Our Newest Security Plan Bill C-51

I can't figure out if I am feeling angry, frustrated, scared or some weird hybrid emotion of all three. Regardless my brain, stomach and heart have been churning since last Friday when Harper announced his government's (please note that I don't say my government's or even the Canadian government's) plans for "improving" our capacity to catch those who would do us harm (CBC). While the proposed bill (C-51) is just one of long lists of offensive laws that the Harper government have brought into being, I find the rational for its creation particularly offensive.

As a child I was never impressed when a parent or a teacher told me that they were doing something for my own good. I am even less impressed as an adult when the leader of a party that was elected with only 39% of the votes tells me that a law is being passed for my own good. I am offended when someone says that Canadians want something but no one has asked me. If, and I question if it is true, that a majority of Canadians are afraid of some radical off-shore extremist creating havoc in this country, it is only because the government have continually harped on the fact that they should be afraid. Far too many main stream media have supported this agenda by having the same talking heads expounding the danger. It should surprise no one that various public entities such as the RCMP and CSIS have argued that they need more funding and more tools (read power) to prevent some imagined calamity from happening. Equally unsurprising are the comments from private security "experts'.  If I ran a private security consulting company I too would talk about all of the dangers and the need to increase funding.  There is this strange dialogue happening where the very absence of proof of a problem existing, becomes the proof that we need a better vacuum cleaner to find that mythical needle in the haystack.

There may be a problem that needs to be addressed. I have no way of knowing. The only people I see/read who are talking about the suggested dangers, clearly have an agenda. However, I have no doubt that there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people in the world who are bloody pissed off at the western world. Some (most) of their anger is legitimate. There are, without any doubt, some very disturbed individuals (Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau & Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIL are prime examples) out there who have attracted a large following  who appear to be fully prepared to do anything that they are ordered to do. We, as collective humanity, need to do something to stop them. Perhaps even more importantly we need to do something that will stop people from feeling so oppressed, deprived and disenfranchised that they see no other options but to kill or torture or oppress other people.

The sad thing is that we know what will change people's lives. It is not guns or bombs or telling how to behave. It is education. The Guardian reported that one in four children in the developing world cannot read.  That equates to a lot of people who have limited choices in life. The benefits of education are well known. For example girls who have had the opportunity to go to school become pregnant later and not as often, their children are healthier and are more likely to go to school and women who are educated are more engaged in the economy of their country (Empowerment International). Of certainly equal importance, if people learn to read, they can read their sacred texts themselves and won't need to listen to the insane interpretive ramblings of equally uneducated leaders.

While I am offended that Harper has decided to pander to his limited electoral base by focusing on security, I am more afraid for what he is not doing. By focusing on potential and unproven external threats, he has allowed/encouraged the media and Canadians in general to ignore real dangers to our country. And there are a number of them:

1) According the Canadian Mental Health Association, "suicide is the second highest cause of death for youth aged 10-24. Each year, on average, 294 youths die from suicide" (CMHA).

2) The youth unemployment rate hovers around 13.7% (CBC)

3) In spite of the fact that members of First Nations comprise about 4% of the Canadian population, 23.2% of Canadians in federal prisons are Aboriginal (Government of Canada).   

4) The Canadian government  "funds schools on reserves at a rate of about one-third less per student than provincial schools receive" (CBC)

5) 841,191 Canadians use food banks every month, one third of them are children (HungerCount 2014)

and the list goes on and on and on. And yet if there was a federal election tomorrow, according to at least one poll (Globe and Mail) more people would vote for the Conservatives that the other parties. Admittedly it might be a minority government but still Harper could still be Prime Minister.

It is not surprising that I am feeling angry, frustrated, and scared.