As part of a Canada-wide initiative to organize rallies protesting Prime Minister Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament, a group of local citizens gathered last week at the Vancover Public Library’s central branch.

Credit: Jackie Wong

NEWS: Locals organize rally against Harper’s prorogue

Ten days after Prime Minister Stephen Harper controversially called to prorogue Parliament, thus suspending its activity until March 3 (after the 2010 Winter Games), a group of outraged citizens gathered at the Vancouver Public Library’s central branch to organize the local contingent of a national rally protesting the decision. The rally, which will take place in Vancouver January 23 at 1 p.m., will begin at the Vancouver Art Gallery and proceed to Victory Square, where speakers from a variety of advocacy groups will address issues they feel will be missed while Parliament is closed.

Sean Devlin, Vancouver organizer of the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, was part of a coalition of environmental groups lobbying for stronger leadership from Harper during last month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Given the lack of government action Devlin saw at the conference, he was immediately concerned when Harper called for prorogation on December 30.

“Copenhagen was the most recent step in citizens mobilizing to express their concern with this government,” Devlin told WE before the Vancouver rally meeting. “I think the important thing to remember is this is a minority government, and in the last election we had the lowest voter turnout in reported history. So, technically speaking, their mandate to govern is quite weak.”

Devlin’s Facebook page for the Vancouver chapter of the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament group had close to 900 members as of January 12. On a national level, support for the online initiative has been substantial. As WE went to press, over 170,000 people — an increase of more than double over the previous week — had joined the group started by Christopher White, an anthropology student at the University of Alberta.

Some critics say Facebook activism is an inaccurate litmus test as to how the majority of Canadians feel about government decisions, but Devlin maintains the discussions and organizing efforts coming out of the online campaigns are a strong first step toward badly-needed public dialogue about the Prime Minister’s decisions. “By no means do I think that Facebook is the starting and ending of the campaigning,” he says. “I think it’s really just the start.”

“When you look at the legislation that’s stalled or now stopped because of this prorogue,” Devlin continues, ”each one of those bills has a community within the country that is very concerned with it. The climate legislation, which is Bill C-311 — there’s hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have been following that bill very eagerly.”

Bill C-304, a private members’ bill for a national housing strategy brought forward by Vancouver East MP and NDP House Leader Libby Davies, is nearing a third reading in parliament. “Every time there’s a discussion about a crisis around housing in this city, the thing that always comes up, inevitably, is the lack of federal support, and the fact that there isn’t a national housing strategy and dollars in place,” Davies says. “This bill has enormous support across the country, and certainly in Vancouver.”

While private-members’ bills such as Bill C-304 will not be directly impacted by prorogation, committee meetings will be shut down until the new session of parliament begins in March. Of particular concern to many critics is the resultant closure of parliamentary committee meetings investigating the alleged mishandling of Afghan detainees by Canadian authorities. “I think the answer is that [Harper] doesn’t want the Afghanistan committee to meet,” says Davies. “[Harper] claims that [the prorogation is] because they want to... recalibrate their agenda around the recession... It’s such a lame excuse. I think what underlies this is his desire to avoid any public scrutiny or accountability.”