As we have explored in this blog for some months, civil disobedience waged in order to draw greater public attention to climate change seems to be on the rise. Today protesters gathered in the public gallery of the Canadian House of Commons. During Question Period - when members of the opposition ask questions of the government - protesters began to make their voices heard by disrupting the proceedings.
As New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton started to ask a question, protesters began their protest with "Bill C-311, sign it, sign it, sign it!" After protesters were carried out by police, others would pick up where their colleagues left off. Bill C-311 is an NDP private-members bill that demands the government act on climate change at the upcoming Copenhagen conference.
When protesters were escorted out of Parliament, they chanted various other key statements or phrases: "Climate Justice", "Green jobs now!" "Tar sands, shut it down!" and "Whose House? Our House!"
According to Bruce Cheadle of the Canadian Press, roughly six protesters were detained but were not arrested. They were however barred from entering the building for the next year.
Although protest is not necessarily an act of civil disobedience, when it interrupts Parliamentary proceedings such as today's protests did, it certainly may pass the threshold test.
What is interesting here is the way in which the protest may be written out of - excised from the official record. As Jane Taber notes in the Globe and Mail, Hansard's official written account of Parliamentary proceedings does not even acknowledge the substance of the protesters statements from the gallery. It is merely minimized as a "disturbance from the gallery". Six protesters received a light penalty - being barred for a period of time from entering the building. For some protesters, an arrest may be a welcome way to draw attention to their cause by defending their actions in court. Here they were 'deprived' of that opportunity - assuming they were looking to do so.
There are many ways that the legal and political system as well as law enforcement officials can legitimize or de-legitimize resistance. Here, by forcibly removing the protesters without arresting them, the protesters were denied an opportunity to defend their actions (and cause) in a sometimes legitimizing legal space - a court room. Furthermore, the protest becomes de-legitimized through Hansard's minimalist description of the protest to a disturbance (one can imagine a whole host of conduct that might be described as a disturbance).
While their protests may have been de-legitimized in certain respects, their actions were received positively by some parliamentarians. As Nathan Cullen, an NDP Member of Parliament notes: "It's pretty powerful, there's no doubt about it, young people getting this animated...We always say we want them interested in the House of Commons. They've chosen this path."
Sources:
Bruce Cheadle, "Demonstrators briefly disrupt question period" The Canadian Press, 26 October 2009, online: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091026/national/commons_protest
Jane Taber, "A Disturbance in the Gallery" The Globe and Mail, 26 October 2009, online: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/bureau-blog/disturbance-in-the-gallery/article1339023/
"Protesters disrupt Commons Question Period" The Toronto Star, 26 October 2009, online: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/716324--protesters-disrupt-commons-question-period?bn=1
As New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton started to ask a question, protesters began their protest with "Bill C-311, sign it, sign it, sign it!" After protesters were carried out by police, others would pick up where their colleagues left off. Bill C-311 is an NDP private-members bill that demands the government act on climate change at the upcoming Copenhagen conference.
When protesters were escorted out of Parliament, they chanted various other key statements or phrases: "Climate Justice", "Green jobs now!" "Tar sands, shut it down!" and "Whose House? Our House!"
According to Bruce Cheadle of the Canadian Press, roughly six protesters were detained but were not arrested. They were however barred from entering the building for the next year.
Although protest is not necessarily an act of civil disobedience, when it interrupts Parliamentary proceedings such as today's protests did, it certainly may pass the threshold test.
What is interesting here is the way in which the protest may be written out of - excised from the official record. As Jane Taber notes in the Globe and Mail, Hansard's official written account of Parliamentary proceedings does not even acknowledge the substance of the protesters statements from the gallery. It is merely minimized as a "disturbance from the gallery". Six protesters received a light penalty - being barred for a period of time from entering the building. For some protesters, an arrest may be a welcome way to draw attention to their cause by defending their actions in court. Here they were 'deprived' of that opportunity - assuming they were looking to do so.
There are many ways that the legal and political system as well as law enforcement officials can legitimize or de-legitimize resistance. Here, by forcibly removing the protesters without arresting them, the protesters were denied an opportunity to defend their actions (and cause) in a sometimes legitimizing legal space - a court room. Furthermore, the protest becomes de-legitimized through Hansard's minimalist description of the protest to a disturbance (one can imagine a whole host of conduct that might be described as a disturbance).
While their protests may have been de-legitimized in certain respects, their actions were received positively by some parliamentarians. As Nathan Cullen, an NDP Member of Parliament notes: "It's pretty powerful, there's no doubt about it, young people getting this animated...We always say we want them interested in the House of Commons. They've chosen this path."
Sources:
Bruce Cheadle, "Demonstrators briefly disrupt question period" The Canadian Press, 26 October 2009, online: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091026/national/commons_protest
Jane Taber, "A Disturbance in the Gallery" The Globe and Mail, 26 October 2009, online: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/bureau-blog/disturbance-in-the-gallery/article1339023/
"Protesters disrupt Commons Question Period" The Toronto Star, 26 October 2009, online: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/716324--protesters-disrupt-commons-question-period?bn=1
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