Pressure groups and change

1. Pressure groups and change What can I do to make a difference and become a global citizen?

2. Key Question: How can Canadian citizens voice their opinions and influence the government? Pressure Groups -an organized group of people with common interests and concerns who attempt to influence decision makers. Goal: To change government policy as they see fit

3. Hmmm…..What types of issues are pressure groups concerned with????? -pressure groups include organizations whose interests are: • Economic • Medical and health related • Environmental • Religious • Concerned with issues of equality

4. Hmmmm….What is a lobbyist??? -when pressure groups become highly organized they are sometimes called lobby groups -a lobbyist is a person who is affiliated with a pressure group who attempts to influence decision makers through direct persuasion, discussion, or persistent attention - Often they are paid and will directly meet with government ministers to advise on, or try to influence policy.

5. Can you provide some examples of lobby groups? • Canada Council for the Arts • Human Rights Watch • David Suzuki Foundation • Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers • Monsanto • Tobacco Industry

7. Hmmm.....How can you let your disapproval of government policies or practices be known?? Protest -some activists who are concerned with social justice believe that it is sometimes necessary to use more forceful action to achieve their goals. Protest group: when a group of activists come together at an event they have organized to promote a cause ie) rallies, parades, marches, sit ins, public demonstrations and road blockades

9. Civil Disobedience • “If the machinery of government is unjust, Break The Law!” • When legal ways of voicing their opinion doesn’t work, citizens turn to Civil Disobedience • It is the Act of Intentionally breaking the law, or refusing to keep laws citizens feel are unjust

10. "All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable." -- Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

11. Thoreau's words still ring true to this day. Civil disobedience is occurring in the world as you read these words. Can you name any groups which are rebelling against their government?  • Have you ever rebelled against injustice? If you could join a cause, what would it be? If you created an activist group, what would you fight for?

12. Global Citizen according to Oxfam -The global citizen is someone who: -is aware of the wider world and has a sense of his or her own role as a world citizen -respects and values diversity -has an understanding of how the world works economically, politically, socially, culturally, technologically, and environmentally -is outraged by social injustice -participates in and contributes to the community at a range of levels from local to the global -is willing to act to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place -take responsibility for his or her own actions

13. Human Rights: Universal rights, based on what we generally believe to be right or wrong, which apply to all people, in all countries, at all times

14. Are you a global citizen??????????