RODC 2011 Year End Report to Supporters
RODC has been very active this year
· arranging for public meetings,
· being more overtly active by demonstrating publicly,
· joining other groups in demonstrating, and finally in
· forming coalitions with several groups: Leadnow, Voices, Occupy Toronto, Fair Vote Canada. By forming such coalitions, we hope to multiply our effect in reclaiming true democracy and effecting real change in Canada.
We began the year by having a Focus Meeting that included not only our own members, but also members of other local action groups. It was important because it modelled democracy and was a success that became a touchstone for our planning for the rest of the year.
In the past month, RODC members have held two working meetings to set goals and create an Action Plan. We agreed on two very ambitious long term goals, and we are in the process of setting out a variety of Strategic Actions to achieve those goals.
Goal #1: To elect a truly democratic government in 2015.
Goal #2: To change the federal electoral system in Canada.
While changes like these will not take place for some time, we are determined to remain "nimble and quick", able to respond to events as they occur. We hope that you will support us and our growing number of partners in these endeavours.
Although we have been diligent in adding information and links to our web site, here are a few of the highlights of our activities this year.
Our most successful event of its kind this year was an all candidates meeting on April 6, A Day for Democracy across the country. Held just before the federal election, this public meeting attracted 250 people to hear our local candidates speak on the question of democracy in Canada. All of the candidates attended and spoke. Some photos and speeches can be seen by scrolling down on the home page. Voices admitted that our event attracted more people than any other of its affiliated groups across Canada on that Day for Democracy.
Our campaign “Policy not Polls” was designed to influence main stream media to report on substantive issues rather than treat the various, often conflicting, polls as news. While we were not able to effect radical change in the mainstream media, we did note a number of articles questioning the value of polls during elections and somewhat more issue-based approach to reporting in the Ontario election than in the prior federal election. This campaign led us to organize a very successful assembly to hear our local MPP’s present their concepts of democracy in Canada before the provincial election this past October. The video can be seen here.
On November 25, we held a demonstration in front of our local MP’s office to draw attention to omnibus crime Bill C-10. There are various links to newspaper articles on the home page, but here is a video of the demonstration featuring Susan Berry, spokesperson for RODC, in her lawyer’s outfit.
We made a video and mounted it on Youtube to promote our argument against the Crime bill.
RODC decided to strike out boldly and support the Occupy Toronto movement. That support is continuing in the form of a coalition with the organizers. Several photographs of our members at Occupy Toronto while it was still in the park can be seen in the slide show on the right side of our site.
We formed a coalition with Leadnow to promote the November 25 demonstrations, and we are now actively supporting Leadnow’s efforts to stop Bill C-10 by writing to our Senators here.
Of course, we try to keep up with the virtual flood of opinion pieces in newspapers that point out the anti-democratic actions of the current government. This section of our site, which changes daily, can be read here.
Among other things, we are planning a Symposium in collaboration with other social action groups in 2012. It will be centred in Oakville and will include workshops presented by local advocates on various aspects of democracy in Canada. We intend all of the presentations to be made available across the country both live allowing interaction and recorded using the now familiar Livestream software.
We always like to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to us at reclaimcanada@gmail.com
