How often as a child did you inform your parents that something that you had done was “not my fault.” Perhaps you got into the cookies, a sibling went by and yelled “Caught ya” and you dropped the cookie jar, breaking all the cookies. “It wasn’t my fault,” you yell, “Jimmy startled me.”

As a teenager, the consequences of being caught in the act of doing something you had been instructed to avoid doing, was often very unpleasant and a little too ‘adult.’ The result of sexual sins left you with the need to take antibiotics or other treatment. This is a logical consequence, but you proclaim the unfairness by finding someone else to blame. “It wasn’t my fault, it’s his/her fault for exposing me to that.”

As an adult, the decision to gamble, using the mortgage money, cost you your home. Even then, there was someone else to blame . . . the government who okayed casinos or the friend who invited you to the casino. Someone else had to be at fault! In biblical terms . . . “The woman did it!”

People have had a history of avoiding responsibility from the very beginning.

CHP policies have a lot to say about personal and governmental responsibilities. That’s because we are responsible. Within our families, we are responsible for the choices we make. We are responsible for the choices we make for our own lives. There are some areas where government responsibility overlaps with ours. Our country needs laws to protect people. Those laws our government has put in place restrict my ability to do some things. That is a proper use of government controls, but when the government is right there in the nitty gritty of my life overseeing my personal responsibility, then that is not correctly applied government responsibility.

CHP Canada places responsibility for our medical choices very firmly in our own hands. The word “responsible” and “responsibilities” is mentioned 56 times in our policy book, making it very clear that some things are the government’s responsibilities and some things are our responsibilities.

Our policies assure us that we have both the right and the responsibility to make medical choices that impact ourselves and our family. While COVID interventions imposed a dramatic loss of autonomy over our medical choices, they certainly aren’t the only way that government has infringed on our right to make decisions for ourselves and our families.

Many Canadians seek to use alternative medical care, including, but not restricted to: “the right to refuse medical services; the right to seek alternative and private medical services; the right to pursue personal health goals and ideals; and the right to produce, purchase, sell, trade, donate, and consume food of their choice. The government is responsible for upholding and protecting these rights.”^{1 (A Blueprint for Restoration (CHP Policy Book))}

Our ability to purchase the things we need is being seriously impacted by our government, as we face ever-increasing tax obligations. Perhaps the most egregious of these is the Carbon Tax. It’s revenue neutral, we are told. However, what right does the government have to take, without consent or paying any interest on the principle, funds from the citizens to hold onto and use for a few months and then return as a carbon rebate? If it’s revenue neutral, then don’t take it from my pocket, I’ll choose how I wish to invest it, and, hopefully, gain some benefit from the money.

What about parental rights? Parents love the children they brought into the world. They seek to guide them to responsible (there’s that word again) adulthood, so the children can become productive adult members of society. This is an honourable goal. Government interference does not achieve the same objective as loving discipline, because it fails to take into consideration the unique nature of each child. Some children require firm discipline; for some a gentle rebuke is sufficient. The government has neither love for the children, consideration of the best interests of the children or any personal knowledge of the children. The government is a nameless, faceless entity that opines without knowledge.

In 2022, two separate bills were introduced in the House of Commons and Senate to ban physical discipline of children. These are the latest of many bills seeking to ban spanking in Canada.

The home is not under the authority of the government unless demonstrable abuse has been suffered. That is a criminal offence. Criminal offences are the responsibility of government.

These few examples make it very clear that Canadians must stand up strongly to a government that seeks to mandate every facet of our lives.

Stealing a cookie from the cookie jar, is a parent’s responsibility to deal with. Stealing a car from someone’s driveway is the government’s responsibility. Of course, if a child can learn—from loving and responsible parents—that stealing a cookie is wrong, he or she is far less likely to ever steal a car.

Maintaining personal reproductive health is an individual responsibility. Deliberate passing of sexually transmitted diseases is a malicious and criminal act; that makes it a government responsibility.

Choosing what you put into your body is a personal responsibility. Ensuring functional supply chains and the safety of food products is government responsibility.

This isn’t complicated. Canadians need to have the apron strings cut from a government that wants to smother us like an overprotective parent seeking to make all the decisions . . . even for adult children.

It is our individual and God-given right to govern ourselves within righteous laws and speak against the unrighteous laws that our government has enacted. This is “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates: A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government,” and is a worthy read for all of us.

For responsible civil government and respect for spheres of responsibility, join CHP Canada today.