2010-03-31 

‘We are the many, you are the few’ say Toronto community groups organizing protests in June

As the G8 Foreign Ministers are met with protests and direct actions in the Ottawa and Hull region, community organizations, labour unions, NGOs and others are ramping up plans for a week of creative actions and protests in Toronto, June 21-27, 2010.

”The G8/G20 Summits are non-transparent, illegitimate gatherings of people whose narrow vision for the world is both unsustainable and disastrous for communities everywhere", says Sharmeen Khan, a spokesperson for the Toronto Community Mobilization Network. “Our actions will show that we are the many and they are the few – our struggles and our voices will overcome their exclusionary agenda”.

“Harper wants to hide Canada’s poverty and homelessness, persistent attacks on Indigenous peoples and migrants, and the Alberta Tar Sands, the world’s largest environmental disaster.” says Syed Hussan, spokesperson for the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, “But community organizations in Toronto will make sure that the world sees what Harper is concealing behind the multi-million dollar fences and barricades”.

“Indigenous activists, migrant justice organizers, environmentalists, anti-poverty groups, labour unions, queer, feminist and disAbility rights communities are all gathering under the Toronto Community Mobilization Network umbrella”, explains Khan. “People are speaking to each other, connecting struggles, building alliances and developing solutions. These actions and protests will unify grassroots social justice movements in this city”.

“As people creating solutions in our communities, it is our responsibility to ensure that the marginalized voices of the billions shut out of these meetings are heard loud and clear”, Hussan adds. “We anticipate a people’s movement from around the globe joining us in Toronto for mobilizations in the struggle for real alternatives.”

The Toronto Community Mobilization Network is a group of community-based organizers and allies, facilitating teach-ins, creative actions, rallies and demonstrations leading up to and during the G8/G20 Summits. Endorsed by 50 organizations, a preliminary schedule of events and actions can be found on http://g20.torontomobilize.org

Preceding the actions on June 21-27, an autonomously organizations People’s Summit will take place at Ryerson University in Toronto (18-20 June) to educate, empower and ignite positive change, through a wide array of workshops, presentations, skills training and cultural events. For more information, visit www.peoplessummit2010.ca