Minutes Halifax 2009.09.13

The first meeting of the Pirate Party of Canada in Halifax took place on September 13th, 2009 at the Uncommon Grounds coffee shop on South Park St. In attendance were six people – Aidan, Coady, Karen, Sean, TJ and William. After our initial introductions as to why we were interested, Sean lead the meeting.

First we went over the draft of the party's stated goals and made sure everyone understood what the party was about. Next, we discussed personal experiences we had with running afoul of copyright law, from DRM on music to being hounded by lawyers of a litigious copyright holder. We then discussed the Canadian Copyright Consultations that had been held over the summer and were ending on that day. We also discussed what ideas other Canadian political parties had about copyright reform.

We then went over the draft of the party's manifesto and made sure everyone understood the ideas presented. After discussing ideas for the party's political future, it was unanimously agreed that our efforts should be focused on immediately registering the party. We all promised to mail out those registration forms to Elections Canada. While it was agreed that the chances of getting elected were, remote, everyone present considered running candidates in an election as an important strategy for raising awareness about copyright law and reform, and some present expressed interest in actually running in Nova Scotia.

We then decided to schedule the next meeting for October 4th, 2009 at the Uncommon Grounds coffee shop on Argyle Street in downtown Halifax. Contact info for those present was gathered in order to keep in contact for organizing.