Mr. Bush Visits Saskatoon.

This is the kind of post I'd like to do more of, one dealing with a current event the day it happens. However, I doubt the next one will be this ambitious.

Former US President George W. Bush came to Saskatoon today to speak before a paying audience at TCU Place, aka the Centennial Auditorium.





It will of course come as no surprise that there were both plenty of people who wanted to see Mr. Bush...



...and plenty who didn't. These were amongst the earliest arrivals, spouting the usual stuff about the September 11th attacks being an inside job, and also mentioning the Bilderberger Group.



This guy was probably the most odd of the protesters. He kept to himself, and kept telling people to read the Book of Revelation and that they were supporting Satan by attending Bush's talk. Not surprisingly at least a couple of times when I was in earshot people asked him to take off his mask. He refused.






As the crowd waiting to get in swelled, so did the number of protesters.





All this went on as traffic continued to pass on 22nd Street.



The protesters largely congregated on a block of Pacific Avenue set aside for them. This placed them across from TCU Place with 22nd Street in between.







These two women did protest on TCU property early on, but from what I could see were eventually asked by security to move.



The local media were of course out in force. Did I count as one of them for today? I'll leave that to the reader to decide.







External security was provided by both private security guards and members of the Saskatoon Police Service. I didn't see any of the members of the RCMP or US Secret Service involved in the operation.





The protesters were loud at times but otherwise didn't interfere with the proceedings, at least while I was there. Those waiting to get in largely ignored them.