Meow everyone. In the last two sections, I wrote in some detail about how Occupy Toronto was co-opted and by whom. This section will look at the various evolutionary stage that Occupy Toronto morphed into and what the predictable, end result was. Images used in this section are a combination of my own images as well as images I found online.
Occupy Toronto 2.0 …. The Communists are coming
It was a cold rain, a hard rain, in the park near the lake. The grass was all but dead, the trees deprived of the summer leaves, the ground swollen with the cigarette butts, syringes, discarded underwear, wet cardboard boxes and of course the hay bails that were brought in , thinking it would make things more comfortable. The air was afoul from the stench of rotting garbage and overflowed Porto Potties. Even the disease laden pigeons, seagulls and other parasitic organisms somehow knew, wisely, to avoid this cesspool of an encampment. In a span of forty days, the occupy encampment killed off the grass , trees died and the life was sucked of this park faster than an airlock being opened to the vacuum of space. For many, that vacuum was the space between their ears.
The park and the encampment were so laden with bacteria and germs a new medical condition evolved from here, the OCCU-COUGH and the OCCU-FLU. For those who had contracted it, the effects resembled the symptoms of many years previous, when people first contracted Bubonic Plague, and later, the Black Plague. Death was a welcomed alternative. The park was a bio- hazard chemical researchers dream come true. Perhaps that explained why so many looked like zombies, no makeup involved. Just when many thought that Occupy Toronto was finally dead, new players with their own agendas emerged from the back ground they lurked in, like an old Soviet era spy, waiting in the shadows behind the wheel of a KGB Tatra. All the was missing were the dark trench coats, wide brimmed fedora’s, fog, a Lugar pistol with a six inch silencer near by. I can almost hear Comrade Col. Triple X speaking over the cigar lighter speaker as he tells his agent to “ Move in “ .
The old puppet masters, the unions, had abandoned their occupy prize, abandoned the very people they, only forty plus days previously, embraced to a hero’s welcome as the savior the unions had only dreamed of. You see, unions are self serving, greedy, entities that care little to nothing about the members, but most certainly care about their own power and their need to hold onto to it. The unions claimed to hate the one percent, hate corporate greed, and everything it stood for, yet, at the first opportunity, people who have a long history of being professional protesters sought out the first opportunity to capitalize and profit off a movement, when they just days previous, claimed to hate all that corporations where, and stood for. Oh yes, for those who heard slippery Sid Ryan proclaim his dislike for the one percent, umm, Slippery Sid, you make what , about three hundred and fifty grand a year off of the wages and dues of others don’t you ? Not bad for someone who hates the one percent eh slippery Sid.
Judy Rebbick is a well known professional protestor and made a decent living from this, while actually having accomplished nothing with respects to social change as a protestor. Not bad for someone who claims she hates corporations, ( she is rumored to be a professor at, not one but, TWO major universities in Canada ) Funny how she claims to hate corporations but is not uncomfortable working for them, earning a very good living. I just wish she would make up her mind where she stood, and then stick with that position. Wait, she is, after all a professional protestor so a singular position is not in the realm of reality .
Rebbick decided to write a book on her claimed experiences within the Occupy Movement. Books are written to be profitable for corporations, otherwise, a publisher would run away from it. Hey, Judy Rebbick I have no idea what kind of professor you are, but as a protester, at best, you’re forth rate, and I’m being polite and generous. In my opinion, Rebbick embodies the very definition of opportunistic and greedy. As an unfortunate byproduct, she also, in my opinion, personifies the true and literal meaning of hypocrisy. Hey, Rebbick, are you going to take all 100% of the money made from the sale of your book, “ Occupy This . “ and give it back to the very people you claimed to want to help? Who am I kidding, you’re probably going to buy another condo.
Ms. Rebbick was absent from the park for most of the time, however, she was conveniently around for the main stream media and photo ops, just like good ol’ slippery Sid Ryan. I actually also couldn’t help but notice that a period of time, just about every second message sent out on her twitter feed was to promote the sale of her book. Hmmm, for someone who hates corporations, she sure does enjoy making the most use out of them and what they offer as a service, for her benefit of course.
Occupy was filed with people who were there for the sake of public appearances and self promotion, but not much else. Derek Soberal comes to mind as well. He is a guy who proclaims himself as a citizen journalist, yet having a conversation with him, any conversation, one will invariably, within thirty seconds after the commencement of any conversation, be directed into a discussion with him talking about himself and what he has done and what he risked and what he is doing and ……… Remember what I stated early on here. Real activists do things, quietly, sans any fanfare. Sadly, however, often times, as one media hound exits the stage, another one is waiting in the wings to capitalize on whatever they have to grasp onto. In the case of Occupy Toronto, the only thing to grasp onto was the raw sewage left behind.
Occupy Toronto was thrown into the trash can by one set of organizations, only to be revived as a incarnation of something seemingly new and presented as a “ flavor of the month “ group , of the exact same people, who will seemingly accomplish whatever mind numbing vision they had, where Occupy Toronto, failed. They re-branded Occupy Toronto , as Decolonize Toronto. With the stench of Occupy Toronto still lingering, they really should have called it “deodorize”. Some stenches so permeate the air as to leave behind noxious fumes that just don’t go away. Occupy Toronto and now Decolonize was just such a stench. With new pungent partners, the Steel Workers union, the foul, toxic odor that beleaguered and besieged Occupy Toronto would return faster than Krystalline Kraus’s phony sacred fire in a used and rusted BBQ grill.
Decolonize was the next evolution of the Occupy Toronto movement and those who remained as the leaders / facilitators of Occupy Toronto would refocus their efforts on the creation of a new, even more divisive and potentially volatile new movement, and this time, they had new backers, or more correctly, they had backers who strategically remained in the back ground during Occupy Toronto, now take a much more proactive role. However, Occupy Toronto was going to out with a bang, go big and made it very public.
It was January 17, 2012 and the city was involved in serious budget meetings for the upcoming fiscal year. OCAP , some other smaller fringe groups and of course occupy Toronto wanted to make their voices heard, and more so, their presence felt. So, the evening of January 17, 2012, a large group of unionists, Occupy Toronto members, anarchists, OCAP members and a plethora of other low brow fringe and union groups all converged at Toronto city hall. International socialists like Winni Ng, Mohamed Ali Amuer and others where quick to take advantage of this opportunity to advance the causes of socialism / communism.
In short order, these groups decided that the night would best be remembered if there was some good old fashioned rioting. Well, before long, rioting it was. While the level of violence was actually fairly low in comparison the number of persons participating, it was long at about three hours in length and resulted in several persons getting arrested, Derek Soberal being one of them. This then migrated over to a local Toronto Police Services Division where those arrested were taken to, were the protesting continued for about another hour or so.
This city hall action also coincided with a planned re-occupation of city hall, which was moved to the near by Osgoode hall, a facility that is home to the Law Society of Upper Canada, as well, the Ontario Superior Court, Appeals Court. The reoccupation there lasted for about twenty five or thirty days when eventually, the occupiers were again, predictably, evicted. There was a major event that sparked some very serious events that followed that eviction. One of the occupiers was seriously injured during an arrest being made there and it was alleged that these injuries were the cause of excessive use of force by Toronto Police Services officers. It is important to note that the officers were fully cleared and vindicated after a detailed and very thorough investigation. Injuries certainly were of a very serious nature with several facial injuries being highly visible, and there is still the question outstanding of how those injuries , as serious as they were, came about.
Not having been there myself, I am not able to say what actually did happen. Several videos did surface of the event, however, none of them showed any excessive use of force and the officer(s) involved were exonerated of these actions. However, this resulted in another near riot that same evening when an impromptu anti police protest took place and it was reported and verified that one of the protestors actually made some move towards the side arm of one of the officers who often accompany marches to ensure the safety of the marchers, as well, to direct the flow of traffic during these marches.
Has Occupy become yet another fringe group that wanted only violence and hostility? It certainly appeared this way as, from pretty much then on, whatever actions involved Occupy Toronto and / or its participants, trouble was not out of the realm of possibilities and indeed, often times, sadly, became part and parcel of the way Occupy Toronto was going to conduct themselves. Hence, the reputation of Occupy Toronto being just another violent group was well deserved and most certainly earned. Ask John Erb about his arrest while protesting in the very heart of the city, the corner of Yonge and Dundas. He was arrested for drug procession and was dragged out naked from his occu-pod, along with , Adam Kuzmin, a very pro-occupy supporter and loose cannon extraordinaire, also getting arrested for his actions against the police during that same event. Adam exemplified the very hypothesis of occupy being a group hell bent on violence and hostile rhetoric.
Occupy Toronto was soon progressing to “ Occupy Jail “ as these people were getting themselves arrested, when clearly they could have avoided any arrests if they simply conducted themselves in a manner consistent with the by laws, as well as simply being a little more respectful to those who are there to ensure that everyone is safe. This is not a lot to ask and is most certainly not unreasonable as an expectation. Well, optics was never a priority for these people. It seemed that all they wanted was one confrontation after another, and anyone was a viable target. Ask Adam Kuzmim. He would confront you for no reason at all. Well, never let it be said he was the brightest bulb in the box, although, he is one level above Krystalline Kraus.
So, I was talking about Decolonize and moved to some more riots and violence by Occupy Toronto. How did I go from to the other? Well, actually, I didn’t. While there was the occupation encampment at Osgoode Hall, several of the old Occupy Toronto facilitators / leaders , Dave Vasey being one of the main leaders/ facilitators making that trip, made a trip to a reserve at, or, near Kanata. The premises was to enlist the recruit members of the aboriginal community to stage an uprising. Many will remember Oka and Caledonia as two famous and very violent uprisings.
Osgoode Hall was planned as the place that going to play a significant role in this planned native uprising. It was claimed that Osgoode Hall and the land it sits on today was still under native ownership, and natives were going to take it back, possibly by force. I even heard talk as a result of a conversation I had with one of the Occupy Toronto most trusted insiders , about an armed occupation and stand off style confrontation but gladly, this never materialized and indeed, never happened. In fact, Osgoode hall was never again occupied, however, the stage was set for something else. More on that later.
One of the main proclamations of this new Decolonize movement, was to return all of Canada back to the natives. This included the forced removal of all those who are here now, supposedly, back to where they came from. I wonder, does that mean that I would be forced to move back to Quebec?
Well, never let it be said that these occupy / now decolonize people , were poster children of the intellectual society. Well, this was going to bring on a long and drawn out serious of heated debates. I argued, and absolutely maintain that since I was born here, I am as native to this land as is any aboriginal person. I further proclaim that as a person who has served this country, in uniform, in the military, I was prepared to lay down my life in defense of my country. For the record, if I was called up today to report to the nearest military base for return to active duty, I would do so without so much as a nanosecond of hesitation. I firmly believe that as a Canadian, I have a duty and obligation first and foremost to my country, and the protection of the country and its citizens. I can think of no higher honor than to serve, and it was something I was most proud of. The oath that I took in the service of my country does not come with an expiration date. Duty and honor do not come to a conclusion when ones tour of service ends.
This sentiment was rocket fuel to the fire of the usual, professional protestor crowd, Vasey et al. I was not backing down so much as one syllable of my position and actually had some allies who supported my position. For that, I was called everything from racist, to sexist, to homophobic, to misogynist to a white supremacist and everything else in between. Of course when asked for proof of those comments made against me, no one seemed to be able to actually provide any. In fact, the names I was called, was “ standard operating procedure “ for these professional protestors when confronted on their lies. It is actually rather humorous to watch these people try and come up with even a remotely plausible argument when confronted with outright and undeniable facts.
I was not the sole target of lies, slanderous remarks and out right defamation. Others, as well who had some serious questions to ask were immediately targeted in an attempt to silence voices of reason. The attacks were and are geared to the individual, like a bespoke made attack, specific to the individual to be targeted. Those were their, often used, standard responses. They did, however, continue on with some of the old Occupy tools of distraction. The Delphie technique was still very much a tool they used to try and deflect conversations but as before, they failed with myself and others. Their methods were, by now, so obvious, some of us were practically taking bets as to see at what point they would try and bring the Delphie technique into play. Good thing I never placed wagers as I would have lost to Susan every time. She was an expert as not only seeing it in use, but also seeing it as it was approaching. If you got up real early in the morning to see these guys inaction, you slept in because, Susan was / is THE MASTER at spotting this. Oh, and don’t even bother to waste your time trying to deceive her, fool her or lie to her. She can’t be fooled or deceived, just can’t. Its one of those certainties in life, like death, taxes, and, catching the Occupy Toronto / Decolonize leaders / facilitators in their lies.
As the majority of the major unions had decided to greatly hold back their support for Occupy Toronto, one union felt it was their time to step in and take the lead. That union would be the United Steel Workers union. While the majority of the previous unions were fiercely loyal to the NDP party of Canada, the Steelworkers union had its loyalties in another political structure. The Steelworkers were and are very much aligned with a party called the International Socialist Party ( I.S. ) The international Socialist party is based on a Marxist, Leninist, Trotskyist version of communism which is the most violent version of communism. Well, so far, from what has been seen, since the original St. James park encampment eviction, those who ran Occupy Toronto and have the reigns of Decolonize Toronto certainly have exhibited their propensity for violence. It would appear, at least on then surface, that the International Socialists are a match made in heaven for these people. They have the right mix of anarchists involved, and of course, the most violent ones. They have enlisted the most notorious of the fringe groups like OCAP and No one is Illegal, who could not join in fast enough.
The Steelworkers union would provide space to run meetings, training seminars, fund larger activist assemblies, and provide big name, high profile faces to add a false sense of legitimacy to this new movement. Just as Occupy Toronto was co-opted by the unions such as CUPE, OPSEU and organizations like the Ontario Federation of Labor, Decolonize was willingly allowing themselves to be co-opted by the International Socialists. Now just because the big name unions are no longer in the fore front, this is by no means to be taken as them not being involved. No, they are very much still involved and have plans in the works for some very significant future actions, More on this a bit later.
With the International Socialists now front and center, the door was opened up for other like minded ultra radical groups to take their place and be a part of this new, revamped movement. Pro CFS university student unions were welcomed as they had something huge to offer, fresh, young, impressionable, naive and uneducated students just now looking for a cause. These new students were, for the most part willing to be a part of this because they were of course never told about what the real purpose of Decolonize was and, how these leaders / facilitators had envisioned this to take place. The students of these CFS friendly university student unions were paying healthy student fees to the CFS, only to have the CFS back such a dangerous and possibly illegal venture. I will discuss in greater detail the CFS and how they really care ( not ) about the students they claim to represent in an upcoming article
Occupy Toronto morphed from the desire and premises of trying to create ( so they once claimed ) awareness around the need for financial reform, to looking to create an Indian uprising, and both times, predictably and expectedly , they failed. Failure was the only constant, and consistent success Occupy Toronto would attain. Failure was the very best that these leaders / facilitators would ever be able to aspire to. However, they were not quite done failing yet.
The next opportunity for Occupy Toronto / Decolonize to shows it true colors would be the famous May Day parade. This is an annual event in this city, and likely in many other countries. The history of May day has it roots in communist countries where the government would parade it soldiers and military hardware to showcase to the rest of the world, its military might. In Toronto, it was often used as a propaganda tool by the unions to show support for workers and workers rights. The only part of that which was ever accomplished was the part about union propaganda. This year, an added twist was going to be part of the annual may day events. Every fringe group, every ultra radical left wing group, in total, about eighty groups in all, was summoned months earlier, to form a coalition for one huge singularly focused May Day event. Yes, Occupy Toronto leaders / facilitators were very much in charge of this. Remember at very beginning of this story, I stated how these people were nothing more than professional protestors who don’t have goals, but rather, protest where and when they are told / needed.
The leaders / facilitators of Occupy Toronto / Decolonize had devised their “ top secret ‘ plan to use the May Day events as the date for a re-occupation of a park. This was to coincide with the Annual General Shareholders meeting of Barrack Gold. Naturally, Sakura Saunders was very much involved in this planning as the Barrack Gold protest event has been her baby from many years ago. So, the may day parade started from the main downtown core, at Toronto City Hall, made its way through the heart of China Town and ended up at a park about three miles away, but only for a short break of a few hours. The Barrack Gold Annual general Meeting was at the Metro Convention Center downtown, directly across the street from the CBC facility. I knew of the location of the eventual re-occupation about two weeks before everyone else as this was planned in secret and done so , so as to keep the police ill-informed about the final destination. However, the Occupy Toronto brain trust were not known for being the brightest light bulbs in the box. Even Krystalline Kraus would have been able to figure out the end and final location of the re-occupation, even if no one would have told her of the final location.
At 9:00 pm, we depart from Alexandria Park were we ended up at from the march and in predictable fashion, Trey Winney led the march back to the ( not so ) “ secret location”. Trey had one major downfall, however, he could not stay off his cell phone. Oh he would blab for ever, on an analogue phone that any cheap scanner could pick up. He was having a great time talking with the leaders / facilitators about how the route would throw the cops for a loop because they had no idea where the re-occupation was going to end up. So, marching we did, endless marching for almost two and a half hours. Sheesh, when I was in the military, I didn’t have to march so long. We ended up near the ( not so ) secret location and Trey was wondering why there so many cops around still. He phones back one of the leaders / facilitators expressing his frustration that the cops were still around. We kept marching, but ever so close, with each step, to the park.
Finally , at around 11:30 pm, we ended , predictably, at Simco Park, a small park across the street from the Convention Center and directly next to the CBC facility. Oh yes, there were lots of police waiting there already, quell surprise. Trey, in a very defiant tone says, “ take the park “. So, the marchers, all 200 of what was left took the park, with only about 50 – 75 staying overnight. Trey, it may behoove you to know that the only reason you were allowed to “ take the park “ was because it use for the one night was pre-arranged . It was still quite cool and no one in their right mind was going to want to stay outside when a warm bed, a hot shower and food was only a short ride away, at home. Of course, those who left missed the fun, as two or three person were arrested for trying to set up a tent, in defiance of city bylaws. Oh they protested the arrests, but to no avail.
The following day, the Barrack Gold protest took place and in usual occupy style, more meaningless drivel was chanted. No doubt these monotonic chants were surely going to pursued Barrack Gold to cease all operations world wide. All these pathetic chants did was give the local pharmacy some added business, selling headache relief medication. Sakura had the brilliant idea to have two plants attend the meeting in the hopes of disrupting it. Indeed two persons did attend the meeting but where fairly quickly noticed and removed. I was not able to confirm if these two disrupters did accomplish their goals or not. After some more pointless chanting, drumming, and wonderful speeches by Sakura et al, the park was vacated by about five pm the same day. It was going to rain and the hard core, died in the wool professional protestors were afraid of getting their designer cloths all wet, and ruin their recently coiffed hairstyles. The re-occupation accomplished exactly what it had done in the previous occupation, exactly NOTHING. Well, if there is one good thing I can say for the Occupy Toronto Leaders / facilitators, they are, at least, consistent, consistent at accomplishing nothing. They were about to prove me right yet again very shortly.
One protest that took place shortly before the encampment was evicted took it to the intersection of Yonge and Dundas, the very heart of the city. The protestors decided to hold yet another pointlessly predicable blockade of intersection, whereby all traffic was held hostage by these thugs, the usual chants such as “ fuck the police “ and “ kill the rich “ all too familiar. However, this day, there would be a twist that was not going to sit well with many. It was learned that while the Occupy leaders / facilitators where hell bent on pissing off the people of Toronto yet again, one family was sitting , stuck in traffic stoppage Occupy Toronto created, on route to the hospital as their child was suffering a serious medical condition and needed emergency treatment. The leaders / facilitators learned of this but plainly stated that they “ didn’t care, the point had to be made. “ Occupy Toronto created some new enemies that day. The stupidity of these leaders / facilitators where at an all time high and while some of had thought that they had peaked with respects to just how stupid they exhibit themselves as, these same leaders / facilitators were going to show everyone that have the ability to strive to even higher levels of stupidity. Indeed, they would certainly outdo themselves yet again.
As the year moved on, so too, the band wagons arrived, this time, to the tune of the Quebec Student protests. The student protests in Quebec were well publicized as being a protest to oppose the increase in tuition fees. They touted this as a spontaneous protest that sprang up when the government made that announcement. Well, not so fast. It was later learned that these so called student protests were indeed not as spontaneous as they were proclaimed to be. In fact, the very leader of that movement outright stated that these protests were two years in the planning. The student movement offered the leaders / facilitators of Occupy Toronto to finally do something they had been looking to do for a long time, be violent, create animosity and hold the city hostage yet again. Only this time, the public was wise to their, by now, well known method of operation, and stayed away in droves. Yes, many did show up for the first and second student marches, but the people got tired of anarchists and their mindless, pointless, violence laden chants. Here is a lesson when trying to protest in an upwardly mobile middle class community. Chanting “ fuck the police “ and “ eat the rich “ is not likely to gain support, and it didn’t. The international Socialists were in communist heaven once again as their very own student unions would be behind them all the way. Imagine, having ready and willing buffoons who masquerade as student leaders, all, while goose stepping to the drum beat of communism.
The whole student movement protest was, however, a huge scam in that the publicity the rioting students received via news from Montreal was enough to keep people away. Everyone was already privy to the acts of violence and destruction there, and frankly the city was not going to tolerate and support any group or action that was even remotely associated with the Montreal protest movement. The usual crowd was on hand to participate in these student protests and as always, when these professional protestors show up, a whole bunch of nonsense and idiocy is not far behind. The usual bunch of anarchists and malcontents would find their short lived glory days they had been seeking since the G20. Bystanders were often berated by these protestors if they were not in agreement with the protest.
These marches went on for hours at time with absolutely no end location even planned out, let alone in mind. No consideration was even made to account for the fact that the hideous consistent banging of pots and pans might just be a huge disturbance to many small children who lived in these areas. Of course, the usual utter disregard and contempt for the residents seemed to be sole priority. Any legitimate message that could have been made know was not even a thought. These leaders / facilitators wanted no part of logic and reason, they only wanted a disturbance and to alienate anyone who was not with them. As with every protest that is run by professional protestors, nothing, ever gets accomplished. These professional protestors only protest because they, quite frankly do not have the intellectual capacity to retain even the most basic forms of employment. They would be fired from MacDonalds for a plethora of reasons.
The next section will look at the latest incarnation of Occupy Toronto / decolonize. The stupidity meter at this point is peaking near its limit, the brain activity of the leaders / facilitators is almost flat lining, the level of logic is long gone and even Dave Vasey is caught asleep at the wheel. Stay tuned …………..
To those who are on these picket lines, holding the citizens of Toronto hostage , please allow me to offer my thanks for the following : 
These strikes are almost always about personal greed and and power trips of these union leaders . They are nothing more than over grown school yard bullies who love to hold people hostage with their temper tantrums and lust for greed and power. Its about time our government put these unions on a very short leash and make impossible for them to strike and hold peoples live in their hands. 
