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Protests sometimes risk fading into the background in Ottawa — just look at Parliament Hill, where a cast of demonstrators regularly gather there in small numbers — but many of 2017’s protests could not be ignored.
This year saw frequent — and big — marches and rallies on a wide range of issues, such as women’s rights, anti-racism, the SOS Vanier saga and a “reoccupation” on the Hill by Indigenous protesters.
Here are some of the most prominent rallies that took place in Ottawa this year.
Thousands in Ottawa marched in support of the Women’s March on Washington and sister organizations around the world, walking from the Human Rights Monument to the Bronson Centre Saturday January 21, 2017.
1. The Women’s March
The year had barely started when thousands of Ottawans poured into the streets on Jan. 22, just two days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated in the U.S. According to organizer Catherine Butler, the march was to “support women in America who knew, as has been proven out, that they were going to be having a difficult time under this (Trump) presidency.”
Butler recalled how the expected number of marchers grew from several hundred people a few weeks out, to 2,000 the day before. The final count was between 6,000 to 8,000, according to police.
The march was a branch of a larger protest movement that played out in the United States, Canada and around the world. Butler originally wanted to bus down to Washington to join the main march. But after she saw how many people in the city couldn’t make it to America’s capital but still wanted to act, she began planning Ottawa’s version with a handful of other women.
Butler said the march served “to flag that women everywhere, including Canada, are starting to get angry, and we’ve had it. We’ve had it with some of the inequality that exists.”
There are some hopeful signs for women’s issues since the march, Butler said, like the increasing prevalence of women in elected office (except for Ottawa’s city council, where just four women are elected, compared to 20 men). The #MeToo movement has also helped to push the conversation about sexual harassment and gender dynamics into the forefront, she said.
But the extent of the #MeToo phenomenon — which saw thousands of women share their personal stories of harassment and assault on social media — is itself a cause for concern, according to Butler.
“There are still women who are dying daily by violence against them,” she said. “The whole #MeToo movement was an eye-opener, and the amount of response in that moment is indicative of the type of culture and the pervasiveness of sexual harassment.
“All those things drive home for us that we’ve accomplished a lot but there’s still a long way to go to change the fundamental tenets of the culture that we live in and survive in to be more embracing of women’s equality,” she said.
“We’ve done some great things, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
Butler is planning another march for Jan. 20, 2018.
Thousands gather on Parliament Hill for the March for Life rally in favour of ending abortion, in Ottawa on Thursday, May 11, 2017.
2. Reproductive rights
The March for Life, an anti-abortion rally organized by the Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) that attracts thousands, resurfaces a controversial issue in Ottawa every May.
Johanne Brownrigg of the CLC’s Ottawa office said 2017 was an important year for the demonstration, marking 20 years since the march began and coinciding with Canada’s 150th anniversary. Accordingly, the march’s theme for 2017 was, “Life, we stand on guard for thee.”
“From our point of view, this isn’t about the CLC and it isn’t about the March for Life,” Brownrigg said, “but it’s always about humanizing the unborn child.”
But Brownrigg said the anti-abortion movement faces challenges from a federal government that is promoting abortion abroad when “it’s an exceedingly difficult issue, and it is nowhere near settled in this country.”
Brownrigg also said Ontario’s new “bubble zone” legislation, which requires protestors to stay at least 50 meters away from abortion clinics, is an “imperial law.”
A large part of why that legislation passed was the work of groups such as Defend Choice: Ottawa, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and Planned Parenthood Ottawa. Defend Choice held a counter-protest at the March for Life.
“Being able to take this and make it more of a legal issue was extremely important,” said Meera Chander of Defend Choice: Ottawa. “I think one of the reasons it ended up being so successful was us being able to get city councillors involved with this discussion, and then it being a matter of police jurisdiction, and then that being further taken by the MPP Yasir Naqvi.”
Just two weeks before the March for Life, Sydney Holmes, a co-founder of Defend Choice: Ottawa, organized a rally criticizing the lack of enforcement of a bylaw she said could protect abortion clinic workers and patients.
“We learned that the bylaw is very open-ended,” Holmes said. “Essentially, through the mayor’s eyes, it’s not enforceable in this context. However, he did respond to our appeals by going to Yasir Naqvi.”
Holmes’ rally brought hundreds into the streets. That’s a sign, Holmes said, of the “anger that had hit a lot of people in Ottawa. Everyone was feeling the same about it, that people have the right to access any kind of health care without being harassed.”
She said “human rights movements” such as the pro-abortion coalition are feeling energized to fight back against “Trumpism” in the United States and Canada.
But there’s lots left to do, according to Chander: “Obviously the work hasn’t ended here. We will continue to work hard in protecting reproductive rights.”
Drew Dobson, founder of SOS Vanier, during final submissions to the Planning Committee on the Salvation Army expansion plan for a shelter in Vanier at Ottawa City Hall on Friday.
3. SOS Vanier
A proposal in June to build a new Salvation Army shelter in Vanier sparked months of protest, consultation and consternation.
Drew Dobson, owner of a pub right beside the proposed shelter location at 333 Montreal Rd., came to lead SOS Vanier, a local resistance movement against the plan.
Dobson laid out three main concerns that inspired the group: First, the idea that the “mega-shelter” model was the wrong way to tackle homelessness in Ottawa; second, that Vanier, one of Ottawa’s poorer neighbourhoods, was the wrong place to put it; and third, that Montreal Road, a main street, was an even more inappropriate planning choice.
SOS Vanier has grown into an organization with around 1,400 members on Facebook. It’s planning to throw fundraising events in the new year that will help pay for its Ontario Municipal Board legal fight against the shelter, which city council approved in November.
SOS Vanier remains “just a logo and a Facebook site, not a legal entity” according to Philippe Denault, a longtime member, but it has inspired a lasting resistance to the shelter.
The group’s aim, according to Dobson, has now shifted from protesting the shelter to the wider issue of homelessness.
“City council has already voted on the location, so that’s off the table,” Dobson said. “We can protest our hearts out and that won’t change. So now we’re looking at trying to lobby the city into dealing with homelessness in a responsible manner.
“We’re trying to take it from a community issue to a city of Ottawa issue.”
“It’s not only about, ‘We don’t want them in Vanier,’ it’s also how we want them to adopt a different approach,” said Denault. “To have different shelters, to provide housing and social support to the homeless, instead of warehousing them in a big shelter.”
A man stands outside a large teepee erected by indigenous demonstrators to kick off a four-day Canada Day protest in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, June 29, 2017.
4. Reoccupation
A day before Canada Day, Indigenous groups staged a “reoccupation” on Parliament Hill, erecting a teepee and holding ceremonies to counter Canada’s 150th anniversary.
For participant Ash Courchene, the teepee represented a sovereign space that “literally and figuratively sat outside the Canadian parliamentary system.” Tricia Bazinet, who also participated, said the action was intended to call attention to the challenges faced by Indigenous children.
“Our goal was not to put it up as a symbol,” said Bazinet, though she acknowledged that the teepee held symbolic value as well. “It was more a diplomatic action, in terms of jurisdiction.”
Brent Patterson, the political director at The Council of Canadians, was also at the reoccupation.
“I think it was a clear assertion that the reconciliation agenda that is supposed to be underway hasn’t really reached the grassroots people,” he said. “It’s seen that the stated intention of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples hasn’t been seen as credible or as real.”
An initially tense confrontation between activists and police eventually subsided. The teepee was erected (and moved to a more central location) and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited on June 30. That visit bothered Bazinet, who said it is part of the government’s continuing effort to co-opt the symbolism of the action.
Bazinet fears “state power over our actions and our dissent” — through co-optation, suppression or criminalization — are putting the movement at risk.
Courchene, who saw the visit of the prime minister as an acknowledgment of a nation-to-nation relationship, believes Indigenous issues will continue to come to the fore in 2018. He said activists will “claim territory as needed and move on, and do the same thing elsewhere as needed.”
“I think that what we’re going to see is a reassertion of Indigenous sovereignty on our own traditional lands. And hopefully holding the settler government accountable for the promises they do make.
“It’s up to native people to take actions they need to take for their own well-being.”
About 700 demonstrators listen to speeches, such as this one by Alex Neve of Amnesty International (C), as they took part in a noon time anti-racism protest in front of the US embassy in Ottawa. The peaceful demo was to voice their opinions against white supremacy and racism in all its forms.
5. Anti-racism rally, post-Charlottesville
This protest, which saw hundreds gather at the U.S. Embassy after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA left one woman dead, was meant to “send a message of hope and tolerance to carry back to President Tump.”
Joel Harden, who organized the gathering, said “there is a disturbing rise of hatred in our society. It’s fuelled by economic conditions, and it’s fuelled by people like the current U.S. president getting a pulpit to say misogynist and racist things.”
Harden and others originally hoped the rally would be held on Tuesday, Aug. 22, but storm warnings in Ottawa forced a postponement until the next day. On Wednesday, an estimated 700 people filled the steps at the embassy on Sussex Drive.
Despite the strong showing, Harden said, there are still worries about the growing strength of far right voices in Canadian politics. Far right groups held a number of rallies in Ottawa over the summer and into the fall.
“White supremacists can put out a flag, and sadly, folks will flock to it,” said Harden.
“There was an open gathering in November of people that call themselves Canadian patriots. The particular concern for them are illegal immigrants, the politics of immigration. They’re still organizing and seemingly ignorant to the fact that Canada is a nation of immigrants.
“They keep wanting to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre and there are still people who are willing to hear it.”
查看原文...
This year saw frequent — and big — marches and rallies on a wide range of issues, such as women’s rights, anti-racism, the SOS Vanier saga and a “reoccupation” on the Hill by Indigenous protesters.
Here are some of the most prominent rallies that took place in Ottawa this year.
Thousands in Ottawa marched in support of the Women’s March on Washington and sister organizations around the world, walking from the Human Rights Monument to the Bronson Centre Saturday January 21, 2017.
1. The Women’s March
The year had barely started when thousands of Ottawans poured into the streets on Jan. 22, just two days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated in the U.S. According to organizer Catherine Butler, the march was to “support women in America who knew, as has been proven out, that they were going to be having a difficult time under this (Trump) presidency.”
Butler recalled how the expected number of marchers grew from several hundred people a few weeks out, to 2,000 the day before. The final count was between 6,000 to 8,000, according to police.
The march was a branch of a larger protest movement that played out in the United States, Canada and around the world. Butler originally wanted to bus down to Washington to join the main march. But after she saw how many people in the city couldn’t make it to America’s capital but still wanted to act, she began planning Ottawa’s version with a handful of other women.
Butler said the march served “to flag that women everywhere, including Canada, are starting to get angry, and we’ve had it. We’ve had it with some of the inequality that exists.”
There are some hopeful signs for women’s issues since the march, Butler said, like the increasing prevalence of women in elected office (except for Ottawa’s city council, where just four women are elected, compared to 20 men). The #MeToo movement has also helped to push the conversation about sexual harassment and gender dynamics into the forefront, she said.
But the extent of the #MeToo phenomenon — which saw thousands of women share their personal stories of harassment and assault on social media — is itself a cause for concern, according to Butler.
“There are still women who are dying daily by violence against them,” she said. “The whole #MeToo movement was an eye-opener, and the amount of response in that moment is indicative of the type of culture and the pervasiveness of sexual harassment.
“All those things drive home for us that we’ve accomplished a lot but there’s still a long way to go to change the fundamental tenets of the culture that we live in and survive in to be more embracing of women’s equality,” she said.
“We’ve done some great things, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
Butler is planning another march for Jan. 20, 2018.
Thousands gather on Parliament Hill for the March for Life rally in favour of ending abortion, in Ottawa on Thursday, May 11, 2017.
2. Reproductive rights
The March for Life, an anti-abortion rally organized by the Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) that attracts thousands, resurfaces a controversial issue in Ottawa every May.
Johanne Brownrigg of the CLC’s Ottawa office said 2017 was an important year for the demonstration, marking 20 years since the march began and coinciding with Canada’s 150th anniversary. Accordingly, the march’s theme for 2017 was, “Life, we stand on guard for thee.”
“From our point of view, this isn’t about the CLC and it isn’t about the March for Life,” Brownrigg said, “but it’s always about humanizing the unborn child.”
But Brownrigg said the anti-abortion movement faces challenges from a federal government that is promoting abortion abroad when “it’s an exceedingly difficult issue, and it is nowhere near settled in this country.”
Brownrigg also said Ontario’s new “bubble zone” legislation, which requires protestors to stay at least 50 meters away from abortion clinics, is an “imperial law.”
A large part of why that legislation passed was the work of groups such as Defend Choice: Ottawa, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and Planned Parenthood Ottawa. Defend Choice held a counter-protest at the March for Life.
“Being able to take this and make it more of a legal issue was extremely important,” said Meera Chander of Defend Choice: Ottawa. “I think one of the reasons it ended up being so successful was us being able to get city councillors involved with this discussion, and then it being a matter of police jurisdiction, and then that being further taken by the MPP Yasir Naqvi.”
Just two weeks before the March for Life, Sydney Holmes, a co-founder of Defend Choice: Ottawa, organized a rally criticizing the lack of enforcement of a bylaw she said could protect abortion clinic workers and patients.
“We learned that the bylaw is very open-ended,” Holmes said. “Essentially, through the mayor’s eyes, it’s not enforceable in this context. However, he did respond to our appeals by going to Yasir Naqvi.”
Holmes’ rally brought hundreds into the streets. That’s a sign, Holmes said, of the “anger that had hit a lot of people in Ottawa. Everyone was feeling the same about it, that people have the right to access any kind of health care without being harassed.”
She said “human rights movements” such as the pro-abortion coalition are feeling energized to fight back against “Trumpism” in the United States and Canada.
But there’s lots left to do, according to Chander: “Obviously the work hasn’t ended here. We will continue to work hard in protecting reproductive rights.”
Drew Dobson, founder of SOS Vanier, during final submissions to the Planning Committee on the Salvation Army expansion plan for a shelter in Vanier at Ottawa City Hall on Friday.
3. SOS Vanier
A proposal in June to build a new Salvation Army shelter in Vanier sparked months of protest, consultation and consternation.
Drew Dobson, owner of a pub right beside the proposed shelter location at 333 Montreal Rd., came to lead SOS Vanier, a local resistance movement against the plan.
Dobson laid out three main concerns that inspired the group: First, the idea that the “mega-shelter” model was the wrong way to tackle homelessness in Ottawa; second, that Vanier, one of Ottawa’s poorer neighbourhoods, was the wrong place to put it; and third, that Montreal Road, a main street, was an even more inappropriate planning choice.
SOS Vanier has grown into an organization with around 1,400 members on Facebook. It’s planning to throw fundraising events in the new year that will help pay for its Ontario Municipal Board legal fight against the shelter, which city council approved in November.
SOS Vanier remains “just a logo and a Facebook site, not a legal entity” according to Philippe Denault, a longtime member, but it has inspired a lasting resistance to the shelter.
The group’s aim, according to Dobson, has now shifted from protesting the shelter to the wider issue of homelessness.
“City council has already voted on the location, so that’s off the table,” Dobson said. “We can protest our hearts out and that won’t change. So now we’re looking at trying to lobby the city into dealing with homelessness in a responsible manner.
“We’re trying to take it from a community issue to a city of Ottawa issue.”
“It’s not only about, ‘We don’t want them in Vanier,’ it’s also how we want them to adopt a different approach,” said Denault. “To have different shelters, to provide housing and social support to the homeless, instead of warehousing them in a big shelter.”
A man stands outside a large teepee erected by indigenous demonstrators to kick off a four-day Canada Day protest in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, June 29, 2017.
4. Reoccupation
A day before Canada Day, Indigenous groups staged a “reoccupation” on Parliament Hill, erecting a teepee and holding ceremonies to counter Canada’s 150th anniversary.
For participant Ash Courchene, the teepee represented a sovereign space that “literally and figuratively sat outside the Canadian parliamentary system.” Tricia Bazinet, who also participated, said the action was intended to call attention to the challenges faced by Indigenous children.
“Our goal was not to put it up as a symbol,” said Bazinet, though she acknowledged that the teepee held symbolic value as well. “It was more a diplomatic action, in terms of jurisdiction.”
Brent Patterson, the political director at The Council of Canadians, was also at the reoccupation.
“I think it was a clear assertion that the reconciliation agenda that is supposed to be underway hasn’t really reached the grassroots people,” he said. “It’s seen that the stated intention of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples hasn’t been seen as credible or as real.”
An initially tense confrontation between activists and police eventually subsided. The teepee was erected (and moved to a more central location) and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited on June 30. That visit bothered Bazinet, who said it is part of the government’s continuing effort to co-opt the symbolism of the action.
Bazinet fears “state power over our actions and our dissent” — through co-optation, suppression or criminalization — are putting the movement at risk.
Courchene, who saw the visit of the prime minister as an acknowledgment of a nation-to-nation relationship, believes Indigenous issues will continue to come to the fore in 2018. He said activists will “claim territory as needed and move on, and do the same thing elsewhere as needed.”
“I think that what we’re going to see is a reassertion of Indigenous sovereignty on our own traditional lands. And hopefully holding the settler government accountable for the promises they do make.
“It’s up to native people to take actions they need to take for their own well-being.”
About 700 demonstrators listen to speeches, such as this one by Alex Neve of Amnesty International (C), as they took part in a noon time anti-racism protest in front of the US embassy in Ottawa. The peaceful demo was to voice their opinions against white supremacy and racism in all its forms.
5. Anti-racism rally, post-Charlottesville
This protest, which saw hundreds gather at the U.S. Embassy after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA left one woman dead, was meant to “send a message of hope and tolerance to carry back to President Tump.”
Joel Harden, who organized the gathering, said “there is a disturbing rise of hatred in our society. It’s fuelled by economic conditions, and it’s fuelled by people like the current U.S. president getting a pulpit to say misogynist and racist things.”
Harden and others originally hoped the rally would be held on Tuesday, Aug. 22, but storm warnings in Ottawa forced a postponement until the next day. On Wednesday, an estimated 700 people filled the steps at the embassy on Sussex Drive.
Despite the strong showing, Harden said, there are still worries about the growing strength of far right voices in Canadian politics. Far right groups held a number of rallies in Ottawa over the summer and into the fall.
“White supremacists can put out a flag, and sadly, folks will flock to it,” said Harden.
“There was an open gathering in November of people that call themselves Canadian patriots. The particular concern for them are illegal immigrants, the politics of immigration. They’re still organizing and seemingly ignorant to the fact that Canada is a nation of immigrants.
“They keep wanting to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre and there are still people who are willing to hear it.”
查看原文...
