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Here in Canada, we have a wonderful legal and common system that helps life flow smoothly and regulates everyone to a range of power and influence. While this sphere of influence can grow quite large, it is not the topic we are discussing. Instead, we'll find out what type of rights and responsibilities the people living in this sphere have. As pertained to before, we have a legal system that allows you to vote, dissent, protest peacefully, or even run for government as a citizen. And that's not all of it either. Along with these rights you are also able to live anywhere within Canada you wish, you have complete religious freedom, political freedom, ethnic freedom, along with every other freedom most people could imagine. But along with all these freedoms there is also the responsibility of us to take care of our country and represent it proudly. To obey it's laws and it's leaders, and select those that we deem fit to speak for us. It is our responsibility to protect it and stand for it's morals.
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Recently, ships loaded with canola oil on it's way to China have been stopped due to health concerns and non compliance. China has no real proof behind these charges and have said that they have stopped the shipments due to pests and for the safety and concern of the citizens. China is putting strain on canada's agricultural sector through this. China is seemingly putting pressure on canada to apologize for strains in bilateral relations with china in the past, or they may cut off all imports completely.
Health care. It's a controversial subject, isn't it? Should it be privatized or government provided? Is it a right? Should we give it to everyone? Should it cost as much as it does? Every country has their own way of dealing with it, and in Canada, as you know, it's provided by our government through taxes. Some people love the idea, because then it is accessible to everyone and doesn't cost people an arm and a leg (literally) and anyone can get the help they need. Should the Canadian government increase spending on our healthcare to improve the system? Because sometimes there are bumps and problems, waiting lists, resources, doctor availability, concentrated areas where there is much better facilities to treat more serious things. The way healthcare works in Canada is the staff are government paid through taxes, along with the costs of the technology, and all sorts of things. But this is another tax we have to pay, so should the government sell some or all of it to private companies? Because after all, we don't all use it often. Some of us can go years without ever having to visit the hospital, at least for anything that would cost any large amount. So is it fair for the government to tax us, who don't use it, to support the people who do have to use it? Yes, it helps those in need, but it also puts a strain on the rest of us. The health care industry in Canada uses roughly 228 billion dollars for health care a year, or roughly 6 thousand dollars per resident. That's a lot of money for someone who doesn't use the healthcare system often. It depends on what your views are. Do you believe in helping others before yourself? Or do you not mind. In the end, the decision is up to the people, and the people seem fine with the system so far.
"Grade 3 kids at Lecole du Cheval-Blanc school will be allowed to engage in "rough physical play"" reads a headline on CBC, talking about the topic of recess in schools. As most of us know, recess used to be a time for kids to go outside and play tag, british bulldog, and other phsyical fun games that are now deemed "dangerous" and "unsafe" by many simply because kids may be scratched or bruised. However, a school in Gatineau, Quebec is going against this social stigma. Well, sort of. They're doing a "trial run" with their grade 3 class, in which they are going to allow them to rough house and have fun, but in order to do so, the children must complete "recess training" to teach them the "rules" of rough housing. Some are against it, most are for it. I believe it's a good idea, although it shouldn't even have a trial period. Or even a "zone". When you grow up, there is no "you aren't allowed to treat people that way outside of this zone" rule. Kids will be kids and kids rough house and play and sometimes get hurt. It's how many of us spent our childhoods growing, with scraped knees and palms, bike crashing, and other such minor ailments. Why should we try to control the things kids naturally do? Many people don't agree with that ideology, and instead want to protect their kids from anything and everything, and will stop their kids from engaging in physical, competitive games, and as a result, many kids grow up accustomed to being babied, having everything handed to them, and have a victim complex with the mindset, "acting like that isn't allowed. You can't do that to me" and it causes problems. The ideology that kids shouldn't experience things for themselves is ridiculous and is going to result in a lot of young adults who have no idea how to compose or handle themselves. The idea that the Gatineau school has is going to be a good compromise between the two ideologies, and hopefully progresses further.
1/25/2019 0 Comments POV 4-Canadian National IdentityCanada as a whole has a national identity, and it is largely up to us as to how the rest of the world sees this identity. As it is at the moment, canada is known for it's multiculturalism and acceptance, and perhaps most of all, it's kind, welcoming people. That is the stereotype for canadians, and surprisingly, it's often a reality. Many Canadians know that people from other countries know us as friendly and kind, and most of us are. We are one of the few countries that really fit our stereotype quite well in that aspect. We are all fairly similar people, we all enjoy many stereotypical Canadian foods and activities, and we also do live in a cold snowy climate. The canadian national identity was first laid at Vimy Ridge, as that's where we achieved our first large-scale accomplishment by doing what nobody else had been able to do. That was a turning point in Canadian history and made people proud to be called Canadian, and people started to take us seriously then.
1/21/2019 2 Comments current eventsOn January 10th, 2019, the Grande prairie police department took over $600,000 worth of drugs from an apartment on the west side of grande prairie, and over $93,000 in CAD, along with 2.2 kilograms (4.8 lbs) of cocaine ($100,000) 4 kilograms of meth ($400,000) almost 9 lbs, 200 grams of heroin($52,00), five and a half thousand oxycodone tablets($38,000), and 950 tablets of fentanyl ($65,000). That totals up to 655,000 Canadian dollars. The source of the drugs is unknown, as is the owner of them. The rcmp executed a search warrant after receiving a tip about a possible drug stash, and has not arrested any suspects or released a list of suspects. This goes to show that though we look like a stable country with few problems, Canada as a whole has a large drug problem, even in it's smaller cities, like Grande Prairie, with a population of only 63,000 people, which pales in comparison to large cities like Vancouver or even Edmonton. We are by no means a perfect country, our problems just aren't publicized.
11/30/2018 0 Comments November 30th, 2018Two months ago, a journalist named Jamal Khashoggi was found dead in the Saudi Arabian consulate building, in Istanbul, Turkey. Canada has sanctioned 17 saudi nationals, blocking trade with Canada, mainly in arms dealing and export, while also freezing any assets they may have had here, on the belief that they may have had things to do with the circumstance of Khashoggi's death, as there has been suspicious activity involving them. The aforementioned suspicious activity was the government not admitting to having anything to do with it, then later admitting he was killed by strangulation, insinuating they knew about it. "abhorrent and represents an unconscionable attack on the freedom of expression and freedom of the press." Are the exact words of foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland. Canadian government feels confident in imposing these sanctions, because the director of Canada's spy service travelled to Turkey and reviewed recordings of Khashoggis death, and Canada's government believes they were complicit or directly involved with the murder, as he was giving his input on certain events and the way the Saudi government operated, and since he was a journalist, the CIA believes that this played a role in his death as the word would spread faster. "Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an “enemy of the state”," Stated Donald Trump on the issue. This implies more that Saudi Government would have complied to the murder of Khashoggi. Personal opinionI believe that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was an intentional crime, not a fist fight as was the first excuse. The saudi government admitted to knowing of his death and the cause of it, informing investigative services that he died of strangulation, and already 5 Saudi internationals are facing the death penalty for suspected involvement of the murder. I believe this could be classified as a hate crime, as the Saudi Government was prejudiced against Khashoggis opinion and criticism.
11/25/2018 0 Comments stalin's nationalismStalin was a soviet dictator from 1929 to 1953 when he died. He was born in 1878. His plan for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was Stalinism, which supported class based violence, and deportation, and he wanted to rid the Soviet Union of the Bourgeoisie, and working class people with anti-revolutionary sympathies. The upper classes were violent to the classes below them and he believed that this accelerated the country towards communism, which was his end goal. So what he did to help this along was to start deportations, arrests and executions of those suspected to be against the communist movement in Soviet Russia. His chief executor, Vasily Blokhin, was infamous and is listed as the "Most Prolific Executioner" by Guinnes world records, as he killed 7,000 people at Katyn in 28 days. He did this by performing an execution by gunshot once every three minutes for 10 hours consecutively every night, He did this starting at nightfall and ended it just before dawn every morning and supplied his helpers with vodka at the end of this gruesome task. Eventually he was retired and turned to alcohol abuse and is listed to of died of suicide. So, in retrospect, Stalin's version of nationalism was not very nationalist at all, as it was committed against his own country, and pursued communism without taking into account the opinion of the people that made his nation. Hitler did what he did partly out of personal prejudice, and partly out of nationalism. Allow me to explain. What he did, he initially started the war to gain power for Germany so they could protect themselves in wars and conflict, as the Treaty of Versailles had unfair terms and took away much of their protection and land, so he wanted to get both Germany's land and power back, but when the UN didn't oppose him building tanks and planes for their military, he decided to attack and take back land that was taken by the Treaty, and initially, the deal was that he could have back the land that was taken, but he took advantage of this leniency and took more than just his, and kickstarted world war 2. When people started fighting him, he unveiled the massive military he had built and proved to be an incredibly serious threat, and even got Japan on his side and eventually lost the war. Shortly after the war started, he started using the war as an excuse to exterminate Jews, due to his racial prejudices, and this was a huge motivator for other countries to fight against him. So at the beginning, the initial reasons for the war may have been justified, but as it carried on into something completely different, it was not reasonable or understandable in the least. |
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