Letter 12 of College of Politician Series
Attached below is a letter addressed to Dr. Tam, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada. In the letter I am advocating for regulation of politicians to protect the public. A big part of the argument is to prevent white supremacy. Their response was that it’s not within their scope.
Thank you :)
Chief Public Health Officer of Canada.
Dr. Theresa Tam.
Email: cphocorrespondence@phac-aspc.gc.ca
Date: Monday, March 13, 2023.
Dear Dr. Tam.
RE: The Regulation of Political Practice.
Introduction
Poor political practice perpetuates structural violence. Lee discusses the fatal consequences of structural violence and refers to it as: “… an ongoing, unending but rather accelerating thermonuclear war or genocide perpetrated on the weak, the poor, and the underprivileged every year of every decade, throughout the world” (Lee, 2019, p. 126). In terms of political practice, residential schools, as a result of the Indian Act of Canada, led to a “shockingly high death toll [1/52]” (Hanson et al., 2020, para. 9; Goulais, 2022) of Indigenous students, and resulted in severe harm being manifested against these children, violating their minds, their bodies, and their souls. I argue, given the historical precedence of how political practice was a threat to the health and safety of Indigenous peoples, that politicians ought to model exemplars of professions whose mandates include protecting the public. What follows is the legal application of such a plan and the current quality control issues affecting political practice, including: 1) the lack of a college of politicians, 2) reconciliation, 3) French language at the federal level, 4) nursing shortages & professional misconduct, 5) political neglect of long-term care residents, 6) the Emergencies Act, 7) the threat of racist ideologies to the Public Health Association of Canada (PHAC), 8) racism and civic advancement, and 9) racism and Black Lives Matter (BLM). Neglect of these quality control issues may lead to further genocide and poses an existential threat to public health and the work of the PHAC. In order to address these destructive issues perpetrated by political practice, I believe a college of politicians is needed to address and prevent the practice related harm of politicians.
Legal Application
All work of politicians ought to follow the supreme law of the land: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Government of Canada, 2022). The Charter is the mission statement of Canada, it sets what is to follow. As such, the idea of regulating politicians must be vetted by the Charter. The Charter (and consequently the Canada Election Act) codifies the right to vote and to be elected into public office; similarly, the Charter also provides a caveat that they are subject to reasonable limits. For example, according to the Canada Election Act, a person may not run for elected office if they are underage (Government of Canada, 2023a; section 3). They must be an adult citizen and meet other requirements in order to be elected into public office. Rights of the public ought to be expanded to include measurement and analysis of harmful political practice, and recommendations intended to protect the public; i.e. if a cost-benefit analysis demonstrates a practice is a danger to the public, recommendations ought to include barring the practice from continuing. The practice of barring children from practicing protects the public because children's immaturity could endanger the public. Likewise, other practices that demonstrably protect the public would also be legitimate, such as barring a politician that ignores safe conduct (It would be undemocratic otherwise to have a person lead with impunity). Lastly, I believe regulating the practice of politicians would be consistent with the value of the PHAC to respect democracy, by focusing on the practice rather than the person (Government of Canada, 2014).
Current Quality Control Issues
1) Lack of College of Politicians
In Canada, there is no organization or body to speak on behalf of political practice. Other professional models of excellence, such as the College of Nurses of Ontario, are self-regulating and have a mandate to protect the public. Moreover, the Chief et al. (2021, p. 85) has advocated for “modernizing our models of governance and collaboration structures” and “making governments more accountable for public health objectives and outcomes”. Having a college to track political practice via motive, policy, and outcome, and to hold politicians to account for their consequences, would be equivalent to modernizing political models and making politicians more accountable. Moreover, as a member of the public, I can write to a college about a problem and reasonably believe they will reply back. In contrast, I have written 12 letters about political practice to politicians (mostly) and I have received zero responses; who is to speak on behalf of politicians and political practice? A college could help fulfill that role.
2) Reconciliation
Fidelity of politicians is a promise of reconciliation and will face inspection by the public. The reconciliation action plan of the City of Toronto advocates for more political accountability, transparency, and public reporting; and the 56th call to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada calls for regular monitoring and evaluation of the reconciliation process (Toronto, 2022-2032; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015a). A political documentation system would be a first step towards Canadian politicians demonstrating how their practice is affecting Indigenous peoples’ health & safety and the reconciliation process. Such a documentation system could be amalgamated into a nationwide healthcare operating system that also responds to health threats, such as those posed by infectious diseases. In the “Vision to Transform Canada’s Public Health System” by The Chief et. al. (2021) amalgamation of data is central to addressing fragmentation of healthcare systems. This documentation process ought to fulfil accountability, transparency, and public reporting requirements of the reconciliation action plan and the 56th call to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
3) French Language at the Federal Level
The contemporary healthcare operating system neglects the French language in English speaking spaces at the federal level. I can attest laboratory reports of federal prisons in Ontario are unlikely to have equal status in French and in English (consistent with section 16 (1) of the Charter). I believe federal prisons outsource laboratory testing to local facilities that work in English, and I believe those facilities do not subsidize translation into French. Laboratory reports are documents that can be simply translated into both languages because the work can be performed once and then the rest is computer automated, meaning the financial burden is minimal. Consequently the status of these languages in these federal settings is not equal. Language and translation services ought to be subsidized to meet the Charter’s standard to have equality of status in their use in all institutions of the Government of Canada, ought to be expanded to build the capacity of English/French second language workers to meet a high level of language fluency, and ought to be incorporated into a nationwide healthcare operating system that tracks political documentation/accountability (as previously mentioned under the section of Reconciliation).
4) Nursing Shortages & Professional Misconduct
The contemporary nursing shortage could have been prevented with professional practice guidelines for politicians. For example, nursing shortages have been predicted for a number of years (Grinspun, 2006; ONA, 2016; RNAO, 2021). Consequently, emergency room and bed closures have become endemic (Dyer, 2022; The Canadian Press, 2022). The situation is so dire, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA; 2022) has reported the healthcare system is collapsing and this writer argues it is worth declaring a code brown over the dire situation (a code brown is a logistical emergency; Kennedy, 2023). I argue these shortages may have been prevented if a college was present to investigate professional misconduct. By having a college investigate political practice, politicians are holding to account those that neglect problems that may develop in the future (similar to how healthcare workers are held to account if they don’t act to prevent predictable harm).
5) Political Neglect of Long Term Care Residents
There’s evidence from the pandemic that political practice threatened the health and safety of the public. Marrocco, Coke, & Kitts (2021) report how 61% of COVID-19 deaths in Ontario in 2020 were long-term care residents, and that long-term care facilities were “neglected for decades by successive governments” (p. 2; such issues that successive governments failed to address was replacement of expired personal protective equipment, outdated infrastructure, and insufficient staffing, training, and leadership). The residents' bill of rights at the time codified that residents have the right to not be neglected, but that right extended to protection from licensees and from staff; to the current day, politicians may continue to neglect the sector and exacerbate the circumstances of neglect that residents may experience in long term care homes (Ontario, 2010; the current bill of rights has a similar wording). Therefore, the practices of successive governments – whether codified or not – led to deaths, and the laws to prevent neglect in those facilities couldn’t protect residents from the neglect of politicians. Had the unsafe political practice of neglect been investigated, such as through a college of politicians, those residents may have continued to live.
6) The Emergencies Act
The Canadian legislature has already demonstrated that there is a need for regular auditing of political practice. The Emergencies Act stipulates that its use must have an inquiry afterwards (Government of Canada, 2023b; section 63 (1) of the act). This auditing has had particular significance with relation to the 2022 Ottawa Siege, and other national grief at the time, that disrupted the homeostasis of society. Arguably, this auditing work must occur on a regular basis with non-emergency related yet equally important work. One hopes that this consistent demonstration of accountability may promote public trust of political motives that consequently prevents the use of the Emergencies Act. As a result of this new process/work arrangement with the public, a college of politicians ought to make society more stress resilient in the homeostasis process.
Racism
7) The Threat of Racist Ideologies to the Public Health Association of Canada
Neglecting a political mandate to protect the public also permits racist ideologies to flourish. Racist ideologies threaten the health and safety of the public and are incompatible with the values of the PHAC that advocate for "respect for people'' (Government of Canada, 2014). In addition, the eradication of racism is encapsulated in the mandate of the PHAC to promote health. Thus, people or parties who would attempt to codify racist ideologies into public health or national policies are a threat to the values and mandate of the PHAC. In the USA, these practices have manifested in legislation such as the Dickey Amendment, an amendment that prohibited public health institutions (like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the CDC) from making recommendations on gun control, and consequently protecting black communities (BLM, 2022; Rostron, 2018). Those same practices can invade Canada. The PHAC ought to act to secure the future of its values and mandate, one option being advocating for greater investigation of white supremecist practices, such as via a college of politicians.
8) Racism and Civic Advancement
Racist ideologies in political practice has impacted civic advancement. The current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, has said proportional representation "gives more weight to smaller parties that are perhaps fringe parties” (The Canadian Press, 2021) when speaking of possibly transitioning away from a single member plurality system that inaccurately translates votes into seats in the legislature. Reasonably so, Trudeau is concerned about the threat of Nazi and other extremist parties consolidating power in public office. At the same time, our Canadian democracy ought to strive for a system that accurately translates the will (or votes) of the people during elections; a barrier to this civic advancement is the threat posed by candidates who run on platforms to codify racist ideologies into public policy. Consequently, the practice of barring politicians who ignore safe conduct (or who promote unsafe conduct) may facilitate civic advancement.
9) Racism and BLM
The mission of Black Lives Matter (BLM; 2013) is to eradicate white supremacy and to prevent violence against black communities from the state and vigilantes. White supremacist practices exist in contemporary American political practice; For example, the Florida House of Representatives (2023) has published documentation saying that post-secondary institutions may not subsidize programs that “espouse diversity, equity, and inclusion or Critical Race Theory rhetoric”. The document goes on to prohibit inclusion statements, gender studies and intersectionality as well; In Canada, Indigenous land acknowledgements could be affected by the prohibition of inclusion statements (if those political practices were to invade Canada). In the florida legislature, the state is defending white supremacy and prohibiting the dissemination of knowledge critical to understanding racists/racism; and it also has the potential to affect reconciliation. Thus, in order to prevent the state from implementing structural violence against Black communities, there needs to be an institution to assess practices that lead to structural violence, an institution such as a college of politicians. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in structural violence, our interconnectedness, and described it as a "single garment of destiny" (1963); I believe it was the reason he continually advocated for his dream of peaceful brotherhood. Were I to have a dream centered on peaceful brotherhood – or black joy consistent with the mission of BLM – and that dream complemented King's dream, I would be honoured.
Conclusion
In summation, political practice has the greatest effect on the health and safety of the public, more so than any other role. Politicians ought to model best practices to minimize harm and to promote the health and safety of the public. If not, this train of tears will continue onwards (Larry Beardy, as cited in The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015b). Beardy spoke of Indigenous children that were crying after being taken away from their families to residential schools; his words, like Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, carry a weight of history. Just like how death may follow a negligent physician, engineer, or other profession or trade, death does indeed trail politicians. It trails them in their practice; their practice that may manifest as maleficent diagnoses or structurally unsound buildings – or the cultural genocide of entire peoples. It is unreasonable for other professions or trades to practice without oversight; a college of politicians can provide much needed protection to the public from the structural violence of political practice.
References
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BLM. (2022). Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Commemorates George Floyd, Demands Systemic Change to Protect Black Life. Retrieved from https://blacklivesmatter.com/black-lives-matter-global-network-foundation-commemorates-george-floyd-demands-systemic-change-to-protect-black-life/
CMA. (2022). Statement: Governments must collaborate now to fix Canada’s collapsing health care system: CMA. Retrieved from https://www.cma.ca/news-releases-and-statements/statement-governments-must-collaborate-now-fix-canadas-collapsing
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