The rules of protest
Re: The forgotten rights of Iran. Terry Glavin, Jan. 4, 2018 Any civilized human being ought to sympathize with the plight of the Iranian people and their struggle to unseat the fanatical despots who now govern them. But no degree of tyranny can justify causing the deaths of innocent people, either directly or indirectly, or needless destruction of either private or public property.
Citizens everywhere should be able to voice their legitimate grievances against their rulers. But circumstances rarely if ever justify doing that in ways that harm others.
Burning rubber tires in the streets is a common form of protest in many countries. But it achieves nothing except to foul the air that others must breathe, and that is a crime that any government can lawfully punish.
Some years back, a group of Tamil protesters, exasperated by our government’s apparent indifference to their countrymen’s plight, blocked an expressway in Toronto. They inconvenienced thousands of innocent commuters and could have put lives at risk if they had stopped ambulances or fire trucks from getting through. Was their action justified? I say no.
Another time delegates from the G7 countries met in Toronto. Some protesters against the present world economic order took that as a licence to loot small businesses that bore no responsibility for such things. Were they justified? Surely not, and their lawlessness changed nothing in t he world economy.
Revolt against a tyrannous government is, and should be recognized as, a human right. But revolutions are subject to the same moral rules as wars. They are legitimate only when they have a reasonable prospect of success and should as far as possible avoid harming innocent civilians or vandalizing either private or public property.
We may sympathize all we like with the oppressed people of Iran. Our government would be right to speak out against the mullahs’ abuses, but we must not expect that to improve matters in any way. What more Canada should do depends on how the situation develops, and that is quite out of our hands. William Cooke, Toronto