Desmond Cole: Habitual liar…
Desmond Cole has a truthiness problem. The first time I realised this was in January. He used boldfaced lies back then to attack the Toronto Police Service’s decision to order security fences to protect their headquarters. Desmond claimed that previous protests about the Sammy Yatim shooting were entirely peaceful. They weren’t. Protesters rushed two of cop stations, “de-arrested” a well-known criminalised protester, and tried to break through police lines.
Less than a week later Cole published an article in the Toronto Star with one big lie and several dirty tricks about the Gregory Alan Elliott trial. The issue was brought to the attention of the judge who ruled on the trial after Elliott’s defence lawyer specifically called out Cole’s bullshit. The Star, showing zero remorse, made no attempt to apologise and continued Cole’s pattern of dirty tricks.
Cole has since become an unofficial spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Toronto- perhaps the most racist group of Social Justice Warriors in all of Toronto. Whenever BLMTO causes controversy Desmond is one of the first people speaking on behalf to the media. The pattern repeated itself yesterday after BLMTO’s controversial protest where they blocked Sunday’s Pride parade- Cole was all over the media, continuing his unfortunate habit of telling boldfaced lies.
Most of the upset over BLMTO’s Pride protest came out of their demand that police officers should be banned from future Pride events. It wasn’t unexpected, BLMTO and the people who organised the violence at the 2010 G20 working behind the scenes are pretty much all about hating the police. That said, a good chunk of the city was offended by their demands- they were particularly offensive to GLBT police officers, many who worked hard to make sure that this year’s Pride was a success.
Desmond was all over the media yesterday where he repeated a lie he’s told in the past. He claimed that, out of nowhere, the police “assaulted” BLMTO protesters on the first day they occupied police headquarters back in April. But there was something important that Desmond left out of his well-rehearsed speech- there was a good reason that the police were forced to take action.
BLMTO pulled an old trick on that first day, one that the organisers working in the background were very much aware would cause conflict with the police. They brought in an old steel barrel and set a fire right in the middle of the courtyard at police HQ. It was a dangerous act, the fire was lit right in the middle of a highly populated part of downtown. It was also guaranteed to get the police to respond as they have to other fires at similar protests over the past few years.
The cops gave BLMTO plenty of notice that they’d have to extinguish the fire. When the final moment came the protesters ignored the cops and got ready for a fight. The cops did their best to brush people to the side while the protesters “resisted”, and at least one went as far to physically assault the cops. Making things worse, they used children as human shields in an attempt to dissuade the cops from doing their jobs.
Cole, of course, acted like none of this ever happened. He instead directly lied to the people of Toronto and claimed that the police used “brutality” and “assaulted” the innocent protesters. The video tells a very different story of course- and, sadly, the media neglected to challenge him on his boldfaced lies.
You can find a full version of Desmond’s interview here– both he and CP24 should be ashamed of themselves…
1 comment
Demon Cole does not speak for the African Canadians in Toronto. He is part of a fringe group that is trying to make a name for themselves. In their defence, some members of the police department created the need for their involvement. I, like many members of the general public, was shocked to see Sammy Yatim publicly excused by a member of Toronto’s finest….shot over half a dozen times then tasered. A friend of mine who is a retired cop mentioned that many of the young officers today don’t like listening to sound advice. They have a shield and a gun and think that those two things will protect them. Unfortunately reality is something else. I believe that many of them need to be retrained how to deal with the public and especially in such confrontational situations.