Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby Jeff » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:51 pm

Nordic wrote:wow, i've gone from adoring her as this spunky cute kid, to feeling horribly inadequate compared to her. she kind of shames the rest of us!!


Very much my response as well. If she's interested in the job I'd love to see her return to parliament as an MP. If not, I'm sure she'll be involved in something more interesting, and likely more productive.

Written last summer re the G20 protest:

It wasn't a waste of time

By: Brigette DePape

Posted: 07/17/2010 1:00 AM

During the G20 ministerial meetings in Toronto, the sensational images of burning police cruiser cars and broken shop windows dominated the newspaper headlines. This is what the world saw.

What I saw in Toronto was radically different.

On June 21, I travelled to Toronto in a van filled with activists and journalists from around the country to participate in protests at the G20 meetings. Using brightly colored rainbow paint, we displayed our concerns with the G20 agenda on the doors and bumpers of our caravan. From "Shut Down the Tar Sands" to "Sign the UN Convention on the Right to Water", our messages expressed our beliefs that issues central to our vision of a more just and sustainable world are being ignored by the leaders of the G20.

The protests in Toronto were part of a much larger effort to question the inequality of the status quo. A network of civil society groups, known as the anti-globalization or alter-globalization movement, hold values rooted in anti-corporate and anti-colonial struggle. Seeing the images of broken windows and flaming cars constantly repeated by the media was demoralizing because it was a distraction from the serious issues to which peaceful protestors were trying to draw attention. What made Toronto truly important and memorable were educational forums and lectures by well-known activists like Naomi Klein and Maude Barlow and creative and peaceful demonstrations. However, these aspects of the Toronto protests were virtually ignored by the media.

...

Protesting was undoubtedly better than doing nothing at all, and incremental changes alone are not making the impact necessary. Were past protests for civil rights, women's rights and worker's rights a waste of time? Just a hundred years ago women's right to vote did not seem realistic either. But like speaking out against the tar sands, fighting for the right to water, and calling for an end to poverty, it was necessary. Protesting made it a reality.


http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 58004.html
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby 2012 Countdown » Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:19 pm

Jeff wrote:

Performing from her self-penned, critically acclaimed play, She Rules with Iron Stix, Brigette DePape asks whether art is an escape from real world problems or part of their solution.

A playwright since the age of 15, and a third year international development student who has contributed to sustainable development projects in Senegal and Bosnia, DePape explores the possibility of new worlds: changing our actual world through activism vs. creating new worlds through fiction. She attempts to reconcile responsibility and creativity, suggesting that plays can be a powerful tool for cultural change.

Presented at TEDxYouthOttawa on March 4, 2010 at Ashbury College in Ottawa, Canada.


This definitely needs to be quoted for page 4. I agree, I'm in amazement of this 'little' girl. Very inspirational. She's very creative, energetic, and thoughtful.
I see great potential and hope big things are in store for her.



MacCruiskeen, thanks for that info as it is an interesting similarity and i can see how you though of that comparison.
George Carlin ~ "Its called 'The American Dream', because you have to be asleep to believe it."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby Jeff » Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:32 pm

Council of Canadians applauds Brigette DePape

By Council of Canadians
June 5, 2011

The Council of Canadians applauds the courageous action of 21-year-old Senate page Brigette DePape, who held a 'Stop Harper' sign during the Governor-General's reading of the Throne Speech yesterday and lost her job for doing so. Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke with Ms. DePape this afternoon and offered her our support. Barlow commented that, "She is adorable and brave and committed."

...

The Council of Canadians dismisses the criticisms by a Liberal senator and Conservative minister Peter Kent that this action was 'a breach of protocol' and a 'breach of security'. In fact, a CBC on-line poll shows that 58 per cent of respondents believe that her action was 'appropriate'.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/council ... tte-depape

The Council of Canadians is Canada's largest citizens' organization, with members and chapters across the country. We work to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, energy security, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians.
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby DrVolin » Sun Jun 05, 2011 9:08 pm

A Brecht fan. Good.
all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

--Guns and Roses
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby Feilan » Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:31 am

:yay Maude Barlow et. al. for acknowledging what was surely a thoroughly appropriate place for desperately needed speech in defiance of those busy strangling it.

I don't care to give it any more air than it's getting in this thread, but back on page 2 or so are the weaseling noises of such notables as the Trudeau-in-waiting and Ms. Green-party-elected who both hung Brigitte out to dry with their snouts up a Queen's arse. Disgraceful. What kind of "opposition" is that, anyway? Toadies. I hear in the news this morning it's a total pile on from the house and in the prime sinisterial press -- a real public spanking, two minutes in the naughty corner. 'Unprofessional!' they crow. In what way, I'd like to know? What's 'professional' about the horrendous shite that goes on in the house of commons not to mention in all the unwashed boardrooms of the nation where Harper and his drones execute their long, cold coup? I read Brigitte on her day(s) of destiny as having chosen a tack perfectly fit for a Queen's chamber. "Walk softly and carry a big stop sign" said the Ghomeshi. Indeed. Even Uncle Jack got in on the finger waving and clucking. What a blight of perfidious arseholes.

I will say I wish Brigitte had been better prepared to answer the question "why there, why then?". I didn't see that come through in the Solomon attempt to wrap her up like a piece of fish nor the other one posted in here. It deserves an answer, and I think she must be quite capable of articulating it. Please don't anyone think I mean to slight her bold and forward motion in any way, I just think a valuable opportunity to be explicit was missed. Never mind - Brigitte's bigger picture is that these opportunities need to be seized everywhere - now. I couldn't agree more.

"O the temerity of this brat! Who does she think SHE is!?", they whine. Neither senate nor the house are temples, dammit. They BELONG to Brigitte as they do to all Canadians. They are let to the use of the elected and appointed and the Queen by our consent, are they not? I think she's quite astonishing and I do hope there are many more like her out there. After all, the great many who didn't vote for the kitten-eater are very much in her corner -- in spite of the forceful messaging from all broadcasting corners re: just how the minions in their millions ought to feel about it!!! -- So, can we take that to mean a lot of people don't need an explanation for "why there, why then", and it's obvious to them as it is to me? I sure hope so, so I'll throw in an optimistic hallelujah.

I have also heard the pundits on the matter of how shit won't stick to that Harper in some people's minds, heaps and barrels of it all around him notwithstanding. They speak of the perfect spin on deflection and attraction the Harper machine doles out; he is never responsible for what goes wrong and always the reason things went 'right' for a change. **Just enough** people believe it's true... where does that leave Brigitte's (banned in real time) broadcast act ? If she is left to play the 'the cheese who stands alone' there will be no echo. Already, there is such a fucking torrent of condescension coming at her and the spirit of what she's done that I wonder what will be left of it by the end of the week.

How will the millions of us applauding follow this brilliant opening scene from Brigitte's pen? What utterly peaceful, deceptively simple, impossible to ignore creative act of system jamming/message altering/fire-starting might we imagine and commit to? I think Brigitte is very clear about quite a number of important things, one being that she sees her action as a drop in the bucket that must become a full-on flood of speaking up and out. On its own, her action will evaporate fairly quickly. The masters of officialdom and their press agents (not to mention more recent inductees) are also very clear about the fact that this kind of unsanctioned "kooky left wing" shit is not on. 'Childish, contemptible stunts' will be appropriately labeled and repositioned for consumers who might otherwise misread them.

The system is broken if an autocratic branch-manager & transnational corporate bum snuffler can seize absolute unchecked authority by pandering to the worst and lying about everything else to gain the support of a pitifully minor portion of citizens. The means by which our consent is measured and enacted is demonstrably ineffective and loads one personality disordered wrecking ball with power unbecoming, authority he has and will continue to abuse. Assuming 1+1 still = 2 and we still believe that the prime minister's power should be greater or less in accordance with the people's endorsement of their **stated agenda (adjusted for credilbility one hopes), we can only see the results as proof that something needs a radical fucking overhaul. Radical overhauls require instigation by free radicals in the environment and the propagation of radical thinking. Brigitte is a free radical and part of the cure for the cancer eating the world.

It's budget day in Ottawa ... all the pages left on the hill must be getting a lot of very special attention.

This an imperative call to action, but as yet I am ashamed to say I haven't come up with anything quite so epic as Brigitte's tough act to follow.

House of Commons peanut gallery flash mob anyone? :evilgrin :burnTV:
Many people will sleep for a hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back. ~ Louis David Riel
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby norton ash » Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:42 pm

Hey, hey Brigitte. Way to go. The real left is cheering, the pisswarm centre thinks you were shockingly inappropriate, and Harper's base would put you in jail.

I hope you inspire more acting up in parliament.
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby stickdog99 » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:46 pm

Great story. Thanks
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby Feilan » Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:21 pm

norton ash wrote:Hey, hey Brigitte. Way to go. The real left is cheering, the pisswarm centre thinks you were shockingly inappropriate, and Harper's base would put you in jail.

I hope you inspire more acting up in parliament.


Does that mean your down with the flash mob? :bigsmile what song should we do? orrrr... not a song... something else... :fawked: :benderdance: :pancake: :crowdchase: ready to rock when you are! :partyhat
Many people will sleep for a hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back. ~ Louis David Riel
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby a11235813 » Tue Jun 07, 2011 1:46 am

Image
.
Maybe it's just me, but the look on the person escorting her could not be more disapproving/patriarchal/"what do these kids know about tradition" if he tried. Not even going to comment on the false pomp and the meaningless baubles.
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby DrVolin » Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:29 pm

No, the look is more like 'Goddam all this paperwork she just created for me'.
all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

--Guns and Roses
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Re: Page disrupts Throne Speech with unprecedented protest

Postby MinM » Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:45 pm

Apparently this guy killed the 'Canadian Terrorist'
Image
Which reminded me of this ..
Jeff » Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:11 pm wrote:What an inspiring sight this is.

Image

Image


Rogue page disrupts throne speech with Harper protest

OTTAWA—A young woman who spent the past year working as a Senate page was kicked out of the upper chamber for staging a protest during the Speech from the Throne on Friday.

Brigette Marcelle, 21, was removed from the Senate Chamber after she stood silently holding a red sign emblazoned with the message “Stop Harper” as Governor General David Johnston read the speech outlining the Conservative agenda for the upcoming parliamentary session.

Then she issued a press release.

“Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” Marcelle said in the release emailed to the media while she was still in the care of parliamentary security. “We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations.”

The statement notes that Marcelle is a recent University of Ottawa graduate who had been a page in the senate for a year but then realized working in the system would not stop Prime Minister Stephen Harper from doing things she disagreed with.

“Contrary to Harper's rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when 3 out of 4 eligible voters didn’t even give their support to the Conservatives? But we will only be able to stop Harper's agenda if people of all ages and from all walks of life engage in creative actions and civil disobedience [sic],” she said in the release.

Then she called for a popular uprising in Canada like the ones seen across the Middle East this year.

“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,”
Marcelle said in the release.

Her profile on the Senate page website identifies her as Brigette DePape, which is the same name in the email address she used to distribute the press release.


http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... otest?bn=1
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