I posted this poem on my blog last month. I also posted it on the 'rants & raves' section of Toronto's Craigslist, where I received a couple of semi-intelligent comments. Anyway, I'm wondering if publishing this mediocre poem would qualify as a terrorist offence under the recently tabled Harper legislation?
Bill C-51, lead paragraph of Part 3, Summary of Bill C-51 (anti-terrorism omnibus)
It further amends the Criminal Code to provide for an offence of knowingly advocating or promoting the commission of terrorism offences in general.
Anyone but a sub-literate understands that this poem is a wake-up call to the 1% and the powers-that-be that the Canadian social contract has become dangerously broken. But it seems to me that it passes the above definition of knowingly advocating terrorism offences, even though this "advocating" is just the invoking of some classic Hollywood movies.
Time for Robin Hood, Bonnie and Clyde!
Just read over half of Amerikan kids
live below the poverty line -
Putin has plundered the Russian masses
until they live on less than the average Indian.
We've all grown up playing Monopoly -
just a friendly game, eh?
The winner takes everyone else's money
& finally sits bored by the board
their friends all pissed off losers now.
Karl Marx hit the mark
a century ago - man
his descendants should get a share
of those Monopoly game profits.
in Kanada we've got Stephen
the Spoiler Oiler king -
When the rich forget the social contract
... which means at least the pretense of equality -
it's time for the outlaws to straighten things out
kick over the board games
we all play with our lives.
We need Bonnie & Clyde again
machine guns spraying hot lead
at the bourgeoisie!
We need Robin Hood and his merry men
banging arrows at our Sheriffs of Nottingham.
Banks need to be robbed and burned.
The one percent hanged from lampposts.
The rich corpse MoFos are sneering
while we do nothing.
BURN BABY, BURN!
WHEN DO I GET MY TURN?
or will we turn on the tube, sit there bored
let their paid pipers continue to call the tune?
Chris Faiers
You may think this is just silliness, unnecessary worrying and fiddle-faddling. But ... in 1975 I was arrested, jailed, processed at the Don Jail, held overnight in the cells under old Toronto City Hall and charged with committing a hate crime for wearing a garish yellow teeshirt emblazoned with YANKEE GO HOME! The new hate crime law had just been passed, and this is how the Toronto police responded. So writers beware, we may be next in line once again to enjoy some free room & board, courtesy of Her Majesty ; )
Here's my earlier blog posting about this adventure:
Dominion Day in Jail/Yankee Go Home campaign/hate laws
(Celebration 1975)
I spent last Dominion Day in jail
in a cold cell
on a steel bench -
cold, sleepless, angry and proud
tho almost wanting to feel foolish.
Fed a cheeseburger and a coffee in 24 hours
fingerprinted
stripped of my shirt
frogmarched - mugshot
insulted.
All this for the patriotic crime
of daring to say YANKEE GO HOME!
to the Yankee Shriners
parading thru downtown Toronto.
They thought it was the 4th of July
(Canada Division).
Cold, sleepless, hungry, angry
PROUD
that I was cold, sleepless, hungry, angry
and not enjoying the July sun
lounging on the green grass in Queen's Park
or lining the parade route for the Shriners.
This growing pride made my solitary jail cell
a celebration of Dominion Day.
Chris Faiers
This poem tells the true story of my arrest in 1975 for the heinous crime of wearing a bright yellow teeshirt emblazoned with YANKEE GO HOME as part of a protest against the Americanization of Canada. Our pro-nationalist group, The Canadian Liberation Movement, had recently adopted this slogan.
I was charged under the new Ontario "hate crime" laws, an example of the police misinterpreting a new law to suit a political agenda. Several other CLM members were also arrested as part of this somewhat misguided campaign - the Canadian people were definitely not of a mind to rise up and bear witness against the ongoing assimilation of our country into the United States.
We fought the charges all the way to the Supreme Court of Ontario, a process which took well over a year. I was acquitted by the Supreme Court, and the judge admonished a testifying officer for his lack of credibility.
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