TheBulletin.ca Journal of Downtown Toronto
By Duncan McAllister —
Thousands of Torontonians attended a rally march on Jan. 23rd, that started at Yonge-Dundas Square with speeches and entertainment, then made its way south along Yonge.
A recent phenomenon, the non-partisan, grassroots movement, Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament has gone viral with their website noprorogue.ca.
Their cri de coeur, “NO to prorogation! YES to democracy!” has energized a large swath of Canadians against the Harper government’s decision to suspend parliament until March 3rd.
Noted Canadian economist and journalist Andrew Coyne reflects on the numbers: “Well, now. The Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament facebook page now has over 205,000 signatories. An Angus Reid poll shows 53 per cent of Canadians opposed to prorogation, while an Ekos poll shows 58% opposed — 40% ‘strongly’ so. The government’s overall numbers are on the slide, even before the demonstrations planned for across the country later this month.”
According to CityNews.ca, “Thousands of Canadians outraged by [Harper’s] decision to prorogue, voiced their protest on Saturday at rallies across the country. In Toronto, more than 3,000 people spanning the political spectrum gathered at Yonge-Dundas Square, marching down a busy stretch of Yonge St. and calling for Harper to get back to work.”
The website noprorogue.ca, which contains details of the protests, ironically quotes Harper in a statement from April of 2005: “When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.”
The no-prorogue website claims that “On December 30th Stephen Harper announced that he will be Proroguing Parliament and suspending democracy until March 3. This is the second time he has done this in under two years.”
