Protesters keep pressure on Wall over budget cuts
People angry about austerity plan demonstrate near Premier’s Dinner
As Premier Brad Wall prepared to give a speech at his annual dinner in Regina, about 60 people protested recent spending decisions made by the Saskatchewan Party government.
Protesters wanted to send a message to the premier, but the party donors inside — paying $250 for a meal — surely saw the signs, too.
One of those signs read: “Premier Wall, you get the power from the poor people’s dollar.”
Some of the roughly 1,400 attendees going to hear Wall’s speech would have seen that sign, and others, as they tried turning off of Elphinstone Street and onto 10th Avenue into Evraz Place.
Protesters took their time crossing the street, sometimes stopping altogether, to slow traffic coming in.
Catherine Gibson was one of the protesters.
“What brings me out here today are the egregious actions of the Saskatchewan Party, and particularly of Premier Wall,” she said, adding the protest atmosphere was good and “well-controlled.”
“People need to have some sort of release for the anxieties that have been built up since the middle of March.”
Protests have become an almost weekly occurrence in Saskatchewan since March 22, when the budget was released.
It included funding cuts to schools, universities, libraries, a hearing aid program, funerals for low-income people and the shutdown the provincial bus company, STC.
Don Wren, another protester, said he was there to highlight the cuts the government has put into place.
“(The cuts) seem to not serve the people of the province particularly well,” he said, noting that there is a long list of grievances people have with the Wall government.
Sue Deranger, a longtime activist in Saskatchewan, said “when you think about what’s being taken away, it’s everything that Saskatchewan ever represented” noting the cuts to education, health care and Crown corporations.
“People don’t understand until it hits their own life, and this is hitting a lot people’s lives,” she said. “People are ticked because it’s affecting them ... I think there should be a heck of a lot more people here.”
Regina police were on hand monitoring the traffic flow of protesters and those trying to attend the premier’s dinner, which ran the risk of being further congested due to Mosaic cultural festivities also in the area.
In a statement sent out Thursday, the police said they planned to protect everyone involved.
“We recognize that there are Saskatchewan citizens who are still very emotional about the recent provincial budget and they have a message they want to convey to elected leaders. We will uphold their rights to peaceful protest,” said the statement. “We also uphold the rights of attendees to the premier’s dinner ... to freely attend those events.”
To that end, they were successful: the protesters and fundraising attendees were tame and did not require the police to step in.
Drew Watson was one of those attending the fundraiser.
“Don’t mind the democratic free speech, the protest side of it,” he said.
“But what I don’t like is when you see where people can get hurt. Because protesters and crosswalks, getting close to cars, touching cars, talking to people through windows and I don’t want to see them get hurt.”
A similar rally last month outside the annual premier’s dinner in Saskatoon drew about 350 people, and got heated when some demonstrators climbed on cars and yelled at those attending the dinner.
Several drivers attempted to force their way through that crowd, with angry yelling matches breaking out after protesters were bumped by the cars.
For his part, Wall has repeatedly said the budget would not be a popular one and that people would express their dissent.
This is the first time there has been such dissent at his annual fundraising dinner, and the unpopular budget is being reflected in polling, as the Opposition NDP is now leading the Saskatchewan Party by nine points.