An American questions Canada’s democratic chops
Is Canada a democracy? The question may seem silly, if not insulting, to Canadians, who take it for granted that their celebrated form of government, inherited from Britain, places Canada among the world leaders in promoting the rule of the people.
Yet, to the few Americans who pay attention, there are several significant curiosities in your country’s legal principles and policies that make us a little uneasy. It may be instructive to Canadians to point out how your laws and government appear to an outsider.
The majority rule parliamentary system certainly ensures that those fortunate enough to reside in Canada have far greater rights than the billions who have the ill luck to live under the jackboot of one of the world’s myriad strutting tyrants.
Certain Canadian nonconformists, however, who would like to exercise some disapproved forms of freedom of religion and speech, or want to avoid being tried twice for the same offence, may have a problem.
Noteworthy is the Ontario policy that is uncomfortably reminiscent of an 18th century European tax on Jews, where people of every faith are compelled to pay with their public funds for religious schools, but only Catholic religious schools.
Other items that Americans would not recognize as consistent with democracy include the fact that a criminal acquittal can be appealed by the Crown and reversed, that a court can order a newspaper not to print the proceedings of an ongoing trial (and the newspapers comply!), and that Quebec enforces its infamous rule requiring that, with some modification for trademarks, private businesses must feature French more prominently than English on their signs and packaging, and at least equally on their websites. Or else.
The philosophies of the Canadian political parties appear to American eyes to range from just left of centre to just left of Stalin, but they have in common that none of them are presently interested in rectifying any of the aforementioned monarchical tendencies.
It appears that most of you have so far given little consideration to that when casting ballots, to the detriment of those who wish to conduct their lives unfettered by their neighbours’ preferences.
The well-intentioned Michael Levitt, a Liberal MP, when asked about the dissimilar treatment of religious schools following a talk about how he had proudly presented a speech in Ottawa denouncing human rights violations in Iran, looked dreadfully unhappy, and repeatedly told me, “I hear you,” “It’s not in my portfolio,” “It’s a provincial matter,” and “I understand the problem.”
Robin Martin, a losing Progressive Conservative candidate for the Ontario parliament in 2014, advised, with a degree of candour that was much to her credit, that the party bosses told her not to discuss the issue, as the PCs had been defeated in a previous election after advocating for parity.
Asking a Quebecois about whether it’s appropriate for the government to tell you what language you can use tends to elicit a response that French, which is spoken by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, is “vulnerable.”
As to permitting an entirely free press or eliminating double jeopardy, it never seems to occur to anyone in Canada that there’s a problem.
You are our much beloved cousins, and most Americans who have crossed the border will happily acknowledge that Canadians are, in the main, unusually pleasant and well-mannered people. It is neither the intention here to demean you nor feel sorry for you.
Just as there is quite a bit the U.S. could learn from Canada — relative civility in public debate being a prime example — there are a number of our better qualities that Canada would do well to emulate.
The United States has for nearly a quarter millennium stood in the vanguard of the endless struggle for individual freedom.
How much more effective we could be together in advancing that noble cause if you, our Canadian friends, would set a second example for mankind by implementing a few vital reforms, so that our two great North American nations might in tandem keep the fragile flame of liberty, perpetually on the cusp of extinction in most of the world, alight for all the generations to come.