Ottawa, Canada: Demonstrations in front of the Centre Block Building on Parliament Hill

One of the things I wanted to do in Ottawa is to take the free tour of the Centre Block Parliament Building. This is the building with the tower that graces the postcards of Ottawa, the main and central building in the Parliament Hill complex of buildings, and its official name is the Centre Block Building.

In this building you will find the House of Commons and the Senate chambers, as well as the offices of the members of parliament, senators, and senior administration for both legislative houses. Moreover, it is also the official venue of several ceremonial events. The Hall of Honour, the Memorial Chamber and the Confederation Hall venues.

My niece who is studying at the Ottawa University, letâ€™s call her Ank, told me about the daily demonstrations in front of the Parliament Hill. She said I better check it out when I visit. I went on a Monday morning and luckily I did because it rained non-stop in the afternoon until in the evening. Which is also partly the reason why I wasnâ€™t able to join the tour. I was planning on coming back in the afternoon for the tour but got stuck instead somewhere because of the heavy downpour.

Nevertheless, I found the demonstrations in front of the Parliament Hill very interesting.

Youâ€™ve got someone defending life (against abortion and euthanasia) and that without the Christian god we all will self-destruct. Across him you will find this person with a placard declaring war against Islam. His statement is that there is 100% proof that there is no god in Islam. A few metres from him is another person with the message that the president of China, Xi Jinping is the new Hitler. A more active demonstrator can be seen standing in front of the flaming torch right on the path to the parliament with a placard saying stop persecuting immigrants. I think he did this in purpose so that he and his placard will be taken in all the pictures of the tourists and visitors. I am sure it is very annoying for those who want to take a nice picture of the main parliament building, but I didnâ€™t mind him anyway.

I do wonder if these people are paid? Are they here on their own volition? Or is someone behind them perhaps?

The only demonstration I ever joined was more than a decade ago in Manila, Philippines (2001, which is a year before I moved to the Netherlands) when I joined the Second EDSA Revolution rally that overthrew the government of ex-President Joseph Estrada. He was the celebrity – action movie star turned president. Such a disgrace to the country. Clearly, majority of the Filipino people back then were not qualified enough to vote correctly.