October, 2008

           Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been right about one thing, and one thing only: Canadians should reopen the marriage debate. They should reopen the debate in order to abolish the institution in its entirety. Rather than tweak at its framework, Canadians must completely rid themselves of an institution that has stood firmly throughout history as a symbol of patriarchy and privilege, a mechanism of men’s power over women, a tool of domination and exploitation. Canadians today subscribe to a glorified and false perception of marriage. On the surface, they believe that marriage is an institution of love and equality, kinship and community. This is simply not the case. Only recently has this paradigm gained even the remotest degree of accuracy.

            Our society is built upon the accumulated knowledge of past generations. Our political debates cannot turn to discussions of class dynamics without talking about Marx. In the same way, our discussions of power invariably reference Foucault. As such, in our studies, we students of politics base our thoughts on the accumulated knowledge of these thinkers and their ancestors in the same way that physicists rely upon the discoveries of Einstein, and Newton before him. They made their discoveries so that we do not have to spend our lifetimes in pursuit of the same knowledge. Be it in our politics, our technology or our culture we are “standing on the shoulders of giants”.

The federal riding of Ottawa-Vanier was created in 1935, and at the time was known as Ottawa East. Prior to that, most of the current riding was located in the electoral district of Russell. Today, the riding includes the University of Ottawa, Sandy Hill, Vanier, New Edinburgh and Rockcliffe Park, among others. There have been some adjustments to the boundaries and name of the riding (it became Ottawa-Vanier in 1973), but one thing has remained constant: every year since 1887, the federal riding of Ottawa-Vanier has sent a Liberal representative to the House of Commons.

Combien de fois a-t-on blâmé la communauté internationale pour sa lenteur à réagir en cas de crise ou pour son absence lors de conflits majeurs ? Alors que l’Afghanistan connaît actuellement une crise interne, de nombreux pays influents sur la scène internationale ont choisi d’intervenir, sous l’égide de l’OTAN, dans ce pays qu’on ne veut guère abandonner aux talibans. Pourtant, cette intervention commune de plusieurs puissances, le Royaume-Uni, l’Allemagne, le Canada, la France et les États-Unis, entre autres, ne semble attirer que des mécontentements et des désaccords aux yeux du monde. La communauté internationale est-elle justifiée d’intervenir dans ce conflit et le fait-elle de la bonne façon ? Ce que l’on appelle désormais la « Guerre en Afghanistan » interpelle sans aucun doute les Canadiens, dont la nature pacifique les rebute à prendre les armes…