Stampeding activists; Protestors crash Premier's party

Fast Forward Weekly Thu 12 Jul 2007 Page: 4 Section: News Byline: Amy Steele Source: Fast Forward

Activist Lily Phan says she was trying to raise awareness about the housing crisis and the environmental damage caused by oilsands development when she attempted to pie Premier Ed Stelmach at his pancake breakfast on Monday, July 9. Her stunt attracted national media attention.

"Basically the Stampede is a time of celebrating our heritage. But I also felt that we're ignoring the reality of a lot of Albertans and Calgarians so we can put a good face on for tourists. What are we celebrating really? Why aren't we focusing on the more basic needs that are pressing in our province? Obviously there's a housing crisis, which the premier has shown abysmal leadership on.... And if we go full-speed ahead with the tar sands is this development we're raping and pillaging the land without benefit for future generations," she says.

The pie hit a sheriff instead of Stelmach and Stelmach's security staff arrested Phan. She was later charged with mischief and assaulting a peace officer.

The Calgary Police Service issued a media release that said it was committed to upholding freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, but it has to ensure public safety.

"The Service respects an individual's right to express views peacefully as long as they do not disrupt public order, engage in violent or disruptive activities (and) breach laws," said the media release. Phan says the charges were excessive.

"Pieing is a modern tradition of ...enforcing accountability onto our politicians," she says. "I think people would rather be hit in the face with a banana cream pie than be homeless on the street in our booming society."

Various other activists, including members of the Calgary Housing Action Initiative (CHAI) and the Raging Grannies, also protested at Stelmach's pancake breakfast. One protestor in a batman costume, who called himself No-Tar Man, lambasted the premier for the environmental destruction caused by the oilsands. Meanwhile, just across the street, a homeless person slept under a pink blanket.

Protestor Nell Thurlow showed up at the breakfast because of her personal experience with the housing crisis. She's had to stay at the Calgary Drop-In Centre twice because she couldn't find an affordable place to live. She says when she did find an affordable rental unit it was infested with cockroaches, and when she brought it up with her landlord he told her she was "overreacting." She currently rents a room for $515 and has to share a bathroom.

"There isn't affordable housing for people. This is a very wealthy city," says Thurlow.

Thurlow says many people are in trouble because they face astronomical rent increases. She questions why Stelmach didn't agree to implement rent controls, which exist in Toronto.

"It's necessary because people in power aren't living up to their moral responsibility (to build affordable housing). Housing is a right, not a privilege," she says.

Thurlow says without low-income workers the economy wouldn't be booming the way it currently is.

"The workers build the wealth and we don't even have housing. It's an appalling contradiction," she says.

Peggy Askin, president of the Calgary District Labour Council, was also at the protest, and she says the housing situation in Calgary is a "crisis and a crime."

"People are going back to the province they came from because they can't afford to live here," she says.

David Wilson, a member of CHAI, points to a recent study by researcher Gordon Laird that found that housing the homeless costs society less than leaving them on the street.

"For a fiscally conservative province, why aren't we doing anything?" he asks.

Grant Neufeld, another member of CHAI, agrees that the provincial government is failing.

"We need to find some way to get the government to start acknowledging reality... or get the public onside to change the government," says Neufeld. "(The housing situation) is diminishing the quality of life in the province and threatening long-term economic growth. It's a disaster. If we had a bunch of tornadoes coming through people would recognize it as a disaster. With this people are saying, 'It's a disaster but so what.'"