Blood Was Not Staged

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To the conspiracy theorists out there that think protesters faked being beaten up by House of Commons security the other day, feast your eyes on this bit of video evidence:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7299524&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

So How About That Blood… from Adam MacIsaac on Vimeo.

The conspiracy theorists should hope that Custer isn’t eager to jump into lawsuits against people who have defamed him by saying he staged a beating for sympathy.

You can hear/see the protest here.

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More here.

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ADDED: Here’s why a noisy and “against the rules” protest is required.

When Legal Protest Stops Working

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Look what happens when the will of Canadians is not represented on the floor of the House of Commons. It’s up to those in the Gallery to make the news instead. And not surprisingly, the HoC security roughed the protesters up as they escorted them from the building.

“The youth in the gallery showed more leadership than the MPs on the floor,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said at a news conference on Parliament Hill on Monday afternoon following the demonstration.

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More at Stageleft

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In other news, the Pirate Party of Canada has arrived. They favour copyright and patent laws that reflect the widespread use of file sharing of even copyrighted material.

Rings You Didn’t Expect

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Saturn has rings. Big news eh? Well, sort of. That’s because there’s a humongus ring around Saturn that went undiscovered until just recently because it’s not visible to the human eye, not even through a standard telescope. And the artist’s conception of it makes an excellent computer background.

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Some of my library connected friends may find these retorts funny as well as rude.

Civic Election: Schools, and Protests

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Do you like to pack kids into schools as if they are sardines? If not, you might want to vote against the incumbent school board, who tried to close Dieppe school even as its enrollment rose significantly! And you have a chance to vote this Wednesday; what good luck!

You can follow the news on Twitter this time.

What worries me is how Conservative-like Mayor Fiacco’s campaign has been. Like the Conservative candidates in the last federal election he refused to participate in a free-to-attend debate. He only agreed to the $45/ticket Chamber of Commerce sponsored debate at the Centre of the Arts. On top of this anti-democratic policy of only speaking publicly for those who pay to hear, a small group of protesters at the Centre of the Arts were told to leave or they’d be charged with Trespassing! Yes, their Charter rights to peaceful protest were violated by someone at the Chamber of Commerce sponsored event.

The Centre of the Arts is on Wascana Centre Authority land, which is public land that even the Saskatchewan Legislature occupies. Can you imagine a legislature where protest outside of it is “against policy” or even illegal? It seems some people working at the Centre of the Arts want a country with a different constitution where protest of injustice is illegal.

War Crime Recipe

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I’ve learned how to be vindicated in initiating an unjustified war that causes mass destruction and death. It involves convincing John Gormley that you’re eloquent when you can’t speak publicly without confusing “universality” with “university”, and getting intimate with a Saskatoon crowd that has paid big money to see you.

So if you need to commit a war crime, just clear it with wealthy conservative Saskatoonians who get their information from Fox News, and John Gormley, and you’re “vindicated” if you can get the RCMP to protect you instead of enforcing the laws of Canada.