How the Light Gets In

Reflections on the growing resistance

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."
— Leonard Cohen, Anthem

Something incredible is unfolding, and it is happening all around us.

Last week, I attended a meeting at a church in downtown Toronto that had been advertised for only a couple of days. The church was packed and the energy in the space was powerful. People were engaged. They were sharing ideas on how to defend their city and their country.

Events like this are coming together all over Canada. People are on the move.

I want to share my speech about the need to rise above our fear so that we can begin rebuilding our democracy and community. We can only do this by reaching out to one another.

Watch here.

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These are very dark times; it’s okay to be frightened. Any thinking and caring person watching what is happening knows to be afraid. But we can't let the fear paralyze us.

As Steve Earle sings, "The revolution starts now when you rise above your fear."

On the morning after the Trump election, I was in Ottawa, and I lay in bed feeling like I had been hit by the worst political hangover ever. All my certainties had been blown away, and the only thing I could think of was the line from Antonio Gramsci: "We are now in the time of monsters."

My wife called at 8:30 that morning and said, "Why haven't you posted anything on Facebook? You need to make a statement."

"I don't know what to say," I replied.

"I don't care what you say," she said. "You need to say something. People need to know they will be able to get through this."

My first post garnered a huge response. People who were as afraid and uncertain as me began reaching out — from all over. And the more I spoke with people, the more confident I became that we could indeed get through this.

But if we were going to reclaim our democracy, we had to shake off the isolation that had taken hold.

And we had to do it - together.

Charlie Angus embraced by former Toronto Mayor and Progressive Conservative Cabinet Minister David Crombie

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"Stop fearing the apocalypse and start imagining the revolution."
— Graffiti

Community town halls and protests against injustice used to be the most natural way of trying to bring about positive change. Somewhere along the way, we began to drift apart from each other into political and social silos.

But then came COVID.

We found ourselves isolated and alone, living in smaller and smaller bubbles of interaction. We stopped going out. And if we participated in activities, it was from the safety of our Zoom screens.

In that isolation, some fell down the terrible rabbit hole of conspiracy and rage. These are people who became susceptible to the grifter messages of Trump, Jordan Peterson, and MAGA Maple.

If Trump has done anything for us, it was to wake us up and make us understand the danger of being mere observers at this time in history. But to take back our democracy, we need to rewire our brains out of that COVID disconnection.

We need to balance online activism with real-world action. Engaging in social media is important, but real change happens when we connect in person — with our neighbours, in our communities, and on our streets.

We need to start finding ways to get active. If no one is organizing in your region, then you be the organizer.

We will overcome our fear through community meetings, rallies, and events.

There are still days when I wake up, and I am afraid. But then I check in with the people all over the continent and around the world who are taking the fight to fascism.

No one knows where we go from here, but we are living in history, and the history book is yet to be written for this age.

I will be damned if I let the likes of Musk and Trump write the narrative.

"I can't run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
A thundercloud
They're going to hear from me."
— Leonard Cohen

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