Q4. Don Mitchell, in his article ‘The Annihilation of Space by Law,’ argues that ordinances passed against the poor in the 1990s point to a highly exclusionary type of modern citizenship. What does he mean by this? In what ways are the poor excluded from modern citizenship? How is this exclusion justified socio-politically?
Space is never innocent. Regardless of whether a specific area is deemed public or private, space is never innocent because of the bodies who govern those areas. Today, there are approximately 3.2 million Canadians who are either homeless or “transitionally” homeless, but regardless of their citizenship, they are not considered as “modern citizens” by the society. Mitchell puts forth the argument that the ordinances passed in the 1990s has stripped vagrants of their rights as actual Canadian citizens and has created an elite class of citizenship that only the privilege can enjoy.
According to the Canadian government, an individual is deemed as a citizen of Canada if they fulfill certain requirements such as being born in the country, applying for a citizenship, or being born to at least one Canadian parent. With this citizenship, these individuals can now experience a wide variety of privileges such as having the ability to vote, to either enter or leave the country, and to enjoy all the rights and freedoms that are associated with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Some of these rights include the right to public assembly and
Collective rights are what makes Canada uniquely different from the other countries. These rights have grown more equal over time to shape Canada to become a fair and equitable governed society. Collective rights are rights given to specific groups for historical and constitutional reasons for groups such as the First Nations, Inuit, Francophones and Anglophones. As great as it sounds, back in Canadian history back when collective rights were just starting off as treaties and laws, First Nations and the Metis were faced with assimilation. Francophones and Anglophones were given collective educational rights when put in a minority setting. Without collective rights shifting to become better, historical groups who found Canada would have either
“Today … there is a growing crisis of women’s homelessness across Canada. The Canadian government has failed to explore the causes of women’s homelessness” (Rahder, 2006, p.38). This growing issue is caused by societies carelessness on the homelessness issue, and the lack of support to change it. Even the Canadian government does not see it as an urgent issue to address because, as stated above, they have even failed to
Three major classes of rights are protected by both the Canadian and United States constitutions. Freedom of expression, religion, and assembly are safeguarded in part I section 2 of the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, and in the First Amendment of the American Constitution. The Legal Rights listed in sections 7-14 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, protecting criminal suspects and defendants by various procedural safeguards, are paralleled by American rights to have counsel against
This charter means that everyone no matter what race, religion, sex, national origin, age or mental and physical abilities they have they are protected. The charter allows people to have basic human fundamental rights that most government rules and regulations were restricting before it came into act. The freedom of speech, religion and to associate yourself with whoever you want are just some of those rights that are being offered with the entrenchment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Finally the last achievements that Pierre Trudeau did that assisted in making Canada better are the legalization of laws on abortion, homosexuality and lotteries.
Australian society has ultimately rejected the idea of the practice of capital punishment making a return into the Australian law books. However, events such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the Bali bombings have ensured that the spotlight once again shines on the controversial subject. I am in favour of the practice returning to Australia for heinous crimes such as murder, child molestation, serial rapists, and people who commit acts of animal cruelty. This is because:
Global warming is the rise of average temperature in the earth’s atmosphere since the late 19th century. Since the beginning of the early 20th century, the earths mean surface temperature had increased by around 0.8 degrees. Warming of the climate system had become more obvious and scientists are 90% sure that the main cause of the increase in temperature in due to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases due to human activities such as deforestation and burning of fossil fuels.
According to the Oxford dictionary the term citizenship can be defined as: “The state of being vested with the rights and privileges, and duties of a citizen.” In the short story ‘Borders’ by Thomas King the term citizenship is of main focus. Through the many borders that are presented within the story, King argues that citizenship overlooks culture and heritage, instead focusing on a single border: that being where the individual resides. The short story is narrated from the young boy’s perspective, as him and his mother struggle to cross the Canadian-American border to visit the young boy’s sister Latitia. The young boy and his mother are not able to cross the border
Every Canadian citizen can enjoy living in a country today where everyone has equal rights and freedom. Canadians today have many rights and freedoms that they take for granted. The rights and freedoms we have today were only made possible are many struggles that people in the past have faced. Various groups, specifically, Chinese workers, African Canadians, natives and women dealt with discrimination daily. Their battle for equal rights and freedoms amongst everyone has contributed greatly to the development of our nation to what it is today.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is without a doubt one of Canada’s most important section entrenched in the Canadian Constitution. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights enacted into the Canadian Constitution as part of the Canada Act in 1982. However, the Charter was Canada’s second attempt to protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens all throughout the country and on every level of government. The Canadian Bill of Rights, which preceded the Charter was enacted in 1960. However, being only a federal statute rather than a full constitutional document, it had no power and application to provincial laws. In addition, the Supreme Court of Canada only narrowly interpreted the Bill of Rights, therefore rarely unlawful laws were declared inoperative and continued to exist. As a result, the ineffectiveness of the Bill of Rights led to many movements to improve the protection of rights and freedoms in Canada. However, similar to its predecessor, the Charter is not without faults, and loopholes. In some cases, it has even infringed upon certain liberties and democratic rights and freedoms. In other cases, the Charter has incited conflicts between liberty and democracy and raised questions that speculate whether it is truly democratic.
What does it mean to be Canadian? Many people, from our politicians to our greatest literary masters have pondered this question. The answer will likely vary from person to person, however in my opinion, being a Canadian means having the freedom to be who you are without fear. We are not a country torn by war, we have freedom of religion and a diversity rate that equals no other with one out of every five Canadians being foreign born. In the past, being Canadian merely referred to living in Canada or having been born in Canada. Over time this definition has changed. We are a highly inclusive, peaceful nation and therefore have little to no strife with other countries. Being a Canadian also means being open minded and respectful. I am proud
Homelessness has been a consistent concern since the colonization of the United States and the separation from England. However, despite the desire for new beginnings once arriving in the States, old circumstances remained and an adoption of previous solutions was implemented. The term used for those homeless has transitioned throughout the decades; however, the beginning expression used was vagrants (Levinson & Ross, 2007). This term was given due to the connotation of being “…wanderers without a home, but also likely to participate in criminal activity” (Levinson & Ross, p. 1, 2007). Though this terminology is not as prevalent today, the negative association between homelessness and crime still exists.
On any single night in America, there are 610,042 people without a home (SIRS). Just think about how much space that would take up in prisons for people who are not causing a crime but are just without a home.Criminalization of homelessness is becoming a popular and widespread topic throughout the US. States all over America are beginning to make laws that prevent homeless people from living in public spaces. Homelessness may be temporary, chronic, or perpetual. The growth of homelessness within and outside of cities puts a new strain on shelters and has led to an increase in panhandling and loitering. Some people think these aspects of homelessness should be criminalized. Those who disagree say criminalization would only worsen the problem
* Collective rights are different than individual rights. Every Canadian citizen and permanent resident has individual rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, such as the right to live anywhere in Canada.
As of the most powerful and important position in the world, the President of the United States has a duty and obligation to present the truth to the American people and the rest of the world. But as shown from the 2016 election cycle and current presidency, it appears that the truth can be substituted by “alternative facts”.
The current social welfare issue that I chose to explore is homelessness within Canada. First, this essay will give a brief description of homelessness. Secondly, it will describe how homelessness relates to some concepts and theories that we learned in this course Introduction to Social Welfare, it will also look at what may have happened to people facing homelessness one hundred years ago, next we will explore a possible solution to this social issue and where this fits within the political ideologies. Finally, I will give a brief explanation on whether social media is an effective tool for bringing about awareness regarding social issues.