Who gets to pay for the G20 Toronto damage?

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In the socialist paradise of North Korea or China, the government would cover the cost by selling the perpetrators’ body parts. In Canada, filled as it is with capitalist greed, we all get to pay:

Toronto Mayor David Miller said Monday that he’s sending the bill for damages and compensation from the G20 summit to the federal government.

Police vehicles were burned, bank windows smashed and storefronts vandalized Saturday as a small band of militant protesters ran riot in the downtown core.

As the city that resembled a police state on the weekend resumed business as usual Monday, Mayor David Miller called on Ottawa to assume financial responsibility for the mess.

“This is a federal responsibility. It’s their conference,” Miller said at a news conference.

G20 “prayer vigil”

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The Student Christian Movement has organised a prayer vigil:

Join the Student Christian Movement and friends for a nonviolent, prayerful action, to remember the victims of social and economic oppression in the G20 countries, and of IMF/World Bank economic policies worldwide, and to express our hope that the world leaders gathered in Toronto will act in the interests of all people, rather than just the economic elite.

We will gather on Sunday, June 27, at 2 pm, on the grounds of St James Anglican Cathedral (King and Church), and walk to the barricade, where we will remain in prayer and vigil for as long as possible. Some of the participants may choose to obstruct the entry point or the road, and may be arrested, but those who don’t choose to risk arrest can also be full participants in the vigil. Nonviolence and inclusiveness are important values underlying our planning.

You might wonder why the SCM members didn’t just pray at home or in their own local church. Simple: God can’t hear these kinds of prayers unless they are spoken while standing next to a barricade. Or, possibly, this has nothing to do with praying and is just another disconnected-from-reality bunch of left-wing monomaniacs angling to be arrested in order to reinforce their self-inflicted victim status.

Toronto police chief unveils bizarre new crime fighting strategy

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As thugs trash Toronto unimpeded, police chief Blair congratulates himself on not being diverted from the real job at hand:

After a day that left downtown Toronto looking like a combat zone, the city is bracing for more disruptions Sunday.

The demonstrators who broke off from a noisy but peaceful march against the G20 on Saturday and provoked hours of confrontations with police will be back, Toronto’s top police officer says.

“There will be more violence Sunday because they have not achieved their objectives yet,” police Chief Bill Blair told CBC News Saturday.

The demonstration Saturday split into two parts, as protesters from a variety of causes marched while so-called Black Bloc anarchists — who promote violent confrontation with the authorities — tried repeatedly to break into the secure zone where leaders of the G20 are meeting.

Police successfully moved to block the militants, who then smashed windows and spray-painted walls. Four police cars were set alight, more than 300 people were arrested, and hospitals and the Eaton Centre shopping mall were locked down.

Parts of the city’s subway and streetcar routes and commuter trains were closed down.

Confrontations continued into the early hours of Sunday.

“The tactic of criminal destruction of property was intended quite clearly to draw police resources away from that [G20] perimeter,” Blair said, but it did not work.

I only hope that once the G20 is over, this breakthrough crime fighting technique will also encourage police to ignore speeders and illegal parking in Toronto – on the grounds that the offenders are only trying to distract the police from catching bank robbers and murderers. One can dream.

Toronto Pride parade allows hate speech

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From the CBC:

Jewish groups are angry that organizers of Toronto’s Gay Pride festival have decided to reverse an earlier ban that prevented the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid group from participating in the Pride Week events.

Earlier this year, Pride Toronto decided to ban the group from their July 4 parade for fear that allowing them to participate would jeopardize their funding from the City of Toronto.

That decision caused an outcry within Pride Toronto, with some members saying the decision smacked of censorship.

On Thursday, Pride Toronto’s board lifted the ban, saying it was not up to them to decide whether groups violated the city’s anti-discrimination policy. Instead, Pride Toronto will now ask all groups participating in Pride Week to first sign the city’s anti-discrimination policy.

Giorgio Mammoliti, who is also running for mayor, will introduce a motion at council demanding that Pride return all city funding, about $250,000.

Generally I am all for allowing anyone to say whatever they want; that some people – including Jimmy Carter – foolishly call Israel’s attempts to protect itself “apartheid” is more a comment on their own blinkered anti-Israel bigotry than anything else.

But now we have the organisers of the Gay Pride festival who, if criticised, are only too ready to deflect the criticism with shrill cries of “homophobia” and “hate speech”, permitting a contingent in their parade to display – hate speech. And the city of Toronto is paying $250,000 – so far, at least – to help them finance it.

The idiocy of all this is not diminished by the fact that the only country in the Middle East that allows a gay pride march is the one Queers Against Israeli Apartheid are determined to vilify.

A Church celebrates Earth Hour by polluting the air

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Parishioners of St. Cuthbert’s in Toronto celebrated Earth hour at their second annual Candlelight Meditation. Here they are:

I can’t help noticing that everyone is holding a paraffin wax candle. Paraffin, when ignited is a rich  source of numerous toxins:

Paraffin is a derivative of petroleum. When burned they release carcinogenic toxins such as benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein and soot into the air. The emissions from paraffin candles contain many of the same toxins produced by burning diesel fuel. It is like starting up a diesel engine inside you home!

St. Cuthbert’s, Toronto, polluting for Jesus.

A foetus feels no pain before 24 weeks

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From the BBC:

There is no new evidence to show foetuses feel pain in the womb before 24 weeks, and so no reason to challenge the abortion limit, doctors say.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ review said foetuses are “undeveloped and sedated”.

Brain connections are not fully formed, and the environment of the womb creates a state of induced sleep, like unconsciousness, they add.

Anti-abortion campaigners are likely to challenge the reports.

The issue of whether a foetus of 24 weeks or below can feel pain had been raised in the debate over whether the current time limit for abortion should be reduced.

In the absence of an objective moral arbiter, pain seems to have become the contemporary yardstick for determining what is good and what is evil: pain is evil, but nothing much else. This allows for not only the disposal of inconvenient unborn babies, but just about anyone else too – providing it doesn’t hurt.

The aged are eased comfortably into meeting their maker prematurely; Richard Dawkins nods cheerfully as utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer advocates infanticide for babies whose future may not be entirely pain free; Singer, following his logic to its conclusion,  speculates that non-existence for everyone might be preferable to existence because not to exist is not to feel pain.

The comedy in all this is that atheists such as Hitchens and Dawkins appear to think that atheism is capable of producing a coherent moral framework: the sum total of what it actually has come up with is the clodhopping “pain is bad” – a concept whose sophistication could be surpassed by a fraternity of socialised chimpanzees.

Atheist billboard on Billy Graham Parkway

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From here:

Add an Image

An atheist billboard along Billy Graham Parkway?

Yep, there it is – “One Nation Indivisible,” with the “under God” left out – high atop the parkway, near Boyer Street.

But “no, no, no,” it wasn’t intended as a slap at the world’s most famous evangelist, said a spokesman for Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics.

“It just kind of happened that way,” said William Warren, a spokesman for the group, which is part of a statewide coalition of nonbelievers that is placing the same billboard in five other cities.

It is much more ambitious than a dig at Billy Graham: it’s a dig at God. Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics left out the “Under God” from the sign to demonstrate that they too can be patriots in a nation under – nothing at all.

I’m not sure why they would think anyone cares, but the eagerness to demonstrate self-worth seems indicative of a deep seated self-doubting insecurity, thriving in spite of its obvious evolutionary disadvantage; perhaps God put it there.

Atheist billboard on Billy Graham Parkway

From here:

An atheist billboard along Billy Graham Parkway?

Yep, there it is – “One Nation Indivisible,” with the “under God” left out – high atop the parkway, near Boyer Street.

But “no, no, no,” it wasn’t intended as a slap at the world’s most famous evangelist, said a spokesman for Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics.

“It just kind of happened that way,” said William Warren, a spokesman for the group, which is part of a statewide coalition of nonbelievers that is placing the same billboard in five other cities.

It supposedly is not a dig at Billy Graham – it’s a dig at God: Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics left out the “Under God” from the sign to demonstrate that they too can be patriots in a nation under – nothing at all.

2010 World Religions Summit: convocation of loons

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Religious leaders who have little better to do are meeting to pontificate on the “moral, ethical and spiritual” crisis of our time: what used to be called – before it was largely debunked – “Global Warming” but now goes by the less easily pinned down “Climate Change”. One thing I do know: the climate is definitely changing in Oakville. This morning it was raining and this afternoon it is sunny.

According to this gathering of spiritual Stasi, the time for persuasion, reason, education and even “conversation” is over: it’s time for compulsion:

World religious leaders today grappled with how best to compel governments and citizens to address the issue of climate change.

During the second day of the 2010 World Religions Summit here, some urged their own institutions model the very behaviours they are demanding politicians adopt as policy. Others said their own faith traditions are already doing that. Some urged more education of faith communities while others said the situation is already “beyond education” and requires intervention.

United Church Moderator Mardi Tindal thinks that having a “green” church is an expression of what she believes in, leading one to conclude that the ultimate expression of her belief would be to bulldoze United Church buildings everywhere and plant trees in their place. Something to look forward to:

Tindal also spoke about the environmental initiatives undertaken by inter-faith communities in Canada, including the Greening Sacred Spaces program, which ensures that “our buildings are responsible expressions of what we believe in.”

Pandit Roopnauth has noticed an even bigger blight than un-green United Church buildings: humanity. He takes the dim view that we are parasites. He didn’t elaborate on whether mankind should be exterminated to make way for more of Mardi Tindal’s trees, but I suspect it was at the back of his mind:

Pandit Roopnauth Sharma of the Hindu Federation said people need to be reminded that “we are the biggest parasites on earth. We take and take and give nothing back.”

The combined wisdom of the Baptist, Anglican and Muslim contingents was that we should use less energy, find out what makes people poor and not forget affluent nations – the lingering suspicion being that they shouldn’t be affluent.

It’s little wonder that there are few left in the West who take any religion seriously.

Pseudo-Christian eco-babble in the Diocese of Niagara

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When I interviewed Dr. George Sumner, principle of Wycliff College recently at the Anglican General Synod, we had the following exchange about attempting to run a program like Fresh Expressions in a diocese that has, for all intents and purposes, abandoned the Gospel:

David: I talked to another of your professors about Fresh Expressions. The concern I raised was what would the techniques he was teaching be used to express – would it be the Gospel?
Rev. Dr. George:  I think encouraging the church to let many flowers bloom evangelistically is good. You know, the flowers will thrive or they’ll die – like the parable of the sower. The fact that the professor in question himself is a theologically grounded is not irrelevant. These things are not just techniques – the Gospel is never a technique.

David: My point is that that was all very well, perhaps, while he was still involved, but once it was handed over to a less than orthodox diocese, it would no longer be a Fresh Expression of the Gospel, but something else.
Rev. Dr. George:  Maybe I’m an optimist.

David: I’m not accused of that very often.

This is a recent video by the Diocese of Niagara extolling the eco-expiatory benefits of using green certified cleaning products. The email contact at the end of the video is fr**************@*****ra.ca. I’m tempted to send this to Dr. Sumner to curb his optimism.