On Friday I took an hour or so off and went down to the
intersection of Lansdowne and the Parkway to stop some traffic.
Actually that is not why I went down there, but that is what happened. I
originally thought that I, along with a hundred or so other people, were going
to walk up the our local MP's office and invite him out to talk to us. But that
would have been a rather silly exercise. One - because he was probably not even
there, two - because if he had been there -
he would not have come out and three because even if he had come out, I
can't believe he would have been at all be empathetic toward Idle No More's
issues. Still that was the plan in my head. I wanted to be there to demonstrate
my support for the issues that are being
raised by my fellow Canadians
It wasn't cold on Friday afternoon, but it
was damp with enough rain coming down to require me to put my glasses in my shirt
pocket. I really dislike having to view life through spotted glasses. I am not very good about guessing how many
people are at an event. There were certainly more than a 100 gathered at the
corner but I don't think there were more than 200. There were lots of signs, a
few flags and perhaps most surprisingly a wide range of people. While the
majority of participants were probably from one of the close-by First Nations
communities, there were also a number of people of European descent. There were
some people who looked to be older than me and there were as well a number of
young adults. I think the group reflected - as least in terms of demographics-
the make-up of Peterborough. I
recognized a number of the people but there didn't appear to be anyone who I
knew well. And that was disappointing. I had hoped that some of my colleagues
from the college would have been there.
There were a few speeches from local members
of the Idle No More movement which I unfortunately couldn't hear very well as the megaphone was seldom
pointed in my direction. I did however hear a number of the speakers mention
that we were going to block traffic. I was not that excited about the prospect.
It has been a few years since I have visibly protested and even more since I
have knowingly engaged in civil disobedience. Still when the time came, I was
glad to join the dance circle. It turned out that I did know the person beside
me. It is always nice to hold hands with someone you know.
We circled - sometimes danced - blocking all
four entrances to the intersection. Singers and drummers were in the middle of
the circle along with photographers from the local media. It was not, quite
frankly a particularly graceful or even energetic group. I think we needed more
drums and more singers. Perhaps two concentric circles would have ensured that
the circles moved around more quickly. We were not very practiced protesters. I
think we should practice more.
Drivers that originally, I think, honked in support
of the cause - started to honk far more aggressively. Cars that squeezed by the
edges of the circle to make right hand turns more and more frequently seemed to
spin their tires and roar their engines as they speed away. People were clearly
getting irritated. The absurdity of their frustration is that Lansdowne is far
more busy, more congested and far slower the few weeks leading up to Christmas
than it was last Friday. The police eventually appeared. I have to assume that
they were parked not so far away waiting to be called. I suspect they would
have preferred not to have been called. There was not much that they could do.
The three or four officers walked around trying to encourage the protesters to
leave room for the cars to get through, they were not successful and then did
nothing. They waited for us to stop blocking traffic.
After 15 or so minutes we walked back to the
corner and dispersed. That was it. The protest, for that day, was over. One
could wonder if it did any good. Did any of the drivers caught up in the
traffic learn anything useful? Did anyone decide that they should investigate
the issues further? Was anyone inspired to become engaged in the protest? Will
the government change its policies because of this demonstration or even
because of the accumulative pressure of all of the demonstrations? I suspect not. So why do it at all?
Such acts of civil disobedience are not designed
to change the world, at least not in the short term. They are however beneficial
in strengthening the core protesters commitment to the issues. Whether or not I
participated on Friday is not particularly relevant to the politics of Canada.
But I hope that my presence there, along with the other hundred plus people will
encourage and inspire those who started the movement to keep on educating us,
to keep on telling our government that the time has come that they must listen
to the people. I will be back there the next time.
