No Balance
When Canada’s social experimenter, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, repatriated the Constitution of Canada on April 17, 1982, he famously made the remark, ‘For if individuals and minorities do not feel protected against the possibility of the tyranny of the majority, if French-speaking Canadians or native peoples or new Canadians do not feel they will be treated with justice, it is useless to ask them to open their hearts and minds to their fellow Canadians.’ It was a laudable goal to ensure that Canadian minorities felt protected but there were rumblings at the time that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the first part of the Constitution would cause unnecessary strife to Canada. In fact, Canada almost blew apart because of a Manitoba MLA, Elijah Harper’s opposition to PM Mulroney’s Meech Lake Accord. As a minority of one, the Oji-Cree politician opposed the Accord due to First Nations issues. His obstinate rejection ultimately led to the 1995 Québec Referendum which narrowly was won by the pro-Canada side. The tables have turned and present day Canada has been gripped by the tyranny of the vocal minority.
On July 10, 2017, a local Halifax Mi’kmaq activist threatened in a Facebook post that her group was ‘REMOVING CORNWALLIS’ the next Saturday at 12 pm. Uttering threats to destroy property is an offense according to the Criminal Code of Canada Section 264.1(1)(b) punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment. The group repeated their threat right up until the morning of the event. The authorities, led by Halifax’s mayor, Mike Savage, had no intention to uphold Canadian law prior to or on that day but instead caved to the strident minority and draped the beleaguered statue of the city’s founder in a tarp. The few police officers present appeared to be there in case of a counter-protest. Regardless of ample evidence that Governor Edward Cornwallis was not a Hitler-like tyrant bent on Native genocide, the statue’s days are numbered and it will probably be quietly removed in the dead of night similar to Confederate statues in the US Southern states. The press has been complicit in pushing the narrative because except for one excellent counter-balance article on the full history, all they focus on is the Governor’s 1749 bounty on the Mi’kmaq. Zero mention is made of the war that was being waged or of the atrocities committed by both sides. A person has to dig deep to learn of the rescinding of the decree in 1752 in an attempt to make peace. Revisionist zealots flaunt the law at will and the silent majority are being fed one-sided stories to keep them quiet.
There are a few rare individuals and groups who dare point out the hypocrisy and lawlessness of minority special interest groups. They are quickly condemned as neo-Nazi, alt-right, misogynistic, hate groups by the press and minorities in question. A group that publicly identified the threat uttering members of the July 15 event was taken to task by the press for ‘doxing’. The activist group’s transgressions were swept aside but the angle to charge this alt right group with a criminal act was fervently pursued. It was the same for members of the Proud Boys group that peacefully confronted a prior Cornwallis protest. The men were pilloried nation-wide and have probably irreparably harmed their military careers. Taking a recent example from Quebec, the rejection of a Muslim only cemetery was condemned as a racist, far right act that disappointed PM Justin Trudeau. Instead of raising the question about religious discrimination over the fact that it was going to be a Muslim only cemetery, the top politician of the land went straight to siding with the minority who will be claiming their human rights have been infringed. The message is loud and clear to the majority. If you oppose the edicts of the politically correct monoliths of the power elite and mainstream press, you will be set upon. As the vast majority of the majority just wants to go about their lives, nary a brave soul will pop their head above the wall for fear of having it lopped off in a frenzy of social media powered righteous justice.
It is only occasionally, that the majority rises up in indignation over particularly egregious decisions of our political masters and their minions. It was telling when a poll saying 71% of Canadians opposed the Amar Khadr $10.5M payout. The elites and the press came out telling us to put up with the decision. Trudeau cited Charter issues as the justification and a sudden fervor to reign in government spending. But like in a hotly contested hockey game, savvy, regular folk cried foul because they know cherry-picking when they see it.
Hypocrisy is hypocrisy and people notice. Anti-establishment splinter groups dictating who can participate in LGBT(assorted letters and numbers) parades are giving black eyes to a movement that was accepted by the mainstream for promoting inclusivity. Collectively, the rest of us are going, ‘Hold on there, we’re supposed to bend to your will but it doesn’t go the other way?!?’
Another hotspot that strikes a common chord with the masses is the occasional spat over vanity license plates. If only one person finds your plate to be offensive for whatever reason, the authorities will revoke it. ASIMIL8, GRABHER, and this list of ICBC rejected plates are all verboten for various arbitrary reasons. The rejections are all done anonymously by some triggered individual or by some faceless bureaucrat. The plaintiff faces long court battles against the politically correct State who feels free to trample on their rights of free expression on the off chance that some minority group or individual may feel offended.
This full on censorship of sensitive subjects that may ‘trigger’ minorities has been aided and abetted by our national broadcaster, the CBC. They are acting as a proxy propaganda arm for these minority groups as they have put a lock down on any sort of conversation regarding certain ‘subjects’. There is zero commenting allowed regarding the Native, LGBT, or Muslim communities. Granted, there is enough hate speech directed towards these subjects and the moderators would have their hands full deleting inappropriate opinions. But pretty much every Trump story is opened for comments which are dripping with vitriol. Supposedly, an old, rich, American white guy and his ‘privileged’ supporters are fair game for hate speech. I do not believe in free speech that masquerades as a method of cyber attacking but when you shut down all conversation, it kills any sort of dialogue designed to move an issue forward.
Maybe I should put in my own complaint for my Charter Rights of free expression being suppressed. I regularly make comments on the CBC forum boards and fairly often my content is ‘disabled’. The moderators can block it or after someone has flagged my comment, it can be blocked and deleted. For example, this particular comment was disabled four times as some individual decided to keep flagging it: ‘Trudeau is addicted to playing the Showboater Extraordinaire. All politicians enjoy the limelight and attention, it is part of the process of relentless self-promotion. But he’s all pot smoke and fancy socks with little substance. He’s been jetting around being seen by the ‘right’ crowd and making sure to march in all the politically correct parades. His office was able to shoehorn in a brief trip to the Stampede when literally a few hours away in BC there are 40,000 evacuees in a province in crisis. You can debate the value of the PM visiting a disaster scene but he was quick with the selfies while filling a sandbag in Quebec and ran up to a Northern area to discuss the emergency issues up there. But he hasn’t said word one about the BC Wildfires. I guess he’s more comfortable with special interest, in vogue causes instead of the plebian mainstream issues that affect the bulk of Canadians.’ The Ministry of Truth is making sure that only their dialogue and message makes it out to the masses.
Similar to the grassroots phenomenon that brought Trump to power in the States, I predict that Canada’s masses will eventually rise against the elite politicians, mainstream censoring press and vocal minorities who seek to push their narrow minded, special agendas. Eventually, the nail which is the tyranny of the minority will hurt the old dog enough that he/she/it/some gender neutral pronoun will get up and shake out some common sense where the needs of the few do not outweigh the needs of the many.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.