And They Call it "Democracy"

Excluded Candidate ARRESTED at Corporate Media Sponsored "All
Candidates Debate" - The Sad Truth about "Democracy"
in BC

May 3/05
Ingmar Lee

I was arrested today for crashing the Victoria Chamber of Commerce 'All-Candidates' meeting at the Ocean Pointe Delta Hotel. I am an Independent candidate in the provincial election, running for MLA in Victoria Beacon Hill. All-Candidates meetings are one of the essential facets of an open, inclusive and fair democratic process. They are conducted so that the general public can meet and hear the candidates and decide how to vote. I've been working hard to get my message out, but now for my troubles, I've been arrested and charged with with 'creating a disturbance.'

Last week, when I learned that the Victoria Chamber of Commerce was going to host an All-Candidates Luncheon meeting, I immediately went to the VCoC office where I met with the meeting organizer, Steven Seltzer and asked to be included in the debate. Seltzer refused my request outright and explained that CHTV, which was providing live television coverage of the event, had dictated to the Chamber that only the 3 'mainstream' parties would be permitted. He suggested that if I wished to attend the meeting it would cost me $50.00, "but I had better hurry up because there would be limited seating."

Well, I don't like the idea that CHTV and the CanWest Media empire is conducting exclusive, sanitized, staged and outrageously expensive so-called "public events" before their cameras. The job of mass-media during the "Peoples Democratic Process" is to stand back objectively and cover the issues being discussed. Perhaps restricting debate to a select few mainstream parties might insulate the 79 Gordon Campbell's from having to answer hard questions from the people of BC, but such restrictions only promote apathy and antipathy for our political process.

So I jumped on my campaign bicycle and pedalled down to the Ocean Pointe to see what could be done. Outside the hotel I ran into another Beacon Hill Independent candidate, Ben McConachie, who was also upset that he had been excluded from the meeting. Rather than hang around McConachie's Mock debate table which he had set up outside the hotel door, and which was being ignored by the Victoria media who were arriving en masse, I figured I'd be better off getting into the meeting.

Although I was decked out in full campaign uniform, (as opposed to the Value Village suit) with my "Weyerhaeuser GO HOME (and take your buddy)" tee-shirt featuring the Campbell mugshot prominently displayed on the front, with large yellow on black "BC FOREST CRIMES UNIT" printed on the back, I was able to walk right past security and into the Ballroom where I went straight to an empty seat directly under the podium. Looking around, I was surprised to see that the Victoria Chamber of Commerce had only been able to attract about 50 people to the debates!! The dignitaries were ranged around 10 tables spread with white table cloths, and they were now digesting their opulent Luncheon which had preceeded the event. The corporate media, however, was there in full force. Banks of TV cameras were strategically located to present the best possible perspective which would make viewers believe that this was a big event.

I began handing my campaign brochures around as the 'Chosen Ones' headed for the stage. My brochures feature the Gordon Campbell mug-shot and remind people to vote for sober leadership on May 17th. (Of course I have other things to say in my campaign beyond the fact that our Premier has embarrased all British Columbians with his drunken criminal escapades abroad, but this outrageous offence warrants a lot more scrutiny and the issue is part of my platform.) Immediately, one of the Chamber officials was poking me and asking if I had registered and paid for the $50.00 event, "and would I mind stepping outside to discuss it." I stated that I had come to participate in the "All-Candidates" debate and I wasn't budging, nor was I paying.

As CHTV News reporter Murray Langdon began introducing the candidates, I was approached by succesively more important looking officials from the Hotel until the manager himself arrived, who informed me that the police were now on their way. By this time, Sheila Orr, (Liberal,) Steve Filipovic, (Green) and Rob Fleming, (NDP) had all made their opening remarks before the cameras, so I decided that it was now or never. They would wait for the intermission to drag me out, so I walked up to the podium and asked Orr how it was that the BC Liberals were fielding convicted criminals in their slate. I held up Campbell Mug-shot images for the live cameras.

I was immediately seized and tackled by Ocean Pointe security right in front of the stage, who then began dragging me out of the room by my feet. I clutched onto a table leg as I was going by and didn't let go until the cops arrived about 10 minutes later. A whole table cloth of glasses and cutlery was crashed to the floor. Miraculously, a phalanx of cameras and news-people suddenly seemed to notice the ruckus and finally, I got to say my piece before the cameras, albeit with Ocean Pointe security pinning me to the floor and kneeing me in the kidneys. No doubt, senior editors will try their level best to patch me out of whatever footage which is played and will condemn my bad attitude. But really, folks, for all the lip-service about our wonderful freedoms to participate in the democratic process, to raise issues beyond the status-quo mass-growth, expansion and consumption of the capitalist scheme, this is what people have to resort to if they will not be ignored.

Look, I've already been to several all-candidates meetings in this campaign, one organized by the Victoria Seniors Association, and another by Victoria's Social Workers, and if you ask the organizers, my fellow candidates, as well as audience members, they will tell you that I am polite, well dressed and friendly, and that I have a peaceful, credible and important message to present in this campaign. Of course, neither Murray Langdon, nor Victoria's Gordon Campbell's bothered to show up. At those meetings, and at All-Candidates meeting across the province, the Gordon Campbell Liberals are not bothering to show up to meet the public. "Bubble Boy" Campbell and the rest of his "BC Liberals" have apparently been instructed not to participate in any open public discourse.

Sincerely, Ingmar Lee

Here are my qualifications:

~ elected student rep. UVic Board of Governors 2002-2003
~ elected Director BC Green Party Provincial Council 2001-2003 (since disillusioned and quit)
~ 2001 BC election Provincial Organizer BC Green Party responsible for identifying, vetting 79 candidates
~ graduate 2005, UVic Asian and Environmental Studies Joint Major BA
~ 21 years BC Forest Industry silviculture worker -planted more than 1,000,000 trees in all 14 BC biogeoclimatic zones I know what's going on in BC's Forests!
~ 7 years Gabriola Island Volunteer Fire Department -attained rank of Lieutenant