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| Great White North |
| A Deafening Silence in Canada |
| 2008-06-12 |
| By David Warren The pen is reputed to be mightier than the sword -- and probably is, over the longer stretches of history. Over the shorter stretches, the sword is definitive; or, as that great Leftist sage, Mao Tse-Tung, expressed it: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." With its monopoly on power, the State is equipped to suppress the truth. And yet the truth will not die, no matter how many people are punished for expressing it. They may die -- or be imprisoned, fined, compelled to publicly recant, or otherwise silenced and humiliated -- but the truth will survive. Yes, this is a statement of my Catholic faith. But it is also a candid reflection on all of the history I have read: that political power passes away, that truths about God and man resurface, that human freedom is never fully extinguished. Much of the history we know may itself be false, owing to the disappearance of evidence over time; and justice in this world may not be availing. Yet in broad outline, a time always comes when we may review the past, freed from the shackles of the past. The chains of history always rust away. This is a point worth recalling, as we head into a period in Canada when, owing to malice from an ideological camp, to cowardice on the part of our elected representatives, and to indifference on the part of the people, free speech and freedom of the press will disappear in Canada. Those who deviate from the officially-sanctioned lies of "political correctness" will emigrate, perhaps mostly to USA, or experience that peculiar form of internal exile -- of enforced silence -- that good men have shared in many times and places. My own political education was provided in part by several impressive Czech exiles from Communism, with whom I fell in as a young man. What I learned from them is that under an ideological regime, the best men live in jail, or are assigned to work in tanneries and collieries, where other good men may be found. The worst men live in luxury and power. As free speech disappears in Canada, one looks for instance not at the more celebrated cases of Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant, but at the much less publicized fate of e.g. Rev. Stephen Boisson, convicted by an Alberta kangaroo court ("human rights tribunal") last November for publicly expressing the Christian and Biblical view of homosexuality, on the say-so of an anti-Christian activist from his home town. Rev. Boisson has now been ordered to desist from communicating his views on this subject "in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet" so long as he should live. He has been ordered to pay compensation to Darren Lund, the anti-Christian activist in question, and further to make a public recantation of beliefs he still holds. Meanwhile, Fr Alphonse de Valk, editor of the magazine Catholic Insight, is being prosecuted by a gay rights activist in Edmonton, for having upheld both sides of the Catholic teaching on homosexuality in the pages of his magazine over more than a decade: that homosexual behaviour is sinful, but that we are nevertheless to love the sinner. That case, in which, as ever, all of the expenses of the complainant are met by the taxpayer, will drag on for some time before the inevitable guilty verdict is delivered, and the punishments to Fr de Valk and his colleagues are meted out. While the case drags on, the small magazine, which exists without state subsidies or significant advertising, on the dime of its several thousand loyal Catholic readers, is being driven towards bankruptcy by the cost of maintaining its own legal defence. These are costs they would not be eligible to recover, even if they won at tribunal. Fr de Valk has written a lead editorial in the June number of Catholic Insight that should be read not only from the pulpit to every practising Catholic in Canada, but by every concerned Canadian regardless of his religious or political affiliations. It is entitled, "Fascism has come to Canada," and mentions several other major cases in which Christians have been hauled before the country's "human rights" tribunals, and ordered to abandon their beliefs, pay out to complainants, stage public recantations, submit to indoctrination, etc. -- with little to no media coverage. Alas, there are more cases (they are multiplying quickly), and the "human rights" commissars are not the only source of state persecution. Among the spookiest aspects of these cases is the silence over, and indifference to them, on the part of journalists whose predecessors imagined themselves vigilant in the cause of freedom. As I've learned first-hand through email, many Canadian journalists today take the view that, "I don't like these people, therefore I don't care what happens to them." It is a view that, at best, is extremely short-sighted. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #11 #5: "For tyranny to succeed it is only necessary Slight misquote English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’ |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-06-12 19:19 |
| #10 The truly scary thing is that this is happening under a Conservative government with Harper as PM. If it's this bad under the Conservatives, what's going to happen the next time the Libs get in? |
| Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 2008-06-12 17:59 |
| #9 Sorry, it was Burke. I was thinking of the one about "a few rough men willing to do violence" |
| Posted by: Punky etc 2008-06-12 14:41 |
| #8 Here's a quote better than the Mao one in the article. "The man who said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never experienced automatic weapons"__ D.MacArthur |
| Posted by: Joluse Fillmore6049 2008-06-12 14:40 |
| #7 Orwell |
| Posted by: Punky Jarong9657 2008-06-12 14:38 |
| #6 Edmund Burke? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-06-12 12:38 |
| #5 "For tyranny to succeed it is only necessary for a few good men to remain silent." Could someone help me find the author of that qoute. I have been using it in my Religion classes and can't remember who said it. |
| Posted by: WolfDog 2008-06-12 12:32 |
| #4 ...owing to malice from an ideological camp, to cowardice on the part of our elected representatives, and to indifference on the part of the people, free speech and freedom of the press will disappear in Canada. The giant sucking |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-06-12 12:31 |
| #3 So religions oppose homosexuality, and condemnation of same is an article of faith. Homosexuals have every right to counter said article, but the state interferes with religion when they protect the homosexual lifestyle from moral scrutiny. In Europe, Christians are being hit with huge fines for pro-family acts, while Muslims are free to call for the extermination of gays. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-06-12 09:33 |
| #2 The most astounding vacating of the principle of "the people's right to know" was in the case of the Danish Mohammed cartoons - which hardly any of our gutless main-stream media dared to print. Imagine, that us stupid proles might actually want to see the cartoons that Moslem gangs were howling about. Now, every time I hear one of these fearless press paladins bleating about our right to know, and the responsibility of the press... I laugh and laugh and laugh! |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2008-06-12 08:09 |
| #1 American journalists are the same. Look at the MSM treatment of Randy Weaver, the Branch Davidians and the assault on the compound, and the more recent FLDS raid. One reporter said, regarding the Weaver situation, "He was such an unpleasant individual, we didn't bother to look at it." |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2008-06-12 07:59 |