Call Mayor 416-397-FORD (3673)

It happened.  This morning the City of Toronto issued Notices of Trespass against the people of Occupy Toronto. Be out by midnight. I am gobsmacked. The movement has been very peaceful in our city.  The park is very clean and well prepared for the colder temperatures.

I don't think these people could be anymore compliant. The only people ticked off are a few Ford Nation folks and the SUN newspaper.  People have a right to protest and there is a history of that occurring in this park since it was established in the infancy of this city.

The mayor just can not leave well enough alone.  In my previous post I named a few 'funny' reasons Rob Ford couldn't accept the Occupy Toronto group.  They don't look so funny any more.  I was hopeful he would leave well enough alone.  It seems he can't accept any opposition, even respectful opposition.  I imagine he sees it as an embarrassment, what with Halifax and Calgary ridding themselves of these malcontents.  

Oddly enough, New York just evicted everyone and now the courts have said they can go back to the park, with their tents.  I expect there will be potential for a legal battle here.

The movement may in fact move onto the portion of the park owned by the Church at St. James. I do know one thing. The Mayor better not use a heavy hand.  Doing so could lead to a much more embarrassing event for him and the Premier of Ontario.  Remember the G20?

This is a free country.  We have a right to speak our wishes to power. We have a right to voice our concerns. If it means letting a few hundred people stay in the park, what does that hurt.  Democracy is not always easy and as people in power have always shown, they don't like it when people exercise it.

You need to call the Mayor's office. Tell them in polite terms, you support Occupy Toronto and want the City to back off attempts to remove them from St. James Park.

Here are a few numbers to call: Mayor 416-397-FORD (3673) Email:  mayor_ford@toronto.ca 

Departments responsible for the eviction notice are: Municipal Standards and Licensing - Mr. Bruce Robertson, Acting ED @ 416-392-8445 and Communications Department - Ms. Margaret Doherty @ 416-397-5313

Tonight go down and Defend the Occupation at St. James Park!

Mayor Ford reasons to end Occupy Toronto

Reasons Mayor Ford will use to try and shut down the Toronto Occupy site.

1. complaints from Sun News
2. need to winterize the sprinkler system
3. for the health and safety of protesters
4. cause all the other Canadian cities got rid of their Occupy sites

5. we can't afford to keep police watching it all winter
6. the fire inspections take fire fighters away from conducting real fire inspections
7. you can't just live in Toronto and not pay property taxes
8. there shouldn't be any free lunches in my Toronto
9. he heard that they served gravy, get rid of the gravy train

10. it's a breeding ground for future Marg Delahunty's
11. the Yurt Library sets a bad example being open 24/7
12. these people don't vote on things, must have supervised secret ballot on all decisions
13. some of the people look very weird
14. they have solar panels, how can I sell Toronto Hydro if it doesn't have customers
15. some of the protesters are vegetarians

16. the homeless will think they can sleep in parks too
17. they should go to the cottage like normal people if they want to camp
18. cause it will take peoples attention away from my tutu moment with Karen Kain
19. that woman Margaret Battwood supports them
20. thats where the new subway station is gonna go
21. parks are for the people
22. it's King St, not Utopia Culled de Sack
23. too many bicycles in one place cant be good

James Bay families living in Squalor

Last week I told you about the families in Attawapiskat Ontario, on James Bay. Their MP has been trying to get something done. Watch the video made by Charles Angus, MP for the area. The squalor Canadians are being forced to live in is heartbreaking. Someone at Aboriginal Affairs has to take action now. The Government must act now. By government I am referring to both the federal government and the Ontario government.

 If this was in downtown Toronto, we would have fixed it already.

Dammit Janet nails Conservatives

Your MASSIVE Con Jobs - senators Doug Finley and Irving Gerstein, past party director Michael Donison, and past CFO Susan Kehoe - charged with criminal offenses were ^NOT "cleared of wrongdoing". Dammit Janet! says it well. go have a look...

Police assault at Dallas #occupy protest

Off duty police officer in Dallas, moonlighting for Bank Of America as a security guard, pushes protester off of a four foot high planter to the sidewalk.  The protester was then charged with felony assault of a police officer and resisting arrest.

You can see the protester is standing on the planter, the off duty police officer is right beside him.  Then without any obvious reason, the officer pushes the protester off the planter.  The protester was not expecting this as you can see in the video.



Fortunately this video surfaced.  The protest appears to be quite tame.  People marching back and forth, chanting and holding signs.  Read the whole story at Daily KOS here.

It's vital that those attending these protests attempt to capture video of all that is going on.  With people like this off duty police officer and others, we need to have evidence that is immediately available.

Its no longer good enough to have witnesses that refute official police statements and or arrests.  That takes too long.  While we wait to prove our case, our friends are in jail, and governments use the arrests to clamp down on protesters more.

Canadians in Attawapiskat live in the Third World

I am saddened on this day of remembrance.  We honour those that went to war, were peacekeepers, went to Afghanistan, the ones killed, the ones who returned.  I am saddened because all these people have given a lot to make the world a better place.  I'm saddened by all the words people spoke today that wrapped us in a collective cozy quilt, perhaps the flag emblazoned on it, saying how lucky we are to be Canadians.

Many of us are lucky.  We have it better than many in the world, perhaps we are the luckiest of all.  Yet today in Canada, many Canadians are not so lucky.

Go here and read about some Canadians that are not doing to well.  This is the greatest shame of our country.  Many First Nations people live in abject poverty.  Stephen Harper is ignoring them. The Conservative government is ignoring them.

We have this big problem because the Federal governments, Liberal and Conservative, for 35 years have done next to nothing significant to remedy the problems.  The main stream media has failed big time as well.  Its just Indians.

Charlie Angus, the MP has been on this file for several years now. Perhaps he will need to light his hair on fire in the House of Commons to get either the government or the media do anything!  Maybe a new Conservative Minister, The Hon. Peter Penashue can get his partner in government, the Hon. John Duncan, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs to actually put some of out tax dollars to good use.

Governments must come to the aid of Attawapiskat

Attawapiskat residents forced to live in tents, sheds - APTN

Restraint will be “unprecedented” in Ontario

Cabinet ministers got the news Wednesday after lunch. The good news: cuts to Ontario government services won’t be as “brutal” as in the Mike Harris era. "The bad news: restraint — and reformation — will be “unprecedented” in duration and effect. Queen’s Park is rethinking the old ways of delivering services in virtually every sector — health, education, social services, energy, booze — to shed its chronic deficit and get more value for money. - Martin Regg Cohn

That's what came out of a meeting today of the Ontario Liberal Cabinet. They were meeting with the Premier's self-appointed budget slasher, Don Drummond.

Of course none of this was talked about during the election. Its like McGuinty and the Liberals are a brand new government elected only to find the cubbard bare.  I see privatization as the unspoken word here. Whenever right leaning governments say we need to re-think government, it means how can we get the private sector to do this.

The logical first target for privatization is the LCBO. It's a captive market, it makes money and who wouldn't want to buy it.  Big changes are coming and one man is putting it together, Don Drummond.

Selling off the LCBO is a quick fix and would add a billion or more to the coffers right away.  The government won't give up any of the cash they collect from booze sales.  That means a private operator(s) would have to make their profit margin some other way.  They won't want to raise prices, so the only way to build a profit margin would be to lower wages and benefits of those that work for the new owner.

Alberta did that. Sold off the Liquor business, kept the profit and laid off the workers.  The new corner stores hired people at much below the rate of the government stores, thus creating a profit margin.  The only people to really benefit were the new store owners.  Thousands of people lost mortgage paying jobs.

Some will argue that the private sector will be more efficient.  That's hardly likely as the current LCBO is the largest retailer of Alcohol in the world and a model of efficiency.  They do it well.  They market their product well.  You get Airmiles for shopping there.

So you heard it here first. The LCBO is on the auction block.

McGunity has Money for every Liberal MPP

It's Christmas in November, it is if you are a Liberal MPP in Ontario. 52 of the 53 Liberal MPPs were appointed as either a Cabinet Minister or Parliamentary Assistant to a Minister.  All of these jobs bring with it an additional salary add-on.

No wonder 51% of the people that could have voted, didn't vote in the last election. This is enough to piss off a server at Tim Horton's or laid off guy from a closed manufacturing plant.

Toronto Star Photo ITS a PaRTY!

MPP's in Ontario make about $116,000.  That puts every single one of them in the top 3% of Canadian incomes.

So 52 of 53 Liberals got a hefty raise. The one Liberal MPP that did not get a raise is likely to get an even bigger one.  That person will be the speaker.  That job pays much more than a lowly MPP.  Not bad, McGuinty has manged to give his entire caucus a pay increase.

H/t to Onpoli.ca