Part I

A video on the popular website “Youtube” shows three masked men, one carrying a rock, all trying to start a ruckus at the Security and Prosperity Partnership protest. Union leaders stopped the three masked men, and as police took them away, and then someone noticed they were wearing the same boots as the police. Quebec police later identified the three men as being their own, and calls have been made demanding a public inquiry into the incident. Stockwell Day says no inquiry is necessary, and this leaves me wondering how much longer our police will stand being used as henchmen instead of being used as public servants. I find it interesting how conservatives talk about less government, but how that does not apply to interfering with the civil liberties of Canadians, like the right to assemble and protest peacefully. In a protest of thousands of people, there will likely be a few rouge protesters who commit acts of violence and disrupt the safety of everyone there. Using undercover police to cause a riot is an affront to democracy and it endangers public safety.

Part II

The actions of the Quebec police could have started a riot and endangered protesters. Peaceful protesters could have been the undue victims of tear gas and rubber bullets, and conservative media sources would have used footage of violent protesters as a way to paint and brush all protesters and discredit them. The question is who will police the police? It won’t be Stockwell Day, and the Quebec police are not taking responsibility to ensure this will never happen again. The rights of protesters to be seen and heard are paramount in our democracy. The SSP meetings took place behind closed doors, so the people have no other outlet of representation except to protest. Now our right to protest in safety is in danger. Who ordered the three police officers to do what they did, and who will be held accountable for all this? We need answers and we need a public inquiry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1nHvvkzvA

-Jason Setnyk