Our freedom is brought to you by those who offended us

I wanted to write a letter to give some context to the absolutely insane notion that our children need protecting from RCMP officers who participate in the School Liaison Officer Program, because and I quote from Ron Seymour’s May 17 article “they make some students feel uncomfortable” and that it “affects students' mental health and well-being — particularly those who are Black, Indigenous or people of colour.”

I would urge the leaders of our community to not follow school districts in the Lower Mainland and consider instead the following:

There are two basic and competing truths that govern the ebb and flow of societal evolution — the first is that freedoms we enjoy today have all come from those who have bravely offended a present and perceived natural order, often at great personal expense.

Over the last 1,000 years, there have been many examples of this truth, one more recent example was the passing of Bill C-150 in 1969, decriminalizing homosexuality, a legislative initiative led by then Justice Minister P.E. Trudeau and a social uprising led by numerous so called “activists” but more aptly labelled “social justice champions.”

Until 1869 our society was “protected” from these “criminals” by ensuring anyone who engaged in such behaviour was punished.

And there is an abrupt and face slapping example the second competing truth — that orthodoxies entrenched by institutions that rule us, be it government, university, religion or the police, are there largely to oversee acceptable thought and to indeed suppress at all costs the very engine that advances our society, the first truth — being offensive.

So now let’s examine the idea we should put a halt to the school liaison officer program through the lens of these two truths. First we have an orthodoxy that feels our children are too fragile (especially apparently Indigenous, Black and children of colour) to be exposed to a largely Caucasian RCMP force (actually 1.5% identify as Black and 7.1% as Indigenous) and must be “protected” by stopping the program.

This very obvious neocolonial thinking is not only inherently racist, but will further entrench what we now have at least come to recognize and begin to talk about as a society that institutionalized systemic racism is real and needs to be acknowledged and with continued progress as a society fully and completely addressed.

So I submit to you the halting of this program is deeply offensive and until we face this fact and collectively understand these two truths the engine of human progress will continue to be thwarted.