StageLeft brings up an interesting point in the comments here, with regard to the Montebello "agents provocateur" scandal (scandal? I think so). Although MPs are dutifully returning emails and firing off correspondence to Stockwell Day demanding answers, it's unlikely that those responsible will be held accountable. What was being done was pretty serious: it was an attempt by our government to thwart peaceful protest, which is our right. Unfortunately, most people don't worry about their civil rights until their door gets kicked in, and by that time it's usually too late.SL quite correctly points out that there's really only one thing governments understand, and that's direct action. A lot of people parking themselves on their doorstep, getting media attention, and ultimately, waking people up to what's really going on and costing votes. But how to get people so worked up about an issue that they'll storm the bastille?
To see how ugly and wrong apathy can get, one only has to look south of the border where a few demented swine hold 300million people hostage. Over 70% of them, that's 200million, are no longer apathetic but horrified by the direction their country has taken under these insane war-pigs, and even taking away their control of congress didn't help. Two hundred million people are left blinking at each other with half-blind astonishment that the only option left is rushing the white house and throwing the bastards out head first.
We're not at that point yet. But I wonder if there are still issues that will get people worked up enough to stop what they're doing, forget about work, forget about anything that might get in the way of their responsibility to protest, and converge on Ottawa. For me, any threat to reproductive rights and I'd be there in a heartbeat, chaining myself to something. There are other issues that I could get stoked up about, but that's the big one, the absolute, the non-negotiable, the one that's personal. Maybe that's what it takes to provoke direct action, the issues have to be made personal. How to do that is another question.
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