The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is strategizing on how to counteract the million-person march Wednesday..On September 11, OFL President Patty Coates sent an email to the OFL executive board, executive council, union heads, committees, coalitions, and community partners..Its notice read, “Urgent Action Required: Rapid Response to September 20th Canada-Wide (anti-sexual minority) Protests.”.The email warned, “the ultra-conservative right have planned nationwide events to protest teaching (sexual minority) content in schools under the guise of protecting children.”.Although the rallying cry is entitled, “A day to unite all religions in the defence of children against (sexual minority) indoctrination in Canadian schools,” Coates took a different view..“We know that far from protecting students this will hurt them in so many ways,” she wrote..“In this time of unprecedented hate and emboldened anger against so many people, it is time now, more than ever, for labour to show up as allies to protect targets of hate and bigotry wherever they may be.”.The email said the one million person march protests were planned for Toronto, Hamilton, Burlington, Kitchener, Niagara Falls, London, Windsor, Orangeville, Barrie, Sudbury, Whitby, Ottawa and “the list keeps on growing.”.“We must make our voices louder and the message heard that there is no place for hate in our province,” Coates wrote..“The OFL encourages all leaders/heads of unions to join with labour councils and community groups to organize workers and communities to form rapid response teams who can show up on the 20th at the locations listed and counter this rhetoric and these lies with messages of truth, love, acceptance and inclusion.”.Coates invited recipients to join her at a strategy meeting on the morning of Friday September 15 to “draft a system to ensure that no city in Ontario where an event is planned is left unchallenged. Let’s work to broadcast the message that no groups will be left alone.”.The OFL leader wanted her people kept safe while ensuring parents opposed to their agenda were challenged everywhere..“We will discuss and provide materials and resources for keeping protest and counter-protest actions safe and to avoid potential harm to our members and allies,” Coates said..Coates concluded with inspirational quotes..Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing.”.Martin Luther King Jr., said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”.The million person march is the initiative of Muslim activist Kamel El-Cheikh. Hundreds of Muslim parents gathered in Ottawa June 9 and 13 to protest sexual minority education in schools..In September, Prime Minister Trudeau told an audience at a mosque in Calgary that “people on social media, particularly fueled by the American right wing” were stirring up such protests and pursuing their own interests.
