Are young Canadians about to rebel against the government over declining living standards? If you read a recent column for him National mailby Tristin Hopper, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a realistic possibility. In it, he suggested that a “secret RCMP report warns that Canadians may rebel once they realize how broke they are” and that “Canada may descend into civil unrest once citizens realize the hopelessness.” of their economic situation.”
This coincides with recent conservative comments, which seek to present Canada as an economic basket case with no real prospects for growth or prosperity. Unfortunately, Hopper’s approach was at odds with the actual content of the report, which never once mentioned the words “riot” or “riot.” On the other hand the highly drafted document, obtained through a freedom of information request filed by Professor Matt Malone of Thompson Rivers University, highlighted a number of potential threats to the country’s near-term stability including things like artificial intelligence, rising levels of inequality income and wealth and climate change.
We should take these threats seriously. I certainly do. The income and wealth gap between generations is a major issue that brings to mind fundamental issues of equity and justice. If a recession is on the horizon, as the report suggests, it will disproportionately hurt the generation already bearing the brunt of the political failures and consequences of the last decade.
And yes, of course, there is climate change, which will take its biggest toll on younger Canadians. “The situation will likely deteriorate further over the next five years,” the report says, “as the first effects of climate change and a global recession add their weight to the current crises.” Those crises, to be clear, are things like COVID-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and other international events.
Curiously, the threat posed by climate change was not even mentioned in Hopper’s coverage. The report’s authors, on the other hand, were not so reserved on the subject. “Canada faces a broader range of complex environmental challenges than at any time in its history. The most important of these challenges are the effects of climate change, which will affect all facets of government. “In the near future, there will be extreme climate crises that will likely occur in close succession or even at the same time.”
The RCMP report also highlights the metastatic cancer of misinformation and the danger it represents to our body politic. “Law enforcement should expect continued social and political polarization fueled by disinformation campaigns and growing distrust of all democratic institutions,” he said. As if to prove his point, PCC leader Pierre Poilievre appeared in the House of Commons the other day and repeated the same thing. National mail‘s mischaracterization Of the report. As it happens, so did the Russian propaganda outlet RT, whose coverage He noted that “poverty could spark a revolt in Canada.”
This is an Olympic level jump. Still, one should not ignore the underlying problem that this rich variety of bad faith actors are weaponizing. The recession that the RCMP report deemed a foregone conclusion in 2022 is not yet here, but the near-term economic outlook for our country are remains decidedly disappointing. This is especially true for younger Canadians, who are not benefiting from the post-pandemic asset price surge that is increasingly floating the collective boat of the baby boom generation. Explain why there is a notable disparity between reported happiness levels of those over 60 and those under 30. In Gallup’s most recent world happiness ranking, Canadians under 30 rank 58th in the world in reported happiness levels, while those over 60 They occupy eighth place. It’s no better in the United States, where those rankings are 62nd and 10th respectively.
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We need and deserve a national conversation about how to rectify this situation. Like David Moscrop wrote on his Substack, “Now is a good time for us to engage in a serious, good-faith discussion about class in this country and the material realities that accompany it. That discussion should include a reasonable assessment of the data and circumstances it attempts to capture, but we simply cannot accept vapid claims of “Canada the good,” dubious comparisons, or attempts to minimize the very real suffering endured by so many people in this country. .”
That seems fine to me. But we won’t get that when our right-wing politicians and pundits refuse to compromise accordingly. The RCMP report, which was so flagrantly misrepresented, cites French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2022 observation that we live in “the end of plenty.” Hopper, of course, was more than happy to pick up that line. What he didn’t include in his column was the full context of it. As Macron said“This overview that I’m giving, the end of abundance, the end of carelessness, the end of assumptions, is ultimately a turning point that we are going through and that can lead our citizens to feel a lot of anxiety . Faced with this, we have a duty, duties, the first of which is to speak with frankness and clarity, without burdens.”
An internal RCMP report flagged a number of key risks facing Canada, from climate change to misinformation and paranoid populism. But we won’t be able to address any of them if the right continues to trade in deception and fatalism.
In fact, we do. The problem, as the RCMP report shows, is that not everyone fulfills that duty. Some even deliberately avoid it, whether in the name of page views or political advantages. Until that changes, one of the biggest threats we will face will come from within.