Second Casseroles Night in East Toronto

We did it again!  Last night, in Leslie Grove Park at 8 p.m. (at Queen St. E. and Jones) a group of east enders got together to bang pots and pans in solidarity with Quebec student protesters.  And one person brought a sign protesting Bill C-38 for good measure.

Whether it’s the Charest government in Quebec raising tuition, or the Harper government in Ottawa destroying the country with their omnibus bill, it all comes down to the same thing: right-wing austerity programs punishing the workers for the excesses of the 1%.

Three of us got there a bit late due to the thunderstorm, and when we got there, we thought we were the only ones.  So we got our pots and pans out and started clanging away anyhow.  Then, after about 10 minutes, we heard a clanging from across the park – and it was everyone else!

They had been on a march through the neighbourhood.  This was the scene when they got back and we joined them:

Again, a small but mighty crowd – about 20 of us showed up.  (That’s still lots of noise, though, when you’re banging on pots and pans!)  We heard from the others who were there earlier that around 10 cops showed up to supervise at first, but eventually they left.

The neat thing about having a smaller group of us is that what would have been speeches at any large rally turned into a discussion among all of us about why we were there.

We’re all planning to be there next week, same place, same time.  Join us!  Leslie Grove Park, Queen St. E. at Jones, Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 8 p.m.

Tory chutzpah in Etobicoke Centre

Last month, the Ontario Supreme Court tossed out the results of the May 2, 2011 election in the constituency of Etobicoke Centre.

In the election, the Conservative Party’s Ted Opitz narrowly defeated Liberal Boris Wrzesnewskyj by just 26 votes.

The court found that at least 79 ballots were suspect and that was enough of a margin of error that the court called for a new election.

In the midst of the Reformatories being under investigation in numerous constituencies across Canada for their robocalling activities in the last election, you think that they’d kind of lay low and let this decision quietly wind it’s way through all of the inevitable appeals processes.

But noooooo!!!!!!   The Reformatories are like vicious dogs.   They just won’t let go.   This past weekend they launched a brand new robocall campaign in Etobicoke Centre accusing their Liberal Pary opponents of trying to “overthrow” the results of the May 2nd, 2011 election.

The classic definition of “chutzpah” is the kid who murders his parents and then pleads for mercy from the court because he’s now an orphan.

But now we have the Harper government.