Mayor’s Walk: Eddie Francis enlightened by Artists, met by concerned CUPE workers!

By Owen Wolter

Monday May 18th, 2009

Posted at 2:43pm

This morning, the City’s annual birthday celebration and Mayor’s Walk took place along the riverfront in Windsor. Hundreds of people turned out to take part in “Walk for a Creative City”, where arts groups walked against the Mayor and followers to show their support for the arts in Windsor!

The Mayor’s Walk then moved east, toward the Festival Plaza, where they were met by an amazing turnout of striking City Employees! Tons of pictures after Read More.

Arts groups prepare for the walk, including the Greater Windsor Concert Band.

Stretching and warming up!!

The Arts Count! This can’t be emphasized enough!

Organizers Pina Ciotoli, and Tom Lucier give a thanks to everyone for coming to the walk.

Tom knows how to pose for me…. even from 200m away!

And Walk for a Creative City begins, heading west to Ambassador Park.

After confronting the Mayor’s Walk, the two walks become one and head eastward.

And then this really caught me off guard… my girlfriend says to me “Is that the Union??!”

And it was!

And they go to confront the Mayor and members of City Council.

Members of CUPE 543 and 82, and the arts community stand, in support of their cause, in the face of the Mayor and an administration unwilling to solve the issues of either group. (click for fullsize)

The mayor is interviewed, guarded by a dozen police officers, plainclothes cars on Riverside Drive and a police boat, all while being chanted at with ”Hey, ho, Eddie’s gotta go”!

A few minutes later, the walk gets going again, with a few stops of chant and song.

On the way to the festival plaza, the Windsor Peace Coalition held a silent protest.

At the Plaza, hundreds gathered for wraps, cake, live music and bouncy furniture.

Press Coverage: the Mayor cuts the cake.

Serving up delicious cupcakes.

And everything ended… with cake!!

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anonymous

and i am also one of the striking workers in CUPE.

so, i’m not sure its quite fair to characterize the CUPE workers as having “derailed” the arts walk. that’s a page out of the windsor star. i think the art walk demonstrated that there is a growing class of disenfranchised people here whose values are not being considered by city hall. the artists are as ghettoized as the strikers are. and, you might note, a great many of the citizens in your city who make up “the creative class” are also the same who make up the ranks of these striking workers. doesn’t banding together into a larger voice only make that voice more difficult to continue to ignore? that’s how i’d like to see it. and i thought the walk achieved something good toward that end.

its no secret that there is something incredibly wrong in this city and the problem is not being addressed by the leaders in office. the citizens can continue to ignore these many problems or they can demand that something be done.

today at least the marginalized artists and the dismissed strikers stood together and provided at least a visual cue as to the numbers of people in this city who have a stake in what we call civilization — a topic most of windsor needs to bone up on.

thanks for your consideration.

gustave morin, a local HARDCORE artist and cupe 543 member
westerntragedy

nowhere did I say the Arts Walk was derailed by CUPE.

I said Eddie Francis, himself, was derailed by CUPE… and rightfully so! I’m a CUPE supporter myself, in Local 1001 at the University of Windsor
anonymous

my apologies then. i’m just doing what little i can to staunch some of the wrong-headed attrition and propaganda that has really gotten out of control. as more and more misinformation abounds, the pollution around this dialogue makes the dialogue itself really impossible for the average person to wade through and inform themselves about. that said, today was fun. cheers! — gustave m.
westerntragedy

I suppose my initial attitude in posting this was thrill, from seeing the Mayor get what he deserves. But to be fair, I’ve removed a lot of the sensationalism :P
_linabeanz

I’m going to bite my tongue on the political issues.

Great shots as always westerntragedy! I secretly wished I had gone!
westerntragedy

heh i tried to do that too, im not one to get political usually. i wanted to just cover this from the ordinary citizen’s point of view. but man, things need to change from all parties involved.
thenshesaidno

Oooh you were there! Dan and I were on the lookout and we didn’t see you and/or Laura anywhere lol.

I can’t belive how much was going on today. There were so many groups walking for their causes. It was pretty caotic. Did you stick around at the festival plaza? Dan and I painted on that Riverside Optimist mural for like an hour :)
westerntragedy

yeah Alicia and I were in front of all the action, keeping pace with the walkers about a couple hundred feet forward. Laura texted me that she couldn’t make it, was still at her boyfriend’s out of town
anonymous

The way I see it, there’s a big difference between “protesting” and “striking/picketing”. I fully support unions, and the right of workers to strike and fight for whatever it is they want.

My issue with the CUPE people is that they cross that line and dabble on both sides of the fence. Now, I also fully support the rights of citizens to “protest”, but when CUPE takes their fight to various different places, events, etc. they are capitalizing on the right to “protest” and the right to “stike” together, which in my opinion is wrong. They may have the right to do it, but their motives and goals make it wrong. When you disturb or disrupt in various ways at places (and planning the times opportunistically), in my opinion it’s wrong. You are operating in a “protest” fashion, but the source cause is your “strike”.

Anyone out there who doesn’t agree with what I’m saying, that’s of course fine, but think about these specific examples for a moment. A protest for something like protecting the arts and against war, those are much more altruistic causes, they are more generalized. Sure we could argue forever that having our garbage picked up and whatever else is for the greater good, but really it’s not fair to put those into the same category. In the end, the reality is that you are fighting for your own gain, and I will never agree that this is the same as those fighting for the arts or for peace.
anonymous

Great series of photos – telling a story through the visuals. You caught the process of the story. Wow!

lulujane
thenshesaidno

ahh, we stayed behind the band lol.
westerntragedy

i tried to find you guys at the Plaza, we had redbull, and cake and food and stuff, but there were sooo many people. I couldn’t even find Darren, or anyone I knew
anonymous

Hats off to everyone for keeping it all peaceful. I, also, am an artist – and support the arts council !
Well done, everyone !
anonymous

cool pics
thenshesaidno

i couldn’t see anyone i knew once we got into the plaza, and even before that, i only saw tom, justin and two people i know from volunteering. i had redbull for the first time! it wasn’t as terrible as people make it out to be, lol. i couldn’t believe how many people there were. it was so chaotic trying to get food. we got our picture taken with the olympic torch and people kept cutting us. and then we painted that mural for an hour and i was worried i was going to drip paint on strange kids. overall, it was a really great event. i’m happy i went :)
westerntragedy

yeah it was insane at the plaza. some lady kept going back up to get cupcakes, and was stuffing them in her purse…gross! she kept cutting and pushing me too! same thing with this old man, he kept getting wraps and putting them in a plastic bag.

some seriously desperate people out there
Edward Fransist

I support Cupe for what they are doing is keeping our living standard confotable. They do not make money but I do know they only work at the city for the benefits and if you take that away good luck getting good quality caring people.