I chose the topic of the poorly maintained RCMP training facility because I have always been a fan of law enforcement and always kept that in the back of my head as a possible backup if my main goal of being a pilot didn’t work out. Naturally, I tried to find an article that had to do with the government and aviation, but since I couldn’t I ended up going with law enforcement. I don’t have any experience in RCMP, but my views did change on it. I had always thought of the RCMP and police in general in North America as very strict and disciplined people and well run organization, which is why it surprised me that they poorly maintained their training facility to the point that it would cause illness and death. This slightly changed my views on the RCMP to the negative side, however I still do have a great deal of respect for law enforcement in general and I truly believe things could change with some effort and changes in laws.
I believe the Liberals would be the best party to help change this issue because they have done a lot for the RCMP in the past and have promised to do more in the future. “We have committed $21.4 million in our 2018 federal budget to support Mounties and RCMP with PTSD and other heal issues over the next five years. We realize that it is not enough, and we need to do more. Everything we have built and are implementing right now…should continue and we have the record and commitment to do just that.” (Liberal representative, 2019, para. 16).
I believe the impact on society will be pretty negative. As far as I’m concerned, most people have a big deal of respect for the RCMP and police in general. This news will probably anger people that the RCMP is treating these people that choose to put their life on the line for our good everyday, with such disrespect. If I was a law maker I would make a law stating that routine maintenance needs to be done every 3 months for example, and maybe once a year there needs to be an inspection done from a qualified person of the government. There will be heavy fines if these rules aren’t followed and repeated failure to follow the rules could end up in the closing of the facility.
Since democracy has to do with the people, my topic relates to democracy because it is the people that are being hurt by this issue. The people that are working and training in these facilities are the ones being hurt. There could also be a possibility of neighbouring buildings and their residents being harmed by any fumes being produced by this facility.
I believe violent protests are a serious criminal act and don’t help at all. Every time I see a violent protest on TV I always wonder what these people are trying to achieve. If anything, it may just make the people in charge of your issue more upset and will make them not want to change anything. A classic and much less severe example of this is when we were little and would do something bad because of a toy being taken away by our parents. Would our bad act ever make our parents give back the toy, or would there now be more repercussions? People need to understand that violent protests don’t do anything and rarely end up making a difference. All that is happening is mindless destruction of innocent peoples’ property and injury. Regular protests are alright and have a higher chance of being effective, but at the end of the day, politicians will do what they want to do regardless of what you like.
I believe the media shows the more sensitive and heavier topics because they want to show what will get the most amount of views. A lot of the times news stations actually twist stories on purpose just to create allegations and get people thinking, which in turn will make people want to google their stories and read/watch them. Media news coverage can reflect inequality by showing certain topics rather than others. Once again, they will show heavier and more sensitive topics over other equally or more important topics just because they may not be as relevant at this point in time.
I think the social sciences that I learned in this course impacted me in a very positive way. Going into post-secondary I didn’t know too much about the government and politics, but I now understand how important it is to know these things as a student and Canadian citizen. I’m now able to vote and understand which political parties do what, and how the government is structured. An understanding of social sciences is very important. As a Canadian citizen you need to be able to know and understand the government as well as all the parties to ensure you vote for what you feel is right, and also understand why certain things are wrong.
References
- Robillard, S. (2019, December 3). Secretive RCMP training facility suspected in illnesses, deaths. CBC News. Retrieved December 9, 2019 from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canada-training-centre-kemptville-rcmp-asbestos-mould-1.5378334
- Rankin, E. (2019, October 19). Canada’s political parties pledge support for RCMP members with PTSD. CBC News. Retrieved December 9, 2019 from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/political-parties-pledge-support-for-rcmp-members-with-ptsd-1.5327418
