Montreal megacity municipal workers are stifling political expression in Cote St. Luc by cutting down hundreds of blue ribbons that volunteers put up to promote their campaign for demerger:
In what may be a prelude to a complaint-riddled referendum campaign, demerger activists are accusing the Côte St. Luc/Hampstead/Montreal West borough of stifling freedom of expression after municipal workers yesterday cut down hundreds of blue ribbons that a Côte St. Luc demerger committee had posted on poles and trees.
Borough officials say employees simply went overboard in their spring cleaning yesterday.
Spring cleaning? Hah! I’ll believe that when the streets and parks don’t look like overflowing trash cans.
In the meantime, Robert Libman just lost yet another in a long list of respect notches in my book:
Housefather’s colleagues – borough mayor Robert Libman and city councillor Dida Berku – denied ordering any ribbons to be cut down. Libman added that he doubted ribbons were removed from private property.
Libman accused Housefather of deliberately plastering ribbons to provoke their removal and “to make a big political scandal out of this.”
So, wait, he didn’t remove them but they were plastered in order to provoke their removal? Which is it, Libman? Did you order them removed or not? And did it ever occur to you that they were put up, not to provoke removal, but to encourage citizen response?
The profusion of ribbons in Côte St. Luc “really goes beyond what I think is sophisticated or legitimate political expression,” Libman said.
In other words, it threatens your cushy job?