A Student's Question

I had an interesting e-mail at the end of last week. It was from a student in one of my classes and it was a refreshing break from grading papers. The student wanted to know what to do about Bill C-45. I didn’t know how to answer. I have always felt that teaching requires me to walk a very fine line when it comes to expressing political beliefs in the classroom.  I have been told that I should not express opinions but rather just state the facts and let the students make up their own minds. That of course is a somewhat absurd suggestion both for the fact that the very process of choosing which facts to present is a political act in itself; and it is impossible for me not to wear my political heart on my sleeve.

None-the-less I felt a bit uncomfortable writing to a student talking about collective action to prevent a government from damaging our country further. So I am responding to that student and any others outside of the colleges e-mail system.

It is difficult not to be alarmed over parts of Bill C-45. Like the previous omnibus budget bill it covers far too many issues, many of which are poorly define and certainly under-debated. It is, in fact, an outrageous piece of legislation that will have significant impact upon the future of Canada. As noted in the Toronto Star (http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1274564--omnibus-budget-bill-c-45-is-an-affront-to-democracy) the bill is 443 pages long and affects 74 pieces of legislation. Specifically the bill dramatically changes the level of protection to our waterways, weakens the Canada Labour Act and creates changes to the Indian Act that have not been discussed (never mind negotiated) with our First Nation communities.

However there are no quick fixes. The bill has passed. The government has used its majority and rammed it through with a minimal amount of debate, no compromise and not a single shred of evidence that they have listen to the 1,000s of Canadian who have complained.  The only people that they have listened to are those who will benefit from deregulation.

To get rid of the bill under the present Parliament is impossible. In spite of the protest that are being held in various First Nations communities and elsewhere nothing will happen. This government has in the past shown no inclination to listen. There is no reason to expect them to do so this time. To reverse the direction of Canada there needs to be profound changes in Parliament. That could be very long process. It will take an extraordinary amount of political will and hard work on the part of millions of Canadians to cause a change. I believe that that is possible. I believe that it is something that we can and should do.

Here are some suggestions that we all can do. 

According to the CBC there were in 2007 1,066,000 students in Canada (http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2009/08/27/f-back-to-school-numbers.htm) There are 852,910 people between 20-24 in Ontario alone (http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CD&Code1=3515&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&Data=Count&SearchText=peterborough&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=&TABID=1). Most of the people have at least one if not two parents.

(1)    It would seem to me that one of the first steps is to get all of those students and all of the young people from Ontario (and all of the other provinces) to start to vote on the issues that will affect their country for all of their lives. Can you imagine what an incredible force young people could be if the various political parties realized that they could not afford to alienate or ignore young people? Can you imagine what could happen if the young people became involved and talked to their parents and got their parents to think about the issues from a young person’s perspective? Canada could change in a handful of years. Not all of the students would vote the same way – but they would vote and therefore politicians would listen to them.

(2)    Secondly individuals can get involved right now. All of the parties have youth wings that one can join. I am not too sure how much the political parties listen to their youth wings but it would allow one to become involved in the process. There are also groups such as The Council of Canadians (http://www.canadians.org/index.html) who are more active than other groups on some of these issues. There is a local chapter in Peterborough.

 (3)    Write letter to your MP. Get all of you friends to write letters. Tell them that you are concerned. Tell them that you want to, and will get involved. Invite him to a meeting to explain this and any other bill.

(4)    Check out the notice board of the local library. There are announcements posted there as to when there is a meeting about this or other topics.  

(5)    And finally to anyone who is reading this - you are doing the first step in becoming active. People need to educate themselves on the issues. They need to engage their peers in the conversation so that they can be educated on the issues. It is, quite frankly, too late to get upset when the deed is done. We as citizens of arguably the best country in the world need to stay on top of these issues so that when some government, be it federal, provincial or municipal, suggest that they are going to make a decision that appears to be harmful to our lives or our environment that we are informed enough to say why it is a bad idea and to provide alternatives.

As I look at my words, I am struck by an immense sense of futility. My words are an inadequate response to that student. I suspect that they want to do something right now. To do something that will have a profound and an immediate impact. But it does not work that way. BUT 1000s of students last spring in Quebec caused a government to change its mind and if we have learnt nothing else about the Arab Spring – it is that if enough people protest long enough – someone has to listen.