Me and Connie Again, Demanding an Inquiry into Toronto G20

Remember about a month ago when I blogged about belonging to a very exclusive (for a minute) club -- just Connie Fournier and me?

I've just returned the favour. She's very big on freedom of expression, albeit from the waaaay rightwing end of the spectrum, so I sent her a message suggesting that if she found the events over the G20 protests in Toronto as appalling as any right-thinking ;) person would, she might consider joining the group, Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20.

She thanked me for the heads-up and said she would join.

But alas, it's not such an exclusive club this time. Membership just zoomed past 16,000 to nearly 16,500 from just over 11,000 this morning.

And there are some real movers and shakers in the group. Already a rally is planned for Canada Day.

Rally for a Public Inquiry Concerning the Actions at the G20

Date: Thursday, July 1, 2010
Time: 2:30pm - 11:30pm
Location: Queens Park (in front of the legislature)
Street: Queens Park Crescent
City/Town: Toronto, ON

Feet on the street time again.

TIME CHANGE: Rally begins at 5:30 p.m.

It's up to us

The mission of CRUSH, Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper, a totally grassroots, multi-partisan group, is currently to run thought-provoking and revenue-generating ads in local mainstream newspapers (and to raise the dough to pay for them of course).

The group is clearly on a learning curve in media buying.

In March, they thought they had placed an ad in the high-visibility Saturday edition of the Calgary Herald. Expectant CRUSHers searched the rag without finding the ad. After some confusion, a wait until Monday business hours, and a double charge, it was revealed that the ad had run, but in the less-read Friday edition. Discussions -- and learning -- ensued.

Last week, there was another lesson (Scott has the details), this time concerning the Edmonton version of Metro. The group scored a coup in booking the outside back cover for Thursday at a pretty good price -- $1,000. Said price confirmed in writing. Press releases went out. Then, just before it was about to run, organizers were told that the ad was 'objectionable' and would not appear.

Discussions again ensued. Metro backpedalled. It would run the ad -- so how objectionable was is? -- but the price was now $2,500.

Huh?

The infamous/famous line was trotted out: 'Mistakes were made'.

More discussions. CRUSH declined the new offer and got their $1,000 refunded.

Now here's the good part. Organizers put out another press release detailing this adventure. The good people at the Hamilton Spectator sent an unsolicited offer to run a full-page ad at a discounted price.

W00t!

Now here's the ask. They don't have enough dough at the moment to take advantage of this interesting offer.

We realize we've begged on behalf of CRUSH before. Here we go again. If you're able, please consider contributing to this fascinating experiment in grassroots activism.

Our totally fucking useless Opposition isn't doing its job. It's up to us. Here's a way to help.

Also at that link is a summary of CRUSH's financial situation, accomplishments so far, and plans for the future.

And kudos to The Spec for standing up for freedom of expression. Well, OK, discounted freedom of expression.