKay would hit the eject button by mistake, fly into the air, and blame the whole darn cabinet. 

Defence Minister Peter MacKay says cabinet ultimately signed off on the figures the Defence Department cited publicly for the cost of the F-35 stealth fighter program.

The Conservative government has admitted it was aware of the larger price tag weeks before the last federal election, but MacKay's comments are the first acknowledgment cabinet approved the reporting of a lower figure to Canadians.