Clearing a New Path™

Organizing and Activism in Rural Canada

As a response to injustices that happen around the globe, protests and demonstrations have always been a way for people to express their views in a public way.

We’ve all seen big protests and demonstrations depicted on television news and increasingly on social media. But many of those displays of solidarity happen in big cities.

I believe that there are progressive folks, looking to get involved in social movements in smaller rural and remote communities across Canada too but many don’t know where to start.

David Alton is a queer organizer and community facilitator. They co-founded GroundUp Waterloo Region (GroundUPWR) in 2020 to help fill gaps and build bridges in the grassroots world of Waterloo Region. What started as a twitter account has now grown into a network of 100 local organizers.

David is an urban planner and community facilitator, who is passionate about humanizing public discourse, overcoming stakeholder conflicts and advancing societal values.

Roy Mitchell grew up in Northern Ontario and escaped to be gay, make films and videos and… trouble in Toronto.

He is now back in Northern Ontario where he is a community organizer and runs the Hybla Artist Residency. After 10 years, he still can’t believe he is living rurally and loving it!

I met Roy through our mutual involvement in the Drag Storytime Guardians and that group’s counter protests at drag storytimes in rural Ontario this summer, but Roy has become a great friend and mentor to me and I am grateful to have benefited from his wisdom.

Both he and David share insights into what folks across rural Canada can do to form their own grassroots movements and organizations.

Special mention to the Blueprints of Disruption podcast with Jessa McLean, as that’s where I heard about David and GroundUp. It was a suggestion from Roy!

You can reach David and the folks at GroundUpWR at [email protected]

You can reach Roy Mitchell at [email protected].

**Roy mentions a video that illustrates the creation of a movement. You can watch that here.***