If anything, the electrifying trucker convoys and protests – or hostage convoys and protests, depending on your perspective – have provided us with the perfect opportunity to ask ourselves: what does democracy mean and are we in fact committed to it?
Whether you love them or hate them or something in between, the protests and protesters have brilliantly illuminated what we mean by the terms “democracy,” “Rule of Law,” and “freedom.” As one who educates on Canada’s government and legal system, I couldn’t have dreamed up a better teaching lesson!
Understand this: I’ve worked much of my professional life to protect and defend Canadians’ right to freedom of expression and assembly, something at the heart of the current protests. I believe strongly that democracy requires a wide leeway to the people to express dissent in jarring and often odious language. This is part of the deal of allowing the people to hold our elected representatives to account. Our politicians only derive their legitimacy and power from the people through elections, and they must always remain at our service. And as much as we might not like it, protesters must be able to inconvenience the rest of us while sharing their perspective. Democracy isn’t only a feel good enterprise. It often provokes strong feelings, reactions and emotions because it is essentially a human enterprise, one that can be a real pain in the ass.
The redeeming feature in the exercise of democracy – with all its passions and pain – is the Rule of Law. It is the feature that helps ensure that those that are most powerful in society aren’t simply able to arbitrarily impose their values and their rules on the rest of us with impunity. The Rule of Law also gives those with little power the opportunity to challenge unjust and unfair rules imposed by our government.
We often cite the Rule of Law in Canada’s democracy to distinguish our society from one ruled by a powerful dictator able to impose his will and rules on the people who have no recourse to challenge his power. To the extent there is a legal system with courts and judges in such a society, the judges and courts are simply tools to provide a thin veil of legal legitimacy to the ruler’s imposition of his will. Think of the two Michaels in Xi’s China, or Navalny in Putin’s Russia.
But in Canada, the Rule of Law requires our elected leaders to submit to our judicial system with its fair process, independence and impartiality, and ultimately to the people in our democratic society through open, universal and fair elections. These critical democratic institutions are indeed the backstop we rely on to prevent being ruled by a tiny few who wield their power arbitrarily on the rest of us. If we ignore these democratic institutions or lose confidence in them, we effectively retreat from democracy. Witness our good neighbours south of the border.
Which brings us back to our fellow Canadian citizens and neighbours, the “convoy” protesters.
Through their protest tactics in Ottawa and at Canada-U.S. border crossings, they have effectively held hostage local citizens, residents and transnational crossings of people and economic goods. Their actions have effectively subverted the Rule of Law. How so? Through their tactics that bypass democratically elected processes or any open judicial process to challenge our government’s decisions which they decry as strangling their freedom, they have secreted significant power unto themselves through no democratic or legal process other than their own.
For many of us, it has been frustrating to watch as our government leaders and police, the executive branch of our government, have seemingly allowed the protesters to trample on the Rule of Law without consequences, not to mention co-opting Canada’s flag and Indigenous communities’ Orange Shirt Day in service of their own protests. The discovery of weapons within one protester camp raised the spectre of something dangerously beyond peaceful protest. With the invocation of the Emergencies Act, we must further debate whether this is a proportionate response from government.
As for freedom, like many newcomers to Canada who immigrate from oppressive countries, I too want to live in a society that values real freedom as a major democratic asset. But I recognize that each of our freedoms are not absolute, but rather subject to some reasonable regulation especially where one’s exercise of freedom will unreasonably interfere with the freedoms of our fellow citizens and neighbours. There is a reason some of us consider ourselves civil libertarians rather than libertarians.
This brings us further to what the current protests are laying bare: Do we really understand what Canada’s democracy and our commitment to it means?
I believe as a country we are failing to invest sufficiently in democratic life. The current protesters, given their tactics and demands, demonstrate their complete misunderstanding of democratic discourse and the Rule of Law.
To counter this misunderstanding and apathy, at my organization, we run a program called Democracy Café which is a platform for understanding, encouraging and improving engagement by citizens and residents in democratic life. Yet, despite our pride in Canada’s democracy, it is incredibly difficult to get funding for our program while funders either do not prioritize this need or fear that our activities are too “political,” even though our program is completely non-partisan.
Curiously, just recently, Facebook has rejected our proposed ads to invite interested participants to apply for our upcoming North Shore Young Civic Forum, which is an opportunity for younger adults aged 18-39 who live, work or study on the North Shore to learn about local governments and craft projects that give voice to younger adults’ perspectives in municipal affairs, something they are often excluded from. Facebook has indicated that our ads violate their policy on Ads About Social Issues, Elections or Politics. Go figure.
Let’s use the current controversy of the protests to recommit to making our democracy more robust, more broadly understood, better supported, and one that we can all participate and have confidence in.
Murray Mollard is the Executive Director of North Shore Community Resources and a former Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association. Do you want a say in what your community looks like? Looking to connect with other passionate young people on the North Shore? Apply for the North Shore Young Civic Forum. In the Forum you’ll learn about how cities work, get connected to council members, city staff, and community advocates, and develop your own solutions to some of the North Shore’s most pressing challenges. The forum is for young adults ages 19-39 who live, work, or study on the North Shore. Applications close Feb 28, 2022. To learn more and apply visit https://community.nscr.ca/the-forum/.
