Greetings All. My thanks to Wanda for correcting my statement that the headquarters of the OGS was in Ottawa. I accept her correction that the headquarters is, in fact, in Toronto. Thanks to Wanda also for bringing our attention to the yearly Seminar being held in Cornwall, Ontario, this coming weekend. While uncertain as to whether the Seminar is for the main OGS, or Ottawa branch, I hope that someone there will bring up the suggestion for a demonstration in front of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. As suggested earlier I believe the best time for this to happen would be on a Wednesday when media are on site for the noon media scrums following the weekly Caucus meetings. Happy Hunting. Gordon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wanda Sinclair" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 6:38 PM Subject: Re: [CCC] Regarding "End Game" Gordon The OGS (The Ontario Genealogical Society) headquarters is not in Ottawa but in Toronto. But they do have an Ottawa Branch. And their yearly Seminar is being held this coming weekend in Cornwall, Ontario. WANDA SINCLAIR Rexdale, Ontario ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gordon A. Watts" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 1:39 PM Subject: Re: [CCC] Regarding "End Game" > RE: [CCC] Regarding "End Game"Greetings Ken and All. > > I am pleased to see that several listers have been participating in the current discussion regarding what we can do to bring the Census issue and Bill S-13 to the attention of the public, the media and our parliamentarians. I hope that this discussion will continue. With this posting I hope to respond to several messages that have been posted. > > Several of the things suggested are looking forward a number of months and seem to be based on the assumption that Bill S-13 will not be passed. That is not necessarily the case. Although those suggestions could be followed up if in fact S-13 does fail to pass, I think that we need to do something more immediate to bring the need for amendments to S-13 to the forefront. Preferably, it needs to be done before, or during the time S-13 is being discussed in the House of Commons. I come back to my suggesting re: picketing/demonstrating before the Parliament Buildings. > > Ken suggests that such an activity would require many people to keep up this activity for 10 to 20 days. I do not think that it would take that long for a demonstration to attract attention to what we seek. > > The various political parties hold their Caucus meetings on Wednesday mornings. Following those meetings there are always media scrums at which TV and print media reporters interview the major players from the Caucus meetings. I believe these scrums are normally held at the noon lunch break. If we could see a number of people demonstrate for 3 or 4 hours on a Wednesay to cover the period when the media people are arriving before the scrum, and when they are leaving, that might be sufficient to attract some attention. This could be done on 2 or 3 successive Wednesdays. Of course, the greater the number of participants, the more attention it would attract. > > Such a demonstration would require someone local to organize it, and someone knowledgeable of the issue and what we seek to act as a spokesperson. The OGS, being the largest genealogical organization in Ontario and having their headquarters in Ottawa, would be the logical ones to take this on. As some of the OGS leaders subscribe to this list it is my hope that they will take on this challenge. OGS members might encourage them to do so. > > Engaging a professional lobbyist has a couple of drawbacks, not the least of which would be the cost of doing so. We sucessfully, and quickly raised the money for our legal action but there is no certainty that such would be the case to raise the funds to hire a lobbyist. Timing is also a problem here as there is a need to act now, rather than down the road. There are also rules under which professional lobbyists are governed, while we as individuals are not restricted by those rules. > > Steve White remains a subscriber to the CCC list and as such has access to all the posts. He has also corresponded privately with Muriel and myself. It is believed that he has been passing on information to other media people and that this will at some point result in some media activity. There are a couple of other media types that subscribe to the list and at least one of them has produced a very good article about the Census issue. > > Patty suggests making this an election issue, and to some extent this idea has merit, although the MPs have many times been made aware that their decision on which way to go on the Census issue could influence the way people vote in an election. This again, however, is a long range thing and the need is for something immediate. Except in a few instances, we have had no indication that the MPs that do not support our efforts are concerned about our support for their re-election. > > Wayne makes an interesting suggestion about hands across the bridge at Niagra Falls. That is something that would also take some time and organization. I am not so sure, Wayne, about your suggestion regarding a red wig for me. I think I would likely look more like Ronald McDonald than William Lyon MacKenzie <]:-). > > Let us keep the discussion going. I am sure that there are many others that have ideas on what we can do. > > Happy Hunting. > > Gordon ==== CANADA-CENSUS-CAMPAIGN Mailing List ==== How to unsubscribe from Digest Mode. Send a message to [email protected] that contains (in the Subject line and body of the message) the command -- unsubscribe -- and no additional text.