John Clarke from OCAP and Heidi Rimke from OCAT talk about the upcoming
province-wide economic disruption campaign and why Ottawa needs to
move beyond Tory resistance to taking action against the Harris Tories.

Their talks were followed by an impassioned question and answer period
demonstrating Ottawa's growing commitment to defeat the Tories.

OCAP = Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
OCAT = Ottawa Coalition Against Tories

The Panel (in order of surname):

John Clarke: Tireless OCAP organizer and activist
Denise Lachance: Billingual chair of the evening, activist and OCAT member
Heidi Rimke: Ottawa activist, Carleton Phd. student, CUPE member (4600) and
OCAT member

Venue: auditorium: main branch of the Ottawa Public Library
July-24-01
7pm-9pm
Attendance: ~95-100!

Description of audience:
A good cross-section of varying age, education, vocation, income and political
philosophy. Gender representation was also balanced.

Members of the independent and corporate press were also in attendance

I appreciated everyone¹s presence so I hope I don¹t sound as if I value certain
people over others. In my mind (and perhaps in my mind only) I consider what I
write below as good initial signs that a solid coalition against the Tories will be
formed in Ottawa as people from varying backgrounds join together to fight the
injustices that affect all of us under the harris Tory regime.

Of particular ³delight² to me was the presence of Francophone activists from
³across the Ottawa river² (salut Mat B et. al. !!), those struggling with disabilities
and the paltry sum given to them via Ontario Disability ³Benefits² , and people
from unions ranging from the IWW, the CAW (despite what Buzz Hargrove
says), CUPE, the OSSTF, and perhaps other brothers and sisters I didn¹t get a
chance to speak with.

Special thanks to the ³sister-sister² (Sister Helene) who came out to show her
support and to speak out against the Tory¹s cruel policies regarding human
welfare and underscoring the need to build community.

Other than the small amount of editorializing I¹ve typed above I want to
encourage people to listen.

Not only to the speakers but to the questions people ask. I¹m sure you can
identify with at least some of the issues raised.

Fighting to win in solidarity,

Steven Zikopoulos