Activists Meet to Resist Harper

Plans Made to Mark One-Year Anniversary Conservative Majority

NewsSheridan Polinsky — Published November 25, 2011

Even though Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won a four-year majority in parliament last May, activists haven’t given up in trying to boot him out of office.

About 20 activists gathered on Nov. 21 to discuss tactics and methods of resistance against Harper’s plan for Canada. The organizing assembly created three working groups: a group for organizing public discussions across the city and a teach-in to mark the one-year anniversary of the Conservative majority government, a second for planning actions and activities for the one-year mark, and a third to focus on hosting a workshop on Bill C-10 to be held at Occupy Montreal this weekend.

The “Forum to Resist Conservatives,” which first banded together in June, has stated that the Conservative government “represents the intensification of the brutal and systemic injustices we have been organizing against for a long time.” The group tackles a wide range of issues from climate justice, to policing and to prisons.

“It’s really up to the people and who gets involved. […] We are interested in resisting the Conservative agenda. I can’t think of anything more urgent in Canada at the moment,” said organizer Matthew Brett. “We need to start linking our struggles and I would encourage other groups and individuals to get involved.”

A student from Cape Breton University identified only as Jonathan said, “Certainly we have groups like this in Halifax, but not to this extent or range. With a group like this, I feel that I am participating more widely in my democracy and able to do larger organizing and resistance against the Conservatives.”