Dear Charles,
I commend you for your excellent reporting on your blog. You provide valuable insight on events around
the province and on the workings of our governments that is not available
elsewhere.
Your probing coverage illuminates injustices that were previously
hidden, obscured and glossed over. You
speak for the disenfranchised with a true voice. Your findings reveal an ugly side of our
society and resonate with all who care for open, equitable democracy.
Some do not appreciate the light you shed. They have tried to silence you. They banned you from our legislature, threw
you in jail, and put you through the courts.
When that failed, they now try a frontal assault on your freedom of
speech. In a democracy that kind of tyranny
is only possible when thousands, even a majority, are complicit.
In 1982, I was a student in law school. A great man of the time, Pierre Elliott
Trudeau, achieved his great ambition of enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in our constitution where it would
be untouchable when times change and governments change their minds.
I confess that at the time I was not excited about the Charter.
It was nice words on a page, truisms that no one disputed. I had such faith in Canadian democracy, and
the Canadian people, that I did not appreciate Trudeau’s intense desire for
this law.
I was naive. Times
have changed. Greed, cynicism and fear
have replaced the bold idealism of the previous era.
Only in the days after your arrest on January 19 did I begin
to understand the past that Trudeau knew and the future he feared. That future is here.
The Charter is
there for you. The guarantee of free
speech is precisely to prevent tyrants silencing critics who seek only truth,
justice and equity.
I thank you Charles for what you do and for showing me why
we need a Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
even in Canada.
Yours truly,
Peter Dauphinee
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