On Friday, January 28, 2022, several hundred trucks arrived in downtown Ottawa, trumpeting air horns and draped in Canadian flags. Thus, began a seige of Canada’s Parliament Hill and surrounding areas by the most un-Canadian of mobs who inflicted their terror on over 50,000 people living and working in the “red zone” for 22 days.
Director of Programs at Citizens’ Climate International (CCI), Cathy Orlando, attended the counterprotests in Ottawa the weekend of February 4th with two of her daughters. Read Cathy’s column “Why my daughters and I counter-protested in Ottawa”.
Statement from Executive Director of Citizens’ Climate International Joseph Robertson:
We stand for nonviolent solutions-oriented civic engagement.
The word “politics” refers to the shared management of the life of a city or state. Politics is messy, because competing views and interests must come together to make a sensible future; political space belongs to the people. That does not, however, give extremists the right to hijack the civic space or use the right to peaceful protest as a way to physically and psychologically terrorize their fellow citizens.
At CCI, we work to support citizen volunteers in shaping a solutions-oriented civic space, where the right of stakeholders to speak and be heard is central to the decision-making process. We also view the use of violence and intimidation by extremists to be an attack on those fundamental rights. This is why we oppose the campaign of menace and intimidation that is being used to subvert Canada’s democracy.
