consent

Some politicians whose jurisdiction of responsibility includes Toronto have remained silent on the issue of what happened here over the weekend. Others (Mayor David Miller, Deputy Mayor and mayoral candidate Joe Pantalone, mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti) have supported the notion that violence can, and should, beget violence.

Today Glen Pearson, Member of Parliament for London North Centre, blogged this reversal from his Saturday opinion that it was "it was left to the Black Bloc to ruin everything":

Whatever violence these folks saw on Saturday was clearly not sufficient enough to prompt them to accept the severe curtailing of civil liberties evidenced on the weekend. Hundreds were arrested for simply being there. The special law enacted for just this weekend was much more than an emergency measure; it became, briefly enough, the Canadian version of the American Patriot Act. ...

Stephen Harper got much more for his $1billion security bill than just policing. He got, for a weekend at least, George Orwell’s 1984. This wasn’t part of the bargain. Citizens already angered over the exorbitant costs got a police state thrown in. And it didn’t sit well. For the first time in memory, Torontonians were scared. No matter the justification, that kind of outcome just isn’t worth it. Toronto the Good is still that this morning. It’s Canada we’re worried about. The freest streets on earth were wrapped in cellophane this weekend. To the shame at watching the Black Bloc do its thing, must be added the transformation of “Peace, Order and Good Government” into state control. Some innocence has been lost. In Canada, nothing is worth that price.