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Fourth Citizen Summit of Montréal
Planning the City, economic development and participatory democracy:
The Right to the City!
The 4th Citizen Summit follows three previous citizen's summits in Montreal (held in June 2001, March 2002 and September 2004) that have led to the adoption by city council and borough councils, among other measures, of the Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal Charter of City Rights and Responsibilities and many proposals in the Citizen’s Agenda, a tool of popular education that promotes participatory democracy and citizen rights in the city.
These summits have succeeded in promoting participatory democracy in the public arenas of debate throughout our city!
The 4th Montreal Citizens Summit is based on four main subject areas :
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The Urban Economy
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The Urban Environment
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Planning the City [Diversity and Social Justice]
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Civic Democracy
Who participates? The Summit is open to all citizens. People from a variety backgrounds; ordinary citizens, teachers, students, different professionals, politicians and activists from different cultural backgrounds; coming together to discuss, think-out, analyze, and debate different practices, approaches and experiences with respect to the social change and the development of communities through participatory democracy.
Why is it important to participate in the Montreal Citizen Summit?
Because most importantly, the Citizens Summit is a place to discuss and evaluate practical applications and to FORMULATE PROPOSITIONS for the future with the aim of improving municipal democracy, strengthening civil society and helping Montreal to progress toward a democratic, socially just and ecological city. All summits are organised in the style of the World Social Forum, and are in fact the Montreal equivalent.
Some of our objectives:
- To improve our understanding of our city and its neighbourhoods, to help analyze, and to encourage networking so that citizens can work together. To exchange practical local development and renovation experiences and strategies; to contribute to social progress, participatory democracy, based on the recognition of diversity of Montreal.
- To explore and circulate information about various experiences and innovative practices, social movements, civil society in general related to local community development and renovation; to discuss their contribution in promoting participatory democracy; to question the range and limits of all municipal practices.
- To affirm the rights and legitimacy of citizen involvement in all matters of economic development and urban renovation and to promote a city planning process that responds to the needs and interests of the majority of citizens.
Activities
The 4th Citizens Summit begins with an exciting opening session followed by a full programme of roundtables, thematic workshops, plenary sessions, approximately thirty workshops, film presentations, an exhibit of urban struggles won and lost, a tour of urban mega-projects, amongst other activities. Speakers and resource people will be present from across Canada, the USA, France and Brazil. All main sessions will have simultaneous translation and there will be many workshops in English. Space is limited so register early.
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