OTTAWA—A young woman who spent the past year working in a job coveted by politically minded university students nationwide decided to express her disillusionment with government by getting fired in a spectacular way.
Brigette DePape, 21, walked into the Senate chamber wearing the black bow tie and white gloves that were part of her page uniform with a handmade protest sign — a red stop sign emblazoned with the message “Stop Harper” and a cartoonish exclamation mark — tucked into her skirt.
“I was kind of nervous as I was walking down that I would trip or something like that, but everything went smoothly,” DePape told the Star in an interview on Friday.
This was no after-hours prank or photo shoot.
This was as Governor General David Johnston was delivering the Speech from the Throne.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper looked on as DePape stood silently with her sign, long brown braid thrown over her shoulder, for a few seconds before the sergeant-at-arms escorted her out of the room
She was fired from her job around the same time she issued an emailed news release explaining her act of civil disobedience and her name — and “Stop Harper” message — became a trending topic on the social media site Twitter.
“Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” DePape wrote in the professional-looking press release emailed to media while she was still being detained by parliamentary security.
“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, neighborhoods and workplaces,” DePape said in the release.
Source: thestar.com
First off I have to commend this very brave woman! Instead of sitting behind a computer and talking, she took action. I do also agree with her point that Canada is in a very large need of a “Arab spring” type of revolution. Stephen Harper now has the more power than any other prime minister in Canadian history! And plans to ram through various country destroying initiatives. But as many of us already know, it is not Harper calling the shots, he is just a front man for the banking elites. Who are in full control.
To bring real change in this country we must cut the bankers out of the picture and take our government back from puppets like Stephen Harper! We all must stand up with Brigette (and the many other who have stood up), and demand FREEDOM!
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately” – Benjamin Franklin
Oh yes, she is truely a hero. Did she decide to initiate her ‘plan’ earlier on in her employment, when the job loss would truly have been a financial burden? No she waited until there were a short few weeks or months left in the contract.
She proved nothing except the absurdly childish behaviour of so many people in my generation. If this was a police state or dictatorship as so many bleeding hearts claim, she would have been dragged away from any cameras and been beaten to death. Instead she was granted her 15 minutes of fame.
Arab Spring in Canada? Surely you must be joking. Travel to some other countries besides Europe and Mexico, and you will see places that are truely in need of social and political reform. Canada is certainly not one of them. There are representational issues with our democracy, that no one can deny. But the most selected man still wins, and this time around it is Harper. Just because you do not like his policies does not mean that you can claim some sort of democratic infringement. At any rate, in these questionable economic times, a conservative policy is best for us. Front man for the banking elites? Don’t make me laugh. Canadian banking policies, under the direction of Jim Flaherty and Mark Carney have kept Canada stable and have made us the envy of the world, while we weather the recession with relative ease.
Libyans building democracy? That should be interesting. I look forward to seeing how that turns out…
Our system is broken in a manner which benefits politicians and hurts the electorate, our democracy isn’t working and hasn’t been for some time.
Of the piddly 61.4% of Canadians who showed up to vote, only 39.6% voted for Harper. Less than one quarter of the eligible vote went to the Conservative Party but they will govern with the total impunity enjoyed by majority governments in our parliamentary system.
Clearly you are unaware of the immense power that a prime minister with a majority government possesses, especially one with such a strong hold on his party as well.
Check this out ( )because while the Libyans may be building their democracy we are standing idly by while ours gets eroded. Freedom isn’t granted, just because we have it right now does not mean it will be there forever. We could lose it in the blink of an eye. It only took Hitler a couple years to remodel the entire weimar republic in his fascist image. Do we have four years?
Shame and Brigette DePape and shame on the those who would support her. This petulant brat somehow thinks that her “plight” under a Conservative government is akin to the hardships, death, and destruction that occurs in Libya or Syria. Please. Canada voted, the Conservatives won, get over it. In four years you’ll have your chance to change things. That’s how democracy works. If you don’t like it, go to Libya and see how it works out for you. People are literally dying in these places to do what we just did and you would throw it away because you didn’t like the outcome.
*More people would comment if C.A.N. didn’t have this scary sign in procedure.*
Good to see there’s still hope in the Canadian youth of this country. Too bad we have so little of them, thanks to immigration and fluoridation.
*More people would comment if C.A.N. didn’t have this scary sign in procedure.*
Count me in.
Brilliant ! Love it and when does the spring start ?
Brave Lady,I commend her.