Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The Internet generation learns to protest

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, February 8, 2010 9:00am - 19 Comments

At the prorogation protest on Parliament Hill a couple weeks back, someone held a sign that read “I Can Haz Democracy?” Now this.

The Saskatoon chapter of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament organized another protest Friday to greet a visiting Conservative Party politician. Prime Minister Stephen Harper stopped in Saskatoon and the group brought out about 75 people to protest Harper’s presence and policy…

Security paced the hotel’s entrance, and four Saskatoon police officers arrived to disperse the members of the crowd because they were blocking the doors of a business. “Accountability fail,” one protester yelled when the protesters got back to their corner across the street.

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RayK

For those not in the know "I Can Haz Democracy?" is a reference to this…

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

tobyornottoby

Sorry that doesn't help. Is it an anti-spelling movement?
http://intensedebate.com/people/TheRealKuri TheRealKuri

The sign needed a cat. Everything is better with cats.

Anon001

75 people. In Saskatoon! That's impressive.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Are you being sarcastic?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

It can be hard to read those facial features, but given the current Saskatoon temperature is -31… and they were outdoors, it does strike me as impressive.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

The protest happened on Friday, when the temperature was -6 °C.

tobyornottoby

Yeah but they were hoping for – 31

Lord Kitchener's Own

I'd say it's reasonably impressive given the amount of time the likely had. It was basically a flash mob of the PM, I presume, so 75 people in the (relatively) cold weather on very short notice, and not in some liberal bastion like T.O. seems pretty impressive to me.

Lord Kitchener's Own

For what it's worth, the Saskatoon Chapter of CAPP has 701 members online, so 75 protesters is roughly 10% of their membership.

Not bad I'd say.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Im in ur HOC summoning u 2 bar lol.

http://intensedebate.com/people/sourstud sourstud

All your parliaments are belong to us

peter

Too bad they don't teach history anymore, gee whiz, 75 eh? I'm certain the PM was just quaking in his boots. I'm on an email list from some of these folks and while I agree with some of what they advocate, their totalitarian mindset makes the PM look like a consensus builder by contrast. Their fundamental error seems to be an complete misunderstanding of how our system of governance actually encourges a competition of ideas as opposed to their "we're 100% right on all issues and by disagreeing with us you demonstrate your fascist stripes". On balance I have to keep my sustaining donor card and continue to work for the best party to lead our country….for free.
silver

Saskatoon Rocks!!
This is just the start – Harper calls an extended holiday to avoid questions well CAPP will make sure he is confronted where ever he goes…dittos for his posse
http://intensedebate.com/people/Chances123 Chances123

Some journalism students are doing research on how those rallies were co-ordinated. Apparently they aren't done yet but they are suggesting the media fumbled the ball on this story. Whether you agree or not, you have to admire their enthusiasm. They have a site up and they invite 'tips' from the public.

http://rallyfacts.wordpress.com/

Neil Adair

It appears that the comments pointing out the obvious omissions in the "facts" including no mentions of the Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto rallies. Those being the home of Christopher White, the Nations Capital and the largest turnout respectively has prompted the administrators to take the predictable action.

"Comments are closed."

BTW your Facebook Connect is broken!
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http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok Sean

Just wait 'til he gets RickRolled at the Olympics…
http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

facepalm dot j-p-g.
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