Like all Canadians I was horrified by the recent Montreal mosque shootings. No right minded person would condone such actions. The revulsion we all felt at this event was natural, and comes from a deep sense of the need for justice and insistence on the norms of a civilized state.
However, there is an additional factor that must be considered here. The attempt to silence criticism, and by extension free speech, in Canada is now a critical threat to our nation and way of life.
Motion M-103 and Bill C-16 now moving their way through parliament, are designed to stifle or suppress our free speech and our right to criticize belief systems we do not agree with. This is not democracy. It is authoritarianism.
M-103, known as the “Islamophobia Bill” and C-16 which would silence our criticism of lifestyles or beliefs we do not agree with, are greater dangers than any of us could realize. I am confident that world religions and lifestyle advocates have the ability to defend themselves. If we do not allow healthy debate and criticism we have already lost Canada and our democracy. Perhaps Prime Minister Trudeau wants this. I am sure that I and millions of other Canadians do not.
Once we lose the “freedom of expression” guaranteed us in our Charter we cannot easily go back to being a free and democratic state. In the midst of the current wave of emotionalism we should all agree to safeguard our freedoms before anything else.
Perry Foster
Duncan