Ontario Citizen Assembly Heats Up: Heavy Press Coverage and High School Classroom Student Assemblies Expanding

Although very much like its older Sibling, the British Columbia Citizens Assembly, the Ontario Version is distinguishing itself

As it enters its Spring 2007 phase of evaluating various options, it is still digesting all the information and opinions it collected through many public hearings, internet  posts and emails, etc., in the months of January and February. 

Both the Ontario Citizens Assembly and its young counterpart, the Student Assemblies, are now in the “preliminary design” stage and will move into deliberating alternative options throughout .March and April.   

Legislation is also pending in the Ontario legislature to put any changes to the province’s election laws on a referendum ballot to be voted on by the people of Ontario, as was done in British Columbia (See previous “News” articles in JPD on that).

Phenomenal News Coverage  

The hearing phase received excellent coverage from all major news media including Local and Toronto newspapers (particularly The Toronto Star), CBC,  and radio. According to JPD correspondent Jim Snider, “This translated into 225 news reports during the Consultation Phase and 450 news reports since the Assembly began.” 

According to Snider,  “A remarkable development is the extensive website and occasional on air coverage of The Citizens Assembly by TV Ontario (TVO), the local Public TV station.  All sessions of the Citizen Assembly have been video recorded and made available online.” 

          The Student Assemblies: Coming On Strong in the Classrooms 

The Student Assembly is a student mirror of its elders.  However, again according to Snider, “It met and deliberated for five days and released its final report to the adult citizens assembly on Feburary 17^th.  That report (according to Snider) is a very classy document—parts of it brilliantly written.” www.studentsassembly.ca   

Snider continues: “The classroom students’ assemblies came on the heels of the Students’ Citizen Assembly and are expected to continue through the spring.  Every interested teacher in the province was provided with materials to conduct a citizens assembly within their classrooms and submit the results to the Students’ Citizen Assembly….If classroom student assemblies continue through the spring…the number of student votes could well end up exceeding 10,000.” 

In other words, this Ontario Citizens Assembly, in looking towards a new electoral system for the future, is involving the citizens of the future in its design process.

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