Photo by Michael Cnudde

February 5, 2010

On January 23, 2010, 60 rallies took place within and outside Canada, giving voice to dissent against Prime Minister Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament this past December. By proroguing Parliament, all Bills on the Order paper and House committee work now ceased to exist. (Click here to read: Parliament Prorogued)

“This is the great thing; Harper did this and counted on people being apathetic and Canadians not caring. And at the end of the day, what we are seeing here is that people from all ages, all levels of political involvement are coming together because of the sense that this isn’t the Canada that people,” said local organizer, Craig Ashbourne.

Many rallies, including Victoria’s, were organized through social networking site, Facebook. A call-out was placed, and the response was immediate as 20 organizers came together to plan the Victoria Rally, which took place at Centennial Square. All four parties were invited, and speakers came from the NDP, Liberals and the Greens. An invitation was sent to local Conservative MP, Gary Lunn, which was not returned.

“We’ve written letters to the local Conservative MP [Gary Lunn] and I phoned him, emailed him, I wrote him a letter, went passed his office waving… but no answer,” said Ashbourne.

The Conservative government has been, for the most part, silent on the issue of Parliament being prorogued. Conservative MPs and the Prime Minister, when speaking to the media have avoided questions on the proroguing and are focusing on their past record in the government.

“The interesting thing is when Harper talks about what he has done in the last few months; almost all those bills are amongst the 36 that are dying on the Order paper because of proroguing Parliament. So every time he talks about being tough on crime, remind him of the 15 law and order Bills that no longer exist. Every time he talks about fiscal responsibility, remind him of all the Bills on the economy that died on the Order paper and when he talks about Employment Insurance, the Bill that they passed last fall died on the Order paper because it wasn’t finished passing,” said Ashbourne.

Approximately 500 people gathered to make their voices heard in Victoria. They listened to speeches from local MPs, candidates, political activists and concerned Canadians. Participates were asked to dress in a colour that represented themselves and their own views to help showcase the diversity of support around one issue.

The following are comments made by attendees of the No Prorogue rally on January 23, 2010:

“I am here because our Country has a lot of problems like poverty and homelessness. Parliament should be sitting every day until they do what needs to be done to solve those problems. Going to the Olympics is a lousy excuse not to be in Parliament,” said Sue Stroud.

“I don’t usually come to protests, this was something that raised my eyebrow and doesn’t make me very comfortable…There are a lot of problems with Canadian democracy, I personally believe what we have is even a democracy, especially with a majority government it is pretty much an elected dictatorship. I can understand why a lot of people can be cynical about our government where they see it not really be democratic or listen to what the people are saying,” said Alex Goatcher.

“We pretty much lost democracy in Canada. It’s the seizing of power by a minority government and their speaker Stephen Harper, basically going about things as a fascist dictator would basically exercising his own will and he was elected by a minority and doesn’t represent Canadians… He has already prorogued Parliament once, and now he is doing it again. At what point is it the last straw, people need to get angry here and I am not here to sing any songs. I am here to yell, scream and chat because we are outraged. Stop being polite about it,” said Roberta Cory, Council of Canadians.

“I am ashamed of our government and the decision to prorogue Parliament; for what a three week party? So I am here to make my voice heard…I hope people come here and realize that proroguing wasn’t meant to shut down Parliament when you didn’t like the questions being asked. Proroguing was meant for ending Parliament when all the work is done, and there is much work to be done. Stephen Harper and the rest of the MPs need to get back to work,” said Angela Thurston.

Related Media Links

Prorogation rallies voters
Victoria Times Colonist – January 26, 2010

“Against the Prorogation of Parliament”
Impolitical (blog) – January 13, 2009

Canadian demonstration against prorogation
Rabble radio – January 13, 2009

Proroguing Parliament the last straw for Canadian voters
Redeye Radio – January 12,2009

Prorogation Provokes Online Uprising
The Tyee.ca – January 11, 2010

‘Government just wasn’t working’
Stratford Beacon Herald – January 8, 2010

Harper goes prorogue
The Economist – January 7, 2010

Opposition parties object to postponement of Parliament for 2 months
Canwest- December 30, 2009

GG agrees to suspend Parliament until January
CBC.ca – December 4, 2008