— Musings —03.04.2015 11:32 AM
Candidate Bill Blair
Apparently the Conservatives and the Liberals are both courting Chief Kettler. I think that’s nuts.
How come?
- Here’s the pro-police Toronto Sun editorial board, no less, calling him “a scrambling man spinning stories. It makes us think he’s hiding something.”
- Torontoist called his defence of racial profiling “shameful,” and declared that Blair was dishonest about police brutality – and “complicit” in it – at the G20.
- The Toronto Star editorial board said “he doesn’t get it” when it comes to civil liberties – and that Blair needed to explain, or resign, why he permitted his police force to take “actions during the G20 were [that] unreasonable, unnecessary and unlawful. That includes boxing in hundreds of people who had done nothing wrong behind riot-clad police lines; using excessive force during the largest mass arrests in Canadian history; arbitrarily searching young people who happened to be wearing backpacks; and locking up more than 1,100 people in gulag-like conditions that contravened Canadian law and police policy.”
And that’s just what I could find in a quick five-minute Google search. There’s plenty more.
Bill Blair oversaw the biggest curtailment of civil liberties in this country’s recent history. He needs to be called to account for that – not rewarded for it with seat in Parliament.
If he becomes a candidate, I personally plan to ensure that every bit of his history is better-known – and particularly his appalling record during the G20. Who’s with me?
John Pruyn had his prosthetic leg ripped off by Blair’s men.
Like Julian Fantino, he’d be a perfect fit for the Cons.
And that has gone overly well for the Conservatives?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NED-pB0mJoc
I can’t see Harper being that stupid (unlike the folks around Trudeau). Where would he exactly run that he would appeal enough to get a win for the Conservatives? Nowhere. Thus, he will not run for the Conservatives.
On the other hand, he could possibly get elected in the Toronto Trudeau tide. It wouldn’t surprise me that Trudeau’s Team has him already lined up and are making noise that the Conservatives want him, so as to make it appear as a great acquisition.
If this is the case and they add Blair, there goes a few points in the GTA to the NDP. This guy is just so friggin’ polarizing and as WK reveals, with an open closet that deserves attention.
And since I know that the Trudeau’s Team visits this website …
Please look at the who ran the poll …
inconsistent: 61% approve his performance, but 46% say his contract should not be renewed (versus 43% that felt it should have been), and 36% of folks would vote for him if he ran in their riding (versus 44% who said they would not).
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/01/27/public-support-high-for-departing-police-chief-bill-blair-poll.html
Now that I see this at The Star, I believe it is a done deal that only a grassroots, Liberal uproar can prevent before his contract is over in April. My suggestion: Liberals, next time you get an email requesting a donation, send it, but add: NEVER AGAIN IF BLAIR BECOMES A CANDIDATE. Make your opinion known on this and other issues. Don’t worry, if you sent money, you will not be blacklisted.
The Conservatives I can understand wanting him as a candidate- Law & Order above all else, consequences be damned. The Libs would be shooting themselves in the foot by running him (so at this rate I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen.)
Incidentally, what reason did he have for that kettling bullshit anyway? I never did hear what the official excuse for that was.
Read a bunch of stories this morning. Was defiant. Said there was “law breaking,” people were warned, they did it. He was unrepentant about settling accredited media, too, which is yet another reason why making him a candidate is insane.
Blair is a good fit with the Liberals more so than the Conservatives. He’s not PERCEIVED a crazy law and order type. The G20 definitely tarnishes him for some elements of the Liberal crowd but you’ll find lots of people in the mushy middle who PERCEIVE the police actions as necessity, not overt force. As someone posted below, most Liberals really have no problem with him or those actions. The fact that he came after Fantino also influences perception.
What I still don’t understand is his defiance. And that could be his downfall.
The Liberals would be crazy to have him run for them especially in the City of Toronto. Anyone who lived here during that time saw how easily it became a police state over nothing. And the kettling occurred at Queen and Spadina, nowhere near the security zones and on Sunday afternoon, when the G20 was over. And then there were the cops who beat protesters in the designated protest zone having purposefully removed their name tags. It was obvious the kettling was an attempt to make up for the embarrassment of the police cars on fire on Saturday.
As for the police cars on fire, I don’t want to get all conspiracy theory, but a friend of mine was counsel for someone charged with arson and when a request was made for an expert to examine the police vehicle to comment on the origin of the fire, the police car in question could no longer be located and as such the charges were dropped. Can we really believe that the police cars on fire shown nationally and internationally on the news were misplaced? That is incompetence on a level even I cannot believe.
If he runs in the City, the NDP will be winning that seat.
The Liberals don’t have a good track record on the G20. The provincial Liberals openly support the police actions and McGuinty defended based on Trudeau’s invoking of the War Measures Act, despite the fact that Trudeau regretting that and created the Charter of Right that was supposed to prevent that from ever happening again.
The Federal Liberals also seemed indifferent. During a Public Safety committee hearing on the rights violations they repeatedly asked about cost issues even though there was a separate committee looking into that.
Not this Liberal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr7gFoVDqMc
I am.
Hey, maybe you can reissue a special track of your Officer Bubbles tune!
Good idea
Liberals colluded secretly and without debate to invoke wartime legislation that massively and irresponsibly expanded police powers, effectively criminalizing protest and turning Toronto into a police state during G20. Andre Marin called this the most massive assault on Canadian civil liberties in our history.
You were one of their war room, PR spinners. How do you get off the hook by attacking the police actions which were essentially underwritten by your boss, Dalton McGuinty?
Screw you. I volunteered on elections; I never held a role in government – or on contract. I have always been publicly critical of the G20. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/g20/2012/01/17/officer_bubbles_now_youre_in_double_trouble.html
And I didn’t use a pseudonym to do it, asshole. Now beat it.
Bill Blair isn’t a Liberal.
Neither is Eve Adams.
If either of them are actually green-lit to become LPC nomination candidates my head will explode. And mine won’t be the only one.
“Bill Blair oversaw the biggest curtailment of civil liberties in this country’s recent history.”
I think doing what you can within the law to stop rioters from burning down the city is good.
Also, I guess it depends on what you call ‘recent’, but the October Crisis beats G20 by a mile. I am favourable to that decision too.
Perhaps you did not have random friends picked up and imprisoned during the period of the WMA. I did. The were a couple of English teachers working in rural Québec, with slightly long hair. Not likely part of the FLQ. And that was typical.
Trudeau overreached on the WMA, and recognized it, as does pretty nearly everyone else who actually lived through it. The population was at far greater risk of being injured by the negligent discharge of a weapon than anything else. And that’s NOT hindsight.
Seen that, seen the behaviour of government during the G20, and THAT’s why we shouldn’t blindly accept C51. If a government can do something that infringes individual liberties, it will. The Good Soldiers will always overstep, whether it is burning barns or passing on erroneous tips to a foreign government so it can “interrogate” one of our citizens.
Blair? He was probably playing the Good Soldier. We had enough experience last century about how that turns out.
If the Liberals have any sense they’ll let history judge him, even if he could win the CPC a prime seat.
IMHO anyway.
As a Union guy, wouldn’t Blair be a better fit with the NDP ?
Actually Warren it was your good pal Dalton McGuinty and team who “oversaw the biggest curtailment of civil liberties in this country’s recent history” Remember that guy? Secret meeting to pass the law ring a bell? Think he sells for Desire To Learn now. Shame on him and his apologists.
Warren I question the soundness of your argument on the basis that you quote newspaper editorials to back it up… All that proves is the newspapers don’t like what Bill Blair. I think on the whole he’s proven to be a competent police chief who happened to oversee some very difficult circumstances (G20) that would have been difficult to handle any better frankly… Let’s not forget there were people trying to set fire to buildings and police cars, and vandalizing property… it wasn’t an easy situation to handle. I’m as ‘liberal’ as anyone but I don’t agree that there were any serious civil rights violations – being held overnight by police during an unprecedented out of control situation in the downtown core of our city is hardly a police state situation.
No evidence has been presented to connect the people who where arrested to the people who wherr doing the vandalism. They where arresting people more then 24 hours after the vandalism, blocks away. I am not aware of any court ruling or report that supported the police actions.
Arresting political protestors is among the most serious of right violations.
I am with you 100 percent. Blair wears the G20 fiasco on his forehead forever.
I live at Bay/Edward neighbourhood and witnessed all of the mess (excluding the kettle at Queen/Spadina). I was stopped and hassled on the Saturday and also witnessed the complete surrender of Yonge Street to the black block. I was taking refuge in a doorway on Yonge Street as the BB smashed windows on Yonge north of Dundas. I witnessed the cops actually pull back and abandon the street as the horde was marching up from Queen! The citizens were betrayed by ALL public officials on that weekend.
There are lots of great men and women in the Toronto Police. Having said that, it says something when Chief Blair with all the carding and kettling is probably the most progressive chief the force has had in a generation.
Then again, Pierre Trudeau brought down the War Measures act, Nixon went to China, and Mayor David Miller precipitated the Toronto strike of 2009, because people in power do some crazy inconsistent shit sometimes.