Terrorstock

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

I had to snort on Saturday when I saw a reporter on Citytv describe Warren Kinsella's self-promoting, Blue Jays attendance-boosting I Am Not Afraid campaign as ''grassroots.''  That's because it's more corporatist than grassroots. But, as Kinsella boasts, it's getting lots of MSM coverage.

The event, a t-shirt-sales extravaganza at the Rogers Centre on June 25, is supposed to show the world that Toronto stands up to terrorism. But I don't see anybody cringing, do you?

Doesn't it make more sense to go about our business -- go shopping, so to speak -- and not give the (supposed) terrorists what they want, acknowledgment of their potential power and the ability to change our way of life? Besides, isn't this event another way of convicting the 17 suspects who were arrested two weeks ago in the GTA?

I mean, nothing happened. Nothing.

Kinsella must have realized the ridiculousness of the ''I am not afraid'' slogan because it's been changed to "United We Are Toronto.'' Right. As long as we're united behind a baseball team with no pitching, overpriced beer and bland hot dogs.

Sorry. I already see a united Toronto (except maybe during World Cup season.) I see it every time I attend a Taste of the Danforth or a Caribana or any event which draws hundreds of thousands, in all our multi-culti splendour. None of these events have been cancelled. And they're already significant tourist attractions.

And yet, here's Kinsella to CP:

"This is about regular people quietly saying (to terrorists), 'Nope, this isn't going to work. ... We're just going to go to the ball game and reclaim public space.' "

Earth to Warren: Maybe you ought to get out of your white-bread world sometime.

Kinsella's campaign has apparently divided the progressive blogosphere. Some capital-L Liberals are supporting the event perhaps because capital-L Liberals (Kinsella, Dennis Mills, Jerry Grafstein) are organizing it. What's more, it may result in some much-needed media attention on the moribund Liberal leadership race.

Small-l liberals are just laughing at it. Here's Stageleft's t-shirty take. And here's Abandoned Stuff, um, throwing water all over it.

IAmNotAfraid.ca is a reactionary website designed to remind Internet-reading terrorists that Canadians are not afraid of them. How does it do that? Well as far as I can tell it does this by reminding average Canadians, as frequently as possible, that terrorism could strike them at any time. To combat fear we need to go to baseball games, since baseball is the natural enemy of terrorists. Eventually we will need new laws so we can deport Canadian terrorists to their grandparents’ homeland overseas, where they will be welcomed with open [fire] arms.

Oh and here's BlamBlog. And, while we're at it, there's Theo Moudakis' cartoon in today's Star.

Maybe the fact that this is getting monkey-see, monkey-do media attention shows that elitist events trump true grassroots events.

Or maybe we're just not as open a society as we pretend.

At this point, ''I am not afraid'' is getting more coverage than the huge tourist draw Pride Week  -- whose parade was scheduled long ago for June 25 and whose theme this year is ''Be Fearless.''  Now talk about reclaiming public space, and showing the world that Toronto is not only safe, it also knows how to party. My guess is, 10, if not 20 times, as many people will show up at the parade -- which is free -- than at the Rogers Centre, which isn't.

If the MSM treat Gay Pride with relative disdain -- and really, what could be more Islamofascist than prancing trannies and dykes on bikes? -- then we'll know for certain that the terrorists have won.

H/t to Scott Tribe.

UPPITY DATE: Looks like they called it off. This smells like a face-saving move to me.

TORONTO, June 16 -- Toronto communications consultant Warren Kinsella, Senator Jerry Grafstein and former M.P. Dennis Mills announced today that their group of community volunteers will join with Tourism Toronto and the Toronto Blue Jays for the second annual Tourism Appreciation Day on July 23rd when the Blue Jays host the New York Yankees in a game to be widely televised in Canada and the United States.   
      
  In a joint statement, they said: The "United... We are Toronto” effort we planned for the Jays-Mets Game at Rogers Centre on June 25 is now being rolled into the Tourism Appreciation Day planned for July 23rd.  We’re thrilled to be able to share our event with theirs in order to reach a much greater North American audience to showcase all that is great about our City. We agreed to merge our project with the Tourism Toronto-Jays event because we believe one great day will have more impact than two smaller ones."
      
Likely to be one of the highest attended games of the year, including thousands of US visitors and national Canadian and US media coverage, the event builds on a partnership begun last year between the Toronto Blue Jays and Tourism Toronto, to thank tourists for their patronage of our community and inspire them to keep coming back.
      
Blue Jays President Paul Godfrey said he was pleased the Blue Jays could again play host to such an important event.  “Toronto’s tourism industry is an important and valuable partner to the Blue Jays; we were honoured to play host to Tourism Toronto’s successful celebration last year and this year promises to be even better.”
    
Kinsella also took time to acknowledge the overwhelming support his group had received from across the globe.  “While the world was watching, it was nice to see that they were actually paying enough attention to understand that the key point of the story was that our police were on the job and our city always was, and is still safe.”
      
Bruce MacMillan, President and CEO of Tourism Toronto, said he looked forward to the celebration.  “On behalf of Toronto’s tourism industry I would like to start by thanking the citizens of Toronto for the concern they have shown for our industry over the past few weeks.  I am pleased to report that the positive view of Toronto from across the world has not changed.  Tour operators and convention planners in the US and around the world are telling us that new bookings continue and that there has been no increase in cancellations”.

   

MacMillan added that in the past two weeks Toronto has won three international conventions, the details of which will be announced shortly. “Our pace of future convention bookings continues at a rate not experienced since 2002.”

This summer Tourism Toronto and partners will spend over $5 million to promote the Greater Toronto area in key American markets to try to soften the impact the rising Canadian dollar and high gasoline costs are continuing to have on the tourism industry in the area and across the country.  In addition, they will continue to build on their recent success in Europe and Asia by investing heavily in those markets. 

     -30-

      

       Contact:

    

Andrew Weir, Tourism Toronto: (416) 987-1741
       Warren Kinsella, United We Are Toronto: (416)  642-3100

Comments

[sooey]

the terrorists won when the u.s. administration decided to invade iraq. but i've started a grassroots "i am a frayed knot" counter campaign. no website, tee-shirts, or sponsors, though. gawd. i wish the old monster was back in power so kinsella would be busy again with whatever he did when the old monster was in power. is he making money from this uberly cringingly embarrassing endeavour at least?

[Ti-Guy]

Bamblog's "My Canada Includes Stephen Harper's Head." Effin' funny.

You know, the English media elite in this country really are an obstacle when it comes to promoting original Canadian content. Kinsella's thing is completely derivative of the London Campaign. Really witty stuff like I've seen today goes completely unnoticed by the mainstream.

[sooey]

uh oh. is it legal to mock anti-terrorist stooge stooges... or is that a violation of the patriotland act...

[Edson Castilho]

Antonia, I just can't believe you actually apologised to Blatchford. Why apologise for an accurate assessment of a racist nutbar's ravings? As for Kinsella, another nutbar. It's sad how the whiteys in the MSM have no concept of their racism against people that just don't have the good sense to be just like their rich whitey asses!

Chau for now

Edson

[Saskboy]

It just amazes me that a pee-pee joke earns me more website hits than my rants about the CBC, large oil spill, highways, or NDP. Oh well, such is life for a little-L liberal blogger :-)

It's a shame 22-Minutes, or Rick Mercer Report are on Summer break, because I think Mercer would have looked better than I do in [fake] pee soaked pants trying to look brave.

[vinb]

I am not Afraid, but Warren Kinsella is kinda starting to scare me a little.

[Ti-Guy]

"It just amazes me that a pee-pee joke earns me more website hits than my rants about the CBC, large oil spill, highways, or NDP. Oh well, such is life for a little-L liberal blogger :-)"

It was the visual along with the post; the pee-pee stain *and* the Canadian flag. L0lz.

I'm really liking blogs that are publishing an arresting image along with their posts (Firedoglake was the first blog I noticed that did this consistently and with great impact, although others were doing it long before...The Poor Man has done that very well for quite a while).

I think Antonia should try it.

[Antonia Z.]

I think my image is arresting enough.

[Scott Tribe]

What I find more interesting then our progressives being divided is the almost virtual silence on the topic from the right side of the blogging aisle.

I've seen some portray this as nothing more then Warren trying to self-promote himself. But, the silence more or less almost seems to suggest they a) are mad that its Warren promoting it.. because most of them dislike him so much they cant bear to support an idea that he came up with, or b) the issue was co-opted away from them, a natural right-wing thing to do.. so they're hoping it goes away.

[Ti-Guy]

"I think my image is arresting enough."

Yes, but don't you think your image, in an XXL Burka beside a certain post would have...high-larious?...*ahem*...ROFLMAO!

[sooey]

well... i guess you could say kinsella came up with it in the sense that london, england came up with it after an actual terrorist attack... but i saw this cool thing on the national tonight - apparently an imam can issue a good fatwah to prevent terrorism. so like, i guess the joke's kind of on us, eh? gawd. islamic fundamentalists...

[Jay Currie]

I don't purport to speak for the right Scott but most of us long ago concluded that anything Mr. K was associated with, from Chretien to hate crimes, was mainly merde. Why bother giving the lying little has been any ink or pixels.

And, perhaps more to the point, most of us don't think singing Kumbaya faster is really addressing the issue of home grown and imported Islamofascism.

[Jiminy C]

Re. the image - I still vote for the much better one that was featured in the Ryerson article. Time for an avatar change Antonia!
As for Kinsella, he has to shout louder and louder and stamp his little feet harder and harder because folks who used to value his opinion are ignoring him in droves.....sad really!
Why dontcha ask him what his web site hit rate is these days Antonia - and hear the silence?

[sooey]

yabbut, jay - maybe singing kumbaya faster will address homegrown governmentofascism. meanwhile, if we can get enough imams to issue counter-terrorism-fatwahs, we can probably neutralize islamofascism. it's not strategic vengeance, but you don't need an exit strategy for it, either.

[stageleft]

The IANA movement strikes me as a group of victims running around proclaiming loudly to any and all who will listen that they have not been victimized.

Shakespeare has a line appropriate for them, "methinks thou doest protest too much".

[sheena]

I for one resent someone telling me not to be afraid just because the Brits weren't afraid. I mean, didn't we get rid of that colonial yoke years ago? Can't we set our own course of direction? Isn't this what Trudeau fought for?

"Antonia, I just can't believe you actually apologised to Blatchford"

I would guess it was either that or fight a lawsuit - or probably Zerb just realized her error in judgment and decided to behave like a civilized person? Most people, especially prominent ones like Crusty, don't take too kindly to being compared to Nazis and indirectly accused of committing hate crimes ("tantamount to" and all that). But Zerb's apology was warranted and sincere, so I don't understand why anyone would criticize her for it. Good on 'er, I say.

As for your harping on "the whiteys", Edson... probably shouldn't be using racial epithets while whining about racism.

[Ted]

Actually, promoting the Liberal leadership race has nothing to do with it, Antonia. I think Scott's follow-up comment touches on one big important point: it steals a lot of thunder from the conservative scaremongering to have progressives lead the charge and then we get to do it inclusively, get the right message out, instead of the conservatives using it to bash Muslims and multiculturalism, and spin it to get more terrorist security measures.

Don't you remember how the right demonized the left and centrists like myself for perceived lack of support last year for the London "We Are Not Afraid". They use such events as the London bombing and the terrorist arrests to attack Muslims and multiculturalism, force a conservative agenda rooted in scaremongering.

Scott is bang on to point out that conservatives, who were very very critical of liberal/progressive types last year for not supporting the British "We Are Not Afraid" campaign, have been very strangely silent. While liberal/progressive types have said they understand and accept the reasoning of those who choose not to support the campaign, conservatives apparently aren't interested in terrorism unless they can polarize and spin. I can't otherwise explain how they can demonize one year and remain so completely silent the next on the same issue. Most of the conservatives who commented on the terror plot were either out to bash Muslims or Liberals and not all that concerned about security, frankly.

So here is a peaceful gathering were a message of hope and multiculturalism will rule. We control the message and ensure that it is inclusive and promoting unity, rather than deliberately trying to divide Canadians for partisan gains.

And by the way, it isn't just big "L" Liberals, online anyway. Your good friend and NDP stalwart Robert at myBlahg (http://myblahg.com/?p=919) is also supportive.

Personally, I feel that everyone attending the Pride parade is a better show of opposition to both radical Muslim fundamentalism and their conservative values, and to conservative scaremongering.

I can't explain why Warren chose to have the event on Pride Day. It's too bad.

Ted
Cerberus
http://canadiancerberus.blogspot.com

[Peter Shaw]

"I would guess it was either that or fight a lawsuit..."

That was me, by the way, in case anyone cares... should probably click that "remember personal info" button.

[Lloyd Fister]

Kinsella's doing this with a jay's game because it's a guaranteed crowd. An "I Am Not Afraid" or "United We Stand" or "Kinsella is a Swell Guy" rally wouldn't fill a taxi cab, so Kinsella's hitched his very small cart to a very big horse.
The best thing is that everyone's laughing at this and seeing it for what it is, an exercise in self-promotion.
Can you imagine something like this in a real World Class City? Paris? Los Angeles? Omaha? Catch a bunch of guys doing Lord-knows-what, and pretend we've survived some kind of Major Disaster, just like London and New York. How very Toronto.
("It's an honor just to be nominated...")
Sad. Troubling. And so Bush-league all at the same time.

[Edson Castilho]

Dear Ted

Racism against whiteys??!? That's a good one. Stop yer whining and get a clue.

Chau for now

Edson

[Jay Currie]

"I can't explain why Warren chose to have the event on Pride Day. It's too bad." That would be the utterly clueless part of Mr. K.

And, Ted, "then we get to do it inclusively, get the right message out, instead of the conservatives using it to bash Muslims and multiculturalism, and spin it to get more terrorist security measures." illustrates the huge divide which exists in Canada as to how best to proceed in dealing with our own jihadis.

Your side of the aisle is saying "let's keep doing what we have been doing all along" (an hope the police - while respecting the rights of the extremists) are able to keep stopping these people.)

My side is saying that we need to re-examine whether or not radical Islamic fundamentalism and a modern secular democracy can exist within the same state.

[Ted]

Edson:

Hunh???

Where did I say anything about racism against whites?

Ted
Cerberus

[sooey]

okay, jay. you don't need the "radical" in front of "islamic fundamentalism". and yes - they can exist within the same state. my guess is, though, that the islamic fundamentalists are going to have to get used to diminishing numbers of mosque goers. but i'm sure the catholic church can talk them through it.

[Peter Shaw]

Ted,

I think Edson, lover of whiteys, meant to screech my way.