Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan

 

Parliament is enjoying a summer holiday as are most Canadians. But the capital city produced something it has not seen before - people’s power in action. It was the Peoples’ Social Forum and it produced the largest gathering of social movements in Canada’s history that showed the determination of Canadians to make democracy a reality.



Five thousand people of both sexes, all ages, diverse professions, different backgrounds and various provinces gathered at the University of Ottawa to exchange views, build networks and figure out how to work together to make Canada a better country for all Canadians and for the world.



This country remains the envy of much of the world - with huge resources, decentralization that bestows vast powers on local governments and provinces and curbs the reach of the federal government, and unmatched freedoms and privileges for common people. As in other democracies, people enjoy freedom of expression and the right to run or at least vote in periodic elections to choose their municipal, provincial and federal leaders.



But, as in other democracies, politicians say one thing on the campaign trail and do something different or even opposite when they are voted into office. They are seduced or browbeaten by mighty lobbies and vested interests with deep pockets lusting for influence and power. The common good, the country’s long-term welfare, and the weaker segments of society - the Aboriginal people, the poor, women and others - remain sidelined or ignored.



The social forum was designed to tackle this problem and to bring different elements to work together to make Canada a better country.



Five hundred workshops brought the 5,000 people together to exchange views and explain why they were passionate about their causes and how, in their view, the policies they favored would benefit all Canadians and Canada in the long run. At the end of the three days of passionate debate, each of the 19 movement assemblies presented a three-minute report to the general body.



Remarkably, the gathering at the University of Ottawa and the march in front of the Parliament and at the Canadian War Museum remained peaceful and good-natured. However, thousands of police had been deployed to make sure that the gathering did not produce violence or destruction.



The Call to Action declaration asserted that the forum brought people from across the country, produced enlightening dialogue and made them determined to work together to free Canada of unbridled capitalism, racism and the wide and growing gap between the very rich and the rest of society and to make democracy a reality in terms of social justice.



What impact the gathering will have on Canada’s future is hard to state. When Aboriginals, social workers, academics, peace activists, women’s leaders, public servants, postal workers, students and youth get together, they lead to the hope that they will work together to make a positive change for the country’s future.



On the other hand, pious declarations by diverse groups do not always produce desirable results. Words do not get translated into deeds and life goes on. What this meeting did was to bring diverse groups together to understand each other and deliberate how they can build a better country. Lana Payne, who went to Ottawa from Newfoundland for the forum, told the Ottawa Citizen that the gathering was a “launching pad” to bring activists across the country to work together, especially during elections.



Aaron Mills, a Trudeau Foundation scholar from Couchiching First Nation from North Bay, Ontario, said that the contemporary story “positions Canadian citizenship on a foundation of domination. Indigenous peoples were excluded from confederation and thus have not authorized Canada’s exercise of sovereign authority over us; we are not subjects of popular sovereignty. Nor will we ever be.”



Rose Henry of Sliammon First Nation, who was among the Aboriginal group that led the march to Parliament Hill, declared: “What we are demonstrating right now, to the world and to this government, is that we can unite.”



After the Peoples’ Social Forum (PSF) ended, participants and organizers expressed the hope that the work that had been started would continue and that it would produce results. The Forum’s final declaration, agreed to by all the delegates, stated in part:



“The unified and unprecedented social movement that we built is more necessary than ever to work together to counter the current federal government and the dominant elites’ savage attacks on our collective individual rights, our jobs, our pensions, our public services, our environment, to immigrants, people of color and, ultimately, to our future and that of future generations… We want to defend and widen our public service and social programs to respect social, economic and cultural rights.”



Groups favoring a just peace in the Middle East also made presentations. They argued, to an increasingly receptive audience, that the Palestinian people have the right to justice and peace and a secure homeland as much as the Israelis and that there can be no stability or security if they remain victims of ethnic cleansing and occupation and are denied their fundamental human rights.

 

— Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.