Earlier this year, we witnessed the Arab Spring; ordinary citizens rose up in the Middle East and Northern Africa demanding democracy. We saw this as good, applauding and overtly supporting these actions, these demands, which echoed our own beliefs of freedom. Though such actions may have destabilized economies, we accepted that cost as it was seen as necessary for a virtuous, democratic society to emerge – a society that would combat injustice.
Today, we are witnessing the American Fall, as people question the avarice of corporate America, as the economic disparity between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ grows. Poverty is growing in this country, and people are bridling at the greed of a few who have the majority of the wealth, because it is these few who have impoverished the people, detracting from the overall economic health of a society. Moralistically, most of us would condemn such actions, but instead, legislators are on the side of corporate America, condemning the protests as a threat to an already fragile economy. But whose economy?
This anomalous term – an economy – is liberally bandied around as a reason for government action: if we invest more in corporations, they will give us jobs; if we buy more of their products, we will create more jobs; if we give them tax breaks and bailouts, they will reward us with more jobs – and yet, none of this has come to fruition. In fact, the situation is worsening, and past ideas of keeping the masses – the mob – fed and entertained is no longer working, nor is appealing to their sense of patriotism. The people want justice, and democracy has failed them.
As we look upon our cousins to the south, our superciliousness and critiques of their failures have blinded us to those same shortcomings here. We see ourselves, in the words of John Kenneth Galbraith as “an affluent society” – a society that is conservative and compassionate (caring for the weak) by nature. Yet, we have not recognized the growing disparity between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in Canada. Most of us will not acknowledge out of pride the burgeoning debt that we labour under, or the fact that our household incomes (two persons or more) have not grown in three decades. And yet, here we are repeating, instead of learning from, the mistakes of others.
An over-zealous government sees the need to protect corporate interests over the rights of citizens, all in the name of protecting the economy. Just look at how quickly Lisa Raitt responded to the rejected contract negotiations between Air Canada and its flight attendants. The raison d’etre behind pushing through back to work legislation would be to protect a vital link for Canadians, reducing what hardships they might face. Yet the economic rights of a minority group of workers were discarded, even though they would earn less than the national average income in Canada. Such actions have happened before, when the Ontario government passed similar legislation, forcing sessional instructors back to work at York University using a similar argument, even though many of these workers lived below the poverty line. Such attacks on the economic rights of individuals should be a clarion call to all Canadians of the disconnect between legislators and the citizenry, but it goes unheeded. Our legislators, who earn four to eight times more than the average Canadian, are out of touch with the needs of the people. They do not understand the problem, and we only have the appearance of being an affluent society, having lost the virtue of being a compassionate one.
John Kennair is an international consultant and doctor of laws who lives in St. Albert.
