Arriving by car, by plane, or train, or bus from as far away as Tucson, Arizona and Vancouver, British Columbia, they came – 118 Raging Grannies in all! The Montreal Raging Grannies were ready to welcome them from all across Canada and the United States to “La Belle Province” for our Raging Grannies UnConvention June 25-28, 2014.
The Opening Banquet included a Mohawk welcome to their territory, and Keynote Speaker Hélène Laverdière, Member of Parliament, who inspired us with her passion and years of dedication for peace, equality and justice.
Workshops were offered on topics such as: Making the Spoken Word Powerful, Lessons from the Moral Monday Movement, Blockades 101, Getting the Message Across with Signs and Banners, Raging for Ourselves, Videos and Web Promotion, Transforming Conflict into Productive Dialogue, The Resilience of Aboriginal Women, Civil Disobedience, and Sharing Good News for Change. Granny Gaggles performed a “Show & Tell” of songs and actions they have done about issues that bring them to “rage”, demonstrating creative ways to protest outrageously, and to have fun doing so!
A special highlight was the public premiere of “Granny Power”, the long-anticipated documentary by Magnus Isaacson on the Raging Grannies movement in Canada and the USA.
Another highlight was when we marched along Montreal streets to share our “Rage” with the public. On the steps of the Anglican Cathedral in the heart of downtown, we sang about our concerns and handed out “report cards” for passers-by to “score” the Canadian and American governments on their actions on important issues.
Many Grannies participated in a research project by May Chazan, an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at Trent University, on how older women are changing the world. May Chazan noted “Specifically, I’m looking at why and how older women from a number of different organizations and networks are mobilizing, linking up, and working for social change – among these are the Raging Grannies. This will ultimately contribute to better understanding older women’s roles in this century’s major social and environmental justice struggles.”
Each UnConvention includes a memorial to honour those Raging Grans who have died in the previous 2 years.