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Tag Archives: Justin Trudeau
Another Victim of the War in Ukraine: Canadians’ Right to See News From Russia Squelched
RTC bans Russian state-controlled TV channels RT, RT France from Canadian airwaves
[As if the CBC isn’t state propaganda, the taxpayer-funded voice of the Ottawa elite. Trudeau and the CRTC’s decision to deny access to Russia Today denies Canadians the opportunity to access a different point of view. Trudeau, the arch control freak, who desperately wants to limit what Canadians can say on the Internet, complains: “There is a significant amount of disinformation circulating from Russia, including on social media, and we all need to keep calling it out.” Perhaps, there is and in Ukrainian media too. Remember to Snake Island Hoax — the 13 brave Ukrainian soldiers who answered a Russian gunboats demand to surrender with “fuck you” and were all blown up. Truth: They surrendered and are all alive. Canada’s Fake News media is also notorious for its lies and suppression. Canadians should have the right to access foreign media and judge for themselves. — Paul Fromm]
Broadcasters Rogers, Bell and Shaw removed RT from their networks in February
Peter Zimonjic · CBC News · Posted: Mar 16, 2022 1:24 PM ET | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
Canada’s telecommunications regulator has removed the state-controlled Russian television network RT from Canadian airwaves.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced Wednesday afternoon that it was removing RT and RT France from the list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution in Canada.
The decision means broadcasters in Canada are no longer legally permitted to carry the channel.
The multilingual 24-hour news channel launched in 2005, when it was known as Russia Today, and now appears in more than 100 countries, according to its website.
Funded by the Russian government, the channel has long been described by critics as a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin.
“RT’s programming is not consistent with the standards against which Canadian services are measured nor the policy objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act,” the CRTC said in its decision.WATCH | Canada bans Russian state-controlled RT:
Canada bans Russian state media from airwaves
5 hours agoDuration 2:06Canada’s telecommunications regulator, the CRTC, has removed the state-controlled Russian television network RT from Canadian airwaves. 2:06
“The CRTC is also concerned with programming from a foreign country that seeks to undermine the sovereignty of another country, demean Canadians of a particular ethnic background and undermine democratic institutions within Canada.”
The decision is not a surprise. On March 3, the CRTC published a “preliminary view” that suggested it was inclined to ban the channel.
“The Commission is of the preliminary view that RT’s programming may not be consistent with the Commissions’s broadcasting regulations, in particular, the abuse comment provisions such as those set out in Section 5 of the Television Broadcasting Regulations 1987,” the CRTC said on its website.
Under Section 5, abuse is defined as words or images that “expose an individual or a group or class of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or mental or physical disability.”
Broadcasters pull RT’s plug
The CRTC said in its decision Wednesday that non-Canadian news services should be held to the same standards as Canadian news outlets.
“Freedom of speech and a range of perspectives are a necessary part of our democracy. However, it is a privilege and not a right to be broadcast in Canada,” said CRTC CEO Ian Scott in a statement.
Jason Woycheshyn, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Bar Association, was one of the individuals who made a submission to the CRTC. He asked the CRTC to ban RT, arguing that there is “no need [for] or interest” in Russian propaganda in Canada.
“That’s the basis upon which we are requesting that the CRTC ban all access, whether it be on the airwaves, television, radio or internet, to Russia Today or any other state-sponsored propaganda media Russia is currently promoting,” he said.
On Feb. 27, Rogers, Bell and Shaw announced that they would no longer carry RT.
“Customers who subscribe to RT as a pick and pay service will receive a credit in the next billing cycle,” Shaw said in a tweet at the time.
The following day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that while broadcasters had started removing RT from their lineups, he would ask the CRTC to review the broadcaster’s licence to ensure that any decision to ban the channel goes through an arm’s-length process.
“There is a significant amount of disinformation circulating from Russia, including on social media, and we all need to keep calling it out,” Trudeau said at the time.
The day after Trudeau’s announcement, Regina-based Access Communications announced that it too was removing RT from its AccessNexTV Stream lineup.
This is What Trudeau’s Police State Looks Like: Chilliwack Single Mom’s Bank Account Frozen for $50 Donation to Truckers & Ottawa Mayor Wants to Steal Truckers’ Vehicles
Canadian MP Details How Struggling Single Mother’s Bank Account Has Been Frozen By Trudeau Regime
by Steve Watson February 22nd 2022, 6:41 am
Because she dared to donate $50 to the truckersImage Credit:LeslieLauren / Getty ImagesShareLIVE
Canadian MP Mark Strahl related how a single mother in his district has had her bank account totally frozen by the Trudeau regime after she completely legally donated $50 to the trucker Freedom Convoy.
“Briane is a single mom from Chilliwack working a minimum wage job,” Strahl tweeted, adding “She gave $50 to the convoy when it was 100% legal. She hasn’t participated in any other way. Her bank account has now been frozen.”
The MP further urged “This is who Justin Trudeau is actually targeting with his Emergencies Act orders.”
In a follow up post, Strahl noted that the mother was attacked online by anti-freedom trolls after his initial tweet.
“I am not going to help you dox her,” Strahl asserted, adding “I know who she is and I won’t stop fighting for her.”
This is just one of hundreds if not thousands of cases, however the exact number of accounts that have been frozen is unknown because, despite the demands of MPs, the government will not provide further information.
In addition to targeting bank accounts, the mayor of Ottawa Jim Watson has suggested confiscating vehicles from freedom protesters and selling them, thus taking away their livelihoods.
“This is costing a small fortune for the taxpayers of Ottawa,” Watson claimed, adding “That’s one of the reasons why under the Emergencies Act, I’ve asked our solicitor and our city manager: How can we keep the tow trucks and the campers and the vans and everything else that we’ve confiscated, and sell those pieces of equipment to help recoup some of the costs that our taxpayers are absorbing? So that’s one of the provisions of the Emergencies Act, and we have been a beneficiary of the Emergencies Act.”
The tyrannical actions of the Canadian government are now on show for all to see. Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance Pierre Poilievre slammed Trudeau’s “unjustifiable power grab,” and specifically addressed the targeting of those who have donated to the “wrong political cause.”
Poilievre described it as “Not just an attack on their finances, but on their personal security.”
He emphasised “If your bank account is frozen, you can’t buy food, you can’t buy fuel, you can’t pay your children’s daycare fees, and you can, under this law, face that personal attack without being charged with a single solitary crime.”
Poilievre further warned “This is time limited, but his own finance minister said she wants some of the tools to be permanent. He said it will be geographically targetted, yet his own parliamentary secretary for justice said ‘the act technically applies to all of Canada,’ so the rules apply everywhere and indefinitely.”
Watch: https://rumble.com/embed/vst0gi/?pub=4
The comments came as Trudeau vowed that emergency measure will remain in place, and the Canadian parliament voted to keep them in force.
As we noted yesterday, Canada has moved to make the asset freezing part of its Emergencies Act a permanent fixture.
Police Brutality – Time to Pick a Side
| ProtecPolice Brutality – Time to Pick a Sideing Faith, Family and Freedom | |
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Police have sworn an oath to protect the citizens of Canada and to uphold the law. Those that are in violation must be documented/recorded and held to account. See Call to Action below! Trudeau’s desperate attempt to hold on to power by invoking the Emergencies Act changes nothing for Canadians. First of all, he has not demonstrably proved that there is an emergency and in fact had to fabricate one in order to facilitate his subversive attack as he grapples to hold on to power. Secondly, even if he succeeds in prolonging the Emergencies Act it states very clearly in the preamble that the Charter of Rights and Bill of Rights are “fundamental rights that are not to be limited or abridged even in a national emergency.” Trudeau doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He knows it and this is his last hurrah. It is critical for Canadians to rise up en-masse in civil disobedience, Canada wide, to support the truckers. Officers Holding the Line and Siding with the People!  |
Join Tanya with special guests Daniel Bulford, former RCMP (protection detail for the PM) and Vincent Gircys, retired OPP Officer. Daniel and Vincent have been in Ottawa on the front line, supporting the peaceful assembly, holding the line and encouraging others to do the same. Daniel and Vincent have both been outspoken in holding the government to account for their draconian measures, and in support of our democracy and freedom. Register in Advance.
Daniel was recently arrested and then released without charge, like the vast majority. Trudeau, with the help of the Ottawa police, is attempting to use fear and intimidation as he struggles to maintain power. Read More.
What to Say to Ottawa Police when Stopped at Checkpoints
Hon. Brian Peckford is the last surviving architect of the Charter and in his own words he very clearly states, “Section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedom’s intent was to apply to war, insurrection and if the state was in peril. The Ottawa situation hardly fits into any of these categories, now does it? That’s why the Charter is in the Constitution Act and not just another Federal or Provincial Act.”
Is this Really Happening in Canada?!
The police spin was that the crowd was too close to the police line and so it was necessary to use the horses to create some space. The media spin said a bike was thrown at a horse. The reality was that an older, Mohawk lady who had a mobility walker, and who was having a peaceful conversation with the police, was brutally trampled by police on horseback. Read more.
Police Brutally Targeting Independent Reporters
Appalling Conduct by Ottawa Police
The question being asked should be:
Who are they and where did THEY come from? Police take an oath in Canada to serve and protect citizens, not a corrupt government.
If your rights have been violated or you have been assaulted by the police, file a complaint and request an investigation.
It is Effective to File Complaints Against Police
The Ontario Special Investigation Unit have commenced investigations into two police-involved incidents that occurred at the protest in Ottawa yesterday. They are seeking video evidence of the events.
Ottawa Police Chief Complicit to Treason?
There is no question, if you are not for us you are against us. If you support Trudeau’s unlawful and illegal actions, you are an enemy of the State. Is the Ottawa Police Chief being compensated well to commit these offenses against his fellow Canadians?
His announcement is meant to intimidate and instill fear. This posturing is evident when you consider that nearly all of the citizens who were recently arrested at the “peaceful assembly” were released with no charge!
An Appeal to Police to Stand with the People
Chrystia Facsist Freeland: Freezing Bank Accounts?
Banks and other financial institutions are now legally required to monitor for dissidents and freeze their assets if they suspect someone has participated in dissident activities. On top of that, they’ve become a part of the State’s surveillance apparatus — they have to tell the RCMP or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), account details of potential dissidents. Read more.
We need to appeal to law enforcement and ask them to not participate in the illegal actions of the government.
Call to Action!
- We MUST call on law enforcement to stand WITH the people they swore an oath to serve and protect.
- If an officer has violated your rights, file a complaint. Be sure to keep a record and compile evidence.
- Contact RCMP Executives and Provincial Commanders and appeal to them to uphold their oath and stand with the people and NOT the tyrannical corrupt government.
- Encourage kids to appeal to police as well.
- Continue to contact the Liberal MPs and demand they remove Trudeau and then resign.
- Write the Senate and appeal to them to not support the Emergency Measures Act.
Remember: Freedom of speech, thought, belief and the right to life, liberty and security of the person are guaranteed. We do not need to beg, barter or ask for them…they are ours for the taking.
Please consider becoming a monthly donor to help Action4Canada continue to bring solutions and hope to the nation!
God bless you and God bless Canada!
The Team
@ Action4Canada
Paul Fromm on “The Political Cesspool” Reports on Trudeau’s Emergency Measures to Crush Dissent in Canada
Paul Fromm on “The Political Cesspool” Reports on Trudeau’s Emergency Measures to Crush Dissent in Canada
Hosts James Edwards and Keith Alexander set the stage for another busy show. Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression, co-stars this hour when he delivers an update on the riveting fight for freedom in the Great White North.https://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/radio-show-hour-1-2022-02-19/
It’s A Dark Day for Canada — Maxime Bernier
It’s A Dark Day for Canada — Maxime Bernier
There is violence in the streets of Ottawa.
The police, armed with riot gear, are brutalizing and arresting peaceful demonstrators from the truckers’ convoy.
Meanwhile, Parliament is not sitting today because of this police operation. All parties agreed to stay away while the regime cracks down on dissidents.
Just like in a banana republic.
They should have been debating Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.
The Emergencies Act replaced the War Measures Act in 1988. The only other times in Canadian history that it was invoked were during the First and Second World Wars, and during the October Crisis in 1970.
There is no emergency in Canada. No war, no insurrection, no terrorist attack, no sanitary or environmental catastrophe that justifies invoking this law.
It’s outright illegal, undemocratic, and unconstitutional for this government to give itself exceptional powers to deal with peaceful demonstrators.
It’s a power grab on Trudeau’s part to crush dissidence, that’s all it is.
Trudeau and his Finance minister Chrystia Freeland have given themselves the power to freeze the bank accounts not only of the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, but of anyone who is suspected of helping and funding them.
And we’re supposed to believe that a government that has violated our Constitution and our rights and freedoms for two year will not abuse these new powers?
Frederick, it’s a dark day for Canada.
But it’s not over. We will continue to fight this authoritarian government, and bring back freedom, respect and justice to this country.
Don’t despair. Stay strong and free.
-Max
Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up REBEL NEWS reporter David Menzies
Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up REBEL NEWS reporter David Menzies
I’m angry and sad at the same time.
Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up our reporter David Menzies. It was completely unprovoked.
David was standing on a public sidewalk outside a public event where Trudeau was going to a Liberal Christmas party. David was doing what all media do — waiting patiently to call out a question to Trudeau as he walked in.
But Trudeau’s bodyguards know Rebel News. And they hate Rebel News. Because their boss hates Rebel News.
Trudeau says it again and again. He says we’re not real reporters. He says we don’t deserve any respect. He publicly blames us for the sorry state of Canada. He personally bans us from attending public press conferences. And if we manage to get in, he insults us, instead of answering our questions.
So after demonizing us and denormalizing us and defaming us for five years, his staff got the message.
And so they attacked us.
They smashed David’s face against the wall — you can clearly see that David was so stunned, he couldn’t speak straight. They beat him up, they bloodied him. They destroyed his property.
David had to go to the doctor later that night — his ears were still ringing and he was bloodied and cut.
There is no excuse for this.
David did nothing wrong. He was never arrested. He was never charged with anything. He committed no crime — he literally was just standing on the sidewalk, waiting to ask a question.
The crime was committed by Trudeau’s thuggish bodyguards — who knew they were doing something evil, and refused to tell David their names, despite the legal requirement to do so.
They beat him up just because he was with Rebel News, and Trudeau has let the world know Rebel News does not deserve respect.
Enough is enough.
Every day, Trudeau becomes more of an authoritarian bully. He rules by decree, not bothering to consult Parliament. He’s ordered the government to crack down on his opponents on the Internet — specifically against YouTube channels like ours. And of course he has banned Rebel News from attending any press conferences or even covering the Leaders’ Debates during the election campaign.
(That was quite a telling moment: mere hours after the Federal Court of Canada ruled that Rebel News must be accredited at the Leaders’ Debates, Trudeau refused to answer our reporters’ questions, saying we were not in fact journalists — even though the court just said that we were. He defied and disrespected the court order upholding our Charter rights. Is it any wonder that his personal bodyguards feel they don’t have to obey the law, either?)
This is the worst thing that has happened to a Rebel News reporter in our seven years. We’ve had street thugs and Antifa members attack our reporters. But never a government bodyguard.
The Toronto Police Service came quickly, but they refused to lay charges against Trudeau’s thugs, despite the assault being caught on video. They know it would be career suicide to cross Trudeau.
So we have to go to court ourselves.
Today we filed a lawsuit on behalf of David. It’s very simple — just 10 pages long. Click here to read it for yourself.
It details the vicious assault by Trudeau’s henchmen. And it also describes how this was entirely foreseeable: for five years Trudeau has demonized us as an enemy. It was only a matter of time before his personal staff took the hint and beat a Rebel News reporter up to please their master.
This isn’t how we live in Canada. This is the kind of thing that you might expect from an authoritarian regime like Turkey or Russia or Venezuela. Imagine if Stephen Harper’s bodyguards had beat up a CBC reporter! But I fear that because most of the media is on Trudeau’s payroll now too, they’ll be silent — or even say that David “deserved it”.
Please help us fight back for David. It’s not just David who got beat up by Trudeau; it’s the very idea of a free and independent press, and the right of non-government journalists to ask questions of our political class.
If Trudeau and his thugs can get away with this, what’s next? Raiding our Rebel News offices? Jailing our reporters?
This cannot stand.
If you agree with me, please click here, or go to StandWithDavid.com. Help chip in to cover our lawsuit against Trudeau — we’re suing the RCMP, the three officers involved, and the government itself. (You can see our full lawsuit by clicking here.)
This isn’t about money — it’s about holding Trudeau’s goons to account. A lawsuit like this could easily cost us $75,000 in legal fees. It really is a David versus Goliath story — and I stand with David. And if you do too, please go to StandWithDavid.com — thanks.
And while you’re there, please sign our petition to Brenda Lucki, Trudeau’s hand-picked RCMP commissioner, who has done nothing but protect Trudeau and investigate his enemies. Tell her that she must suspend her three thugs who beat up David, and call in an outside investigator to review their misconduct. At that same website you can also click on an email that will be sent directly to Brenda Lucki.
I’ve watched that video of David being assaulted three times, and each time it makes me feel worse. Not just for how brutish the RCMP has become towards David himself but also for how brutish they have become towards our freedoms.
Please help me stand with David.
Yours truly,
Ezra Levant
P.S. David did nothing wrong. He was standing on a sidewalk, waiting to ask a question of Trudeau as he walked in to his lavish Christmas party (mask-free of course; but you’re supposed to cancel your family Christmas gathering). Trudeau’s thugs attacked him simply because he works for Rebel News.
P.P.S. Trudeau and the RCMP have unlimited resources. The last time we took them to court, they sent SEVEN government lawyers to fight against us. (That was when they banned us from the Leaders’ Debates). But we won that battle, and I believe we’ll win this one. We just need your help to pay for the lawsuit — please click here to help us. If you give us the tools, we’ll finish the job. (Thanks.)
P.P.P.S. If bodyguards for a conservative politician had beat up a liberal journalist, what would be the reaction from the Media Party? It would be the only thing they would talk about until the politician resigned and the bodyguards were prosecuted. I predict we won’t hear a peep from the Media Party — they’re all on Trudeau’s payroll, and they don’t want to be roughed up either. Please click here to help.
Trudeau’s Internet Censorship Agenda Condemned By Google
Trudeau’s Internet Censorship Agenda Condemned By Google
“There are aspects of the government’s proposal that could be vulnerable to abuse and lead to over removal of legitimate content.”
 | Brad Salzberg Nov 14 |
A recent blog post from Google Canada tells the story. The internet giant has stated that “there are aspects of the government’s proposal that could be vulnerable to abuse and lead to over removal of legitimate content.”
In what has to be the most hated piece of proposed legislation in modern times, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has had enough. Tired of the tedium of freedom of speech, Mr. Trudeau is calling for the implementation of an internet censorship program within 100 days of return to Parliament.
In reaction, former CRTC commissioner Peter Menzies stated that “granting a government agency authority over legal user generated content constitutes an assault on the foundations of democracy.”
Canada is currently on a path to regulating online harms that internet authorities such as Global Network Initiative, Ranking Digital Rights, internet scholar Daphne Keller and legal scholar Michael Geist have decried as among the worst in the world.
“Canadians won’t notice the strong arm of government controlling their internet posting and browsing right away. This is going to be creeping censorship – death by a thousand bureaucratic edicts.”
“The million little affronts to free speech will begin two to five years from now when the big targets have been mostly subdued.”
In other words, the stifling of diversity of opinion on the internet will unfold in the fashion of all Trudeau-led social transformations: incrementally, for the purpose of seducing Canadians into passivity and acceptance.
Another method of seduction reeks of Trudeau-brand neo-liberalism: a fusing together of draconian measures with human rights-based altruism.
The online harms bill would target online posts in five categories — terrorist content, content that incites violence, hate speech, intimate images shared non-consensually, and child sexual exploitation content.
What sensible person doesn’t want child abuse to be curtailed? On this basis, censorship Bill C-10 and Bill C-36 can be perceived as wholly benevolent– meanwhile, the devil remains in the details.
According to a National Post article from July, 2021, the Liberal government’s online harms bill would create a new regulator for illegal content with sweeping powers that critics say raise concerns about secret proceedings and Canadians’ Charter Rights:
“Its authority would include the ability to send inspectors into workplaces and homes in search for documents.”
Meaning authorities would maintain the right to walk into the homes of Canadians to investigate hate crime allegations. Memories of George Orwell’s “1984?” Or rather, the creeping phenomenon of neo-totalitarianism comes to Canada.
According to Daphne Keller, Director of Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, Canada’s proposal “is like a list of the worst ideas around the world– – the ones human rights groups have been fighting in the EU, India, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, and elsewhere.”
Guess who agrees?
– Arab Canadian Lawyers Association
– British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
– Canada Palestine Association
– Canada Palestine Support Network
– Canadian BDS Coalition
– Canadian Arab Federation
– Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW)
– Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
– Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
– Canadians for Peace and Justice in Kashmir (CPJK)
– Canadians United Against Hate
– Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land
– Community Coalition Against Racism
– Continuing Education Students’ Association
– Independent Jewish Voices Canada
– International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
– Islamic Social Services Association
– Jewish Liberation Theology Institute
– Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel, ON Canada
– Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
– PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
– Palestinian Canadian Congress
– Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
– South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario
– Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project
That’s right–all these multicultural organizations have signed a petition that opposes Trudeau’s Canadian Internet Firewall Proposal.
Catching our collective breath, we ponder the ramifications of a comprehensive rejection of the Trudeau government’s proposal. To what extent will this affect internet censorship?
Cultural Action Party has an opinion– the answer is to no extent at all. In this dynamic we discover an axiomatic truth regarding contemporary Canada: what government wants, government gets.
Democracy, or neo-communism? Time and again, Team Trudeau utilize the same methodology. Position the agenda as one of social benevolence. It is in the best interests of society.
According to a poll from Blacklock’s Reporter, 80% of Canadians believe the online content they consume is factual and truthful. 66% feel confident in their ability to tell if online content is fair and balanced.
Let CAP deliver a conclusion in our typically candid manner: no one wants what the ruling Liberal government is proposing. Except perhaps Canadian media organizations. After all, if Bill C-10 and Bill C-36 pass, it will re-route revenues lost to them resulting from the rise of alternate media– aka the internet
We arrive at the crux of the matter. In a pattern which encapsulates post-modern Canadian society, what we have here is a battle of government/media versus the people.
Arjun Singh: Left wing values have invaded Canada’s legal system and diminished our charter rights
Arjun Singh: Left wing values have invaded Canada’s legal system and diminished our charter rights
Why Canada should abolish Section 1 Author of the article: Arjun Singh, Special to National Post Publishing date: Sep 23, 2021 • September 23, 2021 • 4 minute read • 370 Comments
By all accounts, vaccine passports are here. Quebec, with the most provincial chutzpah, first introduced them, and B.C. followed suit. As have Ontario and Alberta, after Doug Ford’s U-turn from his “Hard no” earlier this year and Jason Kenney’s similar opposition . Outside government, scores of businesses are mandating vaccinations for employees, with proof being required — else, they be terminated.
Article content
One would think, in governments’ cases, that the law would safeguard citizens’ freedoms. Indeed, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that Canadians have the “freedom of conscience and religion” (Section 2a), freedom of movement within Canada (Section 6) and “equal protection … before the law” (Section 15). At the very least, this would prevent the imposition of vaccine passport requirements on citizens — vaccinated or otherwise — for travelling, let alone while accessing basic services: for most charter rights are fundamental. Quebec’s programme and the Trudeau Liberals’ recent federal vaccine mandate for flights and trains, thus, ought to be dismissed.
But this is Canada: where, for years, left-wing Liberal values have slowly invaded our legal system. This was true for Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliot, as it is now. Hence, in 1982, when the charter was introduced, its first section included the following proviso: “The Canadian Charter … guarantees the rights and freedoms set out subject only to reasonable limits … as can be justified in a free and democratic society.” In essence, the charter rights of anyone may be limited for what the state considers “reasonable.”
By itself, this clause is only partly dangerous. Absolute freedom, in any context — especially if causing physical harm — is undesirable; as the ever-pithy Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said, “the right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose.” But, as most would agree, allowing the government to judge whether its own acts are “reasonable” is, itself, an invitation for power to abuse such privilege. From Quebec’s strict curfews to Ontario’s police crackdowns, the pandemic and its oppressive responses in the name of “science” have laid that truth bare.
In response, one would expect the courts, upon petition, to step in and stop government overreach, being the constitution’s supposedly “non-partisan” referees. Until 1986, in Canada, that was true — until left-wing jurists, after rewriting the law, captured the judiciary that interpreted them. That year the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by Trudeau appointees, established the Oakes Test in R. v. Oakes to determine what restrictions on charter rights were “reasonable.” Among others, it allowed the curbing of charter freedoms in the name of “a commitment to social justice and equality” and “respect for cultural and group identity.”
With this decision, a faction of activist judges — seeing the constitution as a ‘living tree’ to be pruned without the people’s consent — reset the foundations of freedom overnight, bending them towards progressive politics. Instead of having minimal restraints for public order, all charter freedoms could now be legally impeded in the name of contested left-wing concepts like “social justice” and protecting “group identity.”
Worse, neither did the court define what these terms meant, enabling the left — via its dominance of social science academia — to influence their meanings, suiting the moment’s political objectives. As its late Chief Justice, Antonio Lamer, himself said, Section 1 empowered judges to “make essentially … a political call.” In effect, the constitutional “referees” changed the rules mid-game, to ensure their side would always win.
Thus, with Oakes, the dangers of Section 1 were fully unleashed, and have since beat a toll on Canadians’ civil liberties — capturing our constitution for the supremacy of “woke” social mores. “Whoever would overthrow a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech,” said Benjamin Franklin; and, true to form, it was one of the first casualties. In the Keegstra and Andrews decisions, the Supreme Court used Section 1 to allow the criminalization of speech “inciting hatred” — an ambiguous offence, at best, which effectively curbs free speech for the sake of hurt feelings. Once more, in the Little Sisters case, Section 1 rubber-stamped the Chretien Liberals’ banning of LGBTQ books’ import for their “obscenity.” This spate has continued, with governments and courts in concert over the years using Section 1 to curb the presumption of innocence until proven guilty (R. v. Stone), conservatives’ participation in elections (Harper v. Canada) and, most recently, to ban travel by citizens during COVID-19 (Taylor v. The Queen).
In defending such overreach on the charter, the progressive establishment has often asserted the notion of “collective rights” as the reason for restraining individuals, e.g., “safe spaces” precluding free speech to avoid public offence. There are few greater absurdities than this; “rights” exist to protect individuals and minorities from tyranny of the majority, which — with strength in numbers — needs no further safety in a democracy. By claiming a “collective right” of any kind, the Canadian left turns the very notion of rights on its head. It is legal fiction at best, and a neo-Marxist praxis at worst — a desperate attempt to stir up “class conflict” between the majority and minority where none ought to exist.
In the future, it’s highly likely that Section 1 will be used again to uphold encroachments upon citizens’ rights — from vaccine passports to online censorship (e.g., Bill C-10) and others. Canadians must, hence, stand on guard for thee and expunge this threat — regardless of the high bar for constitutional change. If Section 1 is the end of charter rights, we must end it, first.
Arjun Singh is a recent graduate of political science from the University of Toronto.
Paul Fromm on Free Speech and the 2021 Federal Election
Paul Fromm on Free Speech and the 2021 Federal Election
Talk given in Hamilton, October 17, 2021
* UPDATE ON RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONER DR. JAMES SEARS
* Almost daily a new abuse — vaccine apartheid in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba & B.C.
* Freedom protests banned outside hospitals in Alberta & Quebec
https://worldtruthvideos.website/watch/paul-fromm-on-free-speech-and-the-2021-federal-election_XAHBzeJa2AoVzWs.html
