Yk'er protests Trump inauguration
Ben Webber returning to home state of Texas to join one of many rallies planned across North America
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, January 20, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife man is joining protests in Texas on the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as 45th President of the United States.
Yellowknife resident Ben Webber travelled to his home state of Texas this week to protest the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president. Webber will be in the Texas state capital of Austin to join what he expects to be thousands of protesters. Webber, who has dual citizenship voted for Hillary Clinton and says that a Trump presidency will be bad for the whole world, not just the U.S. - John McFadden/NNSL photo |
Ben Webber, who works for the Department of Transportation, has lived in Canada since 1984. His family is still in Texas and he maintains U.S. and Canadian dual citizenship.
He said he was shocked when Trump, who is being sworn-in today, won the election.
He told Yellowknifer he is joining a Women's March on Washington offshoot protest planned in Austin, Texas tomorrow. Media reports have estimated as many as 200,000 people are expected to join the Women's March on Washington in Washington D.C. and that if these numbers hold, it could be the biggest inaugural protest in American history. Offshoot protests are scheduled for cities as far flung as Tokyo, Helsinki and right here in Yellowknife.
He said he is attending because he believes Trump's presidency will be bad for both the U.S. and the rest of the world, including Canada.
"I feel that many of the principles of democracy are being misinterpreted by Trump," he said. "There seems to be a lack of understanding of the political realities compared to business realities."
He said he believes Trump exploited the darker side of human nature to get elected and although he said he is willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt at this point, he does not see the real estate mogul and reality television star as someone who will tone down his rhetoric once he is in the Oval Office.
"From the very beginning of his campaign he started by characterizing illegal immigrants who had come in from Mexico as criminals and rapists," said Webber. "That sets up this attitude of they are different that we are and they can be treated differently than we are ... There was a similar notion about Muslims."
Another concern Webber shared was the 2005 recording in which Trump said that as a celebrity, he could get away with groping women. He added he opposes the way Trump has characterized the African American community the length of time it took for him to disavow the support of white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
"When you suggest that you don't even know who these white supremacists are - who David Duke is ... And then later say that of course he disavows them," he said. "He has said it's no big deal which is a normalization or acceptance of something that is extremely unacceptable to a large segment of the population."
He told Yellowknifer he voted for Hillary Clinton in last November's presidential election despite having been raised a Republican.
When it comes to Canada, Webber said he believes that Trump's policies on climate change and trade will be at odds with the policies the Trudeau Government. He is also concerned that the people Trump has selected to his cabinet are also endorsing policies that are detrimental to the rest of the world.
Webber said he does not yet know whether he will take a sign to the anti-Trump rally.
He understands that family members in Austin have an anti-Trump T-shirt for him to wear.
He added that he is taking two weeks vacation to attend the rally but will also spend time with friends and family.
Similar protests are planned for several American cities tomorrow including one in Washington D.C., which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people.
Here in Yellowknife, a Trump protest is planned to start tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Somba K'e Civic Plaza.
