A protestor holds a sign during an event with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Vancouver Board of Trade on Monday Jan. 6, 2013. (Jonathan Hayward / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
from Huffington Post
Climate change activists successfully snuck up behind Stephen Harper at a Vancouver event on Monday in an apparent security breach.
But it may have been the prime minister who had the last laugh.
“It wouldn’t be B.C. without it,” Harper said to chuckles and applause as the protesters were escorted off the stage just before a question and answer session with Iain Black at the Vancouver Board of Trade.
CTV News caught footage of a male protester, holding a sign that read “Climate Justice Now,” managing to get himself very close to the prime minister.
A second activist was also on stage, briefly, and, according to CBC News, her sign read “The Conservatives take climate change seriously,” with the words crossed out.
Both were briskly escorted away from Harper and out of the room without a confrontation.
A press release from Brigette DePape, who famously protested Harper during the 2011 Throne Speech, was issued moments after the incident, CBC News reports.
“This morning two people directly intervened in a high security question and answer session with Prime Minister Stephen Harper regarding Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline,” the release said.
“The group managed to make their way past police undetected and into the secured Vancouver Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel.”
The prime minister is on swing through Western Canada this week where it is expected he will reiterate his support for the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and highlight the recently signed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union.
More to come..