Tag Archives: Toronto

Occupy

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After visiting the Occupy Toronto movement this past weekend and reading reports in the media, I’ve noticed a sort of hysteria around the fact that there is not yet a clear vision or goal of the protesters. I’m not sure that this is true.

Although the messages from protestors I saw this weekend were admittedly quite diverse, I definitely think there is some common theme to everyone’s frustration. And in order for Occupy to become a real movement, these central themes must take centre stage of the fight.

So, here are the core messages that I propose the Occupy movement embrace:

1) Free markets are not perfect.
The unwavering faith that the free market always and everywhere maximizes social welfare is false, and governments should not be making decisions based on this rigid ideology.

2) More equal societies are better.
While reasonable incentives should exist to promote innovation, creativity, efficiency, hard work and maintain individuality, reducing inequality is a worthy social goal. Insisting that wealthier parts of society contribute higher taxes towards this goal is not unreasonable.

3) Government can do great things.
Government, as the representative body of the people that elects it, has the central role in achieving social goals. Government is not everywhere and always bad, inefficient and wasteful. Governments provide public goods that the private sector cannot and regulates areas of society where the free market fails to maximize social welfare. Governments provide financial stability where free markets provide chaos. Governments are crucial to funding education, healthcare, police and fire services, and constructing crucial economic infrastructure such as roads, highways, electric grids, telecommunication systems, sanitation, public transit, subways, airports, among others. The ideology that we always and forever need less government is neither reasonable nor constructive.

I think with these three central messages, the Occupy movement can attract significant support and have a real voice in shaping the political scene in the next few years.

I sure hope so.

The Next Movement

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This happened to me this past Friday right outside the fenced G20 secure zone in Toronto:

Police: Can I see your ID?

Sina: I don’t have my ID with me.

Police: You don’t have your wallet with you?

Sina: Well I do. I’d just rather not show my ID to you, since I don’t have to. It kinda creeps me out.

Police: Actually, by the Public Works Protection Act, anyone within 5 metres of that fence can be arrested if they don’t provide ID. So if you have your ID with you I’d suggest you provide to me.

Sina: Listen, I don’t want any trouble. Can I just turn back and go home? I don’t really need to pass by this area, and I really don’t want to show you my ID.

Police: No you may absolutely not go. Please hand over your ID.

Sina: argh [reluctantly hands officer ID]

Police: [looks over ID] Where were you born?

Sina: I’d rather not say. I’m from Canada, I’m Canadian.

Police: You know, this will be a lot easier if you cooperate. If I think you’re obstructing public safety I can arrest you and I really don’t want to have to do that.

Sina: argh. I was born in Thailand.

Police: I thought you said you were born in Canada.

Sina: No, I never said where I was born. I said I’m Canadian, which I am.

Police: Where you are from?

Sina: I’m from Canada.

Police: No but where are you from? Where are you parents from?

Sina: They’re Canadian too.

Police: Where did your parents originally come from?

Sina: argh. They’re from Iran.

Police: So you’re not Canadian.

Sina: No, I’m Canadian.

Police: You see when people ask me where I’m from, I tell them I’m Canadian but my parents are from Guyana.

Sina: That’s great for you. I’m not “Canadian but” though, I’m “Canadian”.

blah blah blah…. This went on for a good 30 mins. He asked where I lived, where I worked, where I went to school, when I graduated, etc….and wrote everything down. My favourite was “do you have a street name?”.

I’m really glad the officer educated me on the fact that I’m not Canadian — and not even because I wasn’t born here, but just because I’m not a “real Canadian”, which I think meant “white” or something. It’s actually good to know, otherwise I would have been really confused as to why my civil rights were being so blatantly violated using what turned out to be an invented law.

Just for the record, the officer was very very very polite and was genuinely a nice guy, even if it doesn’t seem so the way I summarized it above. We may have had different views on what it means to be Canadian, but that’s okay. I know he was just doing his job, was an honest man, and for sure he didn’t know that the 5-metre law was actually fabricated (no one did) — and so I don’t blame him for anything. I sincerely love police officers and have great respect for the dangerous work they do every day and did this past weekend. In fact, other than the initial shake-up which left me feeling dirty, I was generally okay with this incident. That was, until I found out the 5-metre law was, actually, not a law at all. It wasn’t, well, anything. It was completely fabricated. The media had been reporting for several days of this “new secretly passed law”, and not even the premier thought it was necessary to make a clarification. Great.

The police inventing imaginary laws and then demanding citizens abide by them? Just not cool with me.

What have we become?