{"id":11993,"date":"2015-09-23T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11993"},"modified":"2015-09-30T16:32:45","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T20:32:45","slug":"candidates-dig-deeper-on-canadian-security-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/candidates-dig-deeper-on-canadian-security-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates dig deeper on Canadian security issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Candidates vying for your vote in Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill did more to scratch the surface on Canada\u2019s security issues, taking the stage at the Aurora Cultural Centre in the first of two Vote Smart debates, hosted by Aurora university student Kelsea Walsh. <\/p>\n

In Ms. Walsh\u2019s debate, which followed a slightly different format than your typical all-candidates debates, each person on the ballot was given a hypothetical situation and was tasked with addressing how they would address each situation as a Member of Parliament and if their party formed government. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne night in the riding, people start hearing gunshots,\u201d posed Ms. Walsh to Liberal candidate Leona Alleslev and NDP candidate Brenda Power (Conservative MP Costas Menegakis declined the invitation to participate). \u201cOnce investigated by police, it becomes clear that a wide-scale terrorist attack has begun in the riding. Fortunately, few people are harmed, but the incident incites fear into constituents and leads to demand for policy reform to address the situation. Would you propose any changes on the national scale in light of the terrorist attack? If so, what would they be?\u201d
\nIn response, both candidates suggested measures are currently in place that would make such a hypothetical situation unlikely, but proposed different paths to tackling the matter. <\/p>\n

To prevent that scenario from playing out, Ms. Power said Canada\u2019s top priority should be to \u201cstop making enemies\u201d and bring soldiers home. It is important, she said, to \u201cshut out\u201d defence lobbyists and stop selling arms around the world. An NDP government will \u201caim to get respect\u201d for the Canadian government on the world stage, and ensure a place at the table in working with the UN to find peaceful resolutions to various international crises. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we build our reputation and start getting the respect that we used to have, we could perhaps retain a seat on the security Council where we would have a voice,\u201d said Ms. Power. \u201cI believe the security threats to this country are threats that come from within. By that, I am talking about terrorism, poverty, homelessness, [and] joblessness. I am talking about high student debt load, and I am talking about students who can\u2019t find jobs and don\u2019t have a future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the things that are threatening the security of our country. If we build a strong country with a strong economy, if we work on climate change, if we build a better country, these are ways we protect our country and take away the insecurity we are now experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Power also said an NDP government would throw out the controversial Bill C51 in its entirety.<\/p>\n

From the perspective of Ms. Alleslev, this election has been \u201cframed as a conversation about fear, or about hope,\u201d addressing criticisms levelled at the Liberal party for supporting the bill.<\/p>\n

With the world changing, it is important to ensure Canada \u201cStays ahead of the advancements that would jeopardize our peace and security,\u201d she said. The bill itself had its good elements, she said, including information sharing with organizations within Canada and around the globe, but sweeping powers such as preventative arrests, \u201cwhat we would call spying\u201d, need to be immediately amended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some of the best public safety organizations, I would argue, in the world,\u201d said Ms. Alleslev. \u201cWe are really very safe here. It doesn\u2019t mean a terrorist attack won\u2019t happen, but we do not need to be fearful. Terrorists attacks are often from people who are disadvantaged, who haven\u2019t got jobs, who have lost hope, and who have become radicalized because they feel that is their only option and in many cases there are also mental health issues. The Liberal Party is going to work to create infrastructure and jobs that would hopefully give our youth a much more optimistic outlook and we are also going to make significant investments in mental health, so that I think would address hopefully a terrorist attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Candidates vying for your vote in Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill did more to scratch the surface on Canada\u2019s security issues, taking the stage at the Aurora Cultural Centre in the first of two Vote Smart debates, hosted by Aurora university student Kelsea Walsh. In Ms. Walsh\u2019s debate, which followed a slightly different format […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vote2015"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-24-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-37r","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 11:43:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}