27 November 2009

A Tale of Two, Cities, er... Provinces, er...

...totally separate countries...
The first video (the fourth video on this external website) shows Caledonia resident Randy Fleming walking down the side of Argyll Street South last Victoria Day -- May 24, 2009 -- with a Canadian flag tied to a stick slung over his left shoulder.

He saunters on to the edge of the occupied site, at which point he is grabbed by a black-clad OPP officer, escorted a few metres off the site, and is then pounced on by several other officers. An officer is seen taking the flag from Mr. Fleming, quickly rolling it up and handing it to another officer, who rushes away with it.
Hang on a second... the cops jumped a guy... for carrying the Canadian flag?

I guess there's some sort of reasonable explanation here? You know... maybe they were just cracking down on any and all provocative displays? Cooling off the whole situation, lock, stock and barrel?

Apparently not.
In the second video (the first video on this external website), taped on July 15, 2009, native protesters carrying Warrior Society flags and Six Nations flags walked down the middle of the street, followed by a number of pickup trucks, some draped with Warriors flags and signs.

The native march had an OPP escort -- with a cruiser, its lights flashing, slowly driving behind the marchers. As the last of the marchers enters the occupied site, an officer is seen talking with them and gives a wave as he gets into his cruiser to leave.
Oh, no Canada.

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