Time to Talk Frankly About Christchurch Shooter.

On Friday, March 15 a gunman walked into two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand and killed fifty people. New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, insisted that she will not name the gunman. She believes his actions were, at least in part, motivated by the desire for notoriety and doesn’t want to give it to him. I believe that despite good intentions, not naming the shooter isn’t helpful in this case. His name is Brenton Tarrant, and we need to talk about him and what he represents.

The idea of not speaking the name of mass shooters began with the 2012 mass shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado. The victims’ families and others urged the media and the public to focus on the names of the victims rather than the shooter. They fear that sensationalizing the shooter would give him what he wanted and encourage others to follow his example. Many of these mass shootings make no sense and people seeking to make sense of the senseless can focus too much on the perpetrator. It’s admirable to want to change the conversation.

The Christchurch shootings; however, were not senseless, were not random or without reason.

We know why Tarrant allegedly killed Haji-Daoud Nabi after Nabi welcomed him as a brother. Why he killed bright-eyed toddler, Mucab Ibrahim, and 14-year-old soccer player Sayyad Milne and 47 other people. Tarrant is a white supremacist, he saw them as less human than himself because they were not white. He saw them as invaders because they were not born on the soil he believed he had a right to and they did not. We know this because Tarrant allegedly wrote a manifesto titled “The Great Replacement” detailing his ideology. He believed he was protecting the white race.

And he isn’t alone.

White supremacy has been on the rise for a number of years, hate crimes against Muslims and people of Arab descent in Canada alone went up significantly just in 2017. According to Statistics Canada, hate crimes targeting Arab or West Asian populations rose by 27% and crimes against Muslims more than doubled and accounted for 17% of all hate crime in Canada.

Around the world, there have been a number of high-profile attacks by white supremacists and many that get less attention. Many Muslims and Middle Eastern people were not surprised by these attacks. Australian journalist Waleed Aly expressed the feelings of many Muslims and Arab people in response to this attack.

“I’m gutted, and I’m scared, and I feel overcome with utter hopelessness.” Aly said, “The most dishonest thing, the most dishonest thing would be to say that I am shocked.”

No, Muslim people are not shocked. They know that hate crime is on the rise and in the USA the funding to fight white extremist has been cut by the Trump administration. This same administration that frequently dog-whistles to white supremacists. The administration that Tarrant explicitly hailed in his manifesto as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”

This is why the public need to talk openly about Tarrant because he isn’t a “lone wolf” as many right-wing pundits may claim. He doesn’t wear a white hood or a Nazi uniform. He looks like an ordinary white man. His ordinariness is what is most chilling about him. Because this is what white supremacy is like in our times, ordinary, hidden in plain sight.

It is also pointless to not name him in an attempt to deny him fame. He live-streamed the massacre and is already a hero among those who share his beliefs.

Not naming Tarrant or looking at his face makes it too easy to avoid talking about the difficult problem of white supremacy. Too easy to imagine him as a monster or an aberration. But with hate crime rising and white supremacists using the internet to spread their message, we cannot afford to avoid the conversation. As a Middle Eastern person, I can tell you I am gutted and I am scared and I am trying not to be hopeless, but I don’t want to find myself thinking once more how I am not shocked. In the names of those fifty victims, please don’t avoid the conversation.

Opinion Piece Assignment

The value of education is one thing most Canadians can agree on – where they disagree is who should foot the bill. Is post-secondary education something students should finance themselves, or an investment that the government should make in its citizens.

Post-secondary education allows for greater social mobility. College and university graduates have more employment opportunities at higher paying jobs.

Iglika Ivanova of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives says, “University graduates experience shorter periods of unemployment, are more likely to work full-time and earn higher salaries than their peers with high school diplomas”.

This is good for the individual graduate, but it is also an economic benefit to society.

“Over their working lives, women with an undergraduate degree contribute, on average, $106,000 more to the public treasury than women with only a high school diploma,” Says Ivanova. “Similarly, university-educated men contribute $159,000 more to the public treasury than men with only a high school diploma.”

This is just the individual’s contribution to taxes. According to Statistics Canada women with a university degree currently, earn on average 58% more than women with a high school diploma and 41% more than those with a college education. Women with higher education are therefore likely to have more disposable income that contributes to the wider economy.

If education is such a benefit to society isn’t society better off if everyone has access to it. Tuition fees present a barrier to education for some students and a challenge for many. The average Canadian tuition cost in 2018-2019 was $6,838 according to Statistics Canada, an increase of 3.3% from the previous year.

Many students can only afford education by going into debt. Graduates will then be starting out their working lives in debt. Apart from the difficulty on the individual this money is also not being spent in ways that might benefit the economy. The young person burdened by debt is not buying a house, making investments, or spending in local businesses.

Currently, in BC tuition fees represent around 40% of the cost of education, the rest is paid by the government. The higher taxes paid over a graduate’s career more than makes up for the cost to the government. If the graduate pays $159,000 more in taxes after a four-year degree that costs $50,630 of which the government pays 60%. If tuition fees were removed the difference in earning would still be over a $100.000 more into the public purse than the cost of the degree. Moreover, removing tuition fees would increase the number of graduates earning higher wages and contributing more to the public purse and the economy.

The government paying full tuition for students would be a beneficial investment for the future. More students could pursue post-secondary education, those students would repay the cost of their education through tax contributions over their lifetime. They would also contribute to the economy by having more disposable income rather than spending their money paying off student debts. The smartest investment BC can make is in its students.

Twitter exercise for CMNS 165

1.

 A)We are sad to announce 200 staff layoffs across the company. Today’s highly competitive market is forcing us to restructure the company. NWC is looking at all options and hopes the layoffs will be temporary and that staff will soon be back at work.

B)Due to NWC’s corporate restructure, counselling services are being made available to all affected employees. NWC is a family company that values its staff and appreciates that this is a difficult time for all involved.

C) National Widget Company is exploring new markets and opportunities in the hopes that we will soon be able to rehire all staff laid off in the recent restructuring. 

2.

A)National Widget Company is pleased to welcome back to work all employees who were laid off in the recent restructuring. NWC will soon be operating at full capacity making widgets for the new Chinese residential market.

B)National Widget Company’s widgets have found a new use in home construction. Previously thought as mainly for oil manufacturing equipment, our researchers have discovered widgets whole new uses for our versatile product. The future looks good for NWC 

C)National Widget Company is going strong and all employees are returning to work following the opening of new Chinese market for widgets in the field of home construction. The National Widget Company is looking forward to a bright future.

3.

A)National Widget Company is expanding! A new manufacturing facility is under construction in Regina, Saskatchewan. NWC will be hiring 100 new people to join our team and help us supply the world’s widget needs.

B)The National Widget Company is pleased to announce that demand for our widgets is so high we are expanding. Planning for a new facility is already underway. The new plant will be located in Regina, Saskatchewan and will be hiring soon.

C)Demand is so high for National Widget Company Widgets we are expanding to meet the need. A new factory is being planned for Regina, Saskatchewan. NWC will be seeking quality staff to meet the needs of this booming international market.