A couple of weeks ago, I received a phone call inviting my husband and I to attend a farm walkabout with prime minister ChrŽtien. Afterward, there would be a picnic in Regina.
It seemed as good as any way to spend a Sunday and on the appointed day we set off bright and early. We were standing right in front of the prime minister’s car when it arrived and we were the first to shake his hand.
The press were everywhere, cameras and notebooks busy, and, like Superman, I switched persona in an instant. With camera over my shoulder, I was ready to go walkabout.
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I am blessed with short legs and it was all I could do to keep up with the pack. Being from rural Saskatchewan where a press pack at any major event consists of me, or at best me plus one or two reporters from neighboring weeklies, I am sadly inept at shouldering my way into the midst of a pack. Likewise, I have trouble running backwards and snapping pictures at the same time as the “real” photographers were doing.
I was much more comfortable later at the indoor picnic when the prime minister was on a platform and I was in front, more or less stationary.
I was elsewhere when the incident which made the night’s TV news occurred. When Saskatoon-Dundurn MP Morris Bodnar tried to get near ChrŽtien, he was turned away by Mounties who did not recognize him as a Member of Parliament.
The event still bothers me – not that Bodnar couldn’t get near, but who could.
Security was everywhere that day. Plainclothes Mounties roamed the farm, keeping an eagle eye on those who were invited to be there. When the PM arrived, it was in a six-car motorcade bristling with security. Mounties accompanied the PM on his walk to the flax field, they protected him from the crowds at the picnic and from his own MPs. They didn’t let the masses get too close.
But for anyone wanting to get close to the PM, there was still a way; no one carrying a camera and a notebook and looking like a reporter was questioned.
I’m the last to want to inhibit freedom of the press, but if we must have security for our political leaders, and it appears we must, then all the bases should be covered. Freedom of the press should not be hindered if journalists are required to wear identification when they are close to someone like the prime minister and security is otherwise extremely tight.
