What kind of country sees those responsible for keeping the peace run riot in the streets.What kind of country sees senior police commanders order the detention of 400 citizens in a lightning filled downpour refusing requests from front line officers to let people go, orders the arrest of every innocent civilian peacefully gathered in a so called free speech zone, an order gleefully and violently carried out by their underlings. What kind of country sees innocent civilians labelled "terrorists violently scooped up off the streets and thrown into cages, yet sees with the exception of two cops those responsible face no harsher penalty than the loss of their jobs. Others such as the RCMP and out of town cops don't even face that level of jeopardy, in fact they face none at all. Real crimes should result in real penalties instead what we get is this exercise in faux accountability.
Real accountability demands that Chief Blair and RCMP Chief Supt. Alphonse McNeil resign or be fired, it requires that those who broke the law be criminally and appropriately charged. Real accountability screams for the governments in charge that weekend to fall. Real accountability demands a full and public accounting of what went wrong that weekend in Toronto and concrete action to make sure it never happens again as it already is in Quebec. However as long as a significant proportion of Canadian society is satisfied with the mere illusion of accountability and democracy this is all we will get.
Of course, I share the frustration you express here, and can only hope that the relentless scrutiny of progressive media such as The Toronto Star and the growing cry of prominent citizens like Clayton Ruby calling for Blair's resignation will make his continuing as Chief untenable.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting to note that like the craven politicians they are, both Stephen Harper and Dalton McGuinty are conspicuously silent on this issue.
Yes Lorne I have noticed McGuinty and Harper's silence on this issue,moral cowards do as moral cowards do. I have also noticed that they are abetted in their silence by the corporate media, who never seem to bring the subject up in scums, pressers and interviews
ReplyDelete