Ontario is pretty much the center of the universe. Well, my universe. Well, Canada’s universe. That means that it is also the center of stupidity and outrage - generally speaking.

First of all - most people aren’t aware but us atheists on the west coast stay in contact with the atheists on the east coast. For that reason the president of the Freethought Association of Canada out in Toronto had contact me a couple of times to start bridging gaps between atheists and opening doors more often for people to easily get information. Well on Tuesday night Justin was attacked while putting up posters for an atheist event.

[link]An atheist group leader says he is the victim of a religious hate crime.

Freethought Association of Canada president Justin Trottier said he was assaulted at Ryerson University earlier this week while he and a colleague were hanging posters for a coming lecture.

“Their motives were clearly premised on the fact that we were atheists [publicizing] an atheist event and that was seen as unacceptable to them,” Mr. Trottier said in an interview yesterday.

“They mocked the nature of the event.”

I can’t even begin to describe how upset this makes me - not even just because of my personal relationship with Justin - but because of what Hemant points out in his post - Imagine if Justin were a muslim putting up posters for a muslim event and the exact same thing happened. There would be no question that it was a hate crime. But because atheists are already the haters …

Also in Ontario - I remember last summer hearing about Omar Wellington being beaten and stabbed, but all of the kids involved were being loyal to their gang and not saying a word. Well, luckily they broke through it.

His naked, bloodied body was found in a nearby ravine the next day, July 15, 2006, with multiple stab wounds to his neck.

Friday, Toronto police broke through a wall of silence to make the first arrests in the case, charging six youths, ranging in age from 14 to 17, with first-degree murder in what they said was a killing with “gang overtones.” All of the teens, who are in custody, live in Flemingdon Park, where the beating took place.

And finally in the Ontario news musings …People aren’t happy with Georgie-poos new set up.

What began as disappointment with the new schedule conflicting with my own, continued as disillusionment with the new format of the program. The few times I was able to watch The Hour, I found the addition of the audience to be distracting, both to the television viewer and quite obviously to George, as he focussed on their presence rather than on the cameras or, more importantly, on the issues. I don’t know if my disillusionment coloured my perception of the quality of the program, but I felt it had become fractured, that it was no longer playing to its strengths as an informative and in-your-face news program. It felt like a rather limpid talk show. Eventually I lost interest.

I will admit - I don’t like the audience. But as for the content - if you go to the hour blog it completely makes up for what is lacking on the show, and I’m starting to think that was the intent of the blog… What I do miss is George’s nose ring.

It sure will be a change to move back to Toronto where the news consists of stabbings and atheist bashing sessions from Victoria where the news is high speed chase laws and museums.