"STOP SHOCKING OUR MOTHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS!"

Building on the success of the 2007 Mothers Day campaign against electroshock, the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault (CAPA) is organizing another protest that will take place in Toronto next Mothers Day, May 10, 2009. We see this event as a necessary part of the continued effort to raise awareness about the horrific violence being done in the name of this treatment.

Government and health officials remain complacent on the issue, and so we maintain the 2007 declaration that electroshock is a form of state-sponsored violence against women. Our slogan, Stop shocking our mothers and grandmothers, draws attention to the high percentage of ECT recipients who are women, with elderly women and women who recently gave birth at highest risk of being prescribed this treatment.

The march will again take place mid-afternoon on Mothers Day to allow time for family gatherings to celebrate this day. We have already begun work gathering and disseminating information and calling together allies to organize the protest. It is our hope that many more organizations and individuals will join us this year to protest this atrocity of our state and draw attention to the violence inflicted on vulnerable women, men and children who are looking for support.

There are a number of ways organizations can contribute to this important endeavour. If your organization is within the Greater Toronto Area:

1. Endorse or co-sponsor the anti-electroshock protest
2. Send a representative to our meetings to help organize
3. Provide a donation toward funding this protest
4. Help advertise the demo or share information about electroshock
5. Help spread the message through your own media contacts
6. March under your organizational banner at the protest
7. Take on discrete tasks, such as making signs, making food or drink, writing letters to the editor with th request that they be printed on Mothers Day, etc.
8. Contribute other ideas about how you can participate

For organizations outside of the Greater Toronto Area, we are calling for organizers in other regions to mark this day, be this through protests, displaying of information at your organization, or some other creative idea. If you are interested in being part of a network organizing events, please be in touch, as we would be happy to share promotional information that we develop connected to the Toronto march.