I am not a big fan of Bentham, but his terming of 'human rights' as 'nonsense upon stilts' seems quite extraordinarily apt in the case of those
deemed to apply to protesters in Ottawa.
Bush, Calderon and Harper are having a summit meeting in Ottawa next month, and doubtless it will prove a fairly pointless exercise, in common with G8 meetings and the like. Why they can't do a bit of video conferencing is beyond me.
Anyway, politicians cannot hope to meet up anywhere without there being a rag bag of lefties, greens, and 57 varieties of other loons following the baggage train, and so it will be in Ottawa. Doubtless politicians everywhere regard the camp followers as just one more pain in the backside, but which can be shut out once inside the summit venue. Not, however, this time:
"There will be a video feed of the protests inside the buildings," a senior official said at a media briefing on the summit. "People have a legitimate right to protest."
The government said the decision to stream footage of the protests in view of the three world leaders is consistent with the protesters' human rights and assertions in courts that protesters have a right to be seen and heard".
Right. So it is not enough that one has the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, but rather Ottawa falls just short of supplying the venue, soap boxes and bullhorns. Having once started on this folly, where will it all end, and might Bush, Calderon and Harper decide that they want to exercise
their freedom of speech by having their
bon mots relayed to the crowd by speakers mounted on Chinooks or somesuch?
Labels: Canada, Common sense? What's that?, Mexico, Truly the Apocalypse is upon us, United States.
