April 7, 2003
Apolitical. That’s the word organizers used in descriptions of Friday’s Friends of America Toronto rally.
Sounding noble in the newspaper ads run in advance of the rally, organizers talked about a forum for the Canadian Silent Majority. By the day of the rally, organizers were making it oh so clear that they were neither for nor against the war in Iraq.
Sounds awfully, well Liberal, to CandaFreePress.com.
To our way of thinking, Liberals stand for everything. Therefore they really stand for nothing.
Unbeknownst to the little people who came out by the thousands, big Liberals, of the ilk of Senator Jerry Grafstein had a hand in organizing and were publicly thanked on stage for supporting the rally.
In Canada, the tentacles of the Liberal Government in Ottawa are long and insidious.
Many people CFP staff met at the rally registered surprise and disappointment. They liked the recorded sounds of Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York. Some swept away a stray tear hearing the words of a recorded rendition of God Bless America. Stinging sleet and cold winds could not stop the throngs from joining with Michael Burgess in renditions of first, the American anthem, and then the Canadian one. They had braved, in numbers large enough to fill the square at Toronto City Hall, the fierce winter-like April weather to be there.
Prominent Canadians had been promised as speakers in advance newspaper ads.
But on the day of the event when the chosen speakers began to line up at the microphone, rally attendees were first surprised and then angry.
Liberal MPs Dennis Mills and Albina Guarnieri? Why, they are the same members of a political party who condoned and still, by lack of apology, condone the hurting words, "I hate those American bastards."
Like CFP, people on the square said they never would have come if they had truly understood the rally was not about taking a stand.
At least the words of the Liberal MPs were drowned out and even the admonishing of the beloved Toronto Argonauts coach and former star player Pinball Clemons could not quell the booing of the crowd. Mills, who never really got a chance to speak, was roundly booed off the stage. When Guarnieri, being booed, began to wax strident, some people shouted out "Get her off," and a couple of people began to toss snowballs her way.
Discouraged, the throngs started to break up.
Earlier when Ontario Premier Ernie Eves and Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper spoke, they registered polite and even warm applause. But the real crowd pleaser of the day was a young Ryerson journalism student. Erica Basnicki, who was on the stage with her mother and brother, lost her father Ken at the World Trade Centre on 9/11.
"My dad is not here in body," she said, "but he’s here in spirit. And knowing my dad, if he could send a message to the people of the United States today, he would say ‘Thank you for looking after my family for me."
Erica was the main crowd pleaser because she did not equivocate. She did not preface her remarks by claiming apolitical status, nor did she say she was neither for nor against the war in Iraq. Erica did not, like some of the politicians in attendance, come to pay lip service. Erica spoke out in a ringing voice on a topic of substance.
There was plenty of heart among the throngs, but none at all in the tone set by rally organizers.
"We have heard from the protestors, the critics and our Government in Ottawa. Now is the time for the silent majority of Canadians to speak up to show that we love, respect and support our American friends," were the words of a Friends of America advertisement in the National Post. "This will be a peaceful rally without any party, political, religious or corporate affiliations."
In last Monday’s cover story supporting the Friday rally, CFP wrote, "Its (the rally’s) theme is as positive and hopeful as the yellow ribbons now tied around trees in many small-town American towns and cities. This is the long-awaited rally that gives average Canadians something to believe in."
Our cover story was picked up and run on the Friends of America website last Wednesday.
But CFP was wrong. The long-awaited rally did not give average Canadians something to believe in. Our sincerest apologies for any that came out to the rally only to have their hopes dashed.
The rally gave us an apolitical forum in which Liberals were invited to speak. It gave us a rally that was neither for or against the war in Iraq, a rally that did not take any stand. The Friends of America rally was only a rally of half measures as devised by its key organizers.
Problem is, the young American and coalition soldiers risking their lives in Iraq for our peace and freedom are not protecting us with half measures.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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