Second Laurie Hawn's Town Hall

By this time I got used to town halls. That is not to say it isn't important to go town halls but I was less energetic this time around. Apparently, Bill C-51 and Natural Health Product Regulation is a hot issue. News to me.

A few good things came out of Laurie Hawn's Town Hall. First, we got another meeting with Laurie Hawn since we had an actual bill to poke holes in. Secondly, the idea for action papers was born. If a bill makes it to committee I hear action papers would be a useful layout not to mention it makes it easy to show people line by line how a bill is bad. The following is how a action paper is laid out. All it takes is a few of these papers and you have some great cannon fodder for meetings.


00.(0.0) Start out with a example by quoting a section of the bill you believe needs to be corrected or kept. This section will be the core of the action paper

(b) If you are quoting multiple subsections make sure to indent them to make it more readable to humans.

The first paragraph is the introduction. This is a broad statement about why this section either helps or hurts people. If the section of the quoted bill hurts a group of people specifically like librarians make sure to point it out.

The next paragraph I try and use a example of where the quoted section comes into play

The following paragraphs I explain why the quoted section of the bill needs to be kept, changed, or removed. I try and keep each action paper to a page which means sometimes it is necessary to do action papers based on one subsection.

00.(0.0) I try to end with a reworded quote from a section of the bill fixing the problem you just pointed out. The rewording doesn't have to be "lawyer quality". The main idea of this is to just to get a point across.

Laurie Hawn's Open House

I think most of us who went to Laurie Hawn's Open House did not know what to expect. At the very least I had no idea what to expect.

As the Edmonton Chapter patiently sat and waited for our questions to be answered during the moderated question period one lady turned around and remarked something along the lines of "Why haven't you tried to get your voice herd?" I felt the urge to make a massive speech about the kilometers I drove, the letters I wrote, and the group that begun. That one little remark irritated me more than I let on. I chose to instead reply "I assure you I have tried."

Another story of note is when a member of the Athabasca University stood up and made a passionate speech about security research unannounced. People applauded. I was surprised, the majority of the audience was surprised, and I think even Laurie Hawn was surprised. Passion for copyright law? Who knew?

Laurie Hawn gave us a invitation for a sit down meeting at the end of the town hall and we accepted. Luckily, my employer did not mind the unexpected time off. This occasion would mark the first time I ever had a meeting with a Member of Parliament.