I believe Rob Ford was telling the truth because of what he did not say.
He did not say:
I have never used crack cocaine.And he did not say:
There is no video of me appearing to use crack cocaine because I have never been in a situation where I appeared to be using crack cocaine.So, because of what he did not say, I believe that Rob Ford was telling the truth, very carefully.
So what are the possible explanations for the infamous Rob Ford video. Rob Ford says it is just ridiculous, but beyond that he offers no explanation. So we are left to our own speculation. But there must be some explanation for the fact that the journalists that saw it thought that it was indeed Rob Ford, so let us look at the possible scenarios.
The Ford Nation Conspiracy Theory Scenario
Its all a conspiracy by Somali drug lords, American media, The Toronto Star, the NDP, CUPE and the Toronto Cyclists Union to discredit the man they hate the most.
The Sophisticated Video Editing Scenario
A group of low level drug dealers produced a sophisticated fake video appearing to be Rob Ford smoking crack.
The Stumbled Upon a Rob Ford Look-alike Scenario
A group of Toronto druggies just happened to know someone who looked like Rob Ford and thought it would be fun to make a spoof video and one of them had the idea to try to sell it to the media for big bucks.
The Fooling Around With His Football Team Scenario
Rob Ford was at a party with some of his beloved minority football players and thought it would be cool to pretend to be smoking crack cocaine and somebody made a video.
The It Is What It Appears To Be Scenario
Just that. That it is what it appears to be.
Rough Cut: Beaver Pond Song
By Julie Comber
So much noise out there
Can be hard to hear your own voice
So much power used against us
make ya feel you have no choice
We may each feel small
But together we stand tall
So wake up and raise your voice
Go on and make your choice
Who’s gonna fix this
If we back down
Who’s gonna save
Our sacred ground
Its an old story
We don’t have much time
To stop the chainsaws
To stop this crime
A beautiful forest
Home to many species
Bit by bit
Cut into tiny pieces
No one paid
To take the long view
Except developers
Makin’ profits for the few
The rich play golf
While the forest crashes down
Basements get flooded
Can we turn this around?
Where is Ottawa City Hall?
Where is NCC?
Where is the province?
Why is it just you & me?
Why do humans use our power against life
Against life
Against life
And that is our fight
for life
that is our fight
for life
that is our fight
for life
Beaver Pond Forest
took centuries to grow
A week to destroy
This is our chance to show
That we’ve become wiser
That we fix mistakes
That we value life
That we’ve got what it takes
Will we listen to our Elders?
Which path will we choose
This is a key time
Not a moment to lose
So stand up and raise your voice
Go on and make your choice
Who’s gonna fix this
If we back down
Who’s gonna save
Our sacred ground
Vote with your dollar
picket Urbandale
prove this is the wrong way
to make a sale
Cut through the busy
You know its right
Save Beaver Pond Forest
Please join our fight!
So stand up and raise your voice
Go on and make your choice
Who’s gonna fix this
If we back down
Who’s gonna save
Our sacred ground
Light your candle for hope
Don’t give in
The truth will rise,
we can all still win
Light that candle
Don’t give in
Truth will rise,
we can all still win.
As Ottawa Police come under attack for repeated acts of brutality, rather than condemning the perpetrators, the Ottawa Police Association goes after the judges who have condemned the atrocities.
As the Ottawa Citizen reports:
The association is now looking at the possibility of filing a complaint into the comments made by Justice Richard Lajoie, who brought attention to officers’ mistreatment of suspects and prisoners when he dismissed criminal charges against Stacy Bonds, who had been charged with assaulting police.It is actions like these, the brutality by police officers themselves and their association attacking the judges who speak up against police brutality, that drives "a wedge between the police and the community", not the judges standing up for innocent members of the public. This "circle the wagons" Blue Wall of Silence is what that alienates the public from the police that should be protecting them, not brutalizing them.
Lajoie considered video recordings of Bonds being manhandled and strip-searched in the cellblocks at Ottawa’s downtown police station, and said he didn’t want to play any part in the “travesty” of the case against her. He called her treatment “an indignity towards a human being.”
Boucher wrote in the e-mail to his members that Lajoie’s comments drove a wedge between the police and the community. He wrote that the union leadership is consulting with its lawyers; it’s not clear to whom a complaint would be filed.
Some people will support the police whatever they do. When I saw the recent CBC poll I was disturbed, but then when I saw the CFRA poll I was disgusted.
CBC Poll - Did the Ottawa police officers go too far in their dealings with Stacy Bonds?
Yes 88.99%
No 8.93%
Undecided 2.08%
CFRA Poll - Should Ontario’s Attorney General resign after the province said it supports the decision made by crown prosecutors to proceed with a case against Stacey Bonds?
Yes, it’s an injustice and a travesty that the case went ahead in spite of how she was treated by police 60.3%
No, just because Bonds was not convicted doesn’t mean the decision to proceed was wrong 36.3%
Other 3.27%
Ottawa Citizen story
What I realized is that, indeed, some people will support the police no matter what they do. These are people who think the courts are too soft and that the police never arrest anyone that isn't guilty. These people think that if someone is beat up by the police they probably have it coming to them.
These are the same type of people who supported the right wing law and order blame the scapegoats German equivalent of the Tea Party in the 1930s.
These people are very scary and they are growing in numbers, egged on by people like Glenn Beck and Lowell Green. We must speak up against them.
The rationalizations are coming out now for why the police were conspicuously absent when acts of vandalism were taking place (away following peaceful protesters around Toronto streets), why they abandoned police cars for the Black bloc to torch (was it inadvertent, incompetence or intentional), and why they decided the best way to counteract a small group of criminals was to attack peaceful protesters, media and bystanders by detaining, arresting and even assaulting them for simply exercising their Charter right of peaceful assembly.
The rationalizations being - it worked, there were no incidents of vandalism on Sunday so whatever the police did was justifiable - they did arrest some criminals so that justifies the arrests of hundreds of innocent people along with them - and the ever used, people were asking for it by being where the police did not want them to be and refusing to do what the police ordered, whether lawful or not.
Indeed the overkill of police intimidation no doubt played into what changed the protests from protests against the actions of the G20 into demonstrations in support of the Charter right of freedom of peaceful assembly.
While we all deplore the vandalism of the Black bloc tactics, interestingly enough there were no reports of physical harm to people resulting from them, while there are many reports of physical harm from attacks on innocent people by the police, as well as massive attacks on the civil liberties and Charter rights of Canadian citizens.
The story of the South March Highlands and why it must be saved, in under five minutes. A must watch video.
