Someone in the prime ministerâs security detail likely will face âvery difficult questionsâ after two protesters got within reach of Stephen Harper at an event in Vancouver, a former RCMP officer tasked with protecting dignitaries said Monday.
âYes, someoneâs in trouble,â Larry Busch of Strategic Security Inc. told CTVâs Power Play. âSomeone will be on the carpet answering some very difficult questions.â
Busch, who was the RCMP officer in charge of providing security for the prime minister and visiting dignitaries in Ontario, said bodyguards should have acted âmuch earlierâ to prevent the protesters from getting on stage behind Harper at the Vancouver Board of Trade on Monday.
As Harper was about to begin a question-and-answer session on energy and economic issues, two protesters stood behind him and held up signs that read âClimate Justice Nowâ and âThe Conservatives take climate change seriouslyâ with a line crossing out the phrase.
The protesters were dressed all in black and wore black aprons. Busch said it appeared that they were dressed as catering staff.
Security quietly removed both protesters without incident as Harper and board president Iain Black remained in their chairs on stage. Before they carried on with their agenda, Harper joked that âIt wouldnât be B.C.â without a protest.
Vancouver Police said after the incident that two people were arrested and quickly released. Police have yet to determine what, if any, charges will be laid.
âWe will be working with the protection detail and the RCMP officers at the event today to determine if charges are going to be laid in this case,â Sgt. Randy Fincham told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝. âItâs too early to tell.â
Fincham said Vancouver Police were responsible for security outside the venue, while Harperâs personal security detail was responsible for his safety.
Busch said that while there will be âserious questionsâ for senior RCMP officers responsible for Harperâs security, the prime ministerâs bodyguards are the âlast line of defence.â
Jason MacDonald, the prime ministerâs director of communications, said in an email that the PMO does not comment on security-related matters.
The group that organized the protest issued a press release moments after the incident to say the protesters âmanaged to make their way past police undetected and into the secured Vancouver Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel,â and to denounce the governmentâs environmental record.
âThe latter (protest sign) was a condemnation of the Harper Governmentâs failing climate policies and a reference to the recent revelation that Conservative minister of the Environment removed a comment about taking climate change seriously from a speech, despite being recommended by Environment Canada,â the statement read.
The release linked to a PostMedia News report last month that said Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq âset asideâ a proposal from staffers that she publicly acknowledge scientific evidence that humans are âmostly responsible for climate change.â
The release was signed by Brigette DePape, a Senate page who was fired two years ago for disrupting the governmentâs throne speech by holding up a âStop Harperâ sign as Gov.-Gen. David Johnston read.
Anjali Appadurai, one of the protestâs organizers, told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel Monday afternoon that hundreds more protesters were outside the hotel in a show of âpublic opposition to the prime ministerâs climate policies.â
âWhen he says it wouldnât be B.C. without it, heâs really speaking to the public unrest there is around these pipelines,â Appadurai said in an interview from Vancouver. âThereâs mass public opposition.â
Appadurai later told Power Play that it was âeasyâ for the two protesters to get close to Harper.
âIt was the right time in the right place and the representatives who were up there just looked the part and it was quite easy for them ⌠to get on the stage and get that audience,â she said.
Harper: Canada must 'diversify' energy markets
Once the session got underway, Harper touched on a number of topics but spent time explaining the need for Canada to expand resource development and diversify its energy markets, but vowed all projects would only be approved âif they meet the highest standards of environmental protection.â
The current standard of exporting 99 per cent of Canadaâs energy to the United States âis not really in our interest,â Harper said, and reiterated the governmentâs desire to expand energy markets in Asia.
âIn an era where thereâs energy demand all over the world, and the energy industry has been the engine of much of Canadaâs economic growth and at a time when American demand for energy will fall in the near term, without a doubt itâs in the countryâs interest to diversify our markets,â the prime minister said.
Harper would not speak specifically about the Northern Gateway pipeline project, which a National Energy Board panel recommended go ahead, but with more than 200 conditions, in a report released last month.
However, he said the government will follow the review process âand will take appropriate decisionsâ by following âthe best scientific and expert advice available to us.â
âWe want to make sure that these kinds of projects are not just economically viable and give us lots of economic prosperity, we want to make sure that they are environmentally safe,â Harper said. He added that environmental safeguards will include ensuring there are âadequateâ response mechanisms to spills and other potential disasters.
The project approval process will also include taking the appropriate steps for negotiating with First Nations communities on treaty rights and other issues, he said. However, âI would hope that in the longer term, the lens we can look through this by is really the one of economic opportunity.
âWe have for the first time in Canadian history the prospect of significant economic development, resource developmentâŚin regions where aboriginal people are often the dominant populations and where there have been no similar large-scale economic opportunities,â Harper said.
âIf handled correctly, this is an unprecedented opportunity for aboriginal people and their communities to join the mainstream of the Canadian economy, without which we wonât make progress on all of the other things, the social issues, that we need to make progress on in those communities.â
He said the federal government will make the necessary investments in skills training and business development that will âultimately develop the kind of both human and physical capital that will allow for people to participate in similar projects across the country.â
Meanwhile, on the recently concluded free trade deal with the European Union, Harper said his hope is the agreement âis the beginning of even bigger things to come.
âBut it was the essential step,â he said. âEssentially breaking out of a trade pattern that was just North America-focused was really critical for this country.â