Bush jokes as protesters burn his effigy outside downtown Montreal hotel

google ^ | 10/22/09 | cp

[Nachum]

MONTREAL — As George W. Bush joked with a business crowd inside a historic hotel ballroom Thursday, hundreds of people outside the room cheered while he was being burned in effigy.

Police in riot gear and others on horseback held back a crowd of hundreds, including several people who tossed shoes at the Queen Elizabeth hotel in a demonstration of disdain for the man speaking inside.

Two protesters tried forcing their way through the line of shield-and baton-carrying police, were wrestled to the ground, and arrested.

Ironically, this anti-war protest took place outside the same hotel where the ultimate anti-war anthem - John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance - was recorded in 1969.

[ml/nj]

Gee. And I remember Montreal so fondly.

ML/NJ

[BamaDi]

DNC probably paid the protesters.....after all, everything wrong in the world today is “Bush’s fault”.....

[ElayneJ]

Folish people, useful idiots...

[DemforBush]

"But outside in the street, Helen Hannah said she couldn't imagine why Bush had been invited to speak in several Canadian cities. "He has nothing to offer," the colourfully dressed protester said."

I can only imagine...

[GWMcClintock]

Excuse me, but didn’t someone let these useless pieces of human debris know that there was an election in the USA LAST fall?! It’s the WRONG person they’re burning in effigy now.

[ml/nj]

Ironically, this anti-war protest took place outside the same hotel where the ultimate anti-war anthem - John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance - was recorded in 1969.

It's also the same hotel where in more refined moments, NHL bigwigs get together for dinner.

ML/NJ

[Spok]

If they burned the ‘bama in effigy there’d be blood in the streets.

[Oratam]

As George W. Bush joked with a business crowd . . . hundreds of people outside . . . cheered while he was being burned in effigy.

Let me guess. Bush said "Better him than me?"

[matt1234]

Rioting, eh? That’s what happens in a French-speaking city when you put up a sign that says “Free Wine.”

[GnuHere]

Who are the shoe tossers? Isn’t that an ROP thing?

[scoobysnak71]

>”If they burned the ‘bama in effigy there’d be blood in the streets.”

Without a doubt. Does my heart good to know that THESE PEOPLE DO NOT VOTE CONSERVATIVE!

Goes to show what the LIBERAL PARTY is all about.

[fanfan]

[Cyman]

You did a lot of things right when that crowd burns you in effigy. I would be quite proud if were the President.

[johniegrad]

Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan should conquer Quebec.

[tina07]

My grandmother was born there, my mother has many fond memories of summer vacations there as a child. She can’t fathom what it’s like today.

[LeGrande]

Tossing shoes sounds more Muslim than DNC to me.

[Carley]

Born in the USA and I can’t fathom what America is like today.

[Allegra]

Inside the hotel, nearly 1,000 spectators paid $400 to hear Bush speak during the latest stop on his Canadian tour.

That's gonna leave a mark.

[ml/nj]

I worked on the Olympic Stadium scoreboard when the stadium was being built, and then for the various teams and even the government after that when they used the stadium. It was such a great place to have to go on business. My last trip was when my daughter was six years old. Peoples Express had a good deal on flights and I took her up there. I think that was her first experience at a fine restaurant. She passed the test in spades. Now she is 30 years old.

I once saw René Lévesque lying drunk in a gutter up there and then was asked by the PQ to show up to help celebrate his election the following St Jean Baptiste Day at the Stadium.

ML/NJ

[Carl LaFong]

Coo-oo-coo-coo
Coo-oo-coo-coo;
Coo-oo-coo-coo
Coo-oo-coo-coo.
So... like our topic today is dumb Canucks and beer, eh?
But.. mostly beer
And back bacon.
And beer.
So...g’day, eh.

[I see my hands]

Hat

[ml/nj]

?

ML/NJ

[marron]

Pacifists seem awfully violent.

But only in the face of people they know won’t really hurt them.

You’ll never see them confront someone with an AK47.

Similarly they’ll bravely confront someone who might, somewhere in extremis, put panties on someone’s head. But they’ll never ever confront they guy with the woodchipper in the basement.

[divine_moment_of_facts]

Isn’t the Left just so peaceful and loving?

[ez]

Hate lives on the left.

[roses of sharon]

The commies still mourning the deaths of Saddam and Sons.

[RWGinger]

amazing and not surprising
CNN could cover a speech in Montreal with a few protestors but couldn’t cover the thousands who protested odumbo in San Francisco
or the Hundreds of thousands who marched on Dc while odumbo jetted off to another party.

[I see my hands]

[ez]

"But outside in the street, Helen Hannah said she couldn't imagine why Bush had been invited to speak in several Canadian cities. "He has nothing to offer," the colourfully dressed protester said."

Far as you know, honey...

[PGR88]

The way Obama blames Bush, and they way the Left still protests him, it appears he is still President!

[himno hero]

Just hundreds of free speech home grown Iraqi/ islamic terrorist/ terrorist supporters, nothing more. Next week they will be visiting some city in the US wearing their uniforms c/w vests. Thats all.

[buccaneer81]

She can’t fathom what it’s like today.

I've been treated far worse in Montreal than I have been in Paris. And I can speak some French to boot. The crime is being an American.

[BamaDi]

Of course it does, but the Dims were beside themselves with glee when the “reporter” in Iraq threw a shoe at W....just saying....

[buccaneer81]

I once saw René Lévesque lying drunk in a gutter up there

In the end, it was the cigarettes that got the old bum.

[Billthedrill]

The good guys won in Iraq, a-holes. Deal with it.

[Fu-fu2]

I was in Montreal in Oct. 2001. Spray painted on a wall across from the American embassy was “Muerte de Bush” which I believe translates to “Death to Bush.” They have alot of Middle Easterners living there. This recent event doesn’t surprise me.

[ml/nj]

I've been treated far worse in Montreal than I have been in Paris. And I can speak some French to boot. The crime is being an American.

My experience was so EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE.

The people I worked with at the Stadium knew I didn't know French and at the Party Quebecois events there, nothing was done in English. They all made sure I knew what was going on all the time.

My first SJB Day up there was just before the Olympics. In the area around Place Jacques Cartier, it was the only time I ever really saw people dancing in the streets. I talked to a number of strangers (to me) in English. They were all extremely friendly. I had the feeling that they knew I was an American, and not an English speaking Canadian; and that they knew they would need friends if they did separate from those English speaking Canadians.

I found the people in Paris extraordinarily rude unless I was spending a lot of money in their business.

ML/NJ

[Texas4ever]

Saw a beautiful bumper sticker today it read:

I MISS GEORGE!

I WANT ONE OF THOSE!

[Texas4ever]

Saw a beautiful bumper sticker today it read:

I MISS GEORGE!

I WANT ONE OF THOSE!

[tet68]

I’ll be glad when a crowd burns Obama in effigy.
Where is Effigy any way?

[suijuris]

Screw Montreal, where else can you buy a seven dollar cigar for 34 bucks due to their insane tobacco taxes.

A city full of pasty faced pu$$ies.

[saganite]

I wonder what the response would be if an effigy of Obama were burned. No need to reply, it’s a rhetorical question.

[hinckley buzzard]

Someone who speaks froggie should advise the gibbering surrender monkeys of Montreal that GW Bush is a private citizen now. I'm sure it will break their little eurotrashy hearts but what the hell.

[Peter Libra]

I like your take on what you actually experienced in Montreal. Sure I liked what some of the more outspoken Freepers said here but..... I would beg to differ if some do crime the whole of Montreal and Montrealers. (Sermon over)

The day after I landed in Canada in 1955, I saw the headlines. Rocket Richard, the idol of Quebec, had been thrown out of the Stanley Cup series. I believe it was the redoubtable Detroit Red Wings, that won that night, without Richard to contend with. There was a riot, an absolute riot. Stores were looted and there were bonfires. Oh my heavens, thought I, who are these people?.

I bought back my English wife via London five years later, (Just married) We landed at Montreal. The French-Canadian customs man checked us through. He said sincerely "Good luck to both of you". That stuck with me all this time.

Oh by the way, the former President looks good and no doubt feels good. For the tragedy was when Lyndon Baines Johnson, in his bitterness, allowed his haters to destroy him. Love him or hate him, he deserved a happy retirement.

So does George W. Bush and he is getting it!

[buccaneer81]

An example of the diversity of La Ville de Montreal!

Tourists or business travelers could say the same about NYC or Boston, I imagine.

[buccaneer81]

Screw Montreal, where else can you buy a seven dollar cigar for 34 bucks due to their insane tobacco taxes.

Yeah, but you can buy a real Cuban there.

[Dov in Houston]

Check the laws

You can buy a real cuban here also

[Gondring]

I have good memories from Montréal in that that era, too.

[Republic of Texas]

Don’t they know that their Marxist is in the White House now?