Rituals Vs. Reality: What Does Democracy Look Like?

Close your eyes and picture the following scenario: tear gas rolling down a deserted main street; hundreds, if not thousands, of police dressed in riot gear marching in formation; snipers taking positions behind tombstones in a commandeered cemetery; F16s and attack helicopters are roaring overhead. Scary right? This is the force that was brought to bear in Montebello on August 20th. The threat? Demonstrators protesting the secretive high level meetings taking place in the nearby resort far behind guarded barbed wire fences.

Around 1000 people managed to make it out to the difficult to access summit site in order to voice their opposition through peaceful protest. Unfortunately, these protesters were not embraced as symbols of vibrant democracy, but instead were pepper sprayed, tear gassed, choked by police, fired at with rubber bullets and arrested. Even more ominous is that, thanks to a YouTube video, undercover police dressed as 'anarchists' were videotaped walking amongst protestors carrying beer bottles and rocks in what seemed to be an attempt to invoke confrontation.

The meetings were part of ongoing discussions towards an agreement known as the Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP). Encompassing far reaching issues such as energy policy, water exports, and health care, the SPP process has been defined by secretive discussions between top officials from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Currently, the North American Competitive Council (NACC), made up of rich and influential business leaders have influenced the talks, and civil society has been excluded from this process. 

  As a result, the majority of information regarding SPP related discussions has been obtained not through the media, or from our government itself, but through concerted efforts by activist organizations who wish to gain access to this information. For ordinary Canadians who wanted a voice in the SPP process, but were locked out (unless they happen to rule a major corporation), Montebello was an important time to protest their unrepresented views within the discussion.   

The repression of civil society’s protest in Montebello raises serious questions for Canadians. On one hand Canadian citizens are taught to identify themselves as members of a democracy; however, if we are not allowed to participate in important meetings such as the SPP discussions what does that mean for the state of Canadian democracy? The answer requires an examination of what true democracy is. Certain rituals can be associated with democracy. For instance, voting at the ballot box, being informed through the media, and showing patriotism are some activities we have been socialized to believe make us good democratic citizens. But is that enough? Should democracy be about more than the rituals associated with the term? In Sadaam Hussein's Iraq, people voted at the ballot box and Saddam won with 99% support. Was Saddam's Iraq a democracy? In China there are more than 2,200 newspapers, however, can China’s one party system be considered a democracy?

 In Canada we vote at the ballot box and try to stay informed. However, if our leaders deny the public knowledge of key policy decisions, should Canada still be considered a democracy? The problem is that our democratic rituals alone do not ensure democracy. Furthermore, when the voices of the people are not heard or represented, as it has happened in Montebello, our democracy is in fact under attack. The vast disconnect between democratic rituals and actual representation of the citizenry places the effectiveness of mechanisms like voting in question.   

Knowledge is power, and an informed citizenry knowledgeable of our history is less likely to confuse democratic rituals with true democracy. For example, the history of the Canadian labour movement offers valuable lessons on how confronting power is a necessary element of true democracy. The Labour rights we now all take for granted (such as the right to safe working conditions) were not gained through the ballot box. Instead, they were gained through critical masses taking to the streets, shutting down production and demanding to be allowed to organize and have a voice.

Only after, did the labour movement prove to be a force that the centers of power could not ignore. Politicians, therefore, began to institutionalize a variety of rights workers had protested and fought for in the streets. These advancements would have not happened if the labour activists had not paved the way. Nor would labour rights have been maintained if the labour activists weren't standing at the sidelines promising that if there was no justice there would be no peace.   

If Canadians understood this concept perhaps they would recognize that now is a time when our rights need to be defended. Understanding how action is necessary for democratic change to occur may shed light on why dissent was crushed through brute force in Montebello. Perhaps our leaders are scared of true democracy and our government knows that if Canadians today took democracy as seriously as the labour activists of the past they would not be able to sign away our rights through an agreement like the SPP.

In a democracy, supreme power must rest with the people. How that democracy functions to ensure this is a question of time and place. Democracy must therefore be consciously formed and reformed, not ritualized to the point of dysfunction. Montebello teaches us that it is time to again ask ourselves, what we want our democracy to look like.

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