Check It Out: Why are Canadians rallying?
By Joan Janzen
Q: What are the similarities and differences between the Canadian and Chinese Constitution? A: Both have freedom of speech, but only one has freedom after speech.
Canadians need to safeguard their “freedom after speech”. Lawyer and broadcaster, Stephen LeDrew said Canadians are too complacent. “Until the truckers went to Ottawa, no one was saying anything about the fact that we have bad federal government.”
He went on to say it’s a travesty that no one is talking about Tamara Lich, an organizer of the convoy, who was jailed for nearly three weeks under a suspicion of public nuisance. “There are murderers who have been out faster than that,” he said.
LeDrew also said, “Our Minister of Public Safety came out publicly and said the reason we had the Emergency Act is because some of those truckers were threatening rape. That’s it. No evidence.” A woman in Ottawa asked, if this was true, why were women allowed to walk by all these people every day? LeDrew concluded, “These are the kinds of things that should not be going on in Canada. Let’s stand up for ourselves, and for what is right, and for decency in public life.”
Canadians are taking a stand. Freedom rallies continue to take place weekly from Toronto and Niagara to Victoria and Calgary, where thousands of happy people converge. In response, the mayor of Calgary wants to see Calgary police take a more aggressive approach in handling the weekly freedom rally protests in that city.
Jason Kenney says he doesn’t even know what the protests are about. “There still are some remaining federal travel regulations that we think are wrong,” he said, and suggested it’s time for Canadians to move forward.
So what could the rallies be about? One possibility was made by columnist Spencer Fernando who noted, “The anti-Canadian energy movement and the push to switch to renewables long before it’s feasible has been revealed as a disastrous error, from both an economic and national security standpoint.”
Canadian Jordan Peterson discussed the dangers of Bill C-67. “Critical race theorists assume human identity is best understood at the group level. These theorists define offence and harm as subjectively determined. Anyone who feels victimized by any statement, made by anyone, for any reason, is fully justified in their claim of harm regardless of the intent of the author of the statement, who is then deemed guilty and denied the opportunity for a reasonable defence. Bill 67 will mandate this in every institution.” Peterson said. If it passes in Ontario, the rest of the provinces in Canada will likely follow suit.
Other bills Canadians could be concerned about are: Bill C-11, wherein government determines what people can and cannot say online, or Bill C-233, an attempt to introduce a universal basic income. Bill C-26 is about developing a national strategy to assess and address environmental racism and environmental justice, which are not defined in the bill. But the assumption seems to be that every outcome is caused by racism.
Meanwhile there are continued restrictions within Canada in regards to flights, ferries, trains and cruise ships. Canadians want their local representatives to put pressure on the federal government to end this discriminatory and unnecessary public policy. And, unfortunately it’s not a joke, but reality, that an increase to the federal carbon tax will take place on April 1.
All of the above bills and concerns have one commonality: government overreach. At the end of the day, Canadians want to to be able to conduct their daily lives without government interference and discrimination.
In conclusion, we can ask ourselves what Canadians could possibly find to protest about? Could all the above bills and issues mentioned explain why Canadians are rallying together outdoors in frigid temperatures, rather than sitting comfortably in their warm homes? Could it be, they not only want freedom to speak, but desire the eventual outcome to be the ability to live out and enjoy freedom in their daily lives? It’s something to think about.