Election Crime, Election Time?

“People think that democracy will always be here, but it can erode away very slowly, and I am afraid that is what is happening here.”

- Jeanne Vlasics, Protester (Toronto Star)

Protesters across Canada took to the streets on Sunday, in response to the  robocalls scandal, which has rocked the federal government in recent weeks. Demonstrators are calling for an independent public inquiry into the allegations. Elections Canada has launched an investigation into the matter after receiving over 31,000 “contacts”, but a full investigation could take years. Canadians have reported receiving misleading phone calls about the location of polling stations on election day, or have reported receiving harassing phone calls in the middle of the night, from people claiming to represent political parties.

The scandal breaks nine months after the federal election, which installed the Conservative Party into power with a majority government. While much finger pointing has gone on in the House of Commons, eyebrows have been raised over how the Conservatives have handled the situation.

“I think we can just conclude this is simply a smear campaign without any basis.” – Stephen Harper

The Conservative government has not been forthcoming from the start. They dismissed these allegations early on as a ” baseless smear campaign” and accused the Liberal Party, falsely, of using a company in North Dakota, to conduct robocalls of their own. Stephen Harper should have launched an immediate inquiry into these allegations, instead of pointing fingers at a party with 34 seats in the Commons. Canada is one of the leading democracies in the world, and as prime minister, Mr. Harper should be the first to defend the democratic principals of this country.

Canadians have not been so quick to sweep this matter under the rug. In a recent poll conducted by Ipsos Reid, 75% of Canadians agree that an independent public inquiry needs to be carried out. Opposition parties have also called for an independent inquiry into the the robocalls, but Harper’s Conservatives insist that an inquiry is not needed and that they will continue to work with Elections Canada on the matter. Nothing like democracy in action, eh Mr. Harper?

Sources-National Post

Student Power!

Over 80,000 students in Quebec have joined together in a province-wide general strike. The strike is in response to the provincial governments decision to increase university tuition by 75% over the next five years. Students in Quebec enjoy the lowest tuition fees in the country, but starting in September, fees will increase by $325 every year for the next five years. Thousands of students have demonstrated outside the National Assembly in Quebec City. The demonstrations have been met with tear gas and metal barriers set up by riot police. University student Marie-Pierre Desilets, speaking to the Winnipeg Free Press had the following to say:

“I think the fact that they were shooting pepper spray when the students are just trying to walk towards the parliament, it’s kind of extreme. They’re trying to send a message to the rest of the population but, I mean, we’re not harmful. Things go a lot more crazy when we win a Stanley Cup or something and you don’t see them there.”

The use of riot police to squash public dissent has been a disturbing trend in Canada. The G20 protests in Toronto, in June 2010, was the ground for the largest mass arrests in Canadian history. 20,000 police were deployed onto the streets of Toronto which was turned into a virtual fortress. This led to over 1000 arrests, which included journalists. Occupy movements throughout Canada this winter, were also met with arrests and eviction notices.

Nevertheless, premier Jean Charest’s government has refused to back down, despite swelling support for the protests in Quebec. Quebec finance minister Raymond Bachand had the following comments in the Globe and Mail:

“Our will is as firm on this question as it is with balancing the budget. You can’t just freeze everything in Quebec. If you freeze fees for one group, that means another group will have to pay more. Freeze means under-financing.”

Increasing tuition by 75% over the next 5 years is “under-financing ” your education system Mr. Minister, and under-cutting the education of students across the province. Some people simply can not afford to go to university or college, and increasing tuition by so much in such a sort period of time will deny even more people the opportunity of post-secondary education. This is a serious problem for a democratic society like Canada. If people don’t have the access to affordable education, we could lose the few rights we already take for granted.

 

The Dictator of Dakar

Protests are sweeping the West African country of Senegal. Clashes between opposition supporters and police have left several dead. Despite being ruled, mostly, by one party since the country gained independence from France in 1960, Senegal has been one of Africa’s most stable democracies, and transfers of power have generally taken place peacefully. The outrage in the streets is being directed toward incumbent president Abdoulaye Wade, and his controversial decision to run for a third term (Senegal’s elections are set to take place on Sunday). Senegal’s constitution sets out a two term limit for the president, but Senegal’s Constitution Council has ruled, controversially, that the 85 year-old Wade is eligible to run again.

Wade was first elected in March 2000 on a wave of enthusiasm, defeating the incumbent Abdou Diouf, and ending the Socialist Party’s 40 year reign. Wade issued an amendment to the constitution in 2001, which limited presidents to two terms of five years. Previously the president enjoyed no term limits, with elections being held every seven years. Wade had campaigned on a platform of setting term limits on the presidency and even criticized other African leaders who stayed in power too long. Wade won reelection in 2007, and during a press conference said:

“In the 2001 constitution I set a limit of two terms. I therefore cannot run for president again in 2012 because the constitution forbids me.”

In 2008, Wade amended the constitution again, changing the length of the terms from five years to seven. Wade now controls the judicial system, decides the careers of judges and appoints the Constitutional Council. The Council ruled in favor of Wade by accepting his argument that the term limits didn’t apply to him because the constitutional amendment was not in place when he was elected in 2000. This is in direct contrast to the statement he made in 2007 and the platform he ran on in 2000.

Abdoulaye Wade is beginning to look more and more like an authoritarian dictator than the champion of democracy that he was in 2000. Wade also appears to be grooming his son, Karim, to succeed him, and has granted Karim a key ministerial post in the government. With protests and revolutions breaking out across North Africa, Wade would be wise to realize that 2012 will not be the year of the dictator.

-sources from NY Times, Aljazeera, the Guardian, All Africa

* Update: Al Jazeera is reporting that Abdoulaye Wade has conceded defeat and that opposition leader Macky Sall has won the Senegalese presidency – March 26, 2012

Cairo Wasn’t Built in a Day

1 year after breaking free from the grip of Hosni Mubarak, the people of Egypt face their biggest challenge since toppling the dictator, establishing a constitution. The major debate centering around the new constitution is the division of power. Egypt gained independence from Britain in 1922, and has since been ruled by a succession of presidents, all of who held a great deal of power over every facet of Egyptian life. The most recent of which was Mubarak, who came to power in 1981 after the assassination of President Sadat, and amended the constitution three times during his 30 year reign, to further consolidate power. Many of the Egyptian political parties agree that a new constitution needs to limit the power of the President, but to what degree is uncertain. The Islamic groups, who took more than 70% of the seats in the People’s Assembly elections, are seeking a strong parliamentary system. The liberal groups who only won 14% of the seats are looking for a more balanced system between the president and parliament. The role of the military and the power it has in crafting Egyptian foreign policy and controlling its own budget is also going to be a strongly debated issue, as well as the power of the judiciary, and a free media. Mazen Hassan who is a professor at Cairo University, speaking in Bradley Hope’s Albawaba article, feels that the members of parliament are far from being on the same page:

“They are focusing on things that shouldn’t take that much time, like the exact phrasing of the oath and whether someone should get two minutes to speak on an issue. If they are disagreeing that much about this, what are they going to do when they debate the draft constitution?”

Egypt faces its first crossroads in the post Mubarak era, and how well Egyptian politicians are able to navigate these issues and work together in the best interest of Egypt, will ultimately determine the future of this country. Long Live the Revolution….

Problem, What Problem?

If statements made by B.C Finance Minister Kevin Falcon are of any indication, the rise of economic inequality in British Colombia is a good thing. While responding to comments he made about Cuba, Falcon said that (according to the recent BC Stats report) Alberta has a serious problem with inequality, and in his opinion BC needs to have the same problem.

“Alberta, if you accept it is a problem, apparently has the biggest problem in the country, but the reality is Alberta is the strongest economy in the country with some of the highest wages. That is something you want to strive towards.”

With comments like these coming from the Finance Minister, it is no wonder Occupy Movements have been springing up all over the country. Recent articles by the CBC, and the Province have shed a different light into the recent BC Stats report. B.C has the largest gap in the country, between the top 20 per cent and bottom 20 per cent of  income earners. In terms of household income, B.C ranks second only to Alberta as having the greatest income inequality among all the provinces.The Province article states that B.C actually ranks fifth in income disparity but after factoring in taxes and and social spending, rises to second. This assessment of inequality rates without factoring in taxes and spending, shows that the provincial government is creating this growing income gap through tax and fiscal policies. Falcon also has the distinction of being Finance Minister of a province that has had the highest child poverty rate in Canada for the last 8 years, and the overall highest poverty rate of any province for the 11th consecutive year, according to Policy Note.

The comments by the Finance Minister are frustrating. The rising economic inequality and poverty in British Colombia and in Canada is a problem. So yes Mr. Falcon, Alberta does have the biggest problem in the country, but so do you. These numbers do not paint a picture of prosperity for British Colombia, in fact they cast a growing shadow over the future of this province.

Nationalism Rising

With nationalism on the rise in countries like the US, and Britain, questions about the influence of globalization are being asked. In order to further explore this, one must ask…

Professor Chomsky defines globalization, using the term neutrally, as international integration. He then goes on to describe it further in two crucial ways. Chomsky draws on Adam Smith’s version of globalization which states that “the core of free trade, is the free circulation of labor.” This means that an increase or decrease in globalization is related to the ability of people to move and work freely across borders. Chomsky claims that this peaked in the early twentieth century. The other view of globalization that Chomsky describes is the view of investors rights and capital flow. According to Chomsky, if one measures globalization by the ability of people to move and work freely across borders, globalization is decreasing. If one measures globalization by investors rights and the movement of capital across borders globalization is on the rise.

How globalization is viewed is critical to understanding the influence it has on nationalism. Chomsky uses the militarization of the Mexican border by Bill Clinton in 1994 as an example of these two views of globalization in action. Chomsky claims the US militarized the border in order to prevent the migration of Mexicans into the United States. This had been predicted to occur, due to the implementation of NAFTA. He notes that NAFTA claimed to increase the economic integration of the US and Mexico but not people. Adam Smith would argue that this would lead to a decrease in globalization, as people are not able to move freely across the border. Chomsky claims that NAFTA created an economic miracle in Mexico, which produced wealth for a small group of elites but was a disaster for the majority of the population.

The militarization of the border has led to an increase in nationalism in the US, as illegal immigration has become a major issue.

The candidates in the republican presidential race all agree (to a varying degree) in the further militarization of the Mexico US border. They have expressed ideas ranging from building a wall across the country, to using predator drones, to more “boots on the ground”, in order to do this more effectively. The candidates have also suggested using ID cards, and cutting benefits to the children of illegal immigrants, to better control these populations. Border States like Arizona have even implemented what amounts to racial profiling laws to identify potential illegal immigrants (more information on Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Laws.) These ideas all help in promoting nationalism.

Professor Chomsky suggests that defining globalization is ideological, the definition depends on how you look at it. By looking at globalization from the perspective of Adam Smith and the free movement of people, one could suggest that globalization is on the decline. Militarized borders have stopped the free movement of people and agreements like NAFTA, which was suppose to increase globalization, have actually led to increased nationalism at the expense of the people of Mexico.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Since 1707 England and Scotland have been bound together in Union, but the Scottish National Party has proposed a referendum for independence, scheduled for the fall of 2014. This referendum threatens to tear the United Kingdom apart. The stakes are high for the UK, with 90% of her oil and gas reserves and half of her land mass on the line. Scottish independence would also call into question Britain’s permanent membership on the UN Security Council. Andrew McFadyen’s Aljazeera article Breaking-up Britain?, casts insight into the implications of this potential split.

Britain once ruled a vast empire from India to Singapore and South Africa, but its own borders are now being threatened.

The Scottish National Party, which won last May’s Scottish election, has pencilled in autumn 2014 as the date for a referendum on independence. Voters will be asked whether Scotland should secede from the UK and become the world’s newest independent state.

It is likely to be the most important democratic decision that many Scots will make.

Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, on a visit this week to the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, told Al Jazeera, “I want Scotland to be independent because independence is the natural state for most nations around the world – not being independent is the exception.”

First Minister Salmond makes an important point. Many regions and groups of people throughout the world strive for independence and self rule. The outcome of the 2014 referendum and the debates that will lead up to it will have far reaching ramifications for these regions and people, including our own separatist movement in Quebec.

It does appear that the sun is setting on the British Empire, but whether Scotland can be successful in its bid for independence remains to be seen. There will be powerful groups aligned against the Scots, and I’m certain these groups will do everything within their power to prevent the breakup of the Union.  Scotland in its drive for independence has proven to be a great example of governments and states being perpetual works in progress.

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