On this day, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, India. October 2 is now commemorated in India as ‘Gandhi Jayanti’ and around the world as the International Day of Non-Violence. Though he died almost sixty years before our current prime minister took office, perhaps we can still draw some inspiration from Gandhi’s resistance to colonialism and empire, his commitment to human rights, and his approach of non-cooperation and apply that to our present-day political struggles here in Canada.
In Brigette DePape’s report ‘Thinking Outside the Ballot Box: How People Power Can Stop the Harper Agenda and Create Fundamental Change’, she wrote, “During the struggle against British Occupation, Gandhi asked, ‘how can 100,000 British troops control 50 million Indians?’. While coming from a very different context, his words resonated with me and shed light on our current reality. How can 166 Conservative MPs and 57 Conservative Senators dictate the future of 33 million Canadians? They can only do it if we let them.”
Brigette’s report can be read at http://canadians.org/democracy/documents/OTBB-0911.pdf.
