patrick.net

It came as no surprise to me to see activists ‘celebrating’ Canada Day by setting fire to churches and toppling statues of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, while chanting, ‘No pride in genocide.’ ...

But calls to cancel Canada Day seem wholly misguided and typically Canadian, as did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s response to the protests.

Trudeau dutifully said the word ‘accountability’ and commended Canadians for their bravery over the past year, participating in Zoom cocktail hours, ordering take out, and banging on pots and pans from the safety of their condos. ‘If we all pledge ourselves to doing the work,’ he said, ‘we can achieve reconciliation. We can build a better country for everyone.’

Everyone? I’m not so sure about that.

As part of their effort to build this better country for all, the Liberal party is working to push through a number of bills suppressing free speech for those who don’t identify as members of certain politicized minority groups or who are not fully on board with positions our government has deemed progressive.

Bill C-36, introduced last month, aims to tackle ‘online hate’ by amending Canada’s Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act. The bill would make it a ‘discriminatory practice’ to communicate hate speech online...

The bill seems like a great way to allow unhinged people with too much time on their hands to tie up the system with endless complaints about things other people say on the internet. Kind of like the way Twitter allows aggrieved activists whose beliefs and politics represent a tiny minority of the population to determine who may say what on the platform. And kind of like the way Jonathan/Jessica Yaniv was permitted to drag a bunch of Vancouver area estheticians to the BC Human Rights Tribunal, charging women with ‘discrimination’ for their unwillingness to wax his ‘female’ balls. Giving oversensitive individuals the power to use the courts to bully others into toeing their party lines is exactly the wrong direction for Canada, especially given the institutional and cultural capture we have already witnessed in North America, where even journalists are afraid to report accurately, for fear of cancellation. ...

But ‘hate speech’ — which is a relative term — does not limit participation in debate, whereas laws against ‘hate speech’ do. Indeed, the whole point of this kind of legislation is to ensure people cannot speak freely about certain issues, groups, and ideas. ....

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, wrote:

‘In a fully developed bureaucracy there is nobody left with whom one can argue, to whom one can present grievances, on whom the pressures of power can be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless, we have a tyranny without a tyrant.’ ...

Trudeau could be considered a ‘joiner’ which is how Arendt described Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi lieutenant colonel responsible for transporting countless Jews to concentration camps and their deaths. Canada’s do-good leader is not doing good — he is ruled by a desire to be viewed as ‘good’. ...

Our sex-based rights have been nullified that now a man who says he’s a woman must be accepted as such, regardless of how this identification impacts women and girls, their safe spaces, or their ability to compete in sport. A man can rape a woman yet claim to be female, and the media will report it as such, and our government will place him in a woman’s prison. Women’s reality (material, that is) no longer matters because it has been deemed hateful.

Lametti is the same man currently pushing Bill C-6 through the system, overriding the concerns of those who worry that such legislation will rush kids down the path to medical transition before they can possibly understand the long-term consequences.

Another Liberal bill, looking to be passed very soon, is Bill C-10, the Broadcasting Act reform bill, which would require social media platforms to take down content the Liberals determine to be ‘hateful’, meaning those who challenge government orthodoxy are likely to face censorship.

None of these bills aims to build a better country for all. In fact, they are incredibly harmful. This government has proven time and time again that it doesn’t care what the actual impact of its policies are, so long as they appear woke.

I am not a person who is proud to be Canadian. Not anymore, anyway. This country is run by cowards and imbeciles, and is populated by a complacent people that values its own personal comfort over the truth or doing what’s right. So excuse me for thinking that the act of canceling Canada Day is just as pointless and as narcissistic as participating in the BLM marches in Vancouver. In both cases, you are glomming on to another corporate-sponsored American movement, disconnected from Canadian practices and realities, for photo ops — all the while ignoring the dangerous laws being passed that harm women and girls. I am tired of superficial, performative activism and empty words taking center stage as fundamental rights are stolen right under our noses.

...we are ... limiting freedom of speech and expression, and encouraging activists who believe censorship, bullying, and destruction are an appropriate way to get their message across. We have a government that fears the wrath of a small number of individuals and abandons rationality and fundamental rights in order to maintain Canada’s reputation as being one of the most progressive countries in the world. Who cares about reality?