GE-Hitachi: Is this just a distraction from the trains?
Update: Anarchist Ashleigh Ingle may have a twin! It’s been brought to my attention that the person I identified as Ashleigh Ingle may have been an assistant to Jonah Schein. If so, there’s an incredible resemblance- right down to their purple framed glasses! I’ve changed the article to remove that information- will write an update when more information is available please accept my apologies for any confusion.
I went to an interesting community meeting about West Toronto’s uranium oxide plant on Saturday. The meeting itself was rather dull- there was a panel with people from GE, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), and the Toronto Environmental Alliance, and NDP MP Andrew Cash.
Zach Ruiter was there too, and a large contingent of his supporters. From what I could tell, there were more NDP operatives and anti-nuclear campaigners at the meeting than there were neighbours of the plant. There was a lot of manipulation going on too- on many different levels…
First, and I’m not the only person who noticed this, there was a lot of intimidation focussed towards the people from GE and the CNSC. Some of it was the usual stuff (people in the crowd interrupting), but there were a few new tricks this time.
One of Ruiter’s most interesting tricks is how he used his camera as a prop so that he can make nasty faces to people. I saw him doing this a couple of weeks ago at a Pro-Palestinian rally. He get’s up-close into the person’s face, and then starts making menacing expressions- only, looking at the screen rather than directly at the person. I caught an example of this on video:
Ruiter also ran around with his flag behind the panel, regularly interrupted the speakers, and was so disrespectful that local residents in the crowd were yelling out asking him to stop. It really got out of hand at times- and, I was disappointed that Cash and Schien didn’t have the leadership skills to stand up and ask that they stop. Perhaps they were okay with this behaviour?
There was also what appeared to be some hand signalling from people in the audience to someone on the panel:
Perhaps- first let me prime you with a bit of Jonah Schein’s history- he seems like a nice guy who’s been hanging out with the wrong kids. When Schein was a student at York University (yeah, you knew that was coming) he led an innovative crusade to bring more money to people who are on welfare- in a rather devious way.
He discovered an obscure part of Ontario’s welfare law that allowed a special $250 subsidy for people who have special dietary requirements. The purpose of the subsidy was for people who had medical reasons for a special diet- unfortunately for the province, the subsidy wasn’t very well defined. Schein helped start ‘clinics’ where medical professionals were willing to sign-off on the subsidy for most anyone- the assumption was (and is correct) that the Ontario Works program doesn’t provide enough money for people to eat healthy food.
Schein’s activism was a brute-force attack on the system. It was, temporarily, successful- a number of people signed up and were able to receive the subsidy. But, of course, the government got wise to what was obviously a manipulation of the system. So, they came up with a list of acceptable conditions and began filtering out people who aren’t on the list. And, unfortunately, it is now much more difficult for people who need the subsidy to get it.
This Jonah Schein sounds a bit like an anarchist- doesn’t he?
Well, perhaps not, but he’s no stranger to the anarchist/Marxist crowd. Schein decided to partner with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). I wrote about OCAP back in September in a story about unions, anarchists and flying squads. I’ve heard more than a few people refer to OCAP as ‘anarchist central’- when there’s an OCAP march happening, you’ll always see lots of police around.
OCAP also work with Common Cause, CUPW, and union flying squads. Flying squads were invented by the Teamsters back in the 1930’s, and have often been associated with violence and dirty tricks. That doesn’t mean that everything a flying squad is dirty. They exercise a diversity of tactics– some people do helpful things like serve doughnuts and coffee to cold strikers, others ‘monkeywrench’ the system, or create distractions.
Trey Whinney (who assaults journalists) & Sid Ryan (who assaults female journalists) at this weekend’s Common Cause meeting…
Cash & Schein campaigned together on a platform of replacing diesel trains with electric trains. It’s a very worthy cause (there are many residences beside the train line)- but, equally, a very difficult promise to fulfil in a single term of office. Equally, it is an incredibly expensive and time consuming project- it may take many years until local residents see new trains.
Conveniently, they now have a new cause to rally the voters with. And, it’s not out of the question they could get a date scheduled for the plant’s relocation in the next year. That could be a victory they can use at the next election to prove their environmental ‘cred’. Equally, they gave a lot of cred to the anarchists by attending their last meeting.
The GE-Hitachi protest carries a lot of the hallmarks of something the flying squads would do. Send in some troublemakers to stir things up, distract from unwanted discussion, and gain advantage in negotiations. Anarchists at Occupy Toronto have told me that people from the unions have been trying to recruit them for flying squads. Occupy Toronto has been deeply involved with this protest.
If this is a just a coincidence- well, there certainly are a lot of them. For example, Cheri DiNovo (who was also involved with GE-Hitachi) starts crusading against animal abuse at Marineland (a worthy cause), and next we see a group of anarchists invade the place. The Toronto Star had a great picture of Zach Ruiter there with a megaphone and a dolphin fin hat.
At the minimum, it’s all very entertaining to watch…
Zach Ruiter at Marineland- Did the Toronto Star “Just Happen” to be there that day?
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That’s strange dude, I was looking for something a lot more sophisticated than flashing numbers, look more at the gestures, flipping the hair, swiping the leg (unless she has crabs she certainly does it alot!), fidgeting with a necklace…. I don’t think those couple hand signals were the only ones, seems like the guy next to her was using some signals as well, it’s plainly obvious they are together… Good job at exposing a liar!
Author
Thank you! As far as the hair flipping, it’s my guess that she’s flirting with Schein…
Good work, Greg…this issue is such a sham but has been so enabled by the actions of Cash and Schein…I believe they are such political noobs they just don’t know what they are doing. Cash’s last band name L’entranger describes his political preference to stay on the fringe. As a federally elected MP though, he now must work for his constituents….he has accepted responsibilities to work within…a process which requires leadership and decision making and which he is clearly uncomfortable with. He and Schein have got to do their job. At this point both are grossly negligent in carrying out their responsibilities. Schein, is just a lump.
Who was the crazy Math professor…Gordon?? was that his name? No mention of him at the Faculty of Mathematics at U of T. And who made him an expert? He contradicted the CNSC figures on no other basis than he did not like their math. He held up GE Hitachi’s own one-page publicity sheet as “official-figures”….Gawd, are we stupid?
How is it that Ruiter can vexatiously raise a non-issue and then have politicians jump to attention? The wasted time, money and most importantly, the fret of innocent residents…why is that kind of damage to humanity not a criminal act? (He is no better than a fire starter…his actions are willfully destructive and no one holds him accountable….shame!!)
Thanks again Greg…any more names/thoughts would be appreciated…
Regarding the video with Jonah Schein – That’s actually his constituency assistant, Victoria. That would explain why she was helping out with the meeting. I think you might have a mistaken identity here.
Author
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The similarities are astounding- I’ve shown the pictures to a few people and they were all rather surprised.
Of course Zac was running around interrupting. I am pretty sure a key motto of the NDP is “You can’t have people thinking for themselves.”
Author
Yep, they were Delphi’ing, weren’t they?
they are oblivious to what they are doing, they even put the evidence of it up on the internet themselves!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa85RlISQJw
Oh there was something going on. That is for sure. The NDP is in a very awkward position right now. They had embraced some radical groups and people in an attempt to boost their power over the past 10 years. These groups do not mix well with the old school working class (actual workers) and rural Westerners who made up the base in the past.
It showed when the NDP chose their new leader after the death of Jack Layton. Much of the opposition actually came from the radical crowd. Tom Mulcair supports Israel’s right to exist. He is also married to a Jewish woman, a Sephardi Jew at that. For the radicals anything less than a politician being anti-Israel is inadequate.
It will be interesting to see how things shape up going forward. So far the NDP has done a good job distracting people from the radicals.
I just noticed the comment on Sid Ryan about assaulting female journalists. It was a disgusting thing to watch. She even asked him to let go because he was hurting her.
How many people have called him a misogynist?
Author
I haven’t seen anyone call him a misogynist for this violent behaviour towards a woman- people should start using that label perhaps…
“Cash & Schein campaigned together on a platform of replacing diesel trains with electric trains. It’s a very worthy cause (there are many residences beside the train line)- but, equally, a very difficult promise to fulfil in a single term of office. Equally, it is an incredibly expensive and time consuming project- it may take many years until local residents see new trains.”
Problem here is that they aren’t campaigning to replace existing trains – the diesel trains are the new trains. The campaign is to have the forthcoming trains be electric, rather than trying to electrify in the future.
[…] has also been actively fighting with Jonah Schein’s beloved Ontario Coalition for Poverty (OCAP)- a ‘militant’ group who are closely tied with the […]