The Next Step
The Woodville Freedom Group meets every Monday evening in person at a local church in Woodville, Ontario, and over ZOOM for remote members and guests. It's future is currently under discussion.
Background
The Woodville Freedom Group grew out of the needs of many local residents to make sense of the SARS Cov2 Pandemic and the response of every level of government to address it. Fear was everywhere. Sacrifices were expected by everyone. Obedience to the pandemic rules was deemed mandatory for all by public officials, media spokespersons, and the compliant public at large. No one could escape it vicissitudes.
To The Woodville Freedom Group evolved over time to meet the needs and interests of a community that grew into an email list that exceeds 700 people. In this “membership” have been people who became active in political activism, taught and learn about ways to survive if things went from bad to worse, public speaking and writing, and more. In recent times, as the pandemic restrictions receded, attendance at the Monday nite meeting has fallen off. For many, the “crisis” is over and they are attempting to return to some semblance of pre-pandemic “normal”. For others, fear remains that we may have survived “the frying pan” experience, but the totalitarian “fire” is still burning all around us.
Scott’s message
Last week, Scott Raymer offered a zoom message at the WFG meeting. He urged two things:
To expand the reach of the WFG by joining other similar groups across Ontario to form a much larger and better-coordinated organization that could plan and execute purposeful initiatives. The idea, I presume, is that “there is strength in numbers” and that the collective voices of tens of thousands of concerned citizens have more social and political clout than many scattered bands of hundreds of people like ours at the WFG.
It’s time to become solution oriented. Scott urged members of this group to come forward with action-oriented ideas that could become the new focus of WFG going forward. His rationale? — everyone in the WFG already understands the issues that we are facing from government-empowered elites both domestically and globally, but what are we doing to stop them from dragging us into their Great Reset, their “new normal”?
I called Scott this past week to offer two of my own ideas for group action. It wasn’t long before I realized that he and I were not on the same page regarding what can be done. He didn’t seem much interested in my ideas but wanted me to buy into what he wants to accomplish.
Both ideas can be accomplished, but only if WFG becomes transformed from its current “information centre” structure to an organization built to plan and execute actions. What might this look like? : A planning function. Committees of volunteers to execute plans. A source of revenue to enable planning and committee work to be realized. Some form of leadership function to orchestrate planning and execution activities.
Proposal.
I propose immanent action items using SWOT as our analysis too in a workgroup format. Consider:
Scott’s goal to build an Ontario-wide organization that is action-oriented and purpose-driven. Define the purpose in Vision and Mission statements?
A Citizen’s Constitutional Referendum. Use the Ontario Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the core referendum document used to gather Petition signatures across the province. The goal is to use the petition to lobby the Ford government to create an Ontario Sovereignty Act ( inspired by Alberta’s Sovereignty Act and Quebec’s privileged status of “a distinct society”).
Letter Writing Campaigns. Kerstin has been advocating for a series of organized campaigns to encouraged elected officials to support a series of causes that the WFG endorses.
These three topics cound form the inaugural agendas and formats for future Monday nite meetings if everyone agrees. I suggest that every attendee who expects to take an active part in those meetings sit in the front three pews in order to encourage more intimate conversations (mike-enabled for the rest of the attending audience).
A final comment.
The World Economic Forum is very well funded, highly organized, attended by many influential people, and it a notorious driver of change enabled by digital technologies with a mission to transform the world according their vision. Founded in 1971, it took over 40 years to reach its influence on the world stage. Could the Woodville Freedom Group grow into the global influencer that can keep the ambitions of the WEF in check?
