Politics in Canada turn ugly - and dangerous

[Peacetrain]

It is getting ugly in Canada too.. I had heard from a friend that there was a real neo con movement up there also. When we push these bozos out of power, I hope they do not go to Canada, I like the Canadians!!


TORONTO: The seemingly benign decision to stick a Liberal Party lawn sign in her front yard has brought an unnerving new ritual to Marla Waltman Daschko's daily routine. Every morning, she walks around her Volkswagen Passat station wagon and then peers underneath its chassis searching for signs of sabotage.

She is not alone, at least in parts of Toronto, when it comes to kneeling down and examining regions of cars that usually only mechanics see. Last weekend, Toronto residents woke to find the brake lines on their cars severed, their telephone and cable television lines cut, and political graffiti scratched into automobile paint and scrawled on their homes. The sole link between the victims: a lawn sign promoting a Liberal candidate in the current federal election.

The attacks came in two leafy, upper-middle-class residential neighborhoods, including Waltman Daschko's, where raccoons raiding garbage pails are normally a bigger concern than crime. While the sabotage led to only near-misses rather than any deaths or injuries, episodes have provoked a mixture of bafflement, anger and defiance. They have also brought an unwelcome tinge of nastiness to an election campaign that has been short on drama.

Waltman Daschko briefly removed her lawn sign last Saturday evening at the suggestion of the police after the first attacks, which occurred over Friday night and early that morning. But she stuck it back into a planter near the sidewalk before going to bed, partly after considering the history of her Jewish ancestors.

"Perhaps because it's the High Holidays, but I thought of my parents and my grandparents and what they went through to assert their faith," she said. "It's shocking that in Canada, in Toronto and in the 21st century that this could happen when all we're doing is supporting a very mainstream political party.


http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/09/america/toronto.php

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. That sucks!

x(

[Faygo Kid]

2. They can hear Limbaugh up there, too.

The hate is spreading.

[depakid]

20. Unfortunately, it's not just Limbuagh and his ilk

although removing or ameliorating their influence would be helpful.

[Ozma]

3. Every time I have been in Canada, I have LOVED it... but now??

You have your OWN variety of crazies?

I'm sorry.... we plan on deporting ours to Alaska, which you can actually see from Canada.

[zazen]

4. my Toronto-based Canadian ex-in-laws were the most racist people I'd ever met

and my family goes back in NC well before the revolution. I particularly loved it when they'd make jokes about the "backward South" in between their anti-semitic tirades.

I guess it was just chance. I'd only feel safer there because of global warming and a parliamentary system, but you know, it's probably safer to stay here and align myself with people who've fought generations of direct police state racism. They've got a better handle on it than I do--certainly more experience.

[dana_b]

5. seriously - what is with people??

you don't agree with their political ideologies so it's okay to try and KILL them by cutting their brake lines? I don't remember such an ugly time in my lifetime (I'm in my 40s).

[Peacetrain]

9. That is what floored me when I read that.. the hatred is

so palpable that they are willing to kill whole families to stop their idea

[Joanne98]

6. It's the fundies!

[Peacetrain]

10. That is what I think also

[zazen]

7. there's a broad swath of oh-Canada that's part of the same red-state US midwest mindset

maybe they should have their own country

oh, I guess some of them are already advocating that

[marmar]

17. Umm, not Toronto. It's one of the most progressive cities on this planet.

n/t

[lunatica]

8. the yellow toothed knuckle draggers so cutely named six pack gals and guys

Are feeling empowered. They have a national election candidate giving them meat and they're getting all whipped up into a uber-flag wrapped patriotic frenzy. Soon they will want to feed. I'm afraid someone is going to get killed this election season, and not just a candidate. Someone will take advantage of a victim of opportunity if this doesn't get stopped by the people feeding the froth.

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. That's hardly representative of the Country, Toronto being the largest city 'n all.

.
.
.

I voted in the advance poll last Monday, and neither here in my small town or in any of the surrounding communities is there any real hoopla over it all.

"DANGEROUS"???

hardly

just a few idiots that have nothing better to do

It'll be all over with in 3 days anyhow - the 14th is the last day to vote, and I suspect we'll have the results within 12 hours after wards.

We do our elections quick

Get the pain over with.

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. Idiots steal yard signs. It's an entirely different beast who attempts murder.

I have no doubt this is isolated and not indicative of widespread patterns throughout Canada. But the cutting of brake lines is rather disturbing, no?

[Posteritatis]

16. You don't consider cut brake lines and death threats to be dangerous? (nt)

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. Cutting brake lines? That's attempted murder.

[Peacetrain]

15. Was there something about Palins son messing with a school bus.. cutting brake lines??

Or am I getting all of these crossed up now. I could have swore, that was the reason he joined the service to avoid jail time.. I thought I read it in here maybe. But it sure seems to be a pattern among this group of ghouls

[tom_paine]

14. As I predcited, the Bush Triumph would be a victory for evil around the world.

As the forces of democracy and simple human decency were put to flight in rout by the Bushies, it was obvious to me that all over the world, evil people and totalitarians would take note and feel emboldened by Bushie State Crminality, practiced in the self-named "Beacon of Freedom" :rofl:

This would, of course, lead to an increase in Secret Police Activity and evry other vile crime perpetrated by Totalitarians on their victim/subjects.

I also predicted many years ago that the Right-Wing Authoritarian Followers around the world would grow emboldened to commit genuine acts of criminality like this one.

And of course it was Bushies. Hell, the Canadien Bushies are probaly claiming the Liberals vandalized themselves to gain sympathy. ANOTHER old Nazi trick the Bushies frequently use.

[Canuckistanian]

18. Wow, that's puzzling

I've never heard anything like this before, especially not from Toronto, my old home town. In the West End where I came from, we usually had Liberal or New Democratic MPs.

Politics in Canada RARELY incites people to such lengths. Our elections are usually quick, boring and non-controversial.

[Pacifist Patriot]

19. I searched the Globe & Mail for another source a bit closer to home...

Not that the International Herald is necessarily a rag, but I wanted to see it elsewhere and in the Canadian media.

I found this article from October 6.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081006.ELECTIONVANDALS6/TPStory/

[hermetic]

21. Several articles at CBC

Here's one dated Oct. 6
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/10/06/vandalism-highpark.html