With the election fast approaching there is a lot going on. When we last caught up with the PPC, they had pretty much become the party of the Sudbury Yellow Vests. CBC Sudbury were being terrible and somehow they’ve managed to outdo themselves since them. Times are so strange that former Sudbury PPC candidate Jason Lafauci is now supporting the NDP
It’s been weird. We’re going to try to run through it all chronologically.
First, The Yellow Vests, who are pretty inseperable from the PPC at this point, failed at holding a rally. (They would fail again a few weeks later.)
Then there was the matter of this billboard on Lasalle:
We were interested in finding out who owned it and indeed thanks to some help from the public we found out it is a man by the name of Gerry Paquette. It was clear immediately that he was at least a supporter of the PPC.
Needless to say, asking him to take it down didn’t appear to be an option.
Sean Paterson, apparently being a real candidate, in a real election, in a very healthy democracy, was invited by various community organizations to participate in their all-candidates debates.
First up was 100 Debates on the Environment. Here’s what Sean was sharing on Facebook in the days leading up to that event.
Great guy to invite to a debate on the environment.
Sean was able to B.S. his way through some of the questions about the environment because of his experience in the mining industry, but overall he sounded like a fool.
There were four Yellow Vest regulars in attendance: Jeff Doyle, JR Demellweek, Andy Scott and Brad William Beauchamp. Those last two names will be new to our readers, but they’ve been around the Yellow Vests for awhile and both are PPC volunteers. It’s probably time we introduced them to you.
Andy Scott is an irony poisoned shitlord who was a early participant in the local Yellow Vest groups on Facebook, didn’t show up on our radar for awhile, then showed up again recently with the PPC.
You may recognize Brad as the unhinged maniac who was screaming about antifa, national security and masked bandits at a Yellow Vest demo last December. He ended up being escorted to the designated fascist zone by the police after screaming “don’t talk to me you fucking whore” in a woman’s face.
The next debate was on women’s issues at the Sudbury Theatre Centre. We were unable to make it to that one, but it sounds like Sean made a fool of himself there too. Brad William Beauchamp was also spotted pacing around outside in the parking lot, presumably on the lookout for masked bandits talking smack about white people.
The third debate was hosted by the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce and took place at College Boreal. We made it to that one, but unfortunately we could not stay for the entire thing.
Jeff Doyle, JR Demellweek and Brad William Beauchamp were present. They were obnoxious and disruptive. Doyle was observed writing “FUCK ANTIFA” on his question paper and holding it up over his head.
But wait. There’s more.
The next day, Paterson was given a platform again by the Laurentian University Political Science Association. He came across again as a bumbling idiot. The comments on Sudbury.com were pretty harsh.
Sean used his platform to bash immigrants, refugees and “birth tourists”.
In Canada we judge human beings worth by how much money they have and earn.
In all fairness, CPC candidate Pierre St-Amant’s remarks were hardly different and merit inclusion here as wll.
Imagine if you will, the horror of somebody looking for the best place for his/her family.
There was also another debate later in the afternoon at the Parkside Older Adults Centre. We were unable to make it there and haven’t found any video footage, but we do know that Sean was part of it.
So that’s five times that Sean Paterson and the PPC were given a platform at debates here in Sudbury. As a matter of fact, we do not know of any place where he was denied a platform.
While we do not doubt that some of the candidates were very uncomfortable with his presence, it certainly didn’t look that way when they were exchanging smiles, pleasantries and handshakes with him. It is difficult to imagine they have the backs of racialized and marginalized people when you watch them share a stage with Sean Paterson. As far as we know, none of the candidates present at these debates have made any statements or direct remarks regarding Sean’s presence.
Let’s be clear here: The PPC should not be allowed at these debates at all. Everyone that we saw come out to support them were people associated with hate groups. The simple bottom line is that allowing the PPC at debates makes others unsafe and prioritizes the PPC and their supporters above others safety. This is true at both the macro level of public discourse and policy and the micro level of these debate events. The PPC and their supporters have no intention of reciprocating any respect and goodwill shown to them, as respect and goodwill are both absolute jokes to them.
As for the media, Sudbury.com have released an editorial that does read as possibly being a jab at Paterson, though perrenial mayoral candidate David Popecu is in our opinion the target of that piece. If the piece is aimed at David Popescu, then that too is not made clear. One wonders what the point of such vagueness even is. Subury.com editor Mark Gentili did also appear on 92.7 ROCK News with alongside Mr. Paterson, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Another media outlet, The Sudbury Star, threw him some softball questions and gave him a whole editorial to promote his campaign.
Overall, our local media have done an extremely poor job of covering the far-right that borders on being outright collaboration and we are incredibly disappointed in the way they have sanitized and legitimized the PPC; essentially ending up doing a lot of professional P.R. work for them that they otherwise would not be able to do themselves.
In other cities, debate organizers have expressed regrets over having invited the PPC.
And in at least one case, they chose to not allow the PPC to participate at all, proving this is possible.
It remains to be seen how our own politicians, media, community groups and venues will reflect on all of this and what they will choose to do in the future.
UPDATE 16/10/19:
There was another event at the Fromagerie, which brings the total number of times Sean Paterson has been platformed in local debates up to six.
Anti-Racist Sudbury 