It's disheartening to hear of people barred

Letter by Wayne McKay
Cape Breton Post
Wed. Jan. 31, 2007

I was disheartened to hear that a small group of protesters weren't permitted to attend the tar ponds announcement at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre on Sunday. We live in a democracy where people have the right to protest and assemble peacefully.

The protesters who weren't allowed into the meeting had in no way done anything wrong. In fact, these protesters were among those who took charge in the community's battle against incineration and their charter rights were violated when they weren't permitted into this public meeting.

Whoever is responsible for this violation of rights should be held accountable. Let's hope this sort of thing doesn't happen again in our community. Otherwise, our democracy and rights will quickly erode and become meaningless.

Wayne McKay
Sydney


Editors note: The three people barred from the news conference had held a demonstration earlier at some distance from the building but say they did not try to enter the event itself with the intent of staging a protest.