Peaceful Protests Foster Healthy Democracy: GRAY

The Bubble Bylaw is a no-brainer.

No. Definitely no.

Democracy is messy. Healthy democracy encourages debate. Part of that process includes protests which are often messy. Protests are fundamental to our democracy. So too town halls, debates and public participation which foster a vibrant society.

The alternative is authoritarianism or extremism or even violence.

So limiting protests to 100 metres away from sensitive locations is just the thin edge of the wedge. Governments don’t like protests, though they should. Protests disrupt the finely honed public relations and devious political plans of government. Protests are a small bit of chaos that can expose bad legislation or government’s effort to take the mess out of democracy by banning elements of freedom of expression.

Order over freedom of expression. Order over dissent. Protests keep your governments honest, though it is a flawed tool because of the overwhelming might of government getting it wrong.

So what are the sensitive locations where protests must be a football field away from these place? City hall? Parliament Hill? The Parliamentary Precinct? Ottawa?

And who decides which locations cannot experience a peaceful protest? City hall bureaucrats, many of whom try desperately to keep their mistakes or unpopular plans secret? The police? The mayor? City council?

City hall, which on occasion purports to back democracy more than one day every four years, has been found in the past and the present to withhold vital information, to lie and break the law. This operation is going to tell us where citizens can protest? This civic government is bankrupt in the sense that rather than being open, caring and inclusive, it is closed, uncaring and exclusive.

The 100-metre rule can be used as another weapon against freedom of expression, as though there aren’t enough of those rules already and people in authority eager to use them. Some people like power and cruelty too much.

The 100-metre barrier is a blanket rule. It doesn’t delineate between the Canadian Brotherhood of Football Fans Against The American Football Fair-Catch Rule or the Kanata Society of Grandmothers Against Baby Farts or the Proud Boys.

No matter your intentions, everyone is banned from that 100 metres. When will it become 200 metres? Three hundred metres? Or not allowed at all for reasons such as exclusive groups want authority or it just isn’t nice. And what happens if you flip the bird at 50 metres. Ten years?

There are more than enough laws on the books to stop demonstrations that get out-of-hand. We have laws piled on top of laws. It takes good intelligence and smart people to measure the protest threat. The CBFFAAFFCR or the KSGABF are not much of a threat and you gear your protection accordingly. The Proud Boys? You might want a couple of extra police officers around.

And a $100,000 fine. The Fair-Catchers and the Baby Farters would be wiped out by such a penalty. Where is the freedom of expression in that? But lame pols can tell their twisted followers that we can push around those damn hippy bohemian anti-fart sickies. Strong pols encourage protest. Weak pols fear it.

No. The idea giving a government that practises noversight, lying, lying by omission and incompetence on a $6-billion scale the right to limit protests, is like giving a fire bug a pack of matches.

Governments don’t like protests. They can cost them votes. They can be embarrassing. They can be powerful thus posing a threat to the powerful. Better keep them at a distance … say 100 metres. And governments like to control. Why our municipal government has a night mayor to legislate fun. You can only have fun in the following ways … or you get a $100,000 fine. So there.

Furthermore blanket bans are for people who don’t think. One hundred metres is easy to enforce. Thinking is work. Not much thinking in high places went on during the Freedom Convoy protest.

Governments don’t like protests so they consider giving themselves the power to limit them. Guess how that will work out in the long run?

Democracy is precious, disorganized and free form. Let’s keep it that way.

Freedom of expression means freedom of expression … not freedom of expression by peace-loving people outside of 100 metres of a politician’s office.

Protests are noisy, messy, inconvenient, passionate and democratic. And that’s why we love them so much. They tell us each time that disturbing the peace, disorder and somewhat good government are alive and well in staid old Ottawa. We should encourage protests rather than hinder them.

Protests are the sign of a healthy society, confident that it can thrive within the context a vibrant democracy.

Bulldog editor Ken Gray has been a journalist at five major Canadian newspapers over a career that has spanned more than four decades.

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