Author's posts
Sep 29
Toronto Lawmaker Hires G20 Lawbreaker Who Rejects The Legal System (Feat. Shelley Carroll)
On March 21, 2010, a group of city councillors gathered for an in-camera meeting to discuss the city’s plan to build a temporary police holding facility during the G20. City councillors Shelley Carroll and Adam Vaughan were reported as deciding that a single location would be a better solution. Vaughan was influenced by conversations with …
Sep 27
Radical Mennonite Anti-Cop Troll Gets Pwnd By @TorontoPolice (Feat. Doug Hatlem-Johnson)
On March 23, 2012 I had the unique opportunity to have coffee with one of Toronto’s biggest trolls. I was new in town and Doug Hatlem-Johnson invited me for a friendly conversation. He seemed nice enough, the Toronto Star promoted him as a Mennonite street preacher and hero to the homeless, and he’s an American …
Sep 23
Misleading Reports On Government Protest Tracking Are Dangerous (Feat. @TorontoStar, @CBCNews)
If you’ve been following the news the past couple of days, and travel in or keenly observe social justice circles, it’s likely you’ve seen the Toronto Star’s story about federal government tracking of protest movements. The headline of the Toronto Star’s provocatively titled story Ottawa admits to tracking hundreds of protests suggests the possibility the government was previously lying …
Sep 18
CUPE Communications Staffer Spreads Malicious Libel (Feat. Kevin Wilson, Alex Hundert & Antonia Zerbisias)
I came across a seriously disturbing Facebook meme yesterday. Pictured above, a disturbed individual made a play on words with the Rob Ford campaign’s “Ford More Years” slogan- crossing out the word Ford, and replacing it to say “Tumor Years”. Most reasonable Canadians would find this message distasteful- people in our country have a reputation …
Sep 15
Redwashing Watermelons Earn Airmiles Marching For Transitional Demands At The People’s Climate March
New York City will be the host to the annual United Nations Climate Summit next week. As usual, whenever these meetings happen, Canada’s high-profile activists will contribute to the world’s carbon count by travelling to the host city, consuming more trees drawing-up their signs, and forcing the city’s drivers to idle their cars while protesters …
Sep 13
Breaking: Usual Suspects Lock Necks To Kinder Morgan Gate In Burnaby! (Feat. Gandhi)
In the continuing string of evidence that anti-pipeline protests are mostly led by the same, small, cadre- a group of the usual suspects gathered at Burnaby Mountain this morning to protest the Trans Mountain pipeline. Showing an utter lack of creativity, the protesters used the tired old tactic of locking their necks to the front gate of …
Sep 10
Unifor Comms Staffer Appropriates My Voice For The Olivia Chow Campaign! (Feat. John Tory)
If you’ve been following this site for long you’re probably familiar with my work examining how unions, NGOs and activists all too often appropriate marginalized people’s voices. My first awareness of this phenomenon came during Occupy Vancouver when activists from No One Is Illegal inserted homeless indigenous men into the camp, labelled them as “elders”, …
Sep 08
[Updated] Will Mia Nissen’s “Spotted Owl” Slow Burnaby Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion To A To Snail’s Pace?
Update: The Oregon Aquarium says that the Pacific Sideband snail is “considered common”, not endangered. In our last posting we covered how protesters against the expansion of Burnaby’s Trans Mountain pipeline attacked “the man” by yelling insults and expletives at the working man. Meanwhile, the Pulitzer worthy (well, more worthy than Linda Solomon at the …
Sep 04
Burnaby Pipeline Protesters Go After “The Man” By Attacking The Working Man (Feat. Mia “Gandhi” Nissen)
Mia Nissen is a clear case of what happens when an activist goes off the rails. Her first 15 minutes of fame came in January when the (dodgy) Vancouver Observer quoted Nissen comparing herself to Gandhi at the start of a “hunger strike” (7 days of fasting). Nissen locked her neck to the gate at …
Aug 15
Chevron To Take Vancouver Protesters To Court (Feat. Dan Wallace & Mia “Gandhi” Nissen)
Back in May, a group of three protesters locked their necks to the front gate of a Chevron facility in Burnaby, BC. They were a ragtag trio, Dan Wallace was filmed a few weeks earlier promoting violence at a May Day Rally, Mia Nissen compared herself to Gandhi in an article in the Vancouver Observer, …