PDP #164: A Prorogation Perspective

Yesterday, around 2:15 PM, while wandering through downtown Toronto I blundered onto a demonstration at the corner of Yonge and Melinda. Since it's not very often I encounter knots of people rumbling slogans and waving signs, I went up close to take a couple of pictures. From the signs, it was clear they were demonstrating against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent prorogation - that is, shutting down - of Parliament, an act that while technically allowed under the rules of the government is something I find to be an even larger affront to democracy than the concept of party discipline, and really leads me to no other conclusion than that Westminster democracy, as it's currently practiced, isn't democratic at all.

Later I learned that the demonstration was spurred by Prime Minister Harper's presence in the C.D. Howe Institute just across the street - just to the right of this photo, actually, falling outside the frame. That really put the nature of the whole security issue into perspective for me. I counted maybe a dozen or so police officers from where I could see. Had it been, say, the President of the United States in that room across the street, there practically would've been an army surrounding it and half the downtown core, at least, would have been locked down.

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.