Page Rage

A Parliamentary page, a recent graduate of one of Canada's finest institutions of highest learning, has had her career in the House of Commons cut short--on purpose. The NatPo's Kelly McParland has the story of this new supernova in the leftoid pantheon:

A new star, it would appear, has appeared in the firmament of Canadian political activism. Brigette DePape, just 21 and cute as a button, has arrived.

Ms. DePape is the young lady who smuggled a sign into the throne speech reading “Stop Harper.” It livened up an otherwise dull ceremony, got her picture in all the papers and got her fired from her job.

No matter about the job — the point was to ensure the world was aware of Ms. DePape’s political views, and that mission was accomplished big time. It was a master stroke of activist stuntery, in one fell swoop taking an unheralded university student from the humdrum halls of obscurity to the front page of the Toronto Star. Somewhere, Naomi Klein is hearing footsteps.

What next for Ms. DePape? Bungee-jumping from the CN Tower in support of more bike lanes? Careening from floe to floe as she personally rescues baby seals? Single-handedly storming the shores of Gaza carrying bullets foodstuffs for the freedom fighters of Hamas? Anything is possible when you’re young, opinionated and inventive.

Ms. DePape is a recent graduate of the University of Ottawa, that bastion of free speech, where they shout down speakers who hold views they don’t like. She took classes in “international development and globalization,” where they teach you about the West’s cruel failure to adequately support less fortunate nations while plotting ways to exploit their labour. Fair trade coffee is free at the door.

They must not have reached the part of the course where they learn about democracy...

Democracy? Don't they teach that that's a vestige of the white man's colonial/imperial inheritance, an anachronism that's being superseded by all that wonderful UN-style internationalism?

I predict great things for the "edgy, transgressive" DePape. Perhaps a reality show about her career in politics (with Jack Layton's NDP, natch). Barring that, she'd be a perfect stand-up comic--or head of Canada's "human rights" racket. (Move over, Jennifer Lynch,  Brigette is on the rise.)

Update: And speaking of edgy, transgressive learning of another sort, the Daily Mail reports that 40 UK universities are now breeding grounds for terror.