For a country once thought of as an island paradise, that more recently has been ravaged by decades of civil war, Sri Lanka has entered a new hell, with its…
We’ve seen similar images throughout the developing world when a populace gets angry and fed up and rises against a corrupt and entrenched power elite. What triggered the collapse of Sri Lanka was an economy already reeling from a devastating hit to its tourism sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and travel restrictions. And what tipped it over the edge was rising food and fuel prices made worse by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
But if you think that we’ve just seen in Sri Lanka is confined to the developing world, don’t be so sanguine. Recently, the Netherlands has witnessed large scale farmer protests somewhat reminiscent of the year long farmer protests that jammed up the Indian capital of New Delhi in 2020 and into 2021. Much closer to home, Ottawa came to a standstill during the Freedom Convoy protests this past February, a protest that only ended after the Justin Trudeau government declared a national emergency.
Here, civil unrest is defined broadly and includes non-violent protest, with the ranking assessessing “the risk of disruption to business caused by the mobilisation of societal groups in response to economic, political or social factors.” Looking at the data on a year on year basis shows Canadian cities in the top 50 in terms of worsening civil unrest, with Calgary and Edmonton coming in at number 14 and 15, doing slightly better than Asuncion in Paraguay, and worse than Jakarta in Indonesia. This is not the company Canadians normally believe we keep. The silver lining is that, overall, Canadian cities are still amongst the safest in the world, with, for example, Edmonton ranking 452 out of 577 cities overall.
Of course, Canada is very different from a developing country like Sri Lanka, although would anyone have predicted, even a year ago, that a protest as large and significant as the Freedom Convoy would have had such an impact not just in Canada but reverberating around the world, with protests elsewhere inspired by events in Ottawa?finds the majority of Canadians deeply worried about rising prices and with the majority of Canadians polled believing that the economy has already tipped into a...
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