In some ways, I feel like my engagement in activism was similar to my engagement in health and wellness (read A Journey to Better Health post on the blog). I made sure I was informed of current events, certainly had a point of view on most current issues, would like to think of myself as open-minded and supportive of change but definitely not engaged.
However, the reality is I really was not involved in any form of activism. If the definition of activism is "the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change" then I was not taking any vigorous actions (not really even any passive actions). The reasons could be the same as the reasons for my lack of intense focus on health - helping to raise 5 children, a busy career, travel, etc etc. The reality is however that just like my health I had not chosen to make it a priority. There are lots of people with families and busy jobs that make the time to be involved in politics, charities, community groups, social change, etc. I didn't.
It was not until I retired and I began to think "what am I going to do with all my free time?" that I began to explore areas of interest that would also lead me into activism. I have lots of interests. I had by this time made the commitment to put significantly more focus on my health and fitness and that commitment was a minimum of 90 minutes a day plus travel time, shower, etc. I certainly wanted to play more golf but I didn't want to play every day and even golf, a time-consuming sport, is only 4-4.5 hours. In the winter Teresa and I wanted to ski more, but probably once per week (although skiing is a full day activity). I want to spend time with our 5 children and our extended family. We see friends regularly, I have increased the time I allocate to reading, I started this blog but even after all of that, I realized I have a lot of free time.
My first step was to reach out to Amnesty Internation Canada. Most of you are likely familiar with AI. It was founded in 1961 in London and has grown to a global organization of more than 7 million people. The organization is committed to working for human rights around the world. Based on the recommendation of the person at AI Canada that responded to my email I ended up joining three groups within AI Canada.
Amnesty International's Action Network on Women's Human Rights (ANWHR) - this is a group that focuses on women's human rights both in Canada and internationally. The group normally meets once a month, has guest speakers, discusses upcoming action (marching in walks/protests), focus areas, etc.
Urgent Action - one of the things that has been part of Amnesty International's actions from the beginning is letter writing. The organization has had tremendous success bring focus on human rights issues and in many cases specific individuals involved in human rights abuses by sending letters to primarily government leaders. These letters shed a light on the issue and in many cases lead to a positive outcome. Urgent Action is a program that sends cases out to letter writers with a description of the issue and you are asked to write a letter (urgently) to support the action that Amnesty has identified. One of the great things about this activity is that you can very flexibly manage the timing of your letter writing.
Local Amnesty group - this is a group that is made up of members of our local community that normally meet once per month to discuss and take action on areas that Amnesty Internation has set as priorities.
I am going to jump around here a little on the timeline. About 2 years after joining Amnesty International as a volunteer I decided to explore the idea of join Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN). This is much more of a grassroots local organization although they do have many connections with like-minded groups globally. Their focus is much more narrow than Amnesty. MISN focuses on mining companies, primarily companies located in Toronto. Most of these companies have mines internationally and MISN brings focus on the abuses that these companies bring to both human rights and the environment. I went to an orientation for MISN in December 2019 and joined the group after that initial session. MISN meets every other week with a core group of 8-10 members and discusses current issues in mining and actions we can take to raise awareness of the negligent practices of Canadian mining companies. I think it is fair to say that the intensity level and specific focus on visible action is higher at MISN than at Amnesty.
Although I certainly feel I have a long way to go to meet the definition of activism above (I don't feel my campaigning or action is yet "vigorous" enough) I certainly feel like I have started and have hopefully contributed to some level of action and some change.
During the 3+ years of my volunteering, I have certainly learned a lot and I think have grown as a person (which reinforces my belief that no matter how old you are you can always learn, grow and improve). Here are just a few of the things I have enjoyed, learned, and grown from my volunteer work:
Although lots of room for more vigorous action I do feel that some of the activities I have participated in have led to positive change. Certainly, Urgent Action and it's annual event Write for Rights (a one-day global event where people come together in their communities to write 6 -12 letters each on various cases producing hundreds of thousands of letters globally). Amnesty does a great job of communicating when an Urgent Action case has improved or been resolved which is always great to see. Participating in the annual Women's Day March (my first time really participating in a march) was a great community event and definitely brings focus to women's' issues. Many other Amnesty activities I have participated in have certainly had a positive impact on human rights. It is probably a little early to see specific outcomes from my work with MISN (I missed their annual protest against mining at PDAC because we were self-quarantined after returning from Seoul) but I am sure as I participate more I will be able to contribute to the group's impact.
The people I volunteer with are a more diverse group of individuals than my friends and neighbors. I think it is difficult to understand other groups point of view if you do not meet them, talk to them, and listen (very important) to them. I think this is a very important benefit of my volunteering and something that has lead to a better understanding of issues in Canadian society, different points of view, and a better appreciation for what people go through in their lives.
The majority of the people I volunteer with are younger than I am. This is particularly true at MISN where everyone in the core group that meets regularly is (significantly) younger than I am. In addition to hearing (listening!) to their point of view, I also find their high energy level and commitment contagious. I also get to hear the point of view of young people from our children (who I also make a point of listening to (smile)) but I think hearing from people outside your family is different and important. At Amnesty, there is a wider range of ages in the volunteers, although many of the key leaders are young, again with a high energy level and great enthusiasm.
The majority (virtually all) the people I volunteer with at both Amnesty and MISN are women. I am not sure why this is. There are certainly men at Amnesty, just not in the groups I am involved in. Presently at MISN, all the core members that meet regularly are women. Again, I think this is good for me in terms of my understanding and learning.
Volunteering at both Amnesty and MISN has led to behavior and awareness that is different for me. Here is one example. In most cases, at both Amnesty and MISN meetings, when we are introducing ourselves, particularly if there are new people at the meeting, we introduce ourselves including our gender pronouns. In my case he/him. If you are not familiar with this you can google it but essentially it communicates to the group the gender pronouns you are comfortable being addressed with. In my view, it shows a high level of sensitivity to each individual in the group. It is fair to say that my circle of friends doesn't introduce themselves using gender pronouns.
I have had the opportunity to meet people with a different point of view. I think this is one of the biggest benefits of my volunteering. I am going to generalize and try and put this in political terms. In terms of Canadian politics, I would describe myself as a left-leaning Liberal. I want to vote Liberal (Justin Trudeau is making this harder and harder but that is a whole other story) and when I feel the Liberals don't deserve my vote I will likely vote NDP (or Green). I probably sit left of most of my friends and family on the political spectrum (other than some of my children). Again, I am generalizing but most of the people I volunteer with would be significantly left of where I am at. They are also much more intensely focused on the environment, women's issues, indigenous issues, black lives matter, defunding police.
Lastly, I would say that my volunteering has heightened (significantly heightened) my awareness of injustices going on, not just in the areas that Amnesty and MISN are focused on but generally. There is good and bad in this. Without a doubt, I would say having a heightened awareness of issues is a good thing. Having said that I would say my level of frustration is growing at what I see as an increasing number of blatant social injustices and little or no action being taken that would bring change and improvement. Police violence against people of color and indigenous peoples, systemic racism across our society and key institutions (government, police, business), foreign workers' rights, immigration policy, the RCMP commissioner's delays in addressing investigations and reports, the fact the federal government has taken no action on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) report, government support for pipelines and the oil and gas industry. The list goes on and on and although I understand some of these issues are very complex and long-standing I find it incredibly frustrating that most of these issues are getting very little attention (sporadic attention in the media) and little or no action by the government.
So as I am getting to the end of my first (more to come) post on activism I thought I would end with a few thoughts on what I am going to try and do as an individual to try and drive some change and increase my level of activism.
I think like many things, everything starts with the individual. I think we all have to be responsible for our own behavior, the impact of that behavior on others. You have to ensure that your behavior is not racist, homophobic, insensitive, bad (where bad is meant to cover all unacceptable behaviors). You need to be honest with yourself and check your behavior. Not by just talking to yourself but also by asking for feedback from others whether that be friends, family, colleagues. Ask a diverse number of people to ensure you are getting honest feedback. Be sensitive to the feedback, both verbal and non-verbal that people are giving you. Be self-aware and be willing to change based on the feedback.
Read. I recognize that this does not likely meet the criteria of "vigorous" action, but nonetheless I think it is beneficial. Force yourself to read books with different points of view. Google books on racism, indigenous issues, the environment, LGBTQIA2S+, poverty, history. I think there is lots to learn if you read books by a diverse set of authors on a diverse set of topics. Definitely some good books on my What to Read blog.
Be willing to call people out. This can be friends and acquaintances, colleagues, family, people in public (obviously you want to be careful with this and ensure you can do this in a safe way). I think it is wrong to be present for bad behavior or language and not say something as it allows the person off the hook and to potentially think the behavior or language is acceptable which it is not. Our son Kevin did this recently at his work. Calling out a homophobic comment by a co-worker (very proud of Kevin!). Sean's partner Samantha recently called out an individual on the go train for racist comments and behavior (again very proud Samantha!).
Recognize that you may be in a position to impact change. I think one of the strongest messages that has come out of the death of George Floyd is that the reason things are not changing for black people is not because of black people, it is because white people are not calling for and driving change. We don't need to tell black people to protest against police brutality, they have been protesting for 100+ years. The reason things are not changing is not that black people don't want or have not been calling for change. It is because white people and particularly white people in positions of influence, but in fact, all white people have not been calling for change with a level of intensity and consistency required to drive the change.
My last thought is to get involved. I don't mean to preach and this is clearly a very personal choice. As I acknowledged at the beginning of this post I have not been a role model for this and so I am in no position to be telling anyone what to do and that is not my point. I am however suggesting that getting involved has many benefits for you personally and the primary benefit of driving political or social change that in the end can make a difference in people's lives.
That's it. More to come on activism, on Amnesty Internation, Mining Integrity Solidarity Network, and the areas we are focusing on for change.
As always if you have thoughts, opinions, questions let me know at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com.
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