Learn from the Harper security team: don’t underestimate busboys.
This was exactly what allowed for an alarmingly close encounter between two environmental protesters and Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday, January 6.
Harper was in town for a Q&A with the Vancouver Board of Trade at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel; as soon as he had gotten comfortable in his chair awaiting his introduction, two protesters, Sean Devlin and Shireen Soofi, calmly walked on the stage dressed as wait staff. They held up signs, one reading “Climate Justice Now,” and the other with the phrase “Conservatives Take Climate Change Seriously” crossed out with a thick black line.
The prime minister’s security acted quickly removing the two from the stage; Devlin fell down the short set of stairs and was briskly ushered to the kitchen. Witty Stephen Harper then chirped, “It wouldn’t be BC without it!” The two protesters were arrested, and have been released without charges.
In a CBC interview, Devlin said, “People are shocked that a citizen can access one of their leaders,” and brushed off any security concerns by adding, “I wasn’t there to hurt the prime minister.” Well, we know that now.
All of this has raised concerns about the adequacy of security around our country’s leader. The solution to this particular incident would not be hiring more security for Harper, but rather improving the work being done by his existing team.
The $20 million spent on Harper’s security is double what it was in 2006, yet a situation such as this can occur? The individual efforts at every smaller press conference and meeting need to be improved. In this case, the hotel wait staff were not screened, showing the security’s naively trusting assumption that outside visitors are the only threats.
Security was a little too relaxed for a situation in which the prime minister is in a crowded room -— screening everyone in the room is absolutely necessary. This close encounter with the PM could have been worse or even deadly because of such leniency.
If our prime minister simply hires excessive amounts of security, he is only a law-making figure rather than a representative that listens to the people, reflective of Delvin’s comment that “this government is really closing itself off.”
A happy middle ground needs to be found in the PM’s security, one in which he can interact with the public and be protected from sudden violence.
Yet, considering that Harper’s $20 million security still has some wrinkles, we as Canadians should be thankful for the predominantly safe country we live in that allows for security slips that don’t end in disaster.
