The Media Coop Pays Greg Renouf a Compliment

If you were to believe the slander peddled by various far-left activists in Canada, you would think that Greg "Genuine Witty" Renouf is a dastardly man. Dangerous even.

Obviously Daniel Johnson of the Media Coop thinks so. He even wrote a recent blogpost entitled "This Man is STILL Dangerous." Based entirely on the facetious accusations of over-defensive far-left activists and the findings of what passed for a tribunal in the Occupy movement -- the orchestrators of which have openly boasted about denying Renouf an opportunity to defend himself at -- the post really one makes one thing clear: that far-left activists are increasingly unable to defend their actions with facts or logic, and so resort to character assassination. It's what they do. It's who they are.

If you read Johnson's version of the events regarding Renouf at Occupy Toronto and Occupy Vancouver, and never bothered to seek out any additional information -- otherwise known as Renouf's side of the story -- you may be at risk of taking it seriously.

Of course, if you did seek any additional information, you would discover -- as I did -- that the accusations of "sexual harassment" have been trumped up to a positively comical degree, and that the so-called "stalking" of "young female activists" was in fact challenging aspiring far-left leaders over their frequently-thuggish tactics.

This is where I actually came in. See, in 2011 I put together a YouTube video entitled "In their own words: Harsha Walia." In the video No One is Illegal's Harsha Walia expresses open support for the violent tactics of Black Bloc protesters. She even admitted to knowing who the organizers of this thuggery was. Which makes her oddly complicit in the terrorist activity of the Black Bloc.
That was Walia in her own words.

 Now, if you're the kind of person who cherishes peacefulness as a political virtue, this would be the kind of thing that would alarm you. So Renouf -- being this kind of person -- began to ask Walia questions. She declined to give any clear answers. Renouf quite rightly declined to take her dissembling for an answer.

Renouf's relentless questioning of Walia -- who aspires to a position of leadership in far-left circles, and thus is obligated to answer such questions -- set off a chain of events that led not only to the kangaroo-court-style expulsion of Renouf from Occupy Toronto, but also Renouf being repeatedly physically intimidated by Black Bloc ringleader Alex Hundert and even being assaulted.

So really, aside from aggressively seeking the truth about Walia's position on political violence, is Renouf guilty of? Well, it turns out that he's committed a cardinal sin according to Walia: publicly questioning and criticizing those who would otherwise be his compatriots. See, Walia has expressed the view that, out of solidarity, far-left activists are strictly verboten from publicly criticizing their "allies." Think of it as something of a left-wing omerta. Apparently among their other strategic uses, the Black Bloc are the de facto enforcers of this code.

 But Renouf refuses to abide by this code of silence. And so they assault him, threaten him, and slander him at every turn. You can tell the comparative courage of a far-left activist by which tactic they adopt. I say comparative courage because, in fact, none of them are ever truly courageous. Even when they come to assault him, they lack the stones to do it one-on-one, despite the fact that Renouf is not a physically imposing individual.

Yet despite having been assaulted in Kensington Market by a pack of thugs bearing a flagpole, Renouf continues. Despite being intimidated whenever he shows up to document what they do in public, Renouf continues. Despite all the slander, Renouf continues. That is true courage, and his detractors would do well to find some of their own.

As it turns out, Daniel Johnson and the Media Coop have paid Renouf the highest compliment one can be paid: to be called "dangerous" by villains. I can personally think of none higher.


BTW - If Daniel Johnson is going to blather about Greg Renouf being dangerous, the least he can do is not encourage people to tamper with rail lines. Makes sense to me, right?