Rex Murphy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
April 17, 2020
7:35 AM EDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there is one positive thing that can be said about this terrible\n plague we\u2019re enduring, it is that now and then, it gives the Trudeau \ngovernment some really, really great ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure it was only a \ncouple of weeks ago that the Liberals came up with the idea that they \u2014 a\n minority in Parliament, remember \u2014 should give themselves the power to \ntax and spend for the next two years, without having to get \nparliamentary approval. It was a truly brilliant idea, except that it \nignored the fact that approving government spending is one of the most \nimportant functions of Parliament. Take away its authority over spending\n and the House of Commons might just as well be any old bingo hall, or \nwith a little imaginative renovation, a one-of-a-kind Costco store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now,\n compliments of Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc, we learned that\n the Liberal government is contemplating legislation to make it an \noffence to, as a CBC report put it, \u201cknowingly spread misinformation \nthat could harm people.\u201d In plain language, this government is openly \nthinking of making itself the official censor of what can and cannot be \nsaid about COVID-19. Pure brilliance again, don\u2019t you agree?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, actually, no. Don\u2019t even think of it. Better still, to\n borrow a phrase from Greta Thunberg: how dare you? There is already a \ngovernment that has that power, and in some cases brutally exercises it.\n That is the government of the Communist Party of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what \nhas it done with that power? It barred telling the truth about COVID-19,\n and instead told lies about it. On the where it happened, when it \nhappened, how it happened and how it spread, the Chinese government \nconfounded, confused and lied about a plague that has now hobbled the \nwhole planet. And China \u201cofficially reprimanded\u201d the doctor who \ninitially tried to warn people about the coronavirus, and who, with \ndread irony, actually died from it. (A postmortem apology followed from \nthe government. That surely helped.) Admire the Chinese government if \nthat\u2019s your thing, but on this subject, it is not an example to be \nfollowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, let\u2019s tap this serpent of an idea on its little head\n before its fangs emerge and it develops a real appetite. The problem \nwith government having control over what is said and written, completely\n aside from it being the utter contradiction of a liberal democracy, is \nthat governments \u2014 especially on a matter such as this pandemic \u2014 are \nsimply not competent enough to know what is right and what is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is required for a government to pass a law against \nmisinformation? To begin with, it presumes an infallible authority \nthat\u2019s able to make judgments on what is, or is not, correct \ninformation. Even worse, it presumes the government has the ability to \nmake judgments on a matter that, incontestably, is not yet fully \nunderstood by anybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This virus is new. The investigation of its\n nature, transmission, the best policies to confront it, the extent of \nthe response to it, even the nature of the response \u2014 all of these \nelements are, at best, in an incomplete and early stage of \nunderstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts have varying degrees of skill and \nknowledge. If experts disagree, which happens often, will some of them \nbe silenced? In actuality, a divergence of opinions can be seen as a \npath to the full truth emerging. But this cannot happen if the \ngovernment gags those who may seem to be wrong at the present moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the purely political front, there are equal objections to\n giving government censorship powers. Governments take to extensions of \ntheir power like bears to honey. The more power they get, the more they \nbelieve they alone should exercise it. Power swells the ego. Add more \npower, and if you follow the analogy, a little balloon soon thinks it\u2019s \nthe Hindenburg. And a government swollen with power does not like other \nvoices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was only a couple of weeks ago that Prime Minister \nJustin Trudeau barred the leader of the Opposition from joining talks \nwith other opposition leaders because, in Trudeau\u2019s own memorable words,\n Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer \u201cdisqualified himself from \nconstructive discussions with his unacceptable speech earlier today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet\n it is not for Trudeau, or any other prime minister, to determine what \nis \u201cacceptable speech\u201d from his constitutionally positioned critic, the \nleader of the Opposition. Nor is it proper for this minority government,\n which has had enough struggles of its own over misinformation \u2014 on \nmasks, on screening at airports, on our relative security from the \npandemic \u2014 to decide what the rest of us can, and cannot, say or write \nabout this unique crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n National Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rex Murphy on COVID-19: The power to censor speech and other great ideas from our Liberal overlords Let’s tap this serpent of an idea on its little head before its fangs emerge and it develops a real appetite Rex Murphy … Continue reading ![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/04\/0128_na_leblanc.jpg?quality=60&strip=all&w=640\")
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