• Category Archives Occupy Toronto
  • This section address the Occupy Toronto movement

  • A must read on Unions and how they use anarchists for thier own purposes

    Meow everyone. In my series on Occupy Toronto , i am getting close to posting the sections about the unions and where the money has gone, from my point of view. However, before I post the story, y’ all REALLY NEED to read this superior piece  by GenuineWitty  on unions and how they use anarchists  as muscle . Read it as this ties in perfectly with what i am working on:

    https://kitty.protestnerd.com/2013/03/03/how-the-unions-are-using-the-anarchist-thugs-to-muscle-porter-airlines-feat-sid-ryan-tony-depaulo-ken-lewenza/


  • The Rise and Fail of Occupy Toronto ……….. Part Seven

    Meow everyone, the last two articles showed the occupy Toronto movement as it formed and made it way from a plan to implementation. This article will look at the techniques used to ensure loyalty to the leaders / facilitators and how they use certain techniques to gain and maintain power. Make no mistake. This is a very dangerous tool and  it is used to create not only divisions, I postulate as well that this technique is a tool used to create enemies and  to later justify a plethora of behaviors by the cult leaders / facilitators designed to intimidate and animosity towards  those who ask questions.Thank you  to Lawrence for his help with the editing of this section.  The images used for this section are screen shots and some images I took with my blackberry; hence the image quality is not to my usual high standards.

     

     

    Those general Meetings and Cult Mentality… the Delphi technique

     

     

     

    Oh, those general meetings. They went on for hours, accomplished nothing unless the facilitators wanted something passed, went on for yet more hours, still accomplished nothing, and this was twice a day. How many times can one say the same thing before it become just a monotone drone in the air.  The phrase ad nauseum seemed to be the best phrase to describe them. These leaders / facilitators sure loved to hear themselves speak, makes me wonder if they got paid by the word.

     

    These meetings gave new meaning to the words dull and boring. Watching paint dry in slow motion was a far more interesting activity to engage in. One meeting, however, was unlike the other one. There was none of the usual cult like actions. The meeting was to address the list of demands. This document was weeks in the works and Lawrence McCurry and his team worked hard to put it together. If Occupy Toronto was to have a message, finally, this would have been the perfect message. The demands were read off and for the most part, widely accepted. There were going to be a few small changed made in the overall language but the general message and its feel was great, and the people really absorbed it. Finally, Occupy Toronto was going to have a message that the media can pick on and work from. The public would finally get an idea of what occupy Toronto was really about and what was wanted as the end goal.   Lawrences document can be viewed here at :

    http://canadaawakes.blogspot.ca/2011/11/occupy-toronto-proposed-list-of-demands.html

     

    That was until the facilitators got wind of this. The facilitators got to the park as fast as possible to hijack the meeting and a really good document was dismissed and ridiculed by these same facilitators. The cult mentality was in full force with them and nothing and no one was going to even remotely take away from their absolute power. These cult leaders where obsessed with power. One of most arrogant persons who were utterly full of himself was Misha Saunders, one of the masters of the Delphi technique.

     

     

    One of the classic examples, well one of many, was the use of specific hand signals as a means of showing approval or acceptance of an idea. However, in the cult mentality, these hand signals also showed to the leaders / facilitators who were their supporters and who were the detractors.

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     Here are photographic examples of them being used at Occupy Toronto

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     The timing could not have come at a worse time either, as, Occupy Toronto was at the point of brain death with only the organs still somehow functioning. Lawrence had a cure that could have revived the brain but the facilitators clearly feared losing their power and control to the point of forcing the hijacking of the meeting to shut the proposal down.  The leaders / facilitators killed any chance of a recovery, killed any chance of a clear message, and killed any chance of garnering any public support.

     

    I made mention of something called the Delphi technique that was used very significantly at the occupy Toronto general meetings. I suspect that this was also made use of in all other occupies, as this seemed to be part and parcel of what this movement was built around. The Delphi technique was a technique whereby a person might offer up a proposal for discussion.

     

    Before I get any further into this story, it is very important that these four screen shots be read. These describe in great detail what the Delphi technique is, how it works and how to defeat it. This technique was the primary tool of the Occupy Movement and one of the tools used by cults as an obedience tool.

    Information on the Delphi technique is sourced from here at :

    http://lethalogic.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/using-the-delphi-technique-to-achieve-consensus/

    and :

    http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001720.cfm

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    The facilitators did not want this proposal passed, but rather than simply say outright they were not interested in it, they might start with words like “I hear what you’re saying” and then start to talk around the proposal enough to distract others away from the idea. While the lead facilitator would take the lead in this manipulation, he or she would have several other facilitators spread out throughout the general meeting to start small conversations to distract the proposal idea as well. Lastly, yet another facilitator, often time acting as a “marshal “would then approach the person making the proposal to ask if he or she could “hold off on the idea until the meeting was over to get through the meeting in a reasonable amount of time. “  This is yet another clear and classic example of cult mentality in play where the leaders or facilitators ideas are the ones to be addressed and promoted, as opposed to ideas from the general members or attendees. It’s about the power the facilitators had / have over the members and this is one way they not only exercise their power, but also, maintain hold over it and the membership.  Other ideas may plant seeds of dissent which would risk being quickly and effectively spread.

     

     Often times, as well, proposals were made by persons who were better educated, thus had a superior grasp of their idea, and in addition, had a vision of how it could be implemented. The leaders / facilitators could see this and as in all cults, an educated person is a dangerous person. It is only the leaders that are supposed to be more intelligent than the followers.

     

    The example I sites that happened to Lawrence was possibly the best and most note worthy example of the Delphi technique being put to use on a idea, but there were others as well. As a person who was on the disability and accessibility committee, we too raised several issues, and as with Lawrence, and were quickly shot down but not without a fight. On several occasions, these same leaders / facilitators tried to shut us down on proposals but we would not go away, would not play by their rules and were unrelenting in our questions. We simply went ahead and did what we wanted to do anyway, regardless of what the general meeting and the facilitator wanted. People were beginning to see that Lawrence, myself and others were on to something and we started to garner more and more support from the members.

     

    The Delphi technique does have an Achilles heel. The Delphi technique is most effective on persons who are followers and easily swayed into a certain line of though. The Delphi technique, however, does not have the capacity, as far as I know, to handle outright, direct and continuous opposition and attacks against those who try and employ it. This is something we discovered when we were continuously attacked and challenged the authority of the leaders and facilitators. They had answers to supportive and friendly questions but were totally unprepared for a continuous bombardment of direct challenges to their proposals, leadership and self imposed authority. I said that this was something we had discovered. I however, was not aware of what we discovered, only, that our decent was working.  The real credit to this discovery has to go to Susan who, rather than ask a million questions, sat back and just listened and then researched. I learned a lot from her.

     

    There were several really good examples of the leaders / facilitators self-imposed authority being put into question. One which I raised on behalf of the accessibility committee, on a multitude of occasions, was the manner in which the general meetings were held and how they were outright inaccessible for persons who lived with several types of disabilities, myself being one of them. I have hearing that is better than average and am able to hear in ranges that many others simply cannot. ( Not wearing loud earphones helps a lot ) the general meetings were conducted in such a way that everything was stated and then repeated, always out of sync. To me, as well as too many others, this repetition of every word became a huge nightmare in that it sounded like one giant mish mash of noise, something I am not able to separate into individual conversations. It was a huge barrier that excluded many persons from participating.   The problem was simply, we heard everything at once. Nothing made sense, as every sound came across as noise, auditory overload. I told my friend Susan about this and she right away recognized this. I wish I can remember what she said it was called but when I described it to her, she asked me a few questions pertaining to what I was trying to convey. She got it dead on.

     

    With this problem being made known to the leaders / facilitators, I had hoped that some solution can be found to make the meetings more accessible. All they said was that “we here what you’re saying   but this is how they do it in New York and we have to keep things the same here. “  I said that this was not acceptable to deny persons the right to participate just because you want to impress the people in New York. ( The meetings were live streamed )  I asked them then, if it was more important to look good, or, was it more important to gain allies and support. The leaders / facilitators were uninterested but we raised the issue at every meeting I attended. They got sick of it after a while but we did not relent. They were not prepared to be able to handle outright defiance. They were in for a lot more, and from many others.

     

     We offered up some great ideas as to how to make these meeting fully inclusive to everyone but these leaders / facilitators would have no part of it. Any ideas that were not THEIR ideas were quashed well before they were even presented. It got to the point where they even wanted proposal submitted 24 hours in advance to review and discuss them in their very secret, private meetings.

     

    There was a series of meetings that was held at the design Exchange and were about Occupy Toronto of course. I am not fully versed on how this came to be or where this idea came from, or what its purpose was. I did attend one such meeting that was facilitated by one of the TOP heads of Occupy Toronto,  Misha Saunders ( no relation to Sakura ) He started off using what was called the “ peoples mic “,  that being that dreaded  method of repetition of everything that was said.  I stopped him from using it when I publicly declared it a barrier for me as a person with a disability. He was clearly upset that his pride and joy “people’s mic” was just outed as a barrier, in front of some high profile people who attended this meeting he was clearly trying to impress.  After that, for the rest of that meeting, he had no choice but to use the sound system that was in place, as did everyone else. He was livid, and it showed. I admit that I got a great deal of, short lived, personal satisfaction knowing that for a short time, I took away his prized cult tool, openly questioned his authority,  openly questioned his method of delivery and forced him to accommodate me and others. Misha, if you are reading this , laser eyes are totally ineffective on me, but I could not help but notice how upset you got when I also wagged my finger at you right after forcing you to use the REAL mic.

     

    To give an example of the utter contempt that the Occupy Toronto  leaders / facilitators had for persons with disabilities , there was one general meeting at the park which was held in the gazebo.  It had started to slightly sprinkle . There was also a person there who was another person with a disability, who used an electric wheelchair, the gazebo was not accessible in anyway , as to get into it, one would have had to climb about six or seven steps . In order for this person to participate, which he wanted to  do, he was FORCED  to CRAWL ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES up the steps. I saw that and was outraged, I demanded that the meeting take place where everyone had equal access to it, which meant outside, in the rain like everyone else. One of the facilitators / leaders in training was livid and she said she was furious at having to be out in the rain as she  just got back from the hair salon and her hair was going to be ruined because of me.  I felt really bad ……. NOT .

     

    These leaders / facilitators were the text book example of what a cult leader may look like. However, not all the “brainwashed” “were leaders / facilitators. In the next section, I will bring this point home with some examples of people who fell into the trap, and “drank the Kool Aid”. Stay Tuned ……..


  • The Rise and Fail of Occupy Toronto ……. Part Five

    Meow everyone. In the last four segments of this series, I tried to set the stage for Occupy Toronto and what was some of the back ground that one needed to be made aware of. There is still quite  a bit more to cover, back ground wise and I will be covering them in great detail as this series progresses.  However, the time has come to start to address Occupy Toronto and its genesis, and its subsequent evolution, its transformation and ultimately its   death and demise.  This is, after all, what everyone was waiting to read.  As with the previous articles, images come from a variety of sources, many being  my own, enhanced with some  very good online finds. Once again as well, a huge thank you to EnGine for her outstanding skills in editing  and fine tuning.

     

     

    September 2010

     

     

    The world is starting to hear about this whole new thing called Occupy. It had various different incarnations and was widely touted  as being an offshoot or direct descendant of the Arab spring movement which had significant impact on the Arab world with the deaths of the Libyan leader as well as some other leaders who either left office or met other fates. Violence death and  destruction was part and parcel to the events of the Arab world. A derivative of this migrated to North America and was called Occupy Wall Street. The occupy movement was premised around the idea that there was a great inequality within the financial sector such that it was in great need of either restructuring it, or completely rethinking it to make it accessible and equitable for everyone. On the surface,  this appeared to be an idea that had potential and if done correctly, could have some level of success.

    Mid September, message were sent out on Facebook to  invite people here in Toronto to a meeting to discuss the idea of an  Occupy Toronto. The very first meeting was held on a Friday evening at Berkzy  Park on front street between church street and Yonge Street. 

    I recall being one of the very first persons to arrive and a short time later another  person arrived whom I later learned was  the person who organized this meting, Bryan Batty. Bryan is a young man in his 20’s and is a business student at Humber College. He is well spoken, clean cut and quite a presentable person. He was the first face of Occupy Toronto … or was he? Soon, more persons arrived, more still and by the time the meeting was to commence, close to 250 persons had shown up.  Image

    As people started to arrive, I was seeing some familiar  faces. I did not have names to go with them but I was determined to that I was going to find out  who was who. Some of these persons I saw were fixtures in other protests I have covered, including the G20. There was a respectable mix of persons in attendance, ranging from students who made up the vast majority of this meeting to business professionals to the curious onlooker. I observed a few person there who really looked out of place, dressed like 60’s hippies, but half my age. What was very interesting was the presence of some key union persons who said nothing but lingered in the back ground. The Ontario federation of Labor sent there director of communication Joel Duff to this meeting and subsequent meetings. Union representative from other unions such as OPSU and CUPE were also represented with their key persons, mostly local presidents. Subsequent meeting were held at University of Toronto OISE campus which would later become ground zero for the organizing of Occupy Toronto. While I attended all these meetings, I could not help but get this feeling that something about the way these meetings were being held felt out of place, didn’t feel quite right, but I was still not educated enough on this sort of thing to fully understand what was going on. I knew these meetings had a really weird  feel to them , and there was an aura of what felt like some sort of indoctrination component to it,  but  the details eluded me. That would change.  What I noticed as well was the Bryan was no longer the person who was in charge, indeed, he spoke very little. I noticed as well that certain persons seemed to be speaking far more than others, and this seemed to be at all the meetings. What was really creepy was these hand signals being used as a means of communication within the group of the assembled. Great pains in fact were taken to  teach these signs to everyone. I  noticed  as well, that certain language was being used at all meetings. One  very interesting observation I had was that certain speakers, persons whom I would later discover were called facilitators, all had a somewhat mono-tone-esk quality about their speech.

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    One thing that was drilled into everyone was this us vs. them mentality, us being those of us who do not run the financial institutions, and them, being the one who do run them. There was much talk about how incensed they were about how some people made 10 – 15 million a year while the  “ rest of us “  had to make due with less. The organizers of Occupy Toronto wanted us to believe that we are simple pawns in a power game that is there only to benefit the top earners of the world and us  as the spring board to garner even greater wealth. The fact is that while there certainly may be a certain element of truth to that premises, it is not, in my opinion quite as blatant as they wanted us to think, nor is it, also in my opinion, quite as black and white as that. The occupy organizers are angered at the fact that big corporations received bailouts during the economic downturn. I agree that it did not go over well with many people, however, these bailouts meant that these same companies either continue to operate, or simply close down and put tens of thousands of people out of work for good. Keep in mind as well that these bail outs were to be repaid, which they were, so this was not free   money. The other objection these same occupy organizers have are tax breaks for big corporations, Once again, my position is that you either give them a tax break and they stay, employing tens of thousands of person, or, don’t give any tax breaks and these same corporation simply pack and move to a place where they will receive these breaks, again putting tens of thousands of people out of work. These Occupy leaders simply had zero concept of business and how it works. Business is not always pleasant  but it exists for a reason and it is successful for a reason. Occupy was going to have no part of listening to any thing even remotely close to logic and reason. The cult mentality would not allow for this.

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    The other huge issue these same leaders had was with the high salaries of some key executives. What they failed to understand is that while these  salaries are high, they are fully justified considering the fact that these CEO’s are responsible for companies that transact billions of dollars of trade and investment every day.  When things do go wrong, it is their heads on the line. These same CEO’s are the one that generate the business through international trade agreements  that bring additional investment to Canada. Their salaries are totally justified.

    This “ Us vs. Them “ attitude was not restricted to those with good paying jobs. It very quickly became another anti-cop series of ad nauseum discussions. People forget that cops do not make huge salaries and are just as affected by the exact same things as the rest of the population.  After all, this was being run and organized by professional protestors, therefore, there had to be the usual known perceived adversaries available to pre-blame  should things go wrong. This is part of the way professional protestor work. I indicated previously that they create a problem, indoctrinate the masses to this “ problem “, and then create an atmosphere  of fear and mistrust  to ensure loyalty and obedience.

    I spoke of the meetings to get occupy on its way, I spoke of those who organized it, however, there was people in place who did not seem to fit into this whole concept of what occupy was to be. It was soon clear that the movement was being high jacked right in front of us by certain persons who clearly had interests that did not mesh or coincide  with what the premises of occupy was to be. Many faces appeared, many faces I recognized  from other events I photographed that seemed greatly out of place here, yet, here they were and in seemingly positions of significant power and authority. The usual suspects, OCAP, CUPE, the CFS and of course, the anarchists, all present and well represented .   I was wondering what was going on but decided to wait and see where this was heading.

    As the meetings were taking place, committees were formed to undertake various tasks, both prior to the planned occupation and during. I offered my services in the media field, as a photographer and videographer, I was uniquely qualified to document each step and event of occupy. The first  major sign that something was “ out of place “ , was when I was told that my services while widely recognized, were not required in this area as,  according to one person, they had the top experts in the field of media to cover occupy. I immediately thought that,  oh, they were able to get Lawrence McCurry to cover this. What a great idea,  as he is indeed far superior to me in  covering this, based  on his  previous works.  Well, I though that to myself, only to discover that they did not have him onboard. I then decided to undertake the responsibility of ensuring that accommodations and accessibility requirements were in place for persons with disabilities. I thought, hey, I am an expert in this area anyway so why not. Well, that also hit some major road blocks as, in order to have a plan in place to provide accommodations, the location was going to have to made known to me, I insisted. All I was told was that this top secret. Hold on a second I said, what ever happened to the fully open and transparent ideology that these same leaders professed to uphold a the previous meeting? I said clearly that unless I knew where the place was, accommodations were not going to be in place in time as I needed to inspect the area to ensure it was all accessible. I was told that there were top people working on this. Wait a second, I AM one of these top people, one of a very few in the city who has a complete grasp of accessibility and accommodation needs. .

    More meetings, more indoctrination sessions more training sessions and we were almost ready. One last training session was held on the Friday before the planned occupation, Friday October 14 at OISE. Dave Vasey was in charge of this session.

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    Dave Vasey  became somewhat of a cult figure well before the Occupy Movement.  Vasey was one of the very first persons to be arrested during the G20.  According to material I found online, he appeared to be arrested for failing to identify himself when directed to do so by police officers. This took place at or near one of the high security fenced off areas.  There was a law that was enacted that claimed to a allow law enforcement  to enact certain laws within a certain distance from these high security fences. It was later learned that this law was never actually in place. Obviously, there was a communication breakdown somewhere, or, as some persons will argue, this law, or its vagueness  was a deception on the part of the government. I am not going to argue one way or another about it, as  simply, I don’t the facts  to formulate an opinion or hypothesis.  It was  simply there,  right or wrong, but with a law in place, I do think responsible citizens do have a duty to abide by laws in place. If you don’t like a law, there are peaceful means to argue them and at the same time, not get arrested.  Getting arrested serves no purpose as one is useless in a jail cell.

     He held a session based on what he referred to  as his Rukus Society training manual. This was one last team building exercise.

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    The Rukus Society is a California based professional protestors training center / organization. They teach young protestors things like repelling, high altitude protesting, civil disobedience, how to target police in protest actions and how to work in teams. Vasey is a member of this organization as is Taylor Flook , ( aka Taylor Chelsea )  It just happens that both of these persons are also adorned with an identical  tattoo “ Love Is The Movement”.  This may be a means to identify other Rukus Society  members, or, this may be a simple coincidence as in the case of Vasey and Flook, the two were dating for a while. I have heard of other Rukus Society members with this same tattoo but as yet, I have not been able to verify any hard facts to support this as being a “ calling card . “ As I mentioned, these exercises Vasey had us do where, onto themselves, seemingly meaningless but it did serve the purpose of  showing who had leadership skills and who were more followers. Other  such training exercises used may be a tight rope from a low height, to falling backwards to show the trust of the other person to catch you. 

    Dave Vasey is one of those professional protestors who will make you think that he IS THE know-it-all when it comes to protesting. The more I heard him speak, the more I was having visions of the old TV cartoon called  Rocky and Bullwinkle and the mini segment within it called Mr. Know-it-all. Don’t get me wrong, Dave Vasey is  not the brightest person, however   he is quite intelligent  but very singular focused.  This mentality  does not allow for deviations from a plan, nor does it allow to discussions or questions.  He does not, however, react well to being openly challenged. In fact, when challenged , Vasey will resort to the textbook  uses of name calling, accusations and baseless, unfounded  allegations. It’s the classic divide and conquer tactic used by professional protestors who are questioned when things don’t seem to be quite right.  It got to the point with him that I found myself asking him many questions just to watch him drown in his own verbal sewage. The entertainment alone was worth it   Vasey may be intelligent  but he is also not the brightest light bulb in the box. Smarts and intelligence are two vastly different things.

    Such training sessions and subsequent exercises are usually done shortly before a planned action to ensure these trust  building skills are not forgotten. The Rukus Society has one other very noticeable distinction. The Rukus society is on  the Unites States of America,  Dept. of Homeland Security  Watch List for terrorist organizations. The link below shows that the USA  Dept. of Homeland Security  has the RUKUS Society on their watch list.

    http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/trackedlist11910.pdf

    Dave Vasey would play a far greater part in occupy later on, as would many of the highest level professional protesters from this city. One very interesting person I observed as playing a key role was someone I have know for several years prior to Occupy, Antonin Mongeau.  Antonin was the president of the French Club at the University of Toronto  and had had some significant encounters with his student union as well as my own student union at Ryerson University.  We spoke often via phone and email but never actually met. We did have the same dislike for our student union and the CFS so seeing him there was somewhat interesting. Antonin is quite a likeable person and while I have had the opportunity to speak with him over the phone  and on  line many times, I have actually never  physically met him prior to occupy. I had this stereotypical vision of him based on our conversations. I have no idea how or why, but I imagined him as being a little nebeschy 100 pound fully fed, clothed and soak little geeky guy, Nothing could have bee farther  from the truth as  he is considerably taller and bigger than I am. He is a gentle giant in many ways and is not afraid to show you his sensitive side.

     He was in charge of the Food Team. What made me really wonder just what was going on here was seeing him actually. He was speaking and suggesting that things were already in place and ready to roll once the occupation was to get underway.  It appeared to me already here that this whole occupy was being manufactured  by outside forces and these people  who were seemingly running the show were representatives of these outside forces or organizations. I was still too ill informed to formulate thoughts or opinions about all this, but things just didn’t seem to fit quite  right,  didn’t seem to add up.

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    Now wait a second, unless there were outside forces in play here, I could not see how this was going to get accomplished. I could not help but wonder just what is really going on behind the scenes and why are we not being told about this. This was, after all, as proclaimed, ad nauseum, an open and transparent movement where supposedly everyone had a say, had a voice in how this occupy was going to work. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Cults give the appearance of freedom and openness, however, they always hide the real details, the truth from even their own members.

    I could not quite put my finger on what was seemingly out of place here, however, the questions were piling up and the answers were not forth coming. I fairness to the lack of answers, I didn’t ask too many questions at first, but that would change. 

    Learning the truth is the Achilles heel of any cult. The leaders tell you only what they want you to know and with hold all other information, or, provide disinformation to ensure loyalty and to maintain control  over the rest of the cult. Cults are about power for the very select few and subservience and servitude from all others to the leaders. Cults are easy to spot yet hard to break into. Cults are easily identified through very select use of language, as one example. Occupy made use of this tool as well. Speakers lists were referred to as “ stacks “,  people who would undertake certain tasks would “ bottom  line “ them, to name some of the more obvious one. Hand signals were the most obvious   tools used by occupy and in true cult fashion, the signals were identical between the various occupy movements throughout North America.

    Friday night was coming to a close but not without a few small surprises. While a meeting was held at OISE, another identical meting was held at Sid Smith , an other facility also at the University of Toronto for the exact same reason. That second meeting was held there because those who arrives later were “ utterly shocked “ to see a police presence at OISE consisting, of, as I recall, four bicycle officers. Both meetings ended at about the same time and the participants from Sid Smith arrived at OISE and one of the organizers  loudly proclaimed upon arrival that “ hey Frank, I hear you work for the RCMP. “  My reply was, “ news to me , where do I pick up my pay check ? “

     After a short private discussion with the person who said that, I made it very clear that I wanted the location of the park and I wanted it NOW. I told him I was tired of playing guessing games and if I am going to do the job I said I would do, I either get the info I need or get someone else but do one or the other NOW. I don’t know if I scared the crap out of the guy, Wilsun Tsu   ( aka bash bunny  and   one of the very top organizers and in charge of the logistics team )  was his name. 

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    Well, he gave me the location, the park to be occupied was  to be St James Park. However, I still  could not help but to think that there is someone or some entity far more powerful in control here. These people here who claim,  and appear as being in charge,  are just to disorganized to undertake a mission of this magnitude, and in such a short period of time. No, there is a another organization  that must be calling the shots and pulling the strings here.

    These guys here are acting as if they are working from a  prepared script designed to appear disorganized and dysfunctional. One thing that I noticed right away, even from the very first meeting was that while the leaders were for the most part, quite polite and charming, however, they never stated their last names. It was only through lots of digging and discrete questioning of others that I was able to learn who they REALLY were. In most cases, they used aliases as names. For example, Lana Brite  who was one of the key organizers and would play a very significant role later on   was really Lana Goldberg. Antonin used  the alias Antonin Smith,  but I already  knew his real identity. This is another cult pattern.

    The leaders rarely if ever reveal their true identity to the other members. This is for a variety of reasons, ranging from anonymity in the event that persons are arrested and cannot give up names of person if they don’t know thee real names, or offer up false names as a means to throw off law enforcement. This is yet another example of how the leaders hold onto the power. “ I know who you are but you don’t know who I am “.  I suspect that this was the case as well, in other occupies throughout North America. The players were different  in name only but the game was the same, as was the outcome. This was a well planned, well designed well coordinated event but the work was all done behind the senses, out of sight from  all but the very select group within the  ruling inner circle.  The leaders would get new names as well, they would be called facilitators, very much like the title that cult leaders give to themselves.  

     I was fully expecting to see images of Jim Jones strewn about these meetings  and of course, the proverbial Kool Aid  all ready to ingest as a sign of loyalty to these  leaders.  I was not going to have to wait long. No pictures of Jim Jones were to be found, but the “ Kool Aid “ seemed to flow faster than the water from a shower head, and lots of people in line to partake. Too bad that many  gave up on the morning shower to drink it.

    The time for ad nauseum meetings was over. It was time to Occupy. This is what meetings were about, what all the planning was about, what all this so called training was about. The next segment will look at the now famous date of Saturday October 15, 2010, the date of the official Occupy Toronto occupation of the  still top secret park that no one but the very select few  know about. Please, don’t choke from the laughter, the best is yet to come.  Stay tuned ……….


  • Replies to some comments received so far

    Meow everyone. Yesterday I indicated that today, I would address few house keeping issues based on comments received this far. I would like to thank everyone who did comment.  I have and always will welcome all comments, those who agree with me, and those who disagree. Today, I am going to address one of those comments from a person who disagrees with me .

    The comment in question was regarding a section in one of my articles related to the Pope Squat where I suggested that it had elements of violence in it. The commenter  said that he was there and there was no violence at all. I replied by saying that I was not there so therefore , my comments are based on what others, who were there , told me about the event. I did a little research and found this :

    Image

    What troubles me here is that on one hand OCAP and some of their supporters  claim that the very existence of a police force is an act of violence. Obviously , I disagree, however, from what I see on this article, when persons are removed by force as the article suggests, it is as a result of resistance by one side while another side has to use force to resist the resistance.

    However, regardless of how one wishes to define what violence is, here are some other examples of OCAP using violence  as a protest tool :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slncJUpTPgk&feature=player_embedded

    , and here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH0JKy6LgHQ&feature=player_embedded

    , and here :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u19TXIrCUtI

    The three videos I have linked to was an event I was at and aw it myself, directly, first hand, and it was NOT the cops who had started anything. Here are some more examples of the use of violence that OCAP has participated in as seen by the following articles:

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    Image

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    So, to say that this group is a non-violent group would be inaccurate. I left the actually web site address intact on the screen shot so show where these images are referenced from.

    Next, i would like to add a screen shot of something Liisa Skofield from OCAP said :

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    So, Ms. Skofield, are you saying that you and your organization are somehow better than everyone else and the rules of civility do not apply to you ?

    Next, Ms Skofield says the following:

    Untitled

     

    So. Ms Skofield, you are saying then that actions such as this ( see image below ) is perfectly acceptable and is a harmless action that is non-violent ?

    38iQA

     

    Another comment I received  suggested that persons such as  Sakura Saunders are legitimate activists who do good work and I should leave them alone. If you do good work, I DO leave you alone,  for sure.  However, it appears that my hypothesis of these professional protestors as being nothing but unwelcome appears to be quite true, as shown here :

    Image

    As always, I welcome all comments, good and, and further, if anyone has any questions and wishes more details, I am always happy to provide them.


  • Meow everyone. i have received a lot of feed back from this latest series, for which I thank you all. I appreciate all the comments, both the positive one  as well as the ones less so, as they are all valuable and important.

    The comments presented thus far are worthy of a separate posting which I will call ” House Keeping “. I am  in the midst of  fine tuning a blog entry to address some of the comments, so the next blog entry will be exactly that, some ” house keeping ” .  I will post it tomorrow. Once again, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read it so far, and to those as well, who have decided to comment.


  • The Rise and Fail of Occupy Toronto ………. Part four

    Meow everyone. In my last article, I showed you  who and what a professional protestor is, and does. I outlined what motivates them  and what they actually do. In this segment,  you will see a stark contrast between the professional protestor and “ The Activist “ . You will notice right away that the description of a real activist is far shorter than what was outlined for the professional protestor. This is not for a lack of ability to offer a description, but rather, to show that simply, the real activist does not need a lot of fan fare, does not have a huge ego to boost, is not interested in  public recognition. Indeed, the real, activist just gets things done.

     

    The Activist

     

     

    In stark contrast to the professional protester, the activist uses a vastly different approach to achieve a desired change. Protesting by marching back and forth, chanting with a Bristol board sign stapled to the end of a broken hockey stick will accomplish very few  things. It will certainly guarantee  sore feet, possibly a lost voice and,  likely, a police presence. The activist uses a much different technique to gain support and accomplish the goal they set out to do. The activist does a great deal of research on the subject at hand. The activist then gets an opportunity to make either depositions or full presentations before committees that HAVE the power to make changes. The presentations are filled with verifiable facts, are made in a manner that is respectful of the persons and the process in which the presentation is made, is willing and in fact, encourages dialogue, but the most important difference between an activist and a simple protester is the  protester is out there to protest. The activist not only presents the problem, but rather, keys the presentation  on the real, workable solutions to fixing a problem. The activist does all of this without fan fare, without the need to yell, scream, create havoc and, the activist is approachable and confident. The  real activist often works alone but yields high results as a result of the quality of the work. Here is a great example of what REAL activists do, accomplish and do it without fan fare, cameras and  media attention.

    https://kitty.protestnerd.com/2012/08/31/autistic-children-prevail-over-the-opseu-unions-violence/

     

    Occupy Toronto failed in this area as well because real activists were greatly discouraged from not only having a voice, but also, from airing concerns that the leaders of this obedience cult  did not want heard or aired. In fact, great steps were taken to ensure that only certain persons were heard and equally, certain persons were shut out as much as possible, by design. One such very visible example of this was the disability and accessibility committee of which I was a part of, along with another highly regarded and very well known disability activist, Emily Green. Emily and I worked together years before at Pride as accessibility and disability team leaders.  Emily is somewhat of an icon here in Toronto as a disability and accessibility activist and with her area of specialty being public transit. Our transit system in Toronto is more accessible as a result of her work. I was honoured to be partnered with her. Pride does not take just anyone to act as team leaders due to the nature, size and exposure of the event. Something was very wrong with Occupy and we  were about to get a hard lesson on cult tactics.  However, as opposed to the professional protestor who, when frustrated, simply resorts to the old standbys of name calling and cheap insults as their last form of a futile attack, the real activist is just getting started. The word no to a real activist is really  another word for a challenge. Real activists don’t give up and move onto the next cause. They stick with it until ALL SIDES have come to am amicable agreement. This creates allies, good working relationships and longevity towards the task that has been accomplished. The real advocate is not interested in either awards or commendations. It is not about bragging rights. It IS about making a real, noticeable, lasting difference. No free trips, no free cruises, no  free IPhones, no  luxury hotel suites paid for, no expense accounts, no cash bonuses.

    Below we see Dave Vasey, Lana Goldberg ( aka Lana Brite ) and Bryan Batty in New York City as the unions were kind enough to send them there as a thank you .

    ImageThe real activist works tirelessly for one reason and one reason only …. To make a real difference

     

    So far, I have given a somewhat detailed overview leading up to Occupy Toronto. However, now, it is time to get to “ Occupy “ itself. The next segment will outline the planning stages for Occupy Toronto.  Stay tuned …………


  • The Rise and Fail of Occupy Toronto …. part three

    Meow everyone. The past two articles gave a little bit of an introduction but it is now time to get to the main materials to be addressed. This articles while entitled  “The Professional Protester vs. the Activist “ will actually cover only the professional protestor, as the Activist will  be covered in detail in the following section. Once again, the images used in this article will be mostly my own but some others were  found  from online searches. Once again, a huge thank you to EnGine for the super job of editing .

     

     

    The Professional Protester vs. the Activist

     

    Each group, whether protester, or activist needs bodies to accomplish it intended task. The approaches are, of course, vastly different as well as the results from each. The public perceptions of both are also vastly different. In this section, I will discuss the differences between the two groups, what they actually accomplished and what tactics they used to achieve their ends.

     

    There is certainly no shortage of persons willing to take on a cause and see it through to completion. The defining factor, however, is the means and approaches these two distinct groups use to attain their end goal. Regardless of what direction one is drawn to, they are invariably recruited early on, usually from the university system as early students.

     

    Universities are prime recruiting and training grounds for either the activist, or the protester. In either case, students, many who arrive from small towns with wide eyes, are draw to the lure of a big city, its trappings and its offerings. Often, these new, naive students are away from home for the first time in their lives. They find themselves unfettered in this bottomless pit of freedom something they had not experienced at home. Anything they want is simply a phone call or text message away … anything, causes included.

     

    Like any new student they want to feel socially included, socially aware and accepted into the groups they find interesting. Depending on the school one attends, they may already be unwittingly be involved in certain causes, and not even know it. They may be paying huge student fee levies to organizations like the Canadian Federation of Students ( CFS ) who are a lobby group making claims to represent students.

     

    The Canadian Federation of Students is a polarizing organization. It takes on many issues that often have little or nothing to do with the individual student’s best interests, creating campaigns that have little to no affect for the students they represent. They are willing participants in the creation of animosity between groups and will go as far as to deliberately target certain individuals who speak out against the CFS. The CFS operates very much like an obedience cult where, those who are supporters are rewarded with jobs, positions of power and a sense of belonging.

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    All this can be very enticing to a young and impressionable student from small town Ontario who has never seen a building of greater than three stories tall. The promise of power plays a huge a role in the recruitment of new bodies.

     

    Social media plays an equally large role in recruiting new bodies but with social media, there is not only the simple act of recruitment, there is also the pre-event bravado and vetting of those who may be asking questions.

    With social media, you can plan an event, post it on sites like Twitter or Facebook and invite people to join, all with a few short clicks on a keyboard. Then it’s all a matter of sitting back after opening discussions and pre – determine who is a potential ally and who is to be targeted for ridicule, either at a later date, or, during the discussion phase.

    Social media offers an opportunity to create animosity and division from the very start, to create a divide between who is with you and who is against you. You can see who your enemy is before you actually even meet that person. Further, usually, the creators of an event will  declare a person to an enemy and all others either follow that lead or they too become the enemy.

     

    As George W. Bush once said, “You’re either with us or against us. “

     

    Imagine the effect this statement might have on an impressionable 18 year old student fresh from home. He or she can now decide (without parental influence) to join any group or organization they find interesting and gain seemingly, like minded friends. The flip side is to stand against the various groups and cliques within student life and risk being shut out of everything and ostracized. Student life can be very rewarding but it can also be very stressful socially. 

     

    That’s one hell of a choice to have to make for your first time away from home, and shows clearly just how much power these so called student unions and their organization wield. These organizations will pretty well decide your future before you’ve even finish your first semester.

     

    The professional student protester does not generally stay with just any single cause. They will often take up whatever cause is the “flavour of the month“ depending on how wide their group affiliations are. More commonly, after sufficient time is spent being indoctrinated in a core group they take up causes that they are directed to take up.

    Occupy Toronto and I suspect, other occupy movements were created in this way. (I will get into greater detail about this later on.)

     

    Certain members of these “professional” protesters are chosen as recruitment agents because they have been trained to be personable and approachable to new comers. They are the cheerleaders who encourage the new comers to take up the “cause”.

    This person sells the idea to the unaware newcomer while withholding many of the pertinent details. They take charge of all aspects of the planned protest but often stay hidden behind the scenes. The new recruits are left only knowing where and when to arrive at any given protest.

    They ( the leaders or facilitators ) deliberately stay far enough away during critical times in case any possible arrests do happen. They remain safely tucked away at a distance to fight another day. Occasionally, they will deliberately plan being arrested for minor infractions to boost their appeal. All the while they are willingly and deliberately using innocent persons to take the fall for them. Occupy  Toronto was the text book example of this. During the eviction not one single leader stayed behind long enough to witness any arrests, but these leaders did get camera time. After the cameras had left, so did they to their nice warm and dry hotel rooms to watch the rest unfold on TV.  Their minions got arrested.

     

    The G20 in Toronto was the prime example of how this worked when certain key organizers held secret meetings to strategize and select targets to be destroyed and / or vandalized while they were far enough away to avoid arrest or identification.

    Image

    Others took the fall for them but in the case of the G20, these so called leaders were finally revealed thanks to the diligent work of many aware activists.

     

    Social media might be great for planning movements but it also leaves a very visible and un-erasable trail to follow. These hoodlums were the architects of their own demise.

     

    These fringe groups with their “professional” protesters are trained to manufacture a “problem”, create a scenario to address the “problem” and then lay the blame outside their group when they are outed, caught or arrested.

    These fringe groups with their protesters, will skew and greatly distort stories, then create a campaign of lies and vilifications against their target group to garner support.

     

    One perfect example of this kind of disinformation and recruitment is by a group called Protest Barrick Gold founded and run by one Sakura Saunders. Her claim is that this company kills people daily to get the gold.

    Well, one just has to spend about an eighth of a second to realize the utter stupidity of this. If this corporation or any other corporation were engaging in such heinous crimes would they not be shut down and their CEO’s imprisoned?

     

    Saunders has created a campaign of disinformation against this company because simply put, they are the biggest producers of gold in the world.

    Professional protesters hate all forms of capitalism and they target the biggest corporations they can.

    Below is Sakura Saunders

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    Below is Mark Robert Brill

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     Below  is  James Clark

    james clark

    The persons depicted above are some of the better known professional protestors in Toronto. They protest anything and everything, for no reason other than the fact that they can. These professional protestors don’t have causes. They would protest snow flakes if that is what they were told to do. If you were to ask them what they actually stood for, you would very likely get a 2o minute diatribe on anything but the answer to your question.

    These protesters have a significant flaw in their logic. While they claim to be anti-capitalists, they have no complaints about using all the tools necessary from some of the largest capitalists in the world…the infamous computer czars. They generally have the best computers and use capitalist tools like social media which profits from each person who signs up to use them. They buy designer clothes, live in nice homes (yes, there are exceptions as this is not the case for everyone.)

    For a person such as Sakura Saunders who claims to hate all forms of capitalism, she does quite well, travelling the world year round to attend protests. Having a wealthy family in the investment banking business may not hurt either.

    Can Sakura be a fake protester? There were many such fake protesters around and they are easy to spot.

     

    Some professional protestors have their known trademarks that announce to  the world that they have had a hand in  whatever protest they involved themselves with. Alex Hundert, a convicted criminal who is doing prison time for his crimes with respects to the G20 is one such protestor. His handy work is usually trademarks with his infamous depiction of a crow somewhere on the  protest image flyer. This announces to those in the know that he is somehow involved but at the end of the day, it is more about ego  and bragging rights.

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    Another such group is called No One is Illegal. They postulate that Canada’s borders should be open to all, regardless of whom  a person is, where they come from, what back ground they have  and what, if any documents they have. I cannot begin to articulate the immense flaws I see in that logic. Toronto has been proven to be a jumping of point for  terrorist organizations with some very public , recent arrests and subsequent convictions. If they suggest that Canada should have an undefended border, free to anyone and everyone who wants to come here, I suggest they have been spending a little too much time at the local bar and partaking of all these establishments have to offer. Groups like No One is Illegal and OCAP whom I mentioned previously, present a significant danger to the public as witnessed by their previous  well publicized actions, in  my opinion.

     

    These professional protesters and their fringe groups will exploit a so called cause until they have overstayed their welcome, find something new  causes to exploit and leave a trail of refuse,  stench  and irreparable damage in their wake. To the  professional protester, facts are an impediment to a predetermined course of action. To the professional protester facts open the door to attack any and, all who ask legitimate questions when something fails to add up. To the professional protester, facts are a  license to oppress, defame, slander and in many cases, physically attack those who do ask the hard questions. The professional protest movement is very much like an obedience cult with a strict hierarchy in place. While the professional protester may have a singular target they are fixated upon, they will enlist the help of like minded groups to add bodies.  These sub groups are subservient to the will of the organizing group, however, as a means of thanking these sub groups for  helping out, these sub groups are granted permission to carry out autonomous  actions while within the main protest action. A great example of this are groups such as the International Socialists,   Fightback, Common cause,   and of course, the anarchist movement .  Occupy  Toronto would fall into this category as will be revealed later on. In the eyes of the professional protester, reality is insignificant, inconsequential and only impedes a predetermined goal.

    Image

    They view negative actions against them  as oppression and use that  to further escalate their hostility  and the dissemination of lies and misinformation. To them, truth is only truth if they themselves  proclaim it to be so, regardless of what  facts are actually presented before them. In  their distorted and twisted view, mainstream and recognized facts have no place  within their thought realm or thought pattern. Any person with a reasonable and open mind is  defaulted as the  enemy. Any  and all  reasonable persons presents a serious threat to the oversight and cohesion of this obedience cult, therefore, in their mind, ( the cult leaders mind )  the enemy must be humiliated and ridiculed before all the other cult members, as a warning to the others,  of the consequences  of dissent or independent thinking.

     

    For anyone who spent any time observing protests and then, later, was involved with the Occupy movement, will immediately recognize these actions I just listed. The Occupy movement was a global experiment in the use of these very tactics. However, what the organizers of the Occupy movement failed to consider was that there were enough people out there  who had sufficient reason to question what they observed and thus, expose lies, deceptions, misdirection  and just plain  old  fashioned  bullshit. Occupy was  designed to fail but each occupation failed for different reasons. I will only discuss the reason for the failure ( by  design )  of Occupy Toronto.


    ********** Story Update ***********

    February 15 and 16 2013 ……..  I had a chance to have a lengthy discussion  very recently about one protest action that took place in the west end of the city with the GE, Hitachi plant. Upon discussing it with one of the persons who was there and who further was kind enough to  reply, Cathy, it appeared that i was not made aware of all the facts when i wrote the article. I had a great discussion with Cathy who was kind polite and willing to discuss it in a fair and civil manner with me. We both expressed out opinions freely and after this discussion, I came to realize that indeed, since I was not there, as she correctly pointed out and to which i said as much , there were aspects that i was not privy too. I, have therefore,  redacted in its entirety any mention of that event in this story , as well, i have removed the image in question . Cathy, thank you for your time and willingness to discuss this fairly .

    I remind my readers as well that  I AM indeed always open to discuss anything at anytime with those who have opinions that differ from my own . If you are willing to discuss anything fairly and with respect, I will have your undivided attention and never  know,  you may even have a point or two i was not aware of. However, if you decide to wish to approach me with hostility and disrespect, expect the same in return .

     

    In the next section , the Activists,  I will look at the contrasting styles and approaches that a real activist takes to attain their objective. These objectives are almost always successful, always peaceful, well researched and well presented . Stay tuned …………


  • The Rise and Fail of Occupy Toronto … Part two

    Meow everyone. In the first installment of The Rise and Fail of Occupy Toronto, I gave a just a very short little bit of background about myself and some of what interests me. Well, it is time to set the stage now to the core of this series. I will begin with a very short but notable lead up to where we are today and how this was accomplished. Once again, the images used are a combination of both my own as well as image found online. Once again, My special thanks to my friend EnGine for her superior editing skills.

    The Main Players

     

    Several organizations had significant roles to play in many of the G20 Summit protest events but one of the main players was OCAP aka The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.

     

    OCAP came to fame several years earlier during the famous Queens Park riot. A general protest organized against Mike Harris’s cuts to social programs. It was attended by people of low income, the homeless and those on disabilities. During the protest, violent resistance was used by some of the members of OCAP. Concealed rocks and bricks were thrown at mounted police, innocent protesters and property. At the time the exact motivation behind these acts were not known by the general public but it was a turning point for how subsequent protests would be viewed.

    ImageImageImageImage

    OCAP were also the organizers of what was tagged the Pope Squat. This was the forced squatting by some members, of an abandoned building during the papal visit to Toronto. Both events had elements of violence in them and OCAP has earned, and rightly so, the reputation of being an organization that will resort to the use of violence and property destruction as a means of protest.

     

    The other major player during the G20 was a fringe group called No One is Illegal. They are a group who claim that Canada’s immigration policies are inherently racist and should be completely abolished.

    ImageImageImage

    They profess that all immigrants should have the right to come and go from Canada without having to be subjected to any of the safety or security checks now in place. Measures created to secure the country from unwanted and dangerous elements.

    OCAP and No One is Illegal were the two main groups involved in leading the Blac Bloc anarchists to riot and destroy property during the G20 summit in Toronto. However, other groups were also involved in varying degrees including the unions, environmental groups and social justice groups.

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    After the violent demonstrations many in the activist community were prompted to further investigate the origins of these groups. This led to the discovery that these groups are not quite what they presented themselves to be.

     

    We were witnessing the co-option of a movement, a new and different kind of protest. A social movement that was spreading and infecting the unaware with a new kind of anarchy.

    A movement, where anyone with a cause, or a grudge was welcomed and encouraged to join in the fray. Many did, much to their dismay.

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    Toronto never recovered from the scars and memories of this event and its future would be shaped by its effects. Along with the previous mentioned radical fringe groups we saw the entrance of others also played small but key roles. The Unions were the players with the huge purse strings. They helped to finance these groups but this will be addressed in far greater detail later on.

    ImageImageImageImageImage

    Several persons were finally and subsequently  rounded up as being the  main ring leaders, planners and main organizers of the G20 riots.

    Image

     While many of these organizers had their chargers either stayed,  withdrawn or dismissed, others were, I am happy to say  charged, tried, convicted and are doing prison time for these acts of terrorism, because that is what it was, urban terrorism.  These  people  destroyed the good name and reputation of real honest, legitimate, peaceful and respectful activists. These people had only one motivation and that was to destroy a system they didn’t agree with, and  further, destroy anything that stood in their way. These people are nothing but thugs who are totally lacking any ambition and desire to accomplish anything meaningful, and as a result, they decided to take their anger, their underachieving  ideologies and accomplishments and hold an entire city hostage. Basically they were pissed of because they didn’t have things simply handed to them. These thugs think they are somehow entitled to all the same things that everyone has to work hard for, while they sit back and sponge off of everyone else’s  hard work and complain when things are not handed to them. They blame everyone else rather than take responsibility for their own actions.

    In the next  two articles, I will discuss, in detail, the differences between the professional protestor and the real activist. Later on in this series, I will also identify  the persons directly involved with the organization and the evolution of Occupy Toronto,  and beyond, and roles they played then, and the roles they play now.  The next article will  look at  “  The Professional Protestor” . Stay tuned ……


  • The Rise and Fail of Occupy Toronto

    Meow everyone. i have been working on a rather long article  of Occupy Toronto  for   some weeks now and it  is finally  ready. Some of you will agree with it, others not , but hey, this written from  my perspective as a person who was there, was  involved and had some observations and serious concerns about it . It will be posted over several days as it is close to thirty thousand words and numerous images , both my own and images found online. I wish to offer my thanks to my friend EnGine who very kindly offer her editing skills for this series of articles.

    The Rise and Fail  of Occupy Toronto

     

    For the past twenty plus years, I have had the opportunity to do something very few people ever get to do. I’ve been able to go where I wanted with respect to both employment and hobbies.

     

    I took up photography many years prior to my present activities however; I did nothing concrete with it for years.

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    Indeed, for years, I didn’t even pick up my camera but my inside desire was strong enough to drive me forward and I began to pursue photography more diligently.

     

    I had never really followed any of the great photographers, as I felt strongly that if I was going to make my mark I was going to do it on my own terms, developing my own style and not emulating the works of others.

    Don’t get me wrong, I did see photographers who provided me with the inspiration to create. One photographer in particular really inspired me to shoot whatever felt right.

    I never knew his name, never even saw his work, however, he was a very well known personality in Toronto during the late 70’s and 80’s.

     This guy was always seen around the Queen Street West area, wearing his trade mark Canada Post uniform. With his long greying hair, full beard and moustache and his ever present Leica range finder camera slung around his neck.

    I can only wonder what he shot and what he has seen over his many years but what ever it was, however many years he shot images, my imagination was left to the wonderment of his work.

    Another inspiration was Salvador Dali who is of course one of the greatest surrealist artists of all time and my personal favourite. He worked in a variety of mediums.

    Over the years, I began to develop my own taste and style. My work has a definite Gothic tone. I tend to use dark, heavily saturated shadowing, lots of reds and black, replete with all the usual Gothic trimmings.

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    Sometimes, I throw in car here, a motorcycle there to mix things up. Other times it’s the classic castle with Gothic garbed figures thrown in and voilà, something that resembles art magically evolved.

    Since, one can only do so much with a single theme I realized I needed to broaden my subject matter. I had to find more… shoot it and then create it.

     

    While on that evolutionary journey, I realized that I was moving in a new direction with my work. I shot anything and everything where ever I went and discovered that I was quite good at shooting “as it happens” events.

    ImageThe above image is from the famous Empress Hotel fire about three years ago

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    The above photograph is from the Eaton Center shooting as it happened

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    The above photograph is from a shooting investigation  over the Caribana weekend

    Police calls, fires, EMS, in the moment situations all seemed to fall in my direction. Of course, being in the down town core on a daily basis, there was never a shortage of things to shoot.

     

    One of the other things I spent a great deal of my time doing was working as an activist. I focused on changes needed for persons with disabilities and their accessibility issues.

     

    I reached a respectable level of success doing this with some notable accomplishments that I am very proud of.

    However, this story is not about my past accomplishments as an activist but rather a story about the means and way’s for making change now. It’s a story about how they are made, and also how NOT to make them.

    There is a long history of activism in Toronto and as an offshoot, the protest movement / community over the last few years.

     

    I will be mainly concentrating on the events from the 2010 G20 summit here in Toronto to the present day. Since there has been a huge shift in the way protests are being conducted now I’ll concentrate on how activism has been affected as a result of the occurrences of that one G20 summit.

    ImageThe G20 summit did, however, help promote a new form of media now referred to as Independent Media. Today’s technology can afford anyone the opportunity to report on current events with ease and little expense which has opened up a whole new avenue of reporting.

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    The photographer now has wider avenues to pursue. The videographer has a new venture from which to produce real time news with an independent point of view and it was a blogger’s heaven.

    Everyone had access to a camera. Either, a simple cell phone camera or higher grade equipment and for those with money to spare, top of the line professional grade equipment. Regardless of the equipment, news was about to become world wide, instant and hopefully, unbiased.

    There were several good independent journalists that evolved from the protest movements across Canada.

    Lawrence McCurry is a well-known and highly reputable, independent journalist based in Toronto. He is also an independent film maker and blogger who exposed many of the myths of 9/11 and the G20.

    Ryan Elson from We Are Change Victoria is a tireless researcher renowned for exposing many of the extreme left wing infiltrators in the West Coast protest movements.

    Greg Renouf is an internationally renowned blogger and independent journalist. His in depth exposes on one of Canada’s major aboriginal issues; the residential school travesty, helped uncover the fraudulent behaviour perpetrated on them by specific con artists posing as indigenous activists.
    Greg has successfully advocated for the rights of children living with autism and has exposed the Anarchist and Blac Bloc actions in both the B.C. Olympics as well as the Occupy movements in Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto.

    Fraulein Suzy Divine is an exceptional researcher and a personal friend. Her focused research and studies on mind control and manipulation techniques helped identify the tactics used by the Occupy movement. She was integral in discovering the links to social engineering groups such as OTPOR and Common Purpose among others.

    Indeed, independent media was the catalyst that began the process of exposing many of the covert sub groups working within the activist movements for ill aims, an exposure that those revealed wish they could escape from.

    The next article will focus on some of the main players involved ….. stay tuned ……….