Lars Boggild, Opinions Contributor
Despite what they say in the beer commercials, sometimes I’m sad to be Canadian. I had one of these days on Nov. 16 when Bill C-311 was voted down in a snap vote in the Canadian Senate.
Bill C-311, a Private Member’s Bill, was introduced in our elected House of Commons. The bill faced debate and opposition, but was considered worthy, and was thus voted through to our Senate. Here, after languishing for one hundred and ninety three days without any debate, it was finally killed by an impromptu vote, 43-32, when many senators in the second house were not even around.
This, to me, was a sad day to be Canadian. Canada now has no Federal law in regards to climate change, no requirements or commitments, despite ratifying international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, obligations we now choose to flippantly ignore in full light of the international community.
I have the privilege of attending the most recent United Nations Climate Negotiations (COP16), taking place this year in Mexico. However, I also have the burden of attending as a Canadian: I must engage with the international community as a citizen of a country which consistently impedes international cooperation on this issue, and in this negligence truly harms many nations around the world. Despite such an increasingly negative international reputation, our government still has the audacity to claim that our recent losing of a UN Security Council seat has more to do with Michael Ignatieff’s comments than our dismal record on climate change.
But this doesn’t just offend my sensibilities as someone concerned with the state of our environment. Every one of us, as citizens of Canada, should be concerned with the state of our democracy. I wouldn’t be as offended if the bill had at least been talked about, given the “sober second thought” that our Senate is supposedly about.
This isn’t what happened, not in our second house. Instead, without any discussion, any consideration of the merit that our elected representatives felt was enough to approve it, the bill was put to snap vote. At voting time, many seats in the Senate — particularly Liberal senators’ seats — were left empty. To me, this shows a blatant disrespect to the many Canadians deeply concerned about climate change. It is an incredible insult to the will of the Canadian public as voiced through the political body we control, the House of Commons. It should make us all angry when a body we can’t vote out decides to ignore those who we voted in.
In an increasingly interconnected world, our international standing is being bandied around for the short-term political agenda of our current government. I don’t think the government should be afforded the luxury of short-term thinking. We don’t have the luxury of experiencing their policies in the short term. In fact, I expect to deal with them for a lifetime. That burden deserves respect, that burden deserves dialogue, and unfortunately, that burden is being disregarded when the Prime Minister’s Office orders a Senate it has appointed in its favour to strike down a bill that it was unable to because it didn’t command the majority of the Canadian vote.
No government should have the right to remove the pride of citizens in their own country, but last Tuesday, the current government took some of my pride. I can only hope that thanks to us, they won’t be the government for very long.
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