On Thursday, November 27th, 2008, myself along with two great friends took to the streets to evoke thought through a very graphic protest.  I designed the protest to “hit it home” per say.  One of my friends laid on the very cold sidewalk with a bloodied sheet covering him.  We had caution tape taping off an area around the body.  My other friend took care of handing out information for media inquiries and doing the filming.

I came prepared with a printed copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  A must have during any protest as law enforcement are notorious for hassling peaceful displays of activism.

The protest took place between 4pm and 6:15pm (a high traffic period) on Scott Road, a busy street in Surrey.  The chosen location for the protest was an area highly populated by South Asians, also to add to the strength of the protest, it was right outside a Gurdwara (Sikh Temple).

The protest garnared so many phone calls to local police stations in such a short period of time, I was approached by almost all the local policing agencies and questioned continuously.  Backed by nothing but truth, activism, and a printed copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, all agencies were called off.

I believe the protest was a great success.  My goal of “hitting it home” was successful everytime an onlooker supposedly saw a dead body, a gruesome scene, they shunned away.  When they noticed me standing above the ‘dead’ body holding a sign stating “THIS COULD BE YOUR SON”, they shook at the thought of what it truly would be like to lose a family member.

Though almost entirely the reactions were postive, either in the sense of people applauding my efforts or in the sense of them being evoked with the thought I wished to portray, I encountered two negative reactions.  Both of which I would like to share with you today.

The first was an elderly Indo-Canadian lady who approached the protest.  She inquired about my goal and then decided to “put me down”.  She stated that my protest was in vain and that I was evoking no thought in anyone, no cars were really slowing down to look, and finally that my protest was utter nonsense.  As she decided to walk away I acknowledged her and thanked her for her comments.  I also stated that she is a prime example of ignorance and denial.

The second was an Indo-Canadian young man, perhaps mid to late 20′s, who pulled over in a black truck of sorts.  He first began to argue with my friend who was handling the filming/media inquiries.  Stating that our protest was misguided and that our research was beyond incorrect, that it encompassed false facts.  He also stated that I was “bringing down the community” because I chose to do the protest infront of the temple.  Finally after many attempts by my friend to explain the goal of the protest, I walked over to continue the dialogue.  He encouraged me strongly to do my research and that I was “stupid” for doing this.  I rebuttled with: “where else could I have done this protest to impact the most amount of South Asians?” and “this area is known for a high South Asian population and a node for high traffic”.  He chose to fight with the gun of ignorance loaded with bullets of denial.  He claimed that our community was having no issues and that it was a media creation.  I strongly encouraged him to do his research.  Out of immaturity or frustration, or perhaps both, he chose to speed off while yelling the word “faggot” directed at me.

Local media was encouraged to come down to witness the protest.  Out of the 14 media outlets contacted, 1 showed up.  CTV came and spent quite some time filming myself and the protest, they even interviewed me and were happy to see activism instead of real bloodshed.  The story was suppoose to air that night.  After the evening news aired, it was apparent that they did not run the story.  I called CTV while pretending to be “Joe – Concerned Citizen”.  I spoke to CTV’s news desk and inquired why the story was not airing, they simply and bluntly stated (and this is word for word), “if it was a real dead body then we would have aired the story”.  That one statement cemented for me not only the ignorance and denial of our community but what our media chooses to showcase.

I was once told by a reporter, “we report the unusual.”  This city has a lack of activism, apparently that is not “unusual” enough to report.  Unsual equates to blood.

A passerby wrote a quick story on the protest in a local Indian business paper, please find the story below.

My love and admiration shoutouts to two great friends that helped me with the protest, Aaron Maharaj (camera/media inquiries) and Terence Narain (the “dead” body).

The activism t-shirt that had the word “breathe” was provided by Eric Wilson of Artevist.com.

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THIS COULD BE YOUR SON
article and photograph by Gurpreet Sahota

Don’t worry this is not a dead body.  This is a way to wake people up.  A young Mani Amar has figured out a new way to invoke thought on Thursday evening on a sidewalk in front of the Scott Road Gurdwara.  He made a friend appear as if he was a dead body.  So people going by could see that this could be your son too.   Interviewing him, he said “I spent $40000 out of my own pocket to make a documentary about gang violence.  This is my idea to invoke thought on the fact that over 100 people have died due to gang violence.”  With passion, Mani says he has lost friend due to this.  This is the time for our people to recognize and wake up to the issue.  When he was doing this demonstration on Scott Road, traffic on both sides was slowing down to look and were seen to be getting emotional believing it was a real body.

 

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thanks to my father and brother for translating the article.