Students Asked to Leave CPC rally in London

[M.Dancer]

That's an entirely different situation though. The girls in question weren't in any way aggressive or belligerent. They were just minding their own business.

Neither was I. I was smiling all the while.

[BubberMiley]

Neither was I. I was smiling all the while.

Given your words, smiling would just make you seem a little psychotic.

[M.Dancer]

Given your words, smiling would just make you seem a little psychotic.

If that is a given, I should have fit right in...

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2011/01/2011114-jack_layton.jpg

[ToadBrother]

If that is a given, I should have fit right in...

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2011/01/2011114-jack_layton.jpg

Today wasn't a total waste. I learned something new about one of the party leaders.

[YEGmann]

But what do you think of the campaign workers' decision-making in this instance, which afaict was based on a Facebook profile photo?

The story is very strange.

This "Facebook profiling", an "RCMP officer" seem like product of imagination of the girl.

There was something, but the story is presented complitely from one side, and the side has a strange link to the Liberal party.

Anyway, I do not believe the girl was apprehended because of her picture on the Facebook. I know that harperites love to kick pregnant women in belly, but this profiling is overstretch.

[cybercoma]

Chretien simplified, he just choked the protester.

http://media.greenradio.topscms.com/images/6f/c8/0a82dd134cf5884128c6cdfbcdf2.jpeg

Chretien was wrong too. What's your point?

[cybercoma]

students are the ones most likely to do something disruptive for disruption's sake. Left-leaning ones, especially so.

Oh please. Left-leaning students are also the only ones to be perceived as disruptive. If a right-leaning senior showed up to an NDP rally and grilled Layton with capitalist dogma, it would hardly be perceived as disruptive.

[Saipan]

I don't think you'll get much argument that some of Mulroney's unpopularity in the last years was due to what many viewed as too cozy a relationship with the Americans.

Yes, many Canadians define themself as Not-Americans.

[Saipan]

If a right-leaning senior showed up to an NDP rally and grilled Layton with capitalist dogma, it would hardly be perceived as disruptive.

True. That's because it doesn't happen.

[punked]

True. That's because it doesn't happen.

Have you ever been to an NDP rally there is always an angry conservative there.

[Saipan]

Chretien was wrong too. What's your point?

The point is no one choked them now.

[cybercoma]

Yeah, so?

Edited April 6, 2011 by cybercoma

[kimmy]

Let a few lefties into a rally and pretty soon they're bike-locked together on stage and shouting that Christie Blatchford is a war criminal.

-k

[misd]

As part of the next generation of voters... can someone please explain to me if this is normal behavior for political parties?

CBC Article: Conservatives try to explain student ejections from rallies

[Bryan]

As part of the next generation of voters... can someone please explain to me if this is normal behavior for political parties?

CBC Article: Conservatives try to explain student ejections from rallies

Yes, unfortunately, for all of the parties. During a national campaign, they are especially paranoid about keeping anyone out that they even remotely suspect of being a possible disruption.

[Battletoads]

After some of the censorship antics at Queens, Western, U of T and other campuses with speakers like Christie Blatchford or some folks from Israel, I say SCREW THE STUDENTS AND THE HORSES THEY RODE IN ON!

University students and the student unions and campus management that has supported them have abrogated the right to be respected at such gatherings.

If they have either forgotten or never learned the value of free speech then they have no right to expect consideration in return.

They have lost considerable respect and will have to put forth some sincere effort in ever getting it back!

Reap the whirlwind, you ignorant, fascist louts!

Oh you baby boomers kill me

Anyways, this is pretty typical of the Cons. If your not 100% with them, you're an enemy to be crushed.

[conservative contempt]

I think the Opposition is pushing the Bruce Carson comparison a little hard ...

two points:

1) There is no longer an "Opposition" as the government has been dissolved. There are four major parties looking to form the government.

2)about pushing the Carson thing, in this day and age of soundbite politics, any party is going to milk any little thing that can get traction

[Bryan]

two points:

1) There is no longer an "Opposition" as the government has been dissolved. There are four major parties looking to form the government.

2)about pushing the Carson thing, in this day and age of soundbite politics, any party is going to milk any little thing that can get traction

Parliament has been dissolved, the government is still functioning and Stephen Harper is still the Prime Minister.

[youshouldknowbetter]

It is well documented that none of the leaders are taking questions from the public and the gatherings themselves are not meant for locals, they are for the news media and the TV audience. Now, before you call me a Conservative apologist, understand that all the parties are doing this. They bring in their own supporters to fill the room for a half-hour pep rally, they field questions from the media then they hustle back on to the bus and head to the next stop to do the same thing. In the NDP’s case, for example, they are even strategically placing attendees to look like the room is so full that they have to put people behind Leader Jack Layton, when, in fact, there is no one in front of him. The Tory campaign is just taking every precaution to ensure that no one hijacks the show. Let’s be honest, it wouldn’t matter what Harper said if a heckler began shouting at him during a Q&A. The news media would show the conflict instead. Therefore if someone who happens to have a Facebook profile picture that clearly is of them supporting another leader, then the party should question their reason for being there.

[Wild Bill]

Oh you baby boomers kill me

Anyways, this is pretty typical of the Cons. If your not 100% with them, you're an enemy to be crushed.

For the 1000th time, I'm NOT a Conservative, BT! Keep it up and I will begin to call you a Marxist!

So far we have seen diddley-squat from the main student bodies or their representatives to censure those who have been disrupting meetings and stomping on the concept of free speech!

You may be right however that it's a baby boomer thing. We had a politics club at our High School, way back when. We occasionally had speakers from the various parties at school assemblies. We invited the local Marxist-Leninist, which scandalized our teachers but to their credit they allowed the assembly to go on.

We listened politely, with some tough questions but very little theatre. Certainly there was nothing like what we've seen in anti-Israel speakers, shutting down the entire event as in what happened with Christie Blatchford. Afterwards, we of course had some good laughs but we also learned a few things.

If today's antics had happened when I was at university there would have been counter-demonstrations! We would have been lighting torches and storming the castle of the administration to have these anti-free speech idiots restrained! We would have been terribly embarrassed that the country might think that they actually represented all of us!

Today, by doing nothing, students and their representatives are actually condoning their actions! I truly feel that this is a poisonous meme that must be stamped out!

I never thought that the next group of jackboots would come from our universities! Godwin be damned, the metaphor is appropriate!

[Shwa]

It is well documented that none of the leaders are taking questions from the public and the gatherings themselves are not meant for locals, they are for the news media and the TV audience. Now, before you call me a Conservative apologist, understand that all the parties are doing this. They bring in their own supporters to fill the room for a half-hour pep rally, they field questions from the media then they hustle back on to the bus and head to the next stop to do the same thing. In the NDP’s case, for example, they are even strategically placing attendees to look like the room is so full that they have to put people behind Leader Jack Layton, when, in fact, there is no one in front of him. The Tory campaign is just taking every precaution to ensure that no one hijacks the show. Let’s be honest, it wouldn’t matter what Harper said if a heckler began shouting at him during a Q&A. The news media would show the conflict instead. Therefore if someone who happens to have a Facebook profile picture that clearly is of them supporting another leader, then the party should question their reason for being there.

Does having a facebook friend mean you are supporting another leader? Perhaps she was a fence sitter and was weighing the issues and what each leader was offering.

I agree that these campaign stops or media-ops, but the CPC blew this. She is going to be annoying and disruptive, there are enough campaign workers there to shout her down, drown out her protests - then hustle her out. IOW, there was a better way to handle it.

But I suppose it beats showing up at a rally and starting a donnybrook like in days of yore. {sigh} I say open the rallies right up to anyone and have it out right there, front and centre, on TV, in front of everyone. Surely each party could hire a qualified stand-up comic to write heckler come-backs.

[bloodyminded]

After some of the censorship antics at Queens, Western, U of T and other campuses with speakers like Christie Blatchford or some folks from Israel, I say SCREW THE STUDENTS AND THE HORSES THEY RODE IN ON!

University students and the student unions and campus management that has supported them have abrogated the right to be respected at such gatherings.

If they have either forgotten or never learned the value of free speech then they have no right to expect consideration in return.

They have lost considerable respect and will have to put forth some sincere effort in ever getting it back!

Reap the whirlwind, you ignorant, fascist louts!

This is absurd.

There is not some unified entity called "university students" to be deemed "fascist [sic] louts."

Edited April 6, 2011 by bloodyminded

[BubberMiley]

Yes, unfortunately, for all of the parties.

I guess when you look bad, the best strategy is to try to make everyone else look bad too, even when you have absolultely no evidence to support your position.

[cybercoma]

if someone who happens to have a Facebook profile picture that clearly is of them supporting another leader, then the party should question their reason for being there.

I like the Conservative way of questioning--use the federal police force to threaten young women and throw them out.

[cybercoma]

Does having a facebook friend mean you are supporting another leader? Perhaps she was a fence sitter and was weighing the issues and what each leader was offering.

This is especially likely considering she is a student and a young voter. We wouldn't want the youth educating themselves about the issues. They might actually start voting.