Protestors slip past security to get to Harper during pipeline speech
Two protesters slipped past security and got within reach of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he was about to begin a question-and-answer session on energy and economic issues at the Vancouver Board of Trade on Monday.
The protesters took to the small stage and stood behind Harper, with one holding a sign that read “Climate Justice Now.” A second protester held up a sign that said “The Conservatives take climate change seriously” with a line crossing out the phrase.
Security quietly removed both protesters without incident as Harper and board president Iain Black remained in their chairs on stage. Before they carried on with their agenda, Harper joked that “It wouldn’t be B.C.” without a protest.
The group that organized the protest issued a press release moments after the incident to say the protesters “managed to make their way past police undetected and into the secured Vancouver Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel,” and to denounce the government’s environmental record.
“The latter (protest sign) was a condemnation of the Harper Government’s failing climate policies and a reference to the recent revelation that Conservative minister of the Environment removed a comment about taking climate change seriously from a speech, despite being recommended by Environment Canada,” the statement read.
The release linked to a PostMedia News report last month that said Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq “set aside” a proposal from staffers that she publicly acknowledge scientific evidence that humans are “mostly responsible for climate change.”
The release was signed by Brigette DePape, a Senate page who was fired two years ago for disrupting the government’s throne speech by holding up a “Stop Harper” sign as Gov.-Gen. David Johnston read.
Anjali Appadurai, one of the protest’s organizers, told CTV News Channel Monday afternoon that hundreds more protesters were outside the hotel in a show of “public opposition to the prime minister’s climate policies.”
Protesters slip past security to disrupt Stephen Harper's pipeline talk in Vancouver | CTV News
Two protesters slipped past security and got within reach of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he was about to begin a question-and-answer session on energy and economic issues at the Vancouver Board of Trade on Monday.
The protesters took to the small stage and stood behind Harper, with one holding a sign that read “Climate Justice Now.” A second protester held up a sign that said “The Conservatives take climate change seriously” with a line crossing out the phrase.
Security quietly removed both protesters without incident as Harper and board president Iain Black remained in their chairs on stage. Before they carried on with their agenda, Harper joked that “It wouldn’t be B.C.” without a protest.
The group that organized the protest issued a press release moments after the incident to say the protesters “managed to make their way past police undetected and into the secured Vancouver Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel,” and to denounce the government’s environmental record.
“The latter (protest sign) was a condemnation of the Harper Government’s failing climate policies and a reference to the recent revelation that Conservative minister of the Environment removed a comment about taking climate change seriously from a speech, despite being recommended by Environment Canada,” the statement read.
The release linked to a PostMedia News report last month that said Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq “set aside” a proposal from staffers that she publicly acknowledge scientific evidence that humans are “mostly responsible for climate change.”
The release was signed by Brigette DePape, a Senate page who was fired two years ago for disrupting the government’s throne speech by holding up a “Stop Harper” sign as Gov.-Gen. David Johnston read.
Anjali Appadurai, one of the protest’s organizers, told CTV News Channel Monday afternoon that hundreds more protesters were outside the hotel in a show of “public opposition to the prime minister’s climate policies.”
Protesters slip past security to disrupt Stephen Harper's pipeline talk in Vancouver | CTV News