Exclusive to this site, December 6, 2007
Lost Canadian Liberties
by
Pierre Lemieux
Here are some of the liberties we have lost over the past few decades, sometimes just over the past few years, in Québec. Most of the points apply to the whole of Canada; in fact, many derive from federal law. One could make a slightly different list for each “free” country, but many items would be the same. Of course, if we could apply to one single country all the liberticidal measures that are found in any “free and democratic society” (as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms says), we would probably create the worst tyranny on earth.
I drew this list rapidly in order to read it at the Freedom Club dinner on November 29. The Freedom Club is a Montréal salon animated by Bob Bexon and I, where people concerned with the loss of our liberties and interested in the ways to reclaim them gather periodically.
I am sure the list is not exhaustive, and the reader is welcome to write to me to suggest any addendum.
1) Start a private school.
2) Purchase any insurance you want to cover your health.
3) Hire or fire whom you want.
4) Run a business without monthly or quarterly (VAT) tax reports.
5) Own what you want in foreign countries without declaring it to the state.
6) Know that your data (say, the sort of car you register) are not shared among government departments.
7) Travel without interior passports (i.e., disguised ID cards).
8) Travel with no risk of being on a list of people that the state does not allow to fly.
9) Listen to whatever TV station you want, wherever the signal comes from.
10) Announce business news to whomever (if you are a business executive).
11) Buy or sell stocks on the basis of whatever non-stolen information is in your head.
12) Sell eggs or milk without the state’s permission.
13) Subdivide the family farm into lots.
14) Drive on the state’s roads (which is now defined as a privilege graciously granted by the state).
15) Cut trees without a permit.
16) Drive a pleasure boat without a permit.
17) Smoke in your own shop or welcome smokers there.
18) Talk publicly about any topic (there are criminal code provisions and “human rights commissions” against certain forms of speech and certain topics).
19) Own or carry guns without permission, even on your own property.
20) Not be stopped while driving a car if there is no reason to think you have committed any offence.
21) Cross the Canadian border without declaring negotiable instruments of more than $10,000.
22) Exert your right of self-defence.
23) Run a business without fear of ending your life in jail for committing new, obscure “frauds”.
24) Deposit $10,000 in cash without the bank being obliged to become a state snitch.
25) Go about your daily business without official ID papers.
26) Open a bank account without the state knowing it.
27) Open a mutual fund account without official ID papers.
28) Destroy a castor dam on your own land.
29) Send your child to any public school you want, regardless of language.
30) Work in any language provided you got customers.
31) Advertize in or on your shop in the language you want.
32) Be secure against seizure of your property except by a judgment beyond a reasonable doubt.