Some Niagara Residents Go Out Of Their Way To Say ‘No’ To Bombing Syria

Some Niagara Residents Go Out Of Their Way To Say ‘No’ To Bombing Syria

A Niagara At Large News Brief by Doug Draper

A small but determined group of Niagara, Ontario residents took to the sidewalks in front of a Canadian cabinet minister’s Niagara Falls constituency office this August 31^st to say ‘no’ to a possible U.S.-led bombing of military-related targets in Syria.

Niagara, Ontario residents express their views on a military assault on Syria in front of Niagara Falls MP and Canadian Defense Minister Rob Nicholson’s constituency office.

The Niagara residents picketing in front of the office of Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson, who was appointed by his Conservative government this summer to serve as Canada’s minister of defense, was one of many such demonstrations held in front of federal politicians’ offices across the country in recent days.

Of course, Nicholson was nowhere to be seen which is almost always the way with demonstrations in front of a constituency office of any MP or MPP, regardless of their political stripes, when it comes to a heated issue.

And indeed, by the time you read this post, the bombing may already have started. Or maybe not. Since this August 29, when U.S. President Barack Obama and his secretary of state John Kerry, sent out strong signals that a military spanking was in order for the recent horrific nerve gas assault by the Syrian Assad regime on thousands of its own citizens, a number of governments in Great Britain, France and elsewhere and a number of people, including many in the United States, have expressed opposition to military action as an answer to Assad’s brutality.

Canada’s Harper government has been rather foggy on the whole matter, saying on the one hand that it supports the U.S. and any other western ally that may take military action against Syria, but that it so far plans not to engage Canadian forces in such an action. Unlike Great Britain’s parliament which held a special session on the matter late this August, we won’t be hearing from Canada’s prorogued parliament until it is back in session in October.

In the meantime, some Canadian citizens have taken to the streets to express their views and Dylan Powell, one of the Niagara residents who demonstrated in front of Nicholson’s office, shared these comments.

“As Nicholson was recently shuffled into this Minister of Defense position,” Powell said, “we think it is extremely important to educate the community about this role, and also to directly hold him to account as a decision maker. Anyone in the Niagara Region and beyond, with a stake in opposing violence, should familiarize themselves with Rob Nicholson and this post.”

Meanwhile, back in the U.S.A., Obama has more recently said he will attempt to seek his country’s Congress for approvals to fire off missiles at Syrian military targets. This after days of bellicose rhetoric suggesting he was prepared to pull the trigger unilaterally.

This is turning out to be typical Obama, whether you agree with his wanting to give the Syrian regime a shock and awe spanking or not. He has taken on an all-to-regular pattern of delivering a tough speech on such issues as the need for more responsible gun ownership laws or, more recently in a talk he gave in Buffalo, New York, making college and university more affordable for young people, then he turns around and does little or nothing.

Just for the record, I was foolish enough to cross the border in 2008 and again in 2012 and show my support, as a Canadian neighbour, for Obama’s election and recent election. In recent days, I have taken my Obama campaign buttons and bumper stickers and placed them in a cardboard box, one throw away from the garbage.

Finally, there is this story from The Ottawa Citizen about a couple of Canadian citizens demonstrating their opposition to bombing Syria on a public sidewalk in front of a government building. They were approached by an individual claiming to be an RCMP officer who also claimed they needed a permit to be doing what they were doing where they are and he had the audacity to do what professional police officers on the job are not allowed to do – engage in a political debate with them. As it turns out, the self-described RCMP officer was both out of line and working outside his jurisdiction (such permits are issued and enforced by the city) on all counts.

I might add that this individual, whether he was really an RCMP officer or not, should be reminded that many Syrian people are fighting and losing their lives for democratic freedoms he seemed so willing to intimidate these Canadians out of expressing on public property in our nation’s capital.

Here is a link to that Ottawa Citizen story – http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Women+told+they+need+permit+their+sign/8855127/story.html .

(JUST A REMINDER that Niagara At Large will not be officially re-launched until September 9^th following the cleanup of severe flooding damage to our home-base office this summer. However, you can still share your comments below on this post, just so long as you also share your real first and last name with your views.)