HAPPY CANADA DAY

 HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

Canada Day is a time to celebrate our good fortune in living in such a magnificent country. But it is also a time for reflection on what each of us as Canadians is doing to ensure that the principles and values that have created this nation remain strong. Up until a few decades ago, we were largely unaware that our openness to other cultures, faiths and traditions might one day pose an existential threat in challenging these beliefs. We have alas arrived at an historical juncture where willful blindness to threats is in large part either being ignored or attacked.

ACT! For Canada recently invited Gavin Boby of the Law and Freedom Foundation, U. K. to speak in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.  Gavin Boby is a British attorney who has launched a very successful program for which he will work pro bono to help ordinary citizens demonstrate to their local councils that the building of a mosque or an Islamic center is actually in violation of British law.

Before Mr. Boby even arrived in Canada, and from the only source being his website which described his successes in preventing the construction of 15 Mosques, CAIR-CAN considered this to be “hate speech” and then proceeded to use every possible means to close down the lecture in Ottawa by threatening and bullying the Ottawa Public Library with a letter campaign. They obviously don’t embrace Voltaire’s statement “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The preposterous statements uttered by CAIR-CAN led one to believe that Mr. Boby was urging that existing Mosques be blown up and that Mr. Boby hated all Muslims!  Nothing could be further from the truth. But then truth is the new hate speech.

As a result of standing firm and resisting the threats of CAIR-CAN, I was recently awarded the “Profiles in Courage” award at the ACT! For America Conference in Washington.  I would like to recognize and share this award with the implacable and stalwart Gavin Boby along with Jan Harder of the Ottawa Public Library who would not be intimidated by CAIR-CAN and was resolute in allowing our event to proceed.

 

Gulnaz(Julie)Aftab (acid attack victim) & Allen West, also recipients of the “Profiles in Courage” award

Does Canada still have freedom of speech and freedom of assembly – protections under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

The Magna Carta of 1297 is widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy. 

The British dominions, including Canada, were influenced by the Magna Carta and for the most part Canadian law has grown from British Law and British Common Law roots. The Magna Carta has by default carried on in spirit to current day Canadian law.

Today, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms clearly says that everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

·        (a) freedom of conscience and religion;

·        (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

·        (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

·        (d) freedom of association.

Freedom of speech is slowly being eroded with the attempted introduction of “blasphemy laws”. 

Recently, the United Nations adopted UN resolution 16/18 - an initiative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly Organization of Islamic Conferences), the confederacy of 57 Islamic states. Resolution 16/18 seeks to limit speech that is viewed as “discriminatory” or which involves the “defamation of religion” – specifically that which can be viewed as “incitement to imminent violence.”

We must continue to fight to preserve freedom of speech. It is the cornerstone of democracy and liberty.

To be born free is an accident.

To live free is a privilege.

To die free is a responsibility.

Valerie Price

ACT! For Canada