“We are losing and we are losing badly”
Yesterday I described a remarkable incident in which a person delivering a speech was suddenly inundated with cash by members of the audience. That person was Michael Alexander, a Toronto lawyer.
He represents doctors who are battling the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. In essence, these doctors are accused of insufficiently toeing the COVID-19 party line. Here’s what he said early on in that speech:
To understand what’s going on here in Ontario and the country as a whole, I want to make reference to a book by Franz Kafka called The Trial…the opening line in this book is as follows: “Someone must have slandered Joseph K. for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested.”
What happens to Joseph K. is he is subjected to continual investigation and prosecution. He must go to a trial every Sunday afternoon. He’s eventually betrayed by his friends and by his own lawyer. And one day he’s cornered by a couple of thugs who stab him to death.
There are various ways to interpret Kafka’s novel. For Mr. Alexander, “it’s the most perfect expression of what it’s like to live in a totalitarian society.” The state has many levers to pull. One of which is subjecting you “to perpetual investigation and prosecution until you submit. And that is what is happening to my clients right here in Ontario.”
Mr. Alexander says that all of Canada’s provincial Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons simultaneously posted identical verbiage on their websites during the pandemic, listing three restrictions. He describes the first one this way: The doctor may not say anything contrary to public health policies and recommendations around COVID-19. Not even in your backyard. I have a client who was overheard on a train, and was reported, and is now being prosecuted.
Does this sound like a smart way to run a society? As soon as the government declares a public health emergency, doctors lose all their free speech rights en masse?
The other two restrictions: “You may not write a medical exemption for COVID-19 injections – and you may not prescribe Ivermectin.”
These restrictions are not laws. They are not regulations passed by provincial Cabinets. They are not even policies formally adopted by College Councils. And yet, doctors accused of violating them have had their license to practice medicine suspended, and are in danger of losing those licenses permanently.
In a world that operates on logic and reason, pointing out the obvious overreach and the obvious illegitimacy should have stopped these cases in their tracks. But that’s not what’s happening.
As Mr. Alexander explains, “Wherever I go, the rule of law being is being blunted. Agencies, commissions, Health Canada, the provincial government, the federal government. All acting outside of their jurisdiction. Acting outside the rule of law. We don’t have the rule of law. We do not have democracy in this country, right now. In fact, we’re heading into a very, very dangerous stage of our development as a society.
…as we all know, in this country we have a uni-party. So unless we fight back now, we change this trend, we are not gonna have democracy anymore. And unfortunately, I would have to report to you today that in this battle we are losing and we are losing badly.“
*****
Donna Laframboise writes a daily blog at ThankYouTruckers.substack.com. It is a first draft of her upcoming book that focuses on interviews with Freedom Convoy truckers. She is a former National Post and Toronto Star columnist, and a former Vice President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
