Bark!
JJ - I cannot even think about what has happended here without feeling sooo sad for Robert Dziekanski's end of life and the incredible pain his mother, other family members and friends must be going through.
It is almost unbeliveable this this has happened and more so that it has happened in .... Canada, of all countries - it signifies an end to something, I just don't know what to call it.
The Toronto Star is noticeably careless with their use of words lately.
Sassy - It wouldn't be any less tragic, but less surprising if it had happened in some shithole in the ME or North Korea or some other place enamoured of authoritarianism. That it could happen here definitely signals we've veered off the road and are sliding into dangerous territory.
Add to that the increasingly secretive government, probable complicity in torture in Afghanistan, and we're following the USA's path. This isn't good.
RA - Ya think? When it caught my eye I did a doubletake to see what publication I was looking at. I would have been less surprised to see this in one of the Sun papers; I'd expect the Star to be a little more judicious of their words.
JJ, I do not think you can make a correlation between this incident and the torture discussion.
RA - In the context of creeping authoritarianism, it comes down to what we're willing to let our government do in our name.
The RCMP are our state cops, the military is used for a different kind of policing in Afghanistan. The mentality that it's OK for cops to taser people at the slightest provocation is the same mentality that tacitly approves torture, and it goes all the way to the top.
I don't agree with your characterization, but then again I don't believe we have anything remotely close to an authoritarian government. That is a hyperbole I am not in accordance of agreement in.
But good luck with that 
"I don't believe we have anything remotely close to an authoritarian government."
Not yet
It happens incrementally, RA. Most people aren't paying attention, and then one day they wake up - when it's too late - and go 'Huh? Wha' happened?'
This is a time when we need to take the line 'We stand on guard for thee' very, very seriously. Oh, and 'True North strong & free', too.
Swarthy? Well, in that case I'm very, very safe. At least until someone decides to come for the French-Canadians. 
Swarthy? Ha! I get that skin tone in the summer and I'm pretty pale. There ought to be criminal charges laid.
This is where the story starts taking on a new dimension and we lose sight of why there is so much outrage over it in the first place.
If I had had been detained that long for no reason I would be a little swarthy too, at least I would have before 9/11, now I know you just have to go along with it and chalk it up to time in life wasted, unfortunately for Robert it turned out to be a life wasted.
I’ve been watching this from the beginning and I knew damn well the RCMP didn’t want to deal with it, that video make it hard for them to maintain their story, they’ve done this before.
FF - Exactly, that's the "creeping" part of it... little things start to happen, things we wouldn't accept a few years ago, and before we know it *boom* there's someone kicking your door in.
Okay, that's hyperbole, but I keep visualizing this extremely docile population where people get in lineups and just wait forever without complaining... because if you complain something bad might happen.
Dan - Well, no summertime flights for you anymore. Or if you do, watch it! Don't cause a fuss!
I'm kind of wondering what'll happen to the drunks that are usually careening around the airport.
Bruce - Considering the poor guy couldn't speak English, I'm surprised some wingnut hasn't tried the terrorism angle yet, although the word "swarthy" seems to be baiting people to go that way.
There's something wrong when our cops resort to violence that fast. I can't believe 4 on 1 they couldn't restrain the guy without a taser (if indeed he was in need of restraint). Shit, nurses in psych wards handle worse without resorting to tasers.
Good catch on the swarthiness. Next they'll be saying he had shifty eyes.
I've been stuck in the Tokyo airport for hours on end and been frustrated no end. Japan-especially the cops-has much less tolerance for and is much less welcoming to foreigners than Canada, but I think if I threw a temper tantrum there the cops are very unlikely to tazer or shoot me.
zoom - "shifty eyes"
Yeah, the "swarthy" really jumped out at me -- I can see calling him "tall and hefty" or "tall and muscular" or whatever, because it seems to hint that he was big, so that might be why the cops felt they needed to use force. But tall and swarthy? Unless a person's complexion is now as threatening as their size.
rev - I'd be surprised to see this happen anywhere other than 3rd world countries where people don't have a lot of rights. That's the shock of it happening in Canada, of all places, where human rights are so intrinsic to our culture.
Commenting by HaloScan
