Tale of Two Summits by Roy MacGregor, Globe and Mail

The best thing that ever happened to Huntsville was the G20 Summit.

Did you know that Tony Clement is the MP for the region including Huntsville?

Did you know that the Parry Sound (now Parry Sound-Muskoka) has flipped back and forth between the Liberals and the Conservatives before Clement won the riding by LESS THAN 100 VOTES in 2006, and by over 11,000 votes in 2008. Reference here. Yeah it’s wiki. The Harper minority governmentS sure have been good for Clement’s career.

MacGregor goes on to describe:

While they marched in the hundreds in Toronto this weekend to demand a full inquiry into the police conduct during the G20 that saw shops vandalized, police cars burned and more than 900 people – not all of them protesters – arrested, in Huntsville they were sitting down with their weeklyForester to read an open letter from Colonel Wayne Eyre, commander of CFB Petawawa’s 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.

And if that wasn’t enough, they could go to the local radio station’s Web page and read similar words from outgoing Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino.

Wow. Talk about being blocked in by hegemony. When words of praise from the military, as well as the disgraced and scandal-ridden outgoing head of the OPP are words to be “proud” of, then we really are talking about two different worlds.

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“What I Learned from Preston Manning and William Shatner”

Given that I’m neither a father nor a son, my understanding of issues facing fathers is pretty miniscule.

But yesterday, Friday June 18, the Globe and Mail featured two articles, one written by Preston Manning, the other about William Shatner. As my more devoted readership would already know, reading the newspaper almost always enrages me, and no good can come of it, except maybe a new blog post.

1.

So, first, Preston Manning’s father-worship piece.

Deep cleansing breath.

I haven’t read such an emotional, yet fascinatingly cold-hearted suck up/ praise/ celebration of white ruling-class masculinity in a very long time. Certainly not something at least mediated by quotes and footnotes and a feminist/ anti-racist/ post-modern critique.

This undiluted stuff is pretty harsh, astringent. Like Old Spice mixed with Liquid Drano. Basically, a bio-hazard.

Preston mentions, rather off handedly, that he was one year old the year his father was first elected premier. What follows is a sad, disconnected piece praising his father’s political “achievements”, but demonstrating nothing about who his father was as a person, since of course, Preston doesn’t have any access to that information or experience. Nor did he care to, apparently.

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This post has been a long time coming. I’ve had to sub-section it, in order to parse out my rage. Let’s see how well I do.

1. The Cost: Over One Billion Dollars

Are you fucking kidding me?!?

If we needed proof that the Harper government’s priorities are completely fucked up (and to be clear, we do NOT need proof) this is it on a gold-plated fucking Muskoka chair (I’ll get to the fake lake in a moment).

No improvements to health care

No much-needed funding to public education

No national child care program

No national drug/medication program

No increase to the anti-violence against women sector

No national affordable housing plan

No college/university tuition freezes, or free tuition altogether

Noooooo! All those are…what? What are they? TOO EXPENSIVE?!?!?!

But over One Billion Dollars for a 3-day party for the world’s elite is SOOOO worth it. Why? Because it’s who Harper cares about, and who he’s always cared about. Could there be any better proof than this?

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Hey everyone.

I’d like to introduce a new guest blogger who will be blogging here in this space occasionally.

Slumberjack’s intro is:

a few words from the white dude corner….some white dude who believes that corporatism is the root of all that renders human beings into favoured and unfavoured categories, and purposefully set upon on one another through the processes of exploitation.

Welcome, Slumberjack!

So, G8/G20 leaders are coming to Toronto on June 25/26/27. And the area around the downtown is basically turned into a gated community, with three zones of influence. The “red zone” near the Metro Convention Centre will require a pass to get in and out of, and there will be checkpoint stations to ensure nobody gets in there who is not allowed.

The total cost of G8/G20 is topping ONE BILLION DOLLLARS.

There will be 10,000 security personnel in the city, taking up hotel rooms, etc, all of which adds to the gigantic tab (I’m still a bit unsure as to who is paying, except “taxpayers” in a general sense).

I of course don’t mind paying taxes, for health care, education, affordable housing, but magically, those things COST TO MUCH to build and maintain. They cost WAY TOO MUCH.

But a Billion dollars on security, accomodations, travel, and what-the-fuck-else, yeah, that gets approval.

There’s a deep dissonance to me about the way that security for a handful of the planet’s worst “elected” “leaders” is treated and the way the countries “led” by those “leaders” prioritize the needs of their more vulnerable and marginalized people. It’s beyond shame, it’s beyond ridiculous. It’s a farce of humanity.

And as a relatively rich Westerner, I’m ashamed. And I’ll be there, at the barricade, at the wall.

Some links:

Women, Children and the G20 Agenda

Resist Toronto G20 Summit

G8/G20 Toronto Community Mobilization

Krystalline Kraus blog from June 3