By Season Osborne
The hand painted anti-war slogans on hundreds of signs dancing above the crowd give the protest a spontaneous feel.
But a demonstration on Parliament Hill is not a spontaneous event.
A stage and a sound system is set up on the steps in front of the peace tower. There is an emcee and speakers and an audiotape of the bombing of Baghdad is played. Police stand by to direct traffic and herd the crowd down Wellington Street towards the American Embassy.
“Any protest is just a matter of figuring out the logistics and what kind of things you want to have happen and getting enough people together to make it happen,” says Jamie Kneen, a member of Global Democracy Ottawa.
Over the last 18 years, Kneen has helped organize protests involving as few as four people to crowds of several thousand.
He says the idea to protest usually germinates when a few people feel an issue such as war on Iraq cannot be resolved by phone calls or letters to an MP, but must be addressed publicly.
“Then you have to figure out a program,” says Richard Sanders, co-ordinator of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade. “Are you going to have speakers? Are you going to have music? Are there going to be chants? What is your route, where do you start from, and when is it going to be?”
The logistics of a protest are then worked out at meetings held with social justice groups, unions, church associations and individuals. Planning a protest is a team effort with many volunteers working together.
The biggest job, says Sanders, is publicizing demonstrations.
He remembers in the ‘80s and early ‘90s when promoting protests meant creating and putting up posters, printing flyers, making announcements at public meetings, putting information in community papers, monthly and weekly bulletins, and sending out press releases and public service announcements weeks ahead of time to ensure the information got into the media.
“Back in those days, if you had an event you needed to organize, you had to know the details of your event two months in advance,” he says. “Nowadays, a lot of logistical things can be done by e-mail. Research, publicity and organizing are three main areas done over the Internet.”
Some things can’t be organized by e-mail, however. Associate Professor Brian J. Given at Carleton University’s department of sociology and anthropology is involved in the Canada-Tibet Committee’s annual March 10 peace march to the Chinese Embassy.
Given is one of the few committee members who lives in Ottawa, so he’s the one who requests permission from the local authorities for the demonstration.
He contacts the RCMP, which is in charge of security outside the embassies, and Heritage Canada, which authorizes demonstrations on the Hill.
Given also gets a permit from the City of Ottawa, which is required for a demonstration that blocks sidewalks or roadways.
The permit doesn’t cost anything, but the city notifies OC Transpo, fire and ambulance services, and hotels along the protest route.
The Ottawa Police Service is also informed about the number of people exptected to protest.
A number of social justice organizations don’t agree with asking for permission to demonstrate. They just tell the authorities when they plan to protest and the route they plan to take.
Doug Kirkland, the special events permit officer at the City of Ottawa, says some protest groups don’t inform the city and police about their demonstration, simply because they’re unaware that they are required to.
“Some people just legitimately don’t know,” Kirkland says. “They don’t realize that exercising their right to dissent carries with it a responsibility to not infringe on other people’s rights.”
Which is ironic, since protests are about speaking out about the infringement of people’s rights around the world.
Kneen says he hopes this will change and there won’t always be a need to organize protests.
“I may not be realistic, but I still have this hope that someday we can move on to other things,” Kneen says. “There are other things I’d rather do with my spare time.”