Re Brigette DePape: I will now eat my words

What was I saying about having to build an extra-parliamentary opposition?

This young woman shows us all how it's done. If saying she's got cojones makes me sound sexist, I apologize and beg your indulgence, because it's said in a spirit of unabashed admiration.



Clearly I'm not the only one who thinks so. Linkfest here, here, here, here, here and here, for starters.

As for chowing down on my own verbiage: A spirited red, please, sommelier, and preferably New World, but not too aged. I'll need something that can cut through the layers of sententiousness and stand up to the wankery ...

Related posts:

• Senate page explains her brave Stop Harper protest on floor of Senate today
• Working against a permanent Conservative majority
• Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold

Accountability from the #G20? Not gonna happen

From the Tumblr a couple of hours ago.

Related posts:

• We ain't gonna have no stinkin' inquiry
• SIU re-opens another G20 investigation. Stop me if you've heard this before
• Michigan and the shredding of government of, by and for the people

Harper's "tough on crime" bill: meaner, more expensive, and not making us any safer

From the essential Alex Himelfarb, another beautifully written and persuasively argued essay detailing everything wrong with both the omnibus crime legislation and the nasty, vindictive and short-sighted sentiments behind it.

It's sadly ironic, he writes, that the Conservatives are moving this way just as U.S. jurisdictions are abandoning the "tough on crime" model, given all the evidence of how ineffective and counterproductive it is, and citing the contrast with what's traditionally been seen as a more humane and flexible approach in Canada – one which didn't compromise public safety.

The challenge we face

I know, I know. I spent far too much time and energy on it, to no avail. What can you do?

But reaching people like that is what we have to do, and it doesn't do any good to just write them off as zombies or shallow dullards incapable of critical thought. They're not all beyond redemption.

#G20 fallout: What @pogge411 and @canadianlefty said

Links here and here. Lefty's post is a long one, but definitely worth the time. It's all about the not-so-subtle message from last June: activism and dissent are dangerous. Stay home, shut up, and do as you're told.

More allegations of police brutality at the G20: Gabriel Jacobs

More serving and protecting by the Toronto Police. (Yeah, right.)

Via CBC and the Star, news that Gabriel Jacobs is filing a human rights complaint over the way he was treated at the G20.

What Alison said (and deBeauxOs, and Dr. Dawg ... )

And while we're on the subject, the inimitable and indispensible Alison over at Creekside sums up the whole police-brutality, civilian-oversight thing as only she can.

Go read it now.

Update: And after that, check out this story from Ottawa from deBeauxOs and the Dawgmeister. I mean, brutal shithead cops and their enablers in so-called oversight roles are bad enough, but in this case, the dumbass not only bit a 15-year-old kid on the shoulder – he broke his hand on the kid's head. This isn't scraping the bottom of the barrel – this is breaking through the bottom to root around in the mud and raccoon shit underneath. It's actually worth quoting the Dawg (emphasis mine):

Not a single component of the system is there to protect and defend the rights of individual citizens when they are casually violated by police officers.