Stephen Roney's Blog, page 141
March 26, 2022
Rex Murphy and Jordan Peterson on Ontario's Bill 67
March 25, 2022
Canadians Don't Have Freedom of Speech?
This video from the National Post is wrong.
First, it misrepresents the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It admits that the Charter cites the right to freedom of expression, but then says it can be abrogated on any reasonable grounds. That is not what the charter says. It says this and other rights are “subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”
This is necessary to allow for laws against slander, for example, or fraud.
Such limits must be “demonstrably justified”: a legal appeal may be made, and the courts can deny it.
The right to freedom of speech has not been honoured by our legislatures or in the Canadian courts. That is a scandal.
The provinces and the feds can also invoke the “notwithstanding” clause, as our narrator points out, but this is not as straightforward as he implies. When that clause is used, the law can remain in force for no more than five years. This seems a reasonable exception to cover emergency situations or judicial overreach. It has rarely been invoked.
Our narrator neglects to mention that freedom of speech is also separately guaranteed in the Canadian Bill of Rights, 1960; although this applies only to the federal government. Freedom of speech is recognized in and required by common law.
Canadians are also separately guaranteed freedom of expression under article 19 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Canada is a signatory. It is therefore also a treaty right and a right in international law.
But above and beyond any of that, human rights are not given by government, nor can they be withheld. They are given by God and by being human. If any government infringes a human right, regardless what their constitution says, that government is acting illlicitly.
It is scandalous that a prominent Canadian newspaper would promote the fiction that Canadians do not have freedom of speech. It suggests how corrupt our elite has become. Including all branches of the legacy media.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
March 23, 2022
The Molotov-Ribbentrop--Er, Sorry, the Singh Trudeau--Pact
I was taken by surprise by the formal parliamentary alliance between the Liberals and the NDP. This sort of thing does not generally happen so long after an election. My first thought is that it looked like circling the wagons.
It seemed to make no sense particularly for the NDP. Minority partners almost always get crushed at the next election, because now they are unable to distinguish themselves from the larger alternative. So why vote for a sure loser?
Worse, the Liberals will have been in power for three cycles. By the nature of things, next election, Canadians will be tired of them and want a change. Not a great time to identify yourself with them: to lash yourself to a dying animal.
Andrew Coyne seems to have it figured out.
While up in the polls, the NDP is busted, financially. Maybe their traditional sources of revenue are drying up; maybe they’ve been overspending. But they cannot afford to fight an election in the near future.
As a result, with the other parties mad as hell and hot for a fight, they are stuck supporting the Liberals anyway, to avoid a snap election. They recently had to support the imposition of the Emergency Act, a reversal of their historic position and an attack on their own traditional working class base. It is humiliating and makes them look sycophantic anyway.
The current agreement saves them from that happening repeatedly; if they have to support the Liberals, now they can claim to be getting something for it.
The Liberals for their part are down in the polls, probably realize they will go down further, and the other opposition parties are eager to vote them out. Probably their own caucus is restless. This gives Trudeau some protection against suddenly being thrown to the wolves.
It is entirely likely, and probably in the NDP’s interest, that they break the pact before its natural expiry. That way, they can put some distance between themselves and an unpopular government in time for an election. The delicate dance for the Liberals is to do just exactly what the pact requires, so as not to give Singh any legitimate-sounding reason for going back on it.
The surest sign this was all done cynically, expecting to double-cross, is the way the two leaders, and especially Singh, keep stressing how the pact requires trust.
But this will be tricky; as soon as the NDP pulls out, an election will probably be forced. And the NDP is likely to get slaughtered along with the Liberals. This will be a change election, and most likely this leaves the Conservatives in majority territory.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
March 20, 2022
The Evil God
Friend Xerxes has revealed himself to be a pantheist; or, more precisely, a panentheist. That is, the created universe is divine and a part of God himself.
I pointed out to him that this leaves us with a God who is evil; or, put another way, with evil as divine.
To which he responded that “evil is a concept invented by humans.”
This does not address the problem: God is still evil. The more so since Xerxes holds that man, creator of the concept, is divine. So I assume he really means to say that evil is an arbitrary concept with no real content.
This is a common idea nowadays. This is “cultural relativism”; this is constructivism; this is postmodernism.
Kant demonstrated, though the categorical imperative, that the moral good was unconditional and absolute. The Bible shows creation itself, from beginning to end, as a struggle of good against evil. And if you accept the “morality is relative” claim, you are implicitly accepting that Hitler or Charles Manson did nothing wrong, that we only persecuted them for holding different opinions.
The Christian believes that all men have a conscience, an internal compass that tells right from wrong. This is reinforced by the often-noted fact that all major religions contain, somewhere in their scriptures, a near-identical phrase: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Friend Seiko suggests that Buddhism does not concern itself with morals. Yet Buddhism too has its five precepts, binding on all men, which correlate well with the Ten Commandments. In the legend of the historical Buddha, his ultimate enemy, Mara, is a figure of personified evil. Making the struggle of good and evil as central to Buddhism as to Judaism or Christianity.
There is an obvious reason why so many want to deny the moral good, despite it being so universal and so certain.
It is because they are conscious of having done wrong. They do not WANT there to be a good and evil.
This is, perhaps, the sin Jesus called the one unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit. One cannot be forgiven if one refuses to admit one has sinned.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
March 19, 2022
Fields of Mud and Gold
March 18, 2022
Canadian Poets for Ukraine
Canadian poets are reading online in support of Ukraine, FWIW.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDARA01MjoyW7WccH9j6yGtI3XZhcE0BD
March 17, 2022
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Some images from the Canadian Irish experience.
Irish settlers.
The Black Rock, honouring cholera victims, Montreal.
Cross, Grosse Ile.
Irish children, Goose Village, Montreal
Grey nuns and cholera victims, Montreal.
Fever sheds, Point St. Charles, Montreal
Irish neighbourhood, Quebec City.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
Happy St. Patrick's Dat
Some images from the Canadian Irish experience.
Irish settlers.
The Black Rock, honouring cholera victims, Montreal.
Cross, Grosse Ile.
Irish children, Goose Village, Montreal
Grey nuns and cholera victims, Montreal.
Fever sheds, Point St. Charles, Montreal
Irish neighbourhood, Quebec City.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
How to Get Arrested in Russia
The Plan Shifts
This seems to reinforce my suspicion that Ukraine was planned as part of a one-two punch, although I sawthe second blow in April.
I also suggested that the Russian lack of success in Ukraine would now deter the Chinese.
