This weekend, Canadians bore witness to a telling little drama — one that says more about this country’s cultural fault lines than a dozen policy papers ever could. A U.S.-based worship leader, no less devout than peaceful, was effectively tarred and feathered while touring Canada, most pointedly by the City of Montreal. Montreal! The self-appointed cathedral of Canadian sophistication and Laurentian virtue, offered this Orwellian pronouncement:“This show runs counter to the values of inclusion, solidarity, and respect... Freedom of expression is one of our fundamental values, but hateful and discriminatory speech is not acceptable in Montreal.” .So the local civic government, in the name of the values of inclusion and respect, excluded a musical worship group, because they don’t agree with their view points. The Orwellian doublethink is staggering.Inclusion, solidarity, respect — until, of course, you don’t parrot their pieties. Then, and only then, you’re branded a heretic. Banned, berated, and bulldozed off the public square. You cannot make this stuff up.Concert venues were cancelled — not because of what this musician said or did, but because of what his existence symbolized to those trembling Laurentian mandarins. Safety concerns, they said. Yet the real danger, it seems, came from protesters (likely without permits) who rammed buses, tossed smoke bombs, and donned their Antifa cosplay and Palestinian flags — clearly the new uniform of tolerance.Their numbers? Paltry. Derisory. Pauperous. A tattered fringe of agitators, given full protection by the same authorities that cracked down on worshippers..Let us — just briefly — set aside the glaring contradiction with that pesky old document, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Let’s instead consider how this episode encapsulates the schism between two Canadas: the Canada of the Laurentian elites, and the Canada of the free-thinking West.Out here, west of Toronto’s ideological curtain, we don't much care what god — or if any god — you worship. That’s your business. We believe in adulthood. In choices. In mutual respect. And if someone, whose name might rhyme with Nenshi, is blowing hot air about a carbon tax or wealth redistribution, we might roll our eyes — but you won’t see us lobbing smoke bombs at their podium..Meanwhile, the Laurentian consensus has hardened into a kind of moral orthodoxy: the government must be the high priest, and all divergent belief — especially the theological kind — must be scrutinized, silenced, or sanitized.It is no coincidence that the same week saw news about Tamara Lich and Chris Barber — ordinary citizens — dragged through courts for daring to question the COVID-era encroachments on liberty. Forget that federal action was deemed illegal. Forget that their protests were peaceful compared to other sanctioned uprisings. The sin wasn’t violence; the sin was defiance.And defiance is the one thing the Laurentian church cannot abide..We’ve seen this play before — in Soviet theatres and Chinese streets. The government demands primacy in all things: thought, expression, allegiance. Competing creeds — especially ones that place God above State — must be crushed. Branded MAGA. Made into caricatures.Yet the irony is thick: the worship band wasn’t Trumpian, wasn’t partisan. They were Christians. Full stop. Their only heresy? Believing in a power higher than Ottawa. And that makes them dangerous. For a government that demands your worship, there can be no room for another god.Out here in Alberta, that theology doesn’t fly. We don’t genuflect before Parliament. We don’t chant hosannas to bureaucrats. We believe that governments are servants, not sovereigns. And while we know some Easterners feel the same, elections tell us there aren’t enough of them left to change anything..Meanwhile, we’re treated to gaslighting by national media telling us that if you support free speech, religious freedom, or the right to assemble, you’re some sort of MAGA bogeyman. We shrug. We still believe our Charter meant what it said. We think words matter. Even in Ottawa.COVID proved otherwise. The swift evaporation of democracy, under the pretext of safety, taught us much. And in true Alberta fashion, our reply to this shift in mindset remains simple: “Fill your boots. But count us out.”We’re not staying on this merry-go-round. We’ve read the room. And we’ll take the exit — stage West.
