ELLIOT CHO

When it comes to horrendous mistakes, Canada and South Korea both need to take responsibility for their actions, no matter how embarrassing they may be.

Back in April, I was deeply upset about what happened in South Korea. MV Sewol, a ferry that was sailing from Inchon to Jeju Island in South Korea, capsized while carrying 476 passengers onboard. Only 176 people were rescued. Most of the victims were high school students who were on a school field trip to Jeju Island — a popular vacation and honeymoon destination in South Korea.

The politics of how South Korea’s government dealt with the issue are both embarrassing and shameful. Unfortunately, it appears that a similar situation is occurring in Canada with the recent toxic spillage into Mount Polley Mine — and the Canadian government’s approach is equally lacking.

The Sewol incident revealed to the whole world just how laissez-faire economics can be, especially when it is in partnership with a corrupt government. Thanks to former South Korean president Lee Myung-Bak the South Korean government had eliminated a number of regulations on marine transport industries.

This allowed Chonghaejin Marine, a South Korean shipping company, to buy a ferry from Japan that was more than 20-years-old at the time of purchase. In fact, the ferry was considered too dangerous to operate and had been decommissioned for some time.

Worse yet, Chonghaejin Marine modified the inner structure of the ferry illegally so that it could carry more passengers and cargo. However, by greasing lots of palms and spending more money on buying dinners for safety inspectors and government officials — rather than spending money on safety training for the ferry’s crew — the company got away with it.

Even still, it appears that the safety training was done properly as the ferry’s captain and crew were the first ones to evacuate from the ship before it capsized. Unfortunately, the majority of passengers stayed on board and waited for help — just as they were instructed to do by the captain.

What made me furious was the way South Korean authority dealt with the situation. According to Newstapa, an online South Korean news agency, the Korean Coast Guard didn’t even bother attempting to rescue passengers at all for the first 48 hours. All they did rescue were those who were smart enough to jump off of the ferry. Even though the weather was spectacular and the chance of saving at least some of the passengers was quite high, the Korean Coast Guard did not act.

In midst of all this, the South Korean media sold an astronomical number of lies to the public.

At first, they reported that there were hundreds of rescuers at the scene. This was an outright lie as the rescuers were miles away from the scene. The students’ parents begged the president to do something. One lady even went on her knees in front of South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and begged her to do something. All the tears and desperate calls for help were meaningless — a few days later, what should have been a rescue mission became a recovery mission.

I must confess that I am dis- gusted with the way South Koreans behaved after the incident. Even though the president performed horribly when handling the situation, they still gave most of their votes to the president’s party in the parliamentary election in June. The public went into collective amnesia by happily watching their national soccer team get humiliated for their pathetic performance at the World Cup.

But that is not all. Some of the politicians from the president’s party and members of South Korean extreme right-wing groups have openly mocked the victims’ family. They argue that the families are just trying to get more compensation from the government. Some of these extreme right-wing group members even went as far as organizing a party where they binged on pizza and chicken in front of the families who were on hunger strike to demand justice for their loved ones. Of course, this was an effort to save the president’s face by shifting the blame away from her.

Sadly, I have to say that I am also witnessing the same unfortunate habits in Canada. The Mount Polley Mine incident in British Columbia occurred in a place that is not too far away from the Fraser River, the province’s most important water source. Tons of harmful heavy metals and toxic chemicals have been spilled into Polley Lake and unfortunately, this incident has been slowly drifting away from our memory.

What vexes me is that the Canadian media has been silent about the incident at the Mount Polley Mine for a while. The official report declared that the water in the area is fine for drinking quality but according to the report from VICE, the water sample collected from the area near the pond shows that the water in the area has been contaminated with questionable substances.

Is Canada also taking the same path that South Korea has been on for a long time? It might be a good idea to learn from others’ mistakes and speak up, even on issues we would rather remain silent on. Perhaps it is time to look back and see whether we have been on the right path.