matt_mcl- It sounds like you agree with the protesters goal of not allowing anyone to hear Netanyahu, you just disagree the way they did it. Is this a correct interpretation of your post?
BTW, CanWest rival Globe & Mail backs up their version of events.
I generally agree with the OP here. But I’ve seen an even more disturbing trend here in the U.S., which is prohibiting all protests anywhere near the speaker if the speaker is the President. The right to protest is the same right as that of free speech. We currently have a policy of “free speech zones” for people who want to hold signs and shout at the President, and those fsz’s are no where near the POTUS or where he is going, and nowhere near the media, etc. Shouting down a speaker entirely is a bad thing, but shutting out protestors from city streets and pretending they don’t exist isn’t the mark of a free country. We need to have both. That means that controversial foreign dignitaries are going to hear an occasional boo, and that a couple of the Q&A speakers are going to ask rude questions. A free country is not a tea social.
Heh, well the United States and Canada are hardly free countries. When they had the UN summit here a couple of years ago, you’ve never seen more cops and more of a maze of barricades in your life. And when Quebec City held the WTO conference that same year or maybe it was the next year, they walled off an entire area of the city to all but those who worked or lived within that area. So the United States, nor Canada are examples of bastions of freedom.
As for the OP, I agree with the OP. There was a great episode of the West Wing once, where the older jewish gentleman (I don’t watch the show enough to know the character’s or the actor’s name) was at an anti-globalization protest trying to speak. He kept getting heckled with stuff like “How many children did it take to make those shoes?”, and whenever he got heckled he would just sit down and wait for it to die down having a conversation with the cop on duty there. The main bulk of his subplot was him talking to the cop. With the cop kind of playing the part of the interviewer asking about whether or not the people had a point etc… Well eventually, it was revealed that the character agreed with the protestors, but they were too busy shouting in his face for being “The Man” that they would never know it.
Erek
And you consider road barricades an infringement of your freedom? Care to tell me which freedom that is? Just maybe these measures were instituted because of the precedent that was set in Seattle?
Care to tell me which countries allow you to go apeshit during an anti-government protest?
I agree with Mojo.
If you look at the summit in Calgary you can see thatanti government protest was allowed as long as it was non violent. I’m not sure what any of these other people think they can accomplish for their cause by destroying parts of a city to make a point.
No one will listen to a foaming shouting mob. However when individuals were given the oppurtunity to speak out and properly voice their oppinion their message was quite clear.
Clagary was a perfect example on how both sides should handle the situation. The police were non confrontational but kept a presence while the protestors policed themselves keeping the Yahoos at bay.
Not free? As compared to where, exactly?
Miller: Well compared to what we pretend the United States is. One of my wife’s major complaints with the US is how restricting the government is. She’s from Israel. I found that kind of interesting. I’ve heard that from other foreigners as well. This evidence is of course anecdotal.
I don’t think that a country that imprisons people based upon Muslim heritage (America) without charging them for months…
Or a country that forcibly sterilizes their native population (Canada)…
can be said to be free countries.
I don’t think a country that imprisons people for smoking marijuana (US and Canada) can be considered a free country.
Mojo: Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending the Seattle protestors, that’s ridiculous. However, what’s the cause and what is the effect. In Quebec City do you think the barriers were a cause of division that might have been avoided? Also keep in mind that the barriers were around a huge portion of the city, and not just the area where the summit was going on. In otherwords the government requisitioned a large portion of a “free” city for it’s own use for a few days excluding the citizenry. Does that sound like a free country to you?
As far as the US, the police were out in force during the summit last year in New York and the protestors were very peaceful. They weren’t even allowed near the people who they were protesting against.
During the afformentioned UN summit a few years ago I passed by a “Free Tibet” rally and they were put on the other side of Park Avenue from what was going on, I doubt that they even made much impression upon the dignitaries who could avoid them by exiting on Lexington avenue. In case you don’t know, Park Avenue is quite wide, it’s called “Park” avenue because there is an actual Park in the median.
I don’t know as much about Canada as I know about the US, so I won’t be able to provide much more examples of Canada, however I have many more about the US. Hell Project Echelon and the DMCA are great examples that affect the entire world put forth by the US.
Erek
Sealand?
Wait…what?
Sealand? that sounds like it should have some significance but I’m drawing a blank.
Erek
Sealand is the country someone established on an abandoned drilling platform in international waters.
::sniff:: I wish I had an abandoned drilling platform in international waters.
Sealand is the country someone established on an abandoned drilling platform in international waters.
::sniff:: I wish I had an abandoned drilling platform in international waters.
pldennison; I’d be a touch suspicious of your blogger. At the very least, his bizarre assertion that “yes, the academic wonder of Concordia Univeristy consists of…wait for it…ONE building” needs to be challenged, since the guy was obviously too lazy to look across the street at the McConnell Library Building. The protest centered on the largest of the Concordia buildings, but the map links on this page show at least 50 individual buildings spread out over two campusses (campi?).
Putting that aside, some of the student organizations at Concordia are particularly nutty, even by college radical standards. One guy ran for student government using his arrest record (for various protests) as a selling point, I kid you not. The student newpapers are fond of using the word “capitalist” as self-evident damnation and there was a time when a number of gay and black student clubs campaigned to stop Red Cross donor clinics on campus because they found the donor questionnaire offensive. I went to the major student union meeting because I thought at least one student should pro-RC. Good thing I showed up, because that’s exactly how it turned out. Fortunately, that protest came to nothing. I’m concerned that these protestors will count stopping Bibi’s speech as a victory and be encouraged to smach up more glass next time.
So pepper spray was used on these loudmouthed vandal thugs? GOOD!
Bryan Ekers.
Concordia, Class of 2001.
No, I’m saying that there would have been more efficient, more legal, and less violent and distasteful ways of accomplishing their goals, whatever they were (bearing in mind that not that all the protesters had the same goal.)
The linked article doesn’t appear to be an account of events, but the text of Netanyahu’s speech. Also, the Gazouille (a CanWest paper) does not seem to have an archive I can readily access. It would be provocative to compare both press accounts with my father’s. But CanWest (and Southam before it) have rarely stinted from printing the most ridiculous and transparent kinds of spin in accordance with their editorial position - as I can testify from reading coverage of protests I’ve attended.
Excuse me??? How old is the information you refer to??? In fact what the hell are you refering to? 
Please Cite.
The last time I checked Our Native population was not being Sterilized.
If you are refering to anything that happened in the last thirty years I’m unaware of it. If you are talking about something that may have occured in the 40s or 50s then I believe you have to accept the fact this country does not do this today. In fact freedom is a growing learning process and the horrible mistakes have been made in the past don’t reflect on the Nation that stands today.
Matt_mcl: sorry about the wrong link- G&M changed it on me. If you do a search for “Concordia” and click on the link for “Israel’s Netanyahu greeted with violence in Montreal” that’s the story I was referring to. It appears that they don’t have static links to articles for items found via a search.
Here’s Indymedia’s take on the event- about as lefty/pro-pali as you can get. Note that they don’t dispute any of the facts presented by G&M or the CanWest outlets.
And here’s more from the “other side”- link.
Hmmmm once again I wonder if people know the meaning of Irony
Yes we will stop your hate speech with our hate speech. We will show the world your violence through ours.
And people wonder why there is so much crap in the region. It is because they are all PINHEADS!!! I’m ready to give up on both sides.