Annual General Meeting

Victoria Council of Canadians holds 2008 AGM

Written by The Grey Tiger

On Wednesday May 7 the Victoria Chapter of the Council of Canadians held its 16th Annual General Meeting. The AGM opened with a meet and greet and a silent auction at 5:30 p.m., followed by a potluck supper at 6:00 attended by about 50 enthusiasts. The short meeting included a new addition to the slate of the Board of Directors, complimenting the regulars who have made the Victoria Chapter rank among the most active in the country.

With a presence at the Moss Street Market on Saturday mornings during the summer, regular monthly Coffee Nights offering informational events to the public, promoting issues and causes close to the daily lives of Victorians, and sharing the leadership for the Greater Victoria Water Watch Coalition (GVWWC), as well as a variety of other activities, we keep a busy active profile.

Ava Waxman, the Regional Representative from the B.C.-Yukon office, gave an animated talk on how well some of the C of C interventions have been successful around the province. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

Of special note in the evening, an Outstanding Achievement Award was given for the first time. This was presented to Dorothy Clippingdale for spearheading the GVWWC and her two years of ongoing tireless work in this endeavour. Janet Grey (left in the photo), a long time member of the C of C and hard working volunteer with the Greater Victoria Water Watch Coalition, presented Dorothy with her award. Dorothy was the co-founder of the coalition and has worked tirelessly to make it the success it is here on Vancouver Island for the last two years. For the first time since we have known her, she was rendered speechless as she received this surprise award, which consisted of a plaque and a print.

Board meetings are open to the public and are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month (except December) at 7:00-9:00 p.m. at 2994 Douglas Street (BCGEU bldg).

You can meet our volunteers and pick up important information at our table at the Moss Street Market every other Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., throughout the summer.

Coffee Night Film

CoC Victoria Coffee Night: Tuesday, August 19

Written by John Pope

Great turnout for a warm summer evening - 31 people.

'The Yes Men' video documentary was greatly appreciated and applauded.

The coffee and the friendly co-mingling was also a hit.

The Coffee Night committee will now consider it's presentation options for September and October.

We hope to see you all again soon!

You are welcome to add a comment to this blog, especially if you saw the film and have an opinion on it and would like to share it with others. (To see all of the comments so far, click on the title of this blog.)

Note also the relationship between this film and our newest project, Snakes in the Grass (snakesinthegrass.net), the first action of which is described in the previous blog.

Snakes in the Grass First Action!

PNWER Protest, July 20-21, 2008

Written by snakesinthegrass.net
















SIG just completed its first action, a protest against the trade and security "public private partnership" (P3) called the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) Summit in Vancouver, Sunday July 20 and Monday July 21. The purpose of this action was twofold: to educate the public about the real agenda of this P3 and its participants and its undermining and bypassing democracy; and to confront the summit attendees and make it known to them that SIG will do everything it can to place their nefarious activities in the public spotlight.

For a video of the interviews, songs and talks before the noisy part of our protest, click here.

Our SIG action in Vancouver on Sunday July 20 and Monday July 21 went well. We leafleted all over the place, including the 9 a.m. Sunday ferry to Tsawwassen, street corners, at the protest, on the Bayshore sea walk, and so on (all while wearing our SIG outfits, which consisted of black outfits under safety vests with our logo and web site on the backs and green pith helmets covered with rubber snakes). We sang our songs in many different places. We demonstrated LOUDLY with other groups (Sunday evening) outside the hotel where the PNWER Summit was taking place (a small crowd with a strong voice and lots of noise making). We sang our songs outside the hotel the next morning. After a day of leafleting and singing around the city, including at the art gallery, we took the 3 pm Monday ferry back to Swartz Bay. We attracted lots of attention, including radio, TV, and print media, filming, recording and interviewing!

The several RCMP officers at the hotel protest showed great restraint, even when the younger activists pummeled the back iron fence with pots (and they did damage it, according to the hotel managers). One of the younger protesters was detained, but only for a while (during the height of the protest, of course…), and rumour had it that he was already well known to the RCMP. Nobody stopped us from doing our thing until, on the ferry going back, one of the crew said we could not distribute our handbills because we did not obtain prior permission from BC Ferries. So we just walked around all of the decks wearing our outfits advertising our web site. If anyone was curious who we were, we could just tell them verbally what we were up to and refer them to the web site.

All in all, it was a very successful maiden voyage of Snakes in the Grass!

You are welcome to add a comment to this blog, especially if you have an opinion about Snakes in the Grass as a new project of the Council of Canadians. In addition, you can also register your opinion by taking the poll on our web site (victoriacouncilofcanadians.ca).

Victoria Council of Canadians Blog

This blog is intended for discussion of Victoria Council of Canadians activities by members of the Victoria Chapter. The blog administrator (webmaster, Victoria CoC) reserves the right to reject any posts or comments deemed offensive.