Email / Letter Writing
I have been seeing an email template floating around for you to send emails to politicians about the state of emergency MMIWG2S person are, and have been, facing in Winnipeg and beyond. The examples used below are in regards to MMIWG2S folks, but the practices are be applied across topics.
*To be fair, I see them all the time, but figured it was finally about time to put it into words to stay on the blog for you to look at when you need a refresh.
I urge you, if you have the capacity, to use your own words.
Email templates can often, if many identical ones are sent, end up filtered out of main inboxes.
Best practices
Use as many of your own words as possible.
Include your address if you have one or are comfortable in sharing yours. Adding in your address lets the politician know that you are a constituent and make sure to ask for a response. It’s oddly delightful receiving mail (snail or email) from elected officials in response to an email/letter you wrote about a specific issue.
Feel free to be concise, to the point, and insert an action you think should be brought up.
Emails do not need to include policy specifics, we do not need to gate-keep civil participation, just say what you need to say, but if you can, avoid overly inflammatory words. I know that is often hard when it comes to blatant disregard of life, but the key is to do nothing that may endanger a response.
Short term example: ground penetrating radar of the landfill.
Long term example: safe housing geared specifically to Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.
These are examples, I am sure you have one in mind that is even better, but you can ask for the bare minimum of a response to this state of emergency.
Visual Guide
If you are a visual person here is a link to a visual guide that is easy to use. There should be “See a sample letter” where you can click WORD or PDF for the guide.
Who to send it to?
Send this same email of your words to you Premier, MP, MLA, Mayor, Chief of Police, City Councillor, etc. Sending an email can often feel like screaming into the void, but elected officials need to speak to constituent’s demands. The added bonus is you have receipts.
Everything seems to be piling on to Indigenous women, femmes, trans, non-binary, and gender fluid/queer folks across the globe. If you are overwhelmed, start in your own back yard.
With love,
Marisa