Protests and Rallies Do Not Work and Are a Waste of Time

So...I have followed the events surrounding the Native blockcade near Belleville a week or so back, where traffic and train tracks were impeded and snarled throughout the day. I just sat listening to the coverage, thinking, what on earth is this going to accomplish? You are impeding people's travel (a lot of it is likely travel for work or livelihood), you are blocking train tracks, denying 100 million dollars worth of cargo from getting through, and right before a long weekend, this has all the earmarks of simply pissing people off. If I was travelling in that area, would I give a rat's arse what they were protesting about? Nope. In fact, I would hope they never get what they were after - teaches them a lesson that you don't inconveience others to try to make a point - and one where they threatened to use not just rifles and handguns, but all-out assault weapons (Against who else? The provincial police that would seek to break this off). Last year/this year, it was the occupation in Caledonia (claims that developers were building houses on their land). I think in the end, it just made people more resentful of them as a minority group.

Now, I know one thing for a fact, and it is only by way of talking with some people I know who are of Native background. This is a rogue band of Aboriginals who are doing this - I had that sense anyway before it was confirmed - in fact, the local Native community groups there strongly condemned the action before it was even taken, yet the small group, led by some ding dong who wanted his 15 minutes of fame, decided to go ahead and challenge the police anyway. Many Native communities are embarrassed by these actions and are worried that it will only fuel the fire towards their group collectively (which, sadly to say, will likely happen).

Of course, in Ontario, we have an extremely weak liberal government led by an extremely weak socialist chameleon individual (Dalton McGuinty), who has been shown to break promises and not take action when needed. About ten years ago, we had a similar protest at Ipperwash (I believe). The Premier at the time (a Conservative) sent in the police, and one of the protesters was regrettably, killed. Since then, the government has shyed away from involvement in these protests and this is sad. If I were to grab some friends and take some MP5s onto the highway and stop traffic, griping about hospital wait times, I guarantee you I would be arrested and charged. Yet, no one wants to touch these guys for fear of another death and stirring up any racial tensions.

But believe it or not, the recent events are not what I want to write about, even though I have already done so. What I want to suggest in this entry of my blog is that protests and rallies have no influence whatsoever and should be ignored by the government.

Now, that being said, I know what you are thinking - "Uh...Jeremy, didn't you just say that in the recent events near Belleville, that the government should have intervened?" Yes, I did say that, and no, I am not being two-faced here. In the recent Native protest situation, it wasn't a protest - it was an illegal action under the guise of a protest. Since they took out assault weapons and blocked consumer and business, they are now impeding on the rights and freedoms of others (and though I am far from a libertarian, I will say that we do have some rights entrenched in our constitution (which is a more left-wing constitution, but one nonetheless), entitling us to not be the victim of threats and having our business interests needlessly shut down by non-government people. There are also laws in the land governing how we live, but unfortunately, with a weak liberal socialist government, they pay little heed to enforcing laws - they are more than happy to make them, though.

What I want to discuss is the idea of protests and rallies proper. That is, peaceful marches and such, which although it may slow traffic down somewhat, they are non-violent. These protests are within the boundaries of what is lawfully permissible and it is definitely people's right to protest. However, here is why I do not believe protests and rallies do not work, and I will cite several examples.

1) Most governments are not easily swayed by the viewpoints of a special interest group or a minority. Yes, I am sure you will take issue with me on this one, but let me explain. There are literally millions of special interest groups out there, each seeming to want the government to throw some money their way or change or create a law in their favour. Many (not all) elected officials are generally thick-skinned and have a wider picture of their budgets and social programs, not simply going for short-term solutions. If they could be swayed left, right and centre (and I'm not talking about the political spectrum here), no constructive action will ever take place. Governments are elected to make tough decisions, and yes, if they are elected, they are to represent their constituents, so if their constituents want such and such, then they are obligated to represent them. Special interest groups different from constituents in that they are not geographically based, and as such, they don't really have an elected official that they put in office (though I know there are always exceptions). By the way, have you ever noticed that when a protest happens at a government building, you almost always never see a government official show up to address the crowd?

2) Some rallies are utterly laughable. My brother, son and I were, unfortunately, caught in the streets of downtown Toronto a couple of months ago during a 10,000 person rally by some Marijauana-advocacy group in Ontario. While it was generally a peaceful protest, let me just say that the language coming out of their mouths were less than civil and proper, and of course, there was the waft of pot smoke everywhere (I had to shut my windows and turn on the AC, recycling the car's already stale air). So as I was driving through the protest (I was strongly tempted to drive through the protest, if you know what I mean), I thought to myself - what are these yahoos trying to prove (and based on the demographics and age constitution in the group, their lack of business acumen and articulation, I couldn't tell what they were rallying for or against - seemed like a good day to go out and smoke some weed), if I were in the government's shoes, I would have just said, "whatever" and go back to saving the whales or whatever they do. As it turns out, this rally was thoroughly ignored and not even acknowledged by the goverment. Of course, some of these rallies may push for a viewpoint, but it's not fleshed out very well in terms of who pays for such and such, what the social implications are (usually the special interest group will not care about how what they are championing will impact others).

3) Christian protests and rallies - sorry to say, and I don't like to slag my own people often, but I have to say, these are also ineffective. Writing a personalized note to your MP or MPP may not make a huge difference, but I think it will have the potential of being slightly more effective than standing at a corner with a sign saying, "Abortion is wrong" or "we need prayer in schools". The first one, I absolutely agree with and fully support, as I find abortion to be completely abhorrent in general. Prayer in schools I don't necessarily agree with, but either way, protesters standing at a corner, trying to convince a secular government to institute an abortion ban - what will that do? I absolutely abhor the Roe vs. Wade verdict in the U.S., and would love to see the U.S. Supreme Court one day overturn it (which may happen seeing here is now a 5-4 ideology split favouring the conservative side (yay for John Roberts and Samuel Alito!!!), I think that in the meantime, the best way to get people to change their minds is to talk with them during your day to day interactions. If you want to try to sway a governement official, write them a letter with what's on your heart (I know, I know, they may not even read it, but it's better than standing at the corner). My wife will take issue with me on this one, as her position is that they are at least doing something, rather than simply talking about it, as I am, and I see her point, but would counter saying "what are they really doing?" Christian rallies generally tend to be peaceful anyway, and when they turn ugly (as some abortions protests have in the U.S., that ceases to be a protest and is now an unlawful act). I think believers can be far more effective in influencing people on a day-to-day basis, and I think that is the Biblical pattern that Jesus set for his followers.

4) Today, I think, that whole "Live Earth" concert, based on ideas from that neo-environmentalist Al Gore will occur. While it is not a protest per se, it is supposed to bring "awareness" to environmental issues (which seem to be on the forefront of political agendas these days). While environmentalism is a subject I plan to discuss in the future, for now I will simply acknowledge that there is a concert taking place. But as with any group gathering for a "cause-based" event, I will be so bold as to say that many people going to this concert will be more interested in the big name bands who play and less on the message. Even Live 8 was like that - in England it was all the hype because of the reuniting of Pink Floyd after 22 years or so (and I must say, as a guy who had a thrown-out back that day and spent the entire day and evening in front of the tube, I saw that Pink Floyd re-united part and it was pretty cool) - but did I think about African relief? Not really. Did I think of African relief when Motley Crue got on and I realized how porky and old these guys have become? And I'm not sure if the artists did either. I remember one of the Canadian bands, A Simple Plan, who played at the Barrie location, the vocalist kept referring to Barrie as Toronto, but moreover, I found it telling that his references to African relief was brief and generalized (I wasn't even sure if he knew why he was there): "We are here today to support a good cause...now, Toronto, are you fucking ready to rock??????!!!" Nice one, buddy. Anyway, I think it will be interesting to see whether the media focuses on what will be a lot of garbage and litter on the grounds of the LiveEarth environmental concert...

I think that, while I believe rallies and protests to be a waste of time, that I have to commend some of the protesters and ralliers who brave weather conditions and crowds (and mocking opinionated blog writers) to try to support something they believe in deeply. In a sense, I think that they mean well, but it may also be that they just want to feel better about themselves, that they are at least voicing their opinion, which is, of course, our democratic right. Or they may just be the product of the 60s hippie generation who seemed to revel in these kinds of things.