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If only, if only, if only... I haven't been following this thread for some time, so maybe this has already been speculated about ad nauseam... Interesting video from a high vantage point of Sunday's kettle manoeuvre at Spadina/Queen W. (ignore the potty on-camera commentary). If only the...

I wonder too, having seen the hooligans proceeding up Yonge below Queen, marching as a well-defined "en bloc" group--ripe for the picking, so to speak, and surrounded by relatively few other people once they left Queen/Adelaide and turned north. I think it's probably some combination of a) the...

There's a revealing video filmed inside the Queen/Spadina "kettle" that shows some of the "grey areas" in evaluating public and police conduct. It shows the evolution from being quite truculent (much entirely unnecessary swearing at police) to the growing fear of the detained as more of their...

I agree with you, letting the Black Bloc people get past the intersection of Queen was possibly a mistake. They were a well-defined group between Richmond and Queen, marching north with their idiotic Chairman Mao banners, a procession about 50-75m in length, with about 25m of space north and...

Stop right there: apologist of violence? Get a grip on yourself: I'm perhaps guilty of imprecise choice of words--I meant politicians, rather than governments en bloc--and certainly guilty of posting a reply too quickly, but I can't think of anything in that post that makes it an apology for...

Who knows what sort of deal Rose/Smartcentres worked out with the city for the temporary detention and police centre, and if the terms will ever be disclosed? The police and city may argue that it's all a confidential security matter.

I believe the ownership has not changed: Rose Corp. and Smart Centres each own a half share. They were denied the zoning change that would have allowed building a shopping centre by the OMB and their appeal of that decision failed. There are more documents and references at Joe Clark's...

It's worse than that: I think governments generally benefit from the confusion in public opinion of legitimate concerns (e.g. social equity & conditions, the environment) with random violence, since it provides an extra excuse not to tackle the real problems, and changes the focus to the...

The Nuit Blanche analogy is simply callous. Most of these businesses, whether franchised or not, whether or not they have insurance for these kinds of damage, employ people, often on an hourly wage: those people will not be working until the damage is fixed. So, as others have already remarked...

Not a typical Saturday afternoon stroll... After all the rain today, I was needing to get outside and walk, so at 3pm I went on foot to Queen/Yonge, reaching it at 4pm, and then walked south to Adelaide, west partway to Bay, and then back-tracked through the parkette just north of Adelaide back...

I made a brief visit this afternoon to the architecture exhibition mentioned above. There are 5 or 6 models of buildings that Behnisch & partners have designed over the years, but the bulk of the exhibition consists of panels with detailed information on sustainable design processes with an...

See my post about the exhibition about sustainable architecture just opening in the MaRS building: Ecology.Design.Synergy—Green Architecture & New Ideas from Germany The firms mentioned in the Nat Post article have a real track record and expertise in elegant and energy efficient architecture (I...

I've lived in Toronto only since 1985, but I can tell you the city--at least the downtown core--was a much cleaner place in the mid-80's, at least in terms of pieces of trash larger than a cigarette butt. Partly this is a result of a general increase in people's littering behaviour: back then...

If there are specific terrorism threats, the authorities really don't have much other choice than security maximalism, since the nature of terrorism is that it is a crime of opportunity involving few people and difficult to protect against. But I'm more inclined to believe this whole...

Look, not all protests at this summit is necessarily going to become a riot, especially with adequate preparation and supervision by the various civil organizations organizing marches and other manifestations, but the G8-G20 summit organizers certainly have an advantage if they can justify their...

O.K., I suppose my conversation with the constituency assistant was already outdated by events! P.S. It may be a suitable time for taking a break by reading some excellent children's cautionary bedtime stories. UPDATE 2010-06-18: The G-20 secretariat has announced a tree planting Friday...

I agree with your comments on potential terrorist action outside the security zone--it should be a concern, but really, those unforeseeable terrorist acts are the core of how terrorism works, aren't they? In which case, we are better off just to keep our calm and carry on, rather than go crazy...

You are supposed to cower in your appartment or house for the duration of the summit: those are the safest places to be, do NOT go outside and mix with other people, Toronto will be the most dangerous place on earth. You may survive if you spend your time locked up in your room, in front of the...

As I am too--but the Official Opposition are a bunch of frightened little children at the moment... (there is no need for an election with every change of ministry, but that change needs to happen via a vote of non-confidence--the new ministry will be certainly judged on their performance by the...

Thanks for reminding me succinctly how the OMB actually works--I did know that at one point but tend to look on the whole apparatus as a nightmare, to be pushed out of mind as fast as possible. The "lack of effective policy to back up a planning decision" is one of the factors in the Greenbelt...