Stephen Harper Hates You?

 Ham-handed, that's what it is.  And definitely, defiantly, un-Democratic.  That the RCMP took it upon themselves, under the umbrella of providing security to the Prime Minister, to put a stop to the banner-waving overflight of Canada's capital city of a plane its pilot was hired by the Public Service Alliance of Canada to hoist over Ottawa's hot air.

The banner, the legend that people on the ground would twist their heads to make legible and read to either mirth or madness....  How does "Stephen-HarperNoisDeteste.ca" (Sephen Harper hates us) sound?  Well, Gian Piero Ciambella, who hires out as a pilot for such purposes is outraged, and he's calling foul.  And he's right, isn't he?

Canada is not, after all, Russia or China.  Nor is the RCMP quite yet the modern equivalent of the old USSR's KGB.  He was ordered, however, to land his Piper Supercub after he'd flown aloft for an hour-and-a-half, notified that two RCMP officers were awaiting his arrival at the Ottawa-Rockcliffe airport for questioning.  That's the kind of notice that might make anyone nervous.

"They flexed their muscles to bring me down.  I'm advertising a website, I have nothing against the prime minister. I'm doing my job", he complained.  He had checked with air traffic control to make certain he was outside he capital's restricted zones, and at no time did he penetrate the restricted area above Parliament Hill.

This constitutes harassment.  No doubt about it.  The RCMP behaved in an officious manner, one they are not really entitled to, even in the pursuit of their duty to protect the prime minister.  Since, at no time could this plane and its message be construed as constituting a threat to the prime minister, although it could certainly be said to be offensive in nature.

Which brings us to the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which was responsible for the banner, for hiring the pilot at a hefty fee of $1000 per hour and whose purpose is to both embarrass the prime minister and to use their union muscle among their members to ensure that there's a hate-on for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

That, now, is the real offence.  That a public service union would set out to create a schism between the political party they love to loathe, and the man who leads the party and just coincidentally leads the country, having been given a mandate by enough of a proportion of the voting public to do so.

"We don't see criticism of the prime minister as being hate speech, we see it as being freedom of speech.  What kind of country are we coming to if we cannot openly criticize the prime minister without the security forces taking someone aside for interrogations?" an outraged executive vice-president of PSAC's national capital region spouted.

He's right; the RCMP over-reacted.  He's wrong, it is hate speech, isn't that very word located prominently in the message?  And he's doubly wrong in representing a public service union that seeks to promote ill will between the employees of the public and the prime minister who serves that public.

 PSAC would do well to go soak its collective head.