[All] Details of the C-51 event

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Bill 51 Protest summery
I didn''t have any roll in the planning of this event at all. I heard about the whole thing a few days ago thanks to Eleanor. (Who is also in the Record photo.)   As a Metis environmental activist I have been attending events like this with my drum and metis sash.  Normally there are other women to join in with but with such short notice I was basically the indigenous spokesperson for the day. It was rainy and my hair went huge with the humidity. Lol. 
When I got to the sight the fella who set up the event had a sound system and some guest speakers but no formal plan on how to do the event so I sort of stepped up and opened it up recognizing the that we are in Six Nation's territorial lands. I sang the women's warrior song which is the traditional song created to raise awareness for missing and murdered women which is also sung as a sign of solidarity with First Nations. I gave a bit of a little speech about what I felt of the bill, saying it's non compliant to charter rights etc. and passed the mike to other folks. 
We had a professor there who is an experts on terrorism who understand the condition sets in when folks feel disenfranchised by society. Unless we understand the terms that would settle their grievances, we can't take policy measures to reduce the risks to any meaningful extent. Bill C-51 makes it impossible to even have those discussions. She fears being black listed for simply doing the research she needs to do her job. The bill is a threat to social cohesion efforts making our society more dangerous.
We had a local cop speak out in a written submission read by proxy about how much harder his job will be when it's up to him to determine if an arrested is needed or not without the need for a warrant to protect his own liability. The law is so vague he could arrest people for doing nothing other than giving him reason for being suspicious based on his own discretionary powers. The law is so vague it doesn't give him reasonable guidelines to work with.
We had a guy who runs a Muslim student group at Wilfrid Laurier. He had a police officer approach him asking him to provide a list of names of potential radicals in the group. This kid organizes bowling events and pizza nights for heavens sake. He didn't have a clue but the cops kept prodding him for info. He said how his group wanted to go play at a paintball place but they had to decline because they were too afraid the cops would view the event as a jihadist training camp event or something. They're stuck bowling all the time and it's kind of boring.  The kids are afraid to speak to media or to anyone about their views on anything in campus thinking it could be taken the wrong way leaving them with the inability to cross the boarder later on. They're scared, frustrated and worried. Once bill C-51 happens, just gathering as a group is suspect enough for their privacy rights to be violated. They can't even hang out without being subject to unwarranted scrutiny. It's not fair. 
Folks spoke of how folks with substance abuse issues might be to afraid to get help fearing the new bill will expose them. (Same for sexual abuse victims, victims of domestic violence or other personal issues etc.)
We had an economist speaking up saying how this will ruin Canada's trade reputation.  She notes how Harper has denied the last 4 Prime Ministers the right to have a say on this bill including former Tory reps Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney who both oppose it.  He denied the Privacy Watchdog the right to have a say. The law is also being opposed by a huge list of legal experts including Supreme Court Judges, lawyers, legal experts and policy experts. 
The law allows CSIS and other agencies to access your tax files, medical records, mental health history, emails, social media postings all without warrants, without any oversight and if folks have complaints there is no agency to appeal to.  In Europe nations have seen harassment via taxation against anyone showing the slightest opposition towards government. False charges were laid against citizens groups in Russia to the point there are very few groups left. There are similar bills in Turkey, Ireland, the UK and it's all reflecting the same racist angles. It's a global issue and Harper is going with this trend. It is dangerous. 
Fellow Gren member Greg. Michalenko spoke out about how birding groups are now being targeted by tax agencies via audits. His witty pun filled presentation had the audience giggling along. He was both succinct and charming. I really enjoyed that. 

We also had a lady who spoke up as a concerned citizen of how worried she was. How she cries at night because Canada is no longer the same under Harper. She asked the crowd if we could sing O Canada together and it was by far the most emotionally moving part of the day. That's when the newspaper took my photo with the drum. 
There are many other voices unified against the bill but always speaking towards their love of Canadian society and the need to protect what we've got. It restored my faith in Canada so much. What a beautiful nation we live in. 
Anyways, that's the days events. It really was a remarkable event. We had hundreds of folks there of all ages, all backgrounds united in the call for compliance to Charter rights and common sense. 
Afterwards Alex and I went for a drive and we came across a beautiful Red Tail hawk around Roseville. I asked Alex to pull over for a sec. For some reason I had the need to connect with this bird. Alex parked the car, I walked out slowly the hawk until I was about 8 feet away. In indigenous cultures, the hawk is a messanger of Creator/God. When you see one, it's a message that you are on the right path. That your voice has been heard. The bird was so sweet and trusting. If I had a leather glove and some meat, I could have fed him within the hour. That's how well we got along.
Photos of the bird and I are in the attachments along with a little movie of it on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrkmGRMC7Oo&list=UU9kP8MXPxsOQ8BFIbkuL7Ig
Lulu :0)
    

  
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