Litui.Net

Fortunately, my terrible Bushism is inaudible behind the soundtrack on this one. In any case, here it is thanks to Kempton Lam (as posted in his excellent event coverage):

I’m the one grinning maniacally in the preview image, and can be seen again at 4:30 into the video. I really need to work on my posture.

Edit: It appears we were also captured in a photo by Kempton Lam:

Saturday morning around 9AM, 3 of us arrived to the Annual Calgary Centre-North Stampede Breakfast in the Osteria de Medici parking lot in Kensington.  Our purpose: to join in a peaceful protest of Bill C-61.

On arrival, we saw a large turnout to the event itself and discovered a fair number of protesters standing at the corner on the other side of Kensington Road displaying signs and handing out fact sheets.  We joined in with our own signs and after some time, the group migrated to the lineup for the event itself, all the while remaining friendly and peaceful.

In line, there was opportunity to discuss the issues with other attendees.  Myself, I was handing slips to those who looked somewhat interested, and only speaking with those who asked me questions or addressed me first as I didn’t want to be a nuisance.  A few people spoke with me while in line:

1. This man was quite belligerent and demanded that I tell him what my solution was to “the problem”.  I told him I couldn’t answer without knowing what problem he was referring to, and he accused me of dodging his questions.  He claimed to be a writer, and he was wearing a Calgary G8 Summit shirt.  It was clear from the statements he made that he was: A) not familiar with the text of bill C-61,  B) fearful of lost profits on his work due to piracy,  C) unwilling to accept that perhaps our protest was not about piracy.  He eventually returned to his place in line and we spoke no further.
2. The second person I spoke with was a woman who approached and said she was against copyright.  When I inquired further, she stated, “It’s not right for people to be copyrighting things that belong to other people.”  She immediately left and went to the end of the line.
3. An elderly couple started making discussion with the two of us in line (our third was further up in line) and we discussed a number of points in the bill.  They stated that they had great respect for our activism though neither of them outright agreed.  They both seemed to believe, in spite of our numerous examples, that the bill would not affect them.  We were reminded (not for the last time) that we were lucky to have free speech (with the usual implication that in a free society we should be glad for what we have rather than complaining).  I responded that free speech is only useful when exercised.  We discussed format shifting, time shifting, and other related issues.
4. One gentleman was listening in as we talked with that couple.  He asked occasional questions for clarification, though he had already spoken with someone and received a fact sheet.

Once in the event itself, I enjoyed pancakes and sausages much to the chagrin of a few people who saw the action as hypocritical.  One exchange went as follows:

Man 1: “Look at you, protesting at Jim Prentice’s event while eating his pancakes.”

Me: “I’m just exercising my right to free speech and enjoying good pancakes.”

Man 2: “Just sucking off the teat.”

Me: “I pay taxes just like you.”

Similar statements were made by others.  It should be stated that our protest (or at least my presence there) was not against Mr. Prentice himself (though he has made it clear he doesn’t want to consult with the public or discuss the bill with the pubilc) or the Conservative Party, it was against Bill C-61.  Our presence at his party’s Stampede Breakfast was to raise awareness of the issue.  In that we succeeded if only by a small margin.  We did not act rowdy, we didn’t disrupt the event (which looked by the end to have been a great success), and we were not considered a threat by local authorities (who were present throughout).  We also brought food donations for the event charity.

Other discussions were had during the event:

1. One gentleman sat down with the three of us and asked us to explain why he should be concerned about Bill C-61.  We covered a number of points ranging from privacy, format-shifting, time-shifting, educational limitations, etc.  He was a logical person and a pleasure to talk to.  He left and thanked us for the information and I thanked him for his time.
2. Towards the end of the event there was a great conversation between the three of us (plus a new friend), and a gentleman whose name slips my mind who described himself as a volunteer heading up the conservative party members in Calgary (Edit: The gentleman’s name was David Higginbottom).  We discussed pretty much the whole run of problems with C-61 as on the info sheet and other places.  He stated that he agreed with us on many of our issues with the bill such as those relating to privacy and additional responsibility and cost placed on ordinarily law-abiding citizens.  He believed that Canada is one of the top countries in the world for piracy.  He asked what our solution to the problem of piracy was, and I stated that while I didn’t have one, Bill C-61 in its current form was not the answer.  I did, however, give it credit for encouraging open discussion about the issues and stated that open discussion and public consultation are necessary for us to come up with a bill that deals with piracy without undermining fair use and other common sense rights.

I’m hoping the video recording of the second discussion never surfaces because I made a terrible slip up in my speech that I’m still kicking myself for.  I did correct myself afterward, but it was not one of my brighter moments.  On the whole we held our end of the argument very well but my slip up feels almost like a Bushism.  I won’t elaborate, but if the video does surface I’ll probably have to go into hiding.

Edit (2008/07/22): I appear in the 6th photo down on this Macleans Blog post.

Read what Steve Jobs thinks about DRM on downloaded music.