Human Rights in Canada - Another Election

Another Canadian federal election is about to be called and this time, along with the regular rhetoric, it is important for us as the voting public to listen deeply to the fundamental belief systems that are driving this next campaign. Mr. Harper's conservatives (basically the Alberta Reform party brought to the national level) are, in my opinion, trying to align themselves more fully with the Bush(ian) mentality (that will hopefully die back south of the border with a democratic takeover this autumn). We live in a country defined by secular politics but being driven by a christian agenda which could prove to be to the detriment of our rational, fair, and peaceful state.

Everyday I read blogs written by right-wing activists across Canada who want to bring back a moral code of years past and to refresh "family values" by putting an end to non-white and non-christian immigration, by re-criminalizing homosexuality, and giving the nation the right to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. These voices have been supported by a government which has restructured the immigration system, wants to revisit same-sex marriage, and would like to see abortion made illegal.

The dreaded t-word (terrorism) has been used to such a level that global and national policies have made fear mongering and paranoid discussions societal pasttimes. The threat of terrorism has allowed this nation to undermine individual human rights in order to maintain collective security. How many people really know what Al-Qaeda is, understand the history of funadamentalism, or realize that many of those on the most-wanted list today were actually, at one point, trained or put into power by the US government? We go on blindly creating scapegoats in order to rationalize the judgements and condemnations we pass on to other people we know nothing about.

Canada has joined the propaganda bandwagon; we have neglected our duties in regard to international development, the environment, and human rights in order to put more resources into campaigns which are dividing us nationally and globally into "allies and enemies". We have the resources to understand issues, to critically assess the policies of our leaders, and to help guide the progress of Canada, but we often choose to steer ourselves towards complacency, and to justify our behaviour through a mis-guided belief that we have "come too far" to undo all of the things we've built up.

"[W]e who live in fortunate lands where we have inherited good things, are prone to accept good things,are prone to accept freedom, the most important of these good things, with an indifference which is the greatest threat to its continuance"
(Lester B. Pearson)

"The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke)