Security of the U.S. and Canadian Border

¶ … security of the U.S. And Canadian border is in peril. There is an unprotected route allowing the free-flow of terrorists from around the world into Canada and then into the U.S. This is a national security situation that threatens our way of life. What are our options for eliminating this threat?

By definition a liberal is a man or a woman who believes in liberty. Liberalism as a philosophy has evolved as a defense of individual citizen's liberties against the potential tyranny of his or her ruling state. Liberals such as John Locke have typically maintained that humans are naturally in 'a State of perfect Freedom to order their Actions ... As they think fit ... without asking leave, or depending on the Will of any other Man," In other words, unless the individual's liberty impinges upon the liberty of another individual, than that individual should do as he or she wishes (Locke, 1689, Cited by Gaus, 2001). However, the problem today occurs when the individual liberty of the citizen interferes not only with the will of the state, but the securty and collective and indivdiual wills and liberties of another state, namely that of the United States.

John Stewart Mill too argued that "the burden of proof" is supposed to be with "those who are against liberty; who contend for any restriction or prohibition .... The a priori assumption is in favour of freedom ... '(Mill, 1859, Cited by Gaus, 2001). However, although the burden of proof in Mill's philosophy is upon those who would deny liberty and restrict its free flow, in this case the freedom at stake is that of those who would threaten freedom, namely terrorists. Thus in this case, the supposed freedom, i.e. The physical border-crossings of the terrorists, must be impinged upon to maintain the free and secure life of the individuals residing in the United States. For the protection of liberty, Canada must seek aid from the United States to impinge the liberty of these terrorits, if Canada cannot restrain their free progress, with its own resources, military, survelliance, and otherwise.

Question 2

In the hope becoming a major nuclear power on the world stage, Canada has begun to enrich Uranium. They have made it known that they are willing to create nuclear weapons and the ability to deploy them. They have denied IAEA inspectors access to their facilities and are attempting to violate the International Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

For classical liberals liberty and private property are intimately related. From the eighteenth century right up to today, classically, the liberal philosophy of individual rights and politics insisted that an economic system based on private property was only consistent with individual liberty. Only by allowing every individual and every nation free reign employing and chosing how to use the individual and collective labour and her capital, was liberty and a liberal world ethos possible.

Classical liberals and libertarians have often asserted that in liberty and property are really the same thing. It has been argued "all rights, including liberty rights, are forms of property; others have maintained that property is itself a form of freedom," and that property includes the property of the state, such as uranium (Gaus, 2001). Here, Canada is asserting its soverenity as a nation and right to govern its physical propertty. However, by doing so it risks and impinges upon the physical property of another. Liberalism insits that private property is the only effective means for the protection of liberty, but through environmental pingement this liberal ownership is threatened rather than facilitated.