Posted on 07/19/2004 11:20:57 AM PDT by Ros42
Front Page Story Toronto radicals to lead GOP convention agenda by Judi McLeod
July 14, 2004
Bandanna and mask-wearing activists, hobbling horses by tossing marbles under their hooves at next month’s GOP Convention, are taking their inspiration from a violent June 15, 2000 Queen’s Park Toronto protest.
Organizers of the notorious Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) had a deliberate agenda to bring down police horses at the protest, staged against then Ontario Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris. The public image of proud police horses whinnying in pain and fear remains in public memory, and marked the massive exercise in civil disobedience as the mother of all protests. Some 42 Toronto police officers were injured and vets worked for weeks after the protest saving nine injured horses.
According to Ontario court testimony, protesters were expected to use bicycles to discourage police horses from moving in on them.
Toronto police found notes referring to "bikes" and "marbs" in OCAP leader John Clarke’s backpack five weeks after the June 15 protest.
Activists had prepared for the June demonstration remembering what Clarke called "the strength of those animals," at a 1991 Metro Convention demonstration.
For the Queen’s Park protest, OCAP members had at first toyed with the idea of using the tactics from a scene in the movie, Gandhi, where demonstrators are told they should sit down en masse, because that would keep the horses from riding at them.
" We rejected the notion of sitting down because we weren’t prepared to take the director of Gandhi’s word for it", said Clarke.
Since the horse-hobbling protest, Clarke has been active south of the border. In February of 2002, he was questioned by immigration officials when he was crossing into the U.S. from Canada to speak at a Michigan State University. Clarke was asked what anti-globalization protests he had attended and whether he is opposed to the ideology of the United States. His car was searched and he was frisked. Denied entry to the U.S., he was interrogated by a special agent with the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. He was asked if OCAP was a cover for anarchism and if he was a socialist. The agent had a file on OCAP, leaflets from public-speaking engagements Clarke had taken part in and even the name of a man Clarke has stayed with in Chicago. Clarke was accused of being an "advocate for violence" and threatened with jail. Astonishingly, the interrogator asked him questions about Osama bin Laden.
OCAP and the activists of other radical Canadian groups will be bussed by the thousands to the GOP convention at Madison Square Gardens to be on hand for the Aug. 31 official day of civil disobedience.
The faces of some will be hidden behind bandanna masks.
According to an Internet explanation of the masks, entitled Black Blocs for Dummies, "Masks promote anonymity and egalitarianism. They also protect the identities of those who want to engage in illegal acts and escape to fight another day."
Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 25 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard and the former Brampton Daily Times
OCAP and the activists of other radical Canadian groups will be bussed by the thousands to the GOP convention at Madison Square Gardens to be on hand for the Aug. 31 official day of civil disobedience.Stay home and muck up your own country!
So we're allowing foreigners to disrupt our domestic politics?
According to an Internet explanation of the masks, entitled Black Blocs for Dummies, "Masks promote anonymity and egalitarianism. They also protect the identities of those who want to engage in illegal acts and escape to fight another day."Terrorists and klansmen agree.
New York police should be on the lookout for these invading thugs, and arrest them en mass, as soon as they start to act up!
This is NOT a free speech issue, since their tactics go WELL beyond just verbal harrassment. If our police or their horses are injured in these actions, they should be arrested and brought to trial!
If these thugs do this, capture them as enemy soldiers out of uniform and ship them to Gittmo for further dispostion.
Yep, NYPD said they will charge OUR citizens that engage in violence with domestic terrorism....so Canadian citizens can be charged with Internation Terrorism!!!
"The faces of some will be hidden behind bandanna masks. "
No problem. In New York, there is a law stating that if three or more people appear in public wearing masks they can be arrested immediately. No questions asked.
Will be fun to watch next month.
Organizers of the notorious Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) had a deliberate agenda to bring down police horses at the protest, staged against then Ontario Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris. The public image of proud police horses whinnying in pain and fear remains in public memory, and marked the massive exercise in civil disobedience as the mother of all protests. Some 42 Toronto police officers were injured and vets worked for weeks after the protest saving nine injured horses
WHERE are the wails and cries from the "american" PETA/ELF/ALF/ASPCA gestapo slugs on this deliberate harm of animals?
I didn't hear anything? Hmmmmm????
I didn't think so!
"Canadian citizens can be charged with Internation Terrorism!!!"
Works for me! These are punks, who need to learn about the limits of acceptable behavior in public, despite the lack of that education in liberal-Canuckistan!
For those of you who remember the Democratic Convention in '68: The radical protestors made news world-wide. I believe it was the news footage of this that made the election as close as it was. Hubert Humphrey should have lost by a landslide; especially with George Wallace on the ballot for the American Party. I believe the protests gave sympathy to the Dems and Nixon won by a narrow margin. W/O Wallace, it would have been a Humphrey victory. Comment anyone?
Rolling marbles under police horses = Assault with intent to kill on a police officer = Dead Canadian terrorists.
If these people think they are going to do the same thing to the NYPD and their horses they are in for a rude awakening. NYPD will not stand for this sort of crap and if I were them I wouldn't want to get any of them pissed off. I pity the foolish people who think they can get away with that here.
"Some 42 Toronto police officers were injured and vets worked for weeks after the protest saving nine injured horses"
Perhaps the best approach is to keep the mounted guard resting in the stables, until the water-cannons have flushed these vermin down the sewers!
water-cannons ?
Leave the water out and I'll agree!
I don't know how it is in Toronto, but in NYC police horses and dogs are officers of the law for purposes of prosecution - the relevant felony statutes would apply.
LOL!
LOL - Maybe we should send this article to PETA!
The looney left wing rioting on national television in Chicago arguably did in Humphrey more than anything else. Ordinary Americans were disgusted by the scene and voted for Nixon. If these idiots want Bush out, then they should keep quiet and not give ordinary Americans any reason to fear the left.
Possible adjustment to your great tagline-
The hamster is impeached, but the wheel is still spinning....
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