“He’s a vampire, he refuses to be defeated,” mockingly commented barefoot activist, author, and self-proclaimed “matriot” Cindy Sheehan at an anti-war rally at Convocation Hall May 3. The ticketed event was held by the Student Administrative Council and had quite a successful turn out.
As a founding member of Gold Star Families for Peace, set up last year, Sheehan is going around the world on an anti-war rally, speaking of the evils of the Bush administration, and warning other countries to stand and up and stop their own assimilation into such a ‘militaristic’ society.
Sheehan said that although this was her first time in Canada, this country had always been “…a beacon of hope, a beacon of refuge.” She commented that Canada had, “helped take in slaves, war resisters…and now greedy people in [this] country want to emulate everything that is wrong with the United States.”
Her attacks on Prime Minister Stephen Harper were fervent and plentiful and she seemed to be telling her Canadian audience the potential horror of Harper’s apparently desired reformation of Canada into a twin of the U.S. She said that, “Your government has been taken over by a neo-con, a carbon copy of the Bush administration.”
Sheehan first attracted attention in August 2005, after camping outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, for 26 days at “Camp Casey,” as a statement and vigil for her son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, aged 24.
According to her, Casey should not have been there in the first place. She recounted the broken promises that were made to Casey by the U.S. military. The military allegedly promised him US$20,000, and he received only $4,000. He also did not get his new laptop for college and though he was promised the position of chaplain’s assistant, he was forced to become a mechanic instead.
Worst of all, she said, Casey was sent to Iraq after being told he would never see war. He died in an ambush 4 days after his arrival.
Since her initial campout Cindy Sheehan has spread her story throughout Europe and South America. On a trip to Venezuela, she spoke at the Caracas World Social Reform according to other reports and Sheehan herself was incredibly well received. This is where she is said to have agreed with the statement made by Harry Belafonte that George W. Bush is a terrorist.
Sheehan’s goal is not only the eviction of the president who she says is “an illegitimate pretender to the White House,” but to ultimately try him and his company for crimes against humanity. She commented on the unjust war and about 9/11 being a criminal act and not an act of war, pointing out that the criminal responsible for the tragedy that shook North America is still at large while, “other people’s children are sent to die” and to kill other innocent people.
