u/chrisuu__

It was a beautiful Monday evening as we converged on the Ontario Legislative Assembly yet again to exercise our civic duty to protest Doug Ford and protect Ontario from his incompetence and corruption.

The organizers arranged for a wonderful and diverse set of speakers who spoke up about the Ford government's many assaults on the province, our city, and its citizens. We were also presented with various ways at our disposal to resist and defend against them.

We signed petitions, marched and chanted around Queen's Park, forged new connections and strengthened existing ones.

Thank you to all the lovely people who showed up on a quiet Monday evening between the festive Pride weekend and Canada Day to fight for a better future. Kudos to the local organizers (Bonnie and John) for handling all the logistics and doing a fantastic job setting everything up (sound system on point yet again).

Please spread the word about the next protest! We are not stopping until Doug does. Saturday, July 25, 1 PM for the next one at Queen's Park! They're usually on the last Saturday of every month, across Ontario (we were up to approximately 60 separate locations last time). See you at the next one 😎

The first 32 locations for our monthly Fight Ford protests have already checked in and are listed on the attached posters as well as in the comments.

As usual, they're scheduled for the last Saturday of the month - July 25th this time.

If you don't see a location near you and you wanna step up, please do! This is a decentralized, grassroots movement. All the protests are organized by regular, concerned Ontarians like yourself.

Please help spread the word! Post on other forums, tell your friends and family, etc. A lot of people still have no idea that this is happening.

Meet in front of Legislative Building (megaphone symbol)! After listening to speakers and sharing stories, we will march around the legislative building (path was chosen for accessibility reasons).

7 PM - 8:30 PM

Official Speaker List:

• Adrian Currie - Proportional Representation
• Patricia Crooks - OPSEU, Sistering
• Tom McLeod - justasking.us.ca (username not a website)
• TJ Singh - Students Against Austerity
• Bruce McIntosh - President, Ontario Austism Coalition
• Michelle Robidoux - GTA Health Coaltion
• JJ - Repeal bill 5 (replaced Endangered Species Act)
• SCAN - Seniors Climate Action Network
• Norm Di Pasquale - No Jets
• Alex Bonnenfant- Bike Lanes, Transit

If you're wondering why it's on a Monday this time, it was rescheduled due to a very busy Pride weekend in Toronto and around Queen's Park. Next month should be back to normal (last Saturday of the month, in line with the other province-wide protests)

Thanks to the local organizers for setting this up! (I'm not an organizer, just spreading the word)

Couldn't pass the opportunity to crash this year's Ford Fest, so I went there as an independent Ontarian who wanted to express his displeasure and raise awareness about Ford's corruption, cronyism, and inability to govern.

After wandering around a bit and talking to various people, I ended up hanging out with a small group composed of independents, current and former students, teachers, etc. There were many other groups and independents scattered all over the park, many of which I never ran into (I merely saw their own pictures and discussions). I even saw Bonnie Powell at one point (local Toronto Queen's Park Fight Ford protest organizer) booing the heck out of Ford during his speech ✊ And of course the OPSEU people (purple shirts) were everywhere and did a great job drowning out Doug's speech and engaging Fest attendees.

Passersby often engaged in conversation, asked questions, listened, gave thumbs up, complimented my sign, and took pictures. There was some verbal back and forth, and a few obnoxious teenage boys in Ford Nation shirts who shouted slurs and praised Charlie Kirk (???), but the general vibe was fairly civil. Lots of police everywhere, but they mostly just idled around.

If you missed out, come out to the monthly province-wide protest later this month on June 27 (or June 29 for Toronto - Queen's Park, rescheduled due to Pride). See you there 😎

Wear black and red to show your support. Bring your own signs, banners, or flags.

We will be joined by key organizations and major unions like OHC, CUPE, ETFO, OSSTF, and OPSEU.

Let’s collectively protest the policies of Doug Ford and the PC government.

Please note that this is a strictly non-violent, peaceful demonstration.

The good boys and girls were out in full force at last month's protest in Queen's Park supporting their human friends. They sniffed out the stolen gravy and saw the bad Doug coming from miles away. Hope to see more of them later this month 🙂

Angus Reid has released their premier approvals, and less than 1 in 4 Ontarians approve of Ford.

If this record low approval rating stays where it is, or falls even lower, it will be become a political crisis for Ford and his clapping PC seals.

A ruling is expected regarding bike lanes removals any day now.

So it’s more important than ever to apply maximum pressure to repeal the bike lane bans when that happens!

If this downward trend continues, it’s possible the PC party will suffer a similar defeat to Wynne back in 2018.

This is the kind of language we need to use to demand Ford reverse his insane policies

Great turnout!

Kudos to the organizers for the crisp loudspeaker setup (huge upgrade from the megaphone) and all the effort involved in setting this whole thing up and spreading the word. Thank you also to all the motivating and informative speakers, the fun diversions (the marching band, the frog mascot, etc), and every single one of you who showed up to protect our province from our corrupt and incompetent premier and his administration.

See you at the next one 😎