What the fuck happened today?

[sabotabby]

 Where do I even start? The far-right, in Ontario as in Freedom Eagleland, has adopted a pure blitzkrieg policy in its attempt to trample the shreds of even the sham of democracy in this province.

Today, they reintroduced Bill 5, to halve the size of Toronto's city council in the middle of its municipal election—a move which, as you recall from yesterday's WTF-themed post, was declared unconstitutional by Ontario's Supreme Court. Protestors attempted to exercise their right to protest from the public gallery. According to a friend's eyewitness report, they lasted ten minutes before being ejected.

Violently, I should add. Here is a series of pictures by Toronto Star photographer Richard Lautens documenting a number of senior citizens being taken out in handcuffs.

For the People, as they say.

Then the NDP made me glad I voted for them by refusing to come to order in an attempt to delay the bill's passage. They were kicked out by the Sergeant-at-Arms. Elected MPPs (including mine, yay!), thrown out of Parliament for opposing the ruling party. I have never heard of such a thing happening in Canada. What is the point of electing representatives if they are barred by a dictator from representing?

Meanwhile, manchild Sam Oosterhoff, was heard to shout out, "History will remember us kindly!", either misquoting Winston Churchill or Fidel Castro. I don't want to bash homeschooling in general but Oosterhoff is a great argument against the religious, cloistered sort of homeschooling.

My question at this point is this: Why can't we in Toronto have our election anyway, since rules and laws no longer apply in this country?

Comments

[kore]

YEAH LET'S RETURN TO CITY-STATES if the split really is between urban and rural, flyover and coastal ports, LET'S MAKE IT OFFICIAL!

//may have had too much caffeine while reading the new Woodward Trump book

[moon_custafer]

I’ve really started to feel for a few months as though democratic city-states/feudal countryside really is where we’re headed.

[sabotabby]

It certainly feels that way. And much as I'd feel shitty abandoning the feudal countryside, they did vote for these fucks.

[sabotabby]

Jennifer Keesmaat suggested Toronto separating. She had to backtrack but while she's got my support regardless, I'd be even more enthusiastic if it became a serious proposition.

[dewline]

The province of Toronto...or, perhaps, with another nod of respect to our indigenous relations, Tkaronto?

[sabotabby]

Tkaronto, definitely!

[armiphlage]

Shall we start using that name now anyway?

[rdi]

Tkaronto vs. Akwe:kon

[sabotabby]

I wonder if it's okay as a settler to wear one of those, because I 1000% would.

[rdi]

I’d see it as act of solidarity. Think they had some at the Spacing store a while back wish I’d bought one then.

[sabotabby]

If someone will tell me how to pronounce it. :)

[rdi]

Mostly as spelled, I think, except the k is more like a hard g, at least based on what other Mohawk pronunciations I know. Hopefully we can find a native speaker to help us.

[moon_custafer]

Andrea Janus really did a job of really getting her feelings across without departing from neutral journalese, didn’t she?

[sabotabby]

She did. That article is a masterclass in tactful language.

[dewline]

As one who refuses to suffer living in a theocracy, Oosterhoff is one of those other Canadians who creeps me right the Hell out. Same league as Robert Eady, Charles McVety, Brad Trost, and a few others.

[sabotabby]

He's especially disturbing because most people develop higher brain function and skeletal structure as they grow from fetus to baby, but he didn't.

[symbioid]

<3 Yay NDP! <3
Fucking goddamned gangsters - what kind of bullshit.

[sabotabby]

I argue with my hard leftist friends about the NDP a lot. They're right about Notley; I think I'm right about the ONDP.

[minoanmiss]

.... I would dismiss a movie with this plot as too far fetched. So now it's reality.

[sabotabby]

This is actually a legit problem for me because I'm writing a novel about, among other things, Canadian politics, and I now can't write those scenes at all because reality is more unrealistic than my silly wizard fantasy story.

[smhwpf]

FFS. Gods, how fast tyranny can come down.

You'd think that you'd have hundreds of thousands of Torontians in the streets outside the Provincial government HQ whatever that is. (*Googles*) Oh right, outside Whitney Block. Occupying it and forcing the bastards out. But Anglophones don't seem to roll that way.

[sabotabby]

I mean, there are a lot of protests. Problem is that Parliament and the work day pretty much coincide, meaning it's the unemployed, in-a-position-to-take-off-work, and the retired carrying the burden, which is not most of us. And that also, protest and then what? In order for a peaceful protest to work, your opponent must have a sense of shame. If the Ontario Supreme Court can't stop them, what chance do we have?

[mistersmearcase]

Speaking as an American, I can report that once laws and rules start to no longer apply, it never breaks in your favor.

[sabotabby]

I figured as much.