“The Enemy Within: Canada and the National (In)Security State”

“The Enemy Within: Canada and the National (In)Security State”

Due Date:       Monday, April 27^th, 1 pm start of class time (online submission – Moodle)

No late submissions will be accepted – it is imperative that all position papers be completed on time to start the Simulation the following class Thursday, April 30^th. You must submit whatever you have on that date, and recall, this is a Summative Assessment.          

Value: 20%

Objective:  This is where you will pull together all the research you’ve done in your Proposal & Annotated Bibliography in a written essay assignment. This is an argumentative paper where you will articulate in front of the Commission your character’s position regarding the Canadian government’s policies and use of power in the name of ‘national security’ during the cold war years and the decades preceding. Here your position and argument are addressing the Commission’s mandate – which is “to assess whether or not previous governments and individuals abused the power of the state in the name of ‘national security’ and infringed upon the rights of Canadian citizens.”

You must have an obvious argument for your character (the paper’s thesis position) and you must use hard ‘evidence’ from your secondary or primary research materials to solidly support your character’s arguments. (This should not just be a ‘rant’ against Communism or for ‘rights’! The Commission wants to hear real, solid, specific evidence!))

You have the option to write a traditional academic paper in the third person, or you can take on the voice of your character and write the essay ‘in character’ (you can use ‘I’). Remember, you are writing to an experienced, legal Commissioner and must be convincing in your argument; there must be solid historical evidence and detail in the position you are presenting.

Guidelines for writing your persuasive position essay:

1. Think of beginning with a ‘hook’ to get the Commissioners’ attention to start your Introduction.
2. Don’t forget to clearly state your thesis position by the end of your Introduction paragraph so the Commissioner knows what you intend to argue.
3. To convince the Commissioner you must discuss three distinct themes or points that illustrate your argument position (with the corresponding description, details, concrete evidence to support your position). The Commissioner does not want to read general, vague arguments.
4. Your essay should include a Conclusion – reiterate your argumentative position and concluding recommendation to the Commissioners regarding this issue of national security and/or civil liberties.

Specific Guidelines:

• 1250 to 1500 words (approx)- word count at end of paper
• Double-spaced, 12 font, pages numbered, cover page required;
• MLA8 referencing required to indicate your sources, (NB: even if you write as the character (using ‘I’), you are obliged to always use in-text citations to indicate your source materials. To not do so will constitute plagiarism. There are no ‘rewrites’ for ‘forgotten’ in-text citations or bibliographies – this is a requirement of any academic paper and and by this point you should be aware of this responsibility).
• A Works Cited/bibliography containing your (minimum) 4 sources. If some of your sources are not solid academic sources as indicted by the feedback on your Annotated Bibliography assignment, then you must find new, good sources. Adding a 5^th source is never a bad idea if you need to flesh out any particular area of research.

** Plagiarism Warning:  (Dawson’s ISEP Manual):

Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

• Copying, downloading, or including a phrase, a sentence, or a longer passage from a source and submitting it as your own.
• Changing words or phrases but keeping the rest of the sentence.
• Summarizing or paraphrasing someone else’s ideas without a proper citation.
• Handing in as your own work any material that was bought, copied or written by someone else.

Cheating includes but is not limited to:

• Allowing another student to copy your work.
• Copying another student’s work.
• Falsifying references.