Friday, January 27, 2006

Two Haiti Links

Here are two links to mainstream but still useful material on Haiti. (One found via The Dominion Daily Weblog and the other found via WordWarriors email list.)

Btw...I've thought a good action to raise the profile of Canada's complicity in war and empire in Haiti would be in my old home town, Hamilton...there are now three NDP MPs there instead of just one, as of this past Monday. Why not occupy all three constituency offices on the day that the new Parliament opens, with the demand that the NDP raise the issue of Haiti publically and often (which they have not done so far)? It would get national media attention, because of the target (sort of a "man bites dog" thing) and the day, and there's a good chance it would win its demand. Not sure that the capacity exists in Hamilton to do this at the moment, from what I know from folks who still live there, but it could be pretty powerful. Maybe see if Toronto folks would target Jack and Olivia at the same time.

4 comments:

Annamarie said...

An excellent idea! Thanks! Being an activist myself, I don't know why I did not think of this... Must be too tired these days..

We can also email these three MP's.
BTW when will the new Parliament open?

Yours is an excellent site, and it's good that you're back in Canada. (I'd lived in the States before too, so I know what it's like.) So welcome back!

Take care.
Peace~
Annamarie
verbena-19

Anonymous said...

Ought to coordinate a mass sit-in at _every_ NDP office in Canada. _That_ would get into the news definitely (mind, media'd still try to dumb it down or deflect it in some way). One guy I know of here in Ottawa I think would be a good contact for something like that would be Kevin Skerrett.

Scott Neigh said...

Hi, all!

Annamarie: Not sure when Parliament resumes sitting...I poked around a little on the government site and couldn't see it, but then it still has Martin as Prime Minister. I'm not sure that the date is even set yet, actually. And I'm glad you like the site!

Todd: It would be great if something like that could get off the ground...I had hoped that a couple of friends in Hamilton who have done that sort of things before and read this blog from time to time would indicate what they thought of the idea, but I haven't heard from them yet. Unfortunately, there are no New Democrats in the Sudbury area, just Liberals.

Ricia: Yeah, Calgary's a tough city to be even a very moderate progressive...I've interviewed a few of the activist "oldtimers" in Calgary, and burnout and fatigue seemed to be more intense there than in most other Canadian cities. Here in Sudbury, the general population is certainly less right-wing than Calgary but in a very passive way...plus, it's a small city, so activist numbers are also small. Anyway, thanks for being there and being active in Calgary, even though conditions are tough!

rabfish said...

hmm, interesting idea. i will pass it on to some toronto folks.