Richard Burgess said he was just looking to interview people about the war between Israel and Hamas when a Parliament Hill cop stopped him from accessing the grounds. That action, captured on video, has kicked off a debate about the Parliamentary Protective Service and has seen officials who oversee the service deny their officer acted inappropriately.
Burgess went to Parliament Hill on Saturday to witness the rally planned to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel.
“Obviously, with your shirt, you are not here as a pro-Palestinian protester, you are here as a counter-protester,” an unidentified officer of the PPS can be seen saying on video Burgess published on Sunday.
When he first arrived at the event, about an hour before it was scheduled to start, he was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Death to Hamas” on the front. Hamas is a banned, designated terrorist group and has been considered a terrorist group by the Government of Canada since 2002.
Since the officer made clear that he couldn’t enter the protest area due to his shirt, Burgess left the Hill, turned his sweatshirt inside out, so there was no visible message, and tried to enter again. When he returned, the same officer stopped him from entering again.
“You admitted to me that you do not recognize Palestine as a state, you are not a supporter of Palestine, you are not permitted,” he said.
The officer had previously told Burgess that if he removed his shirt with the death to Hamas image, he would be allowed in. But despite doing that, the officer refused to allow him in.
When Burgess asked the officer why there was a change, the officer replied that it’s because Burgess had said he doesn’t recognize Palestine as a state.
Of course, the problem is that the Government of Canada doesn’t recognize a Palestinian State. Burgess was denied entry to the main protest area for holding the same position as the Trudeau government, the Biden administration and the rest of our G7 allies.
“To my knowledge, that’s the first time that access to Parliament has been subjected to a screening with political points of view, at least documented as such,” Conservative MP and deputy leader Melissa Lantsman said while raising the issue with House Speaker Greg Fergus after Question Period.
“Parliament is the beating heart of Canadian democracy, and it is where Canadians often come to exercise one of the most cherished constitutional rights guaranteed to them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, freedom of expression.”
Lantsman asked the Speaker to examine who gave the directive to block people based on political viewpoints.
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The Parliamentary Protective Service reports jointly to the speakers of the Commons and the Senate. Neither office offered comment on the incident other than to say they don’t comment on security issues.
Officials with PPS denied their officer did anything wrong.
“It is important to note that PPS did not deny access on the Hill to the individual in question. Rather, he was informed that if he wanted to enter the Hill, he should leverage another point of entry to demonstrate in the appropriately dedicated zone,” PPS said in a statement.
“I don’t know why I would have to go to a separate area, it’s a public space,” Burgess said Monday in an interview.
“I was pretty surprised, I had to stand outside of Parliament Hill and talk to people.”
Burgess said he wasn’t aggressive in approaching people and simply asked if they wanted to explain why they were there. As for the claim that PPS did nothing wrong, he believes his denial was politically motivated.
“It seemed that they had a clear political bias, they were helping Palestinian protesters set up. They were picking up fake body bags,” Burgess said.
Regardless of the denial from the PPS officials, the video is clear that Burgess was stopped from freely moving around the grounds of Parliament Hill due to his opposition to a banned terrorist organization.
It’s the job of the PPS to keep the Hill safe and secure, and that includes during protests, but the banning Burgess from entering was a step too far.