Political Science Discussions

On the morning of Wednesday, October 22^nd, the entire world set its eyes on the Canadian parliament attack. The story made headlines throughout the whole world and this was being seen as a terrorist attack on Canada. However, was it really a terrorist attack? According to my opinion, No.

An individual by the name of Micheal Zehalf-Bibeau open fired inside the Canadian Parliament, just a few feet away from the caucus room.

Nathan Cirillo’s death scene
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/23/ottawa-lawyer-describes-the-surprisingly-calm-passionate-bystander-attempt-to-save-nathan-cirillos-life/

Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, became a victim of Bibeau’s shooting and despite many attempts to save his life, the soldier passed away at the scene. Acting towards the open firing, Sergent-at Arms, Kevin Vickers shot Bibeau dead.

As stated before, this event was given the label of a “terrorist attack” moments after it happened by the media, RCMP and government officials. That being said, even Mr. Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, stated “We will learn more about the terrorist and any accomplices he may have had in the days to come”. With such labeling it became known and believable throughout the world, that this was in fact a “terrorist attack”.

However, my argument is, how can you simply throw out the world “terrorist” just moments after the event without any investigation or verification? In fact, just a few days after this event, various psychiatric reports started to appear regarding the personal history of Bibeau. Bibeau was arrested in 2011 for a robbery in Vancouver and he told the judge:

“I went to see the RCMP, I told them, ‘just put me in so I could do my time for what I confessed.’ They couldn’t. So, I warned them, ‘if you can’t keep me in, I’m going to do something right now just to be put in.’ so I went to do another robbery just so I could come to jail…. I wanted to come to jail so I could clean up”.

In fact reports also say that Bibeau wanted to go to jail and stay there to lose his addiction for crack cocaine. All of this evidence shows that this man in fact needed help.

Mr. Mulcair, the Leader of Opposition, issued out a statement saying that

“I think we are not in the presence of a terrorist act in the sense that we would understand it and I think we have to be very careful with the use of the word terrorism, make sure that’s actually what we are dealing with.”

I agree with Mr. Mulcair as Bibeau’s life history shows that the individual committed a criminal act but not a terrorist attack.

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ottawa-shooting-suspect-michael-zehaf-bibeau-had-very-developed-criminality-1.2067255

According to my opinion, Bibeau did not have any terrorist motivations and there has not been any evidence to support his relationship with any terrorist organization. Another interesting thing to note here in my opinion is the use of the word terrorist for this event. As mentioned earlier, the word was used right after the event without much verification/investigation. But was this because the act was committed by a Muslim man? I say this because terrorism has been stereotypically/wrongly associated with people of this faith after 9/11.

To conclude, this sad and shocking event was mislabeled to be a “terrorist event” without any investigation, in my opinion. The word “terrorist” is a very big word and cannot just be thrown out like that without full verification. Rather, this event in my opinion was a criminal act committed by a person who needed help and rehab.

The film “Shadow Company” attempts to highlight the complexities and the underlying factors of Private Military Companies (PMC’s). PMC’s function as additional but private forces that get hired to work for various wars. Employees (in this case mercenaries) are hired by these corporations just as they would for any other job. Resume’s and interviews help weed out the mercenaries and they are later deployed for their job. Overall after watching the film I felt that it did a very good job at giving an overview of PMC’s for a person who wasn’t really aware of their role and existence. After the film, I feel like Mr. Bell’s lecture did a great job in filling some of the gaps on areas that the film didn’t quite target.

From my understanding, the PMC’s are in a way competing against state/country militaries. As a result, they are also controversial due to many reasons, one being that they are not professional and accountable in the ways militaries could be. Though Mr. Bell and other PMC’s owners consider employee safety and company reputation as the biggest determinants of signing a contract rather than the money, one needs to remember that they are still private businesses in the end of the day. Moreover, in my opinion, they may take certain crimes committed by their employees less seriously then a military would as a company would not like to put its name in any sort of jeopardy. In addition, though safety of employees might be a big goal of PMC’s yet it still may not be equivalent to the standards of a military. This is because the military is accountable to the state directly. If any news of safety violations for military soldiers were to leak out, it would be a huge issue covered by international media. Similar incident under the PMC would be covered to a much lower standard in my opinion as it isn’t really accountable to a body similar to the state.

Mr. Bell also stated that his employees usually go through a training course where they can maybe learn the culture of their workplace. This might be a policy that Mr. Bell follows in his company, however there is no guarantee that other private security companies put a similar emphasis on this topic. As a result, the mercenaries being unaware of the culture in their workplace might seriously violate norms, resulting in trouble. Like the example Mr. Bell gave, in places like Iraq it is very important to not violate any traditions and rules in contacting women. If a soldier unknowingly does even greet a woman as he would in Canada, he would most probably get killed, without any fault as he wasn’t trained to such heights. So safety of soldiers can be put under risk without their full knowledge.

Another thing to take into consideration is that PMC’s tend to pay double the amount that militaries might pay. As stated in the film, soldiers apart of a military may get $70, 000, however mercenaries may make $140 000 for doing the exact same job. Though wages may be higher, I feel that the level of respect in a military is much higher for a solider than it is in a PMC. Just to take an example, as a military soldier dies, the entire state mourns, yet when a mercenary dies, they may not even get a flag on their body bag. Sacrifices made by mercenaries aren’t even known by the general public.

In the end of the day, when it comes to the question of morality and ethics, we need to realize that the people in fact make a decision to join a PMC. Sometimes they don’t know the full implications of what they may be getting themselves into, which should be dealt with more training in different areas. It is very hard to say whether PMC’s are right or wrong, but there is no doubt in the fact that they are getting a lot of business and interested people that want to work as employees. I however feel that when it comes to the level of respect, honor and safety working under a military seems more legitimate.

After looking at all of the student led protests taking place in the streets of Hong Kong, I feel that it is time that Hong Kong was granted democracy.

A picture of the “Umbrella Revolution”. http://blogs.ft.com/the-world/2014/09/umbrella-revolution-raises-questions-over-one-country-two-systems/

In 1997, Hong Kong was “returned” back to China after being under the rule and supervision of Britain for 150 years. For all this time, Beijing and China essentially “looked after” Hong Kong by governance under the “One Country, Two Systems” term. The concept of “One Country, Two Systems” is based on the notion that places like Hong Kong should be a part of China, however, these parts can be permitted to use their own capitalist system, while China sticks to socialism. Under this notion, Hong Kong was promised the opportunity to pick its own leader instead of having the slot filled by a committee from Beijing in the year 2017. However, China recently stated that it would rather select the candidates for the 2017 elections which is leading to outrage now. Students not happy with China’s broken promise, initiated a strike and slowly more and more people joined in streets of Hong Kong. Tiananmen Square is also being “occupied” by protestors and this whole revolution has presently become the “Umbrella Revolution”.

Though the protestors gave Leung Chung-ying, Hong Kong’s chief executive, an ultimatum to resign and allow people to freely pick their officials via elections, Leung denied. So as a result the pro-democracy protesters are continuing to occupy areas in Hong Kong and China to put pressure on the government.

As stated right in the start, China should allow Hong Kong to democratically elect their own government and officials. Being one of the big and important countries, I think China should be a role model by letting Hong Kong people have what they want. In the 21^st century, I feel everyone has the right to ask for freedom.

Egyptian and the Libyan Revolutions. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20111014FCS29297/4/html/The-Arab-Spring-wins-Sakharov-Prize-2011

We have seen the outcome of when these kinds of movements are ignored and rejected by government officials in the cases of Egypt and Libya already. Eventually the people have gotten what they want by even taking the extremist measures. To prevent similar scenario’s and blood shed from taking place in this case, Leung should strongly pause and reflect and resign from his position to hand over the power to people.

Many scholars also debate that though Hong Kong produces “golden eggs” for China, letting Hong Kong go can also still benefit China and the rest of the world. According to the International Monetary Fund, Hong Kong people are richer than Canadians, in fact their wealth is higher than that of the United States. With a freedom and a “free” nation, these educated and rich businessmen can lead Hong Kong to possibly becoming a major key player in international politics. Some scholars have also suggested that, foreign capital and corporate headquarters look for new “less-brutal” Asian bases and with political freedom, Hong Kong maybe a bigger place for people to invest in. Therefore, International Relations amongst countries may change and there is a possibility that as a result, very broadly speaking, a lot of good can come out of this.

To conclude, I feel that Leung should step aside and respect this student led revolution. Educated youth are taking interest in politics and stepping up for their rights so being an elder, it’ll be great to see Leung “bow down” to the change new generations want. At the end of the day, everyone has the right to ask for what they truly want and from previous cases it’s been proven that united citizens are much stronger than governments and regimes. The strongest topple in front of revolutions as we saw in Egypt and Libya. Moreover, democracy in Hong Kong can bring forth new surprises in the international economy.

Students leading protests in streets of Hong Kong. http://mic.com/articles/100234/stunning-images-put-hong-kong-s-democracy-protests-in-perspective

http://www.mediaindigena.com/martha-troian/issues-and-politics/missingmurdered-aboriginal-women-is-it-up-to-the-public-to-call-an-inquiry

As per the stance of the New Democrat Party (NDP) and its leader, Thomas Mulcair, there should in fact be a national inquiry looking into the cases of murdered and missing aboriginal women. Aboriginal women being a minority have been marginalized by various stereotypes and by the various governments/politicians at large. Now this is a big claim to make, however, records show that 1,200 aboriginal women have either been murdered or have gone missing in the last thirty years. Yet there has been no specific national inquiry issued by the government to expose the culprits.

The world has already heard of serial killer Robert Pickton, who is currently facing first and second degree charges in the cases of murdering women on his pig farm. Out of the 22 bodies found on Pickton’s pig farm, half of these are thought to be aboriginal women. Despite this fact, there has been no research done as to why it is aboriginal women who largely end up being such targets.

In response to the issue of murdered and missing aboriginal women, the NDP took initiative and “forced” debate on this topic in the Parliament on September 19, 2014. The NDP being official opposition, “took advantage of the typically sparse end-of-week turnout in the house to seize control of parliamentary agenda” as stated in many articles. A full discussion/debate took place in the Parliament with NDP MP Romeo Saganash’s emotional and personal plea for federal investigation. This plea, I felt, was also in response to what Mr. Harper had to say on September 3, 2014, in relation to the topic of murdered and missing aboriginal women.

Mr. Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, stated that the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women is not “a sociological phenomenon”. However as stated by Mr. Mulclair, this comment undermines the brutally high levels of violence aboriginal women face. Mr. Harper’s statement ignores the fact that all of this violence against specifically aboriginal women is indefinably systematic. There is a specific reason as to why it is largely aboriginal women who are targeted and victimized compared to non-aboriginal women. This reason can be searched and found through a full commission of inquiry. Through this inquiry the reasons need to be exposed and addressed in order to prevent future cases of aboriginal women becoming a target.

Aboriginal people themselves have been marginalized over the time after colonialization and they still continue to fight for treaty and land rights etc. Women on the other hand, generally speaking, have and still continue to also be marginalized as a lot of feminist scholars argue. Both of these groups can be classified as victims in certain ways. Sadly aboriginal women are a part of both marginalized groups so the brutality they face is unimaginable. Though aboriginal women make up more than 4.3% of the Canadian population, they yet account for 16% of the total murders. These statistics defiantly speak for themselves alluding to how the cases of murdered and missing women are indeed systematic.

Taking a look at the cases of 1,200 murdered and missing women, I feel the least that we as Canadians can do is serve these women justice by enforcing a national inquiry. Not only will this initiative provide justice to these women and their families, it will also bring into light the reasons and the culprits responsible for this horrendous tragedy leading to future prevention.

http://genderadvocacy.org/campaigns-and-projects/missing-justice/

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If Scotland became its separate independent nation after the referendum, the effects of this transition would be highly detrimental to Scotland in an economic sense.

Scotland and the United Kingdom have been united for over 300 years. Over the course of these 300 years, Scottish separatists have always been campaigning for a separate and independent Scotland. In 1934, this separatist movement took a new turn with the establishment of the Scottish National Party. The main purpose of this party was to further promote the concept of Scotland’s independence on a democratic and legal basis. Slowly, the party continued to gain more and more support and on October 23, 2011, the party leader Alex Salmond officially announced their campaign for independence. Just a year after, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron and Scottish National Party leader, Salmond, signed an agreement to have a referendum, which took place yesterday on September 18, 2014.

Therefore, yesterday, the world eagerly awaited an answer to a question that has been asked for 300 years: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” Though the results came in favor of “No”, what would have occurred if with opposite happened? What would have happened if the results came in favor of “Yes”? If this were the case, the effects would be highly detrimental to Scotland financially in my opinion, as I mentioned in the beginning.

Economists predicted that the house prices would instantly fall by £30,000 just off the bat. This was because most large financial firms like the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard life pledged to relocate if the “Yes” vote were to win. In addition to this, the potential loss of highly skilled jobs would have made the Scottish economy greatly suffer.

Moreover, the UK government declared that if the “Yes” side was to win the referendum, there would be no formal union between the two nations on the topic of currency. However, even if Scotland decided to continue using the pound as their currency, just as Panama uses the U.S Dollar, the Bank of England would still set monetary policy according to its own will. As a result, Scotland still wouldn’t have gotten much say. So basically Scotland would have a lot of obstacles if it wanted to stick to using pound as its currency. If Scotland decided to make their own currency, it would face foreign exchange costs. In a nutshell, Scotland would have either had to come up with their own new currency and pay foreign exchange costs or possibly join the EU.

Another point to keep in mind is that UK debt will be roughly hitting £1.5 trillion by 2016-2017 (the year when independence would take place). According to economists if this debt was split up on a per capita ratio, Scotland would easily take up on £122 billion.

In addition to all of these economic implications, Scotland would also need to start investing in military along with various other security methods to protect its sovereignty. That again will require money and investment.

In my opinion, separating from the UK would have had highly detrimental effects to Scotland in an economic sense. It wouldn’t really have been a pleasant start for Scotland to start acting as an independent nation being £122 billion in debt, with no definite currency and with scary notices of the relocation of huge financial firms etc. At the end of the day, the people democratically made their decision to stay apart of  the UK and this decision should be welcomed and respected by supporters of both sides.