Roger Varley has been in the news business almost 40 years with The Canadian Press/Broadcast News, Uxbnridge Times-Journal, Richmond Hill Liberal and Uxbridge Cosmos. Co-winner with two others of CCNA national feature writing award. In Scout movement over 30 years, almost 25 as a leader. Took Uxbridge youths to World Jamboree in Holland. Involved in community theatre for 20 years as actor, director, playwright, stage manager etc. Born in England, came to Canada at 16, lived most of life north and east of Toronto with a five-year period in B.C.
Let the revolution begin
This weekend, there will be a protest of sorts in downtown Toronto.
It will be, I believe, the first Canadian manifestation of the growing "Occupy" series of protests that have been going on in the United States for the last three weeks or so, beginning in New York City with Occupy Wall Street. Compared to last year's G8-G20 protests, it likely will be a small affair. But even if only a couple of hundred people show up, it should not be dismissed out of hand.
Since the Occupy movement seems to be spreading across the States and various groups are planning similar protests in a number of Canadian cities, it cannot simply be written off as the whining of a small group of malcontents. It is indicative, I believe, of a growing sense of not only losing ground financially, but frustration at the ever decreasing voice of the populace in the governing of their country.
Indeed, what separates the Occupy protests from the G20 protests is that the Occupy movement is not targeting a specific event where government leaders are in attendance. The Occupy protesters are just going out to try and make their voices heard.
In both Canada and the United States - but most particularly in Canada - we are given the opportunity once in a while to cast our votes in an election and then told to shut up and do as we are told until the next election. Here in Canada, we are told ad nauseam by the federal government that the economy is fragile and we must all be prepared to tighten our belts a little to weather the storm. But that doesn't stop the government from spending $28 million to commemorate the War of 1812 or giving $90,000 a day to a consultant to tell them how to cut costs.
While some of us were sad to see the demise of the word "Royal" years ago when referring to our air force and navy, we have to wonder what the cost will be of reinstating it. Probably small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but money that probably could be put to better use elsewhere, nevertheless. When flight attendants fighting for better wages vote against a proposed deal with Air Canada - as is their constitutional right - the federal government muses about introducing back-to-work legislation and changes to the Labour Code. When the Harper government muses about something, it usually means they are going to do it.
Yet there is precious little sign of any federal government money going to help the working poor, the unemployed, aging veterans or the sometimes atrocious living conditions on First Nations reserves.
But it is not just the federal government that seems to ignore the voices of the people. We have had examples of our own municipal government spending money needlessly while ignoring the citizens. Case in point: the $47,000 council spent on repaving a parking lot in the downtown area last year while telling the people in Zephyr they were going to lose their library branch because council couldn't find $36,000 to keep it open.
Part of Mayor Gerri Lynn O'Connor's platform in the last municipal election was a promise to rescind the obnoxious bylaw that prevented anyone under the age of 18 from purchasing a marker pen. But not one word has been mentioned about that since she was elected.
That seems a far cry - and maybe a bit of a stretch - when we're talking about the Occupy protests, but it all fuels the sense of frustration held by many everyday, ordinary Canadians. More and more they see governments completely out of touch with those who elected them, governments who fail to get serious about the actual day-to-day work of running a nation, province or municipality for the overall good of the people and instead focus on those matters which will further their ideological or political agendas. Especially at the federal and provincial levels, it's party first, people last in line.
It seems to me that what governments should be worried about is the fact that the Occupy protests are not just one day affairs with lots of rhetoric and banner waving, to be forgotten as soon as the weekend is over. Instead, they appear to be longer lasting and the longer the protests go on, the more people will identify with them and be drawn to them. People like those who are forced to use food banks because their wages just don't cover the cost of living, people who are on welfare because they lost a job through no fault of their own and haven't been able to find subsequent employment, people who see services they rely on cut to the bone while the corporate money men line up to buy political clout.
Combined with what we have seen unfolding in other parts of the world, most particularly in the Middle East, it seems to me that the revolution, if not just around the corner, is at least in sight down the road.
Tell me, am I wrong?
