PUBLICATION:
The Moncton Times and Transcript
DATE:
2001.12.26
SECTION:
Sports
PAGE:
D8
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We must work towards freedom
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As
the year slides to a close we look forward to a new year and a world that will
never be quite the same again, thanks to the events of Sept. 11. The world is
also beginning to realize what any solitary wilderness traveller already knew -
in the final analysis, the safety of the individual is up to that individual.
We
also have come to appreciate our freedoms more and are concerned that in the
name of protecting the population against terrorism, our federal government is
enacting legislation that has the potential to place Canada further down the
slippery slope, leading to a police state. Even the most conservative
politicians concede that these new laws will lead to abuse.
Yet
we already had Bill C-68, which, unknown to most Canadians, already abuses many
of our rights and freedoms. In the House of Commons debates on Oct. 17, 2001,
Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville, Canadian Alliance) had this to say:
"While
the gun registry is likely the most costly and useless part of Bill C-68, it is
hardly the most objectionable. Bill C-68 trampled fundamental property rights.
Bill C-68 breached the privacy rights of at least 3.5 million Canadians without
their knowledge. Bill C-68 placed in jeopardy our charter rights to be secure
against unreasonable search and seizure. Bill C-68 eliminated our right to
remain silent. Bill C-68 reversed the onus of proof, thereby eliminating our
rights to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. It infringes on the treaty
rights of aboriginal people. It intrudes unnecessarily into the exclusive
constitutional jurisdiction of the provinces over property and civil rights,
health, safety and education.
Those
are just a few of the more objectionable contents of Bill C-68 and the reasons
why the whole thing should be scrapped."
Breithkreuz
then went on to make several other points regarding Bill C-68, including the
high cost (over $600 million to date), the excess of errors in the registration,
the resulting increase in the black market sales of firearms, removing police
from the street, that registration does lead to confiscation, etc.
Its
obvious to most that in order to appease the majority of Canadians, those living
in the cities, and appear to do something about crime, firearms were singled out
and made the scapegoat. Bill C-68 was the result.
Yet
as events have clearly shown, box cutters, and now plastic explosives in shoes
are much more of a hazard. It is the individual's intent, not the device, that
is the problem. No amount of legislation will change this.
A
further concern about the slippery slope is raised in a recent book entitled The
Friendly Dictatorship by Jeffrey Simpson. The office of Prime Minister of Canada
has more power and more authority concentrated in one individual than in any
other similar office throughout the free world. This book raises questions that
should be of concern to all Canadians.
Knowing
that the federal government has allocated several billion dollars, and enacted
new laws to pry into our private lives in the name of safety, at the expense of
freedom, is not my idea of what Canada is all about.
Everett
Mosher is a Sackville-based correspondent and avid outdoorsman. His column
appears every Wednesday.