Page protests Harper government on Senate floor
Posted Jun 3, 2011 04:06:12 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – A protest momentarily disrupted the ceremony surrounding the Harper government’s first throne speech under a majority mandate. A lone female protester _ dressed in a Senate page’s uniform _ quietly walked to the centre of the upper chamber, and held up a red sign reading “Stop Harper.”
The governor general didn’t flinch as he continued to read the speech during the silent protest. The young woman was escorted out of the Senate without a fuss.
A few minutes later, reporters received an email from a woman claiming that she was a Senate page, but saying she could no longer stand by and watch the Harper Conservatives carry out their agenda.
The statement quoted 21-year-old Brigette Marcelle, calling Harper’s agenda disastrous for the country and for her generation. However, a check of Senate page names online, accompanying their pictures, identifies the woman as Brigette DePape.
And a Twitter post from Senator Mobina Jaffer indicates the woman was a page familiar to her and her colleagues. In the speech itself the new majority Conservative government promised to focus on the economy and kill the long-gun registry and the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly.
