Cinefranco

Episode 47 of This Is Toronto is now available!

This latest edition previews the 14th annual Cinefranco Film Festival.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Mar. 25, 2011

A Reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham

First a few disclaimers: I do not understand 'reenacting' battles. I find nothing glorious in war and do not understand the attraction of reenacting battles any more that I think reenacting murders or natural disasters would be entertaining. I actually find deliciously ironic that the reenactment of a battle was threats of violence. I am also not unsympathetic to Quebec separatist. I greatly admire the extent to which Quebec has maintained it's language and culture while being surrounded by nearly 400 million people who speak another language and have a different culture. I wish that English Canada's dedication to its culture was as deep and I hope that someday a way can be found for Quebec to exist peacefully and happily within Canada.

With all of that said because reenactment was cancelled due to threats of violence and because that is not the way we do things in Canada, and because such people should not be rewarded here is a reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

In this particular reenactment the French are played by Bambi and the English are portrayed by Godzilla's Foot:

JE ME SOUVIENS

Harper's Majority Hopes Slipping Away

Going into last night's French Language Debate Stephen Harper's Conservatives were already in trouble in Quebec. Harper's positions on youth crime and arts and culture had both cost him with Quebecers. According to a recent poll by Leger Marketing the Tories were down 8 since mid-September going into the debate.

"A poll of 3,624 Quebecers by Leger Marketing shows that if the election had been held last week, the Bloc Quebecois would have received 33% of the votes in Quebec and the Conservatives -- who have slid 8 percentage points since mid-September -- would have come away with 26%. The Liberals would have received 23% of ballots cast, followed by 12% for the NDP and 5% for the Green Party."

Seat projections based on those numbers would have given the Conservatives 12 seats in Quebec compared to 47 for the Bloc and 14 for the Liberals. That would be just two more seats than the Conservatives won in Quebec in 2006. Last night, it appears, Quebecers felt that Harper lost the debate and badly. An instant polls held after the debate showed that only 13-16% of Quebecers felt that Harper won the debate compared to 40-41% for Stephene Dion, and 22-24% for Gilles Duceppe. If these numbers hold it would be fair to assume that the Conservatives will pick up no seats at all in Quebec and will have to work hard to hold the ones they have. Without gains in Quebec it is difficult to see how Harper would gain a majority of seats nationally.

If the Conservatives win only 10 seats in Quebec, they would need to win 145 of the 233 seats in the remaining provinces to form a majority and the Conservatives are currently trending downward nationally. Currently at 35% which is down 6 points since the election was called.

Montebello: Who and Why?

I know this kind of stuff isn't the main thrust of publicbroadcasting.ca, but there are serious issues raised by the Montebello incident so I hope you'll pardon the deviation.

Now that the Sûreté du Québec has admitted to having plants in the crowd, the real questions begin to arise. I know that the police deny that their undercover officers were there to instigate anything, but it is clear from the video that that is simply not true.

So, the question now becomes who wanted the protests to turn violent and why? Sadly the Harper Government has already said there will be no investigation. So we are left to speculate and guess. Who stood to benefit by violence at the summit? It surely was not the police themselves. They stood to potentially be injured in the violence. Why would they make their day that much harder?

There is at least one person who springs immediately to mind. Someone who would benefit by news images of a violent, rock throwing crowd and massive arrests: Stephen Harper himself. There is no doubt that Harper wanted to trivialize the protesters and the issues they raised.

"the rules for jellybean contents are different in Canada than in the United States," Harper explained.
"They have to maintain two separate inventories.
"Is the sovereignty of Canada going to fall apart if we standardize the jellybean? You know, I don't think so. Maybe Mr. Dion thinks so, but I don't think so."

Was that the news story we were supposed to see that night? Harper inside talking about jellybeans juxtaposed with images of a riot outside? I think it's increasingly clear that there needs to be an independent investigation into this matter. Based on the lies and deceit that have occurred over this issue so far without a investigation, and reasonable explanation I think that people would be safest to assume the worst.

Quebec police admit they went undercover at Montebello protest

Well this http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/23/police-montebello.html?ref=rss clears that up. The Quebec police now admit to planting undercover officers amoung the protesters. The statement also says

"In no time did the police of the Sûreté du Québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts,"

It neglects to mention though, as shown on the video tape that the only reason the undercover officers did not 'act as instigators or commit criminal acts' is that they were prevented from doing so by peaceful protesters. I'm sure this won't be the last we hear, but now there must be a real investigation to determine who from Sûreté du Québec (or other agencies) had knowledge of this operation and who ordered it. Certainly those persons cannot be permitted to work in any area where public trust would be required.

Montebello's Grassy Knoll?

This has been circulating for a few days now and it is really something that needs to be cleared up. The video below shows a confrontation between CEP President Dave Coles and 'protesters' accused of being police officers in Montebello Quebec.



The photo below adds weight to the theory that the 'protesters' were actually "agents provocateurs" sent by someone. It certainly appears to show that the 'protesters' accused of being police officers and the police officers themselves are wearing identical boots.



Additionally, a retired Ottawa police officer who was in charge of overseeing demonstrations at one time has weighed in with

"Well, if they weren't police, I think they might well have been working in the best interests of police."

Both the RCMP and the Surete du Quebec have completely denied that the people arrested were police officers or were working with police and in Parliament opposition leaders are calling for investigations.

But this should not be a complicated issue. One good journalist should be able to do the 'investigation' in a day or two. If these people were arrested, there should be an arrest report that says who they are. The only way the police could refuse to release those names would be if they were minors - and they quite obviously were not.

Now, it is also quite possible that they will say they were 'let off with a warning' or 'taken into custody and released' so there is no police report. This response, in any case, would be damning. If the police say that they took into custody protesters who had threatened violence at a summit attended by three national leaders and then released them without even getting their names it means one of two things. It means that they are lying or it means that they have committed an unforgivable sin in post 9/11 North America.

So, assuming that there is a police report, and the men's names are available it should be easy enough to find out who they are, where they came from, and why they were there. There are alot of good journalists in this country, get to work and if you are stonewalled report on that. The longer these questions remain unanswered the more damning it will be for the authorities involved.