100 Days Under Siege: 100 Days of Artspace Strong

Tonight's vigil has come and gone, and we had a wonderful evening.

A quiet evening, since the picketers so obligingly left early.

All in all, we had about 40 people - members, friends, family and supporters from near and far.
[correction: there were more than 45 people.]

We would like to extend our thanks to those who came out to talk to us for themselves, so hear what people have been experiencing and meet the people AUPE has claimed to be the oppressive bullies of their poor, hapless picketers.

We would also like to extend our thanks to CTV and City TV for coming out and interviewing some of our members and recording this event.  Thank you for taking the time out on a Friday night to do so.

Another thank you to the volunteers to made this huge sign!  The gemstone stickers were a lovely touch.  It looks great!

We gathered together at 5:30 and took the time to introduce ourselves to our guests and for the media to do some interviews, before getting ourselves together.

As always, it takes a while for a crowd to get organized!  It's always great to catch up with your neighbours, so we do like to take advantage of it.

Before our moment of silence, we paused to talk about what it is that we want done, to return peace to our community.

There are two things we are asking for.

1) enforcement of the labour regulations for picketing: peaceful, at the employer's place of business (the SAIL office), and no unlawful acts/misconduct.

2) accountability: for those who engaged in misconduct and unlawful activity to be held accountable for their actions, whether through disciplinary action or as far as criminal charges, where warranted.  There needs to be accountability for the harm done to our members, and to our community.

Rule of law and and enforcement of regulations cannot be suspended, just because the actions are done during a labour dispute.

We then took a few minutes of silence to enjoy a peace that has become rare in our community, with little more than the normal noises of barking dogs - much to our amusement!

I don't think we were ever able to get pictures of everyone who came out.  At least not all at once!

After a few minutes of silence, many of us remained to visit with each other, and answer the questions of our visitors.

We may remain under siege, but we are not defeated.  Battered and bruised, perhaps - after all, we are a community that is used to dealing with people who are open, honest and positive, not aggressive, manipulative, abusive and controlling - but firm in our resolve to stand up against those who have invaded our homes, our privacy, our peace.

As one of our members put it;

We made it 100 days, and together, we are strong!