The group that hired a plane to fly an anti-Stephen Harper message around the Ottawa area says it was ordered to stop because of the banner’s message, not because of any safety concerns over restricted airspace.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) chartered a small plane to fly a banner reading “Stephen Harper Nous Deteste” (Steven Harper Hates Us) on Saturday around the Gatineau area.
However, after just 90 minutes, the plane was ordered to land by the RCMP, leaving the group questioning their right to freedom of speech.
The RCMP said the plane was ordered to land because it could have posed a security risk to the prime minister.
In an email to The Canadian Press, an RCMP spokeswoman said the plane appeared to be flying in restricted airspace over Parliament Hill.
However, the union said the flight plan was approved in advance and the plane didn’t violate restricted air space.
Union executive vice president Larry Rosseau told CTV’s Power Play on Tuesday that he believes the plane was grounded because of the message on the banner, not because of any legitimate safety concerns.
“If it was an air problem with the restricted airspace, that was immediately available to the RCMP as it always is through NavCan, through the air traffic control tower. So that was very quickly eliminated as a reason” he said.
Rosseau said after speaking with the RCMP it became clear to the group that “the problem was really the banner.”
Rosseau said the banner’s message was interpreted as a form of hate speech, which someone then decided was a threat against Stephen Harper.
“It seems that criticizing someone in the RCMP or the RCMP determined that that can constitute hate speech against the prime minister -- hate speech can constitute a threat against the prime minister – and called the plane down,” said Rosseau. “Whoever made that call was really stretching it as far as we’re concerned.”
The union vice president says the group wants to know who is behind the grounding of the plane, but so far they have not been given any answers.
“I don’t know what hand is behind (this), but some hand I believe would be behind (it). Now is it a RCMP officer that made a call on the ground, is it someone higher up? These are answers that we’re looking for and for some reason we’re not getting,” he said.
The banner is part of a campaign by PSAC to protest federal public service cuts, called the “We are all affected” campaign. The campaign was launched in the summer and is slated to continue into the fall.
PSAC had flown the banner over Quebec cities in recent weeks without any problems, including during the Quebec Pride festival earlier in the summer.
The group had decided to fly it during the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival on Saturday and had initially hired the plane for three hours.
