Legault's Orwellian And Insulting Lecture About Freedom

"When government fear the people, there is liberty. When people fear the government, there is tyranny'. Thomas Jefferson.

'Emergencies have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have eroded.' Friedrich Hayek.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” C.S. Lewis.

Quebec's Premier Legault's recent rumination on the concepts of freedom as the foundation of a strong democracy was odd if not astonishing. Particularly by the obvious cognitive dissonance on display but given it was uttered during a time when the government's measures run afoul on the basic tenets of civil liberty.

Civil liberties that took Westerners generations to build and secure through blood, sweat, and tears. 

The measure of a great society isn't by the way it employs rhetorical notions of compassion while obliterating civil liberties but on how it faces a crisis in calm and stoic firmness while respecting the rights of man.

Canada is not a great society is we accept this definition. One could argue it failed the test. 

Four essential grave and illegal measures violate our basic human rights if not common sense:

-Warrants (Quebec remains the only place in North America that doesn’t permit household gatherings enforced by powers granted to police to obtain quick warrants).

-Masks mandates. (Of which have not been successful).

-Curfews (again, Quebec is the only jurisdiction with a curfew).

-Lockdowns (a prison term used to, well, lockdown prisoners).

Not only do these violate our own Charter but our own pandemic handbook as well as the basic foundational laws on international civil rights. The United Nations, of all places, has pleaded nations avoid such draconian (and I submit unwise and foolish) actions. 

Quebec not only broke such laws, they did so with gusto. And are not apologetic about it either which should give pause for concern for every citizens including those worried about a virus that at this point is not an existential threat to our lives. 

By what logic could Francois Legault claim to have any intellectual or philosophical right to discuss tenets and concepts of freedom? It's grotesque Orwellian double-speak. It's almost as if he's telling people to accept their new 'liberty'.

Worse, the population does not seem to mind, care or notice! They all seem to think this is all temporary. Is it? What if it isn't? By the time they realize it, it may be too late. This is what it meant by the phrase 'liberty demands eternal vigilance'. 

I'm not sure what history Quebec political elites read but this is the second time a politician makes a false claim of this sort. A few years back Jean-Francois Lisee and Bernard Drainville - both PQ separatists - penned a letter to the New York Times basically explaining to Americans their outlook shared with the spirt of the American founding fathers including Thomas Jefferson. Talk about missing the point of the exercise of American thought on liberty.

In fact, Legault's actions are probably the most aggressive in terms on infringement of our rights than any leader in history safe for possibly Prime Minister Mackenzie Lyon King who interned Japanese (and Italian) Canadians during World War II and more so than even Pierre Trudeau's War Measures Act during the October Crisis in 1970.

Regrettably, the Canadian government has ignored a court injunction to delay mandatory quarantines for returning Canadians abroad thus provoking legal action from the Justice Center.

It is most disheartening to watch the Canadian government make such a drastic and draconian turn as it continues to accept the most extreme interpretations of the Covid threat from epidemiologists and doctors alike. It's a misapplication of the precautionary principle of the highest order. 

And it's coming at a - potentially irreparable - huge cost to overall public health.  

Canada has frighteningly and stupidly slid towards the Australian model. A country that has condemned itself to perpetual lockdowns with each new case. A country that, worse, pats itself on the back for doing so. Is this a life? Is this living? 

Canada, Europe and Australia and parts of the U.S. have let the virus - and in consequence of this medical bureaucrats - control policy. 

All human sciences have an asterisk hanging over them. Psychology, sociology, polling, epidemiology, nutrition science, virology, etc. They've all been compromised at this point. Between the hyper tribal

dogma where debate has been silenced and naked political power plays to wrestle more control and power, we have some serious thinking to do once this hysteria ends.

What is it going to take to make politicians understand they've completely obliterated they're creating an underclass of cynical and nihilist youths?

Now is the time for TRUE leaders to step up and speak out. 

Sitting back thinking about a political career is an act of cowardice. 

If Legault were a true man of integrity and leadership, he'd own his measures and not insult a population with blatant propaganda.

No, Mr. Legault. YOU are the threat to our civil liberties.

YOU are the tyrant.

Quebec and Canada are the last places to lecture us on liberty.