Karen Spiers article was very accurate as to how things transpired that night at the Sportsplex Nov. 17.
I watched Karen leave, I was the guy at the door who had enough of the hostile intrusion and decided no one else is coming in to disrupt the speaker of the event. As she proceeded down the hall I observed her engage with both the protester and then with the police officer. I observed her astonishment at being told to go in such a brisk manner by the RCMP. I wish the police could have been half as forceful with the unruly protesters as they were with her.
The whole event was a lawfully assembly, paid for in a public building, for a presentation to the public – should they listen quietly. We had purchased the privilege (I won’t use the words “the right,” it’s abused in its application) to have that room for the evening. The Sportsplex staff (commendable for their attempts) did all they could, short of forceful intervention, to tell the crowd they were interfering with a lawful assembly.
When the police first arrived they first dealt with a frivolous assault accusation, by a demonstrator against one of the event organizers. When that silliness was done with, the officers proceed to not tell the protesters to leave, but ask us when the event would be over. One officer even made a point of making jovial remarks about one of the more vulgar signs. That was terrible as other protesters roared approval, I knew then any authority to tell them to go was gone. I pleaded to the Sportsplex staff to have the protesters told to go outside and not run the event observers passing through a gauntlet of abuse. They and the RCMP seemed to eventually grasp the logic of that request and coax the protesters outside.
It is perplexing to me what is happening in our society. As certain interest groups are not happy to just assert their position, but destroy the chance for an opposing one to express theirs. I spoke a to friend on what transpired that night. He said “why are you surprised, if the Prime Minister of this country can break the law and get back in office, what example does that give?”
I believe that the powers that be are in place are more concerned with what is politically correct then rule of law. This leaves the police with dammed if they do, or dammed if they don’t. To add insult to injury the next day North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney congratulated the protesters on Facebook and remarked she wished she could be there.
Welcome to the chaos.
Mike Barry
