Rabble.ca’s Krystalline Kraus (on the Left)
On the surface, Rabble.ca looks like it could be a respectable publication. They have high-profile writers like Amy Goodman, Jim Stanford and Judy Rebick. They are funded by unions including the Canadian Auto Workers, CUPE, OPSEU and the BCGEU. Considering this, why do they give so much space to people promoting incarcerated violent criminals?
Take, for example, Krystalline Kraus’ article published yesterday- Support G20 Arrestee Kelly Pflug-Back. First, Pflug-Back is not an arrestee- she is a convicted, incarcerated, criminal who committed terrorism against the people of Toronto. Kraus’ article in Rabble refers to her as “”our friend Kelly Rose Pflug-Back”, and labels her as a “political prisoner”. The only problem is that she is anything but.
Kelly Pflug-Back Smashing A Police Car during the G20 riots…
Pflug-Back hasn’t been incarcerated for her politics- it was because of her vandalism. She smashed-up a police car and broke windows of stores where horrified Torontonians were left inside scared for their lives. For Kraus, and Rabble, to refer to this as politics is an insult to all Canadians.
In June, Kraus wrote another article in Rabble titled Alex Hundert – in jail but not forgotten. Hundert is the leader of AW@L, one of Canada’s most violent anarchist organizations. He was arrested just before the shameful events of the G20 for being a ringleader in orchestrating the violence that week. Hundert provided anarchists with lists of stores and other places to attack- he coached them on how to ‘de-arrest’ fellow criminals.
Kraus’ response to his sentencing was to say “At the next pow-wow, I will dance the intertribal in honour of Alex Hundert.” Do Rabble’s supporting unions know they are paying for this glorification of violence to be published?
In January, Kraus published a story titled The legendary Mandy Hiscocks. Hiscocks is another incarcerated criminal who plead guilty for Encouraging Mischief and Counselling People to Obstruct A Police Officer. As with other cases, Kraus tries to cover-up the fact that Hiscocks is a common criminal by talking about how she’s a social justice advocate, and how she will be “organizing on the inside”.
Rabble likes to spend a lot of time telling the world that Canada is an oppressive country that lacks fundamental freedoms. They really are clueless what oppression really is. In most oppressive countries they would not be allowed to publish articles that glorify criminals- if she were in a country like Turkmenistan and published articles like this, Kraus would have already found herself beaten, tortured and incarcerated.
Instead, she is free on the streets, publishing nonsense that tries to glorify people who have reigned terror on Canadian streets. Once more, do the unions know that they are paying for this to happen? And, if so, does this not make them accessories to these crimes?
What a sad state of affairs…
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The real feat of accomplishment here is that Kraus calls herself a reporter yet asks people to use small, teeny weeny words because she can’t understand them. This goes in line with the people she hangs with, also of miniscule intelligence . ( and being po9lite by giving these idiots even THAT much of an intelligence level ) These people she so faithfully follows and worships are nothing but simple criminals, nothing more, Ya, that pflug-Back person seems to think she is jesus, the others seem to think they are political prisoners , well, they have the prisoner part right .
Author
Once again, I agree with you entirely…
I think we’re losing fundamental freedoms… and there are aspects of oppression happening here in Canada. We’re not as bad off as many other countries, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to stop the wrongs happening here. The problem with letting the little wrongs happen without consequences is that they pile up, get bigger, until we may end up with very big problems. That is why we need to keep aware of them, and try to stop them… ie corruption in business, politics, etc. The more we let people get away with doing bad things the more they will do.
As for the anarchists, I understand their frustration… Those who are not doing it for kicks or power.. Those that believe in revolution through violence and can cite credible corruptions and what harm that corruption has done to people… I do believe there are probably many anarchists that are as other concerned people are… angry, frustrated and wanting to stop the corruption… they are taking a violent path while many other people are not and that is where the problem lies. Sometimes when I hear about the injustices going on in the world and even here in Canada, I want to break something too but I don’t… I wish I knew what to do to deal with the issues of corruption in government, business, our economy, our society, etc..
I personally do not know what to do to solve these problems. I know others in the general public who feel frustrated, helpless and some have just given up. Violence may not be the answer but the question is what IS the answer? It is so easy to say do something but there is a sense of hopelessness and uncertainty. Occupy was supposed to be the general public getting together and figuring out what to do, but out of the 2 million people in Toronto only maybe 50 camped? Maybe more or less, I’m not sure of the numbers… and then the numbers of people that marched and protested, thousands? Where the heck was the rest of Toronto? There are 2 million people in this city!! I know people that didn’t go to Occupy Toronto that feel frustrated and hopeless… We’re not the only ones.. And now the Toronto movement seems to be mostly left and black bloc… It was supposed to be EVERYBODY!! The black bloc seems to be a mishmash… some using it to try to help Occupy (they really believe they are helping, whether they are or not) and some using it to hinder Occupy… It looks like black bloc really IS just a tactic… those going under it’s banner would do well to remember the police use it to go against them, as does CIA, CSIS, FBI, etc… Very big mess!!
There are many reasons people didn’t show up, I know, like having too much going on with family or work etc which is more understandable… but it is still very frustrating!! Some people didn’t show up because they just read it in the news… big mistake!! The news didn’t report everything. Some just assumed we were lazy bums and didn’t even bother looking beyond their assumptions… very shameful and a source of continual frustration considering some of the people they were yelling “get a job” at were volunteering or taking time off work to attend… and some of us that are unemployed DID really care about trying to help society. Hey, if the employed don’t have the time, don’t knock the unemployed that take the time to do something important you don’t have the time to do!
By the way, for the “get a job” crowd: I read a news article that stated Statistics Canada said there was 1 job available for every 3.3 unemployed people so telling us to go “get a job” only works for 1/3 of the people that don’t have jobs… so what are the other 2.3 people supposed to do? Get a job that isn’t available? Geez…
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/120124/dq120124b-eng.htm
There you go… Yelling “get a job” DOESN’T HELP under these conditions!! There aren’t enough jobs! Actually, this should raise red flags… we are in alot of trouble if this statistic is true! We need more jobs… I think more small businesses would help. Maybe start our own car company since the other companies are leaving Canada, we should just make our own… we’ve got lots of laid off auto workers so it’s not like we don’t have skilled workers to do it… Just an idea.
I wonder how many just stopped looking for work… Doing lamp work in a studio, I always had time to be at occupy, I fucking hated those get a job comments… so discouraging :(
It is somewhat frustrating when Rabble writes these articles. Still though, their credibility is about the same as some neo-Nazi publications. What is frustrating is when the Toronto Star and CBC news publish similar articles. The Star, and other Torstar newspapers, have gone out of their way to write articles designed to solicit public sympathy. Let’s look at the actual facts though.
These were not the noble, non-violent, protesters who were there to make the world aware of their noble cause. These were the violent, destructive protesters who distracted the media from the majority who were there to protest peacefully. And there goes the Star, continuing to focus on the violent minority. Even going as far as to try and turn them into heros.
This praise is insulting to actual political prisoners. People like Aung San Suu Kyi, Ninoy Aquino, Nelson Mandela. People who were actually arrested and imprisoned (or in the case of Aquino, murdered) for their political beleifs. These are people who are admired by billions world wide and worshiped in their respective countries as true heroes. While people like Alex Hundert, “Our friend” Kelly Rose or the “Legondary” Mandy Hiscocks are only admired by a tiny group who share their narrow-minded political views.
We could actually be forgiven for thinking the actual “Government agents” or “Big business schills” are in fact Hiscocks, Hundert, Pflug-Back and their syncophants at Rabble. For it is these people which the media and public has chosen to focus on rather than the causes brought by the majority of protesters. And the views of this violent minority are so extreme and narrow that they will never appeal to a significant portion of the population.
It is similar to the reverse theory on 9/11 conspiricy nuts. That the US government and Bush administration was behind the conspiricy theories in order to make their opponants look nuts.
Author
I agree with you about the MSM’s coverage of these people. I was simply astounded to see some of it- the Toronto Star’s coverage in particular. How can a newspaper betray the people of Toronto this way? Shameful…