Paging security: throne speech protester

Senate page Brigette DePape is removed from the Senate chamber during the reading of the speech from the throne. (Chris Wattie, Reuters)

DePape's press release, issued immediately to explain the reasons for her protest:

(* We have confirmed she actually uses the surname DePape, contrary to the name used in this press release.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, June 3, 2011

Senate Page disrupts Throne Speech

Harper's disastrous agenda needs to be stopped with creative action and civil disobedience

Ottawa - During the reading of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's throne speech today, a young page was yanked from the Senate Chamber as she tried to hold up a stop sign placard reading "Stop Harper."

"Harper's agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation," Brigette Marcelle says. "We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations."

Brigette Marcelle*, 21 and a recent graduate from University of Ottawa, has been a Page in the Senate for a year, but realized that working within parliament wouldn't stop Harper's agenda.

"Contrary to Harper's rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when 3 out of 4 eligible voters didn't even give their support to the Conservatives? But we will only be able to stop Harper's agenda if people of all ages and from all walks of life engage in creative actions and civil disobediance," she says.

"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, neighbourhoods and workplaces."

-30-

UPDATE:

Senate Communications officer Karen Schwinghamer tells CBC:

"Our security is dealing with it. She's been removed from her position as a page."

MORE:

Brigette DePape already has a Facebook fan page and a job offer.

VIDEO:

DePape experiences her fifteen minutes of video fame, and receives a rebuke from Bob Rae. 

 

To: Alerte-Info-Alert

Subject: Just the Facts: Brigette dePape a.k.a. Brigette Marcelle / Allons droit aux faits : Brigette dePape alias Brigette Marcelle

Sent: Jun 3, 2011 5:25 PM

Just the Facts: Brigette dePape a.k.a. Brigette Marcelle 

 

Professional protester Brigette dePape, a.k.a. Brigette Marcelle, interrupted during today's Speech from the Throne, disrespecting our Parliamentary institutions.

 

Some facts on dePape, a.k.a. Marcelle:

 

• ·         In her performance piece at TEDxOttawa, dePape fights for "God-damned global warming" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRU5lIus-Zg) 
  
  
• ·         For the hard-left Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives she wrote about her involvement in the 2010 G-20 protests in Toronto. (http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/protesting-g20-waste-time)
   
•  ·         Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs, from dePape's home province, is praised as her mentor in a scholarship award press release. (http://www.media.uottawa.ca/mediaroom/news-details_1387.html)