But, I've been turning my butt out for these things for going on 40 years.
The planned Canadian Labour Congress rally and march is supposedly family friendly. Big negotiations with the cops, yadayada. Good. I'm waaay to old to get water-cannonaded or pepper-sprayed.
I should go. I don't wanna.
But, but, but. Look at the sneaky way those soshialists are guilt-tripping us.
Women Take the Lead
Women will gather at the Sir John A MacDonald statue on the south part of the Queens Park lawn, to give voice to the impact of G8 and G20 decisions on women. Take the lead for maternal health with full reproductive rights, for an end to women's poverty, for women's equality at home and globally!
Join thousands of people on Saturday, June 26th, at Queen's Park in Toronto to let the leaders of the G20 nations know their Summit must be about working people.
So. What do you think? Do I go? Are you going?
10 comments:
If I was in Toronto I'd already have a weeks vacation booked starting Friday and my protest kit packed and waiting by the door -- darned right you should go!
Well, I did travel to Quebec city in 2001 to participate in peaceful protests against the Summit of the Americas.
Just in case the police renege on their agreement to not use the sound cannons and not teargas the crowds, bring a face kerchief soaked in cider vinegar packed in a ziplock bag, and ear plugs to reduce the harm to your hearing.
Fern, If your work place is closed because of this insanity and you have nothing better to do then I think you should attend some protests.
If I were in Toronto, I would be joining in these protests come hell or high water with the number of my parents' lawyer friend (my family live in TO).
I am especially pissed because of my poor sick father who is only semi-lucid and has a tendency of going completely out of it (ammonia on the brain due to complications of advanced cirrhosis of the liver) is currently at a TO hospital. I worry about him and other sick hospitalized people being turfed to parts unknown; patients like my dad potentially getting lost in transit due to chaos at these hospitals.
Though, many assure me they (hospital) won't move my father in his present condition; I really have to wonder.
By all means, I'm just expressing why I'm, personally pissed off and would protest if I could be in TO.
You should go because there is alot of this circus that goes everything you believe in.
I hope you do and I wish you well.
I am not going. I feel so angry and powerless at all the idiotic measures that the pigs are taking, and I feel conflicted about whether to express that anger in the form of a boycott of the summit or by joining the masses to hold banners, signs and sing songs. I'm also tired of how little demonstrations achieve in the end. Protests often achive so little already and now even the ability to express ourselves is being curtailed so greatly in such a heavy-handed manner.
All that being said, Jamie turns 3 on Saturday. So, I'm gonna be partying! It was an easy decision to make... kind of. I know myself well enough to know that I would definitely be there if it wasn't his birthday.
It may not sound democratic, but a part of me wishes that the media would boycott the G20 since the stupid fake lake is being built for them. Man, they build a fucking lake and laid-off contract employees can't even collect their fucking EI that they paid into.
ephemeral
I would go except I am part of the corporate media and assigned to work. Maybe I can finagle being there, but I doubt it. More likely I will be at my desk ...
I also think you should go, and take every woman you know with you. It's Saturday, the subway works, and everything will be closed so why not?
I would go if I were in TO. I am still tempted to try and make it, but AJ is still nursing and I don't want to haul the family all the way to Toronto so I can participate (and no, I don't want to bring the kids, no matter how family-friendly we want the march to be. I remember all too well what happened in Ottawa when the G20 was there in 2001 - the police broke all their promises to us. There was no tear gas or water cannons but there were intimidating riot police and cops with dogs coming into the march trying to pick off Black Bloc members. Hardly family friendly)
I say go. I will be at some protests this week. I will be gone on the weekend
I think it's important to oppose the G8/G20 circus and I am coming down to Toronto to participate at the rally.
I might be not too old to get water-cannonaded or pepper-sprayed - although I don't like it, except it's very hot and there is nothing but water in the cannon ;)
From my point of view it is extremely important to speak out against the enormous growth of the repression apparatus and to confront it in the streets in order to defend our right to free speech and to fight oppression. Let's show the G8/G20 that they are not wanted, not in Toronto nor anywhere else!
What/how much the protests "achieve" depends on how you're measuring it - you can say they "achieve so little" if you're expecting to sway mass public opinion or change the outcome of the summit, but that's not realistic.
What they CAN do is change *some* public opinion, let people at home know that they're not alone in dissenting, show people across the world know that people in Canada aren't happy about this, show the government and the elites involved in the G20 that people aren't happy about this, and boost morale within the movement, by getting everyone together to share and know that people everywhere are working to build a better world.
And the more people who show up, the more this police state is told that we're not effing taking it.
Whether I go to a demo or not depend upon how I think I will feel when it is over.
If I expect I will think: "Oh damnit - I should have been there ...." I will meander to it.
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