Parliamentary Mace Spotted Across Canada

ddd
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Member: 7492
Joined: Jul 15 2004

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As a part of the ongoing citizens’ protest against the proroguement of Canada’s Parliament, a grassroots group of Canadians have sent Parliament’s “Mace” on a cross-country tour. Using a simple wooden replica, a small network of volunteers is hosting the Mace for a day at a time in each province plus Yellowknife, NWT. The project goes under the name of “Where’s Democracy?”

 

“It’s a parallel to the Olympic Torch Run, which did a magnificent job of tying the country together on a cultural and athletic level. The idea here is to do something similar on the level of political awareness” says the project’s initiator, Sam Philips. “The tour takes its name from the ‘Where’s Waldo’ series of children’s books. I just figured it was an appropriate format, given the schoolyard behaviour we’ve been seeing in Commons of late”.

 

The Mace’s tour began with a visit to Joseph Howe, Nova Scotian icon of democracy and press freedom, and has so far travelled to six Canadian cities, both East and West. The Mace will return to Ottawa for MPs’ return on March 3rd.

 

To follow the Mace’s tour across the country, please visit http://wheresdemocracy.blogspot.com

 

To be updated on Facebook, please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=276054466983&ref=ts

 

To get in touch with the project’s director, Sam Philips, please email samiamsamsee@hotmail.com

 


Comments

bagkitty
rabble-rouser-machine
Member: 16443
Joined: Aug 27 2008

What a wonderful idea... and one more likely to appeal to the "average" Canadian than smashy smashy. Too bad they aren't doing it with the real thing... since it is not being used anyway.


Tommy_Paine
rabble-rouser-for-life
Member: 1214
Joined: Apr 22 2001

In use or not, it's probably best not to mess with the real Mace:

 

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/speaker/rulings/rul...

 

Now, if you are ever summoned before Parliament to give testimony and then recant the next day with your "real" testimony delivered by letter, that's okay.   

It's all to do with a system we inherited from, I gather, some Englishman named Monty Python.


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