CALGARY:

"PIE PAIR" DEFENDANT DONNA MCPHEE SENTENCED TO 30 DAYS:

Carrying on a fine Canadian anarchist tradition that dates back over three decades Calgary activists have been "pieing" assorted political members of the "Axis of Evil" over the past few years. In 2003 Chris Geohegan managed to throw a pie in the face of then-premier "laughing Ralph" Klein. Unfortunately the pie wasn't whiskey flavoured and Ralph was not amused. Thirty days in the slammer!

Last year two Calgary anti-poverty activists decided to revive this fine tradition. On July 9, 2007 Lily Phan attempted to pie Premier Ed Stelmach at his annual stampede breakfast in protest over his inaction on the issues of poverty and homelessness. The attempt failed as she was wrestled down by the Premier's bodyguards. She still awaits trial on charges of "public mischief" and "assaulting a police officer". The basis of the latter charge is that a small amount of the pie topping was smeared across an Alberta Sheriff's uniform during the arrest. No sense of humour here for sure.

On July 12 another anti-poverty activist, Donna McPhee, managed to pull it off, pieing Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier with a chocolate cream pie. Last February 15 she was sentenced to 30 days in jail (ah, that precedent !) for mischief. Previous charges of "assault with a weapon" were dropped. It seems it was too hard to get a conviction on charges of holding a "weapon of mass delection". Donna will be spending her 57th birthday in jail, and the Calgary Anarchist Black Cross is currently organizing direct jail support for her, including donations to her canteen fund and transportation for visitors to the jail. Contact them at abc-calgary@anarchistservices.ca if you want to help out. See their website for more information.

As an aside Molly can remember when the practice of pieing politicians and other ruling class twerps began back in the 70s. She is pretty convinced that this was an uniquely Canadian contribution to anarchism, as other countries took it up soon after in imitation. It may also be a Canadian contribution to civilization in general. The now legendary "Anarchist Party of Canada-Groucho Marxist' was formed to spread the word and the filling as well. To say the least this is more attractive(and tasty) tactic than losing to the police in street fights.