It has long been a pleasant consistency to be well received as a Canadian the world over. This year, that generally well-earned reputation has become soiled. It is still a beautiful country, with friendly folks and a lot of talent, but several high profile events have begun eroding its cherished character as champion of peace and the environment.

Certainly, Canada was a global example of environmental progress: North America’s west coast is widely considered extremely health-conscious, with some of the first anti-smoking laws in the world. Canada is consistently listed among the cleanest, nature-loving countries, with cities topping the lists of ‘best places to live.’

The current Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Steven Harper, has withdrawn Canada from the Kyoto Accord. The government’s antagonistic behavior, as well as its policy, was roundly criticized at the climate talks in Durban, South Africa. Indeed, Canada was awarded the ‘Fossil Award’ for its inaction against climate change. Sadly, the country’s emission levels have “risen by 30 percent over 1990 levels,” according to beloved geneticist, environmentalist, and broadcaster David Suzuki.

China expressed regret over Canada’s decision to withdraw. Among the vocal critics was Nobel-Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “Canada, you were once considered a leader on global issues like human rights and environmental protection. Today, you’re home to polluting tar sands oil, speeding the dangerous effects of climate change.”

The Keystone XL Pipeline proposal, to run from the oil-rich province of Alberta into the U.S., has further stained Canada’s reputation over environmental concerns, including the plan to pass across the U.S. Ogallala-Aquifer, which provides drinking water for over two million people in eight states. On a smaller scale, Toronto, Canada’s largest city and host of the respected Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), elected mayor Rob Ford, who slashed his own popularity along with funding for public transportation, the arts, libraries, day-cares, and other popular services.

Archbishop Tutu’s reference to human rights is particularly poignant to a country with a long and proud tradition of peace-keeping and its reputation as a gentle and humane nation. As leader of the opposition at the time, Harper’s minority supported the invasion of Iraq. After the Conservatives became the ruling party, they deported U.S. war deserters. The party later defeated an attempt to end the deportations on humanitarian grounds.

The world-famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also fell into considerable disrepute. After several years of recent scandals involving a Taser death and the fatal shooting of a man in custody, this year saw more outrage involving sexual harassment, incompetence, and negligence in the handling of the famous ‘Pickton’ serial killings.

Not last, nor least, is Vancouver. Often credited for its beauty, its cultural and culinary diversity, and its high living-standards, the city became the media focus this year for its riots following the local team’s loss in the ice-hockey championship. Over all, it was a conspicuously poor year for Canada, marked by a loss of the respect and fondness it had earned for so long. What will happen in the following years depends largely on the patience and shifting attitudes of the Canadian people.

However, there have been many positive Canadian events. Its economy did not slide significantly, as did many others, and has held strong. Moreover, the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement began with a blog by Canadian magazine ‘Adbusters.’ Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan ended. Charitable donations increased.

There is a consistent swing of the pendulum in Canadian politics. The RCMP has begun to focus on cleaning its image and its house, and hockey is undergoing intense scrutiny. Next year might not be the disaster the Mayans predicted.

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Two weeks after David Cameron’s speech, British officials met last Thursday with representatives of Research in Motion, Facebook and Twitter to discuss ways to control or limit social media in order to resist violence and turmoil in the streets.

The government’s home minister, Theresa May, said that the goal behind the meeting was not to restrict social media, but instead “crack down networks being used for criminal behaviour”. The discussions in the meeting revolved around allowing more power to law enforcement to have access to data from these networks in order to fight back any possible organized riots.

In earlier statements, Research in Motion, the developer of BlackBerry, expressed its will to cooperate with local telecommunication operators, law enforcement and the British government. The company agreed to provide the British police information from the BlackBerry Messenger network.

Gordon Scobbie, a senior police officer who attended the meeting, suggested that Twitter could assist the police by compelling users to use their real names instead of nicknames. In a reply to this, Sean Garrett, a Twitter spokesman, said that Twitter was not considering requiring real names, insisting that the meeting was not a negotiation.

Meanwhile, Facebook said that it had already deleted certain groups, and had removed accounts created under fake identities. The company further emphasized that its social network was used in a positive way by Britons reacting to riots, including clean ups by residents in many neighborhoods.

Cameron’s initial suggestion seemed to be absent at Thursday meeting, as May informed social networks that the government had no intention of restricting Internet services.

Facebook, Twitter and other public sites on the Internet played a crucial role in linking many social movements in the Arab world, and leading them towards systematic change. However, the restriction and control of the Internet in Tunisia did not help in keeping the old regime in power. In Egypt, turning off the Internet for four days was a motive to enrage passive citizens to go out to protest.

Banning Internet use in the UK could have been a fatal step and could have worsened the situation even more. On the one hand, the action would undermine the credibility of the country as an ancient democracy, and as a promoter of liberties in the third world. On the other hand, taking such actions would encourage regimes that have been criticized by the West for limiting freedoms to further sustain their control over the media.

Image Courtesy of  GeorgeRexTA [at gmail [dot] com] (Flickr: London Riots, Croydon) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Rioters in London and other cities around England over the past week have caused senseless violence and criminality on a scale that hasn’t been seen for decades.

Causing millions of pounds worth of damage, rioters have turned a number of English cities upside down, showing complete disregard for the safety of citizens.

The trigger
It began as a peaceful demonstration following the death of the 29-year old Mark Duggan from Tottenham who was shot death by police on Thursday August 4. Around 300 people gathered outside Tottenham police station on Saturday August 6 in their quest for justice for Duggan and his family. Later the same evening the violence broke out.

The scale
Gradually going completely out of control, the predominantly teenage part of the population of England set buildings on fire, smashed and looted shops, attacked policemen and caused chaos on the streets of English cities. The looters seemed to be always one step ahead of the stretched police forces, taking full advantage of the disorder.

Some of the cities outside London affected by the riots include Manchester, Salford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Gloucester, Leicester, Bristol and Leeds. Turning those cities into war zone, the rioters left people without homes and businesses.

Some of the most shocking disturbances included:

• Malaysian student Asyraf Haziq was attacked and injured by rioters in London and then mugged by a group of young men who at first appeared to try to help him.
• Haroon Jahan, 21, Shahzad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31 died having been hit by a car in Birmingham after they tried to protect their neighbourhood.
• An estimated 60 people who were made homeless in London as a direct result of homes and businesses being burnt down.

These represent just a small portion of the consequences from the volatile acts of the looters. Eventually, it became clear that it was not about protesting – it was about robbery and pointless vandalism.

The clean-up action
During this week of distressing events, people have seen the worst of Britain – the angry and rather greedy youngsters destroying their own community — buildings being burned down, businesses being wrecked, property being stolen, innocent people being injured.

Nonetheless, following these disturbances, onlookers now see the best of Britain: the volunteers who gather on the streets of London and other affected cities to clean up the mess left by rioters.

“Bring gloves, heavy duty sacks, brooms, brushes and marker pens,” instructed a Twitter account, @RiotCleanUp. For just more than an hour, the Twitter account attracted more than 70,000 followers and brought together the people of England who got together to pick up the pieces and restore the order in their cities.

‘The fightback’
With regards to the rioters themselves, they will pay for their acts. Having seen “the most sickening scenes of his career,” Greater Manchester Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan made the following statement:

“Hundreds and hundreds of people, we have your image, we have your face, we have your acts of wanton criminality on film. We are coming for you, from today, and no matter how long it takes, we will arrest those people responsible.”

Prime Minister David Cameron also gave a speech warning the rioters that they “will feel the full force of the law” and if they are “old enough to commit these crimes” they are “old enough to face the punishment.” He further urged the country to pull together and promised to compensate anyone whose life has been affected by violence.

In fact, almost 2000 people have been arrested across the country using CCTV images. More than 600 have been charged. The offenses range from violent disorder (including robbery, assault, carrying a weapon and obstructing a police officer) to burglary and related offenses (including handling stolen goods), arson and drug-related offenses.

The events of the past week have been extremely overwhelming. Now that the cities are being cleaned up and offenders are being punished, a question arises as to why it happened in the first place. Cameron admits that the riots were caused mainly by social and cultural problems.

He blamed it on “children without fathers; schools without discipline; reward without effort; crime without punishment; rights without responsibilities; communities without control.” Seeing the riots as a “wake-up call for the nation,” Cameron gives a promise to “mend our broken society” by reviewing all aspects of policy, including education, welfare, parenting and drug addiction.

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Two weekends ago, a riot in Tottenham followed a peaceful protest over the police shooting of Mark Duggan. The violence escalated in the streets of London and soon spread to other cities around the British country. The spectators looked in shock as young British people acted out in complete anarchy.

As England deals with the aftermath of the worst street riots in decades, musicians react on London riots on Twitter. Musicians M.I.A., Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, Example and many others, made statements about the situation on their personal Twitter accounts.

Kapranos, the lead singer and the guitarist of the Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand, asked the Prime Minister to do something about all these riots and widespread looting. He said, “Where the fuck are the Bullingdon boys? What’s wrong you cunts? Would you only end your holidays if it were Fortnum & Mason being looted?”

M.I.A brewed contention with a riot-sympathizing tweet “I’m going down to the riots to hand out tea and mars bars.”

Example, with humor and frustration said, “All these Nandos on fire? That’s some over cooked chicken wings. Pull the army of Afghanistan and stop all this bullshit now please,” before adding, “If you’re gonna set fire to any house in London please make it the Big Brother house.”

Moreover, as Spinner previously reported, a Sony warehouse where thousands of records were stored for many indie labels was burned to the ground (on Tuesday 9 Aug), undoubtedly affecting independent music throughout Europe.

“What music fans can do to show their support for the indie label community, and help them survive this disaster is to buy a digital download of an album from any one of the digital retailers in the UK, as well as going to their local record store while stocks last,” the Association of Independent Music has stated in a press release (via NME).

In the face of continuing violence several artists have now taken to the streets in an effort to help clean up London. ”At the Bethnal Green clean up, nice to see so many people ready to help in the community!” pop songstress Kate Nash tweeted about helping out.

Scroobius Pip, poet and musician, simply posted, “This is Britain punching itself in the face. Repeatedly”

The fact is that many theories have been posited about the underlying causes of the riots in England — from moral decay to excessive consumerism. According to criminologists, the reasons for the riots are many, including social exclusion, welfare dependence, spending cuts, weak policing, racism and opportunism.

The situation in England has been reflected in foreign publications, from Europe, Asia, Middle East, U.S. to Africa, all of which try to explain what exactly happened in the streets of London and other cities, and why. Anthony Daniels in the New York Daily News said:

“The riots in London and elsewhere in England have confirmed what I long knew and have long preached to my disbelieving but totally unobservant countrymen: that young British people are among the most unpleasant and potentially violent young people in the world.”

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The riots in Britain that began in London last weekend has spread throughout the country as rioters clashed with police in Manchester and Birmingham.

Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his vacation to return to a country that seemed to be on the verge of anarchy. As he called on the police to take a tougher stance against the rioters, there was talk of deploying rubber bullets for the first time on the mainland. Until now, they have only been used in Northern Ireland. It was also announced that the police presence in London would increase from 6,000 to 16,000 in a bid to crack down on the civil disorder gripping the capital. In addition, the Army’s emergency infantry battalion could be deployed if the situation worsens.

The riots began after a vigil on Saturday for a London man, Mark Duggan, who was shot during a police operation in north London. Since then, the situation has steadily worsened as the police tried to wrest control of the streets from marauding gangs of thugs. Although initial reports said that Duggan fired at officers, subsequent evidence has shown that that was not the case.

Much of London is now in a state of virtual lockdown, and many businesses are closing early so that their employees can get home before dark. Scotland Yard has come under scrutiny for its failure to rein in the rioters, with officers initially being told to watch and wait rather than proactively pursue the looters. But as public and political pressure mounted, the Metropolitan Police decided to change their tactics and take a more aggressive stance.

The escalating violence forced London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, to return from his own holiday in order to attend to the situation. While visiting one of the areas hardest hit by the riots, Johnson was heckled by Londoners angry with the police. His attempts to deliver a speech were repeatedly disrupted by angry jeering from the crowds.

Although the increased police presence in London appears to have helped stabilize the situation in the capital, violence erupted elsewhere in the UK. In Manchester and Salford, rioters managed to stay one step ahead of the police as they burned and looted throughout the city. In Nottingham, a police station was firebombed, and there were reports that a gun may have been fired at officers in Aston, Birmingham.

It was announced yesterday that the House of Commons, which is currently in recess, is to be recalled so that MPs can debate the riots. This is actually the second time the Commons have been recalled this summer, as they were called back at the end of July in order to discuss the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

So far, almost 700 people have been arrested in London alone in connection with the riots.

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It has been a dramatic weekend in Tottenham, north London, where the gathering of around 300 people in the streets turned into an overnight riot that saw petrol bombs being thrown at police while vehicles and building were set ablaze.

The Daily Telegraph could report that 26 police officers were injured, at least one of them left with serious head injuries, while 42 people have been arrested. According to the London Ambulance Service, a total of 10 people had been treated and nine were admitted to hospital.

A gathering of around 120 people had earlier Saturday staged a march from the local Broadwater Farm area to Tottenham police station in protest of the death of 29-year-old Mark Duggan who was shot by police in a gun fire exchange on Thursday. A friend of Mr Duggan told news media that marchers had wanted “justice for the family” and “something had to be done.”

“This guy was not violent. Yes, he was involved in things but he was not an aggressive person. He had never hurt anyone,” said the 53-year-old marcher.

Another member of the original protest, Vanessa Robinson, said the demonstration outside the police station had begun peacefully. She told the BBC that the situation had then turned into “absolute chaos.”

What police officers described as ‘missiles’ were thrown at the police station and what appeared to be young, mask-clad people began to throw petrol bombs, bricks and anything they could get their hands on off the street at officers who were attempting to calm down the masses.

In the early hours of Sunday local time, many rioters had moved to the nearby retail park where they were seen looting shops. Sky News reporter Simon Newton, who was at the scene, said he saw youth wheeling out televisions and bagfuls of clothes. Police were not in the area.

During the violent escalation, two police cars and a double decker bus was set on fire. A branch of Aldi supermarket was also torched and Sky News believes the looters had targeted shops in the aftermath. Also residential areas were disturbed.

Local politician David Lammy made a statement on his website that said “We already have one grieving family in our community and further violence will not heal that pain.”

Mr. Lammy appealed for calm while the investigation takes place. “The Tottenham community and Mark Duggan’s family and friends need to understand what happened on Thursday evening when Mark lost his life. To understand those facts, we must have calm.”

In another statement, Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said “I understand the distress that the shooting of Mark Duggan has caused to his family and in the community and that people need answers about what happened to him.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Mayor of London Boris Johnson said to the BBC: “Violence and destruction of property will do nothing to facilitate [the IPCC] investigation and we urge those involved to respect the rule of law.”

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/beaconradio/

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Over the last days riots broke out in Northern Ireland in occasion of the Orange parades held by Protestants.

Numerous clashes in the nationalist areas of the capital Belfast have brought to light the historical conflicts between nationalists and loyalists once again. Groups of nationalist youths attacked the police throwing bottles, stones, petrol bombs, bricks and fireworks.

The police fired plastic bullets and used water cannon to try to push back the rioters. During these escalations of violence a number of police officers were injured and also a photographer, who was hit by a plastic bullet fired by the police. Some of the demonstrators were slightly wounded.

The night before the 12^th of July the trouble broke out after an Orange parade marched closed to a Catholic area and the police took up position ahead of it while passing the Ardoyne shops. On that day, the members of the Protestant Orange Order walk the streets to commemorate the victory of the Protestant Prince William of Orange over the Catholic King James II in the Battle of Boyne in 1690.

This celebration is of a strong symbolic value regarding the historical ethno-religious and political conflict between Catholic nationalists and Protestant loyalists in Northern Ireland. Also in the past the Orange celebrations have led to violent and serious riots and clashes.

The nationalist area of Ardoyne in north Belfast is a traditional flashpoint. In 2010 there have been several troubles during the Orange march season. The people in Ardoyne area oppose the Orange parade, and the decision of the Parade Commission to allow it passing through it caused the locals’ reaction.

“The difficulty was that there was an Orange parade,” said Gerry Kelly, a member of the left-wing republican party Sinn Féin. “People have made great efforts, but a parade coming through a catholic area is a problem,” he added.

Witnesses told that the violence was organized by nationalist youths, who gathered with the only intention of creating trouble and attacking the police.

Robert McClenaghan, a community worker from the Falls Residents Association said: “There was no provocation. There was nothing from the Protestant, loyalist, unionist community. Broadway interface was quiet”.

“What you had was 100 or 150 of these young people all tooled up and masks around their faces. They were armed with petrol bombs, they were armed with sticks and stones. They had wheelie bins with extra ammunition that they were pulling behind them.”

Nigel Dodds, the North Belfast Democratic Unionist MP stated: “These people have been intent on attacking the police and wreaking havoc in their own community. Such violence is senseless and has clearly nothing to do with protesting against a parade but is just futile rioting”.

“The people engaged in the violence didn’t even see the parade go past,” Dodds said. “This violence was intended, created and brought into existence by a small group of militant extreme republicans who were determined to have it, come what may.”

Riots broke out also in other locations around Belfast, and minor disorders also happened in other towns of the country. The police arrested some rioters and others are still to be indentified with the help of closed-circuit TV’s footages.

“As far as the outside world is concerned, it does not matter which side is rioting. What counts is the perception that Northern Ireland is unstable and unsafe,” said Peter Bunting, the assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Quotes Courtesy of www.bbc.com and www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

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