Politicians would only try this on a people they feel are too weak and easily manipulated to push back.
When it comes to Canada’s politicians and how they manage Canada’s role on the world stage, ‘weakness’ is the number one term that comes to mind.
Canada has become incapable of showing strength, with our military scandalized and underfunded, our leader seen as a laughingstock, and our willingness to cripple our own energy sector while other countries get rich rendering us as an unserious nation.
Weakness and cowardice are truly linked, as the weakest tend to only show aggression against those they perceive as even weaker than them.
It is like a cycle of abuse, where a weak person abuses someone who is weaker than them, while that person then abuses someone ‘below’ them, and so on.
And that cycle is alive and well in Canada.
Canada’s ‘leaders,’ experience humiliation on the world stage, and then seek to visit that humiliation on Canadians.
Other countries see our leaders as weak and naïve, while our leaders clearly view Canadians the same way.
Unfortunately, that perception often fits reality, with the weak leading the weak.
Far too many Canadians have embraced a pathological ‘niceness,’ which renders our country nearly incapable of acting in any kind of national interest, setting boundaries, or responding with strength, since strength feels ‘too mean’ for many in this country.
Many seem to think it is better to sit back and get walked all over, if that is the price to pay for keeping our precious niceness intact.
Weak politicians seek to exploit weakness.
Now, a truly strong leader would seek to encourage Canadians to embrace the strength and potential that exists within all of us. They would seek to find a balance between being kind and compassionate (which is important) and being able to set boundaries and act in our own best interests as a country.
Of course, Canada does not have strong leaders.
Rather than set examples of strength, rather than encourage people to aspire to the best of themselves, our leaders would rather spread fear and division, appealing to the worst within us.
Rather than encourage people to refine and express the power within, they would rather control us and keep us powerless.
Control vs Empowerment, Deception vs Trust, Rulers vs Servants
With Bill C-10, the Liberal government, particularly Steven Guilbeault and Justin Trudeau, are seeking to put nearly every facet of communication in this country under the control of the CRTC.
And as bad as the proposed legislation initially was, it has become even worse, with some safeguards now stripped away:
As reported by the National Post, Peter Menzies, a former Commissioner of the CRTC, ripped the Liberal plan:
“Granting a government agency authority over legal user generated content — particularly when backed up by the government’s musings about taking down websites — doesn’t just infringe on free expression, it constitutes a full-blown assault upon it and, through it, the foundations of democracy.”
“Even if the CRTC doesn’t follow through with its new powers and chooses not to implement any regulations covering user-generated content, the fact that the law would now enable the regulator to do so is problematic, said Menzies.
“They would still hold the hammer of legislative power over everyone’s head and that would intimidate free expression. Even without conditions, people would still be speaking with the CRTC’s permission,” Menzies said.”
University of Ottawa Professor Michael Geist – one of Canada’s strongest defenders of free expression – had this to say:
“In a free, democratic society we don’t subject basic speech to regulation in this way. Of course there are limits to what people can say, but the idea that a broadcast regulator has any role to play in basic speech is, I think, anathema to free and democratic society where freedom of expression is viewed as one of the foundational freedoms.”
The fact is the rhetoric of ‘assault’ and ‘attack’ on democracy is fully justified in this case.
There are three related battles taking place:
The first is the battle between control and empowerment. As noted above, true leaders seek to empower those they lead, while weak leaders seek control through fear.
We are watching as the Liberals use fear-based appeals about ‘hate’ and ‘hurt feelings’ to try and justify further government control over what Canadians can say, read, and watch.
There is a battle between deception and trust, with the government deceiving Canadians by claiming this is all about a battle between them and the ‘tech giants,’ a useful ruse meant to distract from the fact that the Liberal government is using a pretext to strip away our freedom of expression.
And finally, there is a battle between the idea that our leaders should be ‘rulers,’ and the idea that they should be ‘servants.’
In a free and democratic society, the people are supposed to be in charge. We called politicians ‘public servants’ for a reason, and the idea of service was supposed to mean something.
But over time, the system has been manipulated by those in power to turn politicians more and more into rulers.
Politicians get paid far more than the average Canadian. They have far better job security outside of an election – note how they got paid their full salary without delay even as they shut down countless businesses and threw people out of work across the nation.
And they increasingly see their role not as protecting our rights and ensuring a strong national defence, but as replacing our independent minds with their own selected modes of thinking.
We can intuitively understand that if someone wants to use government power to control what we can and cannot say, seeks to constantly expand that power, and sells that expansion of power as being to ‘protect’ us, then that person sees themselves as a ruler, and wants us to be grateful for being ruled.
That is a mindset completely incompatible with democracy.
Will Canadians have the strength to fight back?
The Liberals are making a bet, and that bet is Canadians are too timid, too weak, and too easily-controlled by recitation of phrases like ‘stopping hate,’ and ‘protecting hurt feelings’ from ‘offensive content.’
They are betting there will not be enough of a backlash to sink Bill C-10.
It is up to us to prove them wrong.
I urge you to contact your MP and tell them how you feel about the Liberal attempt to crush your free expression. And then, contact as many people as you know to warn them about the danger of Bill C-10, and encourage them to get in touch with their MPs as well.
At the end of the day, Canadian politicians want to get re-elected, and if they feel the strong response of Canadians in demanding they reject Bill C-10, enough of them may end up listening out of their own sense of self-interest to scuttle this dangerous legislation.
MP CONTACT LINK
Spencer Fernando
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