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Tamil Protests downtown

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We listened to both the truckers and the farmers grievances as a result of their protest on the highway...


there's a difference though; there was warning ahead of time and the route was planned out. this allows emergency services to plan alternate routes when dealing with a situation such as responding to a fire, transporting a person by ambulance, etc..

what happens when an ambulance takes the gardiner as a shortcut to a hospital downtown because it's sunday night and there isn't supposed to be that much traffic on there and all of a sudden the highway is stopped with protesters and you can't even back out because you're blocked from behind? the ambulance can get stuck in the middle with no way out and somebody can die or suffer permanent damage because they didn't make it to the hospital on time. to make things even worse, is there even a highway shoulder on that stretch of road?


you shouldn't block access to the most important hospitals in the city and you shouldn't stop a highway without any notice.


slow convoys are bad enough but at least their routes are marked out and announced in advance.
 
If these pussys down at the Toronto Police Force feel sensitive about this whole matter, then next time these Tamils want to pull this crap the city should just call in the army and deal with it.:mad:

YEEEE---HAWW!!! Sounds like a plan! Let's charge at them with tanks and lots of soldiers! Arrest and Deport every child, regardless of where they were born! Hell deport the WHOLE Tamil community, and then close our doors to all immigrants! Sounds like a plan. That'll show those "pussies" in the police force, the only way to end annoying protests is to send in people with guns!!! It's worked so many times before!!! :cool::cool::cool:

For those who are wondering, that post was sarcastic.

I think people on both sides need to take a deep breath.
 
5. The protests are likely to fuel a backlash by more conservative types who will see these events as evidence that a) immigrants are not integrating into Canadian society and that some are taking advantage of it, and/or b) that the right of public protest should be more limited than it currently is..

It's not just Conservatives, Liberals also are sick of them, I have many friends that are so far left you can call them Socialist and they echo the above viewpoint!
 
This thread really is horrible. Protesting on the Gardiner and shutting down highways is hardly new. Truck drivers did it last year. As did the Critical Mass cyclist protesters. Several years ago Ontario farmers shut down a whole set of highways in a rolling protest against agricultural policy. No one was calling for mass arrests and deportations after those events, much less implying that the participants somehow aren't "real Canadians".

At least they're advocating for changes in Canada by protesting in Canada.

Again, I think I'll go on a hunger strike at Portage & Main to try to get Finland's tax rates lowered...they'll certainly concede by the third or fourth day!
 
I agree. I'm far-right; Even most of this board is more left-leaning from what I've seen and most on here seem to still be in disagreement with the actions of the protestors.
Realistically, this should have nothing to do with left or right though. What they did was wrong, period. I don't care what their justification is, it does not make it right and nothing ever will. There is ZERO grey area for interpretation. You can have sympathy for their cause without supporting their audacity and inconsideration of the people who welcomed them here from the start.

It's not just Conservatives, Liberals also are sick of them, I have many friends that are so far left you can call them Socialist and they echo the above viewpoint!
 
Regardless of the reasons, I totally support this group because I support chaos and anarchy. So a few motorists get delayed... so what? Maybe it will convince more people to use transit, like they should.
 
I'm sure the Tamils were thinking the same thing...I bet the TTC funded it all too.
Regardless of the reasons, I totally support this group because I support chaos and anarchy. So a few motorists get delayed... so what? Maybe it will convince more people to use transit, like they should.
 
Five points

1. I think the Tamil community brings a lot of value to Toronto and I welcome them here in this city. Just saying. These are people who work, have families, pay taxes and love this city and this country.

2. I had no idea until today that women were not allowed at protests. And also that the mere presence of children at protests means they're being used as 'human shields'. I'm not sure who started that meme, but it's not true - the cops were never going to move in unless the crowd got violent.

3. The police handled the situation very well and should be commended. Bill Blair has really done a good job over the last couple of years. Can you imagine how Fantino would have handled this situation?

4. I get the feeling that the message has been received that trying anything like this again will result in arrests in the Tamil community. And I'm cool with that.

5. The 'why are they protesting here and not in Sri Lanka?' crowd sure would have hated the anti-apartheid protests that happened across North American in the eighties. And those were effective.
 
How can people use transit when streets that the street cars and buses use are closed?:confused: Put on a snow plow on street car or bus would be one way moving the protesters out of the way :p
 
So would you take your child on to a busy freeway that had cars going in between 100 and 120kmph? And then have them beside you in a *potentially* violent demonstration? It's a yes or no question.
2. I had no idea until today that women were not allowed at protests. And also that the mere presence of children at protests means they're being used as 'human shields'. I'm not sure who started that meme, but it's not true - the cops were never going to move in unless the crowd got violent.
 
5. The 'why are they protesting here and not in Sri Lanka?' crowd sure would have hated the anti-apartheid protests that happened across North American in the eighties. And those were effective.

Random people protesting apartheid, no. Expat South Africans, yes.
 
So would you take your child on to a busy freeway that had cars going in between 100 and 120kmph? And then have them beside you in a *potentially* violent demonstration? It's a yes or no question.

If traffic had been stopped by the police and the protestors, absolutely.

It wasn't going to get violent unless the police made it violent. The Tamils have been remarkably peaceful since these protests started.
 
The fact that you can't see the difference between scheduled maintenance of the Gardiner, and the illegal hijacking of it demonstrates to me that you're clearly incapable of any real significant thought on this issue, where your sympathies far outweigh what little intelligence you have. You truly are illustrative of the axiom of having all heart and no brains. But that's ok, the LTTE loves you for it.
The fact that you seem more interested in odd groups of initials than that the government of a Commonwealth nation is letting thousands of women and children be slaughtered suggests that you are vile and awful piece of humanity!! I'm quite sure that both sides are as dirty as sin ... but that doesn't mean that the massive violation of human rights that is happening there should be ignored.

And I'm just shocked that any human can compare that to a small traffic jam on a Sunday night!

If this was a demonstration put on by, say, Croatians or Georgians, or whomever, we would *not* be having this discussion.
Hang on - we didn't ignore the situation in Croatia ... we sent troops to Croatia. Georgia was a conflict between 2 countries ... not quite comparable.

No one was calling for mass arrests and deportations after those events, much less implying that the participants somehow aren't "real Canadians".
Of course no one calls for the deportation of farmers - they are white. That people would raise deporatation for such a minor incident suggests that racism is a bigger problem in this country that I thought.

Callling this "genocide" is quite excessive - that term should be reserved exclusively for circumstances where there is a systematic effort to eliminate an ethnic group - which is absent in this case.
Slightly excessive ... it's quite clear the Sri Lankan government isn't taking adequate precautions to avoid large-scale civilian casualties. While not genocide, it's still likely a war-crime; and the laughable cover-up does make one wonder if there is more than just a lack of caution going on.

If these pussys down at the Toronto Police Force feel sensitive about this whole matter, then next time these Tamils want to pull this crap the city should just call in the army and deal with it.:mad:
Why do all your posts sound like your a bigot? Are you a bigot?

women and children are the last line of defense.
In a position of danger sure ... we all know that there is no danger is protesting in Toronto - unless your cynical enough think our police force is that messed up. I think the point was, to emphasize that the women and children are the ones being killed in Sri Lanka - not to protect the men in the group (who did seem to be at the front, in the only shot I saw, that looked confrontational at all). Besides the women I saw interviewed during the protest, hardly looked coerced - some seemed quiet upset with relatives who had been murdered.

How can people use transit when streets that the street cars and buses use are closed?:confused:
College car would simply look down along Dundas and back up McCaul; Spadina car was looping at King in the north, and Spadina/Queen's Quay in the south. University subway was running; nothing unusual here ... and similiar to what would have been done if there was a street party.

Again, I think I'll go on a hunger strike at Portage & Main to try to get Finland's tax rates lowered...they'll certainly concede by the third or fourth day!
How insensitive! Thousands of people are dead, many in the protest have lost family in the last few days. If Americans were dieing by the thousands in a war somewhere I'm sure we'd see protests in Toronto ... wait a minute, we did.
 
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It can't be said enough that nobody is saying Tamil's can't protest and lobby whoever to raise awareness about their perspective on the civil war. Its completely off base to be framing this as a free speech issue when it simply isn't. There are ample ways for the Tamil community to go about their cause legally and harmoniously with society. For whatever reasons, the organizers of these protests have chosen not to respect normally uncontroversial laws (blockading major infrastructure= illegal) in order to further their goals. No matter how noble or ignoble their goals may be it doesn't change that fact. A crime is a crime is a crime.

That the crime in question here (blockading a highway) is generally less serious than alleged crimes in Sri Lanka is irrelevant. The law doesn't make provisions for that nor should it. The world is full of dramatic injustices, were we all to use them to justify injustices in Canada it would harm domestic stability. To pick a similar domestic example, Shawn Brant is currently in jail in part for his role in the blockade of the 401 and the rail corridor.
 
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