Why protest in person when you can do it on TV?

Lengthy lawsuits have concluded that in Canada, police do not have the right to keep protesters far from international summits and heads of state; the public has a right to be “seen and heard”. So when Harper, Bush, and Calderón attend next week’s Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America meeting, demonstrators will be a kilometre down the road, but shown live via telecast in the hotel’s lobby.

I expect that five years from now some judge will rule that TV doesn’t cut it, but in the interim, I doubt the militant left is going to take this sitting down. I mean, the police may as well have just told people to stay home submit a video of their complaints via YouTube. It’s really not the same.