The old Soviet system made ample use of psychiatric hospitals to deal with ‘difficult individuals’ or refuseniks. [a person who refuses to follow orders or obey the law, especially as a protest.]
The official explanation was that no sane person would be against socialism [Covid mask/vax regulations].
Oct 12, 2021 | 3:17 PM
The Saskatchewan Health Authority now says it is putting together a COVID Enforcement Team. The group will be made up of mostly retired police officers who have special constable status. [deputised KGB or Cheka]?
The information was conveyed in the most recent Physicians Town Hall Meeting. Medical Health Officer Dr. Johnmark Opondo says the purpose of the CET is to enforce public health measures, in particular proof of vaccination non-compliance at businesses that are not typically regulated by public health inspectors. They will also be charged with enforcing masking public health measures.
In addition to a COVID Enforcement Team and an on-line form or phone number to report on fellow citizens [make snitching a patriotic duty?], the government is also setting up a secure isolation site [psychiatric prison hospital?] for those deemed needing to be isolated by a medical health officer.
“Public Health Inspectors and police, once the Medical Health Officer has signed a form for secure isolation, will be involved in assisting and transporting and moving people into the secure isolation site [psychiatric prison hospital?].”
This site, expected to be ready in the next three weeks, is going to be located at the Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford [this is the largest psychiatric hospital in the province].
They refer to those sent to the secure isolation site as clients, not detainees [or prisoners]. However they will be there under a detention order.
New Brunswick Christian Pastor Jailed for Not Enforcing COVID Restrictions at Worship — Yes, in New Brunswick, Not North Korea
How many more pastors have to be hauled off to jail and churches forcibly closed (or destroyed) before Canadians wake up to the religious persecution happening in their own backyard?
Pastor Phil Hutchings of His Tabernacle Family Church in Saint John, New Brunswick, was arrested on October 15 for disobeying a previous court order requiring him to enforce current public health mandates.Those mandates may prohibit unvaccinated individuals from entering the building, and if a church chooses not to check for vaccination status, the rules forbid singing and require congregants to wear masks, social distance, and contact trace inside the church.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees certain civil liberties to all Canadians, but Section 1 of the Charter also guarantees limitations on them.Is it reasonable to treat healthy Canadians as if they are sick and assume unvaccinated individuals are carriers of disease?
I was in Saint John, New Brunswick, last Friday at the Saint John Law Courts, where a group of church supporters gathered to pray for the incarcerated pastor.Click here to watch.Pastor Phil is expected to remain in jail until his hearing on October 22.We are currently helping Pastor Phil by fighting his fines through FightTheFines.com, and we have offered to support his family with his civil matters to lift this burden off of them and the church.We’ll have more to report after tomorrow’s hearing, but in the meantime, can you please sign our petition at SavePastorPhil.com to demand the government ends its persecution of the pastor. Yours truly,Mocha Bezirgan Chief Videographer
Rebel NewsP.S. Pastor Phil is currently being held for exercising his God-given and Charter-enshrined right to worship and gather with his congregants in direct contravention of New Brunswick’s COVID restrictions. His arrest is just the latest in the rapidly growing list of persecuted pastors and churches in Canada. If you would like to support Pastor Phil by signing our petition, please visit SavePastorPhil.com.
Whatcott update: Prosector’s closing arguments in Christian activist’s “hate law” trial
Dear Friends, . The Crown Prosecution has now wrapped up their arguments. In sensitivity to my lawyer I won’t comment too much beyond what those in the court and on Zoom could hear if they attended anyways.
To sum up the Prosecution’s argument, I think they quoted my medical stats and claimed I lied by saying “15,000 people succumbed to AIDS,” when the CDC claimed “15,000 died with AIDS.” In actual fact I think the number of people who definitively died was just over 10,000, so in any event I am closer to the truth than our current public health officers with their Covid stats. Of course I didn’t deliberately lie, what I did was search for stats as I knew things changed on the AIDS scene from when I was a nurse and when I read the stat I copied it and failed to parse it properly. In any event most of my other stats on HPV, syphilis, gonorrhea, etc…. are correct.
The Infectious disease specialist Dr. Mona Loufky disputed my Hepatitis A stat and then it came out that she completely ignored a Hep A outbreak that she was aware of in the homosexual community in Toronto. Statistics wise if her and I were to be marked on the accuracy of my flyer, I would likely get 85%, and I am a 20 year out of practice nurse. The way Dr. Mona Loufky attempted to minimize the accuracy of my flyer while giving “expert evidence” on my stats, I think she would only merit a 60% as she also underestimated the HPV of the rectum stats, and she is a current doctor. If one throws in that she called my male anal warts picture a female genital warts, maybe she would only merit a D. Sadly for the Ontario taxpayer, the Crown compensated her a nicely for D average accuracy, while they are seeking to put me in jail for 18 months for what would appear to be A- accuracy.
The “big lie” according to the Crown where I “deliberately lied to the police” was the origin of my “AIDS fatality” picture. The police asked me during their interrogation where I got the picture from and I think I said something to the effect “a medical website.” This is where I think I get most of my pictures. It seem to me when I put “anal warts” or “AIDS” in my Google searches medical and university websites is what often comes up. I guess the picture of the AIDS death for my flyer is actually a website called “cutedeadguys.net.” In actual fact it really doesn’t matter where my picture came from.
Having worked for 6 years in Toronto’s homosexual district with hundreds of homosexual men dying of AIDS in the 1990’s I know this poor fellow has died from AIDS. The medical expert was reluctant to call the lesions what they are Kaposi Sarcoma and then tried to discredit my picture by saying she never saw a wasting or skin lesion case like this and opined that Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe could have skin lesions similar to this.
Anyways, amongst the palliative cases that I had in Toronto that looked something like the fellow above (which were many), they were overwhelmingly homosexual males. The wasting condition of this fellow at his time of death and indeed the Karposi Sarcoma lesions on his body were not at all unusual for those being cared for by the Victorian Order of Nurses.
None the less, according to the Crown Prosecutor the fact I said “medical site” two years after making the flyer and not “cutedeadguys.net” is “proof” I lied to the police and “proof” I had criminal intent.
I think going from my memory of Friday this sums up the Crown Prosecutor’s case against me.
My next and final day in court will be this coming Tuesday, October 26, 10:00 am, in the Ontario Superior Court, 361 University Ave, Courtroom 4-6. The court will be held in person, so those who wish to attend in person will be able. The proceedings will also be available to watch through Zoom. If you wish to obtain a Zoom link please contact Arthur Schaper from Mass Resistance before this coming Tuesday, arthur@massresistance.org . My counsel John Rosen and Lindsay Daviou will make their closing arguments and then Justice Goldstein will decide whether or not I am guilty of committing a so-called “hate crime.”
Please continue to keep this matter in your prayers.
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:21-25 View more posts
Viscount Portman Latest Victim of Britain’s Soviet-era Anti-free Speech Laws
Soon after the “Russian” Revolution, criticism of Jews was made a capital offence in the Soviet Union.
Free speech challenged Britain just sentenced a British aristocrat Piers Portman, to 4 months in prison & 20,000-pound fine for calling a Jewish persecutor of satirical singer & free speech activist Alison Chabloz “Jewish scum” outside of court. Negative opinions about certain privileged groups are definitely not allowed in Not-so-Great Britain.
Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Decides the Charter is A Joke — No Problem Giving Unelected Chief Provincial Health Officer the Power to Close Churches & Businesses & Cancel Peaceful Assembly
Manitoba Chief Justice rules Public Health Officials shouldn’t be “second guessed”
POSTED ON: OCTOBER 21, 2021
MANITOBA: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is disappointed in the two concurrent decisions of Chief Justice Joyal of Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, upholding lockdown policies. The first Decision held that the authority given to Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin was constitutional. The second Decision held that the Manitoba Government’s lockdown restrictions were justified in their violations of the Charter– freedoms of conscience, religion, expression and peaceful assembly. Chief Justice Joyal also found that there had been no unconstitutional violations of the Charter rights to liberty, security of the person, and that there was no violation of equality rights on lockdowns that saw stores restricted to selling only goods the government deemed essential and churches closed for worship.
The hearings on these issues occurred earlier this spring.
During Covid, the Manitoba Legislature, comprised of the people’s democratically elected representatives, had been sidelined in favour of the authority of Dr. Roussin. The issued Orders were not considered, debated, amended, or studied by the legislature. There was no requirement that Dr. Roussin provide the legislature with reports on the Orders, or the science which supposedly supports them.
The Applicants filed expert reports authored by world-renowned Stanford Professor, Epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, former Manitoba Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Joel Kettner, and Infectious Disease specialist and Medical Microbiologist Dr. Thomas Warren. The materials before the Court were comprised of more than 2000 pages of peer-reviewed science and government data.
The onus was on the Manitoba Government to justify its restrictions on Charter rights and freedoms as being reasonable, necessary, and beneficial.
One of the crucial issues discussed in this trial was the operation and reliability of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test that is used by governments across Canada, including the Manitoba Government, to diagnose Covid and measure its spread. Manitoba’s expert microbiologist, Dr. Jared Bullard, admitted that the positive PCR does not diagnose whether someone has Covid-19, but rather is able to determine that a patient has remnants of SARS-CoV-2 in their nose which may have been there for up to 100 days. He acknowledged that a positive case could be someone who has not been contagious with Covid-19 for three months.
The action contended that Manitoba, Dr. Brent Roussin as Chief Public Health Officer, and Dr. Jazz Atwal as the Acting Deputy Chief Public Health Officer, failed to consider the collateral social and health costs of locking down society. The Applicants contended that the Public Health Orders which restricted religious gatherings, and indoor and outdoor gatherings could not be justified by section 1 of the Charter.
At 292 of the decision by Chief Justice Joyal, he stated, “In the context of this deadly and unprecedented pandemic, I have determined that this is most certainly a case where a margin of appreciation can be afforded to those making decisions quickly and in real time for the benefit of the public good and safety.”
He added, “…determination of whether any limits on rights are constitutionally defensible is a determination that should be guided not only by the rigours of the existing legal tests, but as well, by a requisite judicial humility that comes from acknowledging that courts do not have the specialized expertise to casually second guess the decisions of public health officials…”
“We are disappointed in these decisions and in the unwavering deference accorded to public health officials,” stated Manitoba lawyer Allison Pejovic. “We are carefully reviewing the decisions and are considering an appeal.”
“I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of abuse …” **
Our usual GATHERING at the Legislature. had a bit more bother on Oct 16th. The presence of cops on scene afterward was payday for the provocateur who’s shown up lately to counterprotest us. At noon – our meet up time – there were only three of us dissident voices. But it didn’t matter. I’ve been coming out for over a year, to have my say, regardless what else goes on. An important part of our gathering is big hugs all ‘round. We are a support group for folks who find ourselves anathema to friends / family, shunned for refusing to buy-in to the official nonsense. After a year in place this group is a beacon … the only game in town .. an ongoing witness against Medico-Stalinsim. By 1:00 pm, there were 46 warm bodies fellowshipping on a beautiful fall day
In the last few weeks we’ve been irked by provocateurs such as a guy spraypainting our signs, a skateboarder dressed all in black. That day, Victoria police were there in minutes, and took him away. Already in handcuffs, the fool started to fight them! So, he was wrestled to the pavement. To me, it looked contrived , as if he was putting on a show for dramatic effect. I suspect antifa.
We guessed right about the one who showed up week after week, standing in our ‘midst, holding her sign : VACCINES SAVE LIVES. Having seen such street theatre in ‘other movies’ [ my longtime political activism ] it was obvious the stage was being set for a made-for-media-moment. Sure enough, on Oct 6th the professional tv camera set up across the street, focused on her. On the news the next evening, the storyline was : ‘valiant little waif bullied by cranky refusniks’
The clip shown on CHEK TV was a textbook example of how a hit piece is done. Go out and gather raw footage, then edit it so our group is smeared for criticizing the Central Party Line. Give the devil his due, though. The money shot opens with a woman striding down the sidewalk towards the camerawoman screeching “I am Satan !!”. As crazyhot as it gets. The intrepid journalists then interviewed the target of the Screecher, namely Nell Saba, the pro-VaXX counterprotester – afterwards, in the green room. So the troublemaker came off as the sweet, cool voice of reason. Utter nonsense, of course, but the role of the LugenPress is twisting reality for mass consumption. Several of our regulars won’t come out anymore after that public relations disaster.
Yesterday, there was a bit of a punchup. Most of us protesting the Lockdown, were within earshot of 20 counterprotesters standing 50 yards away at the intersection. Usually, the core of our demo. is in the middle of the block, with people spread out, holding signs curbside for the length of the block. One of our own group, unhappy with how things have gone lately, chided us for standing at the usual spot. She demanded we all go to the intersection and challenge the counterprotesters. I declined to get in to such a petty turf war. What crossed my mind was what old Georgie Gordon taught us ; “you can avoid a lot more trouble than you can get yourself out of”.
My intuition was borne out within minutes. Story I got, is a man sidled up to a woman who was standing at the curb. He used his body to bump her in to the street. Not sure yet, if she was Nell Saba, or one on our side. Jeff Harris then went over to that guy, remonstrating. Video taken by a bystander shows Harris being punched first. Mr Harris then punched back. Nothing like fresh bright red blood all over a white face for shock value. The guy who’d done the bumping, that is. after the scuffle, I went up to Victoria Police officer Kersti, advising her that there are 4 witnesses to what had gone on. She waved at the security cameras up all ‘round, saying: “It’s all on video”. The cops did not take formal witness statements.
Witnesses told me a very curious factoid : vis, a black Tesla was stopped in the inside lane on Belleville Street at the very spot when the man bumped the woman into the street. After the punching happened, a guy came out of the melee, got in that car and drove away. Another strand of circumstantial evidence that the altercation was scripted.
Apparently Nell Saba’s sister Rose, is a reporter for the Trawna Globe& Mail. There you gO: linkage to an employee of the “legacy” media which received $61 million in subsidies, to puke-out the Central Party Line. What an amazing !! coincidence, eh?
In the US of A, the content and style of The Screecher [ supposedly on our side? ] would be freedom of speech in a public place. But it’s different in Canada. Both content and her style are at the margin of ‘qualified speech’ in this country. Because of the decibel level of her screeching, I’d warned her previously that she was in jeopardy of being charged with ‘Causing a disturbance by shouting’. To which she sneered : “This is what a protest looks like”. Direct quote. One wonders why this woman shows up at the same place and time to hang around with mild-mannered Canadians not on the same page as her? No doubt that clip will be used as evidence against us in the in-evitable court cases to come
The EVENT scheduled for Saturday Oct 16th in Duncan, was prohibited from convening on the big field by the Aquatic Centre, as we did in previous END the Lockdown rallies. Instead, participants were directed to stand alongside the highway holding signs. The RCMP told organizer Brian Egan that if any participants actually go on the field, the school board – which owns it – will consider them trespassers.
So the SitzKreig is over. Word went out from on high that public display of opposition to public health diktats, is to be stifled. The NDP administration is doing what thugs in power always do as their house-of-cards comes unglued — create pretext for gaoling Truthtellers. “bubble-zones” are to be imposed around schools and hospitals. Apparently, those who work there are so fragile that encountering a message contrary to myth about SARS2/Covid19 will be traumatized … the socalled Minister of Public Safety’ making teachers and healthcare workers “safe” by outlawing criticism of his government! Next stage, is … AG Eby calls on the Criminal Justice Branch. So, discussion of the rationale for official response to the foundational myth of SARS2/Covid19 gets submerged in the criminal INjustice racket.
Not waiting for the ink to dry on the Order paper in the House, Premier Horgan has drawn the battle lines. However they word it, his no-free-speech zones are an affront to what used to be called ‘common sense’. The NeeDiPpers know that resentment is festering against their assinine policy. Unable to admit they blundered badly, they are hipchecking political opponents in to the briarpatch of the legal racket. Ever since GrandWitch Bonnie bleated that our presence on the doorstep of the Ministry of Health headquarters was “unacceptable” – the pathetic-excuse for-a-newspaper in the province’s capital city the Timely Colonic (Victoria Times-Colonist) disparages us with letters to the Editor. The latest one comes very close to breaching section 319 of the Criminal Code : bringing a definable group into contempt. That would, us, walking around UNvaxxed, having the temerity to proclaim ourselves “naturally-immune. The non-GMO control group’ in this vast medical experiment
I can hardly wait to see what the NDP pretends as color of law for their regulation, illegal as it will be ab initio. As my old friend Doug Christie used to put it: FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS THE ISSUE.
This old warhorse = moi = welcomes Horgan’s announcement. It brings the issue to a fine point. I am soliciting a ‘flying squad’ of individuals who have a good grasp of the right to freedom of expression. If confronting the problem at Ground Zero is your idea of a good time, contact me.
The URL to a video record on the scuffle at the Leg. on Saturday October 16th. was posted on FaceBook, but I cannot locate it now. It does show a proVAXX guy throwing the first punch. But that doesn’t really matter. Little Miss Saba and her handlers – she’s not on her own doing this — got what they came for.
Finally : I see The Real Chris Sky (c) trademark is heading West, advertising his trip as the ROSA PARKS 2021 MOVEMENT. I find it hard to believe that Mr Soccaccia ( real name) and his handlers didn’t do their homework so as to know that The Real Rosa Parks was a card-carrying commie. Her notoriety arose from a piece of agitprop sponsored by the Communist Party USA. One is entitled to ask : is that the inspiration for Mr Sky’s project?
Indeed, he does have some good points speaking to crowds, but the circus that goes on around him – his “new Jersey dude bro thug act’ – disgusts me. . My take on it, is = the cartoon of Sky as celebrity spokesman for the End the Lockdown movement, is from the bag of tricks of Liberal Party ‘attack dog’ Warren Kinsella. One bit of circumstantial evidence, being Sky’s attack on the People’s Party, at Victoria on July 25th. He was invited to talk on condition he would NOT get political. But he did, spending 15 minutes of his hour on stage, slagging Maxime Bernier by name. Confer with lawsuit for defamation brought by Maxime Bernier against Warren Kinsella.
** As Mick Jagger sang back in 1969, on Let it Bleed
NOTICE: Kelowna Wednesday rallies will be on hold this week while we focus on our upcoming MEGA Rally. We will begin Wednesday rallies again on Wed. October 27th.
Upcoming RalliesKelowna CLEAR MEGA Rally Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021, 12:00 noon at Stuart Park,
Featuring:Tanya Gaw from Action4Canada Creator of the Notices of Civil Liability. Discussing the success of these Notices and her most recent court action in B.C. against Bonnie the Commie et al.
Ted Kuntz, Vaccine Choice CanadaOne of the most inspirational speakers in Canada. Updates from the founder of the most knowledgeable group, and one of the most knowledgeable speakers in Canada on all aspects of vaccine issues.
Dave Shearer, Owner One Eyed Budgie One of B.C.’s first businesses to refuse to enforce mask orders and a staunch advocate for freedom. The Difference between Power and ForceDave MechintonDiscussing his recent KGH vaccine related injuries, and their cover-up responses.Meet and greet all our awesome speakers!These big rallies have in the past, sent strong messages to the Gov’t and Bonnie the Commie, that there are a lot more people opposed to their lockdowns, than they admit!!
We need your support for this huge event and hope you will show up to support our speakers, and our march through downtown Kelowna.Please bring at least 3-5 friends and/or supporters to our rallies each week.Bring your signs! With other provinces passing stricter and stricter legislation, and BC close behind, we all have an obligation and need to spread the word about our weekly rallies. Now is NOT the time to leave our beautiful province, but to rally the troops around our cause. Our children and families deserve nothing less. ______Vernon Rally Saturday, October 23, 2021 12:00 noon @ Polson Park Say hi to Heather who is supporting the largest Northern Okanagan rallies. ______Kamloops Saturday October 23, 2021 12:00 noon @ Riverside Park Say hi to Glen and Corally supporting the best rallies in the Kamloops area.______Penticton Sun. Oct. 24, 2021 12:00 noon @ Warren & Main St. Say hi to Mary-Lou supporting the largest rallies in the Southern Okanagan.
Quebec nurses score victory!Thousands of united health care workers stood united at the Quebec Legislature against mandatory vaccines at work. After setting a deadline of Oct. 13 for all health care staff to be vaccinated or fired, on Oct. 12, Quebec M of H, Christian Dube, blinked first and announced he was extending this date until Nov. 30, as over 22 000 unvaccinated or partially vaccinated workers. Make no mistake, come Nov. 30, if the workers stay united, they will win! Dube acknowledged the system would collapse without these workers.
Chris Sky Calls for United Non-Compliance at Huge London Rally
LONDON, Ontario. October 16, 2021. It seemed like a NO MORE LOCKDOWNS rally had divine blessing. It had rained hard on Friday and was raining again Saturday morning. However, as the noon hour approached for the rally there were blue skies and a brisk Autumn wind. Organizers estimated that over 3,000 people from all over Southern Ontario attended the rally in downtown London’s Victoria Park.
The rally was called to support police who oppose forced vaccination and enforcement of the mandatory masks and, for many venues, vaccines, A dynamic star of the END THE LOCKDOWN movement, Chris Sky called for “united non-compliance” with the forced vaccination mandates. He urged people to ride public transit en masse on October 30, without masks or vaccine passports. “Just say NO,” he enthused. There are also plans to form civilian convoys to drive by four major airports in Canada to bring air travel to a halt. That’s the day the Trudeau government will require proof of double vaccination to board a plane. Yet, there will still be mandatory masking on the flights. Many airline employees oppose the vaccination requirement.
Mr. Sky believes that the government is running scared at the unexpected opposition it faces. “Listen to the quiver in Trudeau’s voice as he talks about the latest government forced mandate.. He is scared.” A number of speakers from various parts of Ontario spoke of local resistance to government. Derek Saulnier from Windsor said: “Medical without your consent is assault. Imposing a vaccine on an unwilling persons is cruel and unusual punishment.” He added that there are many medical professionals in Windsor refusing to take the vaccine. They have been threatened with firing.
The owner of Peterburgers in Peterborugh told of the struggle at his restaurant. “We opened three weeks before COVID struck,” he said. At first, the restaurant obeyed all the rules — the long lockdowns, the limited reopenings. However, when they were allowed to reopen recently, they decided there wold be no discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, masks or vaccine status. ” word spread, our business has tripled,” he said. Health authorities have harassed them and fined them $3,000 thus far for not enforcing masking and proof of vaccination.
In his talk, Chris Sky shouted: “We’re done with your masks; we’re done with your lockdowns and we’re done with your vaxx mandates!”
Almost ignored by the Fake News media is that END THE LOCKDOWN rallies are occurring regularly all over the province. A spokesman for the Grey-Bruce Freedom Fighters told of a rally in the town of Dundalk two weeks ago. |”We had 2,000 people attending in a town of 5,000,” he said.
For much of the afternoon a large drone, believed to be police surveillance, hovered just east of the rally. Many people turned around and gave the snoops the finger.
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
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Photo by The Canadian Press
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.
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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.