I hadn't planned that a taser would play a role in Raj's homecoming, though I suspected he would arrive in a coma. But when Vancouver RCMP tasered and killed Robert Dziekanski, that sealed Raj's fate.

The ink was barely dry on this week's cartoon when I read of the mounties' new policy to allow multiple tasering in cases where a person is suffering from "excited-delirium syndrome." But, according to the Globe,

the term "excited delirium" is not formally recognized by the World Health Organization nor the American Medical Association as an actual psychological or medical condition.

So Economy Class Syndrome was in the cartoon before before the news of that other syndrome got out. Suddenly, my cartoon didn't seem so far fetched. Another instance of life imitating satire.

As I was sickened viewing the video of the death of Robert Dziekanski, I thought about the police brutality at anti-globalization protests. There is a clear continuum between the reaction of police at these protests and the rights-robbing security measures rationalized by the war on terror. Without strong civilian oversight and strict laws curbing their power, police will abuse the guilty and the innocent. It happens again and again.

I was at the Quebec City G8 Summit and was caught in police tear gas (impossible not to have been -- it wafted about the old city in clouds). I happened on a side street and encountered a riot squad escorting a medieval catapult with pink stuffed teddy bears.

It turned out, I read afterwards, the catapult had been used by an anarchic artists' collective to send the teddies flying over the police barrier. A new-retro equivalent to putting flowers in gun barrels? Anti-globalization activist Jaggi Singh was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon -- said teddy catapulter. He was released on bail and the charges were later dropped. But his bail conditions included being prohibited from organizing or taking part in demonstrations. He also wasn't allowed to use a magaphone. And, presumably, catapult any pink teddies.

The incident inspired one of my favourite cartoons ( excerpt below), part of a funny series where Horst and Celia are "accompanied" to the Quebec protests with RCMP minders on a road trip.