QUEEN’S INTERNATIONAL

OBSERVER

News in Brief: Political Headlines This SummerEgypt: An American Foreign Policy Challenge

The Euro Crisis: A Summer UpdateQuebec Student Protests:

Solidarity Continues Into a Fall Election

Summer in Review

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The Queen’s International Observer (QIO) is a quarterly, student-run magazine published by the Queen’s International Affairs Association. QIO aims to explore and promote discussion of inter-national affairs in the Queen’s and Kingston communities by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas between students, academics and professionals alike.

INSIDE THE ISSUE

Stephanie Rudyk Editor-in-ChiefNatasha Mukhtar Brenna Owen Assistant EditorsIdrees AliDaniel BodirskyDeborah Chu Staff WritersSara O’Sullivan Social Media DirectorWilliam Leung Layout EditorEllen Fu Logistics Coordinator

On June 14, the omnibus federal budget implementation bill, C-38, passed in the House of Commons after a marathon 22 hour voting session. Opposition par-ties, interest groups and public organizations slammed the bill as undemocratic due to its 400 page length and changes to nearly 70 federal statutes, with limited opportunity for interdepartmental oversight or informed public debate. Mount Royal Liberal MP, Irwin Cotler, referred to C-38 as a ‘hydra-headed Trojan horse omnibus budget implementation bill’. Officially called the Jobs, Growth and Long Term Prosperity Act , the Conservatives packaged the disparate contents of the bill as necessary to keep the Canadian economy moving forward in this time of global economic malaise.

This bill makes sweeping changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, which ensures environmental regulation oversight and accountability in the Canadian public and private sectors. It limits the scope of the National Energy Board to rule against oil pipeline projects or ensure protection of ecosystems when projects are implemented. It also eliminates funding to the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy which played a policy advisory role to the federal government in the area of sustainability. These, among other amend-ments, were the catalyst for Black Out Speak Out. This grassroots campaign organized petitions, demonstrations and a website blackout campaign to protest the silencing of environmental organizations and limited opportunity for federal debate on the subject.

The fall session of parliament, which begins September 17, will open debate on the second federal budget implementation bill.

On June 27, the Canadian Senate passed a set of con-troversial amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Act. Proposed as Bill C-31, the changes confer greater decision-making powers to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, a position currently held by Jason Kenney. Kenney now has the ability to single-handedly decide which countries are ‘safe’ to inhabit and thus, whose citizens are not eligible to be granted refugee immigration to Canada. If a refugee comes from a country on the ‘safe list’, he or she may be held in detention centers or deported before a final decision is made. The decision poses legal and inter-pretative questions as to what constitutes ‘safe’ at all.

Kenney proposed the bill as a means to safeguard against abuse of the Canadian immigration system wherein cases of unqualified refugees, such as those

QUEEN’S INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER

Changes to Canada’s Refugee Actby Natasha Mukhtar

coming from democracies, can occur. However, the bill has incited criticism for undercutting international agreements on refugee situations and restricting rights to immigrants who face greater difficulty in attaining refugee status. Controversy surrounding the bill deep-ened when the government announced cuts to the In-terim Federal Health program, which provides health care to refugees and those seeking asylum. Access to basic health care services will be severely limited to refugees and completely denied to those hailing from ’safe’ countries.

In response to these actions, human rights organiza-tions such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the domestic Confederation of Medical Stu-dents are campaigning against the potential denigration of refugee rights caused by Bill C-31.

NEWS IN BRIEFCanada’s Omnibus Federal Budgetby Stephanie Rudyk

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QUEEN’S FOREIGN POLICY CONFERENCE PRESENTS

OCTOBER 19th & 20th

Last February, thousands of university students in Quebec took to the streets in protest over a provincial government proposal that would raise tuition fees by roughly 80% over five years – a $1,625 increase from a provincial average of $2,519.

Tuition in Quebec is historically one of the lowest in North America, a trend that is largely due to the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. The period gave rise to sepa-ratist sentiments amidst what many French Canadians perceived to be federal encroachment into Quebecois

QUEBEC STUDENT PROTESTSSolidarity against the government and Bill 78 continues into a fall election

by Deborah Chu

QUEEN’S INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER4

society. Quebec turned to education as a means to pre-serve Francophone cultural heritage, and to maintain political clout in a predominantly Anglophone country. Subsidized tuition was implemented as part of sweep-ing reforms to the province’s education system, with the goal of making higher education accessible to all Fran-cophones.

Many consider the current protests to be a successor of the Revolution’s ideals and rhetoric. Protestors poised to inherit the challenges of economic recession and a host of social and political hurdles insist that education is more crucial than ever. For many, paying double the current tuition compounded by skyrocketing costs of living will be impossible.

The protests and their motives have proven to be con-tentious across Canada. For every commentator who hails the demonstrators as proponents of a ‘maple spring’, another disparages them as ‘enfants-rois’, or spoiled children. Factionalism exists even within the student community, with only one third of students of-ficially striking.

A tipping-point in the controversy surrounding the pro-tests was Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s introduction of Bill 78 in early May, which imposes severe restrictions on public demonstrations. Canadians across the coun-try maligned the bill for its repression of constitutional

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On June 20-22, 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustain-able Development, known as Rio+20, took place in Rio de Ja-neiro, Brazil. Thousands of world leaders, members of the private sector and representatives of en-vironmental advocacy groups converged at the conference, an international forum for idea shar-ing and negotiation.

The focus of Rio+20 was to ex-plore and establish the param-eters of an institutional frame-work that will foster sustainable development, particularly a green

Look for QIO's �rst full length issue at the Queen's Foreign Policy Conference October 19th and 20th

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criticized U.N. member nations for failing to transform the exist-ing U.N. environmental program into a full-fledged agency.

Canada’s role at Rio+20 has also come under fire. Environment minister Peter Kent made almost no new commitments to environ-mental sustainability on behalf of the country, and actually refused to support a commitment to phase out Canada’s subsidy of fossil fu-els in its oil and gas industry.

economy and poverty eradication. Spe-cific issue areas addressed included food security and sustainable agriculture, di-saster readiness, science and technology and sustainable cities.

High-level negotiations produced a con-troversial document entitled The Future We Want. Environmental and social jus-tice advocacy groups such as Oxfam and the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, as well as world leaders, including Brit-ain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and French President Francois Hollande, criticized the document as weak, having been stripped of many clear, concrete and time-sensitive goals. Hollande further

News in Brief: Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Developmentby Brenna Owen

rights including freedom of speech and assembly, and many expressed their displeasure by banging pots and pans in a series of “casserole nights.” Ultimately, the highly controversial bill has been ineffective in curbing protests. On May 22, hundreds of thousands marched through Montreal in one of the largest demonstrations in Canadian history. Nine days later, talks between the Quebec government and student leaders ceased with-out reaching a stable consensus.

A provincial election has been called for September 4. Recent polls indicate that Charest’s Liberals trail the separatist Parti Quebecois led by Pauline Marois. Ma-

rois has openly condemned Bill 78 and expressed her solidarity with the student movement. Former presi-dent of Quebec’s College Student Federation (FECQ), Léo Bureau-Blouinhas also declared his PQ candidacy for the Laval-des-Rapides riding, strengthening the ties between the separatist party and the student protests. Demonstrations abated when classes ended for the summer, but as students return in the fall, they must assess whether continuing to protest will risk swing-ing the voters’ sympathies towards Charest. The strikes have both galvanized and shaken the province, and only time will tell what kind of Quebec will emerge.

Egypt is not the first Arab nation to place the United States in an uncomfortable position because of its internal politics. After the recent Arab Spring and over-throw of the U.S. supported dic-tator, Hosni Mubarak, the United States must choose between sup-porting the democratically elect-ed Islamic government lead by the Muslim Brotherhood, or mili-tary rule in Egypt.

The U.S. has a vital stake in Egypt, the most populous country in the Middle East and one of its closest allies in the region. It has a strategic geographical location, given its peaceful relations with neighboring Israel, and control of the Suez Canal, through which 8% of all seaborne trade passes.

In early 2011, Egypt underwent a revolution, leaving a vacuum in its political sphere. On Janu-ary 25, Egyptians poured onto streets throughout the coun-try to call for the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. After over two weeks of protests, which cul-minated with demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo, President Mubarak stepped down.

The political party that most suc-

EGYPT

cessfully fills the void left by Mubarak is the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in the early 1920’s with the goal of spread-ing particular Islamic values, the Muslim Brotherhood is today one of the most influential Islamic parties in the Middle East. Even before assuming power, the Mus-lim Brotherhood came into conflict with another key player in Egyptian politics: the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), which represents senior mem-

of creating an Islamic state, and anti-Israel stance could trigger greater instability in this tumultu-ous region.

While the situation in Egypt pos-es a foreign policy dilemma, it is imperative that the U.S. accepts the democratic mandate of the Egyptian people. The Muslim Brotherhood won over half of the seats in parliament in the January 2012 elections, and Egyptians again demonstrated their support for the party in June by electing its candidate Mohammed Morsi as President.

The choice between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian military is a watershed moment for American foreign policy in the region. The United States has faced persistent criticism for its support of authoritarian leaders in the Middle East. During her recent visit, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton tried to re-move this perception, stating that the U.S. was ready to work with the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a step in the right direction to cre-ate a new era in Arab-American relations, based on support for the democratic aspirations of the people.

bers of Egypt’s armed forces. It is wide-ly believed that the SCAF was behind the Supreme Constitutional Court’s decision to dissolve Egyptian parliament on tech-nical grounds.

Egypt and its armed forces have tradi-tionally supported U.S. interests in the region and the U.S. is the largest suppli-er of weapons to the Egyptian military. Critics of the Brotherhood believe that its Islamic ideology, based on the goal

AN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY CHALLENGE

QUEEN’S INTERNATIONAL OBSERVER

by Idrees Ali

6

Between elections and anti-aus-terity movements, the summer of 2012 has proved tense for the European Union’s ongoing debt crisis.

In Greece, back-to-back elec-tions have left the country’s state of politics increasingly muddled. The initial round of elections on May 6 failed to generate either a majority government or a coali-tion, forcing a second round of elections on June 17. To the relief of debtor countries like Germany, the election produced a pro-aus-terity coalition led by the New Democracy Party. The top prior-ity of the new government thus far has been the renegotiation of a €130 billion bailout deal. Far-right party Golden Dawn rode a wave of popular discontent to secure eighteen seats in Greek parliament, and will likely con-tinue to thrive amidst Greece’s economic distress.

Despite the formation of a pro-austerity government, it looks increasingly likely that Greece will exit the Eurozone. In July, Citibank of the U.S. reported a 90% chance of Greece leav-ing the Euro in the next 12-18 months. The fallout from a Greek exit would be cataclysmic to the global economy. A diminished Euro would make exports from the Eurozone more competitive in international trade than exports from countries like China and the United States, whose economies are already faltering. A Greek

exit also renders investors less likely to lend to other countries in the Eurozone.

Spain’s economic malaise worsened significantly over the summer, with un-employment estimated to have reached 24%. In the Eurozone’s fifth-largest economy, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets of the country’s major cities to protest deep spending cuts. A €65 billion austerity package was passed by Spanish parliament in July, as the country was forced to pay a record inter-est rate of 6.459% to sell five-year bonds. To compare, France paid less than 1% for similar five-year bonds.

Germany has so far avoided the unrest sweeping across the Eurozone’s Medi-terranean countries. Under conservative chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany has largely been the driving force in keep-ing the Euro afloat. On August 8, rating agency Fitch reaffirmed Germany’s AAA credit rating with a stable outlook. Bond credit ratings assess the credit worthiness of a government’s debt, and receiving the highest possible rating is good news for Berlin. Germany is the only advanced economy with a lower unemployment rate for the first half of 2012 than it had prior to the crisis in 2007. However, fig-ures released by the German economic ministry in August show declines in in-dustrial output and manufacturing or-ders. These declines have fuelled fears of a recession in what has become the European Union’s lifeline.

France’s elections in May saw the vic-tory of Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party over incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy. Campaigning on a platform of canceling tax cuts for the wealthy and lowering the

EURO CRISIS SUMMER UPDATE

by Daniel Bodirsky

SUMMER IN REVIEW 7

retirement age, Hollande cap-tured 51.64% of the French vote. As the Eurozone’s second-largest economy, the implications of this election are enormous. Sarkozy’s loss means the end of “Merkozy”, the pro-austerity marriage of con-venience between France and Germany. Much of Hollande’s platform – higher taxes, increased spending, and a delayed deficit reduction effort - are opposed to Merkel’s own policies.

A democratic backslide among Eastern European countries new to the Eurozone has proved to be another headache for the Euro-pean Union. In Hungary, Prime Minister Victor Orban passed a new constitution allowing the government extended control over the country’s Central Bank and courts. Civil liberty groups in Hungary also charge that the con-stitution does not offer protection of ethnic, sexual, and religious rights. The EU Commission has responded with a legal challenge for failing to comply with its gov-ernance standards.

The comings months offer little reason for optimism. The Euro-pean Commission has predicted that the Eurozone’s economy will shrink by 0.3% in 2012. Con-tinuing backlash against austerity measures, the rise of extremist nationalism, and nervous inves-tors indicate that the EU’s tense summer will give way to an equally uneasy autumn.

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