Facility housing Bodies exhibit apologizes for shooing protesters

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This article was published 18/11/2010 (5743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A spokesman for the owners of the MTS Centre Exhibition Hall issued an apology Wednesday night, admitting that protesters had been improperly ordered to move off the sidewalk near the downtown facility on two occasions.

Scott Brown, director of corporate communications for True North Sports and Entertainment, said security officials exceeded the authority given to the promoter in a permit from city hall, which allows them to control access to the building for bus tours.

“This is totally my fault and one I’m not happy about,” Brown said.

Critics of the touring show Bodies: The Exhibit, are concerned the display of preserved cadavers might include the bodies of Chinese prisoners and that True North is abusing terms of a permit issued by city hall to keep entrances to the building clear.

True North had denied it was abusing the powers of the permit and Brown repeated that denial when first contacted Wednesday night about claims by two University of Manitoba professors who said exhibit security staff had ordered them away from the building. Brown said his security staff told him the incidents never happened.

But Brown called the Free Press a second time Wednesday night, admitting that another security supervisor witnessed the incidents.

Brown said True North has no objections to people peacefully protesting near the exhibit hall and no peaceful protesters will be threatened in the future.

“The (security) supervisors have been reminded and will be again that the purpose of that permit is to ensure a safe pedestrian corridor when it is needed and not prevent individuals from expressing their right to free speech,” Brown said.

Social work professors Maria Cheung and Cathy Rocke said security staff confronted them in front of the exhibit building Friday night and ordered them to move.

Cheung said that was the second time, noting she was ordered to move from the area while gathering signatures for a petition two weeks earlier.

“Every time we’ve gone there, they’ve asked us to leave,” Cheung said.

Rocke said the attitude of the security staff surprised her. “Living in a democracy, we do have the right to peaceful protest.”

Brown said the permit allows security staff to keep the entrance to the facility clear and to clear the entire sidewalk when bus tours are being dropped off.

He said protesters are welcome there at all other times.

“They’re entitled to their opinions and they’re entitled to demonstrate,” Brown said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca