Chile had a functioning democracy until democratically elected President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a 1973 coup and replaced with military dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled for the next 17 years. Spain’s democracy collapsed into a civil war in 1936, after which no further elections were held until 1977. Germany had a functioning democracy in the 1920s, but by 1932 most Germans were voting for the two parties which enthusiastically promised to abolish democracy: the Communists and the National Socialists.In February 2022, Canada’s federal government illegally abused the Emergencies Act and violated the Charter rights and freedoms of hundreds of Canadians by freezing bank accounts and by using violence to crush a peaceful protest. With border blockades at Coutts and Windsor having been fully resolved, the remaining peaceful protest in one city, Ottawa, was not a “national emergency,” according to a Federal Court ruling in 2024. Nevertheless, Chrystia Freeland (as Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister) suggested that serious economic problems should be a good enough reason for declaring a national emergency and suspending civil liberties. Prime Minister Trudeau made a similar point..McTEAGUE: ’Net-Zero' Carney's going to build new pipelines? I'll believe it when I see it!.Who can claim with certainty that democracy in Canada would not be suspended over a real or alleged economic crisis?Freedom is even more fragile than democracy. Freedom can be euthanized gradually as governments grow ever larger. As Alexis de Tocqueville explained 190 years ago in Democracy in America: “… the sovereign power extends its arms over the entire society; it covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute, and uniform rules, which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot break through to go beyond the crowd; … and finally it reduces each nation to being nothing more than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”.A “flock of timid and industrious animals” can vote for its shepherds in free elections. When the governing shepherds receive fewer votes than the opposition shepherds, there will be a peaceful transfer of power. Federal, provincial, municipal, and school board elections continue being held across Canada. At the same time, various governments have also violated the Charter freedoms of expression, association, religion, conscience, peaceful assembly, mobility, travel, and so on. Many Canadians today are “timid and industrious animals” who look to government as their shepherd. Human rights violations can take place very democratically, with the support of the majority of voters.For the violations of Charter freedoms listed below, which ones are supported by the majority of the public?.PINDER: The challenges and policy conflicts of our prime minister.Cities and towns across Canada are actively censoring an American Christian singer, Sean Feucht, as though only woke opinions can be expressed in public.The Nova Scotia government claims that people (not smoking or campfires) cause forest fires and has fined Canadian armed forces veteran Jeff Evely $28,872.50 simply for having walked in the woods. The Renfrew County School Board fired two Christian teachers, Matt and Nicole Alexander of Cobden, Ontario, not over any misconduct, but over their refusal to affirm and celebrate the woke “LGBTQ+” narrative..The British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives found nurse Amy Hamm guilty of “unprofessional conduct” for having publicly stated the scientific fact that there are only two genders. The College now demands that Amy Hamm pay $93,640 to cover the costs of the College’s baseless, political, and anti-science prosecution.Retired HVAC technician George Katerberg is suing the Ontario government to secure his right to put up a billboard that criticizes politicians and public health officials about their mandatory COVID vaccination policies.In Quebec, the fanatical quest to impose atheism on everyone, everywhere, at all times, has meant that a church could not rent a modest basement space from the City of Saguenay. In like manner, the Quebec City Convention Centre abruptly cancelled an existing contract with Christian groups to hold a “Faith, Freedom, Fire” conference. .PARKE: Culture and politics, who shapes whom?.Alberta’s Law Society forces lawyers to take a woke political indoctrination course about the evils of “colonialism,” as a condition for being eligible to practice law in Alberta.Fortunately, not all Canadians are like de Tocqueville’s “timid and industrious animals” who revere and venerate their governments. Many of us do understand and appreciate both freedom and democracy. We will fight to keep both. Neither freedom nor democracy is guaranteed to last forever in Canada. However, neither one of them is destined to die. It’s up to us.John Carpay, B.A., LL.B., is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca), which is involved in the legal disputes mentioned in this column.
