How our Democracy is Failing us
In school, they taught us that democracy was the power of and to the people.
We don't know when we realized what they taught us in school, and what we actually have in Canada, are not the same.
We can tell you that it did and does break our heart.
What they forgot to teach us in school is that, yes, democracy represents "power of and to the people," but that it was only great for those our democracy actually considered people.
Because when we look back at our history, it is uncomfortably clear who was not considered a person.
If your land could be sieged by a foreign government with no consequences (➜ Indigenous Peoples)
if your children were ripped from you and put in state-sanctioned schools designed to kill the Indian in them (➜ Indigenous Peoples)
if you were enslaved (➜ Black and Indigenous Peoples)
if you couldn't vote, if you couldn't get a job, or open a bank account,(➜ Anyone who wasn’t a land owning white man)
Today, those our democracy does not consider people is a lot more covert, but here are a few examples:
If your basic needs aren't met (you can't reliably access shelter, food, and water), (➜ low-income folks)
If you have to minimize your true self to feel safer in certain spaces, (➜ QTBIPOC, disabled folks, women)
If spaces aren't accessible or safe for you, (➜ QTBIPOC, disabled folks, women)
If you can work or study in Canada but do not have rights, nor can you vote, (➜ Migrants)
If you are living paycheque to paycheque, or do not make a livable income, or are paying out of pocket for critical health services (drugs, therapy, etc.), (➜ Low-income folks, Millennials and Gen Z, migrants, disabled folks)
If our government's processes and structures are inaccessible to you, (➜ Migrants)
Unsurprisingly, a system rooted in white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, capitalism, etc., will always - covertly or overtly - have individuals considered people and individuals who are not.
And since our classrooms praise the very institution that fails so many of us, we're not given access to the language needed to be critical of our inequitable democratic process.
Consider how we are so quick to give feedback on how an individual should try harder ("well if only they got a job", "didn't have an addiction", etc,) instead of being critical of a democratic system that leaves people alone to navigate the very inequities it creates.
This system pits us against each other, promoting individualism over what is ancestral and intrinsic to many of us from the global majority - collectivism.
So we know that Canada, despite what we learnt in school, was never designed to work for all of us.
It was designed to work for some of us - which is fundamentally unjust and inhumane.
And for those of you who the system generally works for, remember that the scariest part of a system that works only for some is that it has already created ways to exclude and neglect.
So even though you are relatively okay now, this is your problem, because once a country sets a precedent of being okay with excluding and neglecting some people, it's a slippery slope.
For example, despite Canada being built to benefit white men, today, many white Canadians across Canada are experiencing high rates of income inequality.
That is because lower-income white people are falling through the gaps created to neglect and exclude Black, Indigenous and other marginalized communities.
Unfortunately, many of these white people are convinced to blame QTBIPOC, or women - rather than the systems and people in power that continue to exploit the vast majority of us.
CONSIDER
President Lyndon B. Johnson (a Democrat) once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best-coloured man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Consider how many everyday Canadians fell for far-right beliefs during the pandemic, such as suddenly becoming anti-vax or supporting the Ottawa Occupation (which we now know to be a far-right, white supremacy-led group, with significant foreign interference hyping it up).
So many of us are feeling that our democracy isn't working, but because we've been taught that in theory democracy is incredible and equitable, it feels all sorts of awkward to say our democracy is failing us. But it has and is failing us.
Whatever democracy is in theory, in practice it feels a lot like it has become the will of the ultra-rich, corporations and corrupt politicians.
This is infuriating because, despite your political stripes, we're willing to bet that most Canadians want the same thing, for both themselves and everyone in this country.
We want people to feel safe, we want people to have their basic needs met, we want a robust public education and healthcare system, we want to protect our planet from the climate emergency, we want for the ultra-rich to be taxed equitably so that we can strengthen our public systems, we want meaningful lives that are balanced between work, community service, rest, and play.
And instead of coming together with each other for each other, many of us are falling into the traps of polarization and populism, which makes the rest of us pessimistic and apathetic.
And to be clear, we need people to participate in our politics, but don't let people guilt you into feeling like shit for not being able to keep up with what is going on around us. Our politicians send the equivalent of a "you up" text once every four years to vote and otherwise ghost us. Our civics education did the least. Legacy/Corporate media fails to paint a comprehensive picture because they center white comfort over the truth.
A big reason why we don't have a culture of engaged citizens is because so many of us are just trying to make this capitalistic hellscape work for us - which makes keeping up with three levels of government and understanding these complex and inaccessible systems a luxury for people with the privilege of free time.
Look, our democracy and country are deeply flawed, which is why Canada isn't the greatest country in the world - but it could be.
It is critical that we hold our politicians and political parties accountable, or inequities will worsen as today's modern-day monarchs (the ultra-rich) continue to get richer.
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