Peoples' Social Forum

   Last weekend the first all-Canada social forum took place in Ottawa, capital of Canada. It included the support and presence of a wide variety of labour union, NGO's, local community groups and Aboriginal peoples. About 3000 people participated in the opening march to Parliament Hill on Thursday. Over 500 workshops were presented that day and the following one. They covered every imaginable issue affecting Canadians and/or Canadian solidarity. On the following day (Saturday), more than 20 convergence assemplies took place. These brought together militants from a wide variety of organizations to think together about where a major issue was going. On the final day (Sunday) a general assesmbly was held to hear briefly from each of the assemblies held the previous day and to issue a final statement.
    To my mind, the most important presence at the forum was that of the Aboriginal people and the most important event was their entry and message at the final assembly. It was a very powerful presence that put into context all the various issues that had been discussed during the forum.
    Especially significant was the arrival of the Algonquin grandmothers (coucum) from Parc Laverendrye where clear-cutting is destroying their traditional territory. Ottawa stands on Algonquin unceded traditional Algonquin territory and so their call for solidarity was particularly significant.
Among the major speakers at the forum were Naomi Klein, Ellen Gabriel and Gabriel Nadeau Dubois.