Compare and contrast

As fern hill pointed out here and also here, Jason "Vatican Taliban" Kenney's self-righteous little shrieeek about the niqab was an opportunity to attack the Charter of Rights. It was as well a dog-god-whistle to their reformaTory islamophobic base supporters as well as a CPC-engineered media diversion away from *Airshow* MacKay.

Funny, isn't it? Especially when you consider who are those who completely cover their faces - and routinely remove their badges - in the exercice of their roles during *Security Theatre* multi-million dollars performances.

It's why we call Contempt Party members Con Jobs.

Addendum: Read Tabatha Southey's thoughtful piece about women's right to choose how to clothe oneself and what those choices communicate.

MASSIVE bomb ... err, ... plot .... hmm, ... something or other uncovered by RCMP

News item:

Two men arrested in Wednesday's anti-terrorism raids in Ottawa [...] appeared in court Thursday to face terrorism charges in an alleged bomb plot linked to al-Qaida.

Alizadeh has been charged with conspiracy to facilitate terrorism, possession of explosives and committing an offence for a terrorism group. Ahmed faces a single conspiracy charge of facilitating a terrorist offence. [...]

A third suspect was arrested Thursday morning, according to a report on the Toronto Star's website. The newspaper identified the third suspect as Khuram Sher of Montreal and said the Pakistan-born man once tried out for the Canadian Idol TV show.

The RCMP say that they had to arrest the suspects at this time because one of them had made plans to travel outside Canada.

How odd. The long arm of Stevie Spiteful's merry band of thugs and bullies has always been able to reach outside the country.

More timely and opportunistic security theatre tactics to divert Canadians' attention away from this?

An RCMP evaluation report of Canada’s long-gun registry concludes that the program is cost effective, efficient and an important tool for law enforcement, CBC News has learned. [...]

The full report contains over 40 pages of analysis of the effectiveness of the firearms registry, in both urban and rural areas.

Eh. The Cons' chickenshit lying lies have hit the fan, once again.

"Security" is more sexy than safety.

The 1.75 million dollars increase to the PMO operating budget was defended by

a spokesperson for the Prime Minister [who] said he believed the costs were essential.

There is more pressure in a 24-hour news cycle for ministers, MPs and the government to respond, said Andrew MacDougall, [...] “We’ve made the conscious effort to really step up our efforts and frankly, in contrast with past communications shops, to be out there more and be more helpful,” he said.

When I heard about this in the wee hours of the morning on Radio-Canada, I had a vision of a cellar room in the Langevin Building, filled with flunkies graduates from the Laurentian Leadership Centre spinning away furiously on stationary bikes, with Stevie Grudgiepants shouting at them: "Pedal faster! Our story has to top the next news cycle."


It turns out that no matter what one imagines the next outrageous Con fabrication to be, the actual news manipulation will surpass all expectations.


The airport "security crisis", precipitated by an amateur YouTube purportedly showing two veiled women passing through an Air Canada boarding gate without being forced to show their faces, is now the top story.


Though not the allegation Transport Canada is short-staffed by 98 aviation safety inspectors, which could explain why the ministry shifted the focus by claiming Aéropro disregarded maintenance regulations.


You can bet if a plane full of passengers crashes in Alberta that Harper's PMO will spin the story to blame the Opposition. Or unions. Or veiled muslim women.

Agents Provocateurs, 3

Anybody got a photo of an undamaged 3-digit Toronto cop car?

Are they working some kinda insurance scam? Just askin'.

From here.

I am Spartacus!

I'm (somewhat) Italian. I'm of a certain age. Ergo, I wear black.

But wearing black is a provocative act in today's Toronto.

Via Stageleft, we learn that even the neo-cons get hassled when wearing black. (And they don't like it. Hee.)

So. I propose that tomorrow be Men and Women and Children in Black Day. Everybody wear black. Even if you're not in Toronto.

I am Blackacus!

Police arrest Red Green - what's next?

Alison at Creekside (crossposted at Dr Dawg's) writes about the G-20 security theatre that played out yesterday.

The faceless members of the Integrated Security Unit quickly faded back into the shadows, satisfied that the arrest of some sad schmuck and his little dog will have fed the media hunger for gripping Law & Order drama. (Those free cocktails provided around Lake Con-Begone will slake their thirst.)

Up next. It appears that Governor Premier McGuinty and his star chamber passed a secret regulation that gives the Toronto police some very interesting powers. Like deadly virus swapping bits of DNA that render them resistant to antibiotics, the municipal police are being coached by the RCMP in the fine art of abusing civilians.

It seems inevitable that the police will arrest the families participating in the CLC demonstration under the pretext that adults are using their children as human shields.

After that, it's just a short retroactively-legislated hop to declaring them unfit parents and placing the kids in evangelical christians' homes for the purpose of re-education.

Update: Good news - again, from Alison at Creekside, we learn that one RCMP officer was removed from a Ryerson building at the request of lawful campus members.