Bush UNWelcomed to Canada

nobush23sm
Originally uploaded by DawnOne.

BUSH- A man with a mission (er, correction- make that missile)

Martin take note- Bush and his entourage are not welcome in this country. As a Canadian, I am opposed to his Republican party's invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and ongoing interference in the sovereignty of various other countries across the world- Iran, Cuba, Venezuela among them. In my estimation, Bush is a terrorist and war criminal, as was Reagun before him. http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-104-906/science_technology/candu/clip8

Anti-Bush visit demo and Candlelight Vigil in Solidarity with Demonstrations to Stop Bush
Tuesday Nov. 30, 2 PM and 6:00 PM
(opposite the U.S. Consulate)
Click on the above photo, to see larger version and more from the demonstration.

While the Ottawa protest against the Bush visit numbered over 15,000- the Toronto one (a support protest for those who couldn't make it to Ottawa) was very small- a couple of hundred at the most, and at times in the afternoon, a couple of dozen. At this point I was wishing I’d gone to the Ottawa protest- however...
The police easily outnumbered the demo and even removed the barricades they'd previously placed in anticipation of greater numbers. I've never seen the American Embassy so naked! For some inexplicable reason, they nevertheless sent out an undercover police photographer, who took it upon himself to document a group of 14-16 year old high school kids playing hooky and Hackensack! One of the kids, who was wearing a mask, told me that his mother had requested he wear it as she was worried the police might engage in this kind of surveillance.
So, how did I know he was a police photographer? I went over and directly asked, which he admitted readily. He wondered how I knew who he was working for. Basically, his discomfort, clothing choice and the way he awkwardly held his camera gave him away. Instinct. I've been covering protests as a photographer since the late 70s. Once he'd admitted to me his affiliations, he disappeared. I suppose with his cover blown, they're obligated to replace him with another. I'm surprised the Toronto police haven't gone digital yet. It would make it easier to blend in and they wouldn't have to worry about technical issues, as he admitted that in spite of doing this a long time, he wasn't a photographer and knew nothing about cameras. The one thing he wouldn't tell me was what they intended doing with the photos he took- that was classified.
In the end, I was glad I went to this particular event. It was wonderful to witness such a diverse group of people, of different generations and backgrounds, coming together in solidarity to express mutual concern for the Iraqi people. I was impressed in particular by one 14 year old boy, who spoke to me so eloquently on topics ranging from war, to environmental issues, to racism, to genetics. There may have been a lot of misspelled signs among the students, but ample evidence of brilliance and hope. One dedicated group of 5 high school students bicycled all the way from Mississauga (a Toronto suburb) to attend the rally- almost 3 hrs. each way in the winter rain!
Speakers included the writer Linda McQuaig, Toronto City councillor Olivia Chow and the last minute addition of a spokeswoman from the Toronto Muslim community.
A Candlelight Vigil was held in memory of the estimated 100 000 Iraqi dead from the latest Bush adventure in Iraq- each candle representing 100 victims of the American led invasion. These numbers are of course inaccurate as we will never know the true human cost of this war, as unlike their "allied" counterparts, the Iraqi dead are not officially counted. It appears that the official American position is that all Iraqi men between the ages of 15 to 60 are to be viewed as possible enemy combatants and so not worthy of consideration as human beings. In Falujja individual boys as young as 10 have been now included among this group of the "justifiably killed". (They insist he was found with a gun in his hand...) When the Americans claim they cannot estimate the number of civilians included among the Falujja dead, is it any wonder when only women and girls are identifiable as such in their eyes? I remember the last Gulf war- the tragic retreat and wholesale slaughter along the road from Kuwait, which again went undocumented, unquestioned and unpunished, even though it was clearly a war crime and against the Geneva Convention. The world may have ignored it, but the Iraqi people who lost loved ones haven’t that luxury. Generations of males, whose crime was basically to have been conscripted into Saddam’s army, were blown up, strafed and bulldozed into ditches along that bloody road, leaving widows and orphans to face the future alone. That future contained weekly bombings and crippling UN sanctions which killed an estimated half million Iraqi children since 1992.
( Read http://www.commondreams.org/views/102300-103.htm )
Those children who survived to become adults are now serving as fodder in this latest episode of the Bush saga. It was a story not worth repeating.