Freedom Group in Cameron

On Monday, July 3, the Freedom Group in Cameron met to host Zoom presentations by Shawn Buckley and Michelle Leduc-Catlin regarding the National Citizens Inquiry, and other important action topics.

Ideas to consider for our “Freedom Group”

I am writing this to introduce to members of our “Freedom Group in Cameron” some ideas that, I believe, will enhance our effectiveness as an action-oriented, local community of like-minded citizens.

These ideas are presented on the understanding that they must be discussed by everyone in our community who is committed to our cause. Later, we can vote on the topics (in a survey to be created) so that we can reach consensus and a framework under which we can operate in collective agreement.

Some topics will be controversial. Nonetheless, they will be presented in the spirit of pursuing a common purpose for the community.

A CHARTER .

After the Monday, June 28 meeting, I wrote a DRAFT Charter for our freedom group. It includes a Mission Statement and several governing principles called the Four Principles for Civil Society: Individual Freedom, Personal Responsibility, Respect and Fairness. I had presented these verbally to those in attendance and received a positive response from the audience. In the DRAFT, I elaborated on the mission and each principle to provide context and relevance to our group.

Creating a Charter is an option. The group should decide is it wants one because we have operated for a few years without one. However, since leaving the Woodville location, it seems to me to an important topic because some of us hope to see more citizen activism in the future. The creation of a Charter provides an opportunity to engage everyone to express his or her expectations regarding the future of the group - it’s goals, priorities and methods. Discussion is needed to identify these and to vote on topics to reach common agreement.

CHARTER topics.

While there may be topics that others wish to include, the following are some I offer for discussion, consideration, debate and agreement/rejection.

• Purpose and Fairness. Our group consists of people with a variety of beliefs, convictions, affiliations, preferences and demographic characteristics (age, gender, etc). The Principle of Fairness requires that everyone be considered equal under unbiased rules. Such a ‘level playing field’ means that none on these diverse views should be favoured over others when no universal agreement exists. For example, since religious and spiritual beliefs are not universally agreed upon, then none should be favoured. The same applies for the feelings of allegiance that some members hold for the Canadian flag, the national anthem or certain political parties. For this reason, I suggest that community meetings be neutral on any matters that detract us from our unified, common purpose.

• Speakers: Scheduling speakers has been somewhat haphazard up to this point. This has created situations when some people who expected to speak were unable because we ran out of time. To resolve this issue, more discipline on the part of the meeting organizers and speakers should help. Consider the following Questions: Should speakers & topics be more strictly vetted? Should they be approved only if they comply with our Mission Statement? Should speakers indicate how much time they need and be held to the schedule?  Should the ‘terms of engagement’ for speakers be defined and made known by each speaker at the time of registering a time slot. Respect is a principle to be practiced in our interactions with our community members, our guests (especially speakers) and the public.

• Meetings & Action Initiatives. They require coordination, effort and skill with the technologies we employ. Would it be useful to periodically consider the tools that our meeting organizers use to seek ways to improve the quality, reach and effectiveness of our Mission? The tools of the Digital Economy are expanding and improving rapidly. For example, could AI tools like Chat GPT4 be helpful? Could an online Survey tool like Survey Monkey by help to engage our community and followers? If Zoom proves to be too glitchy, is their a better platform for our needs?Are tools like Facebook and Twitter being used well to add value to our Mission? Could Slack be a better platform to hold internal discussions and coordinate “action” campaigns than DMs and email?

• Information sharing: Today, email, texting and a Facebook page have been widely used to share information. Some of us use Twitter, Substack and other social media platforms independently. To my knowledge, there is no common tool used to hold discussions, debate proposals and vote on important topics, share documents and videos, and more. I have proposed that we create a new Substack account under the name of our group to become the hub of information sharing in conjunction with our current methods. It will take time to get most of us to gravitate to new ways of sharing information; those ways will be adopted as they prove their value over older methods. Some benefits: Could new tools improve our ability to vet and schedule speakers, inform our community regarding the  agenda of each meeting, disseminate/file/search/retrieve  documents such as newsletters, links to current and past messages from members (think of David Ward’s CBDC emails, or John Dunn’s ICLEI campaign to stop 15-minute cities as examples)?

• Membership. Is it time to create an official membership? Should we charge an annual membership fee? Should membership we considered a person’s commitment to the group and Charter, and entitle them to voting rights on Charter topics become a membership privilege that comes with this commitment? Lots to consider on this topic.

Group name.

• Do the members want to vote on a permanent group name that does not contain the name of the town in which our meetings take place? I wish to offer two choices to consider:

  • Advocates for Less Government (ALG) -  Kawartha Lakes Chapter.

  • Local Citizens Initiative (LCI) - Kawartha Lakes Chapter.

The first one, the ALG,  reflects the fact that virtually every meeting we’ve had has been to address a problem or concern created by public policy. I believe that our goal is ultimately reduce the size, cost and scope of authority that have resulted in placing excessive power in the hands of Parliamentarians and heads of Public Institutions. If our fight is with “too much government”, then the public can only will this war by teaching the voting public that Less Government must be their prime consideration in every election. Our vision: that Canada eventually reaches the point where the Bill of Rights becomes the supreme law of the land against which all regulations are measured, approved, rejected or repealed.

The second one, LCI, is a play off the NCI (National Citizens Inquiry) and designates the initiative of local citizens to can voluntary action in our communities to educate and inform our citizens on important causes that serve to defend ourselves from government leaders who no longer respect, honour or enforce the Bill of Rights as it was created in 1867. The two most significant events in recent years that were initiated, coordinated, carried out with voluntary funding and hundreds of volunteers were the 2022 Truckers Convoy and the National Citizens Inquiry. These both have been the source of my inspiration to act. I wish these two campaign that will inspire all of our members to “fight the good fight” against state tyranny.

Time to act!

On July 3, our speakers handed 3 action projects to us on a silver platter. One involves protecting children from Woke teachers and an evil public education curricula. Another asks us to help the NHPPA to defend our access to natural food products from a regulatory assault by Health Canada. The third suggested that we complete Letter Drops to 156 mail boxes of pamphlets promoting the NCI. Each volunteer would complete this over a six week period to inform the public of the enormous success of the National Citizens Inquiry.

Who will volunteer to Lead?

We need 3 members who will champion these causes over the weeks ahead and report to the group on progress.

==>  I will take the 156 Letter Drop. Who will volunteer for the other two?

Go to Substack today to have your say.

Until our members decide whether or not to have a Group Substack Account, I will offer this, my personal account, as a temporary place to read posts like this and to make comments. I encourage all of our members to comment on anything in this post. Please SUBSCRIBE to receive email notices of my posts.

NOTE, I created a Google Survey to ask a series of questions related to the above topics and tally responses. It will be sent to members by email. If everyone agrees, it will serve as are method of voting on the topics therein.