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(Citizensontheweb.com flyer - please copy and distribute.) Democracy is supposed to be government of the people. Yet the system we live under in Canada is a continually weakening form of representative democracy. Power is increasingly concentrated at the top. Public debate on issues that should take place has been bypassed by the establishment. Corporate media - television and newspapers have gained control of public debate and have dumbed it down to silliness. Public hearings on issues are getting scarce. At the provincial level Mike Harris has now shut citizens out of government completely. Citizens have no say in how they are governed at the municipal level or at the provincial level. There isn't a real voice of the people anywhere in the system. Parliament is becoming irrelevant and now people are saying that even cabinet is powerless. Nearly all decisions are made by the prime minister and his advisors, the premier and his consultants or the mayor and his city staff. In this sense we don't live in representative democracy any more. We live under elected dictators at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. Our only role being to vote in elections controlled and manipulated by public relations people. The number one duty of government is to build democracy and involve the people. Yet citizens across Canada believe that they have to shout to be heard in representative democracy. In the Toronto Megacity we could begin to restore democracy by creating a city forum to involve all citizens in debate. We need a state funded Citizens' Assembly that will hold open public meetings on city issues either monthly or quarterly. Citizens will not be counted out of political decision making if they gain a voice. It would be a first small step to a better democracy. With an assembly the public voice would be louder and impossible for politicians to ignore. Contact your representatives at all levels of government,
stating that you support a state funded Citizens' Assembly.
* Flyer written by Gary Morton |