CANADA - A young woman working as a parliamentary page in the House of Commons has been fired for carrying a STOP HARPER! sign during the Governor General David Johnston's throne speech. The young woman was expressing her disillusionment with Stephen Harper's government.
Brigette DePape, 21, wearing the black bow tie and white gloves which are part of the page's uniform, was escorted from the House of Commons during the speech and promptly fired.
“I was kind of nervous as I was walking down that I would trip or something like that, but everything went smoothly,” says DePape.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper looked on as DePape stood silently with her sign, long brown braid thrown over her shoulder. The parliamentary sergeant-at-arms escorted her out of the chamber for "contempt of parliament". (Ironically Stephen Harper's government was not so long ago thrown out of the House of Commons for contempt of parliament and later 'rewarded' with a majority government.)
Within moments DePape issued an emailed news release explaining her civil disobedience and “Stop Harper!” message.
“Harper's agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” DePape writes. “This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces.”
A graduate from the University of Ottawa, where Brigette DePape studied international development and globalization, the Winnipeg-raised activist is now fielding questions from the curious media.
DePape's former boss at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said DePape was opinionated but easy to work with. “She's just very passionate about the issues that are important to her and we certainly saw that in her last summer, so I guess it doesn't entirely surprise me,” said the executive director at the Manitoba office.
“She's just very gutsy and very passionate and has a very different vision than the Stephen Harper vision and also someone who's probably disillusioned by the political process and so I guess she felt that this was something she needed to do.”
DePape dismissed the suggestion that she had been disrespectful in her act of civil disobedience.
“I think what is more disrespectful and dangerous are Harper's policies,” DePape said.
During the throne speech it was revealed Stephen Harper's agenda includes the following:
Economic Reforms
Immigration Reform, making it harder for people to immigrate to Canada and making it more difficult for "marriages of convenience" to speed up citizenship status.
A Crackdown on Human Smuggling of illegal immigrants.
Prison Expansion and GPS tracking for sex criminals.
Senate Reform
New Free Trade Agreements with the European Union by 2012 and India by 2013.
Copyright Laws
A Border Security deal with the USA
A series of broad cuts across the board in an effort to balance the budget by 2014.
Scrapping of the Long-Gun registry
Privatization of wheat and barley boards
Elimination of mandatory retirement
Extending the mission in Afghanistan
Attacking Libya
A new office of Religious Freedom (a vague concept which hasn't been explained yet).
Demanding Native band chiefs and councils report salaries and expenses.
American, Canadian, Toronto & International News Commentary: Spreading Freedom in the Face of Tyranny
June 4, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Affordable Website Design & SEO
|
Featured Posts
The Sarcasm Symbol
Ever had some confusion online or with your cellphone when someone fails to catch the sarcasm? Well now with the SarcMark you can ge... |
|
Behold, the Scorpion Hydrogen Supercar
CARS - To the right is the future of supercars... it is a hydrogen supercar called the Scorpion. The Scorpion from Ronn Motors in Texas is t... |
|
Documents show Stephen Harper misusing public funds
CANADA - According to 950+ pages of documents obtained by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act the Privy Coun... |
|
Pink's Rosie the Riveter
ENTERTAINMENT - What I like about this video is how it meshes different social movements like feminism, veganism, anti-capitalism... |
|
California's Dustbowl
ENVIRONMENT - The photo on the right is a farm in California that has been put up for sale. Its just one of thousands of farms that are n... |
|
Is Steampunk the New Goth???
GOTHIC - Watch out what you see on the subway late at night because while in 2001 you might have seen some pretty freakish goths, by 20... |
|
Do you have enough Ice Water in your diet?
HEALTH - A Calorie (large C) is a measurement of the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a litre of water (1 kg's worth) ... |
|
North Korean timeline towards Inevitable War
POLITICS - The following is timeline of events that have occurred on the Korean Peninsula. 1945 - Japan surrenders to the United States a... |
|
Judgment Day is Tomorrow, so sayeth Cult
RELIGION - According to a cult based in California, Judgement Day is tomorrow (May 21st 2011) and Jesus Christ will return to the Earth a... |
|
Sex in Space Forbidden
SEX/TECHNOLOGY - Sex in outer space is a big no-no according to NASA. Not for professional astronauts at least, but the growing numb... |
Popular Posts / Last 30 Days
-
Visit amazon.com/author/moffat to get free short stories and huge discounts on fantasy books by Charles Moffat. Sale ends on October 20th.
-
When was the last time you read a poetry book? If you enjoy poetry by Canadian poets do check out Gail M. Murray 's book: Reflections &a...
-
Note About Images: In this post are 7 examples of North Korean propaganda posters, as well as two images of women in the North Korean army. ...
-
POLITICS - CIA interrogators used waterboarding, the near-drowning torture technique that top Obama administration officials have describe...
-
Peasant Magazine is seeking submissions for Issue #2. Specifically it is looking for fantasy, historical fantasy, historical fiction an...
-
Talk to anyone who is in the business of selling archery equipment and they will tell you that archery equipment sales are through the roof....
-
CANADA - An increasing number of Canadian soldiers may be using, dealing and becoming addicted to drugs, say reports from Canadian Forces of...
-
HEALTH - Some of you may have heard about the health benefits of being vegetarian or vegan. And there is a tonne of health benefits (and ...
-
By Ai Lung Nguyen - February 2011. TECHNOLOGY - It really boils down to a battle for market share... Facebook and Google have been conduct...
-
Download a copy of the free PDF version by visiting the Peasant Magazine website, or order the 8x11 magazine of Peasant Magazine via Am...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments containing links will be marked as spam and not approved. We moderate every comment. If you want to advertise on this blog it is $30 per link.