Gig Report

What a successful action over supper-time this evening! They'll be talking about it for years to come!

Maybe 50 of us made it through security and were sitting in the public gallery.

At a prescribed time, when the vote was taken whether or not to extend Canada's involvement in Afghanistan until 2011, scores of people jumped to their feet and shouted, END IT, DON'T EXTEND IT. We kept up the chant as security hustled us from the gallery and continued to chant as we poured down the august front stairs and out the arched doors.

The press hastened after us and several people were interviewed outside.  (No cameras were allowed inside, but we wish that everyone could have seen Stephen Harper's face when we started to chant!)  According to media watchers, our protest was mentioned on all the news coverage that evening, letting people across Canada know that the peace movement will not go away!

The Raging Grannies (in muffties) were there to lend our voices. Alas, Ria and Rosalie could not be on the Hill with us and Jane was just a few minutes too late to gain entrance to the public gallery and met us in the rotunda afterwards, but Loris, Cathleen, Pat, Jo, and I were there.  You can see Pat in the picture opposite.

There were many familiar faces in the gallery: people involved with NoWar/Paix, with Together Against  War, with ROCG, former students from the Activism Class at Ottawa U. and current students from both universities, and some people from local unions.

Pulled off successfully, an action such as this fills one with euphoria and a sense that if we speak, okay, shout in one voice, we will be heard.