Seen at the bottom of Sue-Ann Levy’s latest: I posed a question while on a media panel at the last mayoral debate which stated Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has of late spent considerable money on lawsuits trying to muzzle members of the Police Services Board. This was incorrect and
Continue readingTag: chief bill blair
Politics and its Discontents: The Toronto Police Are At It Again
This is what happens when you have a ‘blue wall’ culture, facilitated by a police chief who often seems more politician than top cop. Sure, it is unfair and inaccurate to portray all police as abusers of their authority, but when it happens again and again, with little consequence, people
Continue readingRedBedHead: Ford Saga: Left Gives Cover To Right Wing Palace Coup
Cuts, what cuts? It’s all about bad behaviour photo credit: @HeartsOnTheLeft Not one word about cuts. Not one word about privatizing garbage collection. Nothing about his refusal to ever attend a single Gay Pride Parade. Zilch about his actual politics. No, everything is focused on his drinking, his drug use and
Continue readingRedBedHead: Ford Saga: Left Gives Cover To Right Wing Palace Coup
Cuts, what cuts? It’s all about bad behaviour
photo credit: @HeartsOnTheLeft
Not one word about cuts. Not one word about privatizing garbage collection. Nothing about his refusal to ever attend a single Gay Pride Parade. Zilch about his actual politics. No, everything is focused on his drinking, his drug use and his public displays of such activities. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice: he’s
Continue readingRedBedHead: Ford Saga: Left Gives Cover To Right Wing Palace Coup
Cuts, what cuts? It’s all about bad behaviour photo credit: @HeartsOnTheLeft Not one word about cuts. Not one word about privatizing garbage collection. Nothing about his refusal to ever attend a single Gay Pride Parade. Zilch about his actual politics. No, everything is focused on his drinking, his drug use and
Continue readingRedBedHead: Three Reasons Why Ford Should Stay
Everyone’s clamouring for Ford to resign: he lied, he smoked crack, he was wasted on the job, the city needs a competent administration. Balls, I say. I’ve seen competent administrations and I can say for certain in the present climate that a “competent administration” will focus its attention on further
Continue readingRedBedHead: Three Reasons Why Ford Should Stay
Everyone’s clamouring for Ford to resign: he lied, he smoked crack, he was wasted on the job, the city needs a competent administration. Balls, I say. I’ve seen competent administrations and I can say for certain in the present climate that a “competent administration” will focus its attention on further austerity and attacking those who resist austerity. Need I remind that the entire left wing
Continue readingRedBedHead: Three Reasons Why Ford Should Stay
Everyone’s clamouring for Ford to resign: he lied, he smoked crack, he was wasted on the job, the city needs a competent administration. Balls, I say. I’ve seen competent administrations and I can say for certain in the present climate that a “competent administration” will focus its attention on further
Continue readingRedBedHead: The Fall Of The House Of Ford
Taking a moment to pray for peace You gotta admit that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Rob Ford is a bully and a hypocrite – quick to condemn the perceived weakness of others, to pounce on the supposed privileges of unionized workers or the effete absurdity of riding
Continue readingRedBedHead: The Fall Of The House Of Ford
Taking a moment to pray for peace You gotta admit that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Rob Ford is a bully and a hypocrite – quick to condemn the perceived weakness of others, to pounce on the supposed privileges of unionized workers or the effete absurdity of riding
Continue readingRedBedHead: The Fall Of The House Of Ford
Taking a moment to pray for peace
You gotta admit that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Rob Ford is a bully and a hypocrite – quick to condemn the perceived weakness of others, to pounce on the supposed privileges of unionized workers or the effet…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Senior Toronto Officers Facing Charges
The Star reports the following: About five high-ranking Toronto police officers were informed last week they will face misconduct charges for their actions during the G20 summit, the Star has learned. The CBC is reporting 28 front line officers have been charged with misconduct — including unlawful arrest and excessive
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Accentuating The Positive
Perhaps he is a student of Norman Vincent Peale. Perhaps he believes that when you are handed lemons, you make lemonade. Perhaps he prefers to see the glass as half-full, not half-empty. Or perhaps he is just a politician intent on covering his professional rear end. Whatever he is, Toronto
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Little More G20 Justice
In one of the more despicable acts of police brutality during the G20 Summit in Toronto in June of 2010, a paraplegic man, Gabriel Jacobs, was “dragged” from his motorized wheelchair, thrown into the back of a police cruiser and left on the floor of a temporary G20 detention centre
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Self-Serving Rhetoric From The Toronto Police
As one who strives to be a critical thinker, I am loathe to make absolutist or ill-informed statements and assertions, even as I admit to frequently falling short of the mark. Nonetheless, after the debacle of the G20 Summit of June 2010 held in Toronto, I find myself frequently dubious
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On Toronto G20 Incarceration Conditions
As human beings, there is really no way that we can dispute our deeply-flawed natures. Overlooking the terrible depths to which we can sink, the unspeakable cruelties each of us is capable of, and seeking to justify or rationalize away those shortcomi…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Toronto G20 and the Vindication of Michael Puddy
Kafkaesque is a term loosely and regularly bandied about, usually denoting a process whereby an innocent person is subjected to unfathomable persecution/arrest. It seems an apt word to describe what Michael Puddy endured in Toronto during the G20 prot…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chief Bill Blair’s Gambit
It is difficult to know exactly what the repercussions will be for Chief Bill Blair, who attempted to go over the heads of his civilian overseers, the Toronto Police Services Board, and appeal directly to Mayor Rob/Doug Ford in trying to stop the manda…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: When Police Chiefs Go Rogue
In a frightening, bald, and very public display of how much of a politician he has become, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has announced that he is no longer taking direction from the Police Services Board, as required by law, but is instead trying to …
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