Provoked to Scream

I'm still trying to digest the repressive events that occurred in Toronto during the G20 last week, and still seeking the most affective means of responding to the clear trampling of civil and human rights that the state imposed and falsely justified.

As an avid watcher of CBC's The National, I was at first heartened by the coverage of the police brutality on newscasts on Sunday and Monday, but it soon became obvious the story was being buried as G20 news (both pro and con) completely disappeared by Tuesday night's broadcast. Suddenly, it was all the Queen's visit...

At least the Toronto Star carried this story yesterday, which seems a fair report of recent protests against the treatment of peaceful activists.You'll see that even the mainstream media are reporting on people being dragged from their showers and detained without charge.

The only thing I would immediately dispute is the statistic about the majority of Torontonians being happy with the police-action. I'd like to know what the exact question that was asked in the poll, and how it was conducted....

Meanwhile I feel I should post about the upcoming Scream Literary Festival noting, as Jenny Sampirisi did a few days ago, that the theme of this year's festival, "Agents Provocateurs," has taken on quite a different resonance.

Here's the mainstage (Monday, July 12th) lineup:

Gil Adamson
Tony Burgess
Angela Carr
Brian Joseph Davis
Jeff Derksen
Linh Dinh
The Element Choir
Michael Lista
Kathleen Phillips
Damian Rogers
Ken Sparling
Sherwin Tjia

You can find the complete schedule here. I'll be performing at the Zygal event on Thursday the 8th, and am very excited to finally have to opportunity to see David Antin on Tuesday the 6th.