So, if I understand correctly the decision of the Federal Court judge who declared illegal the use of the Emergency Measures Act in the winter of 2022, paralyzing the downtown core of a capital for weeks with hundreds of heavy goods vehicles, preventing citizens from sleeping, blocking access to businesses and installing a whirlpool bath in the middle of a street are not “activities likely to disturb the peace”.
• Read also: “Freedom convoy”: the Emergency Measures Act was “illegal”, rules the Federal Court
These are perfectly acceptable ways to express discontent with the government.
Well then.
Quickly, give me the address of this magistrate so that I can send a hundred trucks to his house to demonstrate my disagreement.
All this, while respecting the Charter of Rights, of course…
NEGOTIATE WHAT?
I did not know that the right to blockade the downtown core of a capital for three weeks was protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It’s the crazy groups who must be happy!
If I were in their place, I would organize a big parade to salute this decision, well.
After all, if we can legally express our disagreement, we can also express our joy, right?
Come on, hop! We bring out the 18-wheelers, the trumpets and the saunas, and we find ourselves in front of parliament to honk their horns for three days!
As the French comedian Guy Bedos said: “Freedom wears out if we don’t use it.”
- Listen to the Martineau – Dutrizac meeting between Benoît Dutrizac and Richard Martineau via QUB :
Certainly, the Ottawa police chief (whose name was Slowly – you can’t make that up) had both feet in the same shoe and should have taken all necessary measures to prevent the participants of the “freedom convoy” to block the city center.
We should have prevented, rather than cured.
But once the damage is done, what do we do?
Are we letting truckers paralyze downtown Ottawa under the pretext that all Canadians have the right to express their discontent and opposition?
It is said that the federal government should have “negotiated” with the convoy participants.
Do we now have to “negotiate” with people who are blocking a city center?
Why not a bridge? A tunnel?
Remember that a flag of an American far-right organization classified as terrorist in Canada in June 2021 was displayed on one of the trucks in the convoy.
This doesn’t bode well for the negotiation, let’s say…
NOT LIKE IN THE USA
Using a law like the Emergency Measures Act brings back very bad memories for Quebecers.
It reminds us of a time when anyone who leaned a little too far to the left was suspected of terrorism by Trudeau senior.
But between the fear of a despotic government that uses the law to imprison its adversaries and the complacency towards angry activists who are ready to paralyze an entire city for three weeks, it seems to me that there is a happy medium.
We also don’t want to be like these Americans who perceive any intervention by the central government as an attempt to establish a tyrannical regime!
There is a difference between FREEDOM and LIBAAAAARTÉ.
Freedom of expression is not absolute.
Don’t we say that the freedom of some ends where that of others begins?