Ottawa

Where #IdleNoMore began

Jeremy Warren talks to two of the women who started the burgeoning protest movement.

The four moved their conversations about their shared disappointment over federal legislation to a Face-book page created for a small rally at Station 20 West in Saskatoon. The four titled the page Idle No More as a motivational slogan, said Jessica Gordon, one of the local and national organizers.

“We thought it would just be a planning group and we titled the page Idle No More as a way to get our butts off the couch to work on this,” Gordon said in an interview. Gordon, along with Sheelah McLean, Sylvia McAdams and Nina Wilson, may have sparked the Idle No More campaign, but the grassroots movement has taken on a life of its own and spread across the country and beyond its borders with rallies involving thousands of people. Another event is scheduled for Friday in Saskatoon, the same day rallies will be held in Ottawa, L.A. and San Francisco.

“This movement is really important and it’s going to get stronger and better,” Sheelah McLean said. Facebook and Twitter have helped spread the Idle No More movement and allowed organizers to maintain its grassroots beginnings, Gordon said. “Social media are pushing a lot of the issues,” she said. “People are more aware of the legislation being pushed through undemocratically.”

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