Democracy & soap bubbles are fragile.

All snerking aside about how the G20 provided a boost to the local economy police officers's salary, the report tabled in the House of Commons last Friday (and it seems, eons ago) by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security released was not positive about Contempt leader Harper's shindig.

A parliamentary committee studying last summer's G8 and G20 summits is calling for a full judicial inquiry into the events' policing and security.

In a report tabled Friday before the government fell, MPs listed 12 recommendations and insisted that the federal government issue an apology to "thousands of Canadians and visitors to Toronto who had their rights violated during the G20 summit."

More here. By the way that document, which had been available for public viewing, is no longer. Last evening the Radio-Canada investigative journalism program Enquêtes probed cop violence and other aspects of the G20. It made a case for the argument that activists from Québec were strategically targeted for pre-emptive and particularly brutal apprehension. This is an adaption of the joint news documentary it produced with CBC's Fifth Estate. In other news related to the G20, the tabling of Auditor General Sheila Fraser's forensic scrutiny of its MASSIVE costs is delayed until Parliament resumes. No chance that information can be publicly disclosed during the election since the document is under lock and key. That blast of expelled fetid air you just heard is a sigh of relief from Contempt leader Harper and his ex-PMO politburo.

Who ya gonna believe?

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is having a bunfest in Edmonton and oh, looky here. They're honouring the guy who got axed sent on a language course because he strongly supports the long-gun registry.

As the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Conference convened in Edmonton on Sunday evening, an absent RCMP Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak was honoured for his work as the director general of the Canadian Firearms Program.

Toronto police chief William Blair, the association president, presented the award in absentia to Cheliak, who is on leave from the national police force.

"He made the program work and I cannot overstate the enormity of his contribution to helping all of us in law enforcement and all Canadians understand better the value of that information," Blair said during the presentation.

The award follows Cheliak's removal as head of the program by RCMP Commissioner William Elliott.

Cheliak originally was supposed to present a report on a national firearms strategy at the conference, but was told by the RCMP that he would no longer be attending.

Yeeheehee. And no, of course Cheliak's removal was not, no-way, no-how political. He just developed an urgent need for a brush-up on his irregular French verbs.

Here's a link again to the excellent website Truths and Myths, set up by a by bunch of supporters of the registry, including cops, medical professionals, mental health activists, and the YWCA. More truthy-facty stuff can be found here and here. You know, for those times you're arguing with the shrieeekers at places like this for whom the debate is over once they've sneered: 'Oh yeah? Well, how many criminals are going to register their guns? Hmmmm?'

Another of their talking points is the MASSIVE poll done by a cop magazine. Now that we've all had the crash course on voluntary, self-selected truthy-facts versus the more rigorous kind of sampling a properly done census produces, let's see if we can see what's wrong with this:

Kuntz, a 22-year EPS [Edmonton Police Service] veteran, says 2,410 of the 2,631 officers from across the country he surveyed in Blue Line magazine since last spring believe “inaccurate” data from the registry is affecting police safety in every province and territory.

Officers 'believe' the data is 'inaccurate'. Oh. Well, then. Kinda like Shelley Glover, also an officer, believes that crime is rising despite what StatsCan says. And like this guy, who believes that nasty soap bubbles amount to assault.