Apr 11
Every year, right around springtime, Barrick Gold holds its Annual General Meeting at the Metro Convention Centre in downtown Toronto. With this event comes the inevitable confrontation; Barrick has been targeted by professional protesters for years. The protests are rarely peaceful, and involve protesters forcefully stopping traffic, pushing into police lines, making false accusations of …
Jun 15
One of the commonalities I’ve observed in Canada’s socialist activist communities is that very little is as it looks on the surface- there’s almost always a hidden agenda. A great example of this was when 100’s of members of the Toronto activist community joined in to support 22 striking Porter Airlines refuellers. At first glance …
Feb 06
One of the most dishonourable people I’ve met through the Occupy movement (right up there with Dave Vasey, Sakura Saunders and Maggie Helwig) was an American who lives in Toronto named Doug Johnson Hatlem. If you were reading this site back in March you’ll remember him as the ‘street preacher’ who made-up a story that he had a …
Nov 19
Update: I originally described Richard Klagsbrun as a conservative- he has corrected me that his views are more centrist/libertarian- I can see that, he’s a very reasonable person… ——————- I was walking through the crowd at last night’s anti Jewish National Fund rally (as an observer) quietly filming the crowd when I heard someone behind …
Nov 19
One of the more interesting parts of reporting on what’s happening in the protester world has been observing how the police have reacted to the protesters. It’s always a bit of a delicate balance- some cops have been highly professional, some not, and a couple escalated situations to the point here there was severe violence. With …