That's good but not good enough. Canada's rules about petitions are archaic. Here is ARCC's explainer on the difference between paper and electronic petitions and its plans to use both sorts.
The main reason ARCC is also offering a paper petition is because the anti-choice movement has been submitting paper petitions, and it's important to show Parliament that we have official support for our side too. Another advantage of submitting a paper petition is that MPs are required to present it to the House and it gets read into the official Hansard record. We will ask a number of MPs to present batches of petition sheets to maximize the impact. Finally, the paper petition allows people who are not online to express their opposition to the motion - so please target them if you can. (People who are online may sign both petitions.) Note: You do not need to obtain 25 signatures on every sheet - ARCC just needs a minimum of 25 signatures total before submitting petition sheets to an MP.And indeed the Fetus Lobby has been busy. Here's one bragging yesterday that they have 3816 signatures on paper. (It's got a breakdown by the MPs who will present them.)
Yeah. I know. This is all so old hat. Been there, done that.
But it's gotta be done AGAIN. Old, er, experienced campaigners and new, younger campaigners are joining forces to beat this down once and for all. (Yeah. Right.)
And speaking of hats. . . .
6 comments:
John Rafferty is one of the MPs presenting a fetus fetish petition??? I always thought he was pro-choice.
Campaign Lie has him as pro-abortion. I think MPs are required to present petitions with more than 25 sigs.
That Campaign Lie site is very useful. ;-)
Hey there, who you callin' old?!? ;-)
But ya, it's a pisser, waking up and realizing ya gotta do this one all over again. That said, when a friend and I discussed this yesterday, there's a sweetness in being a bridge in the movement, taking what we learned as student activists and passing it forward to the young women.
My daughter's working on this issue, too. Are we both dedicated feminists or are we simply bound in our oppression?
Note: If you're like me and didn't read all the links at first (just wanted to cut to the chase), go here to sign the paper petition:
http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/action/m312-paper-petition-en.pdf
Ugh... Now I gotta go get stupid stamps... (grumble, grumble)
Thanks for that, GN.
People should remember that you don't need 25 signatures on a sheet. ARCC needs 25 TOTAL to submit to an MP and I think they'll get that.
Printing out on legal-sized paper is best, I think.
As I've said elsewhere, I'm packing petitions in my purse again, just like the 80's! Retro anyone?
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