genuinewitty.com – Page 39 – Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger

Jan 16

Violent Anarchist Arrested At Ryerson University Stakeout! (feat. Alex “Flagpole” Balch)

By grenouf in Black Bloc, Deep Green Resistance, Toronto Police Department, Violence

Anarchist Alex Balch being led into a police cruiser at Ryerson university…

I walked into the Ryerson University Student Union building this afternoon and was welcomed with a shocking surprise. I was only half-way through the front door when I recognized someone who I’ve been looking for since we last met. His name is Alex Balch, and he’s the anarchist who came charging after me and attacked me with a Black Bloc flagpole back in June.

It was at that moment I realized I needed to hide myself from him. I slipped the hood of my raincoat over my head, dashed into the coffee shop, and quickly back outside to where I could see him from the front window. It was an exhilarating adventure- would I be able to get the police there in time to catch him, would he see me and run away?

Alex Balch, Anarchists, Anarchy, Arrested, Flagpole Alex, G20, Iconoclast Media, Jesus, Judy Rebick, Kelly Pflug-Back, NDP, Politics, Ryerson University, Toronto Police Service, violence
22 Comments

Jan 15

Are Ontario’s Court And Police Hurdles Providing A Tactical Advantage For #IdleNoMore?

By grenouf in Idle No More

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty- Smiling like the weasel who caught the canary…

One of the most fascinating parts of attending a ‘militant’ demonstration is watching the interaction between the militants and the police. This varies a lot by country- generally, the more repressive the nation, the more repressive are the police and the more responsive are the protesters. I’ve watched police officers pulverize protesters in Russia, and listened to sound of a cop firing machine gun rounds into the air in post-Soviet Georgia. In Canada, things are a little bit different.

A video was released by the Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police today. It was officially labelled as an “Internal Message” about Idle No More, but was released for global public consumption on YouTube. Commissioner Chris Lewis’ message is a familiar one:

Anarchists, blockades, Caledonia, Canada, CN Rail, daulton mcguinty, First Nations, idle no more, Indigenous, land claims, Native, Ontario, rail, Railroads, Sarnia
3 Comments

Jan 09

[Update 3] Linda Solomon’s Faux Pulitzer “Nomination” (Or, Look What TIDES Canada Brought In…)

By grenouf in Cortes Island, FAIL, Linda Solomon, National Post, Sandy Garossino, Thomas Mulcair, TIDES Canada, TIDES Foundation, Vancouver, Vancouver Observer

False advertising…

Update 3: The Observer has now re-posted Solomon’s book on their website– only, they have cropped the image of the book cover to hide the fact she claims to be Pulitzer nominated. They’ve also added a disclaimer about the book saying “Out of print since 2010”. And, still, no public apologies have been issued for the misrepresentation.

Update 2: A reader messaged me today and shared an interesting link including Solomon’s bio on TheCouch.com from 2006. What’s interesting about this link is how it mentions she worked at the Tennesseean, but makes no mention of her being nominated for a Pulitzer. So, this doesn’t appear to be a case of her making an innocent mistake for 30 years- mentions of her Pulitzer nomination all seem to be very recent. And, as I mentioned on the last update, The Observer took-down the link to her book posted in this article- but, there’s still another link remaining.

Update: Linda Solomon has yet to have given any response to this article- but, the Vancouver Observer have removed her book that was listed for sale on their site..

Jan 06

Attawapiskat’s Problematic Investment Portfolio- And how it conflicts with #IdleNoMore’s values…

By grenouf in Idle No More

Welcome to Attawapiskat…

There’s been a lot of discussion this week about Attawapiskat’s investment portfolio. Investments are made in the name of the Attawapiskat Trust- a fund that was setup in 2007 to receive payments from De Beer’s for income from the Victor Diamond Mine. The trust’s documentation is available for download from Attawapiskat website, it’s an interesting read.

There’s been a lot of focus on the amount of money in the trust (almost $9 million in 2011), and on the curiously named $199,826 ‘Elder Recognition Benefit’ disbursement. What’s not been discussed so much are the investments they’ve made- and that’s surprising, because it’s a rather curious mix that conflicts with the principles of Idle No More…

Jan 04

[Updated] An Open Letter About Bullying To Sandy Garossino

By grenouf in Sandy Garossino

Update: Sandy Garossino sent out the above tweet this morning. It’s about a radio host potentially losing his job as a result of asking British Columbia’s premier if she’s a ‘MILF’. The few people I’ve shared this with all believe this is rather hypocritical of Sandy considering she’s been continually bashing me ever since I wrote this letter to her.

Sandy, why hasn’t my apology ‘done the trick’ for you? Could this be because you’re trying to deflect from your bad behaviour that prompted me to write about you? If you believe you are worthy of political power in this country, you can’t behave this way. I’d like an apology please- and I know at least a few others who are also waiting…

____________________________________________________

Sandy,

First, my apologies for my poor use of metaphor when describing your relationship with Warren Buffett and TIDES Canada. It was a failed attempt to write satire, and a lesson learned. I will do my best to avoid expressions like that in the future.

The point I was trying to make was that you’ve spent a lot of time promoting American foundations and billionaires lately. More accurately, it appears to many people that you’ve engaged in a campaign of bullying attacks on people who criticise them. Having been the victim of group bullying- I find this very disturbing.

Jan 03

#IdleNoMore: The Occupy Anarchists Behind The Scene At The Sarnia Rail Blockade

By grenouf in Black Bloc, Idle No More, Occupy Toronto

The public face of the Sarnia blockade…

One of the more controversial demonstrations that’s come out of the Idle No More (INM) movement is the Aamjiwnaang rail blockade. It began on December 24th when a group of people setup a camp on the middle of a rail track in Sarnia, Ontario. And, despite that Chief Theresa Spence and INM have called for only ‘peaceful acts’, the blockade continues to this day.

The picture up above was taken at the Sarnia blockade- a group of native people supporting the fight against ‘the Harper government’. On the surface, it looks like a typical INM protest- only, these people have decided to block a railroad instead of a city intersection. What’s more interesting than the picture is what’s missing from it. Equally, there’s a lot more to the story than a simple blockade against CN Rail…

Jan 01

A Video Of Today’s #IdleNoMore Rally In Toronto’s Dundas Square

By grenouf in Idle No More

Dec 23

Roma Refugees: How Canadian Taxpayers Are Subsidizing The European Union (feat. Cheri DiNovo & Nahlah Ayed)

By grenouf in Immigration, NDP, Politics

Cheri DiNovo- Funding the EU welfare state with Canadian dollars…

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Toronto was how often I heard people speaking Hungarian. There’s hardly been a day I’ve not heard them- at a store, on the bus, or someone talking on a cell phone. My Hungarian is getting a bit rusty after so many years so I sometimes eavesdrop- it’s a great way to get some practice and reminisce of the great years I spent living in Hungary.

My jaw dropped to the ground when I first heard that most of these Hungarians were Roma people who arrived as refugees. “What happened” I thought, “Has there been some war or revolution someone forgot to tell me about?

So I checked the news and started to put the pieces together. People on the left claim that Hungary is a predominantly racist country and there’s nowhere safe for Roma people to live there. Right-leaning Canadians are saying that the Roma are only coming to Canada for the money. Both sides are as equally right as they are wrong- and both are missing a very important fact…

Dec 19

UofT Hate Party: The Socialist Party Of Ontario Waffles On Free Speech Rights (feat. Michael Laxer)

By grenouf in Black Bloc, Communist Party of Canada, Council of Canadians, FAIL, International Socialists, Kevin Annett, Marxism, NDP, Politics, Rabble.ca, Toronto, Toronto G20, Westboro Baptist Church

Michael Laxer: A Guy Who Protects Censorship...

Michael Laxer: Red Diaper Poster Boy For The Old-Left…

In April that I wrote a story about a radical fringe group of Canada’s New Democratic Party called the Waffle. They were an obedience cult who enforced their members to keep the party line through a deeply invasive and humiliating set of tactics including whispering campaigns and group bullying. The Waffle were so entirely off-the-wall that it didn’t take long for them to be ejected from the NDP.

Some former Waffleites came together and created the International Socialist Organization (ISO)- a Marxist / Trotskyite (pro-violence) obedience cult who publish the Socialist Worker. There are a lot of recognizable names connected to the IS: York University Professor David McNally, Con-Artist Kevin Annett (one of the original members), and the Council of Canadians.

Dec 17

McMaster Student Union Newspaper Cheapens The Fight Against Police Brutality! (Sexism too!)

By grenouf in Student Unions

Journalism’s not so great at McMaster…

I’ve been meeting with some people and doing some research on a protest against Niagra Fall’s Marineland back in October. A lot of people are unhappy with Marineland- for a number of good reasons. Unlike the US and other countries Canada doesn’t have legislation for keeping large marine animals like whales and dolphins. Many countries have banned their captivity altogether. A growing number of Canadians agree they should be banned here- I’m one of them.

I’ll write more about that over the next couple of weeks. But, I have a primer for you today- a story of a McMaster student who was arrested at the Marineland protest and made a claim of police brutality. Her name is Chantal Godin (formerly of Occupy McMaster), she’s no stranger to the anarchist world. And, as expected, this story has a lot in-common with the Sasha Wiley-Shaw incident at the Vancouver Casseroles marches. It also has something in-common with the recent anti free-speech event at the University of Toronto– people were belligerent with the police, and another cause for social justice has been cheapened and damaged.

Welcome to another tale of the logic of the Old-Left…