丁香园AV

On June 23^rd, 2022, Dr. Stewart Prest spoke to Radio NL about the purpose and effectiveness of protests. The purpose of a protest may be twofold:

鈥淧rotests, as much as anything, are often a battle for public opinion,鈥� he says. 鈥淔irst of all, to raise awareness about an issue. Then, to try to convince the audience of what the right course of action is.鈥�

However, it鈥檚 clear that while the public may certainly become more knowledgeable about an issue through the mechanism of protest, it won鈥檛 necessarily be convinced that the protestors are on the right side of that issue.

Protestors may also hope to change the actions of politicians and policy, but Prest says it鈥檚 unlikely that a politician will respond directly to a protest.

鈥淲e just have to look at the experience of the truckers鈥� protests in downtown Ottawa to see that the politicians in power, the Liberals, were unwilling to respond directly to the demands of the organizers. However, at the same time, we did see a new conversation around the place of mandates as the result of that action.鈥�

Listen to the full interview .

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