VAAHTERANLEHTISummer / Kesä 2014

Finnish-Canadian Society / Suomi-Kanada Seura

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NOTES FROM THE SKS CHAIR

Dear Members,

The summer edition of the SKS/FCS newsletter is here! We’ve had many great events since our last edi-tion, the highlight of which was the Canada Day boat cruise on July 1st, in conjunction with the Embassy. A huge thank you goes out to Ambassador Andrée Noëlle Cooligan, Natasha Viitasaari, and Raija Liuk-kunen at the Embassy for being instrumental in putting it all together.

Long time Board member Carmen Pekkarinen has decided to step down from the Board; we wish her well! She will still continue to be a huge figure in the Finnish-Canadian community, however, as evi-denced by our newsletter and our media outlets. Thank you, Carmen!!!

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome two new members to our Board, Ryan Zizzo and Kai Volanen. They bring with them fresh perspectives, given their rich backgrounds. One of the first indica-tors of their being new blood on the Board was evidenced by the Society setting up a Twitter account. You can follow us at @SuoKana, in addition to our Facebook and WordPress pages.

As usual, I invite each and everyone to showcase their creative side by submitting material for our news-letters, at any time during the year. We welcome articles, photos or just about anything that you can come up with. Simply send it to our Gmail account to become a star!

I hope to see many of you at our upcoming autumn and winter events!

Mike Kempf

Canadian Geese in SeurasaariCover photo by Kai Volanen.

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MEMBERSHIP PAYMENTS

Current  membership  fees/  Jäsenmaksut:  

Individual/  yksityisjäsen  €15  

Couple/  pariskunta  €20  

Family  /  perhejäsenyys  €25  

Association/  Corporate  /  yritysjäsen  €70  

Please  make  the  payment  to  bank  account  313130-­‐1115674  Remember  to  include  your  name  in  the  message  field  when  making  the  payment  so  we  know  who  has  paid!  

Jäsenmaksu  suoritetaan  seuran  tilille  Handelsbanken  313130-­1115674  Muistathan  kirjoita  nimesi  viesti-­kenttään.  

Thank  you  in  advance  for  supporting  the  Finnish-­‐Canadian  Society.  You  will  be  added  to  our  mailing  list  for  our  twice-­‐yearly  newsletter  and  learn  about  our  special  events  and  activities  throughout  the  year.  If  you  wish  to  be  removed  from  our  mailing  list,  please  send  an  email  to:  suomikanadaseura@gmail.com  

Suomi-­Kanada  Seura  kiittää  jo  etukäteen  antamastanne  tuesta.  Lisäämme  yhteystietonne  postituslistaamme.  Jäsenenä  saatte  kahdesti  vuodessa  ilmestyvän  lehtemme  sekä  tietoa  toiminnastamme  ja  tilaisuuksistamme  ympäri  vuoden.  Jos  haluat  että  poistamme  teidät  jakelulistalta,  lähettäkää  meille  sähköposti:  suomikanadaseura@gmail.com.  

Pssst....We are actively looking for new members! If you know someone who might be interested in the Finnish Canadian Society, please pass on our con-tact information and help keep the society alive!

CONTACT US

Suomi-­‐Kanada  Seura  ry./Finnish-­‐Canadian  Society  

PL  282/P.O.  Box  282  00121  Helsinki,  Finland    Email:  suomikanadaseura@gmail.com  

Blog:  http://finnishcanadiansociety.wordpress.com  

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5002159410  

Twitter: @SuoKana

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SKS-FCS EVENTS IN 2014

So far we have laid our a rough schedule of events for 2014. Please note that these events are for our paid members only. If you are a paid member and want to know more about our events, be sure to contact us.

Valentine’s Skate (February 2014)

Easter Egg Hunt (April 2014)

Victoria Day BBQ (May 2014)

Canada Day Cruise, in partnership with the Canadian Embassy (July 1, 2014)

And upcoming...

Autumn Adults Only Event / TBD (September 2013)

Thanks’o’ween Party (October 2013, venue and date confirmed)

Pikkujoulu / Christmas Party (November 2013, planning)

FCS BOARD 2013 / SKS HALLITUS 2014

Chair/Puheenjohtaja: Mike Kempf Treasurer/Rahastonhoitaja: Eero Rannikko Secretary/Sihteeri: open/avoin Vaahteranlehti editor/Vaahteranlehden toimittaja: Erin Swift-Leppäkumpu Communications/Viestintävastaava: Anna Martikainen Event Coordinator: Pamela Spokes Member of the Board/Hallituksen jäsen: Kai Volanen Member of the Board/Hallituksen jäsen: Ryan Zizzo

What kind of activities would you like to participate in with the Finnish Canadian Society?

Share your ideas at: suomikanadaseura@gmail.com anytime, all year round!

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Carmen with former Ambassador Anne-Marie Bourcier in 2006

END OF A VOLUNTEERING ERA

Carmen Pekkarinen

I have lived in Finland since the fall of 1998. In 2000 I joined the Finnish-Canadian Society in order to stay connected with other Canadians and to meet Finns who had an interest in Canada. I spent 14 years on the board (and several of those as the Chair). Earlier this year I decided that my time was up and handed the reins over to newer board members who will no doubt carry on the good work we have been doing to try and keep those ties alive and reaching out to foster new ones. Thanks for keeping us going!

Being a part of a friendship society has afforded great opportunities and I have met some really fantastic people who I now call my friends and got know sev-eral Canadian Ambassadors to Finland during that time including Craig McDonald, Adele Dion, Anne-Ma-rie Bourcier, Scott Fraser, Chris Shapardanov and the current Ambassador Andrée Cooligan. The staff of the Canadian Embassy is a close-knit, but small and dedi-cated crew. It’s nice to know people on a first-name basis!

Over the years our paths have crossed with other or-ganizations including the Finnish-Canadian Business Club, the Fulbright Center (education in Canada), Des-tination Canada (unfortunately defunct), CIMO (the Centre for International Mobility), the Suomi-Seura and the Hart House / Kaledonistit exchange and Ca-nadians Living in Finland (a mailing list). We have also run into many people looking for Canadian rela-tives and other people who have crossed the ocean in the name of sport, hockey and ringette still seem to dominate that scene.

I’ve moved on to new challenges, but I will always be looking for and reporting on those little-known and little published Finnish-Canadian connections. They’re out there!

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FEBRUARY/HELMIKUUValentine’s Day Skating

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FEBRUARY/HELMIKUU

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Easter Egg Hunt

APRIL/HUHTIKUU

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THE BEER COOLER - A CANADIAN THING?

Carmen Pekkarinen

How many of you have these things hanging around your house?

On a hot day it is always a good idea to cover up your beer (or other bottled drinks) to keep them cold. They have been a staple of the summer time, summer camp culture in Canada for as long as I can remember.

Many people know them as beer coolers (it’s a dialect thing from Northern Ontario perhaps?), but many call them cozies, even beer toques. We have a few of them lying around the house, but unfortunately the bottle jackets don’t really fit over the 330ml short neck bottles we can get in Finland. Canada’s most popular domes-tic brands come in 341ml bottles (standard U.S. 12 imperial fluid ounces), so beer coolers are made just for those.

The beer coolers I remember from my childhood were made of white Styrofoam and they were effective and even lasted a long time. These days beer coolers are made of polystyrene or neoprene or even polyester toques.

A company in U.S. has branded them as “koozies” and even trademarked the name. Koozie, however, is also used in a general sense such as brand names like Band-aid and Kleenex. The Coolaz company, owner of the Koozie trademark has even commissioned some scientific research to prove the effectiveness in koozies keep-ing drinks cold! See it here: http://www.coolaz-koozies.com/coolaz-koozie-performance.asp

With the warm weather making its way to Finland, someday soon anyways, it is time to think about effective methods for keeping your drinks cold. Have you got yours?

Photo by Carmen Pekkarinen.

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Canadian author Alice Munro was awarded with the No-bel Prize in Literature in December 2013. Inspired by her work and contribution to literature, the Embassy of Canada to Finland, in cooperation with Tammi Publish-ers, The Association of Teachers of English in Finland, and the Fulbright Centre, organized a short story writing competition for Finnish high school students.

The competition run from December 10, 2013 until April 30, 2014 and was open to students enrolled in upper-secondary schools in Finland and whose mother tongue is not English. The purpose of the competition was to find and support creative writers of the future but also to introduce Canada as a study destination for Finnish high school students. Students from all over the world have selected Canada as their place of study and have been convinced that there was no better choice, and through this competition we hoped to introduce young Finnish students with what Canada has to offer.

In marketing the competition and Canada as a study destination, the Embassy sent an invitation to join the competition to 404 high schools in Finland. There was widespread interest in the competition; 86 students sent their stories. Submissions were received from all around Finland, from Åland to Lapland. The top five stories were chosen by a panel of judges, whose members were Anu Halvari from National Board of Education, Jaakko Mäki from the Association of Teachers of English in Finland, and Antti Hiitti, an English teacher from Tampere. The winner and the two runners-up were selected by Mrs. Kristiina Rikman, the Finnish-translator of Alice Mu-nro’s stories.

After difficult task of evaluating the stories, the top three were selected in late May. According to the judges the task was not an easy one, and the winner could have been any of the top 5. In the end, Ella-Maria Lukala with her story “Shatters” was awarded with the first prize. Ella-Maria is a second year student at Turun normaalikoulu, and she dreams of becoming a writer. The two runners-up are Noora Kuusenoja from Jyväskylä Steiner School with “All around me, in my heart” and Susanna Koski from Helsinki Art High School with “Sparkwatcher”.

In the next few editions of the Vaahteranlehti the Finn-ish-Canadian Society members can read the top three stories. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did!

EMBASSY OF CANADA CELEBRATES THE TOP THREE OF THE SHORT STORY WRITING COMPETITION

Satu Salonen

Susanna Koski, Päivi Koivisto-Alanko from Tammi, Ella-Maria Lukala, Outi Mäkinen from Tammi, Noora Kuusenoja and Ambassador Cooligan.

Story was reprinted with permission of the author, Ella-Maria Lukala, and of the Embassy of Canada.

Make sure to check out the upcoming editions of the Vaahteranlehti to read the stories from the runners up!

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My mother loved clocks.

There was a clock in every room, each show-ing precisely the same time. There were the old ones with brass pointers and floral ornaments, and the new and simple ones that looked like paper plates. There were the metallic alarm clocks on each night stand, the cuckoo clock with the red and blue bird, the grandfather clock standing tall in the living room, even one with a little fountain and tiny bronze mer-maids swimming in it. There however was one clock that mom loved more than others. It was an extremely delicate wall clock that she kept above her bed. It was made of pearly white marble, with blue painted deco-rations, which always looked like clouds to me. The pointers were made of gold and had even tiny little adornments of angels. Angels of the lord, she used to say when we crawled next to her, unable to fall asleep. They would watch over us. And, for a tiny moment, the constant ticking and tocking wasn’t annoying at all, but soothing.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

And I always dreamed of angels.

There however was the one very unfortunate day, when the clouds were shattered and angels were bent. One badly aimed toy arrow in the middle of an intense play of cowboys and Indians, and the thin thin marble was in a thousand pieces on the floor. There were parts of clouds on the mats, under the bed, on the night table. The clock itself had been small, but to me it seemed it shattered to the tiniest pieces imag-inable, and those pieces filled the whole room. Every inch was covered in white and blue and the echo of shattering marble could be heard in both heaven and hell. For a moment I was sure I could even hear the tiny golden angels cry. And mom came in. For a mo-ment she stood there in a complete silence, first star-ing at me in my cowboy hat and a toy gun in my hand. Then at my brother. Then at the bow and arrows he had thrown on the floor as soon as he heard her steps on the hallway. “Which one?” she asked. Neither of us said a word, afraid of the yell that we were going to

hear. It didn’t matter who had actually shot the arrow, who had made the clock fall, but the fact was, that my brother had more quickly lifted his hand and was now pointing at me. Me, the younger of us, the weaker of us, the dumber of us, still stupidly standing in silence. “Richard, out.” she said with calm, piercing voice. I could have sworn the air got a little bit colder at that moment, but I was too afraid to open my mouth and see if my breath would escape my lips as vapour. At the door I saw my brother look back and give me one last smirk before he hid far enough to not be seen, but close enough to hear how I’d be punished. He’d be let down, but I would remember that moment for the re-maining of my life.

“Tom. I am very disappointed in you.” And she walked away. And there was a sound of a door banging. And a sound of a glass shattering. And later on at dinner I wiped away the last drop of blood from the table.

At that hour I did not know her words would be the words I’d become the most familiar with. Often spoken out loud, even more often shown as actions. The look she gave me, the wave of hand, the way she spoke over me, as if I had never said a word. Tiny hints letting me know that my opinion was wrong. My actions were faulty. My movement was silly. My voice too high. My thoughts too simple.

I had slow seconds, she said. Richard’s jokes were al-ways funny, his soccer team was always the best one, his grades were always good enough. And I had slow seconds.

She wasn’t the only one who knew that. I did try to hide my slow seconds at first. I tried to be the fastest, the smartest, the strongest. When school started, I would have had the chance. A new begin-ning, they say. But do you seriously expect I could have fooled anyone? No, I didn’t really find anyone to be around on the school yard or eat lunch with. I spent my lessons staring at the clock on the wall, anx-iously waiting for the day to end, just so that I could go home. Home wasn’t that much better, but I had my room, my privacy, where I could have my own perfect world, built just for me and me only. I didn’t want to let anyone into it, ever. Whoever would even under-stand the mind of an outcast like me?

Shatters

An original short story, by Ella-Maria Lukala.

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This was something my mother didn’t really understand or approve of. She hated it when I spent time alone or stayed quiet. When I talked, her every gesture reminded me of how wrong I was.

I should have had friends, she told me. Later on I did, but they weren’t any good. Abnormal, weird, they were. It was no wonder those outcasts were the ones who accepted me.

But I couldn’t be an outcast like them. I had to be normal, more like my brother, she said. So I stopped having friends.

But I shouldn’t have spent time inside all the time either. I started running. I would often run to my great aunt’s summer cottage, stare at the roaming sea and eat chocolate chip cookies.

But that wasn’t good. Mom always said she spoiled me too much. I probably should have just been like Richard. He was a perfect example of how a child should be.

But I on the other hand?

I mean, what kind of a child never goes to the school disco? Runs away at the sight of a girl. What kind of a child tries to skip the group sports? Becomes nau-seous in fear of human communication. What kind of a child does the group works alone? What kind of a child locks himself up in his room? What kind of a child is too pathetic to get a single friend? Doesn’t know what’s right, doesn’t know what’s good. Is nev-er smart enough, is never fast enough, is never good enough! What kind of a child, I ask you, tries to take his life at the goddamn age of 11? What kind of a child, what kind of a child fails?

“You slit it the wrong way, you idiot.”

I woke up and grew older though. After a while you could barely see the scars, which was good. They were an ugly reminder to mom of how I nearly got ru-ined, and how I nearly ruined the image of our perfect family. Suddenly the teachers and student counsellors and principals all wanted to talk to her, and she had to bake extra cookies and put up an especially shocked

face to convince the people, even though she had al-ways known there was something wrong with me.

Just like my scars, eventually I learned to hide my slow seconds, my thoughts. I wore long sleeves on my arms and a mask on my mind. Nobody had to know of the deep twisted thoughts I had. Nobody had to know what a twisted person I was. In the end I had to hide everything in me that was left of me. Me wasn’t good enough, so I hid it. From her. From him. From them. From everyone. But Sprocket.

Sprocket was different.Sprocket. I used to call her Sprocket.

She was the essential part that I was missing, the missing gear in my machinery. She was weird like me. But unlike others, she was open with her weird, and I guess that made me a little more comfortable with mine. That’s probably also why they didn’t come along. She didn’t approve of her, and Sprocket didn’t approve of my mom. Sprocket was everything she hat-ed in me and definitely not the best option for a daugh-ter-in-law. She didn’t fit her criteria of a decent girl-friend. A decent girlfriend would most definitely not play video games, not have farting contests. A decent girlfriend wouldn’t laugh when ever somebody men-tioned miserable, lonely and depressed in the same context, or start therefore singing Disney songs in the dining table. A decent girlfriend would not speak with her mouth full, she would never mention the taboos such as sex, death or digesting, and most importantly, she would never take my side instead of hers. In a way I thought it was hilarious to see them try to act in a normal manner during dinner, talk about the sunny weather, yet throw looks of ice whenever the other didn’t see. Sprocket, usually so fluent and calm with everyone would stutter in her words, blush a little, and my mom would give looks of deep disapproval. For a while I guess Sprocket tried to please her too. But then the one time she took off the batteries from every clock in my room. She couldn’t sleep with the constant ticking and tocking. To me it felt very weird at first. It was so silent, so calm. I had to change the ticks and tocks to the beating of her chest, the pace of her breathing. Of course my mom noticed the sud-den silence, and walked in to see what’s wrong. She

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wanted to put the batteries back, Sprocket wanted them off. She was breathing fire and mom was throw-ing icicles. From that on Sprocket took them off every time she came over. And every time she left, mom put them back in.

However, the greatest thing about Sprock-et wasn’t that she was different and weird like me, and didn’t try to hide it. It wasn’t her way of stealing the blanket or warming up her cold toes against my calves, not the way she maniacally laughed whenev-er she killed a bad guy in a video game, not even the tiny squeal she made every time I touched her neck. No, she silenced my seconds. She always carried this certain kind of silence with her, and filled the room with it. Her kind of silence wasn’t the one that takes over your every bone, every muscle. Not the kind that crushes the brain, fills the skull with pressure. Not the kind that brings you to tears of pain. No, it was the kind that filled every gap, every shatter. It warmed up everything around it, and for a while there was no pain at all. There was just the warm, fast beating of the heart and the tiny tingling around the feet. And when she was gone, the silence slowly faded.

Until it didn’t. Little by little I started carrying a little bit of her silence with me. It filled my mind, filled the spaces between the shattered clouds, and silenced the cries of angles.

For long I thought she was the one who had fixed me. She and her silence. But we ran out of our seconds.

I had her love. With my every cell I wanted it to last. I wanted to have the future together, share the silence together, create our own world together. But I ran out. I gave her every last drop of the love I had to give. But I ran out. There came the point when I no longer needed her. I had her silence. I made her leave, but the silence stayed.

I guess in the end it didn’t have to be her, ex-actly. I just needed someone like her.I needed someone to be the missing gear, the missing sprocket, to help me restart my own machinery.

So far my machinery hasn’t really been mine.

And frankly, I think I need one.

TickTockTickTock

I’ve now been playing with my alarm clock for a while. I let my fingers trace its outlines, slip along the smooth metallic edges. I play with the black plas-tic gears on the back, and the minute hand moves past the thin lines. On the clock the hours keep passing, running, flowing. But my seconds move slowly.

I take off the batteries and throw them to the wall.And this time, the silence is complete.

Noora Kuusenoja, Ella-Maria Lukala & Susanna Koski.

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MAY/TOUKOKUUVictoria Day BBQ @

Seurasaari

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HONOURING A CANADIAN

Mike Kempf

André Noël Chaker, a Montreal lawyer, was transplanted to Finland years ago and known for winning various awards for speaking (even in Finnish). He is the author of The Finnish Miracle, and is the Senior Advisor to the President and CEO of Veikkaus (Finnish Lottery). He was honoured at the Ambassador’s residence on May 8th for his accomplishments. Those present were treated to a brief speech, and even a singing performance (!), accompanied by fellow Canadian Douglas Pashley. It truly was a special evening, filled with much pride for those Canadians present!

SNFU at Bar Loose in Helsinki-Tampere in July-August

Thursday, July 31 sees Canadian entertainer SNFU performing with Tryer at Bar Loose in Hel-sinki and on Friday, August 1 in Tampere at the Tampere Club. Those looking for a dose of hard core punk rock will certainly be on board!

See more here: http://www.tiketti.fi/SNFU-CAN-Tryer-Bar-Loose-Helsinki-lippuja/24337

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UNDER THE RED STAR SHOWN IN HELSINKI

Carmen Pekkarinen

Back in May the bi-annual Maple Leaf and Eagle Con-ference was held in Helsinki. That meant a whole lot of academics made their way here to discuss research and issues related to Canadian and American studies. This year many academics from Canada were in at-tendance including the Chair of the History Depart-ment at Lakehead University, Dr. Michel Beaulieu.

With Dr. Beaulieu’s help, the film Under the Red Star was given an encore presentation in Helsinki on May 13. The showing of Under the Red Star was a co-pre-sentation of the Department of Political and Econom-ic Studies, University of Helsinki, the Department of History, Lakehead University, the Alumni Association of Lakehead University and the Finnish-Canadian So-ciety.

Photos by Carmen Pekkarinen.

Director Kelly Saxberg and Producer Ron Harpelle were also in Finland on business, so it was a great pleasure to meet them. The turnout for the film was small, the inclement weather probably kept people away. A small but spirited crew continued the discus-sion at a pub in Helsinki. It was very interesting to hear from both Kelly and Ron what kind of work went in to the making of this film.

The showing of Under the Red Star also marked the inaugural event of the Lakehead University Alumni Association in Finland. Finland is home to many Lake-head alumni and there is hope we can track down more of them in the future to help maintain that Finn-ish-Canadian connection.

At the risk of repeating the wealth of information that is out there, I’ll direct you to the following sites for more information:

• Under the Red Star – the primary communication channel (on Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/UnderTheRedStar

• Sheba Films, Kelly Saxberg’s production company: http://shebafilms2.wordpress.com/

• A synopsis of Under the Red Star: http://shebafilms2.wordpress.com/films/under-the-red-star/

• The Department of History at Lakehead Univer-sity: https://www.lakeheadu.ca/academics/depart ments/history

• The Lakehead University Alumni Association: http://www.lakeheadualumni.ca/

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JUNE/KESÄKUU

Caribou at Ruisrock

Are you a fan of the festival scene in Finland in the summer?Ruisrock will be held in Turku at Ruissalo from July 4-6, 2014. The line-up in-cludes David Guetta, Lily Allen, The Offspring and a host of others including the Canadian musician/band Caribou. There will also be a huge line-up of Finnish talent on offer: Kolmas Nainen J. Karjalainen, Jenni Vartiainen, Vesa-Matti Loiri, Haloo Helsinki! and the list goes on.

See more on the schedule, line-ups and tickets at www.ruisrock.fi.

See more here on Caribou: http://www.caribou.fm/

TSO in Finland

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is coming to Finland! As part of their 2014 European tour, the TSO will be in Helsinki on August 21 and 22 performing as part of the line-up of the largest arts festival in Finland, the Helsinki Festival. Performanc-es will be at the Helsinki Music Centre at 19:00 on Thursday, August 21 and at 21:30 on Friday, August 22.

See more on the performance schedule and line-up here: http://www.helsing-injuhlaviikot.fi/en/tapahtuma/toronto-symphony-orchestra/

Get tickets: http://www.lippupalvelu.fi/artist/940262?language=en-us

Oh My Irma being performed in Tampere in August

Haley McGee has been called “the next darling of Canadian theatre.” She will be performing in Tampere on August 9 and 10 as part of Tampereen Teatterikesä at TTT Kel-lariteatteri, Hämeenpuisto 28-32.

Get tickets: http://www.lippu.fi and search for “Oh My Irma”

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The facts

On May 2, 2014 Canadians living abroad for more than 5 years won back their right to vote in elections in Canada. Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Pen-ny found that part of the Canada Elections Act, which bars expatriates who have lived abroad for more than five years from voting, is unconstitutional and that citizenship, he noted, is a fundamental requirement for voting, not residency.

But a month after this ruling came the Canadian government requested an injunction for 12 months which was ultimately denied. But once again, the courts have taken the side of the Canadian citizens and entrenched that the right to vote is afforded to all citizens irrelevant of their address.

These rulings came because two expat Canadian aca-demics living in the US asked the Ontario court to rule on this issue with regards to its constitutionality.

Arguments

The Canadian Government states that they are pur-suing this road for the reason of “electoral fairness”. Justice Penny wrote in his May 2 decision “The [gov-ernment] essentially argues that allowing non-resi-dents to vote is unfair to resident Canadians because resident Canadians live here and are, on a day-to-day basis, subject to Canada’s laws and live with the con-sequences of Parliament’s decisions.” But Penny did not find this argument persuasive.

Reasons surrounding taxation have also been dis-cussed; saying that since many expats do not pay taxes in Canada that they should not have the right to vote. But as some have pointed out, students and stay at home parents rarely pay taxes but retain the vote and more extremely that people with have higher in-comes and pay more taxes don’t get more votes so it is unclear why there would be a connection between voting and taxation. In the end the Charter only con-nects citizenship and voting.

The Government also tries to claim that those who live outside of Canada for longer than five years lose their “meaningful connection” to Canada.

What’s next?

I have been unable to find any information about the government’s appeal, other than the fact that they have launched one. I will post anything new to the Finnish-Canadian Society’s Facebook group. If you want to follow the action more closely you can go to: www.letcanadiansvote.com

If you want to reclaim your right to vote or to make sure that your voter registration is up to date, you can go to the Canadian government website at: http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=reg/svr&document=index&lang=e

References

The content for this article is a summary of what is available from these online articles:

“Voting rights restored to Canadians living abroad long-term”http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/voting-rights-restored-to-canadians-living-abroad-long-term-1.2631760

“Ottawa fights court ruling giving ex-pats a vote”http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-fights-court-ruling-giving-ex-pats-a-vote-1.2681395

“Expat voting: Court denies Ottawa’s fight for 5-year rule for voters abroad”http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/expat-voting-court-denies-ottawa-s-fight-for-5-year-rule-for-vot-ers-abroad-1.2685041

“Suppressing vote of expats latest Conservative court battle: Tim Harper”http://www.thestar.com/news/cana-da/2014/06/24/suppressing_vote_of_expats_lat-est_conservative_court_battle_tim_harper.html

“Canadian expatriates should never lose the right to vote” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/ca-nadian-expats-should-never-lose-the-right-to-vote/article19358683/

WHY IS HARPER’S GOVERNMENT SPENDING MILLIONS ON DISENFRANCHISING CANADIAN CITIZENS?

Pamela Spokes

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Canada, a nation of immigrants, is quickly becoming a nation of emigrants.

According to a study by the Asia Pacific Foundation, 2.9 million Canadian citizens – equivalent to 9 per cent of Canada’s population – study, live and work abroad.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants every Ca-nadian citizen the right to vote and to be a candidate in an election. Until 1993, Canadian citizens living abroad were not allowed to vote at all except for civil servants and military personnel. The subsequent Bill C-114 introduced voting rights for Canadians living abroad for fewer than five-years. But why five years?

Expatriate voting rights are now common in many countries. In the English-speaking world, the United States has the most generous provision for expatri-ate voters. Americans living overseas have the right to vote no matter how long they have been abroad. The right to vote expires in the United Kingdom after 15 years abroad. Australian citizens abroad are allowed to vote so long as they intend to return to Australia within six years. After six years, citizens can renew their status by making an annual declaration of their intention to return “at some point.” The language of “at some point” is hardly conducive to the technical, narrow and legalistic approach that Canada has set at the five-year expiration.

The five-year limit in Canada is an arbitrary number. On the surface, it is a year less generous than Australia, but Australians can renew their status by expressing a mere intent to return to the country at some point in the future. Canadians, on the other hand, need to re-sume residency to regain their right to vote abroad.

Elsewhere, many countries with comparable citizens living abroad, not only grant their expatriates the right to vote, but they also have representatives for them like in France, Italy and Portugal. Countries across Eu-rope have understood that in an increasingly global-ized world, their citizens abroad should be seen as an asset and not a liability.

CANADIAN EXPATRIATES SHOULD NEVER LOSE THE RIGHT TO VOTE

Semra Sevi

Contributed to The Globe and Mail. Published Monday, Jun. 30 2014, 10:00 AM EDT

Semra Sevi is a Masters student in Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is currently reading for a course on Canadian expatriate voting rights under the supervision of Peter Russell.

While Canada may have lots of expatriates, they are no less committed to Canada than citizens living in Canada. The Charter guarantees the right of mobility. Choosing to live outside Canada does not make one less Canadian. The idea that patriotism and civic en-gagement is tied entirely to geographic location is ab-surd. According to the Asia Pacific report, the major-ity of Canadians live in the United States, China, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Australia. Interest-ingly, these are the same countries that Canada does extensive trading with.

Canadians abroad are connected to global networks that Canada can benefit from. Instead of using dero-gative labels like “Canadians of convenience” or “For-eigners holding Canadian passports,” Canada needs to take a proactive approach to engage Canadians living abroad. People have many different reasons for mov-ing away, and to label them as less Canadian for doing so is troublesome. There are many cases of Canadians studying in the United States who find work in the United Kingdom before coming back to Canada a de-cade later yet under the current system they would be disenfranchised after five years. Many of these Cana-dians working abroad do so for Canadian companies, yet these businesses are not facing the same dilemma as Canadians abroad.

Immigrants who decide to leave Canada for whatever reason and return to their native countries are not less Canadian as their compatriots who live in Cana-da. They may not be residing in the country but they are nevertheless subject to Canadian law and foreign policy decisions. Many of them actively retain connec-tions to Canada. Questions like are expatriates “real” Canadians, is unconstitutional and un-Canadian in themselves. Canadians living abroad are significant global assets who deserve the same rights as those living in Canada. The world is as interconnected as ever, and is only becoming more so. Isolating citizens based on their current geographic placement, which is based on many factors, runs counter to the way the world operates in the twenty-first century.

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If the decrease in voter turnout domestically is a con-cern, Canada should not be turning away Canadians abroad who are expressing a strong interest in being able to continue to participate in Canadian political life. Nearly half of Canada’s expatriates are disenfran-chised for being abroad for more than five years. The paranoia over the idea that expatriates have differing loyalties or a lack of knowledge about Canadian news and government policy is not backed by evidence. As well, it is not as if the expatriate vote will somehow completely change the tide of an election in any given year.

Expatriates who are allowed to vote, do so in the last riding in which they lived. Given the current system, if the right to vote was maintained based on their intention to return, because the expatriate votes are spread over many ridings, their impact on Canadian elections would be trivial at best. But this does not mean it is an issue that should go ignored. The idea that Canadian citizens who want to vote are prevent-ed from exercising their democratic rights because of their geographic location does not concur with the Charter.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/ca-nadian-expats-should-never-lose-the-right-to-vote/article19358683/

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