Posts Tagged ‘free’

Montreal Protester Crippled, Comatose

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8zEdYa1bt8

(This is the edited, slow-speed version. Original copy here.)

One of Montreal’s protesters is now in hospital with brain damage, severed spine, broken vertebrae and little chance of recovery, according to reports.

As seen in the video above, the unidentified man has a brief scuffle with an officer, apparently holding on to the officer’s bicycle for a few seconds. Almost instantly, the man is full-speed tackled to the ground by another officer, striking the protesting man in the back of the neck with a police baton. The violent collision sent the man’s limp body to the ground where his head walloped against the concrete.

After this, numerous police swarmed the unconscious man, keeping a knee on the back of his neck. He was jarred around while police searched and handcuffed him. Over 30 minutes passed as paramedics finally tended to the comatose man.

All this took place over a week ago. The mainstream media remains utterly silent. The identity of the man still has not surfaced.

This begs the question, what will happen to the police officer who all but killed a guy? Repercussions must be dealt to this bad cop, otherwise police will think they can get away with it. And so far it seems as if they are going to.

The Free Internet Act

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

SOPA has been squashedACTA might be on its final act, and Bill C-30 is now under close surveillance, but the battle for an uncensored Internet rages on.

Enter the Free Internet Act, designed to “promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation by preventing the restriction of liberty and preventing the means of censorship.”

(more…)

Canadians Must Crush C-11

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Well-funded lobbyists representing the special interests of media giants have, for many years now, been engaged in an all out war against the Internet as we know it. The free exchange of information fostered by the Net represents a threat to their business models. Unwilling/unable to change themselves, these behemoth corporations are looking to change the Internet, even if it means destroying everything good about it.

Here in Canada the latest front in the battle against online liberty takes the form of Bill C-11, a piece of proposed legislation that has already garnered an extensive list of dissenting organizations, representing millions of Canadian voices.

The proponents of Bill C-11, much like those who pushed the outlandish SOPA bill until it was shelved due to unprecedented public uproar, largely consists of Hollywood film studios, major record labels, and other high-level mucky-mucks who earn their keep in the entertainment industry.

Several proposals in C-11 would create what is essentially a digital lock, allowing courts to order websites blocked from Canada without the need for any proof of copyright infringement or due process. In other words, they want the right to censor the Internet on a whim, and to hell with what any of you whiny citizens may want.

Clearly this bill would be a bad thing for the majority of freedom-loving Canadians. Worse still, should this bill pass, it would give the precedence for other countries to follow suit. ‘Look, the Canucks are doing it… we should too!’

If you haven’t already done so, you need to step up to the plate. Write or call your MP, your MLA, and any other politician you can think of. Plead with your friends and family to get involved. Without sufficient backlash from the Canadian people, this bill will pass. And then the next one, then the next one, until the Internet is nothing but a portal to corporate products and their corresponding commercials.

If my words aren’t enough to motivate you, then I’ll leave you with this inspiring call to action from Redditor Stormy_Fairweather:

SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, C-11, TPP, PCIP… the writing is on the wall. Those who would rule are terrified of the internet. They are doing everything they can to choke it, to control it, to bring it under their rule.

We MUST not allow it, for the future of our species, it is time to fight, it is time to overthrow our masters, it is time we stopped being domesticated and embraced the greatness within us. Every man should be his own master, and if we do not make this happen then we will all be slaves.

For Humanity!

 

Rational Reefer Reform

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Oh glorious days! The war against the war on weed is advancing across many fronts. As long as this keeps up, the Western world might actually climb out of the dark ages and finally purge the plague of drug prohibition.

Up in the Great White North, the Liberal party added legalization of marijuana to their platform. Not less enforcement. Not decriminalization. Actual full fledged regulation that allows the unfettered distribution and taxation of legal weed. Take that, Harper!

Spurred forward by the frigid temperatures, Michiganders just kicked of a campaign to amend state law and legalize marijuana for use with adults over the age of 21. Go Wolverines! Or should I say Weedverines? No… Wolverines is just fine.

Members of the Centennial State – Colorado – will soon get a chance, come November, to decide whether or not they’d like to legalize possession of small amounts of the sticky icky. Finally, a law-abiding rocky mountain high!

And last but not least, prepare your bullshit protection for when the US government will be forced to justify the Schedule I status of Marijuana in court. Watch as the contortionists from the pro-prohibition side attempt to show how one of the safest and most beneficial plants on earth is actually just as bad as black tar heroin.

Opposition to drug prohibition has never been stronger than it is right now. The end is in sight. Within a few years, if all goes smoothly, we’ll be able to look back on ourselves today with the same disdain with which we view the quaint alcohol prohibitionists from last century.

Glorious days, indeed!

Testing the Occupation’s Resolve

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Corporations and big banks are forever expanding their influence across the financial and political spectrums. Expensive and unproductive wars have been destabilizing nations and economies around the world. More than one in six humans on earth are currently starving while a few thousand people control enough wealth to feed the world indefinitely.

There are many very serious reasons to be upset at the establishment. But try to exercise your rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, and you just might find out how militarized our own police forces have become.

Just ask activists from Richmond, Rochester, Portland, Oakland, Austin, or Denver, who’ve found themselves forcefully evicted with their property demolished. Armor clad security forces are clashing with groups of unarmed civilians because the start of humankind’s very first global insurrection is proving a nuisance for nearby residents and businesses.

But it doesn’t matter what the police do. Regardless of how many arrests and beatings and deaths our governments inflict upon us, we will not be silenced.

Instead, we will continue to channel the deserved discontent of the masses into a voice too powerful for the powers that be to ignore. And in the end, humankind’s great awakening will result in a complete overhaul to the way democracy works around the globe.

Smells Like Big Brother

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

Be aware. It’s trying to hide, just up ahead in the shadows. Lurking, waiting for the right moment to pounce. It’s Big Brother. Totalitarianism. The police state.

Not to be alarmist here, but the past ten years of ludicrously overpriced security theater has put our entire world on the brink of a disastrous end – enslaved by the system we created to protect us.

Take, for example, one of the blights which arose after 9/11: America’s Patriot Act. This tool for terrorism prevention has been used predominantly to enforce drug prohibition – a cause which has already proven to be lost. Of the over 1700 warrants issued under the Patriot Act, 1618 were used for drug searches, while just 15 were used to prevent actual terrorism.

Right now, the cops and feds are using these new powers to bust drug crime, which is bad enough, but what happens when dissension – the act of speaking out against power – becomes synonymous with terrorism?

Just consider a subtle provision of the US’s National Defense Authorization Act, which puts all terror suspects into immediate military custody. Soon the rule of law and due process needn’t interfere with the crushing of unsightly uprisings.

Plus don’t forget the Citizens United bill, the one that gives American corporations unlimited political spending. Having been enacted nearly two years ago, one wonders what corporate lobbyists have in the works now… Walmart for President?

And this is just in the United States, leader of the Free World. All over the planet, major powers – like the UK, Canada, and India – have been systematically stripping entire populations of freedom, shifting us closer to where one of the world’s new superpowers – China – already is. And, believe me, we don’t want to deal with a Great Firewall or disappearing dissidents.

Now, please note that as an optimist, I truly believe humankind will persevere and overcome the threat of a global totalitarian demise. Our resourcefulness and cunning will prove superior to the encroaching fascist system, and we will inevitably find a way to break free from the grip of tyranny.

But that’s no reason to delay. The longer we wait to protect ourselves from Big Brother, the harder the struggle will be. So be sure to act now!

12 Hours Left: UN Petition to End War on Drugs

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Time is running out in the international anti-prohibition petition to the UN. If you one of the 500,000+ who’ve already voiced their support, what are you waiting for? Visit Avaaz right now!

Enforcing drug prohibition has proven itself to be far more costly to society than illicit drugs have ever been. It is time for the people of the world to stand together and bring the senseless war on drugs to an end.

 

Wikileaks… Good Times

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Remember when Wikileaks released a bunch of classified documents and the establishment reeled from the threat of transparency? Man, that was sweet.  We should do that again.

Seriously, it was so exciting! One could almost feel the system changing with each step as the story unfolded. I miss those days.

What’s that? Wikileaks still has like 200,000 more classified cables to release, plus a whole backlog of dirt on some of the world’s biggest institutions? Nice! It seems more changes are on the way.

Did you also hear about the newly sprouted Wikileaks clones and mirrors? This means the struggle towards democracy and open government has never been stronger. Hooray!

Sure the fickle global spotlight seems to be moving on, but Cablegate is set to be remembered as a pivotal moment – a sign that the balance of power is shifting away from the few and into the hands of more and more people.

Here we go! More evidence to believe that a better world is sitting right upon our doorstep, and another reason to be optimistic for the future =D

George Galloway Graces Great White North

Saturday, November 27th, 2010

Outspoken anti-war advocate, former British MP and fervent Palestine supporter George Galloway will finish up his pan-Canada speaking tour when he shares his ideas with an audience in Ottawa this afternoon. His hour or so long speech covers several topics, including free speech, ending the occupation in Afghanistan, and ending Zionist  Apartheid in Israel.

Now, if you listen to his critics, like those who had him labeled a terrorist and barred from speaking, you would expect his speech to be full of hatred and racist diatribes spurring his listeners to violence. But, having seen him speak last night, most of what he delivers are rational arguments that present alternative viewpoints on the issues. (Full video to be uploaded soon)

One reason Galloway is not well liked in certain Canadian circles is his stance against the occupation of Afghanistan. He calls the efforts “doomed” and a “waste” of lives and treasure. The terms of withdrawal that we will eventually make, says Galloway, will be the same whether we leave right now, four years from now, or had we left five years ago, meaning we are not gaining anything by staying.  In fact, Galloway iterates a point to which many agree, that we are only adding to the “swamp” of discontent in the Muslim world that fuels extremism, so the results of the occupation are having the opposite effect of the intended goals.

Perhaps the biggest threat Galloway’s speech poses is his contradiction to Zionist Israel’s PR campaign which paints Israel as the victim and Palestine as the terrorists, when the opposite more accurately represents the reality. The Palestinian people have been brutalized, subjugated and murdered for decades by religious extremists, and anyone who acknowledges this gets labeled an Anti-Semite.

Mr. Galloway is an excellent orator. Eloquent and well-informed. Having only seen him in clips, it was a great pleasure to see him speak in person. Many thanks to the Canadian Peace AlliancePeace Alliance Winnipeg, and all for organizing this tour.

Marijuana Rally – May 1 2010

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

This Saturday, May 1 2010, will be the Global Marijuana March, held in every major city around the world.

We march to protest the prohibition of Marijuana.  On Saturday, we will speak out to free the weed.  This blight on humankind – drug prohibition – has got to stop.

Even if you don’t smoke pot, you can still come out and let your voice be heard. These marches are often a big party and lots of fun so come out and support the wondrous plant known as Marijuana.

Here’s a clip from Vancouver 2008 pot rally: