Protesting Foreign Policy On Canadian Soil Accomplishes Nothing

 

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Do you honestly believe that by having a violent protest on Canadian soil is going to change anything in your country?

Do you honestly think that the leaders of the country you left care what happens here in Toronto?

Causing turmoil in our downtown core accomplishes absolutely nothing in your homeland.

It does cause problems here in Toronto and other Canadian cities. Yesterday a protest in Calgary turned violent.

Additionally, it gives racists fuel for their racism and conspiracy theorists reason to balk.

It causes frustration and impatience with the citizens who live in the immediate area of said protest.

Most embassies are in the downtown core.

With the chaos from the massive construction going on downtown, the last thing people want or need is additional road blockages.

This may sound like a lame minor complaint to you.

To many it is enough to ignore the cause of the protest and hold resentment and frustration towards the protesters.

We, (Canadians), do not condone violence. Half the problems in our country are because we do not gather en masse and protest for change.

The average Canadian protest is lucky to have five hundred people. We would rather gather at Tim Hortons and use the free wifi to bitch on social media.

There are ways of accomplishing intended goals without violent protest or creating chaos outside an embassy.

The only ones seeing it on the evening news are the people living in the location of the protest.

If lucky it may be on the national news. Depends upon whether or not a journalist takes notice of it.

It certainly will not be on the news in whatever country the protest is targeting. Although, I think you will find that it will be shared on the internet.

“So what’s the answer? What’s the best course of action to persuade the Canadian government to speak up on whatever serious issues are unfolding in a foreign land?”

Petitions are Canada’s answer to social defiance.

Get ten thousand or whatever amount of signatures on a well written petition and our government has to acknowledge your plight.

If they are in the legal and parliamentary position to justify their interference they will gladly voice Canada’s concern.

If you are so concerned about the state of affairs in your homeland that you want to disrupt Canadians then perhaps you should return to home and your voice will be heard.

Find a way to voice your concerns in a political environment. Not with tear gas and smoke grenades on our streets.

Ten thousand people marching on an embassy here may appear on the targeted country’s news.

Those leaders have no cause for concern because you are on the other side of the world. Your demonstration hidden from your fellow people.

Why would they care what a person thousands of miles away thinks?

An influx of calls, emails and letters to the appropriate Minister stating the importance of having their protest recognized can accomplish far more.

The calls, emails and letters have to be recorded into fact. By doing so, you give our politicians fuel to warrant their intervention into another country’s business .

The unruly protest on public streets may briefly appear on the local or national news, but little ever becomes of them.

No one can convince me that any protest outside the targetted country serves any purpose.

Why would the opposed ruler care what the citizens who left their homeland have to say in a foreign land?

Taking the appropriate political approach would accomplish far more. It is extremely unlikely to bring cause for change. Ninety-nine percent of foreign governments take offence of outside interference.

Ten thousand names in a petition gives our government a reason to voice concern over another country’s business.

Does that give us the right to stick our noses where they may not belong?

Occasionally ‘yes’, occasionally ‘no’.