Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty got a rude welcome in his hometown yesterday from a group of about 10 protesters who attempted to crash his lunchtime speech to the Canadian Club at the Chateau Laurier.
“We waited until he was speaking,” said Dan Sawyer, of the Ottawa anti-poverty group Under Pressure.
“We wanted to make sure he was in the room and would be able to hear the message we were there to deliver.”
That message, he said, is that the government should do more to protect workers’ rights, restore social assistance rates to their early-’90s levels and make post-secondary education more affordable.
In his speech, McGuinty mentioned his government’s new 30 per cent tuition rebate for college and university students, a measure Sawyer dismissed.
“The vast majority of students in Ontario are not eligible for that rebate,” Sawyer said.
“And he’s doing that while he’s also cutting funding to other elements of post-secondary education like grad funding.”
The protesters chanted, threw confetti and banged on the doors of the ballroom in which McGuinty spoke for about 15 minutes, but they never got into the room.
“We raised a bit of a ruckus and then we left,” Sawyer said.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
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