Do the protesters who have been holding Ottawa hostage, blockading the border, and staging angry demonstrations across the country understand how fortunate they are?
They are blessed to live in a liberal democracy that is the envy of people – yes, truckers, too – everywhere in the world. Their country, our country, is a nation that offers its citizens both “peace, order and good government” and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – an offer that precious few countries can match. Do the demonstrators with their blaring horns, obscene signs, Confederate flags, anti-Semitic symbols, and calls to overthrow the government realize they are threatening the survival of a democracy that millions from other lands would die – literally, in some instances – to share.
The issue is not, as the insurgents would have it, freedom from vaccine mandates; everyone wants to be freed from all these mandates, and we know we will be the moment it is safe to get rid of them. The true issue is acceptance of the reality that rights have limits. Among the rights we enjoy under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are freedom of expression, opinion and “peaceful assembly” (note the adjective).
Democracy is not a blank cheque. As the Charter provides, our rights are subject to “reasonable limits.” One limit is to do no harm. We are free to exercise our rights, so long as we do not hurt others in the process or deny them the use of their own rights.
We all have a right to refuse the government’s offer of free vaccine, but not the right to spread COVID to anyone else. If we can’t respect the right of others to enjoy safe conditions in which to live, work, study and play, we should go home and stay there until it is safe to emerge.
Democracy was taking a beating in Canada before the “Freedom Convoy” came along to disparage, demean and diminish it. Every year, The Economist takes the pulse of democracy around the world and publishes its findings in its annual “Democracy Index.” Canada is one of just 21 countries that it classifies as a “full” democracy; the 21 account for a mere 6.4 per cent of the world’s population. We usually rank near toward the top of the index, behind the Scandinavian countries and New Zealand.
In 2020, Canada stood fifth, sandwiched between number four, New Zealand, and sixth place Finland. In 2021, however, we tumbled to 12th place among 167 countries, behind the likes of Iceland, Ireland, Taiwan, Australia and the Netherlands. (Norway repeated as number one. The United States, post-Trump, is rated a “flawed” democracy. It placed 26th in 2021, just ahead of Estonia. Dead last at 167? Afghanistan.)
The Economist picked up warning signs of COVID frustration among the Canadian public – with the way the pandemic was being managed by the federal and provincial governments, especially with recurring lockdowns and re-openings. These factors, along with a loss of public confidence in all political parties, contributed significantly to the country’s slide in the index. This research was done last summer, before Omicron, and the portrait it painted of a wrung-out nation would surely be even bleaker today, as shown by the response to the “freedom” protests.
Canada’s continuing inability to crack the very top tier of democracies can be traced to the treatment of minorities, especially Indigenous Canadians – our failure to ensure their communities all have such essentials as safe drinking water, adequate health and medical facilities, and a sufficient supply of decent housing.
The extremists who embrace violence and call for overthrowing the Trudeau government are delusional. They are free to choose the way they live and work, a choice not open to many of their Indigenous compatriots. Compared to them, they have nothing to complain about. They should stow their perfervid rhetoric, go home and count their blessings.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens is a former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail. He is the co-author of Flora! A Woman in a Man’s World. He welcomes comments at geoffstevens40@gmail.com