{"id":28237,"date":"2011-11-21T14:01:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-21T19:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=28237"},"modified":"2011-11-21T14:01:31","modified_gmt":"2011-11-21T19:01:31","slug":"victoria-abbass-democracy-is-more-than-just-a-ballot-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/11\/21\/victoria-abbass-democracy-is-more-than-just-a-ballot-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Veronica Abbass: \u201cDemocracy Is More Than Just A Ballot Box\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Brigette DePape is escorted from the Senate during her protest in last June’s Speech from the Throne<\/em><\/p>\n

Former Senate page Brigette DePape\u2019s silent \u201cStop Harper<\/a>\u201d protest on the floor of the Canadian Senate during the June 3, 2011 Speech from the Throne eclipsed the speech itself everywhere it was reported. One of the first organizations to respond to DePape\u2019s gesture was The Council of Canadians<\/a>. <\/em>The Council\u2019s chair, Maude Barlow, contacted DePape on June 4, offered her solidarity, as well as the Council\u2019s support for DePape\u2019s report<\/a>:<\/em> Thinking Outside the Ballot Box: How People Power Can Stop the Harper Agenda and Create Fundamental Change<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the Introduction to Thinking Outside the Ballot Box<\/em>,<\/em> DePape expresses her gratitude to \u201cthe thousands of people who were excited by my action. It shows that people in Canada are burning for change\u201d (3).\u00a0Throughout the twenty-four \u00a0page report, DePape draws upon her own experience and the experience of others to suggest how and why \u201cpeople power\u201d can change for the better the way Canada is governed (5). She cites former Governor-General Ed Broadbent, who, in response to DePape’s protest, likewise advocates the principle of people as a legitimate form of resistance to unfair and inequitable government policies: \u201cWhat is the real offence,\u201d Broadbent asks, \u201csilently watching growing injustice, or upsetting the sensibilities of those who should be doing something about it?\u201d (9).<\/p>\n

“People power” is a more restrained rallying cry than “power to the people,” and yet DePape\u2019s confidence in it is unshakable. \u00a0\u201cPeople power rises from the bottom-up,\u201d DePape suggests, and goes on to observe that \u201cpeople are more powerful when they. . . remove their consent.” \u00a0Those who possess power, consequently, “become powerless, and power shifts to those” from whom all power proceeds, the people themselves (5).<\/p>\n

DePape maintains that \u201ccollective indignation is a first step in building a movement to stop injustice,\u201d and asks us to \u201cimagine the movement we can build if we use our collective indignation to create the Canada we want\u201d (10-11).\u00a0 DePape reminds us that \u201c[d]emocracy is not just about voting every four years,\u201d and asks that those who dissent to join together in protest against the inequitable policies of the Harper government (7).<\/p>\n

On November 1, DePape was guest speaker at a Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter of the Council of Canadians event, \u201cStop Harper: the Arts, Youth, and the Future of Canada.\u201d Sara Ostrowska reported<\/a> in Trent University\u2019s student newspaper:<\/em><\/p>\n

There were over 100 people in attendance, of all ages and walks of life, but everyone had one thing in common: they were inspired by Brigette DePape\u2019s small act of civil disobedience.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the presentation, an older woman in the audience shouted, \u201cHey hey, ho ho, Stephen Harper must go,\u201d and the chant broke out, with DePape joining in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The second chapter of Thinking Outside the Ballot Box <\/em>is \u201cDemocracy Is More Than Just A Ballot Box\u201d (7), which nicely echoes Northrop Frye in \u201cThe Analogy of Democracy\u201d: \u201cLaw is the expression of temporal authority; justice is law informed by freedom and equality\u201d (CW 176). This is something we must keep in mind every day as citizens of a democracy. The law requires that we recognize that Stephen Harper is, by way of the ballot box, our properly elected prime minister, and as such he has the legal right to govern. However, justice requires that we resist the policies we believe to be unfair, inequitable, unjust as an expression of the people power which is the first and last authority of any democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brigette DePape is escorted from the Senate during her protest in last June’s Speech from the Throne Former Senate page Brigette DePape\u2019s silent \u201cStop Harper\u201d protest on the floor of the Canadian Senate during the June 3, 2011 Speech from the Throne eclipsed the speech itself everywhere it was reported. One of the first organizations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democracy"],"yoast_head":"\nVeronica Abbass: \u201cDemocracy Is More Than Just A Ballot Box\u201d - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/11\/21\/victoria-abbass-democracy-is-more-than-just-a-ballot-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Veronica Abbass: \u201cDemocracy Is More Than Just A Ballot Box\u201d - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brigette DePape is escorted from the Senate during her protest in last June’s Speech from the Throne Former Senate page Brigette DePape\u2019s silent \u201cStop Harper\u201d protest on the floor of the Canadian Senate during the June 3, 2011 Speech from the Throne eclipsed the speech itself everywhere it was reported. 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