Blog Dis
Sometimes you just have to protest
2025-07-29
Sometimes you just have to stage a protest bcuz if you didn't, how would an oppressive conglomerate know you're fed up? It's no different than holding back your opinion or sometimes anger, when dealing with someone who's behaving in an unreasonable fashion or who has demonstrated a pattern of abuse. If you don't lose your sh*t every now and then, how will these individuals ever know when they've crossed the line?
I live smack-dab in the middle of downtown in my city, seven blocks from Parliament Hill. And because of my proximity, I'm familiar with the concept of protests. I hear loud and clear pretty much every protest staged along Wellington Street, which faces the Parliament Buildings. In Ottawa, and whenever an organization wishes to stage a protest, the organizers are required to apply to the City of Ottawa for a permit, and then they're limited to the length of time to protest. They may begin on any day of the week, as per the permit, or if they begin on a Friday, they're required to end by Sunday. This process all sounds very neat and tidy and civilized, to begin a protest, say your piece, and then to disembark from the area, to allow the city dwellers to return to a state of peace. However, rarely do well-laid plans roll out according to their original design.
Presently, I'm re-reading one of the books that I re-read every year, Hell Hath No Fury: Famous Women in Crime by Betty Nygaard King, an Ottawa historian, whom I knew years back when I was a member of Ottawa Independent Writers. We'd bump into each other at our bi-annual Ottawa Book Fair. I love her potent little book, of which one chapter highlights the Pankhurst women: mother (Emmeline), and her two daughters (Christabel and Sylvia). If these names don't ring a bell, I'm glad you're reading this because the Pankhurst women are the first suffragettes to take on the British government from 1903 to 1918. Women in North America and the UK owe a debt to the bravery of these ladies, who fought tooth and nail for women to be granted the right to vote, to have a voice, to be counted, to make a difference. The Women's Political and Social Union (WPSU) was formed by Emmeline and her daughters. Their fight to gain the vote, in its day, was unequalled for the violence meted out against these women and their WSPU supporters — violence in the form of prolonged prison sentences, being force-fed, bludgeoned by police truncheons, having hair literally pulled off their scalps, and other forms of abuse that male criminals of this same era would've been let go w/ barely a slap on the wrist. The Pankhurst ladies were not dissuaded, despite Prime Minister Asquith pulling every sneaky trick in the Parliamentary procedure book to block their progress, supported too by Winston Churchill, who you may or may not care to know was a flagrant sexist, adopting the view that women were too emotional to cast a vote. Uh-huh. How many times have I heard this chestnut how women are too emotional? Yet, men are the first to initiate violence, and over 90% of assaults are attributed to men.
Moving right along.
Now, in light of the time that has passed since these events, I find it ironic that women were brought into the workforce during World War I and II only because there weren't enough adult men around to maintain and operate businesses—all had gone to war, thanks to old geezers in power who had zero issues sending young men into a war to die on their behalf. Prior to being given the right to vote, and providing that a woman could prove she attended University, the Pankhurst ladies elevated their protests to include smashing windows and these actions captured world attention in the UK and USA. Interestingly, Christabel had graduated with a law degree from Manchester University with honors but as was the norm in this day and age, she wasn't permitted to practice her profession because she was a woman. To me, this is reason alone to protest. Can you conceive of a man graduating law school with honors and being denied the right to practice in his chosen profession?
Men have enjoyed the privilege and easy access to attend institutions of higher learning for thousands of year. Women, on the other hand, have only been admitted to these institutions since the late 19th Century, with rare exceptions; if you were a woman, and a member of the aristocracy, you would have received extensive in-home tutoring, and would have been taught multiple languages, not because they recognized your sex but because they wanted a young woman of marriageable status with education to align with a prominent man.
Perhaps in your lifetime, you've had cause to protest, and this doesn't necessarily mean that you've stood at a picket-line or carried placards. It could mean a simple protest such as speaking out, in a boardroom, while others in managerial roles stay silent. There are many forms of protest. Even your pets can protest, such as my female kitty did when I'd try to introduce a new brand of dry food. She'd express her disgust and protest to me by tipping over her water bowl and plate of food, each and every time I tried to serve her new food. I got the point.
The two most dramatic protests I've experienced first hand that'll rank up there are the Freedom Convoy which began as a misleading event, as presented to the City of Ottawa but which was in fact a takeover of a city — well planned and executed with collusion on the part of members of Ottawa Police who knowingly allowed more rigs to come into the city, until every main road into our centretown was blocked. This protest went on for three weeks in the dead of winter, not only in Ottawa but in other parts of Canada. Afterwards, a study completed by the Anderson Economic Group estimated that in total the Freedom Convoy protest cost $6 Billion, of which $36 million was spent by Ottawa Police alone, and $300 million in auto losses due to blocked border crossings. I could go on in greater detail about this protest. In the end, I tip my hat to the genius planning bcus they not only occupied Ottawa, they locked down our city w/o firing a single shot. I didn't agree w/ their methods, any more than I agreed w/ how our Feds had shut-down the protest by locking Ottawans out of their bank accounts who donated to the cause. But for whatever it's worth, conduct some research on your country's banking laws and you might be startled to learn that your government is within their right to withhold access to your money, without your consent, if it's deemed that your monies are going toward the support of an illegal action. However, and w/ regard to the Freedom Convoy, announcements were posted on local news stations and in the city centre that anyone continuing to donate, once the Govt had declared the protest to be an illegal action, meant that your funds would be frozen. 'The Fifth Estate Freedom Convoy' aired the best 45-minute story that goes deep into the weeds. It's worth the watch. By the time this protest was staged, 90% of truckers had already received their Covid vaccine so they were protesting the continuing mask mandates. Hardly a hardship when you consider the overall cost.
Second most impactful protest is Free Palestine, and these continue, though less frequently. These protests initially went on for over a year, occurring weekly, and on weekends, winding through parts of Centretown which necessitated our Ottawa Police having to block off access points, to ensure no harm would come to the protesters. Allow me to reiterate according to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms that it is the right of every citizen to stage a protest, and not the right of every citizen to denounce the right to protest. I took exception, however, to young University students participating in these protests carrying placards that read: Death to Canada or Death to Jews which to me was and still is ridiculous, given that these individuals live in Canada, and are able to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle by comparison — kind of like biting the hand that feeds them. Similarly, I don't understand how the LGBTQ+ community had thrown their lot in w/ these protests, which were by extension protests promoted by the Hamas terrorist organization. I could only shake my head, wondering if these individuals understood the intolerance toward LGBTQ in Gaza, where gays are thrown off buildings, imprisoned, tortured or dragged through the streets, tied to the back of a motorcycle, until their skin is peeled off, cheered on and carried out by Hamas. On the surface, it's a complex situation and here isn't the vehicle to delve into every element of it, other than to say that a two-state solution appears to be the only solution. Yet, herein lies the issue: Hamas controls the Palestinian government with a majority vote, and they've rejected a two-state solution time and again. Hamas' idea of a solution is to make it a final solution, where every person of Jewish ethnicity is wiped off the face of the Earth. Suffice it to say, the death of thousands of women and children in Gaza now represents the worst possible humanitarian crisis outcome that has resulted from a terrorist organization like Hamas, the very ones who started the war by slaughtering unsuspecting Israeli civilians attending a concert, knowing fully that Israel would retaliate, and that subsequently Palestinians would be killed. With each agreed upon cease-fire, Hamas has launched attacks. You can listen to YouTube interviews on Al-Jazeera TV of Hamas leaders, living high on the hog in 5-star Iranian hotels, safe from the war, denouncing Israel, while declaring that they are prepared to sacrifice every Palestinian life if they have to, if it means achieving their goal to eradicate every Jewish person.
Terrorists do not negotiate. Terrorists do not back down.
I understand where Israel is coming from, given that hostages are still being held in captivity, and how this emboldens their stance to continue to go after Hamas, but it's long past due for Israel to relinquish the on-going campaign to pulverize the city of Gaza. The cold hard reality of this Israel-Hamas war is that war equals death and women and children are the first casualties.
The third protest that isn't being staged, which isn't occurring in Ottawa but rather globally, has to do with the dialogue on feminism and its so-called second wave, which isn't really a second wave. Feminism is being blamed for undermining North American society, and being the root cause of male loneliness, an epidemic, as it's called, which is a load of rubbish. The first feminist wave dealt with our right to vote. The second feminist wave spanned from the 1960s to 1980s, and it focused on addressing private and public inequalities w/ women. It wasn't until the mid-70s that women were permitted to carry their own VISA card, to sign a car loan or to hold a mortgage w/o requiring a husband's signature. Many high-profile personalities are excited to delve into this subject on podcasts, inviting learned women to speak on this issue, only I take exception to how they'll begin the discourse w/ their guests by acknowledging how young guys are getting their asses kicked in college only then to segue into how girls are outstripping men. How young guys perform in college isn't the responsibility of young women, nor is it their fault.
But it is the responsibility of governments to fight in favour of allowing women autonomy over their bodies, rather than to rescind legislation that took decades to put into place. Medical professionals and politicians shouldn't be empowered to withhold medical services to women, to decide how, what and when women can do w/ their bodies. The best example of can cite is the true story of a woman aged 29, with five children, who made an appointment at a hospital to get her tubes tied. The Hospital board ultimately decided that because she had not yet turned 30, her request for the procedure was denied, only for her husband to make an appointment for a vasectomy two weeks later, without requiring approval from the hospital board or his doctor. He just made the appointment and went in without issue.
Do you see the difference?
Denying a woman the right to manage her own life, and by extension her body, is a form of conscription. A brilliant Canadian author, Margaret Atwood (author of The Handmaid's Tale), rightly pointed out that the only comparable analogy in this regard is when young men and their bodies were conscripted to fight in a war, yet they're paid a full-time salary for their service, are given a place to sleep, clothing, training as well as three hot meals every day to include survivor benefits to their spouse vs women simply being denied how and what to do with their bodies. We can read the reports happening in real time of young women dying because hospital staff have refused to give them medical treatment. Where is the culpability?
Know that 350,000 women volunteered to serve in auxiliary roles in World War II.
I feel that the third wave of feminism is already upon us, a push-back, if you will, of women speaking up against the popular red-pill dudes who lament about the loss of the good ol' days, when women knew their place (to be in the home) and who were expected to devote their bodies, spirit and mind to support their husbands, without being able to protect themselves from domestic abuse, or being abandoned when their husband trades them in for a younger model. The push-back will not stop. Guaranteed. Women are sharing their stories online, and they'll continue to empower themselves, and their place in the world, which means cementing their future. And if the lonely guys of this world are unable to keep up, to modify their atrocious, controlling behaviour toward women, to make a union with themselves and a woman work to each other's advantage... well then my friends, he isn't meant to propagate his lineage.
Everything and everyone dies, and some day this will also include the human race.
"There comes a time in the life of a people suffering from an intolerable injustice when the only way to maintain one's self-respect is to revolt against that injustice." [David Lloyd George, British Minister].
I live smack-dab in the middle of downtown in my city, seven blocks from Parliament Hill. And because of my proximity, I'm familiar with the concept of protests. I hear loud and clear pretty much every protest staged along Wellington Street, which faces the Parliament Buildings. In Ottawa, and whenever an organization wishes to stage a protest, the organizers are required to apply to the City of Ottawa for a permit, and then they're limited to the length of time to protest. They may begin on any day of the week, as per the permit, or if they begin on a Friday, they're required to end by Sunday. This process all sounds very neat and tidy and civilized, to begin a protest, say your piece, and then to disembark from the area, to allow the city dwellers to return to a state of peace. However, rarely do well-laid plans roll out according to their original design.
Presently, I'm re-reading one of the books that I re-read every year, Hell Hath No Fury: Famous Women in Crime by Betty Nygaard King, an Ottawa historian, whom I knew years back when I was a member of Ottawa Independent Writers. We'd bump into each other at our bi-annual Ottawa Book Fair. I love her potent little book, of which one chapter highlights the Pankhurst women: mother (Emmeline), and her two daughters (Christabel and Sylvia). If these names don't ring a bell, I'm glad you're reading this because the Pankhurst women are the first suffragettes to take on the British government from 1903 to 1918. Women in North America and the UK owe a debt to the bravery of these ladies, who fought tooth and nail for women to be granted the right to vote, to have a voice, to be counted, to make a difference. The Women's Political and Social Union (WPSU) was formed by Emmeline and her daughters. Their fight to gain the vote, in its day, was unequalled for the violence meted out against these women and their WSPU supporters — violence in the form of prolonged prison sentences, being force-fed, bludgeoned by police truncheons, having hair literally pulled off their scalps, and other forms of abuse that male criminals of this same era would've been let go w/ barely a slap on the wrist. The Pankhurst ladies were not dissuaded, despite Prime Minister Asquith pulling every sneaky trick in the Parliamentary procedure book to block their progress, supported too by Winston Churchill, who you may or may not care to know was a flagrant sexist, adopting the view that women were too emotional to cast a vote. Uh-huh. How many times have I heard this chestnut how women are too emotional? Yet, men are the first to initiate violence, and over 90% of assaults are attributed to men.
Moving right along.
Now, in light of the time that has passed since these events, I find it ironic that women were brought into the workforce during World War I and II only because there weren't enough adult men around to maintain and operate businesses—all had gone to war, thanks to old geezers in power who had zero issues sending young men into a war to die on their behalf. Prior to being given the right to vote, and providing that a woman could prove she attended University, the Pankhurst ladies elevated their protests to include smashing windows and these actions captured world attention in the UK and USA. Interestingly, Christabel had graduated with a law degree from Manchester University with honors but as was the norm in this day and age, she wasn't permitted to practice her profession because she was a woman. To me, this is reason alone to protest. Can you conceive of a man graduating law school with honors and being denied the right to practice in his chosen profession?
Men have enjoyed the privilege and easy access to attend institutions of higher learning for thousands of year. Women, on the other hand, have only been admitted to these institutions since the late 19th Century, with rare exceptions; if you were a woman, and a member of the aristocracy, you would have received extensive in-home tutoring, and would have been taught multiple languages, not because they recognized your sex but because they wanted a young woman of marriageable status with education to align with a prominent man.
Perhaps in your lifetime, you've had cause to protest, and this doesn't necessarily mean that you've stood at a picket-line or carried placards. It could mean a simple protest such as speaking out, in a boardroom, while others in managerial roles stay silent. There are many forms of protest. Even your pets can protest, such as my female kitty did when I'd try to introduce a new brand of dry food. She'd express her disgust and protest to me by tipping over her water bowl and plate of food, each and every time I tried to serve her new food. I got the point.
The two most dramatic protests I've experienced first hand that'll rank up there are the Freedom Convoy which began as a misleading event, as presented to the City of Ottawa but which was in fact a takeover of a city — well planned and executed with collusion on the part of members of Ottawa Police who knowingly allowed more rigs to come into the city, until every main road into our centretown was blocked. This protest went on for three weeks in the dead of winter, not only in Ottawa but in other parts of Canada. Afterwards, a study completed by the Anderson Economic Group estimated that in total the Freedom Convoy protest cost $6 Billion, of which $36 million was spent by Ottawa Police alone, and $300 million in auto losses due to blocked border crossings. I could go on in greater detail about this protest. In the end, I tip my hat to the genius planning bcus they not only occupied Ottawa, they locked down our city w/o firing a single shot. I didn't agree w/ their methods, any more than I agreed w/ how our Feds had shut-down the protest by locking Ottawans out of their bank accounts who donated to the cause. But for whatever it's worth, conduct some research on your country's banking laws and you might be startled to learn that your government is within their right to withhold access to your money, without your consent, if it's deemed that your monies are going toward the support of an illegal action. However, and w/ regard to the Freedom Convoy, announcements were posted on local news stations and in the city centre that anyone continuing to donate, once the Govt had declared the protest to be an illegal action, meant that your funds would be frozen. 'The Fifth Estate Freedom Convoy' aired the best 45-minute story that goes deep into the weeds. It's worth the watch. By the time this protest was staged, 90% of truckers had already received their Covid vaccine so they were protesting the continuing mask mandates. Hardly a hardship when you consider the overall cost.
Second most impactful protest is Free Palestine, and these continue, though less frequently. These protests initially went on for over a year, occurring weekly, and on weekends, winding through parts of Centretown which necessitated our Ottawa Police having to block off access points, to ensure no harm would come to the protesters. Allow me to reiterate according to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms that it is the right of every citizen to stage a protest, and not the right of every citizen to denounce the right to protest. I took exception, however, to young University students participating in these protests carrying placards that read: Death to Canada or Death to Jews which to me was and still is ridiculous, given that these individuals live in Canada, and are able to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle by comparison — kind of like biting the hand that feeds them. Similarly, I don't understand how the LGBTQ+ community had thrown their lot in w/ these protests, which were by extension protests promoted by the Hamas terrorist organization. I could only shake my head, wondering if these individuals understood the intolerance toward LGBTQ in Gaza, where gays are thrown off buildings, imprisoned, tortured or dragged through the streets, tied to the back of a motorcycle, until their skin is peeled off, cheered on and carried out by Hamas. On the surface, it's a complex situation and here isn't the vehicle to delve into every element of it, other than to say that a two-state solution appears to be the only solution. Yet, herein lies the issue: Hamas controls the Palestinian government with a majority vote, and they've rejected a two-state solution time and again. Hamas' idea of a solution is to make it a final solution, where every person of Jewish ethnicity is wiped off the face of the Earth. Suffice it to say, the death of thousands of women and children in Gaza now represents the worst possible humanitarian crisis outcome that has resulted from a terrorist organization like Hamas, the very ones who started the war by slaughtering unsuspecting Israeli civilians attending a concert, knowing fully that Israel would retaliate, and that subsequently Palestinians would be killed. With each agreed upon cease-fire, Hamas has launched attacks. You can listen to YouTube interviews on Al-Jazeera TV of Hamas leaders, living high on the hog in 5-star Iranian hotels, safe from the war, denouncing Israel, while declaring that they are prepared to sacrifice every Palestinian life if they have to, if it means achieving their goal to eradicate every Jewish person.
Terrorists do not negotiate. Terrorists do not back down.
I understand where Israel is coming from, given that hostages are still being held in captivity, and how this emboldens their stance to continue to go after Hamas, but it's long past due for Israel to relinquish the on-going campaign to pulverize the city of Gaza. The cold hard reality of this Israel-Hamas war is that war equals death and women and children are the first casualties.
The third protest that isn't being staged, which isn't occurring in Ottawa but rather globally, has to do with the dialogue on feminism and its so-called second wave, which isn't really a second wave. Feminism is being blamed for undermining North American society, and being the root cause of male loneliness, an epidemic, as it's called, which is a load of rubbish. The first feminist wave dealt with our right to vote. The second feminist wave spanned from the 1960s to 1980s, and it focused on addressing private and public inequalities w/ women. It wasn't until the mid-70s that women were permitted to carry their own VISA card, to sign a car loan or to hold a mortgage w/o requiring a husband's signature. Many high-profile personalities are excited to delve into this subject on podcasts, inviting learned women to speak on this issue, only I take exception to how they'll begin the discourse w/ their guests by acknowledging how young guys are getting their asses kicked in college only then to segue into how girls are outstripping men. How young guys perform in college isn't the responsibility of young women, nor is it their fault.
But it is the responsibility of governments to fight in favour of allowing women autonomy over their bodies, rather than to rescind legislation that took decades to put into place. Medical professionals and politicians shouldn't be empowered to withhold medical services to women, to decide how, what and when women can do w/ their bodies. The best example of can cite is the true story of a woman aged 29, with five children, who made an appointment at a hospital to get her tubes tied. The Hospital board ultimately decided that because she had not yet turned 30, her request for the procedure was denied, only for her husband to make an appointment for a vasectomy two weeks later, without requiring approval from the hospital board or his doctor. He just made the appointment and went in without issue.
Do you see the difference?
Denying a woman the right to manage her own life, and by extension her body, is a form of conscription. A brilliant Canadian author, Margaret Atwood (author of The Handmaid's Tale), rightly pointed out that the only comparable analogy in this regard is when young men and their bodies were conscripted to fight in a war, yet they're paid a full-time salary for their service, are given a place to sleep, clothing, training as well as three hot meals every day to include survivor benefits to their spouse vs women simply being denied how and what to do with their bodies. We can read the reports happening in real time of young women dying because hospital staff have refused to give them medical treatment. Where is the culpability?
Know that 350,000 women volunteered to serve in auxiliary roles in World War II.
I feel that the third wave of feminism is already upon us, a push-back, if you will, of women speaking up against the popular red-pill dudes who lament about the loss of the good ol' days, when women knew their place (to be in the home) and who were expected to devote their bodies, spirit and mind to support their husbands, without being able to protect themselves from domestic abuse, or being abandoned when their husband trades them in for a younger model. The push-back will not stop. Guaranteed. Women are sharing their stories online, and they'll continue to empower themselves, and their place in the world, which means cementing their future. And if the lonely guys of this world are unable to keep up, to modify their atrocious, controlling behaviour toward women, to make a union with themselves and a woman work to each other's advantage... well then my friends, he isn't meant to propagate his lineage.
Everything and everyone dies, and some day this will also include the human race.
"There comes a time in the life of a people suffering from an intolerable injustice when the only way to maintain one's self-respect is to revolt against that injustice." [David Lloyd George, British Minister].
