Note! May is C3RF Funding Drive month - see notice below!
Note! C3RF is in need of a volunteer English-French translator for the “update”. Please contact r.cooper@canadiancitizens.org if interested in helping out.
A cure worse than the disease?
It seems like an eternity now when we first heard the admonition to “flatten the curve”. Recall the idea, originally floated by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as a concept in 2007, hit the twittersphere some nine weeks ago and quickly became the modus operandi behind our efforts to deal with the Wuhan virus pandemic. It mattered not that the strategy had no basis in hard data and could not even be considered to be a model derived from any real world experimentation, it was stated as fact that you could delay the onset of infection and reduce the related load on medical resources if you kept folks from interacting with each other. This leap in logic led to the implementation of public health emergency measures in all provinces and territories – measures that included the quarantining of the healthy along with the unhealthy even as so called non-essential industries were shut down
This, even as evidence emerged that these drastic “social distancing” measures were not as effective in “flattening the curve” as believed. In New York, for example, Governor Cuomo wondered why 66% of his new hospitalizations were made up by those who had faithfully sheltered. Even Ontario saw 55% of its new cases transmitted through community spread with the remainder coming from the long term care environment. How could such be the case given the social distancing measures that were put in place? Perhaps the problem was easy to foresee given the fact that hundreds of thousands still had to work at essential jobs with just as many having to go outside all the time. It would appear that a Western-style lockdown is incapable of eradicating the Wuhan virus. Unfortunately, eradication seems to be the standard that some authorities insist on before they release the country from its self-imposed lockdown.
From bait and switch to Catch-22
One of these authorities is none other than our own Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. He and other powerful players no longer see “flattening the curve” to mean giving the medical system the time it needs to spin up to the levels required to handle a Wuhan virus surge - it means preventing any such surge at all. This bait and switch slight-of-hand confuses priorities as it sidelines any consideration of restoring the national economy and bringing it back from the brink of a full-blown depression. Instead, all energies are directed at tip-toeing gingerly out of lockdown so as not to incur a spike in Wuhan virus infections.
This, of course, is an impossibility as an increase in human interactions will lead to an increase in the community transmission of the disease. And so, we find ourselves in a catch-22, the harder we try to return to normalcy the more we spread the Wuhan virus and the more the need to return to “confinement”. We have built ourselves a vicious circle that runs the risk of creating permanent, structural damage to both the economy and our civil liberties. It’s hard to see how such a strategy could get us back to the ways of our Western, liberal democracy. Indeed, it seems as though it is better suited to the creation of a despotic regime.
Canada’s movement along the democracy-depotism spectrum
Last week’s update chronicled, with justification, the movement of Canada away from democracy towards despotism. These observations were derived with the use of an Encyclopedia Britannica template developed on the heels of WWII. The template used a national authority’s respect for its citizens and its willingness to share power with same to position it on the democracy-despotism spectrum. Additionally, it used an analysis of changes in economic equality and information control to make assessments in regards to which way society was trending on that same scale. As for Canada’s respect for its citizens, John Carpay from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (JCCF), sees a disturbing lack of respect as “Canada’s 14 Chief Medical Officers, or the politicians who took their advice”, never asserted that flattening the curve meant stopping the virus totally. Additionally, he noted that it was the responsibility of the government to make the case for limiting the Charter Rights of citizens rather than arbitrarily taking them away. Most certainly, such deceitful and capricious treatment of Canadians betrays a level of disrespect that moves Canada’s position on the democracy-despotism spectrum towards the latter limit.
When it comes to the government’s willingness to share power with its citizens, Rex Murphy couldn’t be more explicit – he compares the government to Ali Baba’s 40 thieves as it shovels money out the door with no debate or input from those who represent the good citizens of Canada. $850 million to international efforts aimed at researching the Wuhan virus, $500 million to arts and culture venues that support the publishers of books on Antifa and sex workers. Forget about what Canadians need to weather the Wuhan virus crisis, the time is right for this government to reward its friends and, in doing so, move the nation’s position on the democracy-despotism scale just a little bit further to the right.
Brian Lilley had something to say when it came to which way economic equality is trending in Canada. He noted that the civil service sector is weathering the Wuhan storm very comfortably, thank you, as its unemployment rate has only increased by some 5%. Portions of the private economy, however, have seen these same rates increase by a whopping 50%. A disturbing trend given the fact that some of these civil servants, Members of Parliament to be specific, have declared themselves to be non-essential and are now lounging comfortably in their homes with full pay and benefits. Meanwhile, those in the oil and gas and food and accommodation industries live on government handouts in Wuhan virus hell.
Similarly, the control of information is decidedly trending towards despotism as the Government, the Prime Minister in particular, moves to limit the public’s opportunity to gather the news of the day and inform itself on available alternatives and courses of action open to it in these disturbing times. A prime example of such control is on display on a daily basis with the Prime Minister’s Wuhan virus information broadcasts. These scripted affairs are all that is basically left of public oversight and access is permitted for friendly faces only. Hence the need for some news outlets to sue the government to gain access to them and ask the hard questions that the public deserves answers to. Surely, this reflects another trend indicative of a movement towards despotism rather than democracy. All-in-all, the past week has seen the country move further to the right along the democracy-despotism spectrum with trends likewise increasing in this same direction. Taking the past three weeks into consideration, we seem to be careening into the troubled waters of tyranny with Canada’s position on the spectrum growing from “7.2” to “7.3” while the trend vector increases from “2.1” to “2.2”.
May is C3RF fund drive month
The past year has been extremely busy for C3RF as attacks on your Charter Rights have accelerated and spread over an increasing number of initiatives. With your help, we have been able to push back on many fronts including against the formation of political parties partial to the installation of Sharia Law, the entrenchment of free-speech crushing “Islamophobia” in the nation’s political lexicon and the promotion of individual Charter Rights as a critical federal election issue. More than this and in this year of the Wuhan virus, we have fought vigorously on your behalf to preserve these same civil liberties as governments move to tear them down in knee-jerk fashion. Never has the country faced such a sustained and unprincipled attack on its hard-won freedoms – not in any world war or any national conflagration.
All this to say we are defenseless without your financial support and that support is required now as the threats continue to pile up. Accordingly, we have decided to dedicate the month of May to replenishing our coffers in advance of a very busy fall and winter season. Hopefully this approach will meet with your favour and keep us from talking of such things on a continuous basis throughout the year. We suggest an amount of $50.00 annually to help us fight for Canadian security, freedoms and values so that you, your children and grandchildren will continue to enjoy the free country that Canada has been to this point.
Keep in mind that Monthly donations, no matter how small, even $5/month, help us plan our finances in advance and provide us with greater flexibility. Also keep in mind that donations in kind, such as computer services and even legal advice can help greatly. click here to support C3RF today.
And while you're considering making an annual contribution this May, please follow C3RF on Twitter, on Facebook and on our web site and share with friends our great content and a realistic outlook on the continuing battle for Charter Rights in Canada. You can also join our Twitter feed here.
Major Russ Cooper (Ret’d)
President and CEO, C3RFF
