At the recent Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) meetings in Montebello, Quebec between George Bush, Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon, as usual, there were several protests held outside by various groups. One of these protests was put on by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), and was peaceful, in the middle of which three men tried to incite the crowd into violence. The CEP claims that the three men were in fact police officers in disguise. Now if the claim turns out to be true (and if you watch the video below it is pretty clear that something is fishy) we as Canadians should be very afraid and very angry. As citizens of a democratic country we have the right to congregate and protest in a peaceful way. Any attempt by the government to undermine that right, especially by trying to incite the police into using violence to put down the protest by using agent provocateurs, should be seen as a threat to democracy and freedom in this country. This is not a partisan issue and it doesn't matter if you agree with what the people were protesting about (and it also doesn't matter what you think about unions) - all that matters is that you care about freedom and democracy.
For more on this issue go here and here.
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3 comments:
I agree with you, Peter: much as I hate the violent protests, people do have the right to protest peacefully. Trying to create a violent protest out of a peaceful one makes no sense. As far as I'm concerned, there should be charges laid against these people. Incite to riot's a start. So's entrapment.
Actually Ken it makes perfect sense, if you can't suppress legitimate dissent, discrediting it is the next best option.
...only if you're not found out. If you are, it lends the dissenters more weight.
I don't mean to sidetrack this, because Peter made an excellent point, but I really am curious why these shindigs always seem to attract protesters, both violent and peaceful. What are they protesting, exactly? Foreign investment in Canada? Other countries actually *court* that...we're way behind the trend, recent buyouts notwithstanding. Nasty evil multinationals in general? Why throw rocks at cops, how does that make the point? I just wish somebody would explain what these anti-globalists are *for*, exactly.
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