Canada `s Bill C-51

Canada’s Bill C-51 (now law) is somewhat a copy of America’s Patriot Act. The problem with this incredible law is not the stripping of individual citizens of their rights, not that it eliminates habeas corpus, nor that it transgresses Canada’s Charter of Rights, nor even that it opens the door to dictatorship. The worst thing about this law is not its injustice nor its cruelty nor the huge power it gives the police, not that it establishes a "secret police" mentality, not that it establishes secret courts, not that it’s a naked power grab by our politicians, nor even, finally, the oppression it fosters. (We don’t see that oppression yet, but this opens the door to it. When you have secret police, you have oppression.)

The worst thing has not bloomed yet, and I don’t know how close it is; it partly depends on the political, human weather. The worst thing might not occur for decades, or it might slowly creep upon us, as more and more laws reflect C-51, and use it as a bold template for exercising power.

Acceptance of this worst thing is in-itself the worst thing.

The worst thing is deeply allied to oppression, but lies one step further: impotence, the impotence it forces upon every man, woman and child. The feeling that one has no power to change things and must simply obey, enervates a nation. The groups which might be relatively immune to this societal mood are scientists, engineers, technicians, mathematicians, etc., since so much of their attention is focused on the non-human. (In the human sciences — psychology, social work, anthropology, economics, etc. — we need to guard against bias. The strongest bias is the one that doesn’t know itself.)

This bill, C-51, suppresses divergent intelligence (i.e., people who think outside the box) because it makes "difference" or non-conformity a justification for arresting anyone. It suppresses a citizen’s right to speak with Opinion or Passion. Of course the Bill seems to restrict the activities it governs — it purports to address only terrorists, would-be terrorists, and those who discuss terrorism in any way — it gives the secret police the right to arrest anyone for suspicion of terrorist sympathies, and leaves the determination of these "sympathies" up to the arresting officer. In fact it leaves the very definition of terror up to the secret police. For example, a ridiculous one, I could be saying "the sky is blue" to a dinner date, and the cop at the next table can arrest me for a reference to 9/11. Making the hammer’s head so broad, depresses everyone’s hope of living without punishment. Then a society of guilt is created.

It suppresses not only genius, but creativity in every way; it turns a population into porridge, a sludge that earns its meal, makes its bed, and lives an unthinking life. The suppression of genius will eventually lead to a lack of innovation, and a passivity that makes the nation weak, sick, and stunted.

We saw this impotent citizenry in Soviet Russia (the U.S.S.R.). The irony is that the U.S. and Canada, while braying their intense dislike of – even enmity toward – such a nation/system ("communists," "reds,") are slowly and surely doing everything to create one here. With one difference: here a capitalist, independent north american character will lead to a fascist dictatorship rather than a communist one. In both systems, a tiny power class controls the populace.

There is a time when nations stood on the brink of self-destruction. Pre-WW II Germany, a relatively free society, let Hitler’s unlawful antics overwhelm the "parliament," and led finally to Nazism. I suspect Canada and the U.S. are on such a brink, and that these laws, C-51 and the Patriot Act, are the open door to oppression of the citizenry.

That’s dangerous, in a world where politicians have become inured against their own electorate.

In a way, we can’t blame the politicians. As bad as their actions are, they are simply part of a centuries-long trend. At some point, a "Philosopher King" will come along to battle this trend.

Don’t rely on judges or universities to fight this slow slouching toward a police state. In America, the judiciary has already become the hand maiden of the politicians (as witness the secret courts). From this universities, will contain as much iniquity as Parliament and Congress. We’ve already seen this trend develop, with the schooling scandals in the U.S., and the massive debt required to be a student. Time will show Universities will shrink, partly because they are greedy and partly because they will become, irrelevant.

micbery


An interesting video produced by Journalist, Chris Hedges has spent much of his career working as a foreign correspondent in war zones across the globe, and has written extensively on the surveillance state and world conflict. 

                                                     ++ Chris Hedges ++

Constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati said he would mount a court challenge if the bill is passed into law. “What this legislation creates is a modern-day Gestapo,” Galati said. “No exaggeration, that’s what it creates. It chills, sensors and criminalizes free speech, free association and constitutional rights of assembly.”
                                      ++ Constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati ++