Why is it Important to Participate in Civic Life CHV20

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Why is it Important to Participate in Civic Life? Friday November 27, 2020 Aneela Chaudhry

You may ask yourself the question, why? Why should I participate in civic life? Why, is it important? First of all, let’s define what civic life is. Civic life promotes the quality of life in a community through political and non political methods. Now let us explore some of the reasons why participating in civic life is important. Participating in civic life helps you gain the necessary ability that will help turn you into an informed, purposeful, and active citizen. By partaking in these activities you will develop a set of values and beliefs and be able to make a positive contribution to the society, and help shape the world around you in the form that you prefer. So you see, it is very critical to participate in civic life. The world and its issues are constantly changing and evolving, and as a responsible citizen it is our responsibility to react to these changes in an effective manner, so that we can help shape the world. Note, that you have to react “responsibly” to make the change effective, for it to make an impact in the world. As a good citizen you need to be engaged and involved in the community. One example of how the world is undergoing a change that is relevant to people all around the world right now is the spread of the deadly virus, COVID19. Coronavirus has forced communities, and the government to take action and put precautionary measures in place to protect us from becoming sick. However, we have the option of helping this effort and following these procedures, or we can be irresponsible and disregard them therefore putting others at risk. The majority of Canadian citizens are quarantining themselves while in lockdown to prevent a growth in cases of the virus as they should. The rapid escalation of COVID19 has affected millions of people over a large number of countries, this is a global problem. Citizens are dealing with many inconveniences and are required to adapt to these new circumstances. Some of the struggles that many individuals are currently facing are: being laid off because of work because

of budget cuts, not being able to visit their families, working or learning remotely, not being able to afford basic necessities, etc. These are all situations we have had to adapt and to overcome. What does it mean to be an informed citizen? Being an informed citizen implies you have the required knowledge and information to understand the issues we face inside the community as well as the world. Moreover, it also signifies that you are able to apply that knowledge to make effective decisions. Before you react to any issue you need the appropriate knowledge beforehand, so that you can form an educated opinion based not only on facts and logic, but your personal beliefs and values as well. There are innumerable resources that you can utilize to gain a superior knowledge for a particular matter. Some examples that are available to you as a citizen are: the press, newspapers, books in public libraries, conversations with peers, media, social media and the internet in general, which contains a wide variety of material on any given topic. The world we live in today is reliant on technology, there are many different websites and activists utilizing social media platforms to advocate particular social justice causes that need to be addressed. By reading about those issues, and doing some further research, whether that be online, talking to peers or other sources we gain an awareness about what is happening in the world, you can understand various aspects of these social issues. With this newfound knowledge you can develop your own thoughts and opinions on that subject matter. In my opinion, a pertinent issue that everybody should be aware about is how Indigenous women and young girls face violence based on racism on a daily basis. There are a number of missing persons cases, as well as murdered Indigenous women in Canada. I have done extensive research on this topic, and I have arrived at the conclusion that there is barely any action being

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taken to help these women, or to bring the perpetrators to the justice they deserve, rather than all the false promises that the Canadian government have given in the past. Digging a little deeper, one particular example is the case of Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink, a missing person’s case. There was no action from authorities until her dead body was found around a week and a half later, she was also pregnant with a child. Sonya’s family has reported that neither the federal or provincial government has given them any information a year after her murder. This Is an example of how the federal and provincial government didn’t take any action to help is the case. Sonya is one of many other Indigenous women and young girls, the RCMP have reported 1, 200 missing cases on Indigenous women, whereas Indigenous women groups have reported over 4,000 cases over the past three decades, 1980-2012. While the Canadian government may seem to try to take the steps to help these women, they don’t seem to be all that concerned about them, or their well-being, and don’t take this act of violence seriously enough. As a community we should try to use your influence and change these behaviors if our government and help find the missing women and the people who commit the gruesome act of physically harming these women, by bringing this issue up and in front of the society and government's priorities. The police as well as the RCMP shouldn’t dismiss the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and young girls so callously and instead should dedicate all their resources into helping find justice for these women. However, it will not happen on its own, we as society need to show and tell RCMP that this behavior is unacceptable and make political efforts to influence RCMP leadership to address this discriminatory behavior in the force. The government should offer their unlimited resources and dedicate their time into helping fix the problems of the root cause in this horrible situation. The press and general public should do their part and raise awareness about the crimes being committed, we all have a role to play in helping improve the lives of past, present, and future

Indigenous women. This unfortunate reality has been understated and covered up for far too long, it is beyond time to help the Indigenous women in any way we are able to. A purposeful citizen is a citizen who is aware of their role in society, and acts with the intention of addressing a specific cause or issue appropriately and whenever need be. Personal beliefs and values play a role in formulating an opinion and stance on a particular subject matter as well as the course of action you may take. For me personally, I believe that taking care of our environment and becoming eco-friendly is crucial, because it will help keep our planet sustainable for our future generations. Likewise, another one of my core values is the importance of mental health and how a large number of people in today’s world have to deal with different types of mental health concerns. Consequently, an issue that I am very passionate about is consumerism, as it is a huge problem all over the world. One of the contributing factors to mental health issues is consumerism. Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. There are many individuals who impulse buy, they purchase goods when they’re stressed, depressed, or anxious. This can very easily turn into an unhealthy addiction that may cause them to go into debt, the newfound issue of now owing the bank money may cause stress, depression, and anxiety, it’s a never ending cycle. While people may argue that the pros of consumerism outweigh the negative impacts, I disagree.These people may say that consumerism drives economic growth and boosts innovation, to these people I say, it’s not sustainable in the long term. The unfortunate consequences, negatives of consumerism include: environmental degradation, moral degradation, higher levels of debt, mental health problems, and a variety of unhealthy habits such as impulse buying and retail therapy. Consumerism is not the way to go, as it’s not sustainable because the

economy will not grow forever, we do not have an unlimited supply of resources, and if we keep up at the rate we’re going at right now there will most definitely be catastrophic results. However, this is just my take on consumerism, people with different values and beliefs may argue with my perspective, so by being a purposeful citizen you may have your own opinions and thoughts on different issues based on your beliefs. A major part of becoming an active citizen includes participating in civic life. Several reasons why being an active citizen is beneficial are: it creates a sense of belonging in your community, you can work on solving problems as a community rather than individually as it is easier, you can help identify what your community needs better than government officials, lastly, you can help under-represented groups get more recognition. There are many different strategies that you may apply to become an active citizen. Some examples include: participating in community events, voting, volunteering in your community, engaging in conversations with your peers about current events, joining NGOs (non governmental organizations), joining a youth group, protesting etc,. Canada is a parliamentary democracy that gives us many rights as its citizens. These include the rights of enjoying freedom of religion, expression, thought, belief, peaceful assembly, association, and the right to vote. A parliamentary democracy is a type of representative democracy where the political power is entrusted to an elected legislature (parliament), however the executive and legislative branches aren’t separate, parliament chooses a chief executive which is the Prime Minister. One of the most important examples of active citizenship is participating in the democratic process. Being involved in democractic processes such as voting or running for an elected office is necessary because you get to be a part of the decision making process in your country which does not only affect your life but also has impact

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on the lives of others around you. You can decide who you vote or support based on your personal beliefs and values, this a huge way you can be an active participant in civic life. A role model for becoming an active citizen in our community are the Canadian citizens Craig and Marc Kielburg. Craig read a newspaper article that talked about the murder of Iqbal Masih, a boy the same age as Craig at the time, who had campaigned against child labour in Pakistan after having been enslaved himself. As a result of this Iqbal was killed, the two Kielburger brothers were outraged about this and wanted to spread awareness about this topic so that situations like this did not occur again. As a result of their actions they have founded the WE charity which was also previously known as Free the Children. They created these organizations to educate and mobilize youth around the world. This is an excellent example of how we can take action ourselves and how by taking action we can cause a big impact in society and fight for a cause that we believe is right. While active citizenship asks people to look at the greater good there is also an element of personal responsibility which also results in personal fulfillment. Going over the above arguments, it is clear how important it is to participate in civic life. You can help make a contribution to your community, government and country exactly the way that you want the best. After you earn the necessary skills in becoming a responsible citizen such as becoming informed, purposeful, and active, it is only then can you truly start to make a profound impact in your society and help shape the world. This will help you share your values and beliefs, as well as your opinions. Not only that, you will be able to improve society as a whole to be a better place, in collaboration with other citizens like you, much like the way you improve your home by interacting with your family.