I watched part of a recent interview of Maxime Bernier by Mikhaila Peterson. Mikhaila (named for Mikhail Gorbechev) is the daughter of forthright debater and public intellectual, Jordan Peterson. Maxime is leader of the PPC --- the People’s Party of Canada. Maxime was relating his recent arrest in Manitoba over his lack of quarantining. If I thought the PPC had even a tiny chance of winning an election, I would probably offer my support because I essentially appreciate the conservative and libertarian values they seem to be projecting and protecting. I agree with Bernier: many governmental responses to the pandemic are not sanctioned by the constitution. A Canadian has the right to relatively unrestricted travel across this country. Canadians have the right to assemble and associate freely.
So why am I not fighting shoulder to shoulder with Bernier? It is because I am not omnipotent. I have limited time and energy. I have to pick my battles --- fight the ones where I can make a worthwhile difference. I am of the opinion, and have been from the beginning, that the limitations upon our civil liberties are temporary. The issue has always been going to disappear, so why waste my time on it? Nonetheless, I do not criticize people who have fought against abbreviation of their liberties. “Use them or lose them.”
I understand the need to stop the spread of disease through social distancing. That is not only basic science, but it is Bible science. Anciently, Israel was given rules governing conduct in an environment of communicable diseases. But I also understand the harm of social isolation --- increase in substance abuse, hopelessness --- even suicides --- shattered dreams. Further, I understand the troubles arising from economic dislocation of resources resulting from heavy-handed government intrusion in the economy in the fight against Covid.
There would be plenty of reasons to fight against government interference with our personal freedoms IF the interference was not short-lived. What we have had is a form of martial law, sometimes needed in social emergencies. Martial law has seldom been applied in Canada, and it has always been temporary.
