Red signs and red faces populated the area in front of Fredericton’s City Hall on Saturday afternoon to protest Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament.
Between 50 and 60 people showed up in below zero weather, eager to have their voices heard about the suspension of Parliament until March 3.
Alysha Bayes, a law student at UNB, took charge of organizing the Fredericton No Prorogue rally. She acted as master of ceremonies throughout the hour-long protest.
“When I heard about the prorogation in December, I remember thinking to myself ‘Didn’t we just do this?’ When I returned to school in the new year I read an article about the Facebook group…and there were about 20,000 people on it at that time so I joined,” she said. “There was this discussion about rallies being held across the country and nobody had signed up for the Fredericton one, and I decided to take the challenge and organize it because I really believed in the cause and I really wanted to get involved.”
A handful of people spoke before the crowd about various issues related to the prorogation of Parliament. Alex Corey, a member of the Fredericton Peace Coalition, spoke about the war resistors bill; Tracy Glynn, also with the Fredericton Peace Coalition, spoke about the effect prorogation has on the inquiry into the treatment and torture of Afghan detainees; Ella Henry, student activist and VP Education with the St. Thomas University Student Union spoke about “the lack of democracy”; Eileen Malone, a seniors activist who spent two terms on the National Advisory Council on Aging, spoke about what cost prorogation has for Canadian citizens; Dan Foster, a professor at UNB, spoke about how Canada needs Parliament and what the average Canadian can do to help; and Dan Weston, co-ordinator of the Fredericton Anti-Poverty Organization, closed the rally with a speech about getting engaged in politics to affect change.
Foster’s speech was met by a flood of applause from the crowd. He encouraged everyone to get engaged and continue to be engaged in the political process.
“Don’t accept the answer that all politicians are bad, they’re not. There have been great politicians in this country and in other countries in all parties who have cared about Canada and fought for Canada. If enough Canadians remain informed, remain engaged and remain noisy, the good politicians will be with us and the bad ones will slither back under the rocks they came from,” he said, using Winston Churchill as an example of a good Conservative politician.
The rally organizer said she believed the afternoon was successful and that Fredericton did its part to protest the prorogation.
“My hope is that future prime ministers will use this power more wisely. I don’t think there needs to be a legislative change. I think these demonstrations are proof enough that people do care and we’re not going to tread on our democracy lightly,” Bayes said.
Fredericton’s rally was one of 50 that happened across the country. The Facebook group, Canadians Against the Prorogation of Parliament, has over 210,000 members with numbers steadily climbing. For more information visit www.noprorogue.ca.
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This prorogation is the best thing ever. The quality of my life has increased since it began. All the bored liberals have a big fat target to focus on instead of people like me. The government needs to prorouge more often. That or the liberal insurgency needs to be expelled from Canada.
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