A Tale of Two Protestors
Posted on | December 1, 2004 |
It’s amazing how two people can observe the same event and come away with entirely different feelings about what they saw. Such was the case with President Bush’s two-day visit to Canada. Enter Paul Middleton, one of the anti-Bush protestors who wanted to make his feelings known.
“It doesn’t matter if the war-mongering bastard Bush isn’t here to hear us,” says Paul Middleton, a 35-year old pharmacist from Toronto. “What matters is that all these people showed up anyway and we’ll be in the papers and the news so that Bush’s regime will know that Canadians don’t kiss American ass. Just from Toronto, alone, 20 buses came here for this.”
My word! Were there really 20 buses? You guys rock! Glad to see your little protest was such a huge success. But what does the war (which brought to justice the Butcher of Baghdad) have to do with American ass kissing? Is this what it’s all about? We’re not gonna follow in your shadow no more. We’re tired of being second fiddle. Even though you are toppling a brutal dictator and freeing millions of people in the process we’re not gonna play along just cuz. You ain’t tellin us what to do no more.
Ahem, enough of the lefty inferiority complex. Now, let us introduce you to one John Al-Hassani, an Iraqi-Canadian.
John Al-Hassani is Canadian, too. He’s 48. He drove to Ottawa from Oshawa where he’s an engineer. He stands on the fringe. His sign says: “Support President Bush.”"I came to this country from Iraq,” he shouts in staccato bursts. “I have family there. I talk to them all the time. Look at these fools. They have no idea. They are idiots. They are simple babies. The majority of Iraqis are glad Bush liberated them from Saddam Hussein. But, you don’t see that on TV, only the terrorist gangsters blowing people up. They don’t speak for the people of Iraq.
“My country suffered under that madman. There was no freedom. He tortured and killed our people. Even Prime Minister Martin said the other day that the United Nations should change its policy, that democratic countries should have the right to invade countries with dictators who do genocide and torture their people.
“These people here have never suffered. They make me sick. You are a reporter. You should ignore them or you are a fool too. If Canada was a terrible dictatorship like Iraq was under Saddam, would these people tell Bush no, no, don’t invade, we don’t want you to give us freedom?”
Therein lies the difference. These people have never suffered. Probably none have ever been to Iraq. Probably none have ever lived under the iron fist of a Saddam Hussein. Until they do, the only people around here with any credibility are the John Al-Hassanis.
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