Saskatoon mayor reflects on events on Capitol Hill

Three years ago, Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark was in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

He was there after receiving an invitation as part of a delegation of Canadian mayors from across the country to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

As part of the trip, Clark had a chance to tour the Capitol Building, the Lincoln Memorial and other historic sites. He says it was an incredible experience.

“The aspiration, the size, the scale, the buildings … you have to be there and stand there to realize how much it represents, this very ambitious vision of a democratic country with all of these museums, the Smithsonian, the malls up and down that are all about the sharing of ideas and knowledge and building people’s expertise,” he said. “The Capitol itself is just steeped in rich history.”

With his chief of staff, Michelle Beveridge, Clark was able to stand on the Speaker’s Balcony, which sits right above the balcony where incoming presidents make their inaugural addresses.

“To be able to stand there and understand the vision and aspiration of the democratic ideals it represents was really amazing,” he said. “Standing at the Lincoln Memorial on the steps where Martin Luther King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in the shadow of this big statue of Abraham Lincoln, you just can’t help but have the hair stand up on the back of your neck.”

That’s why Clark was so disturbed, he said, when he learned about the hundreds of protesters storming the Capitol Building right after President Donald Trump’s rally on Wednesday afternoon.

“You know, an angry mob of people wanting to incite violence had been sent to the Capitol Building by their own president,” Clark said. “It’s still hard to fathom that that could have happened.”

As Clark reflected on the events, he said democracy is a fragile institution that needs protection.

“It’s a very, very critical and crucial way that we build a society and have people’s freedom of speech and representation and voting and fair processes, and the institutions that are required to keep those whole,” he said.

The situation that unfolded Wednesday, he explained, was also fuelled by misinformation, conspiracy theories, active efforts to undermine the democratic process and a lack of rational debate.

“If all of those things are continually and constantly undermined, then you lose the basic fabric of what it takes to have a democratic society. Then we end up descending into chaos,” Clark said.

“We need to fight against that (and) respect the freedom of speech and freedom of ideas, but not support any kind of acts of insurrection or this manipulation and perpetuation of conspiracy theories.”

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe sent out a brief statement late Wednesday about the events in Washington.

“The United States of America is Canada’s closest ally and has been a beacon of freedom and democracy for generations,” Moe wrote. “The events that occurred today in Washington, D.C. were disturbing and nothing short of an affront to to the democratic values that we hold sacred.”

Clark hopes the U.S. quickly gets a handle on the violence. He’s puzzled as to how so many people were able to get into the building without there being enough security to stop them.

“I was shocked that these looters were able to get into the building in the first place …,” he said. “There’s no question we were not able to carry anything into the building and there were armed guards and representatives, whether it was the Capitol police or federal guards, all over the place in the building.”

He says he was happy to hear some Republican senators like Mitt Romney state that people need to know the truth, even if they don’t like it, don’t agree with it or it’s difficult to hear. That truth, Romney and others have said, is that the U.S. election was fair.