Eat first, the better to talk later

Not a blow-up hot tub or bouncy castle in sight. Just thousands and thousands of people, all marching for women’s lives. That was the scene on April 25, 2004 in Washington, DC. It was a glorious sight and an inspiring event to be part of. I was there, among the million or so others, and I still remember the feeling of community, camaraderie and conviction that filled the air and fuelled our chants. Collectively, we sent a message to politicians and individually we re-upped our commitment to the cause.

A number of my friends from across the country had met up in Washington to be part of the historic gathering of protesters against George W. Bush and his regressive policies on abortion. We made a long weekend of it, enjoying the city’s museums and restaurants before the march on Sunday. We mixed fun and politics. We did not break the law: We came. We protested by marching. We returned home.

The point is that protesting is an essential form of democratic action. It’s a way to, literally, take our message to the streets and, with good planning and some luck, to wake up politicians to that message. It is not licence to dig in and disrupt a city. It is not a lark with built-in immunity. It is personal action in the public arena and it comes with rules, permits and conventions of behaviour.

I came to protests and marches through the student politics of my university days, which also included formal lobbying of the administration. Lobbying is a more sophisticated and challenging form of political engagement: You really need to know what you’re talking about and lobbying for. At one dinner, I was so inexperienced and ill prepared that not only could I not answer the question I was asked, but I was caught with my mouth full. My naïveté had taken me to the dinner event hungry; I should have arrived already fed, so that I could focus on the work of talking rather than the pleasure of eating. At another lobbying event, this time representing the women’s organization I worked for and this time facing federal politicians, I read the brief competently enough but, again, I was not able to effectively answer questions. Embarrassing but not criminal.

It takes more than gumption to engage politically. It takes skill and knowledge and, if you want to be effective, it takes experience, too. Of course, we gain experience only by doing the very thing we want to be more experienced in: I would be a much more effective lobbyist today than I was back in my early twenties. Time helps; so does education.

But no matter how we engage in politics ourselves, no one should ever again in Canada (or anywhere) have to experience — either live or via the media — what we witnessed in Ottawa over the past weeks. Whatever the occupiers have learned, next time, let them at least follow the rules of productive political engagement: Represent a bona fide group. Have a clear message. Get the right permits. Don’t threaten sedition. Leave before the Emergencies Act must be invoked.

Everyone should experience a peaceful productive protest at least once in their life. But the Ottawa occupation was not it.

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.