Velvet LeClair’s papier mâché likeness of
U.S. President Donald Trump
drew a lot of attention from skaters on the Rideau Canal on Sunday.
She donned the mask and danced along the Rideau Canal from the Lisgar Street entrance to the Corktown Bridge, where a banner that said “(Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is for skating, not kidnapping” hung from the railings.
Beside her, dozens of signs with messages like “ICE out,” ICE out for good,” and “lock him up” lined the stone walls.
This is LeClair’s second
Trump
mask, and she’s been performing political street theatre in front of the U.S. Embassy every week for over a year.
Political street theatre, sometimes called guerilla theatre, are performances intended to draw attention to political and socioeconomic issues through satire, protest and caricatures.
“I’ve been going to the U.S. Embassy to protest every week. I have family that lives down there. They’re our closest trading allies, partners. … It’s just like devastating to see what’s happening. It’s just deteriorating quite fast,” she said.
“It’s very empowering to make people laugh. I think most of us, collectively, hate Trump worldwide. This just brings us together. Everyone’s smiling and doing their little part of being part of the resistance by supporting it.”
LeClair hopes to bring political theatre to a wider audience. She will be performing at the Ottawa Fringe Festival this summer, where she will perform an hour-long political puppet show about all three levels of government.
But most importantly, she wants to continue performing political street theatre in public spaces, especially since the U.S. Department of Justice released three million pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on Jan. 30.
“I hope that we’re going to keep doing this, because it brings a lot of people joy. We’re making videos and trying to get them on social media to show support to the American people,” LeClair said.
“F–k ICE, f–k Trump … It’s disgusting. These people deserve justice.”
Antonia Bos, one of the organizers of Sunday’s protest, is happy that skaters stopped and took photos and videos of LeClair’s performance.
“We’re still hoping for people to come and basically interact with
Trump
. People can basically voice concerns, their beliefs, and just talk to Trump about that,” she said.
“It’s political street theatre. You never know what you’re going to get.”
Bos said the main purpose of the protest was to help boost the spirits of Americans who may be frustrated and scared of the Trump administration.
According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data gathering organization based out of Syracuse University in New York, ICE had held 70,766 people in detention as of Jan. 25. Around 74.2 per cent of those in detention have no criminal convictions, it said.
Outrage grew nationwide after Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, was shot and killed by Customs and Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘Well, you’re Canadians. What are you doing (protesting) right here in Canada?’” she added.
“It’s called empathy. It doesn’t have to happen to you for it to matter.”
