Recession Relief Coalition/video

 On this page you will find videos created by Ronzig that document the work that the Recession Relief Coalition is doing in its efforts to influence political and economic change that will help alleviate the suffering that is ubiquitous across Canada as a result of the recession and the failed support infrastructre of the support systems.

added Feb 13 

On Feb 9 2010, the Recession Relief Coalition sponsored a Town Hall meeting at the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto. Each of the federal political parties were invited to tell us what they intend to do to alleviate the devastation caused by the recession on the thousands of Canadians who have permanently lost their jobs and are facing a lifetime of deep poverty. Prior to the meeting we submitted a questionnaire to each party seeking information about their plans in this area of concern. The Conservative Party was the only party to ignore our questionnaire and they also failed to attend the meeting. This lack of interest in the suffering of Canadians indicates an arrogant and elitist attitude that is unacceptable from our leaders.

Derek Lee (Liberal), Tony Martin (NDP) and Rebecca Harrison (Green) spoke to us and we had a panel of advocates as well. Avvy Go (Colour of Poverty Colour of Change Coalition), Laurell Ritchie (CAW National), Gerda Kaegi (Canadian Pensioners Concerned), Laurel Rothman (Campaign 2000 Federal), Peter Clutterbuck (Social Planning Network of Ontario) Michael Shapcott (National Housing and Homelessness Network)

You will notice that the meeting was disrupted by an inebriated and extremely angry guest in the audience. Initially I was angered by this behaviour, but upon further consideration, perhaps this type of disdain and anger at our political leaders of all parties is justifiable and even necessary if we are to achieve any modicum of social justice in Canada, for polite discourse has certainly failed to attain any meaningful response.

Added Jan 22 

Prorogue Rally

On January 23, 2010, Canadians in 64 cities both in Canada and internationally assembled to demonstrate their outrage at Prime Minister Stephen Harper after he cynically shut down parliament until March. Nearly 10,000 protesters congregated at Dundas Square in Toronto to demand that the government get back to work under threat of being fired. I attended this historic event and the series of Prorogue Rally videos I produced show the magnitude of the event and reveal the political concerns for this threat to democracy that Canadians of all ages and ethnic backgrounds expressed. There will be 6 more videos as soon as I can get them uploaded.

National Film Board trailer for  a new series of videos about the recession and how it effects average Canadians.

Here’s a link to the National Film Board page where there are over 75 videos about the recession. http://gdp.nfb.ca/site-map 

Video Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

John Andras, co-founder of the Recession is the 3rd speaker in this video.

Here's a video from the O.C.A.P. contribution to the Nove 5 march by Butterfly & Docuvixen, 2 renouned activists for the L.I.F.E. Movement (Learning Initiatives Fostering Elevation) November 5 Video by L.I.F.E

Ronzig is interviewed on CKLN 88.1 FM Ryerson radio.

Soup Line Event. Sept 30/09

On Wed Sept 30/09, the Recession Relief Coalition, held a Soup Line Event, (Rally) outside Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's office at 150 King St W Toronto. The purpose of this event was to remind the government that people are suffering from the results of this recession and tell them that WE NEED HELP NOW. Billions of dollars have been spent to bail out the corporations who caused this recession and virtually nothing has been done to alleviate the human suffering that this corporate greed has caused to the people of Canada. Unemployment is at the highest level in recent history, Canadians are losing their homes and becoming HOMELESS on a daily basis, people are considered lucky to find a part time job at minimum wage even though the resultant earnings can not cover the costs of the most basic of necessities, it is impossible to pay market rent and buy food with the income allotted on social assistance and there is no subsidized housing available to meet the needs of the thousands of people who have to wait 10 years for acceptance. Our communities are being decimated by these factors and we DEMAND a new thrust in government priorities NOW. 

Videos on YouTube

This is a collection of videos that Ronzig produced to document the activities of the Recession Relief Coalition.

Click the arrows at the bottom right to scroll through. The the earliest videos are at the beginning. The  most recent are at the end.

On Sept 7/09, The Recession Relief Coalition was the official non profit organization designated to receive donations at the Labour Day parade. The Recession Relief Coalition would like to take this opportunity to thank the organizers, the audience and the participants of the Labour Day Parade for their kind support. Their generosity will enable us to continue our advocacy efforts to convince all levels of government that strong measures must be taken NOW to relieve the suffering that Canadians are enduring as a result of this recession. To view the video, in the YouTube player below, scroll back to video #24.  Thank you all. 

This is a copy of John Stapleton's speech on July 18 that is recorded  as video # 29 on the YouTube player above

 This is a transcript of Naomi Klein's speech that is on the Vimeo player below.

Videos on Vimeo 

I have placed a few of my Vimeo videos below, but there are more on my Vimeo site.