Canada – Evil Seal Killing Assassins

…at least that was the view of about 30 people protesting outside the Canadian Embassy on calle Goya in central Madrid today.

This was a real pain for your correspondent because he lives only a street away. With their screaming through loudspeakers and the windows open to let in fresh air, it got really boring for a while. “ASESINOS” screamed the leader, “ASESINOS” screamed his gang of loser hippies in reply. “VERGANZA” (’shame’) squawked deputy leader. “VERGANZA” they shouted back. And so on. And on and on.

Fortunately, it started to rain at about 3.00pm, heavily so, and everything went quiet. Nice. But an hour later they were back at it again.

I had to go out and buy a packet of fags (that’s cigarettes for any of you American readers – lest you get any ideas) and the kiosk is right opposite the embassy. So after picking up my packet of Fortuna Lights I wandered over to see who these people were, wasting their time and annnoying the rest of us.

Boxed in to a small corner of the pavement opposite the embassy you had the usual assortment of losers: smelly students who should have spent the afternoon doing their laundry, dreadlocked hippies, batty old women with matted hair and faintly scary Richard Warman types with nerdy glasses. They all had banners and flags with scrawled messages like “Canada kills” on them, cute pictures of baby seals, or the maple leaf flag with an image of blood running from it. One guy had stripped down to his underwear and was rolling around on a white sheet splattered with red paint as his cohorts pretended to club him. It was a bit parky out, what with the clouds and rain and all, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. I was going to pick up a club myself and batter the twat but there were policemen about to control the, err, crowd, so I contented myself with taking some of their proffered literature then ostentatiously binning it. Although I don’t think anybody saw me to be honest. My futile effort versus theirs.

Don’t these people have jobs? Stupid question. And what, precisely, do they hope to achieve? Canada will do what Canada does and a bunch of deluded crusties on income support shouting at their Spanish embassy won’t change anything. Do they think any media coverage will stop people buying Canadian goods? Well, maybe. Maybe two people. Oooh, that’s gonna hurt GDP. Oh well, I suppose it keeps ‘em out of mischief. Better they waste their time drawing banners and shouting a lot than doing real damage, some shop owner probably sold a few tins of red paint and the shop assistants from the various ‘tiendas’ on Goya had their afternoon livened up.

They eventually packed up about 1800hrs, no doubt wet but happy. Hope someone kept club man’s clothes dry for him otherwise he’s got a long, cold journey home.