I’m keeping Audrey Tobias in my pocket. Not literally – she’s a tad big.
But I’m carrying her with me for inspiration, an example of power in the face of formidable odds.
Audrey Tobias, at 89, made headlines in October when the federal government prosecuted her for refusing to fill in the 2011 census. Media reports explained that Tobias was a member of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service during the Second World War. She became a peace activist after seeing footage of the war and the atomic bombing of Japan, as well as touring the desolation of post-war Europe. When she saw that the census – which would include her personal info – was being processed by software from U.S. military contractor Lockheed Martin, she decided not to fill it out. She said the census contract should have stayed in Canada and not involved the military.
“I wanted to make the point that our government is on the wrong path, vis-a-vis the way it handles military and defence,” Tobias told the Toronto Star in October.
She was acquitted, so wasn’t forced to serve the three-month sentence she could have faced.
I hate sinking into feelings of powerlessness, which is tempting to do in the face of some of the realities of our world. It’s no secret – not some lefty, tree-hugger myth – that there are a very few, very rich people making decisions that affect the masses, many of whom are getting poorer while working harder and longer than ever before. All the while, the planet gets further devastated in the face of such greed. Indigenous people around the world know this better than anyone – better, in particular, than those of us in North America who often obliviously do the consuming that devours so much of the resources.
Oh, there it is again – powerlessness... How quickly it sneaks in.
I liked a phrase from Thierry Vrain, the former Agriculture Canada employee and geneticist who has been making his way across B.C., speaking about the realities and dangers of genetically modified foods. He said, “In Canada, we have a little bit of a problem with civil obedience.”
Which is one of the reasons why I admire Audrey Tobias. Her stakes were a little lower than, say, Mahatma Gandhi, who moved mountains with his leadership of the non-violent, simple statement that was the Salt March, but Tobias took a fearless and powerful stand, nonetheless.
I will be thinking of her a lot in 2014, I believe. With the threat to the beloved B.C. Coast and other waterways from the Enbridge plans, with the threat to the food supply from Monsanto and others, with the general disregard by our federal government for those social values so many Canadians hold dear – and so much more – our world could use a few more Audrey Tobias’.
More of us need to say, like her, enough is enough.