It's Toronto's "Terrorist" Attack! Local, college student Alek Minassian, of European descent, is charged with 10 counts of first degree and 13 counts of attempted murder in a horrific rental "van attack". Quite deliberately, and at random he mowed down the unsuspecting late, lunch time pedestrians along 16 blocks of busy, downtown Yonge Street in North York, Toronto. It's a copy cat crime similar to recent incidents in London and Paris, but with a notable exception.
No matter that there weren't any real indications whatsoever of an "Islamic Terrorist" connection! US Fox and Breitbart "news", with a lot of help from their Canadian right wing counterparts, the Toronto Sun and Rebel Media, decide to ratchet up the fear mongering and create one anyway. Targeted among the shock and confusion of the day were Toronto's incredibly diverse population mix, in an nefarious slew of nasty, racist, Islamophobic memes, rumours, accusations and outright lies! It was an incredible, fake news attack, on a scale rarely seen this side of the border! [News Links!]
However, with amazing calm and resilience, Toronto tensions didn't boil over. Instead a very detailed, criminal, police investigation has now begun. Cool heads prevailed as the inexplicable act and carnage was captured live on video by numerous, lunchtime eyewitnesses. The footage includes the brave, dramatic and very professional capture live of the accused by TPS [Toronto Police Services]. These will now methodologically play their part in the court of criminal rather than any public "mediated" act of injustice.
As Toronto's diverse citizenry rally together in our collective grief, Minassian is very much alive. He will now stand trial for mass murder, not political spectacle. It provides a very rare chance to better understand what happened, and why. Perhaps also to help criminally profile what makes such mass killers tick, beyond the bogus, unscrupulous and often quite manipulative fake news eye of our media driven times.
Hopefully, it's also a chance to better precipitate and prevent such horrific crimes in the year's ahead, sans the divisive hysteria stateside in the Age of Trump. Or even our own domestic, terrorist, fear mongering mania during the Harper Years. It will be done from within a criminal justice perspective rather than the often, quite suspect, political news realm. From Toronto Canada eh, it's a refreshing, new way!
NEWS LINKS
Read More About Canadian Domestic Terrorism During the Harper Years @ HERE! @ HERE!
The News Links: Teacher Free Speech Spring 2018 News and Views @ HERE!
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