#occupycanada

Spring is in the air. I can feel it on my skin. Hear it out my window. And see it on newsfeeds, news channels, and news related, Steadman-illustrated dreams. A vibrant aural hum is building momentum out there, in the great blue beyonder. The tone of the birds singing has taken on a frantic, ornery, repetitive plead. The ether of the northern hemisphere is waking from a late winter stupor with a deep seeded, primal urge to fight and/or fuck anything in sight.

…Speaking of dreams…

I woke this morning, soaked. Fortunately it was just sweat.

I had just been torn from the grips of one of the most graphic visions I have ever experienced. It went something like this:

In my dream, I woke up on my couch at some early morning hour to the sound of the cable news blaring out in hypersonic belches of smagmatic drizzle.

The news man, Tony Clifton, was ranting and raving to the camera about the total outrage of what that crazed, mutant PM had done now. Also, he berated the cameraman, tossed a coffee cup full of scotch at the weatherman, and stood up on his chair and pissed all over the anchor desk. Once the security guard got Tony sedated with a ham sandwich and a chocolate milkshake, the co-anchor (Bevis) continued on with the details of the PM debacle…

The PM had been busted in the middle of a multinational, multi-species, gang-bang. There was a procession of evidence being taken from his house to the police vehicle. Exotic drugs, sex dolls, baby seals, cheetos, a basement full of three-piece-suited concubines, DNA smeared omnibus bills, cameras, soldering irons, gag-balls, jack-in-the-box’s that had huge rubber phallus’ painted to look like Mr. Ignatieff dangling out of them by rusty, barbed wire springs. It was a never ending conveyor of smut, pagan excess, and politics.

And then the piece de resistance, a naked, shivering, maniacally grinning PM came out of the house, hands behind his back, butt-ass naked, with what appeared to be peanut butter and jam smeared all over his body.

Over and over, he kept repeating the phrase:

“I am the Lizard King, I can do ANYTHING!”

For some reason, instead of stuffing him into a squad car they paraded him down the winter street, with only an old dirty tube sock to cover the PM’s withered, dripping member. It was a scene of beauty. People cheered and screamed high-pitched wails of joy for the demise of this greased-up, derelict-party, leader.

The dream cut to a giant court room, astro-dome sized, with cursing, spitting, audience members. They were lined up around the action, shoulder to shoulder, as far as the eye could see.

It was the trial of the 21st century.

The prosecution consisted of rabid, unborn children dressed in Hazmat suits and skinny, 80’s style ties.

The PM had F. Lee Bailey and Hu Jintao representing him.

It was a hideous affair, thousands upon thousands of people were called to testify. The defence called nothing but expert witness’ who didn’t speak a word of English, making their testimony apt to sound both unintelligible and authoritative. In the end, a riot broke out, and the PM escaped… slipped so far up the backdoor of the Judge that not even the long arm of the law could reach him…

And then I woke up, soaked in sweat.

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STOP HARPER 2012! ***VITAL INFORMATION FOR CANADIANS** SHARE AND CREATE A RIPPLE EFFECT !!! C'MON!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew this was going to be a bad year for NaNoWriMo because G20 activist Byron Sonne was coming to trial, and the Canadian DMCA Bill-C11 will most likely be passed by the Canadian government because they have a majority government so they can to appease President Bush... oops, it's Obama now... #samesame ... and now there is also #OccupyCanada and #SOPA ...

Making matters much worse, I've kind of figured out Tumblr !

Still and all, I'm a self publishing novelist and I have work to do, so I have to go offline for a bit and write.

So I'd appreciate it if you'd keep an eye on civil rights and the Internet while I'm at work. 

Thanks.

hot to handle

The first time I beheld a green pepper was in a home economics in the ninth grade. I thought they were cute; but smelled bad and tasted awful. I have never understood why people like to eat hot peppers, but clearly they do.

One year I grew hot peppers which won first prize in a local fair. I dried some, and canned some as gifts. But the thing I wasn’t prepared for was that just handling them puts the oil on your hands. I learned the importance of thoroughly washing your hands after I made the mistake of picking jalapeño peppers and then rubbing my eyes. It only happened once, and it hurt. I remember the pain very well. Never again.

But it didn’t kill me.

So like most people, I had no idea that pepper spray could be lethal.

It is especially hard on people with asthma because it is an inflammatory agent, and Wikipedia tells us that it can cause “…uncontrollable coughing making it difficult to breathe or speak for between 3 to 15 minutes.”

When I was a child, I didn’t know a soul with asthma. As an adult, they are everywhere. So it seems to me that pepper spraying people is playing with fire.

In other parts of the world, citizens are allowed to carry cannisters of pepper spray on their person for self defence.

Not in Canada; here pepper spray is a prohibited weapon. Unless you’re in law enforcement, then you are allowed to spray it for “crowd control” Pepper spray was lobbed at Toronto’s G20 protesters last year.

This weekend’s inappropriate police pepper spraying of peaceful protesters at California’s UC Davis campus has triggered outrage around the world this weekend.

Pepper spray is increasingly used, not as self defence, but as a means of physically punishing peaceful protesters.

Deborah Blum’s Speakeasy Science article looks at the history, use and effects of pepper spray. It is not a pretty picture.

Pepper spray is banned for use in war by Article I.5 of the Chemical Weapons Convention which bans the use of all riot control agents in warfare whether lethal or less-than-lethal.[18] In the US, when pepper spray is used in the workplace, OSHA requires a pepper sprayMSDS be available to all employees.[citation needed] — Wikipedia: Pepper Spray: Legality

If pepper spray is too terrible to use in war, why are authorities using it on peaceful protesters?

Pepper spray is never appropriate.

Published on November 12, 2011

We are the 14 students who occupied the fifth floor of the James Administration building. On 10 November, we took over the office of Her Majesty Blum.

Events in our world this year, as always, have revealed the necessity for direct action. At McGill, the administration has used the law to silence MUNACA workers and security to intimidate students and professors. The further abuse of the lines of communication between members of this community have made the administration’s authoritarian character explicit.

The charges listed above are not exhaustive, and we see them as symptoms and reflections of greater problems. Our society is controlled by intertwined bodies, predominantly government and for-profit interests. The for-profit system has hijacked our public education. Our researchers work for corporate interests, and the links with capitalist exploiters run deep –  see Barrick Gold, thermobaric weapons, tar sands.

Student and faculty representation in Senate is tokenistic. Our Board of Governors, McGill’s highest governing body, is filled with those who will never act for people before profits. Who in this community does the administration represent? Professors, students, non-academic workers, teacher’s assistants, and the public at large are systematically excluded from the decision-making process. Dialogue on campus produces zero meaningful results.

It is time to enter their space; Occupation is a means of expressing our dissent outside of the boundaries of what the administration deems acceptable. At a time when university students from across the province came to Montreal to demand their voice be heard, we felt it was critical to do the same.

On 10 November, we occupied the fifth floor of the James Administration building. At 3:45 p.m., we entered the building and climbed to the office of the HMB, encountering no obstacles all the way to her front door. We knew her receptionist’s desk would be vacant because she’s on strike.

We knocked on the door and announced that this was a non-violent occupation. Using our feet and chests to stop the slamming door, we moved ourselves in.

At no point did we ever threaten, injure, or intimidate anyone. Everything you have heard about our violence is a lie. We asked those there to leave or stay, as they saw fit. We explored further into her labyrinth and flew a banner out the window: 10 NOV – OCCUPONS MCGILL!

We stress that the only aggression that occurred on the fifth floor of the James Administration building was by security personnel and directed at us. It was because of our non-violence that we were then so easily beaten and corralled by McGill Security.

The HMB said we were “ushered” from the room. In fact, one of us was scratched down their face and strongly hit in the stomach after being thrown and dragged. Others were forcibly expelled. We caused no ruckus, but only acted to protect.

We spread the word to our friends outside. We asked them to come support us in solidarity to secure our safety. This is what galvanized those in the crowd, who we deeply love and thank. We are in absolute solidarity with the brave ones who fought for our release by regaining control of the building’s exits.

It was with outrage and disbelief that we heard of the cruel use of physical force and chemical weapons below. The police were not necessary. We were immobilized and surrounded. A brutal reaction to our attempt to put our bodies where they cannot be.

Mendelson arrived unobstructed to talk with us. He left when we refused to “buy” his arguments. We did not see him again until far later, when he came with Masi, ready to negotiate. They tried to mislead us about the situation, but we were in contact with those outside and downstairs.

We demanded unconditional amnesty from the police and the University for everyone in the building. Their demands were to walk us out through the back entrance and for us to leave campus.

They conferred in private and returned to us. We all agreed, so they dictated the agenda to the police. We moved past the war zone they created to join the others who were downstairs and outside.

The events of 10 November make vividly clear the strength and beauty of solidarity. To those fellow students ensuring our safety, who bravely amassed against police lines below us in James square, we express our love and avow our determination to persist in this shared struggle. Your presence provided not only concrete assistance but knowledge of mutual support that sustained us mentally and emotionally.

By crossing the boundaries that authorities have forced on us, by taking up space where our presence is prohibited and our agency denied, we triggered a response that exposes the necessary violence with which the hierarchical power structure confronting students is enforced.

The administration tells us that its private security agents are there to protect the campus community, just as the state tells us that its police forces exist to protect the population. 10 November revealed the absurdity of these claims as soon as the McGill administration chose to resolve the danger posed by peacefully assembled students with the deployment of riot cops on campus. Outfitted in their dystopian armor, agents of the state violently attacked students of this University simply for standing in solidarity with us, their friends, family, lovers, and fellow students. The violence of the response betrays the real threat posed by direct action and demonstrates the strength that students exert when they collectively challenge authority and refuse to submit.

10 November marked the first presence of riot police on McGill grounds since 1969 (McGill Français), but violence at the hands of the state is a daily reality for many outside our gates. We must not accept police brutality against students. Pepper spray, tear gas, and batons are no more tolerable when deployed against demonstrators, workers, homeless youth, people of colour, anarchists, queers, indigenous populations, or other marginalized groups anywhere.

The narratives of the corporate media, the police, and the administration will aim at a common end: a return to the status quo in which they control our spaces and our bodies. But we are engaged in a struggle that is far from over. We must continue to move beyond the liberal model of ‘discourse’ that has only served to maintain unjust power relations and control. Acting boldly and defying prescribed boundaries, we subvert the logic of submission.