It’s a day for joy; it’s a day for sorrow. It is also a day for renewed commitment and to take a new pledge. The country as a whole took a fresh pledge to ensure the trial of the notorious child of the nation, who fought against the birth of the country, the war criminals. The nation celebrated the 40th anniversary of independence on 16^th December with utmost honour to the valiant sons of the soil who made the supreme sacrifice to liberate Bangladesh from the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971.

On December 16, 1971, Pakistani occupation forces chief Lt Gen AAK Niazi along with 93,000 troops surrendered to the joint forces of Mukti Bahini and Mitra Bahini at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital. The nation, under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, finally clinched independence on December 16 after the nine-month-long war that took the lives of 3 million people.

It was something different for the people to celebrate the victory day this year. Because they saw most of the top ranking war criminals not free to show their audacity in public, the day meant different thing to different people. Rather they are facing trial in an independent tribunal and except few most of the top leaders are facing legal consequences. The incident encouraged them to express their joy and amid enthusiasm and gaiety, thousands of people, who thronged the National Mausoleum to salute the martyred heroes, called for expediting the trial of war criminals and formation of political unity to protect national interest through the banners and posters they were carrying. Roads near the National Mausoleum were flooded with people carrying banners with patriotic slogans in their hands and chanting patriotic songs.

The capital had a festive look since early morning. Many buildings, vehicles, thoroughfares and median strips were decorated with the national flag and banners. The national flag was hoisted atop all government, semi-government and other important establishments.

Many demanding trial of war criminals carried effigies of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ghulam Azam with shoes and noose around the necks. Students and teachers of different schools, colleges and universities brought out colorful precessions with patriotic lines written on festoons and banners. Dressed in red and green, men, women and children flocked various monuments, parks, the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, Dhaka University campus and other public places to celebrate the day. The celebrations of Victory Day, a public holiday, began with 31 gunshots at the National Parade Square in the capital at the break of dawn.

While the city streets seemed deserted in the early morning, later in the day heavy traffic was seen on many thoroughfares as enthusiastic people flooded the streets singing patriotic songs and carrying banners of different political, social, cultural and professional organizations.

Meanwhile, supporters of Awami League and BNP clashed in front of the National Mausoleum early yesterday over tearing of banners and festoons when the prime minister was in the mausoleum. The clash ensued when activists of pro-Awami League student body Chhatra League’s local unit chased rival Chhatra Dal accusing them of tearing off festoons and banners, some eyewitnesses said. There were some scattered clashes across the country too, mostly over placing wreaths at memorials.

Though the people across the country were in festive mode in celebrating the victory day, they had expressed their desire to see the faster completion of the ongoing trial of the war crime.  The crowd outside the Savar National Mausoleum on the outskirts of capital Dhaka chanted ‘Try them, hang them,’ referring to seven alleged collaborators in the massacre of up to 3 million civilians and rape of 200,000 to 500,000 women during the nine-month conflict.

The Awami League-led coalition government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed has been prosecuting suspected war criminals since she assumed office in early 2009. Five of those facing charges are top members of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, including its leader and former minister Matiur Rahman Nizami. The other two are leaders of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. All were detained last year. Jamaat-e-Islami was opposed to secession, and assisted Pakistani forces during the war. An earlier initiative to prosecute war crimes was called off in 1975 when the independent country’s founding father and first Prime Minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated, and his successor Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad took power with a more conservative Islamic agenda.

The ruling Awami League, it its election manifesto, during last national election committed to try the war criminals. People of Bangladesh gave their mandate to try the criminals and the Awami League came to the power with landslide victory. So, it has become a people’s demand to try the war criminals.

For questions or comments, please write at shaugat@gmail.com.

Growing up in a small Canadian city, my parents did everything they could to keep me and my siblings connected to our language, faith, culture and history. For example, they enforced a “Punjabi-only rule” in our house (mostly to accommodate my elderly grandmother so she wouldn’t feel so alienated when we jabbered away in English).

Bedtime was a chance to hear stories of old Punjabi heroes. Sometimes the stories had a happy ending – sometimes they didn’t.

Here’s one story that has stuck with me over the years:

On May 23, 1914, a Japanese ship called the Komagata Maru carrying 376 passengers from colonial India tried to dock in a Vancouver port. It was denied because of racist legislation called the “Continuous Journey” law, put in place by Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden. From 1908 to 1948, the law required ships to make one continuous, uninterrupted passage to Canada for eligibility to dock and for passengers to disembark. However, that was virtually impossible as ships could not make a continuous journey from any South Asian country without stopping at least once to refuel and restock supplies before reaching Canada.

For two months, the Komagata Maru anchored offshore while Canadian authorities drove the passengers to the brink of starvation and desperation. Finally, Prime Minister Borden intervened by calling on the Canadian Navy and local militia and prepared for violent confrontation. In the end, no conflict occurred but the ship was forced to return to India on July 23 with fuel and restocked supplies.

When the ship returned to India, 19 of the passengers were immediately killed by the ruling British government. Others were charged with treason, imprisoned and had their properties expropriated.

It’s a tragic story with an unhappy ending.

However, Canadian politicians are trying to address this historical wrong that has passed unrecognized for too long.

In January 2007, then-NDP Leader Jack Layton demanded that the Government of Canada officially apologize to the community. In his address, Mr. Layton said “one of our greatest strengths as Canadians is our ability to face the past and learn from it. This is the time to exercise that strength.”

In addition to the apology, the NDP had suggested a permanent memorial be created as a reminder of the tremendous hurdles members of the South Asian community have had to overcome, and to celebrate their invaluable contributions to Canadian society.

The motion was put forward in Parliament on May 18, 2007, and required unanimous consent by all parties. Sadly, it was blocked by Conservative MPs. Personally, I was disappointing to see the Conservatives deny justice to the community.

The Conservatives have proven they have a heart when it comes to saying sorry inside Parliament to communities such as the First Nations, Metis and Inuit regarding the decades of residential school abuse, and to the Chinese because of the head tax and the Japanese over their unjust internment. Now it’s time to apologize in the House of Commons to the Sikh, Hindu and Muslim communities who suffered from the Komagata Maru tragedy.

This apology is an opportunity for the government to correct this historical injustice and offer a chance for healing and reconciliation. This is an opportunity to create awareness so that this kind of tragedy never happens again. For the past 97 years, the Komagata Maru has been an unhealed scar in the community and in Canadian history.

Here is a chance to make the Komagata Maru story have a happy ending.

Maybe I should teach Mr. Harper how to say “I’m sorry” in Punjabi.

Rupinder Kaur is the Press Secretary to Ontario’s New Democrats.

The rumour mongering is a symptom of weakness of the political institutions and processes and narrow partisan attitude of the political leaders.

Pakistan has been in the grip of rumours. This is partly due to the controversies about the memo and the sudden departure of President Asif Ali Zardari’s for Dubai on Dec 6^th for medical treatment.    Some rumours were about his incapacitating illness. Others suggested that he had gone abroad to save himself from the memo scandal that was being looked into by the Supreme Court. Others talked of the President being forced out of office by the military and that he would not return either for medical or political reasons.

In the earlier phase of civilian rule (1988-1999) the rumours used to surface from time to time about the removal of the elected government.

An interesting situation developed in Islamabad on September 24, 2006. The countrywide electricity breakdown caused the rumours that the military had removed President General Pervez Musharraf who was also Army Chief at that time. This unusual news of the army staging a coup against its own chief lasted for a few hours.

Rumours have become part of Pakistani politics.   Many people, especially the over-competitive private sector media, push rumours for drawing greater attention to their programmes or comments. Such rumours cause unnecessary mental strain to a large number of people and have negative impact on business and economic activity.

Before the speculations about the president’s departure to Dubai, the politically active circles and the media were focused on the memo controversy as the most  critical issue , pushing aside the problems of internal insecurity, terrorism, troubled economy and energy crisis.   The politically active circles in Pakistan and the media were dancing around the statements of one person, Mansoor Ijaz, based in New York. As he realized that Pakistani media was listening to him, he issued several statements that not only reflected his changing position but also dragged more issues and personalities in the controversy.  His word was taken as the whole truth because he was targeting the people that were not liked by the opposition and many people in the media. This enabled the main opposition party, the PMLN, to step-up its campaign to remove President Zardari from office.

The abundance of rumours manifests the fragility of Pakistani politics, especially civilian political institutions and processes. These institutions are so weak and unsustainable that any speculation about their collapse or removal is viewed by the politically active circles as plausible until a new speculation overrides the old one.

Another reason for popularity of rumours is the non-aggregative nature of Pakistani politics.     The political competitors have not cultivated the habit of agreeing on goals and strategies of political conduct.   The political parties and leaders are mostly unable to aggregate diverse individual and group political claims into broad policy demands, thereby not moving in the direction of consensus-building on what is to be pursued as the key political issues.    Non-aggregative politics intensifies conflict and weakens political institutions and processes.  It hardens the cleavages based on ethnicity, language, region, religion, political agenda which in turn fragments the political process.

Still another reason for the on-going political uncertainty and the overall absence of confidence in the future is the inability of the political players to rise above their partisan interests. If the democratic institutions and processes do not help the achievement of partisan interests of a group it tends to question the legitimacy of the political process and institutions.   In Pakistan, this trend is quite common when civilian governments are functioning.

The PMLN in its bid to oust President Zardari and the federal government feels that the parliament is not helpful. It does not have enough votes in the parliament to impeach the president or move a vote-of-no-confidence against the Prime Minister in the National Assembly. Therefore, it argues that the parliament has become irrelevant and it is endeavouring to launch street agitation.  It would like a conflict to erupt between the federal government/presidency and the Supreme Court or the military, which would result in the collapse or removal of the federal government.

The past experience suggests that whenever there is civilian rule, the opposition parties individually or collectively declare the federal government (irrespective of its party affiliation) as a security threat or launch movement for saving Pakistan from “anti-nation and anti-state” federal government.   Now-a-days, these strategies are being initiated by various opposition groups

Political parties and leaders are the guardians of elected civilian institutions and processes. If they decide to by-pass or reject these institutions and processes in pursuit of their partisan interests, these cannot endure.   Similarly, if a section of the political elite look towards non-elected state institutions like the military and the judiciary for displacing a civilian government, the future of democracy and civilian order can never be secure.

The rumour mongering is a symptom of weakness of the political institutions and processes and narrow partisan attitude of the political leaders. If these trends continue Pakistan’s civilian institutions and democracy will not stabilize and the people will continue to raise doubts about the future of Pakistan as a federal democratic state.

By Dr. Hasan Askari

Prime Minister of Canada Mr. Stephen Harper had been generous enough to make time in his busy schedule to meet a few members of multicultural media. He was joined by four of his newly elected Conservative colleagues: MP John Carmichael (Don Valley West), MP Kyle Seeback (Brampton West), MP Wladyslaw Lizon (Mississauga East-Cooksville) and MP Chungsen Leung (Willowdale).

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Harper was pleased with Conservatives’ win in the GTA.

“..one of our objectives of course had been to improve our standing in the GTA generally, in the 905 in particular, and we had a few hopes in the 416..we won every seat except one [in 905], and in the 416, we won the most seats of any party. So we now have excellent representatives in just about every part of the greater Toronto region,” he said.

Disappointed by the recent jobless numbers in Canada, Mr. Harper stated “the government’s number one priority remains the economy and jobs I think you all know we’ve had a disappointing jobs report today [Dec 2], and numbers are down a little bit. I mean, I never like when they’re down at all, because obviously when there’s more job losses than gains, that means there are families who don’t have employment, and that is of deep concern to us. The report was mixed, however…”

Immigration, the Prime Minister said, is also one of the key focuses of the Canadian government.

“We obviously have other things we’re focused on as well. Obviously areas of immigration, I know, are important to many of your readers and viewers and listeners, and that continues to be an area we’re also focused on..this is the first government, I say, this is the first government ever, I think, to not cut immigration during a recession, because we believe strongly that if you look at our labour force needs, even in the immediate future, not the long-term, the immediate future, immigration remains very critical to the success of the Canadian economies, been part of that success through the recession, and will continue to be.”

Acknowledging the significance of multicultural media, Mr. Harper said “We understand that while the so-called mainstream media refers to you as the ethnic or cultural media, in fact, we understand that in many cases you have far more viewers, listeners and readers than the so-called mainstream media, and often it’s the case that your viewers, listeners and readers actually pay a lot more attention to what you say and report. So it is important as we communicate with them, particularly here in the Greater Toronto Area, that we keep in touch with you.”

Responding to Generation Next’s question that “increasingly we hear that the federal government hasn’t been fair to Ontario, especially in terms of settlement funding, in terms of the ridings that were supposed to be created, so how do you reassure our readers that.. your government is indeed fair and doing the right thing?” Prime Minister responded “I do congratulate Mr. McGuinty on his re-election, but I would note that our success in the GTA and elsewhere has been much stronger in Ontario…On the issue of redistribution, actually, the government of Ontario has backed the government of Canada’s plan. We’re very pleased to have the support. Ontario will get half of the new seats in the redistribution that’s going to take place beginning in the New Year, and should receive an even greater share under the formula going forward. So this is a major step forward in terms of addressing a longstanding concern of the Government of Ontario, and Premier McGuinty’s been very good about supporting the federal government on that. He has explicitly not supported the federal Liberal Party’s position, and he is, of course, all of us have been even more critical of the NDP’s position. The NDP’s position is quite extraordinary. Their proposal that they placed before the House of Commons, would actually ensure that the number of seats in Quebec rises quicker than any other province. They would guarantee Quebec a fixed percentage of seats in the House of Commons, regardless of its population. That is not only unfair to the other provinces; our belief, based on legal advice, is it’s completely unconstitutional.”

As far as the federal cuts to settlement funding in Ontario go, Mr. Harper said “..there’s two issues here. I think first of all, the big picture is the following. The Government of Canada, under our government, since we took office, has tripled the overall level of immigrant settlement funding in this country. Settlement funding in Ontario and everywhere else is much higher than it was six years ago. What has happened [in] the last couple of years is that the distribution of those monies has gone more to other provinces than to Ontario, and the reason’s very simple. In the last few years, the percentage of immigrants going to Ontario is lower than it used to be. And so we’re distributing the money on a per capita basis between the provinces. But Ontario will continue to get its fair share.”

Prime Minister Harper also pointed out that his government “has really turned a new page in terms of relations with India. We signed a nuclear cooperation agreement, something that had been held up for 30-some years. We’ve had a series of successful visits between Prime Minister Singh and myself to each other’s countries, and we have launched free trade negotiations with India..”

By Asma Amanat

As of December 1^st, 2012, parents and grandparents can apply for a ten year multiple entry super visa to visit their family in Canada.

In a recent teleconference, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism answered questions on Super Visas for parents and grandparents. He said it was mandatory for immigrants wishing to invite their parents through super visa to fulfill minimum income requirements in Canada. “This is to ensure that Canadian tax payers don’t end up having to support visiting relatives through our welfare and other generous social benefits,” he said. According to the Minister, failing to meet the minimum income requirement, if coupled with the fact that the parents’ or grandparents’ links to their home country is weak, can lead to a denial of visa.

Responding to a question from Generation Next on the issue of work permits and health insurance for parents and grandparents, the Minister said, the primary objective of issuing of the super visa was for the parents and grandparents is to visit and not work in Canada. He said, “Parents and grandparents can apply for a work permit in Canada. The employer would have to obtain a labour market opinion to demonstrate that the job has been first offered to a Canadian—citizen or resident or that no Canadian has applied for the position. In such instances, we would issue a work permit. But it’s not our intention to automatically issue work permits to visiting parents and grandparents.”

He drew attention to the already “far-stretched” healthcare system in Canada, evidenced by the long wait times and said it wouldn’t be fair to have visitors’ health costs covered by Canadian tax-payers’ money.

There are significant concerns in the Tamil and the Muslim communities of South Asian origin with regards to these super visas. While the federal government has undertaken extensive exercise to ensure that immigrant communities are aware of why the government has stopped accepting parental and grandparental permanent resident applications, however misconceptions exist.

Even as the country engages in a furious debate on FDI and corruption, an issue that slipped by without catching too much attention was the Bhopal gas tragedy, the 27^th anniversary of which took place last week. Despite the passage of nearly three decades, there’s still no consensus between the government and the NGOs on the fundamental issue of the number of victims.

As Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on the night of December 2 and 3 in 1984, thousands of people were killed and many more suffered permanent health damages. The two major NGOs fighting for the victims’ rights have claimed the actual number of casualties is much higher than the official figure. The recent headlines of the tragedy were less because of the victims plight and more because of the association of Dow Chemical—the US company that now owns Union Carbide—with the London Olympic Games. Human rights groups and former Indian Olympians have urged the Indian Olympic Association to boycott the London games, following a sponsorship deal between Dow and the organising committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

What is appalling is not only the terrible effects that continue to wreak havoc on the health of the people who were exposed to the gas leak and their progeny, but also the stunning apathy—from the government—both central and state as well as the administration. As activist organizations point out, even after so many years, the state government hasn’t set up a special court for hearing the tragedy case. The compensation paid to victims is also not sufficient. Such lapses only reinforce the victims’ feelings of being cheated and given a raw deal.

In 2010, seven employees of Union Carbide were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by a lower court. In May 2011, the Supreme Court of India dismissed a government petition seeking tougher sentences for these employees. The apex court said that based on the material available to it, there was not enough reason to a build a case of culpable homicide against the accused.

Like with every environmental disaster, the effects of the Bhopal gas tragedy didn’t end on the night of the leak. Horrific consequences are continuing to this day, including the 390 tonnes of toxic chemicals abandoned at the Union Carbide plant that that continue to pollute the groundwater in the region. According to a recent study by the Centre for Science and Environment, the groundwater within three kilometres of the plant contains 110 times the maximum quantity of carbaryl, the pesticide considered safe in Indian bottled water.

Along with general apathy to the plight of the victims’ is the government’s shocking attempt to ignore at best and supress at worst the long-term health impacts of exposure to MIC. The government has even cited the work of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to dismiss claims that exposure to MIC causes congenital deformities and even cancer. However, according to one of the principal investigators for the ICMR, the research data wasn’t allowed to be published. And yet, thousands of people continue to suffer the deformities and other impacts caused by the gas leak.

Despite being denied justice through nearly three decades, victims haven’t given up the fight. Activists and human rights group have made sure the issue remains alive and the guilty are brought to book with tougher sentence. On the day of 27^th anniversary of the disaster, a rail-roko (stop the trains) movement turned violent as the state police applied lathi-charge on the protestors (stick wielding) to maintain order. The protestors were blocking all the major railway lines going through the city of Bhopal.

BY Bhaswati Ghosh

The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Sharif Group (PMLN) has gone to the Supreme Court to pull up the federal government on the memo issue. This move is a part of the PMLN agenda to oust the federal government and dislodge President Asif Ali Zardari.  It is not possible for the PMLN to achieve these objectives through the Parliament because it does not have the required votes to pass a vote-of-no-confidence against the federal government or remove Zardari. The PMLN is now pursuing this agenda either through street protests or through the Supreme Court. The court, on Nawaz Sharif’s plea, has asked the President, the Army Chief and the ISI Director General to respond to the court on the memo issue.  The President may seek presidential immunity but we will see how the Army Chief and the ISI Director General deal with the court’s call.

The memo issue can be described as an adventurist approach on a purely domestic issue by some people in the PPP federal government that has exposed it to a lot criticism.

A large number of people criticized the PPP government for seeking support from the United States for strengthening its position in the domestic context.  Some have gone to the extent of describing the memo affair as a betrayal of Pakistan.

A review of Pakistan’s political history shows that this was not the first occasion that Pakistani government or political leaders sought external support for pursuing their domestic or foreign policy agendas.

There are numerous instances of foreign input to Pakistan’s policy making or exploration of external support for pursuing a domestic politics or foreign policy agenda. In 1954-55, Pakistan joined the U.S.-sponsored regional alliance system and strengthened its bilateral security ties with the United States in order to obtain weapons and economic assistance to contest India.  Pakistan was not motivated by a desire to fight the Soviet Union or Communism. It was promoting its domestic and foreign policy agenda with external support because it did not have enough domestic resources to withstand military and economic pressures from India.  The U.S. exercised reasonable diplomatic clout over Pakistan during the heydays of this relationship.

In early October 1958, President Iskander Mirza informed the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan that he would assume all powers on October 8 by scrapping the Constitution. The U.S. administration endorsed the assumption of power by the military within four days through a letter from President Eisenhower.  On October 23, U.S. Defense Secretary came to Karachi to reiterate American support.

In the last phase of the India-Pakistan War, December 1971, the military regime of General Yahya khan waited in vain for the American 7^th Fleet to come to the Bay of Bengal to rescue Pakistan from the extremely difficult military situation in what was then East Pakistan.  Pakistan’s official circles were also disappointed because the Chinese did not make any military move on Sino-Indian border to ease Indian military pressure on Pakistan.

The discreet role of other states can be seen in many difficult situations in Pakistan. In May-June 1977, the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya and the UAE attempted to moderate the political conflict between Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the opposition alliance, the PNA. Their intervention contributed to the resumption of the dialogue between the two sides but General Zia-ul-Haq removed the Bhutto government on July 5.

The military government of General Zia-ul-Haq got a lease of long life when it joined hands with the U.S. and other Western states to challenge Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan (1979-1989).  General Pervez Musharraf’s military government obtained economic, military and diplomatic support from the U.S. and other Western countries by joining their effort in September 2001 to eliminate terrorism sponsored or supported by the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban based in Afghanistan.  These military regimes would not have lasted for such a long period without external support.

During the period of civilian rule (1988-1999), Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif often cultivated American Ambassador in Islamabad whenever the rumors of dismissal of the government circulated in Islamabad.

Nawaz Sharif travelled to Washington for a special meeting with President Clinton on July 4, 1999, for seeking his support for bringing an end to the Kargil War (May-July 1999).  He agreed to withdrawal of troops without getting a commitment from India for cease-fire.

Towards the end of September 1999, Shahbaz Sharif visited Washington to solicit American support for Nawaz Sharif’s government against a military takeover. The U.S. administration issued a statement in support of the civilian government. However, this did not avert the October 12 coup by the Army led by General Pervez Musharraf.

It is also well-known that the departure of Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif and their families in December 2000 for Saudi Arabia after Nawaz Sharif’s conviction in the “hijacking” case was facilitated by the Saudi royal family and Saad Harrari, a former prime minister of Lebanon.

In 2007, the U.S. and the U.K. encouraged General Musharraf to accommodate political forces, especially the PPP.

Pakistani political leaders need to give up the habit of seeking support from abroad for pursuing their domestic political agendas.  If the political leaders pursue their political agendas with restraint and respect the principles of democracy and constitution in letter and spirit, their politics will not become a brute struggle for power. Then, they would not have to seek external support either to pull down the government or to save them from the government’s oppression.

By Dr. Hasan Askari

This week the humanitarian crisis in Attawapiskat has become a big national and international media story, forcing Stephen Harper’s Conservatives to act. Unfortunately, the first thing that Stephen Harper did was not offer assistance, but tried to blame others for the problem.

Can you spot a disaster if you see one? If the indications include an international aid agency handing out food, blankets, clothing and providing first aid, that’s a pretty good sign you’re seeing a disaster.

This past week the Canadian Red Cross was on the Attawapiskat First Nations reserve, helping residents prepare for an early winter, where they currently living without adequate housing, heating or even running water.

Attawapiskat is a First Nation community located in central northern Ontario. Between 1,200 and 2,000 people live in very difficult conditions in this remote community. Many of the homes and public buildings in Attawapiskat are decades old and decaying, such as the local school which still sits on the site of an old 30,000 litre diesel fuel spill. The deplorable situation at that school was the momentum behind the successful “Shannen’s Dream” project, which effectively shamed Stephen Harper’s Conservatives into committing to build a new school by 2013. Attawapiskat is a community in need of not just government assistance, but also a plan to end its decade’s long slide into despair.

There is no doubt that the current disaster in Attawapiskat is a result of negligence on the part of the federal government. As of writing this there are approximately 122 families living in condemned housing and 96 people are living in a large portable trailer. Many of the “homes” are without clean water, basic sanitation, or sources of reliable heat. As is the case in many struggling communities in Canada, housing investment has not kept up with population growth and many children are now sleeping on floors in Attawapiskat’s condemned homes, or on the ground in tents. To make matters worse, winter came early in Attawapiskat where temperatures have already dipped to -30 degrees Celsius and there is two feet of snow on the ground. When the Red Cross arrived in the community, they quickly determined it met the definition of a “disaster area” by their standards.

This week the humanitarian crisis in Attawapiskat has become a big national and international media story, forcing Stephen Harper’s Conservatives to act. Unfortunately, the first thing that Stephen Harper did was not offer assistance, but tried to blame others for the problem.

Rather than saying help is on the way, Mr. Harper tried to blame the leadership in the community, claiming that there shouldn’t be a crisis because it had received $92 million in federal money since 2006.

So why is there a housing crisis?  In short, families and children are still homeless in Attawapiskat because Stephen Harper simply wrote the community a cheque and tried to walk away from the problem. No one from the federal government bothered to see if the money was enough to build the homes and schools, or meet the water and sanitation requirements of the community. While dishing out the blame and placing the community under ‘Third Party Management,’ Mr. Harper has still offered no concrete assistance in response to this made-in-Canada disaster.

I’m left asking myself why are people in Canada living in Third World conditions? I’m proud of my New Democrat team of MPs for consistently raising this issue over the years and putting a giant spotlight on the situation. Even NDP Leader Nycole Turmel visited the people of Attawapiskat and is working towards solutions. That’s what political leaders do in a state of emergency, that’s Canadian leadership. Stephen Harper would rather stay in Ottawa and blame Attawapiskat families for the crisis.

Who would have imagined that in the best country in the world, Canadian citizens would have to rely on the Red Cross because their own government refuses to act?

Rupinder Kaur is the press secretary for New Democratic Party of Canada.

Dhaka- the capital city of Bangladesh has become a centre point of a fresh political controversy. The issue turned violent when main opposition party – Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) observed a dawn-to-dusk hartal (strike) in the capital. BNP has already threatened continuous agitation against the government’s decision regarding the Dhaka City Corporation.

Defying widespread criticism and protest, the government has divided Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) into two parts as North and South Dhaka. The elected people’s representatives in the city corporation were forced to quit as government has appointed two administrators to run the activities of two Corporations. Interestingly, the government did not discuss or seek opinion from any quarters regarding the split of the DCC. Major political parties, civil society, and even the media strongly opposed the idea of splitting Dhaka, but the government didn’t pay attention to any of the opposition or criticism. Rather they hastily passed the bill in Parliament. The ruling Awami League lawmakers alone were present as Parliament endorsed the bill in voice votes passing the Local Government (City Corporation) (Amendment) Bill 2011, which also includes provision for holding polls within 90 days of the bifurcation.With the changes to the law, the incumbent DCC Mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka and all DCC councilors were forced to leave their corporation job.

Under the 2009 act, representatives were able to stay in office until new elected representatives were sworn in. “The population of Dhaka city has increased to more than one crore. In this situation, it is very difficult to provide services for the huge population by one City Corporation. The city inhabitants are not getting the desired services and civic amenities,” read the bill justifying the split.

Though the government said that they have decided to split the DCC to ensure quality service to the city dwellers, people believe that the government has taken this decision just because of the fear that they will not be able to pass the city corporation election. Elected in 2002, the mayor and all the councilors of the DCC are still in office, even though their tenure expired in May 2007. Polls to the DCC could not be held for many reasons, one being the state of emergency in 2007-2008. Assuming office in January 2009, the Awami League-led government also opted not to allow the Election Commission to hold the polls and finally came up with the move to split the DCC.
The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) started its journey as the Dacca Municipality on August 1, 1864 with first elected chairman Ananda Chandra Roy. Prior to that, a Committee for the improvement of Dacca was formed in 1823. The Act of 1884 added the provision of elected representatives called commissioners. In 1978, it gained status as Dhaka Municipality Corporation and 1990 it became Dhaka City Corporation, which is divided into 90 wards. In 1982, two adjoining municipalities — Mirpur and Gulshan — were merged with Dhaka Municipality. In 1983, it was renamed as Dhaka Municipal Corporation. Finally, in 1990, it was renamed as Dhaka City Corporation. Until 1994, mayors were appointed by the Government. The first elected mayor by popular vote took office in 1994.

Local government experts and governance analysts said the decision to slice Dhaka was unlikely to yield the expected results while the BNP called it a decision of “narrow political convenience” to defeat the opposition’s nominee for the mayoral post in the next mayoral election. Incumbent mayor Khoka (who loses his seat after official publication of the gazette of the bill) of BNP promised that he would not contest the next city elections if the government would let the city not be split. He has also promised that the split will be scraped once BNP returns to power. The move was considered autocratic by the civil society as no public opinion was taken before the bifurcation. There were calls by the civil society to go for referendum before the split was made.

Since only the corporations are being split without a split in the service providing agencies, this may lead to a messy situation with a bureaucratic bottleneck, causing coordination failure amongst the services provided to the citizens. The creation of two corporations will result in an increase in taxes for administrative expenses, without a guarantee of improvement in civic services.

Since the Constitution of Bangladesh defines Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh, legal experts believe that the law may be challenged as a violation of the constitution. To this end, Khoka filed a writ petition at the High Court, challenging the new law after it was passed; the court, in turn, asked the government to show cause as to why the split wasn’t illegal or unconstitutional.

But the government is not willing to pay attention to protests and criticism; rather they are trying to justify their decision by criticizing the opponents of the Dhaka split decision. Political analysts believe that the government has created a golden opportunity for the opposition parties to intensify their anti-government movement.

By Shaugat A. Sagor

shaugat@gmail.com

“We talked about democracy but we didn’t practice it in our own party.”

“We didn’t respond, we basically took the high road and he (PM Harper]  was very successful in ensuring that the people who did not like Conservatives would not vote Liberal and so in a sense, Mr. Harper delivered the official opposition to the NDP.”

The Liberal Party of Canada is attempting to rebuild itself after historic defeat in May 2011’s federal elections. This rebuilding process has attracted many quieter Liberal voices to be at forefront. One of those voices is Sheila Copps.

In public domain for over 35 years, Ms. Copps had served as a Deputy Prime Minister and at senior Cabinet positions. She has put her name forth as the candidate for President of Liberal Party of Canada.

In her opinion, there were several reasons for Liberals’ great loss in May 2011’s elections. The foremost among them is lack of open nomination and appointment system that favoured a few and isolated many Liberal supporters and volunteers.

“If we cut down on open nominations and replacement appointments,” we can enhance the number of volunteers and build strong support base,” stated Ms. Copps in an interview with Generation Next.

As a candidate running for the Presidency of Liberal Party of Canada, Ms. Copps objective is to open up the party to democratic process, expanding the vote to internet users, to find volunteers in ridings from where Liberal Party has been wiped out.

“Right now if you go on the Liberal website, you cannot get a membership off the website, on a PDF from which is crazy. So we need to modernize and stop running a 20^th century party and run a 21^st century,” she laments.

At the same time, she blames Prime Minister Stephen Harper for spending $10 million on trashing then Liberal leader Micheal Ignatieff. She also appears to be furious that the Liberal party did not respond in the same manner.

“We didn’t respond, we basically took the high road and he (PM Harper]  was very successful in ensuring that the people who did not like Conservatives would not vote Liberal and so in a sense, Mr. Harper delivered the official opposition to the NDP,” she stated.

But don’t all political parties do the same. One can argue that unions did this for Ontario Liberals just before the October 6^th election?

“The PC leader had trashed Dalton McGuinty and the Working Families which is a coalition of teachers, nurses, and construction workers did some ads. Historically, no political party has ever advertised between elections. So, [for Conservatives] to carry on a multi-million dollar negative campaign between elections, is unheard of,” retorts former Hamilton MP.

No one understands the consequences of attack ads more than Liberals do. Ms. Copps says

“When I campaigned..I heard people in quite a few ridings..repeating verbatim what was in the ad about Michael Ignatieff. For example, he studied in other parts of the world, well that should actually be an asset; it shows that he’s got a world vision. Instead that turned into a negative because he studied at Cambridge and Harvard, it’s pretty bizarre,” she recalls.

Another reason many people believe Liberals lost so badly was that they had taken their voter base for granted. The impression resonated strongly in immigrants communities especially in the South Asian community of the GTA. While Ms. Copps agree that it was indeed the case, she also suggests Mr. Harper’s clever ploys behind the Liberal loss.

“We talked about democracy but we didn’t practice it in our own party,” she stated regretfully.

And she is confident that Liberals are ready to rebuild their volunteer base up from 19 per cent earlier this year.

Among many other things, the candidate for Liberal Party Presidency believes that Liberals need to revisit the message of inclusion, economic opportunities in Canada and discrimination against immigrants in wages and so on.

Have Conservatives done so?

“I don’t think they’ve addressed it all..I mean they had a strategy of economic growth that involved putting in the infrastructure but not brain power. It’s kind of the way they tackled crime, saying they’re going to get tough on crime but in the meantime they’re going to spend millions of dollars on jails, imprisoning people that really shouldn’t be in jail..they’ve [Conservatives] very successful in driving those issues into the trajectory,” she responded.

Ms. Copps cries foul over Tories strategies whereby the Parliamentary Secretary and the Prime Minister wrote a letter to some school boards suggesting that Justin Trudeau should not be allowed into the Catholic school system because he’s not a good Catholic. And so the idea that they’re already trying to trash people that are future leaders, is in the window, even though we’re supposed to have a country that respects the separation of church and state.

As a Liberal, Ms. Copps is firmly against Liberal-NDP coalition, disregarding the idea as one of Mr. Harper’s manoeuvres to wipe off the Liberal Party of Canada.

“The Liberal party is quite different party from the NDP and I think that Mr. Harper wants the Liberals to join the NDP. Why? Because Mr. Harper knows that in a fight between the left and the right in Canada, the right will always win because Canadians generally are Conservative people so they’re not going with the left wing alternative, but they do go with the alternative that provides discourse on responsibility. We’re the ones that got the country’s finances in order, fiscal responsibility and socially progressive ideas,” she says.

As a former Minister of Canadian Heritage, Ms. Copps touts her record for introducing diversity in various board appointments.

“When I was Minister responsible for Canadian heritage, 50% of my appointments were women and minorities. So it’s one thing to talk about, it’s another thing to do something about it. I brought in the International Instrument on Cultural Diversity which protects cultural diversity within their own realm, and I also made a specific effort to reach out in governing council appointments and ensure we reflected the totality of Canada. I issued a directive to the CBC in 1999 telling them that if they wanted to get their television license renewed, they would have to get minority reporters and people working in the broadcast field..it’s not an accident that you have many more diverse faces than in other countries because if the company wants to get a license, they have to table an action plan explaining how they are reflecting the diversity of Canada in their employment stream, and I issued that directive,” she notes.

While Ms. Copps says that Liberal Party will be opening up, many former Liberal supporters and campaigners are desperately seeking any distant friends affiliated with Conservatives to join the Tory force. Unless those at the helm of Liberal Party’s affairs do some major renovation work within the Liberal Party, it’s not hard to conclude that for the next few election terms, it may remain distant third, irrelevant to lives of people.

Also, in the months after the May elections, while Conservatives remain up for a battle, like former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae has hardly ever tried to touch base with multicultural media.