On Jan. 13, Stephen Taylor—a prominent Canadian conservative blogger—posted a photo series documenting students protesting at the UTM stop on Michael Ignatieff’s recent university tour. The slogans written on the protestors’ placards were full of blatant mistruths, outright xenophobia, misspellings, brazen irony, and a complete ignorance of reality. These photos are absolutely shameful, especially because the students in them—some of whom are students at our very own university—are supposed to be the best and brightest our country has to offer. They made a mockery of Canada’s youth.

One placard read “Welcome father of the Liberal Caron Tax” and another quoted Ignatieff as saying “we’ll have to raise taxes.” Ignoring the obvious spelling and grammatical errors, these signs raise a number of questions. Firstly, considering that people around the world have reached a near-consensus on the reality of climate change, what do these protestors suggest we do? Notwithstanding the perversion of conservatism present in neo-Conservative policy, right-wing values are supposed to be about resisting change and maintaining the status quo when it makes sense to do so. What could be more conservative than fighting climate change? alt text

Secondly, how do the protestors suggest the Conservative government address the structural deficit (that is, a budget that is fundamentally unbalanced, regardless of economic conditions) that Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget officer, outlined in a recently-released report? The Conservatives have cut taxes and repeatedly ruled out raising them, yet seem to have no credible plan to cut spending outside of vague talk of “discipline.”

The federal government spends the majority of its money on transfer payments, which the government has promised to not touch. Much of the rest of the federal funds go to federal responsibilities such as justice, customs, agriculture, national defence, public safety, and public works, all areas where the government would find it politically unpalatable to cut spending. In some of these areas, the government has in fact increased spending or promised to do so (particularly on national defence and justice). Cutting taxes and maintaining, if not raising, spending is not a credible economic plan, especially not for a government that was elected on the promise of fiscal responsibility.

Another placard read, “Count Iggy loves torture.” Let’s ignore for a moment the xenophobic and anti-elite message implicit in calling Ignatieff “Count,” and the discourtesy of referring to him as “Iggy” (isn’t politeness also a conservative value?). The slogan is brazenly ironic considering that just weeks ago, Stephen Harper prorogued parliament in part to avoid scrutiny over his government’s knowledge of the torture of Afghan detainees. While Ignatieff has expressed regret for the position taken on the issue of torture, by suspending parliament Harper has implicitly admitted to (at best) turning a blind eye to it.

The University of Toronto is one of the highest ranked universities in Canada, and its students are supposed to be some of Canada’s most intelligent youth. These protestors displayed astounding ignorance, a lack of basic literacy (another protestor proudly held up a sign saying “Our flag is not a beer lable”), and shameful disrespect for a high-ranking public servant, honoured public intellectual, and, more importantly, a fellow human being. In doing so, they made a mockery of the university and, most of all, themselves.

Photo by Matthew Filipowich