The post-partisan plea: it's now or never | #lpc #ndp #cdnpoli

Some weeks ago, I urged Canada's two main opposition parties to set aside their differences and work together for the greater good.

Perhaps "urged" isn't the right word.

Once again, time to play ... Let's hear from another Sun reader!

Source here.

Strictly speaking, I have doubts about the authenticity, as this guy can actually spell.

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Electro-Motive: Foreign corporation takes Canadian tax dollars, fucks over Canadian workers | #cdnpoli

... while Harper's thumb stays firmly planted up his ass.

Montreal Simon and Owen Gray have already flagged this, so I can't really add much.

But hey, I could be wrong, so please -- let me know if I've left anything out.

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Police accountability in Toronto | #G20

From the Globe:

The Office of the Independent Police Review Director concluded constables Michael Adams, Babak Andalib-Goortani, David Donaldson, Geoffrey Fardell and Oliver Simpson used excessive force after tackling Mr. Nobody to the ground.

The report concludes that charges should be laid, too, but apparently because it's taken more than six months, the chief has to get permission from the Police Services Board. (Yeah, that's how criminal procedure works for everyone, isn't it.) From the Star:

Usually, charges must be laid within six months of the incident. In this case, the police services board would have to approve an extension before officers can be charged and a hearing ordered.A source told the Star Friday the board has granted Police Chief Bill Blair the right to lay charges.

Cue the whining from the poor misunderstood victims in all this:

"This is almost two years down the road getting to this and this has been very arduous for our members," Mike McCormack, head of the Toronto Police Association, told CBC News.

But we haven't even gotten to the fun part. You know, about the two assholes who kicked Adam Nobody in the face after he was arrested and cuffed.

Oh, and the story also talks about the investigator who identified these guys when hundreds of their buddies couldn't. According to the Globe account,

He went over videos of the incident frame-by-frame, cross-referencing them with photographs and police deployment sheets, which listed officers assigned to the area that day.In some cases, he picked out minor details to figure out who was who: Constable Adams, for instance, wore a distinctive carabiner on his belt; Constable Farrell wore long sleeves.

So in other words, this guy – acting Detective-Sergeant Chris Kirkpatrick – did some actual police work. When hundreds of other cops, who were there at the time and whom we pay to notice details like this, couldn't identify these guys. Please, Mike – tell us again how there's no Blue Wall.

They're gonna love Det.-Sgt. Kirkpatrick when he gets back to the office.

Well, I'm just bursting with confidence in the system now. I'm sure we'll see action on

• the cowardly sacks of shit who beat the crap out of Lacy MacAuley
• the scumbags who tore John Pruyn's prosthetic leg off
• the sadistic pigs who got their jollies kicking Sean Salvati around in the interrogation room and then parading him around naked, in front of a female cop

any day now!

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Same-sex marriage blows up in Harper's face | #cdnpoli #lgbt

Sweet, sweet irony.

Or is it poetic justice?

Don't care, really. Either way, there's a week's worth of schadenfreude watching Harper squirming on this.

Liberals, NDP, whoever. I don't care what we call them | #cdnpoli

The Tyee – This Year, Put the Country Ahead of the Party:

" ... with the election of Stephen Harper, everything changed. No prime minister in Canadian history has come to power with such a ruthless determination to implement an agenda so at odds with the interests of the country and the values of its citizens. This involves not just a set of policies aimed at eliminating the social and economic role of the federal government. It includes, on a parallel course, a determination to change the political culture of the country to one that either supports or acquiesces to that policy agenda. (The Governor General's Christmas message was about volunteerism and philanthropy, Harper's long-term replacement for the state.) Working in tandem, these two political streams, if allowed to proceed for any length of time, could effectively change the country permanently -- or at least for all currently living generations. Harper aims for nothing less.
If the NDP and the Liberals continue to do politics as usual, as if Harper is just another political adversary in a normally-functioning system, Harper is almost certain to win again."

'via Blog this'

From Murray Dobbin in The Tyee.