Toronto police get sound cannons

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

For those of you who still insist that we live in a democracy, I give you: "sound cannons" (Toronto police get SOUND CANNONS).

And this is just a miniscule portion ($100,000 according to the Star) of the more than $900 million budgeted for security during the G8 and G20 summits (security tab for G8 and G20 summits could top 900million), even more than we wasted in Vancouver scaring the hell out of potential activists, in a clear warning of what´s in store for protestors this June in Toronto: ("In a security operation even larger than the Vancouver Winter Olympics, thousands of police officers are being called in from across the province and the country to provide security for the two summits. New estimates show the RCMP is getting an extra $321 million with another $262 million going to the Public Safety department and $63 million for national defence").

Clearly the spending cuts on the table at these summits won´t include a reduction in state terrorism, police repression of democratic protest, or corporate welfare. If recent announcements by Spanish Socialist President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (a typical European "free market socialist") are anything to go by--slashing civil servants´ salaries by 5%, freezing pensions, 600€ million in cuts to foreign aid, elimination of $2,500 in assistance to new mothers, cuts to caregivers of disabled family members, etc.--than we can expect more of the usual: more cuts to social programs and investment in public infrastructure, the tabling of cuts to public pensions and unemployment insurance (now euphamistically referred to in Canada as "EI or, employment insurance"), another round of privatization of public institutions, tuition increases, continued elimination of support for progressive social organizations (Since 2006, Harper has cut funding for women’s advocacy by 43 per cent, shut 12 out of 16 Status of Women offices in Canada...), a renewed attack on public employees and unions in general, a revamped onslaught against and commodification of nature, the continued and growing abandonment of the poor, the weak, the young, the old, and everyone in between, all in the name of reducing the deficit. Actually, it´s the other way around: reducing the deficit (and other cost-cutting measures against "the crisis") is invoked in the name of cutting social spending.

It´s capitalism pure and simple: privatize the profits; socialize the losses--and beat the hell out of anyone who doesn´t like it.
Owen.