It's the tyranny, stupid

Myopic mainstream media missing tyranny forest for undercover police trees

August 26, 2007

Well, it seems the controlled corporate media has finally taken an interest in the SPP, an undemocratic "dialogue" between the three sovereign nations of Canada, the US and Mexico which the politically informed have been sounding the alarm about for over a year now. Unfortunately—although not unexpectedly—their focus is not on the true ramifications of this undemocratic process, but on a violent incident which is easier to relate to from a human interest point of view.

The media spotlight is shining on a now infamous YouTube clip which shows three men dressed as anarchists being angrily confronted by Dave Coles, president of the the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. The three men have since been exposed as undercover officers by the Surete du Quebec, the provincial police force.

The coverage of the SPP is valuable, but the media's narrow focus on this incident is distracting the public's attention from the real agenda of the anti-democratic, pro-multinational SPP. As Mr. Coles himself said on CTV Newsnet two days ago: "What's really a shame here is that this breach of Canadian democracy actually hides the whole issue of why we were there. We were there because citizens have a real problem with the SPP."

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, one of the key groups protesting the SPP process, outlined that this distraction plays into the hands of those seeking to divert the public's attention from the real issues. "99.99% of the protestors were peaceful" as she pointed out in an interview, also with CTV Newsnet that same day. "So if you can destabilize that and make it look like something else, then you have discredited us[...]and you buy into this whole notion that we're not serious people and you can just joke about 'jellybeans' and 'space aliens' and not take our concerns seriously. Ms. Barlow is referencing the patently ridiculous comment of Prime Minister Harper after the conference that the Summit had only been discussing mundane topics like standardizing jelly beans across the three nations.

The real issue here is not, as the media coverage would suggest, the identity of the three undercover agents, or whether or not the Government of Canada, led by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, will choose to investigate itself and set up an inquiry into the incident. The point is that the agencies which are presumably there to protect the public order have been caught undermining that order, and undermining it in order to discredit protestors who were invoking their democractic right to protest. And all this on the doorstep of a summit where citizens were not welcome to participate while their elected representatives met with leaders of the largest businesses in the world in meetings whose minutes have not been disclosed. Those who are interested in a free and open democratic society do not needed it pointed out to them what is wrong with this picture.

As long as the controlled corporate media continue to dwell on the smokescreen of the provocateuring incident itself while refusing to deal with its implications, they will tip their hand over whose interests they are really serving.