Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A safer workplace: Hill stunt an open invitation to those who wish to do harm

If nothing else, Greenpeace is predictable. Why hold a simple news conference or release a scathing report when you can breach security (a relative term apparently) on Parliament Hill, unfurl a few banners and endanger the lives of police, fire and paramedics in the process?

Too bad their message, whatever it was, concerning some big conference in Denmark was lost in the public consternation and a black eye of embarrassment for the RCMP and others.

To start, freedom of expression is a Charter right and even if I disagree with their tactics — not very innovative, and childish — Greenpeace has every right to spew away. Yet charges of mischief hardly seem appropriate for the fact they potentially endangered the lives of all first responding agencies (as noted above) and diverted these people from potentially more threatening life and death situations.

And then we have the fire trucks, ambulances and police cars that idled away, engines running for the four-plus hours of this stunt and released a good chunk of emissions and pollution. Let’s just say the carbon footprint from their little spectacle did more harm to the planet than any good that will come of their Monday morning shenanigans.

But the larger question of Parliament Hill security is now once again in focus and sadly due to the antics of these protesters, those who come and go on the hill every day — staffers, journalists, lobbyists, association heads, not-for-profit advocates, couriers, school tours and plain-old-salt-of-earth-citizens — will now be subjected to further front door overkill.

It’s ironic that every visit to the parliamentary precinct by law abiding types is equivalent or worse than a trip through airport security. “Please sir, remove all metal from your pockets. Please place your BlackBerry and laptop in the clear plastic bin. And your coat should be removed, thank you. Now pass through the scanner. Oh excuse me, what is this on your keychain and can you show me how it works, along with moving the trackball on your blackberry?”

Silly me, can’t you see it’s a mini flashlight and that fancy circuitry on the key chain is my embedded car starter. Maybe I should just show up in blue coveralls with 19 of my closest friends and scale the walls of West Block, I’d probably get inside much quicker, I could keep my coat on and get a little exercise to boot.

Since Monday morning, the RCMP has understandably remained tight-lipped about the investigation they are now conducting. To be fair to them, the Hill is continually undergoing masonry work on the facade of the buildings, internal wiring upgrades and other copper roof repairs.

However, a similar stunt occurred in London in mid-October when a team of 30 climate activists helped some of their cadre scale the British Parliament complex as MPs returned from a long summer recess. Hmm, did anybody over on our side of the pond in one of at least three agencies partially responsible for security on Parliament Hill take notice?

Regardless of what one thinks of our MPs and Senators, they deserve a safer and more secure workplace. Monday’s stunt was a national embarrassment, not to mention, an open and public invitation to those who wish to do more harm than simply unfurl banners.