'Your papers, please…' Apparently independent media reporters need the permission of the state-funded Media Party to report from the LAWNS of Queen’s Park

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On Tuesday, we visited Queen’s Park to report on how the Doug Ford PC government bent the knee to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Education workers had gone on an illegal strike last Friday, once again shutting down schools.

The Ford PCs responded by invoking the notwithstanding clause to get these workers back to work. But in the space of 72 hours, Premier Ford went from invoking the spirit of Ronald Reagan circa 1981 (re: air traffic controllers strike) to becoming a nebbish a la SCTV character Sid Dithers. He bent the knee to CUPE and withdrew the notwithstanding clause last Monday. Once again, this premier has proven himself to be less of a protector of taxpayers and more of a clawless pussycat, being led around by the nose by militant unionists and puppet masters behind the scenes. Surely the late, great Rob Ford is turning in his grave right now…

But a bizarre sidebar story occurred while we were reporting the news. We were approached by a Queen’s Park security guard and rudely interrupted. He began to harass us for reporting at Queen’s Park without being a member of the Queen’s Park Press Gallery. Something very important to keep in mind here: we were not INSIDE the legislature; we were OUTSIDE on the south lawn of Queen’s Park.

Queen’s Park is literally the provincial town square. It is where people assemble – including about 2,000 CUPE members last Friday who were ILLEGALLY striking. Including a cabal of communists who had set up a tent on the lawn to peddle Marxist propaganda. Apparently, that sort of activity receives the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from Queen’s Park security – but not members of the independent press minding their own business and filing a news report. Unbelievable.

So it was that the officer in question, an individual who would give Dudley Doright a run for his money in the department of ineptitude – checked out my identification and then said he was going to check with the Queen’s Park Press Gallery – a.k.a., Justin Trudeau’s state-funded stenographers – to see if our presence on the lawn would be tolerated. I am not making this up.

The Stasi-wannabe, after presumably conferring with Global News’s resident midget, Colin D’Mello, returned to lay down the ground rules. Namely, we could not go into the legislature (we had no plans to.) We could not block any entrances (we had no plans to – and why would we do that anyway?) We had to remain on the grass, not the asphalt, given this was a live lane of traffic (no, it was a closed parking lot with not so much as a golf cart in transit.) Nevertheless, we obeyed that final mandate by taking one pace southbound to ensure we were on the grass and not on asphalt that the officer had apparently mistaken for a NASCAR racetrack.

In the final analysis, I don’t feel rage regarding the egregious treatment we received; rather, I feel embarrassment for that pseudo police officer, a Karen with a badge who has provided yet more proof that Canada is increasingly resembling a police state.