We had traveled to Québec City in twos and threes, drawn as individuals to challenge the secretive process whereby a powerful few were making, with impunity, decisions which would profoundly affect the lives of all citizens of our hemisphere. For the most part, we did not know each other before we went, though some of us did meet there, encouraged to discover others from our own area of Nova Scotia who shared our concerns.

Two weeks after returning to Nova Scotia, and feeling the need, as part of our personal healing process, to share our shock and outrage with others who had experienced the trauma, we held an informal meeting which was to be the first of many.

This debriefing meeting was immediately followed by a public meeting during which those who had been present in Québec City shared their experiences with members of the larger community, including a local MLA. After hearing the sometimes emotional recounting of the traumatic events, the assembled community instantly generated a letter to the Nova Scotia government, demanding an inquiry into the violation of democratic rights of Nova Scotians who were in Québec. More than sixty people signed the document addressed to the Premier of Nova Scotia, which was then carried to the House of Assembly by the MLA. To date, no substantial response has been forthcoming. However, this first public meeting initiated our group's commitment to an ongoing process of engaging community awareness around the issues that arose from our experiences in Québec City. Several actions have already taken place to date.

Now, we have arranged to meet with our Member of Parliament, in hopes that we can enable him to understand our motivations for participating in the massive assembly of citizens at the Second Peoples' Summit of the Americas, in Québec City. We want to address together the meaning of 'democracy' in Canada. In particular, we believe it is urgent for him to act with us to restore the shattered confidence of the young in a political process, and their will to participate in community. We urge him to initiate a national public inquiry into the abrogation of our Charter rights and freedoms during the events in Québec City, when force, including chemical weapons, was used against us in violation of our right to legitimate peaceful action and assembly.
With this initial meeting we intend to establish with him an ongoing relationship focused on action. Let us begin with a community forum, a local public inquiry into the state's response to democratic actions in Québec City, April, 2001.

This collaborative document contains the thoughts and words of many members of our group.

Synopsis

1. Reasons for traveling to Québec City
During the past generation there has been an ongoing and subtle shift of power from the open democratic expression of the people's will to the closed, unelected expression of corporate power. A trade agreement will affect the lives of all citizens deeply and perhaps permanently, and should be negotiated in conjunction with open, public discussions, where the true implications can be debated. This has not been the case with either NAFTA or with the FTAA. We were compelled to go to Quebec City because we had no other effective way of being heard by our government.

2. Need for inquiry into events in Québec City
By all eye-witness accounts (including the those of the local police who attended, and that of Sinclair Stevens, quoted herein), over 99% of the activists in Quebec City were peaceful demonstrators engaged in what is allegedly their Constitutional right. The brutal response of our government and police has called into question the validity of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If what happened there is allowed to pass unquestioned, then the entire government of Canada has, in effect, declared war on its own innocent citizens, and we do, indeed, live in a police state. We demand a full Parliamentary inquiry into the political and police response. We expect that those responsible will be brought to trial. We also expect there to be strict guidelines for future police activities during peaceful protests, and are asking our MP to report to us exactly what is the process by which police are mandated to target citizens as a threat to state security.

3. Youth and Democracy
So many of the activists in Québec were under twenty-five. If they, so naively realistic, become cynical and distrustful at this early age, does it auger well for the future of participatory democracy in Canada? The feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness on the part of youth is clear: what can be done to remedy this is a very serious task that must be addressed.

4. Defining Democracy: Citizens' rights in a democratic society
How do we define democracy? What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a healthy society? Do we have democracy in Canada? The events at Québec City have opened our eyes to the sorry state of democracy in our nation, and impel us to take action to establish, for ourselves and future generations, a system of governance which we can trust to act in the interests of all Canadians.

5. Free Trade / Fair Trade
We are not at all against trade amongst nations. We are not against trade agreements. But we make the distinction between fair trade and unfair trade. Words such as "free trade" have become meaningless over the past two decades. Is trade 'free' when our natural environment is clearly being destroyed, when most of the world's population are excluded from the benefits of a healthy economy, when human rights are trampled, when wealth is concentrated in the hands of exclusive groups? For whom is trade free? The result of free trade under NAFTA is clearly seen in the 'maquiladoras'‹zones just south of the US border that have been set up to take advantage of the low labour costs in Mexico. We believe trade can be free only if it is fair. In addition, a people's sovereignty must remain sacrosanct ­ a sovereignty that exists at all levels of government. Canadians are now awakening to the erosion of their ability to make their own laws: this was clearly demonstrated at the Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (May 28, 2001), where a resolution was unanimously passed declaring their desire to be exempted from Article I of the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) which our federal government is currently negotiating in secret as part of the WTO agenda.

6. Role of the media in a democratic society
Why did the media fail to give more than momentary superficial coverage to the huge demonstration of solidarity, creativity, cooperation, and commitment carried out by the vast majority of the thousands who traveled to Quebec City? Instead, most mainstream media coverage focused on the tiny minority of protestors who were provoked to violence ­ thus painting a false picture of rock-throwing hooligans for all Canada to see and judge. Is this kind of slanted coverage acceptable in a free and open society?

7. Communication between an MP and the electorate
We want to be able to see our MP as our partner, our elected spokesperson, in discharging responsibilities which should concern him at least as much as they concern all of us. We ask that our MP meet with all of his constituents who are concerned about these issues, on a regular, ongoing basis.

8. Planning the public forum for Wolfville
Post-Québec Democracy In Action (PQ//DIA) considers it imperative that a local public forum be organized to inquire into the state's response to democratic actions in Québec City.

9. Requests to our MP for action
There will follow a list of ten specific requests for action.

1. Reasons for traveling to Québec City

We need a strong and understandable link between the public will and parliamentary decision-making. This requires a deep and ongoing dialogue between our elected representatives and the people who elect them. It also requires a new way of ensuring that the ideals and desires of the people are reflected in the make-up of Parliament.

Trade agreements are no doubt complex processes, whose implications differ according to intrinsic interest. Corporations, investors, environmentalists, human rights activists, and trade unionists will each view the results in different lights. Therefore, it is imperative that in the negotiation of such a serious treaty as the FTAA, with far-reaching effects on so many aspects of Canadians' lives, full, open, and public discussion and debate at all levels should have preceded ANY decision-making.

We were compelled to go to Québec City because we had no other effective way of being heard and of influencing the decisions of our government on the Free Trade Area of the Americas other than through the creation of an alternative document. We were joined by approximately 60,000 others who shared our convictions, and represented hundreds of thousands more who agreed with us but could not attend. Neither the Government of Canada nor the national mass media listened to us. We were met with violence and the violation of our basic rights as Canadians, and days of peaceful, cooperative, productive, creative action were ignored.

We see an increasing shift of power away from democratic institutions to non-elected tribunals and global corporations. We are especially troubled by the apparent willingness of our government to facilitate this transfer. Why would our government promote, sign, and implement the FTAA, which, for example, appears to limit our government's power and control over our environment and natural resources? It seems to us that our government representatives ought to view the protection of our environment as one of their most important jobs.

The state is not becoming irrelevant. Rather, the state is becoming the protector of corporate interests from the 'threat' of democracy. Our MP should be concerned by what we are saying. We represent many who agree that our rights, ironically, must be protected from the state; that those who violate rights must be made accountable; that our media must record the whole picture accurately; and the electoral system must be changed before we lose a generation of Canadians who put no faith in any government on any level.

2. Need for inquiry into events in Québec

The following is excerpted from an article by Sinclair Stevens in the Toronto Globe and Mail on April 24, 2001. It is entitled "A Police State in the Making: Democracy Trampled in Québec City."
"I spoke with many of the people in the street [the protesters], asked them why they had gathered, why they opposed the free trade proposals. It was a lively but friendly exchange.
"We were interrupted as the police down the road began an eerie drumming, rattling their riot sticks against their shields. Slowly, in unison, one six-inch step at a time, they began marching toward us. Noreen and I moved to the side of the street, as the protesters remained stationary. Some formed V signs with their fingers.
"To my horror, the police then fired tear gas canisters directly at those sitting or standing on the roadŠ.
"We lost somethingŠ last weekend in Québec: our innocence. This government, and some reporters, like to brand the Québec City demonstrators as "hooligans." That is not fair. I talked to dozens of them, mostly university students, aged about 20. They came to Québec, not to have "a good time," as some suggest, but to express their well-thought-out views on a subject that is important to them, to all of us.
"I may not have agreed with their position, but I sure believe in their right to express it. The police had no cause to violently suppress it.
"Some will say that a handful of demonstrators got out of hand and forced the police to take collective action. I can't agree. The police action in Québec City, under orders from our government, was a provocation itself ­ an assault on all our freedomsŠ. our government is dead wrong to behave in a manner that suggests we have forgotten what democracy is all about."

The response of our government and police in Québec has called into question the validity of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If what happened in Québec is allowed to pass unchallenged by the parties in opposition, then the entire Parliament of Canada (not just the Liberal Party) has in effect declared war on its own citizens. Throughout history, repressive regimes have equated the voicing of dissent with threat of rebellion. Fascist governments, a traditional hallmark of which is the promotion of corporatism, have always denied opponents the freedoms of assembly and speech, rights guaranteed universally among signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

By all eye-witness accounts (including those of local police officers who were there), over 99% of the activists at Québec City were peaceful. We must ask: were the same proportion of police peaceful? The Canadian Charter of Rights clearly states that we have the "fundamental freedom" to "peacefully assemble". Why, then, were peaceful citizens gassed with 4709 canisters of tear gas (both CS and CN), pepper-sprayed, hit with water cannon, shot with 822 rubber bullets, shoved and beaten, hand-cuffed, arrested, and detained for hours on end in conditions that most intelligent people would condemn as inhumane? If our supposedly fundamental freedoms can be so arbitrarily suspended by politicians, then, in effect, the Charter does not exist. This is the classic 'Catch-22': we have a Charter - only as long as we do not dare to try to exercise the rights embodied in it.

This should be an extremely alarming thought for any Canadian citizen - especially for any Member of Parliament. In 1969, eighty countries voted to include tear gas agents among chemical weapons banned under the Geneva Protocol. Why is Canada not among them? How can Parliament sit complacently by and condone such thuggery?

WE DEMAND A FULL PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY into the use of force and intimidation by police, and the likely use of agents provocateurs in Québec City. Why were several free food providers, and the independent media, attacked during the night, while the mainstream media slept? Why were medics specifically targeted by the police? Why was the street clinic raided and all inside (including patients) forced out into the street?

We expect that those responsible for these atrocities‹politicians, civil servants, and members of the various police forces‹will be brought to trial. These issues must be fully debated in our Parliament. We further demand that guidelines be drawn up so that in the future, peaceful assemblers in Canada are no longer subject to cowardly acts of bullying and harassment - ironically by those whose job it is to protect them from harm.

We must be clear that at this point the issue is democracy itself, rather than the ideological differences about the pros and cons of 'free trade'. This is a test - a test of our Charter, and of the basic principles on which we imagine Canada to be founded. We want our MP to take up this challenge in Parliament on behalf of all Canadian citizens, and specifically on behalf of his own constituents who were attacked and traumatized in Québec City.

Lastly, we observed that the police in Québec City acted in a manner identical to other police forces who are trained at the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia. This observation leads us to ask our MP to report to us exactly what is the process by which police are mandated to target citizens as a threat to state security.

3. Youth and Democracy

So many of the activists in Québec were under twenty-five. If they, so naively realistic, become
cynical and distrustful at this early age, does it auger well for the future of participatory democracy in Canada?

What should be our reaction to that minority of young people expressing their anger through violence? Why do they do that? It seems to us that a lot of people don't take the government seriously, and don't trust it. This may be connected to the many baffling messages coming out of the political system. As one of our younger members said:

"ŠOur government may implement plans of aid for our environment, showing concerns for our dying planet. However, it isn't long after that we witness such acts as the signing of the FTAA‹giving the big corporations more power to exhaust more resources. I felt the same way with Québec City and how the government used our tax dollars (the same tax dollars that if we don't pay we will be threatened and faced with imprisonment) to gas, shoot and imprison peaceful protesters anyway. It becomes very confusing to a lot of youth to see this sort of act of betrayal."

4. Defining Democracy: Citizens' rights and responsibilities in a democracy

How do we define democracy? What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a healthy society? These are questions that need to be answered in the light of our experiences in Québec City and the reasons why we had to journey there.

Here are the words of Wilfred Laurier, who later set in motion the process which eventually
brought the colonial empires to an end, speaking immediately after the Métis Rebellion and the hanging of Louis Riel:

"What is hateful...is not rebellion but the despotism which induces the rebellion; what is hateful are not rebels but the men, who, having the enjoyment of power, do not discharge the duties of power; they are the men who, having the power to redress wrongs, refuse to listen to the petitioners that are sent to them; they are the men who, when they are asked for a loaf, give a stone." (from J.R. Saul, The Unconscious Civilization)

From our experience in Québec City many of us conclude that we are living in a police state. The police, acting for the government, were determined to teach us a lesson‹that if we have the temerity to take the Charter at its word, we will be beaten and intimidated.

The events at Québec City have opened our eyes to the sorry state of democracy in our nation, and impel us to take action to establish, for ourselves and future generations, a system of governance which intends to act in the best interests of Canadians.

The citizens of the Annapolis Valley are not alone in these concerns; there are like-minded groups of people expressing similar reactions all across the country. Now is the time for us to work together to stem the deterioration, and to restore to each citizen the faith in the electoral process by which we consent to be governed.

5. Free Trade vs. Fair Trade

Is trade 'free' when our natural environment is clearly being destroyed, when most of the world's population are excluded from the benefits of a healthy economy, when human rights are trampled, when wealth is concentrated in the hands of exclusive groups? We believe trade can be free only if it is fair.

Fair trade benefits each citizen, starting with the poorest of the poor. Fair trade is concerned with the health of communities and their environments. One of the tenets of fair trade is democratic control over all social and economic matters that affect the community.

The concerns that Canadian communities have for their ability to continue to conduct their own business in the best interests of their citizens (rather than in compliance with the requirements of ever-expanding international trade deals) is clearly demonstrated by the fact that at the Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (May 28, 2001), a resolution was unanimously passed declaring their desire to be exempted from Article I of the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), which our federal government is currently negotiating in secret as part of the WTO agenda. At the urging of our group members and the local chapter of the Council of Canadians, the Town of Wolfville, in it's own motion, endorsed the FCM resolution for the record, on behalf of its citizens on July 16, 2001.

Those who journeyed to Québec City were not only concerned about repercussions to our own citizens resulting from any trade deals with our giant neighbour to the south, but were also in sympathy with the peoples of Central and South America who would be directly affected by the FTAA. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) confirms unequivocally the mounting tide of poverty in Mexico since the signing of NAFTA. Human displacement, environmental degradation, misery, and crime are rife in the areas called the 'maquiladoras'‹zones just south of the US border that have been (and are being) set up to take advantage of the low labour costs in Mexico. "Here we have concrete expression o f the fact that NAFTA is not about trade. It is about the power of foreign corporations to get what they want and 'give the finger' to the people and the laws of sovereign nations, provinces or states and municipalities" (and their environments). (Connie Fogal, spokesperson for the Defense of Canadian Liberty Committee)

6. Role of the Media in a democratic society

If a formal inquiry into the events at Québec City is not undertaken, Canadian citizens will likely never know what really happened there. People were essentially judged by the mainstream media, who focused almost exclusively on the activities of the police and the few, while branding all citizen participants as 'violent.' The excellent information and numerous addresses and panel discussions presented by many organizations under the auspices of the Second Peoples' Summit of the Americas were almost entirely ignored.

Nor was there any meaningful reporting of the content of the discussions by the political and corporate participants held behind the barricades.
The national mass media failed to give more than momentary superficial coverage to the huge demonstration of solidarity, creativity, cooperation, and commitment carried out by the vast majority of the thousands who were part of the citizens' actions. Where were the images of the flowing river of humanity, with their creative placards, banners, puppets, costumes, musical instruments, and other brilliantly conceived props, moving peacefully through the streets of Québec City to the pervasive rhythms of countless hand-drummers? These people were participating in a remarkable political event, yet the mainstream media, whether through professional laziness, or because they are under the control of pro-corporate forces, chose to virtually ignore the event and to focus instead on a few people tipping over a hated fence, or returning canisters of tear-gas lobbed at them by the police.

Surely the fact that the media failed to perform their assigned role, which is essential in a well-functioning democratic society, demands serious investigation.

7. Communications between an MP and the electorate

We ask that our MP meet with us and all of his constituents who are concerned about these issues, on a regular, ongoing basis. We want to be kept informed about what he has done on our behalf, how it has been received in his caucus, and what needs to be done to carry the issues forward. We want to be able to see our MP as our partner, our elected spokesperson in a cause which should concern him at least as much as it does all of us. As one of our number put it:

"I want to see the beginning of a relationship between constituents and politicians‹a relationship that becomes the turning point for people's feelings of helplessness and frustration regarding politics and our seeming lack of ability to work toward positive change."

8. Planning the public forum for Wolfville

Post-Québec Democracy In Action (PQ//DIA) considers it imperative that a local public forum be organized to inquire into the state's response to democratic actions in Québec City. Representatives from all federal parties and our communities need to explore this experience in a public venue with those of us from the Valley who experienced the events of April, 2001, in Québec City. We expect our MP will endorse, support, and participate in this event and will use his position in all ways appropriate to cooperate with us in making this a successful community experience.

Currently we envision the inquiry forum to be co-sponsored by Post-Québec Democracy In Action (PQ//DIA), the Valley Chapter of the Council of Canadians, and the Student Union and Political Science Department of Acadia University, to take place this autumn at Acadia University.

9. Requests to our MP for action

We ask that our MP:

1. Initiate in Parliament an inquiry into why our democratic and constitutional rights were violated, especially why medics were targeted, and how police were instructed for participation in citizens' political actions in Canada.

2. Report to us exactly what is the process by which police are mandated to target citizens as a threat to state security.

3. Share with Joe Clark and the Conservative caucus our very serious concerns about the state of democracy in Canada.

4. Urge his party and other MP's to develop legislation to prevent this government (and future governments) from binding us into any future trade agreements without full public disclosure and debate.

5. Learn what went on at the Second Peoples' Summit of the Americas, in Québec City, and make himself available for discussion of its contents.

6. Obtain the text of the FTAA agreement, and the Peoples' Summit document, and make these available to his constituents.

7. Report to us on the results of his promise to write a letter to his fellow MP's regarding our issues.

8. Consider attending the upcoming World Bank and IMF meetings this fall in Washington D.C., (both sides of the 'fence') then meet to discuss with us his impressions upon his return.

9. Endorse, support, and participate in a local public forum to inquire into the state's response to democratic actions in Québec City, and use his office appropriately to cooperate with Post-Québec Democracy In Action (PQ//DIA) in making this event happen successfully.

10. Commit to continue to meet with us on a regular basis.