I can't imagine any other reason than FEAR for why your other posters here are all posting as "anonymous". We really need to get over our fear if we want to live free. As soon as people speak out under their real names, the system is finished because bravery generates yet more bravery, just as you are proving, Charles.
In the 1980s, I fought the corrupt Irving puppet governments of Fredericton and the province of New Brunswick while simultaneously defending the students of UNB against a likewise Irving-controlled administration and patronage-appointee board of governors.
We students spent some thousands of dollars on our battle over five years, but bled the administration to the tune of some $2.7 million before we graduated and moved on to further studies. We drove out the then mayor, Elbridge Wilkins, and we terminated the presidency-for-life of UNB President James Downey (who was later run out again by the students at Waterloo). Students toppled pot-smoking coke-snorting Premier Tricky-Dick Hatfield... and we even forced Irving to move his abominable oil storage tanks that for decades blotted the waterfront of the North Side of Fredericton. But as students, we were all moving on with our lives, heading out of town and unable to fight more than a few years per generation. And in leaving, each of us became a part of the brain-drain that allows Irving to treat those who remain in New Brunswick as if they were barnyard animals...
Then you came along, Charles, and set the new gold standard for democratic resistance to the Irving family-owned plantation known as NB. What you have done has raised the heads of the local victims. You have proven to be the resistance that they cannot send on to further studies. So I want to thank you, on behalf of my student activist generation of the 1980s and on behalf of the 60s activists who supported our struggle in silence from their academic and government posts where silence was required to stay employed.
There is now a new generation of students in Fredericton who should come out massively in your defense, and another generation of pensioners and retirees who have won back their freedom of speech upon leaving their government-funded jobs. Activate them and you can bring the entire Irving rip-off scam down, so we can rebuild it all new... in the public interest!
Good luck Charles and more power to you and the downtrodden people of New Brunswick!
John Bosnitch
Former UNB Student Union President (1980s)
Clearly Mr. Bosnitch is completely misinformed and has a dim view on safety on the internet. With the name and former title; a skilled hacker can find this person's physical address.
ReplyDeleteAnd due to the harassment that Charles does to those who disagree with him, the anonymous tag is there to protect Charles from getting punched in the face
As a further note to the "hero" named "anonymous", I know and have watched Charles in action multiple times, being sure to make a pilgrimage to his place every time I roll through town.
ReplyDeleteCharles *never* initiates physical violence against anyone and your suggestion that he does is not only out of line, but leads me to presume that you are nothing but a troll from Fredericton's "finest", bored senseless by a hard day's work of turning the other way as the powers that be commit whatever violations they consider themselves entitled to...
Surely there's something more useful you could be doing, like perhaps shining the cow-catcher mounted on the front of Fredericton's new armored vehicle being deployed to silence public dissent. ;-)
For someone of your status John, you sure are quite ignorant and closed-minded. You assume that I am a member of the FPD, that Charles is liked by everyone. Charles may not initiates physical violence, but if he shoves that camera in the wrong person he will be missing teeth. The people in Freddy are tired of this piece of putrid garbage going around shoving his camera in people's faces thinking he's above the law. If he did that to me, broken nose or broken camera, makes no difference.
DeleteYet another anonymous post... oh well...
DeleteMy "status"? I am no one special, just someone who noted what was going on around him as he lived his life. Ignorant? I doubt it, I ignore nothing and note any detail of value. Closed minded? I doubt it as well, I have changed my views on several issues INSTANTLY upon encountering real evidence that disproved my previous opinion... and I've been happy to change my views, feeling infinitely richer for the new knowledge.
"Shoves that camera"?... on the contrary, Charles keeps his camera close to his body, protecting it within his personal space... and if he ends up missing some teeth, it will be at *your* expense that he gets a full new set, better than the originals, for you will have assaulted him in plain daylight -- on camera.
In fact, I'd use your IP address right now to report you to the police for uttering a threat against Charles... something you should know is crime. I do not assume that you are a police officer -- they certainly aren't stupid enough to commit a crime from a traceable IP address like yours. But I do know you to be a primitive and jealous person by your calling a public defender like Charles a "piece of putrid garbage"... if I had to profile you, your choice of words probably means you finished high school but likely had no further education... I guess that's enough of a lead for those watching the posts here from the corner of Queen and Westmorland.
Good points, the only part I'd disagree with was being in Waterloo at the time and being on campus I saw little evidence that students ran out James Downey. The fact that he's once again President says a lot, although I think there are few high level administrators I have much good to say about.
ReplyDeleteI think 'fear' is a very misunderstood word, and just saying that something is 'fear' doesn't explain it. I say that as somebody who first began writing politically with the 'anonymous' label, but then graduated to my first name and to facebook after that.
In New Brunswick 'fear' is a permanent state of mind. Anybody who has any connections with government knows just how vindictive they can be, often even moreso than the Irvings. But in a small province like NB, its not just YOUR opinions that get remembered, but that can be used against your family and even friends.
Also, there is the simple fact that I'm not exactly sure making comments on a blog are worth ANY risk, its not like they are going to accomplish much.
I agree with most of that about Charles, in a weird way Charles has almost become symbolic, I think the real political change is coming from the people organizing on facebook, but Charles is a barometer of sorts, its no coincidence that as the police clamp down on his rights, they go out and spend a fortune on an armoured vehicle.
And thats too bad. It would be SO easy to 'do the right thing' but unfortunately, police administration has the same fault as virtually ALL administration, which is a false sense of superiority.
Hi Mikel, if you were at Waterloo when Downey was there and are uninformed about his demise, then you were neither a member of the Board of Governors or Senate and not a member of the student government. Downey sank like a stone there...
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Downey is still heading the board of governors at RMC (Royal Military College) means two things:
1. they needed money and picked a well-connected Liberal Party hack to raise funds by clinking glasses with high-society
2. Downey finally sank to his correct level, an absolute military dictator.
"Fear" is indeed a permanent state of mind for the majority of NB residents. And yes the penalties for speaking out are visited on the whole family. But these are reason to speak out, not reasons to stay quiet.
There have been over a million visits to Charles' blog by NBers starving for alternative views. As democrats, each of us has a duty to contribute to the discussion lest the whole people cower in fear... like the patients in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
Charles LeBlanc is indeed symbolic -- of the fact that only a man who routinely makes fun of himself (to appear less threatening) can get away with saying anything... and more importantly, that even with his outstanding example visible to all of us, no one else has had the guts to get organized to produce any alternate MASS MEDIA to challenge the Irvings' monopoly.
The armored vehicle is thus a *good* sign, symbolizing that the dummies in power think that a single souped-up American pick-up truck is going to be enough to do the job for their Irving bosses when it comes to running the insane Energy East pipeline through the pristine wilderness of eastern Canada... sorry guys, it will NEVER happen and the armored vehicle will likely get torched if it gets deployed.
You know, all of your worrying about "what might happen" if you speak out is so childish that I find it hard to even discuss it. But perhaps it's just because I've been out of town for so long and survived so much that the word "fear" when put in the context of Fredericton means nothing at all. I've spent years on the front in real shooting wars where turning down the wrong alley could leave you beheaded. I've been bombed by NATO with depleted uranium. I've had a machine gun jammed in my mouth by a Nazi Croat. I've had sixteen of my colleagues at a national broadcaster vaporized by NATO bombs. I've had an Albanian terrorist point and click a revolver at my forehead. I've had a CIA station chief threaten my life and I've had heads of state tell me repeatedly that what I planned to do was "impossible" and have just gone right ahead and done it anyway...
I guess I'm just too jaded, but that's no excuse for you to hide behind the name "anonymous" in friendly little Fredericton while trembling Syrian schoolgirls run through demolished neighborhoods to flee the bombs being dropped by "brave" Canadian pilots, and while tiny schoolboys in Donbass run behind barricades as Canadian mercenary police train Ukrainian neo-nazis how to "control" opposition demonstrators (by rounding them up Nazi-style). No, you "anonymouses", you don't have the luxury of being cowards anymore... it's now or never... standup like heroes -- like Charles -- and fight for your rights, or forget them forever.
I can't even begin to imagine how quickly the various "anonymous" respondents on this list would wet their pants if they ever had a cruise missile whizz right past, ten meters over their heads, or if they had to go through what Canadian hero Eva Bartlett, a freelance reporter in Syria, has seen and survived in Aleppo...
Time to toughen up before you embarrass yourselves beyond repair...
Its worth pointing out that Charles doesn't stick his camera in just anybody's face, however, I do understand THAT 'fear' as well. Its not a comforting thought that you COULD end up on a blog, maybe even more than once, maybe with 'snob' underneath it. However, in the scheme of things, thats a pretty small 'fear'. Charles passes a lot of people on the street, very few end up on the blog, and in most cases its pretty clear they want to be there. He also posts so much that even if your picture ended up there, it would be gone pretty quick.
ReplyDelete