The Occupy movement is about making the government uncomfortable and making life more difficult for the people who have continually pissed on the little guy.  We’ve grown up in a society where we’re told the only way to be a success is to follow one specific path and individualism is shunned amongst the masses.  At protests everywhere we’ve seen self-sustaining environments built from the ground up.  Everyone has an equal voice and everything is voted on. If you need clothing and can’t afford any there’s 10 people who will donate to you.  Hungry, ask and ye shall receive.  This movement has shown that even in large groups the ideas of an anarchy can work.

For some reason, the idea of Canadians coming together to form a new society free from the oppression imposed by the current government scares the leaders.  If the curtain came down and we all the saw the Wizard for who he truly is we would no longer follow him blindly through Oz.  We would rise and decide that we’re taking Oz, start melting down the gold and feeding the hungry.  Throughout history major changes have come to be because of protest, and they all start out small and they all involve a certain level of civil disobedience. I’m not talking petty window smashing or tagging “Eat the Rich” on a building, I’m talking about non-violent confrontation of social ideals that need to change. France was able to bring about major change with the first wildcat general strike in 1968, a tribute to the power of solidarity.

So, while St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan is saying to keep occupying and just follow the laws, Mayor Ford appears resolute to get those out of St. James Park.  My call to the Toronto protestors is to stand strong and don’t give in until the police have to drag you out.  And to the police of Toronto, think, these people are no different than yourselves.  When you’ve beaten us into submission then who will stand up for you when they come for you, because know that once they’ve got us down you’ll be right behind us.  You are there to protect the people and you should be protecting us from them, not the other way around.

Mayor Ford, I just hope that you will see there is no stopping the free flow of ideas and emotion.  If you close down the protest then we will just find another way to do it and if we finally realize peaceful protest goes punished as well as violent protest, which way will we start to lean more toward?  Chances are if they are as sick and tired of the injustices that see everyday like myself the hatred won’t allow for peaceful protest and you’ll be staring down the barrel of a revolution.

Ideas of places to occupy Rob Ford will never find you:
Toronto Libraries (we know Ford hates those things and would probably never look there)
A vegetable crisper (same reason as above, he’ll never find you)
Newtonbrook Secondary School (the school Rob Ford coached football at until he allegedly assaulted a player)
The gym (guess why he couldn’t find you there, just guess)
Margaret Atwood’s house (the Ford’s are the only Canadians who don’t know who she is)

Viva la Revolución, Viva Canada, Viva humanity.

On Sunday afternoon, roughly 25 police in full riot gear carrying assault rifles stormed the abandoned building and arrested eight demonstrators.  Explained in a statement released by Sgt. Josh Mecimore, the reasons behind the high-power weapons was a fear that the group had placed traps inside the building or were planning to attack the police.  Fear that the group was destroying the building was also a factor in the move to shut down the demonstration.

Though most people are receiving a skewed idea of what is happening across our countries from the media, these are not a bunch of indecisive, smelly hippies who don’t know what they’re protesting.  These are young people, old people, all people who are coming together to fight against a common enemy which is the ruling class that are getting rich off our labour.  These people who occupied this building had a plan and a message and they were successful in delivering it.  These acts of defiance are what will define this movement, and instead of villainizing these people we should be commending them.

The idea of squatting as a form of protest is nothing new.  It has been used many times throughout history, with movements like the Homeless Workers’ Movement in Brazil or the Abahlali baseMjondolo in South Africa.  The idea of taking an abandoned space and using it to better the community is nothing new.  The group had mentioned some ideas for developing the space including a library, free clinic, kitchen and dormitory.  While this idea may seem radical to some people it hardly warrants a shock and awe infiltration of the property by armed police officers.

The group that took control of the building in Chapel Hill were fully aware what they were doing was risky but they stated in a flier that many of the acts that have won us any of our freedoms were illegal as well.  Civil disobedience has been a powerful tool of protests; Rosa Parks refusing to move on the bus, Susan B. Anthony voting illegally and even the Boston Tea Party were all major acts that helped to spark a movement that brought about massive reform.  Without these defiant acts we’d be living in a world that would be worse off than it currently is, which is saying quite a bit.

So while these demonstrators are being charged the world is watching and seeing that radical action can be taken here at home.  We’re seeing that the people aren’t apathetic like the media tells us, they aren’t standing around shouting at phantoms.  They have educated opinions, strong morals and the idea that we can be better than we are.  Their signs might have different slogans but they’re all standing together for the one thing we all agree is the basic right for everyone, Freedom.  The freedom to know that 20 years from now we’re not going to be living in third world countries because a couple of people want to control all the money.  To be staring across the vast wasteland that was toppled by the greed of a few.  We must take hope in these actions that everyone will use them to educate themselves on what is happening and hopefully bring on the change we so desperately need.

Movember day 7

Damn you Internet! You’ve made it possible for people to distribute music freely amongst a mass audience and the government is coming in to save the record labels, I mean artists. This is the age of machinery, a mechanical nightmare, the wonderful world of technology and Canada aims to modernize their copyright laws to reflect the age we live in.

The Copyright Modernization Act, or Bill-C11, is intended to “align Canada’s Copyright Act with the perceived realities of the digital era, as well as provide a framework for Canadian copyright law that is forward-looking and technologically neutral.”  This is Parliament’s fourth attempt to amend the copyright laws in Canada since 2005, reintroducing the same provisions as on Bill-C32, which was introduced June 2, 2010 and died March 25, 2011 with the dissolution of Parliament.

Total Music Revenues Canada 1998-2010

Concerts and live events have always been the largest portion of a musician’s income.  The amount of money per unit sold with albums is very little, while live performances are mostly profit including merchandise sold.  It would appear that with the internet boom and the trade of music, concert sales are only going to increase.  It may be the fact that young people who can’t afford the album, stream it or download it, then end up saving their pennies to see the band live and buy a shirt when they come to town.  They wouldn’t have been introduced to this band had they not been able to enjoy the music free of charge yet they deliver more to the artists personally in the end.

The problem with that is the record labels are not making the money on the albums.  Instead of doing their job as the postman delivering the letter they try to control the whole postal system.  They aren’t content with distributing artist to consumer; they need to make a profit.  For an industry that has been dying for years, and for bands (i.e. Metallica), the internet is the perfect scapegoat for poor album sales.  Meanwhile, independent record labels are thriving, continuing to serve niche markets with vinyl as well as distributing fair priced albums to the public.  For some reason if the little guy can make it and the giant suffers there’s probably something horribly wrong with the giant.

The rise of the Internet and free music has helped numerous artists gain attention and fans they wouldn’t have reached any other way.  Making an album available free then advertising it around the Internet makes it far easier to book a tour and and gain notoriety because people have heard the music.  They don’t need to shell out money on “maybe this bands good” and “I like the album art” but instead find music based on the sound.

The argument that if we had introduced this law in the 1980′s we may not have had the VCR is valid.  To cut down on sharing “intellectual property” will quite possibly stunt technological growth.  If internet music trends die down what will happen to the manufacturers of devices that propagate the distribution of said “intellectual property”.  We’ll put people out of jobs in a relatively barren market and that isn’t a constructive decision.  Perhaps instead of attacking everyone else the music industry should reevaluate how it does business.  Spend less on flashy music videos and pointless advertising and use the Internet to your advantage, don’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

From my own personal experience as a musician, giving away my music has been more beneficial to me than if I had charged for it. I’ve had people all around the world listen to me because everything is readily available online. To have repeat listeners is far more satisfying to me artistically than to make a little money selling a few CD’s to friends. I’ve been able to spread my fan base with hardly any effort.

All I know is that harsher copyright laws won’t fix the problems that the record industry is facing. The slumping sales will continue only now we’ll see the artists suffering the fall out along with the fans.

Movember day 5

An interesting story I found pertaining to the Saskatchewan Party campaigning tactics with the media.  Bill Hutchinson, a Saskatchewan Party candidate staged meet and greets with campaign workers in front of CBC News cameras.  Hutchinson’s reasoning behind the ruse was that he wanted to start it with good conversation with people he knew, get into the groove to talk to total strangers.

The Saskatchewan Party was founded in 1997 by disillusioned Conservative and Liberal party members who wanted to topple the NDP in Saskatchewan.  Hutchinson represents the constituency of Regina South, according the his website he is an “architect whose record of community service includes four terms on Regina City Council”. So why does a man of that stature need to resort to staging Hollywood interviews to boost his campaign?

I’m reminded of George W. Bush’s glorious descent to the USS Abraham Lincoln, massive “Mission Accomplished” displayed proudly as he arrived to declare major operation in Iraq had ended. A gross show of indecency to the people, a waste of man power and resources, it will be forever engrained in our minds as a misuse and twisting of the media. Bill’s offense was not to the same caliber but it’s another in a long line of media manipulations by politicians for gaining power.

To see someone on the news who can walk up to two 20-somethings and start shooting the shit about Blackberries will make them look confident and cool. The same guy walks up and meets with a couple, a grandmother in fact, and she has an amazing tale about her 9 grandchildren! You see this man through a distorted view and he hasn’t helped you make a decision, he’s hindered your ability to make your decision. Yet the media is to blame for this as well. They are striving so hard to sell their product that they will look at something too good to be true and run with it. Luckily in this case someone caught this before they aired it as fact, otherwise it’s hard to redact what somebody has already processed and then you also lose your credibility as a source for accurate reporting.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/11/04/sk-hutchinson-mainstreeting-1110.html?cmp=rss

Movember day 4

There’s just one other thing I want to touch on briefly since it’s Friday and I’m ready for the weekend.  Parliamentary secretary to the prime minister Dean Del Mastro made a trollish remark on Facebook last month regarding Justin Trudeau’s adherence to Catholicism, or purported lack of.  The post stemmed from a Peterborough, ON Catholic school invited the Liberal MP to speak, for free, on the topic ‘young people showing leadership’.

Del Mastro’s prime candidate for speaker was none other than Jason Kenney, the Roman Catholic Immigration Minister.  Now, Kenney is the kind of speaker who could put me to sleep whilst running away from a lion, I don’t know if I’d want him boring the children to death.  Del Mastro considers himself to be an expert on piety and has likely been secretly studying Trudeau’s religious practices for years and has decided he is not living the tenets of Catholicism properly.

All I can say, is from the school’s point of view, Trudeau is a great decision as a speaker on youth leadership. He has been active in politics for a long time and is his party’s critic for youth and post-secondary education. All of these qualities made him the man for the job, not his adherence to the Catechism. So whether or not he lives up to one man’s idea of a “Good Catholic Boy” seems irrelevant to the situation.

It’s this type of religious intolerance, even within the same sect, that tears humanity apart. Deciding that one person is better suited to a position because of their beliefs is a failure to the people. This the the thought process of people in the Dark Ages, the Dark Ages sucked if you hadn’t heard before. It was dark, ignorant and full of religious zealots who all fought over the same God and there was no separation of Church and State. Thankfully we’re living in a post-Enlightenment world now so we should embrace that fact and leave religion out of it.

Movember day 3

As the G20 kicks off in France, photos are being released of the jail conditions the prisoners endured during the June 2010 meeting in Toronto. The same G20 where the “Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act” was used to protect the area around the summit. The law, enacted in 1939, was meant to protect important locations like Niagara falls from enemy sabotage by allowing police to detain individuals deemed “suspicious”. Along with this law came lies about the law requiring anyone within 5 metres of the fence to show identification or be arrested. The Canadian Press later quoted police chief Bill Blair saying the law didn’t exist and he “was just trying to keep criminals out”.

I remember the G20 footage vividly. My friends had come to record with another friend of mine and as we sat in his basement I watched the events unfold on the internet. From the laptop screen I saw a few bad apples running wild through the streets of Toronto, smashing windows, tagging and setting fire to cruisers. I also remember something that seemed terribly odd to me, in the photos of these people destroying the city were also rows and rows of police. They stood idly by while these protesters created chaos and never once stepped in to mediate the situation. If anything, they stood back and allowed the destruction of downtown.

Fast forward to the next day of the protests, the anarchy has subsided and peaceful protest has taken its place. Now, suddenly, police move in and begin to bust the heads of anyone who refuses to obey their orders. For some reason, this makes no sense. Photographs of police shamelessly assaulting young people, covering their badges and faces. It seemed like an overly aggressive stance when the day before hundreds of people were allowed to tear up the city.

Whatever the logic behind using this antiquated law to subdue citizens acting out their right to peaceful assembly I will never understand. The government needs to work for the people, never the other way around. We should not ever fear the government, the government should fear the people. We have the right to vote them in or out and they should never be able to hold our rights out like a carrot to a donkey to get us in their pockets. All rights or it’s not right.

Movember day 2

Meanwhile.. In Toronto: Mayor Rob Ford is taking even more steps toward becoming the best mayor the city has ever seen. Councillor Adam Vaughan had put forward the ” Free Press and Democracy” motion, which would have made politicians unable to exclude any news source or journalist from media conferences, events or news releases.  That motion was unanimously shot down by Rob Ford’s executive committee.  This is the committee that Ford announced would not be about left or right but about respecting the taxpayers.

Cutting off freedom to the press is going to be detrimental to the city and you’ve denied your taxpaying citizens their right to the press.  If politicians can begin to pick and choose what outlets they distribute to then we lose democracy.  If some hear about new ordinances or changes being introduced and others don’t because their media source was blacklisted, how can that be a democracy?  You’ve taken their knowledge and therefore you’ve taken their power.

Congratulations Mr. Ford, your Orwellian media control plan has succeeded.  Now onward to close libraries and barbecue all the zoo animals.

Here is a copy of the motion that was submitted by Councillor Vaughan: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/mm/bgrd/backgroundfile-40873.pdf

Movember day 1: Baby fresh.

Movember focuses on removing the stigma behind prostate cancer and the attitude toward exams for the disease. In Canada, all funds raised go to Prostate Cancer Canada, who work with patients and to educate the public about the illness. So… I’m growing a moustache.

Currently I’m at the very baby stages of the mustache as you can tell by my photograph. It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve actually shaved with a razor, so I was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t slice my face off. And aside from getting carded at the Beer Store today, I feel good, almost rejuvenated by my bald face. During the month I’ll post updates on the stages of development and hopefully I won’t be too embarrassed with the final product on November 30. You’re invited to come along on the fabulous journey with me through the month of Movember as I regain my manhood.

I haven’t been directly affected by cancer, my grandmother died of cancer but that was 20 years before I was born. The reason why I feel like it is important to participate in an event such as this, is because that could change tomorrow, so awareness is key. 25,000 men will be diagnosed this year alone with prostate cancer while 4,100 men will die from the disease. With over 90 per cent of all cases prostate cancer being curable if detected early, events like Movember will undoubtedly save lives by educating Canada about this cancer.

Since it’s humble beginnings in 1999, Movember now has 1.1 million active participants and has raised $176 million. Last year, 119,000 Canadians participated, raising $22.3 million dollars for the cause. 88 per cent of all donations, or $19.6 million, went directly to cancer programs and health education, proving that a simple idea can yield monumental results.

I’d also like to say, hats off to (Jonas) Hiller of the Anaheim Ducks for his Movember goalie mask. The mask features photographs of Hiller and his teammates all sporting classy mustaches and does a great job of showing the wide array of facial hair options. It’s encouraging to see someone who reaches such a massive audience doing something constructive like this and certainly offers hope that this movement will continue to grow and develop.

So I’m only gonna ask this once men… Who’s growing with me? Who’s growing with me, man?

Donate here: http://mobro.co/KyleMumford