Just a few weeks ago, my brother bought me two tickets to an event billed as a "conversation with George W Bush" at a downtown auditorium. It was once called the "Centennial Auditorium" - because it was erected in 1967, Canada's 100th birthday. Recently some corporation bought the "rights" to the name - it's now called TCU Place. I was to learn that Bush was to give a speech and then give a half hour Q and A session, just not with audience members. Instead he was to be interviewed by Brett Wilson, a successful entrepreneur and investor from North Battleford, Saskatchewan. I read an article in the local paper that the toughest question Wilson was going to ask was about there being no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I figured everything else was going to be softball city and that's how it turned out.Everyone who knows me thinks it was a great gag gift. They know how I feel about this corporate sock puppet. The one caveat my brother gave me was that I had to stay until the end - and not get arrested. Even so, I was still hoping to do something provocative towards the end, but as you will see no such chance arose.
If you're a little curious why a former U.S. leader would deign to make an appearance in a small, foreign city so far off the beaten map, I have to give you some background. Having a former President visit Saskatoon would have seemed absurd as little as 10 years ago - but we are entering very interesting times. Saskatchewan is one of the few places in the world to have weathered the recession well. In fact people have recently been moving here in large numbers - especially from neighboring Alberta. The cost of living is not as high as it became in Alberta - but it will soon be just as bad as where they came from. Many out of province investors have bought up a lot of property and jacked up the prices. Inflation has firmly taken hold and only the upper middle classes and the elite are prospering in this new economy. The cost of buying houses have exploded in the last 5 years and renting a house or apartment has become onerous for the working poor and the disadvantaged. We have a growing homeless problem and a youth gang culture expanding along with the crime rate. Boom times are here! In fact, the city of Saskatoon's metropolitan area has just hit a population rate of 250,000 people. This March CNN featured Saskatchewan as a jobs "hot spot", promoting us as an economic light in the darkness. Now you know why our once laid back little burg is becoming so attractive to some very rapacious individuals.
Sponsored by Bedford Biofuels and the Chamber of Commerce, you can easily understand the agenda behind bringing in a former president of the United States, especially when that someone is one of the most prominent advocates of "Drill Baby Drill". We have vast un-tapped oil and natural gas reserves, uranium mines that supply more than half of the world's nuclear processing needs, well-established potash mines and a huge agricultural expanse to develop genetically modified foods on. Earlier in the year former Pres. Bill Clinton made an appearance in Saskatoon and the provincial capitol of Regina.
I missed that one - I was too busy with personal things (planning a wedding and getting married) to get together with people to protest his visit. In my opinion, Clinton bears nearly as much blame for the current financial crisis the whole world seems to be reeling from as Bush does. It was while Clinton was President that the Glass -Steagal Act was repealed ushering in the shady investment practices Wall street reveled in until the bottom fell out. Mr. Clinton himself has stated that he was to blame for the failure to reform health care during his term and there is no question that popular progressive social causes were put on the back burner. And it seems to me quite evident that his foreign policy was run by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. For more on that, you should read a famous 2001 essay entitled "Osamagate" by Michel Chossoduvsky, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and a driving force behind the Centre for Research on Globalisation. Hey, once you go down the rabbit hole...
Digressions aside, another reason for Bush's visit is that Saskatchewan has recently turned to the Right - electing a conservative government called the "Saskatchewan Party" - yes, that's correct, the party is named for the province. You see, the "Conservative Party" was in charge during the 80's and tried to push an aggressive privatization agenda that eventually made them so unpopular that their Party became extinct. Left with a financial crisis - the people turned back to the New Democratic Party. The provincial successor to the populist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, they held power for a decade and a half - and brought the province back from a deficit to a surplus, all the while maintaining a democratic social agenda that recognized the importance of unions and affordable public health care for a strong middle class.
Unfortunately, the belt tightening measures and the perceived anti-corporate stance of the NDP started to wear on disgruntled voters. This was exploited very successfully by a very influential corporate media wing (one company, RAWLCO communications, owns damn near all the private radio stations in the province and the neo-con affiliated Asper media group own the two biggest newspapers - the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and the Regina Leader Post). And while the publicly funded Canadian Broadcast Company is mandated to be "even-handed" in their political coverage (although the CBC entertainment wing is often refreshingly subversive), RAWLCO doesn't have to be - we have a News Talk Radio station, simulcast in Saskatoon and Regina, which at times would make Rush Limbaugh proud. John Gormley (named as the emcee for the Bush event) fills Rush's role up here in Saskatchewan -maintaining a constant rhetorical war against the Left. It's a fine balancing act - what with Saskatchewan being the home of the late, great Tommy Douglas. Named the Greatest Canadian in a national vote, Douglas was a former Premier of Saskatchewan, the father of Canadian Medicare and the national leader of the New Democratic Party. First established in Saskatchewan, Medicare (publically funded, single-payer, universal health care for all) was so obviously the right thing to do that eventually the federal government was forced to adopt it. In Canada we have health care for all, whether you are rich or poor. No one loses their home to bankruptcy because of medical bills. Memories fade over time though, and even up here in Canada there is a strong cultural bent towards dumbed-down entertainment and media-bite politics.
Back to the Sask Party - 10 years later, the survivors got together and decided to form a new party. Somehow they got a judge to allow them to change their name to the "Saskatchewan Party". It boggles the mind. Imagine if you will, that the Republican Party decides to turf their name - because the brand is so unpopular. They get together and decide to form a new Party called the "American Party". You see how screwy that is. People's psychology will conflate the two and perhaps lead them to think that "you can't vote against the American Party - that would be like voting against America!”
The Sask Party's leader and the Premier of Saskatchewan, Brad Wall, did a fine job of keeping the far right wing of his party muzzled enough to get elected in 2007. But already the worm is turning. The first thing they did after gaining office was to unveil plans to create an agency known as "Enterprise Saskatchewan". It appears that their plan entails gutting the current Department of Economic Development and to “appoint individuals” to "advise" the government on matters dealing with legislative, regulatory and budgetary practices. According to citizen journalist Buckdog, "In other words, the overall role of the government and the legislature would be moved to an unelected body...”.
However fancily they dress up their new agency, its ominous intent seems clear. The plan is to move Saskatchewan away from our socialist roots and towards a neo-con style "Enron economy". The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour has warned that the Sask party's plan to end the Industry and Resources department's economic development role and move government employees under the new Enterprise Saskatchewan entity was "privatization" that would be opposed by labour.
The Sask Party is now really stirring up controversy with a recently proposed and thinly disguised anti-union measure called Bill 80 - the Construction Industry Labour Relations Amendment Act.
Trade unions and many others like me are opposed to this proposal, perceiving the privatization agenda behind it. I'm a non-union truck driver but respect and understand the value of unions. My father was a union man, and went on strike a few times. I also know the history behind the labour movement here in Saskatchewan - more than a few people died for the right to organize. Of course, there is already a backlash and a petition against it. Not so surprisingly, those who are for it are neo-cons and religious control freaks.
Most recently, Premier Brad Wall raised eyebrows in his annual "speech from the throne" when he said that he wants limit the amount of needles given out in the needle exchange program. This in spite of his government's own report recognizing the value of the program, noting that it helps to saves lives, curbs the spread of infectious diseases and saves the health care budget millions of dollars. Brad Wall has hid his social conservative tendencies well, but they are now starting to come to the fore.
At the time of the election two years ago the NDP warned the province in election ads that the Sask Party was a "wolf in sheep's clothing". At the time they were slammed by the neo-con media for fear-mongering. Now, it looks like they were just stating facts.
So now, gentle reader, the stage has been set.
When I first received the tickets, I asked my friend Beata to come with me. Beata is a fine actress, holistic healer and fitness instructor who also goes by another persona - Tinfoil Hat Lady. However, she has recently been going through a personal crisis and wasn't up for it. She told me she couldn't bear to sit and watch Bush weave his lies and be surrounded by a bevy of Bush lickers.
So at a meet up before the protest, I asked a fellow truth seeker named Alan to join me. He accepted without a thought - and we began to make plans for what we could do on the inside to perhaps make our presence known and make Bush uncomfortable. As it turned out, our Canadian politeness and my weak bladder combined to thwart us.
Around 11 AM on Wednesday, October 21st Alan and I got into my car and first stopped off at the Farmer's Market. Most of the protestors were gathering there to march downtown a few blocks away. The main organizers like the Saskatoon Peace Coalition had cleared everything with the City and were to receive a police escort, and I sure envied them. In retrospect, I think I'd have rather have been marching along in solidarity with them than what I was shortly to endure inside the Auditorium.
Then we headed off to TCU Place. We parked a few blocks away in a restaurant parking lot and walked over. We beat most of the protesters there but we did manage to video a guy dressed up in a black smock with a Guy Fawkes mask - he was channeling the "V for Vendetta" character. Then as we crossed the street, we saw our buddy Mitch, an avid 9-11 truth activist and founding member of the We Are Change chapter here in Saskatoon. Mitch was boldly bull horning 9-11 truth, ala Alex Jones, only feet away from the long queue of people waiting to get in to see Bush. Alan and I exchanged Hellos with Mitch, told him he was doing a great job and then went to stand in line to get in.
While we were standing in line, and it was about a half hour wait, the main body of protesters started walking towards TCU Place down Pacific Avenue, which had been cordoned off by police. This was the limit of the "official safe zone" for the protestors. I know, it sounds a lot like "free speech zones" in America. Mitch was outside the safe zone but across the side street, and the police left him and his group alone from what we could see. There were quite a few protesters and a lot of signs, though I'm guessing that the turn out would have been much higher if Bush was still President. But his war criminal status was a good enough reason for about 200 or 300 committed activists and ordinary citizens to show up. I don't know how much bigger the protest got after we went inside, but it was reported later that there was no trouble. There were no "anarchist provocateurs" to enable any kind of police crack down, although I read that a couple of protesting grannies were told to move from the front of TCU Place - this made a bit of news. The grannies believed that they had the right to be there and were quite upset.
An couple of interesting moments came when I was interviewed by the local Global TV News station and the local CBC. I drew their interest with my salutes of solidarity to the protesters; they wanted the point of view of an anti-Bush person who was actually going to see him. My interview with the Global news team was filmed by Alan with my digital camera, but it didn't make the cut, and if you watch the You Tube video you'll notice why. Mitch was drowning me out in the background. But that's alright; I don't think it would have made it anyway. Global is the local neo-con TV station - and I talked about the ominous coincidence of Bush visiting Saskatoon at the same time as the Sask Party was cranking up their pro-corporate, anti-union agenda. I don't know if CBC showed my interview with them, I didn't get a chance to watch their newscast that night - and I forgot to give the camera to Alan before they approached me - but it was far less provocative then what I said to Global.
We finally got in the door and had to snake through a long line that would eventually go through three electronic screening gates. At one point we were told we would have to give up my camera, as they had a no-recording equipment policy. But too many people had brought them, so we were told we could keep them but not use them. They'd be watching us. Security was tight, and we had to strip off our belts and empty our pockets into baskets before we went through the gate. It was exactly as if we were boarding an airplane. Later I heard that Bush's visit was going to cost the taxpayers of Saskatoon approximately $100,000.
Finally, at about 12:00 we got to our seats. We were both dismayed - we had seats in the thirteenth row back from the stage, both of them smack dab in the middle of that aisle, with about 25 seats on either side of us. In other words, we had no quick escape route. As a matter of fact, both Alan and I had to get up while we were waiting for Bush's appearance to go visit the men's room. The seats at TCU Place are very closed in without a lot of room - it was very difficult to sneak down the aisle by 25 people. You can imagine the scene, "Scuse me, sorry, scuse, sorry, just gotta sneak by, sorry..."
Anyway, at about 12:45, a full 45 minutes late, Gormley took the stage and talked in glowing terms of Bush's Presidency. Then he introduced the President of Bedford Biofuels who went on to also lavish praise on Bush and it was he who introduced the former President.
George came out to the podium to amidst loud applause. I didn't clap; instead I sat with my arms folded most of the time, only clapping when appropriate. Like when he talked about "supporting the troops". We support them all right, we want them home and off the killing fields of the New World Order's opium dispensary. Alan actually booed loudly and gave a thumbs down sign with his arms up in the air. Some neo-con dickhead hit him from behind and demanded he put his arms down - Alan turned to him and said, "Free speech, dude." But you could tell we were sitting in the middle of a bunch of bully-type personalities. There were Secret Service officers at every exit and people in the audience who would have loved to see a couple of "lefties" get roughed up. It was more than a little stifling.
Bush gave a tight 15 minute or so speech about his Presidency, his family, the challenges he faced, the tough decisions he made etcetera ad nauseum. He talked in glowing terms about Canada's friendship with the U.S. and the job our "great Canadian military" is doing in Afghanistan, bearing a disproportionate duty in the process. He never mentioned Canada's refusal to back the American invasion of Iraq and he reminded us all how much the U.S. depends on Canada's resources and trade. He also tried to justify his use of waterboarding by saying that waterboarding 3 Al Qaeda guys had stopped future attacks because of the info they got. That was just one of many times I wanted to stand up and scream back counterpoints to destroy his arguments; after all, we all know that torture is good for only one thing - false confessions.
However, I remembered my brother's request and was starting to see that it would almost be pointless. I could have given my camera to Alan, and done something like that, but I'm positive that not only would I have been removed from the auditorium if I had - my camera would have likely been confiscated. At that point Alan and I decided to ride it out, whispering to each other once in a while how bogus this speech was, and wait for the Q and A session.
The speech ended and his acolytes gave him a thunderous standing ovation. I stood up only to see what was going on, but Alan did the principled thing and remained sitting. Out came Brett Wilson and they took seats on the other side of the stage, each with a microphone in their hand, and the Q and A began. Wilson started him out with the WMD question. Bush was ready, of course. He said the same thing he always does, falling back on the OTHER reasons why it was good to "take out Saddam."
The rest of the questions were about how leadership values, the energy sector and his family.
Wilson gave away his bias as he talked to Bush about the future of the energy industry when he referred to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as a "left wing lunatic". Never mind that Chavez has been honestly elected twice by his countrymen, whereas the person he was interviewing had been the benefactor of election fraud in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
At one point Bush came up with an anecdote about how Karl Rove, aka Turd Blossom, came "bopping in" late to his first meeting after he had been selected by the Supreme Court as President. He supposedly told Rove that it doesn't matter who you are, I want you to be on time. He turned to the audience and said that a good chief executive officer was always on time and demanded timeliness of others. This after being 45 minutes late for this appearance, the irony completely lost on him.
After a time, my bladder rebelled and I had to go to the washroom. I picked my way down the aisle and went to do my business. As I was just about to re-enter I heard Bush talking about his family and then said his farewells and thanks to a standing ovation. Then the people were let out. So I missed the end - but I doubt that would have been an effective time to shout out anything - one would have been drowned out by the Bush acolytes' cheering.
Looking back now, perhaps I should have protested directly to Bush while he was still doing his little speech - especially when he was justifying his torture program. Sure, I would have been thrown out and it might never have been recorded (all the TV stations were not allowed to bring their camera crews in), but Bush would have been thrown off - just a bit. Of course, attempting to tell the truth to a bunch of brainwashed fundies and neo-con wannabes would have been a pointless exercise. I take solace from the fact that every one of the attendees, while waiting in the queue outside, saw and heard everything from the protesters. Mitch was especially effective with his infowar onslaught. The truth about 9-11, the Bilderbegers, the trilateral commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the role of PNAC and the current President Obama's mentor Zbigniew Brzezinski was bull horned loud enough for anyone on the street to hear.
I'm sure Dubya was aware of the protest outside. When Gormley first introduced him, he recited a quote from Churchill about how you can judge an effective leader by the "enmity he sparks in his opponents". Bush even joked about it after he got to the podium. He told the audience, after thanking Gormley for his kind words, that Churchill was right. It was one of the many times he drew laughter. He mixed in a lot of self deprecating humour throughout his appearance, playing off his "dumb guy" persona, and the crowd loved it. But we all know that Bush isn't stupid - it's a character ploy. You have to have some depth of intelligence to be able to lie, deceive and mislead as well as he does.
Also, after reviewing the "We Are Change vs George W Bush" video, I think I noticed something. If you watch near the end when Mitch and his pals are lined up at the underground parkade exit; as the Bush motorcade leaves, I swear that he's in the backseat of the second car, giving the We Are Change group the finger as the car goes by. Could be my imagination...maybe not.
The next day in the Star Phoenix, "Ex-president defends Iraq war", was on Page A1 and A2. Les MacPherson, a neo-con protégé who was installed as a columnist when Conrad Black first took over the newspaper back in the late 80's, wrote a fawning tribute to Bush on page A3. But the coverage of the protest was a small story tucked inside on A8. The coverage was very biased on our local Global TV station as well.
So that's the report on Bush's visit to my hometown. The way in which this war criminal can freely travel around my country, with the support of many business people and politicians, is appalling. Our continuing support for the debacle in Afghanistan has turned this country away from her peacekeeping role, a role we used to be very proud of. The implications are ominous for our future as an independent, sovereign country. The Globalists have plans for us. The people of Canada must wake up from their stupor and smell the poppies.
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them".
-Albert Einstein
