Rent-A-Protester

Being really stinking old (well NOT quite as old as my lovely wife) I have seen many things in my time stomping around this small blue green planet. Growing up I had plenty of opportunity to witness protests about various things.

In the 60's I lived in England (small drab island where it rains a lot) and I can remember people being incensed that the Trade Unions were Bussing protesters in from other parts of the country when some company or another went on strike, with the promise of free beer and sandwiches to join the picket line.

In the 70's the big social events were put on by the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), the protesters came from far and wide, although they were not paid, they knew that there would bee a plentiful supply of free recreational pharmaceuticals.

In the 80's I was freezing my nether regions off in the frozen tundra that is called Calgary (hell, I am back here again), and can remember the big 'beer strike', but there were no protesters. Canadians love their beer, and if some striking beer worker had been stood outside of a Government Liquor store waving a placard, they would have run the risk of some passing, 1/2 ton truck driving oil worker hurling an empty beer bottle at his head!

"Where is this all leading?", I hear you ask. Simon is long on scene setting hahaha

As some of you know I work at a Homeless Shelter. I was standing outside this morning at at the end of the driveway I could see a group of people holding banners up. I could only think that one of two things were about to happen. Some group was about to protest our existence, and there are several downtown organizations that have made it clear that they would much prefer that we relocate to the north pole. The second thought I had was it was some of our residents protesting about how hot the showers are, the quality of our library, or maybe even how good the coffee is in the Computer Centre.

I found out a couple of hours later that I was completely off mark with my ideas. Some guy from Vancouver wanted to protest about his treatment in Family Court about the visitation rights that he had been granted. His solution was to make up 20 placards, come to our location and offer people $10 if they would carry the placard down to the court building and hang out with him for a hour!