By now, you may have already heard about the plucky young page that was fired yesterday from her post in the House of Parliament, after she mounted this protest against Stephen Harper and the Conservative government. Her press release echoed what most of us are thinking; “Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation”. I don’t know about you, but I was pretty moved. Yes, she’s only 21 and her contract was up in a couple of weeks anyway, but still, if you’re going to go out, you may as well go out in flames.
Official reaction to DePape’s protest has been pretty humourless. And unanimous – with Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella suggesting it raises security concerns, Elizabeth May essentially saying that there’s a time and a place, and Justin Trudeau complaining that it wasn’t in line with the decorum that should be observed during the throne speech. It’s true that this was an unprecedented protest, but this is an unprecedented government; Harper has prorogued parliament (twice!) when things weren’t going his way, renamed the Government of Canada the “Harper Government”, and his government was found in contempt of Parliament. I’d say they’ve done a fine job of not adhering to decorum themselves.
(via cbc.ca)
