I arrived at 10:50 and was met by a nice young policeman in the blue and white van.
He wanted to know if I was the organizer of this protest. I swallowed and said yes.
(while inside I was thinking, who told him we were coming??? )
I was so glad when the first people began to arrive... Here are my new friends that found the event I posted on Leadnow.ca and I was so very glad to share my clipboards and printed information. The sun came out and we began to enjoy the day.
We had a lovely day with the
security guy, Marty. He didn't appear to have ever met Mr Harper and certainly hasn't seen him visit the
office in 7 years. We were joined by more friends from Occupy Calgary and then from the 420 group here in town. Some of my Facebook friends arrived and conversations were animated. Arran, from Occupy Calgary gave a truly awesome credible interview to CTV, did anyone see him on the news? Sorry I didn't get your photo Arran, perhaps Geoff will have one I can edit in here. Anyway, that was all the media who visited but I didn't advertise to the media and we did have the company of 3 police vans and one cruiser car circling the parking lot at one point.
Karen and I went up the elevator to the office on the second floor. Locked. No answer to the bell. No answer to pounding on the door. I called out that I had a petition to deliver, but no luck. We went back outside and phoned the office only to recieve the answering machine, so I left a message saying what I wanted and for them to please phone me with a convenient time. It was quite obvious that Prime Minister Harper has no intention of opening himself up to the concerns of his constituents.
People came and went and we
had between 4 and 6 people at any given time. We had some very good conversations with people passing by and a
few confrontations that provided good experience to all of us.
So what were we protesting, you say? Today was the day Prime Minister Harper was to launch his tough-on-crime agenda. I think our criminal justice system is by no means perfec, but this omnibus crime bill will send us back to a 19th century punishment model. The cost will be colossal, and I think that money would be much better used in prevention rather than picking up minor offenders and putting them in prison and throwing away the key.
I was there because my church, the United Church of Canada has strong reservations about Mr Harper's Omnibus Crime Bill C-10. Today, I received this press release announcing the United Church's letter to Prime Minister Harper.
For
Immediate
Release - Thursday, November 24, 2011
United Church Urges
Caution with Regard to Omnibus Crime Bill
Toronto:
In a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, The United Church of Canada has
urged the government “to reconsider the provisions of Bill C-10 dealing with
the imposition of minimum sentences; and to separate the provisions of the
omnibus bill to allow for consideration of the potential impacts of its
component parts.”
The
church’s letter notes its appreciation for improvements to certain aspects of
the criminal legislation but also expresses grave concern with some parts of
the bill—particularly its impact on Canada’s Aboriginal peoples.
“The
Government of Canada shares culpability with The United Church of Canada and
other historic mission churches for the legacy of residential schools and the
lasting effects this legacy continues to have on Canada’s Aboriginal peoples,”
writes the church.
Part of
the lasting and damaging impact of the legacy of Canada’s residential schools
lives on in the disproportionate representation of Aboriginal people in our
country’s prisons, explains the church.
Echoing
concerns raised by other organizations about the proposed legislation, the
United Church’s letter highlights curtailing conditional sentencing and
imposing mandatory minimum sentences as two aspects of Bill C-10 that would
have a particularly negative impact on Aboriginal offenders.
The church
concludes its letter by asking the prime minister to “please drop your
arbitrary 100-day deadline to pass this omnibus bill, and agree to break it
into its component parts so that each may be considered on its own merits.”
later man, jan (hugs)
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