Canadian politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Canadian politics - Essay Example According to proponents of reforms, the way in which the system operates now. With twenty?four senators per region plus six assigned to Newfoundland and Labrador; does not reflect the political reality of contemporary Canadian federal relations. Of these one is for the Northwest Territories i.e. Yukon and Nunavut. These senators are appointed by the prime minister to serve until the age of seventy?five as per the current constitution. This arrangement of the upper house has never gone down well with Prime Minister Harper and together with the conservatives has always wanted to reform the senate in order to make it more efficient. These he advocates through the policy of the triple E that stands for equal, elected and effective. However, Harper keeps following the tradition of patronage that he so criticized while in the opposition. His government has tried severally to pass bills that do limit the tenure of senators to between 8 and 12 years through the introductions of bills that al so provide a legislative frame work for the election of senators. These efforts were to form the basis for the governor general appointment of new senators on the advice of the prime minister. These bills were unsuccessfully introduced by his government seven times in the 39th and 40th parliament but did not sail through as the conservatives were a minority in the house at the time. In the 41st parliament, Mr. Harper had a majority in the house hence the agenda to reform the senate was introduced through two previous bills that were now introduced as one i.e. Bill C-7, the senate reform act. This bill sort to reform the selection of senators and set there were term limits by amending of the constitutional act of 1867. The assumption was that since the conservative had now a majority in the house this bill will surely pass. Note that the Canadian parliament has powers bestowed to it to amend parts of the constitution that exclusively fall within its jurisdiction. The bill intended to achieve this through legislation and both parts of the bill were indeed inline with the Constitution Act of 1982. It was therefore constitutional in principle (Thompson 64). The bill however did not pass into law due to pertinent issues that were raised by the opposition and this goad the prime minister through the governor general to seek guidance from the court concerning the matter. There were two contentious issues, one relating to the framework to be used for electing nominees for senate appointments from the province. This concerned matters relating to recommendation for senate nominees to the governor general from a list from the provinces or territories. This list is for those who will have been elected through an election held inline with the provincial or territorial laws drawn in accordance with the framework. The second was the pertinent issue about the tenure of the senators to a one off nine year limit. The nature of the Canadian parliament from the past is that senat ors have generally been in office for an average period of between 9.7 years since 1975. Therefore, the provision in Bill C-7 was to limit the tenure of senators to a one term of 9 years would in a real sense have no political or constitutional effect per see (Thompson 96). Thus, the character of the parliament would roughly remain the same. However section 29A right up to 31 of the constitution states that a person referred to in subsection (1) whose term is interrupted may be summoned again to

Identity and Linguistic Repression in Gloria Anzaldua's How to Tame a Research Paper

Identity and Linguistic Repression in Gloria Anzaldua's How to Tame a Wild Tongue - Research Paper Example For instance, issues about linguistic repression and cultural barriers face culturally diverse societies due to the existence and assertion of rights among people in the mainstream and minority cultures. Accordingly, this paper tackles the cultural and linguistic barriers faced by Chicano Spanish in the U.S. in the process of their interaction and integration in the mainstream American society. Further, this paper also studies the different linguistic variations among Chicano Spanish living in mainland U.S. and those living in near the American borders. In relation to Anzaldua’s article, this paper contends that the concept of â€Å"wild tongue† does not actually exist; instead, it is actually a misunderstanding between the mainstream and minority culture concerning their linguistic and cultural practices. Further, this research argues that idea of â€Å"wild tongue† arises out of the outward and seemingly unreasonable restrictions that the American society puts upon its Chicano Spanish immigrants. Relatively, Chicano/as become linguistically aggressive by using the Pachuco language, regardless of the existent linguistic restrictions, and this also brings out the idea of linguistic terrorism. At the end of this research, this paper hopes to identify the implications of linguistic repression on the identity formation of individuals, particularly on how they perceive other cultural denominations. In addressing those objectives, this paper provides the analysis of related literature, particularly scholarly journals and books about the Chicano culture and the Chicano Spanish language. Article Overview Anzaldua’s article highlights one of the most common challenges faced by immigrants in the U.S., particularly those who are non-native English speakers. In the article, Anzaldua defends the origins and authenticity of the Chicano Spanish language while maintaining her assertions concerning the linguistic restrictions in the U.S. as linguist ic terrorism against their language (36). In the article, Anzaldua explains that the Chicano Spanish language comes as a collective desire of the Chicanos/as to assert their cultural and linguistic individuality. For instance, she cites her personal experience on linguistic differences and cultural adaptation wherein she also asserts the repressive impact of such repressions on identity formation. Aside from this, the bottom-line of Anzaldua’s article is her argument about the â€Å"wild tongue† as an assertive response to the existent repressions in the U.S. Anzaldua points out such restrictions in the first few paragraphs of the article, particularly with her encounter with people in the American society. For instance, she cites her meeting with the dentist, who tried to control her tongue. Although the dentist intends to attend to Anzaldua’s teeth, one can say that she misunderstood the dentist’s statement as an outward restriction against her speaking her native language. In the succeeding paragraphs, Anzaldua points out the existing treatment of teachers, both English and Spanish, in teaching English to Chicanos. Specifically, this includes the training both inside and outside the school wherein children, at an early age, are taught to repress their own language and accent to effectively, and easily integrate themselves with the majority culture and language, which is English. Throughout