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Death by a Thousand Cuts!

January 18, 2022 | Auteure: Vicki Gunn   |   Le volume: 29    Le numéro: 3   |   Share: Gab | Facebook | Twitter   

How do you view our nation today? Do you have a sense of being free and equal members of Canadian society? Or, do you have a sense that any semblance of equality has been stripped away—dead “by a thousand cuts.” None of the individual cuts Canada has felt have been sufficient to cause death, but the sum effect of the wounds are enough to kill.

The voices of small insignificant Canadians—you and I—have been stripped from us. Not in a coup or world war, but through some subtler means. The result is serious, our freedom is crushed.

If we look at what our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms says and compare it to the reality, we have every right to be afraid.

Section 2(a), tells us we have freedom of conscience and religion. Right. But ask doctors who have said they cannot, in good conscience perform an abortion, if their consciences are free. Or, ask pastors at the state-locked churches who believe “you shall not forsake the gathering together of the saints” while the state put fences and locks to prevent “the gathering together of the saints.”

Section 2(b) assures us we have “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” We need only look back at the effort that Trinity Western University expended in their fight for accreditation to issue law degrees to find how free thought and belief are. Or what about Rebel News having to take our Prime Minister to court during an election to be allowed to report? Or the other media networks who avoid reporting current news because the government subsidizes them, so they return the favour by turning a blind eye?

These are just a few violations of what our Charter of Rights and Freedoms calls “fundamental rights.”

Perhaps we should ask the people who have been arrested for gathering to protest lockdowns over the past two years whether we still have the right of “peaceful assembly.”

Jumping forward to Section 6(b) of our Charter Rights: that section assures us that we have the right “to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.” Canadians face coercion over whether or not they are allowed to work based upon their compliance with government mandates. Our politicians tell us that if we don’t abide by their dictates, even though we’ve spent our entire working lives paying into Employment Insurance, we may not be allowed collect if we are unemployed because we didn’t accept the government’s sovereignty over our bodies.

Dare we look at Section 7? “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

Whether or not you agree with COVID vaccinations, if it is mandated—as our current Federal Health Minister has indicated it should be—would we still have “security of person”? The Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted “security of person” quite broadly including as a basis for “Medical Assistance in Dying.” Can it be that we have permission from the government to kill our bodies but do not have permission to refuse to have a foreign substance put into our bodies?

Churches across Canada have faced the violation of Section 8: “Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.” In the past year and a half, some churches have been seized by the government and placed under lock and key. That is theft and a violation of natural property rights. This is not government property, it is owned by those who purchased it.

Looking at state violations of our fundamental rights and freedoms would be incomplete without looking at Section 9: “Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.”

Should we ask Pastor Artur Pawlowski or Dawid Pawlowski whether their right “not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned” was violated when they were arrested on the snowy streets of Calgary? How about Pastor Tim Stephens? How about Pastor James Coates? What crime did they commit? Holding a church service in accordance with Scripture? In the video of the Pawlowski brothers’ latest arrest, the police were quite vague about the charges; they mentioned breach of conditions but could not or would not specify what the breach was. They were just obeying orders . . . where have we heard that before?

It is sad that our Canadian Charter Rights and Freedoms was breached by Canadian police officers following orders . . . in clear violation of the principles established by the Nuremberg Code. German officers who tried to defend their actions by saying, “I was just doing as I was told,” found that excuse was unacceptable. God and the Nuremberg judges held them accountable for their crimes against humanity. Until recently, Canada has honoured that principle of personal accountability.

I love my country. I believe all Canadians who care must speak out on the loss of freedoms and the abuse of power before we hit the point of no return. Some of us aren’t happy to be vassals of the state. Some of us aren’t happy to have our Charter emasculated and our unquestioning obeisance demanded. Some of us want to go back to when the rights and freedoms promised in our Charter were upheld and protected by our politicians, our law enforcement officers, and our judges.

Have you thought about what this gradual usurpation of our rights and freedoms means for your children and grandchildren? We hear stories of how losing the fundamental right of association of children with each other has brought many of them to suicide. What a tragedy!

Yet today, so many seem willing to let those fundamental freedoms slip away, piece by piece, without a whimper. An American hero once famously cried, “Give me liberty or give me death!” We are more likely to hear the quiet whimper of “do what you want just as long as there is no risk to me.”

Do your freedoms matter to you enough for you to stand up and say, “I’ll risk it all to preserve my rights and freedoms”?

I recently watched our PM, Justin Trudeau, publicly promote hatred against the unvaccinated. He claimed (without evidence) that the unvaccinated “don’t believe in science,” and are “often misogynists and racists.” He then asked, “Do we tolerate these people?” In that speech, he encouraged intolerance and hatred for those who have not toed his line.

When elected officials disrespect and promote hatred toward those they govern, we have to decide . . . will we rise up and require that our rights be returned to us, or will we grovel to appease them?

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. While one incident might seem minor, the cumulative effect shows that Canada’s democracy is dying the “death of a thousand cuts.”

Either we will bow to the abusers of power or we will stand strong in our efforts to restore Canadian rights.

What will you do? Will you, from the comfort of government largesse, accept freedom’s demise, or will you preserve our heritage of rights and freedoms to be enjoyed by future generations?

Join CHP Canada today. Together, we can make a difference.



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