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June 7, 2011

Canadian Activist Loses Senate Page Position Over Unprecedented Protest 
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In Canada, a Senate page has lost her job after staging a controversial
demonstration on the floor of the governing body. Brigette De Pape, 21,
staged an unprecedented protest by walking onto the Senate floor Friday
carrying a sign that read, “Stop Harper,” referencing Prime Minister
Stephen Harper. Following her removal from her job, De Pape called for a
Canadian version of the Arab Spring movement that has swept through the
Middle East and North Africa.

Brigette De Pape: "I think that it's defeatist to say that ‘Oh, we
have a Harper majority and we’ll let them do as much as they can for
the next four years.’ Frankly, we need to act now. We need to stop the
conservative agenda. Three quarters of Canadians disagree with the
Harper agenda. Conservative values are not Canadian values. And so we
need to take to the streets now."

Following her loss of employment, De Pape was offered a job by
documentary filmmaker Michael Moore who praised her act of civil
disobedience as an “iconic moment.”



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