The way Michael Kalmanovitch sees it, he had no choice but to raise a ruckus inside the Chamber of the Alberta Legislature moments after Monday’s Throne Speech.
The world is afire with climate change, he said, and governments are doing nothing – or, even worse, like Alberta’s, actually working hard to make things worse in the name of profit.
So, he asked me yesterday, what else can a good citizen do but cry out in protest?
Mr. Kalmanovitch, well known in Edmonton as the founder and owner for 31 years of Earth’s General Store on Whyte Avenue until his retirement last year, said he regrets embarrassing Marlin Schmidt, his NDP MLA, who invited him to sit with other guests inside the Legislative Chamber Monday afternoon.
But he has no regrets about disrupting the ceremonial occasion. Such tactics are peaceful, and they work, he argued.
“Yeah, it’s disruptive. People get very, very angry,” he said yesterday during a conversation about his role in the excitement at the Legislature.
But, he continued, “if I wasn’t doing this action, we wouldn’t be talking, right? So it’s effective that way. I am a promoter of disruption!”
“We can do a lot more marches. We can do a lot more rallies. We can do a lot more. But we need disruptions. We need disruptions to say, ‘Hey, something’s not right! Something’s wrong!’ Right?”
He described participating in slow marches with Just Stop Oil during a recent stay in the United Kingdom. “We got climate change on the map. Big time!”
“If we stand on the outside of the halls of power … and ask them, even demand, that they do something good. You know what? They do not listen. We need to occupy those halls, instead of demanding from the outside.”
When Mr. Kalmanovitch took his own advice and cried out in the Legislature, the reaction to his one-man protest was swift. The Legislature’s Sergeant-at-Arms dragged him off the chair he’d stood upon, and hauled him out of the Chamber. Mr. Kalmanovitch could be heard shouting as he was escorted from the room.
Whether the tactic worked as well as he’d hoped is another matter. Most Alberta media ignored the disruption. Maybe it wasn’t dramatic enough for their taste? Perhaps they require a massive illegal highway blockade costing Alberta $44 million a day like the one those UCP MLAs took part in last year. Maybe news judgment just isn’t a thing anymore? Who knows?
For the sake of history, here’s a short transcription of how Mr. Kalmanovitch’s lone protest unfolded, based on Alberta Hansard, the official transcript of the Legislature, and my own notes:
The Sergeant-at-Arms: Order!
[Preceded by the Sergeant-at-Arms, Their Honours, their party, and the Premier left the Chamber as a fanfare of trumpets sounded]
[The Mace was uncovered]
[Disturbance in the gallery]
Alas, at this point, the official record of the Legislature ceases for a few moments.
So here is your blogger’s unofficial transcription* of what could be heard during the seconds summarized by Hansard only as “[Disturbance in the gallery]”:
Michael Kalmanovitch: I’m terrified! I’m terrified because we’re in a climate emergency and this government is …
The Sergeant at Arms: “ORDER!!”
Michael Kalmanovitch: … This is important …
The Sergeant-at-Arms: “GET DOWN!”
[Thumping noises]
The Speaker: Please be seated.
Michael Kalmanovitch: …you address the climate emergency …
[Thumping noises; muffled cries; excited chatter]
Michael Kalmanovitch: We need to stop drilling for new oil! We need to stop new gas! We need to stop new coal!
At this point, the Hansard transcription resumes:
The Sergeant-at-Arms: Order!
No need to go on. That’s the interesting part. The rest is just a Throne Speech.
The photo in the Edmonton Journal shows what appears to be an actual oil billionaire, W. Brett Wilson, standing by nearby as the Sergeant-at-Arms attempts to drag Mr. Kalmanovitch from the chair he’d clambered onto. (Mr. Kalmanovitch said he hadn’t recognized the billionaire, whose extreme views about environmentalists are notorious. It’s almost a pity no one thought to introduce them.)
There has been fallout.
Mr. Kalmanovitch said he has been banned from entering the grounds of the Legislature for a year.
In addition, I understand that the NDP Caucus has been browbeaten into apologizing for the hullabaloo and that Speaker Nathan Cooper has decreed guests will never again be seated inside the legislative chamber.
I’ll give the last word to the protagonist of Monday’s brouhaha, who describes himself as a “full time professional citizen” now.
“Citizens have rights and responsibilities. But we always just focus on the rights – my rights, Trump’s rights, everybody else’s rights.
“I’m about responsibility. So I try to highlight the responsibilities.”
*Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee my transcript is as accurate as that of the government’s professional transcriptionists.
I recall Pam Barrett bringing a group of her constituents from the inner city to the legislature in the late 1980s, to listen as the members discussed cuts to social assistance benefits. She introduced the group as people who wanted to learn how government really worked. Kudos to Marlin Schmidt and to Mr. Kalmanovitch for reminding the house that their decisions affect real people.
Yes good for him. They don’t want to listen from citizens as they have there own agenda. When is better time to do it. When everybody is there.
There is NO climate crisis!!
Thank you David Parker, for bringing new readers to my blog. Now, can they be persuaded to make donations? DJC
Three cheers for Mr. Kalmanovitch!
Sadly, I am afraid it would take no more than a stern look to browbeat the NDP. It has become their default position. Where have you gone Brian Mason? Mr. Kalmanovitch obviously grew tired of waiting for the NDP to start to act as the official opposition and decided to take on the job for the day.
Way to go Michael!
“full time professional citizen”!
Only criticism is that his protest lends too much credibility to the joke UCP regime at the Ledge.
That man is a hero and a visionary and there are very very few people that I will ever respect more. I am proud to call him my friend.
Verbiage like this is what makes this site worthwhile, well that and the change of pace from the mindless right leaning drivel found most places, “That’s the interesting part. The rest is just a Throne Speech”.
Not only do I get factual content (which is increasingly hard to come by these days, thanks Postmedia), dry humour is almost non-existent on most forms of social media. Keep it up!
Thank you, Dave. Of course, humour is always risky – after all, it might make someone mad. And that is why you don’t see much of it in mainstream media. As I said today in another discussion on a related issue … https://twitter.com/djclimenhaga/status/1720565524353151369 DJC
Mr. Kalmanovitch has been around quite a while and has been quite consistent in his views and approach. Smith has been around and while and struggles with consistency as she has lurched frequently between trying to appear to be a moderate conservative and trying to appeals to more extreme ones, perhaps even more so than most in politics.
I have a feeling in a few years Smith will be gone from the political main stage and Mr. Kalmanovitch will remain the person he is, true to and practising his beliefs and ideals. He is not really a politician, just a citizen with integrity and someone who is willing to speak up when the occasion arises.
I suspect this is very unsettling to the UCP coalition of opportunists and extremists. They may temporarily feel more comfortable by keeping him away from the legislature, but they can’t banish Albertans from having integrity, consistency and ideals, even though they may try keep them out of the legislature.
So by decree, citizens will never again sit as guests in the legislature because one broke protocol (and spoke truth).
Yet my MLA, Jason Nixon used profanity in our legislature, Mr. Williams guzzled a beer, spilling over onto his facial hair and Mr. Kenny passed out bright ear plugs to use when elected members of the legislature rose to speak. The consequences of these inappropriate, disrespectful and protocol breaking behaviours was minimum in comparison.
I think if you are not a male, not a conservative and not a resource extractor you should feel unsafe. Time for other voices, such as was tried in our leg, to speak out and time for political action from the non right.
Good for him. Bravo!
Mr. K did a good thing. It is right and proper that people demonstrate against governments who do not reflect the wishes of the people and harm our enviornment.
UPC must be very afraid of Mr. K and others who might decide to follow Mr. K’s actions. They banned people from sitting in the area he was and they banned him for a year. Now isn’t that a nice e.g. of democracy in action. And this government wants to run an Alberta pension plan. Would they cut off your pension monies if you disagreed with them?
Mr. K did the right thing! Here in B.C. this past summer we had more than a few small forest fires. The amount of money to fight the fires was huge and many people lost their houses and won’t ever be able to return to the previous financial state. Other parts of the world have had similar problems with weather/climate/pollution. If this continues things will not end well for the majority of humans. So the question for me is: Do people want their Grandchild to die young or be killed by climate change so big business can continue to make ever more money which will not benefit the majority of people on this earth.
When the price of gas started increasing in the 1970s, my take on things was, wait until water becomes a scarce commodity. You can’t drink oil/gas, money when you’re dying of thirst. We have seen droughts and floods all over the world. Its not getting any better so we might want to have a think about our status. In the meantime, thank you to Mr. K. Might be a good idea if we had a few more of him.