The woke continue to wreak havoc in our governments and other institutions. Photo Credit: Depositphotos.
As more Canadians are becoming aware of the many “woke” influences in our governments, public schools, universities, regulatory bodies and even many large corporations, opposition is building to this harmful and extreme trend. That being said, we are still seeing many examples of “woke” in action that are unfair, unjustified and forced on people who did nothing to deserve the negative attention and unreasonable penalties.
A few recent examples in Ontario make the case. For starters, the little hamlet of Emo in northwest Ontario became the target of an aggressive LGBTQ group called Borderland Pride when they did not celebrate “Pride Month” this past summer and fly the rainbow flag. This tiny town did not even have a flagpole. Borderland Pride decided to take the town to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which foolishly decided to fine the town $10,000 for making a decision that should have been well within their jurisdiction to make and levy a further fine on the mayor of $5,000. The mayor subsequently had his bank account garnished, which is an absolute disgrace. It seems a duly elected local official must be subservient to a minority interest group, which is an affront to democracy and should alarm all citizens.
Borderland Pride preened with delight at this ridiculous outcome, although they did shut down their twitter/X account to comments as it’s likely they were getting quite a bit of negative blowback from this decision. Bullying small towns is not exactly a way to win friends and influence people, and this entire issue likely reduced overall support for the LGBTQ community. It also once again shone a light on the kangaroo court nature of the Human Rights Commissions in Canada, where the accused usually have no right of appeal and the accusers bear no responsibility for the costs of any actions they bring, which invites spurious cases like this.
Canada has perfectly good laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, among other things. The notion that we need another layer of bureaucracy in the form of Human Rights Commissions, which don’t follow proper rules as a court of law would, is absurd. There is a serious case to be made for the elimination of Human Rights Commissions across Canada, as they are unnecessary and have been shown to be irresponsible as they did in the Emo decision.
In other ridiculous woke news, London Ontario city councillor Susan Stevenson was recently sanctioned with a 30-day suspension without pay for speaking out against the city’s “safe supply” of drugs program. Such programs have been proven to be a disaster across Canada as they distribute free drugs – the so-called safe supply – to addicts who typically trade them in on the street for even stronger and riskier drugs. These programs have been shown to do nothing to help addicts get help for their addictions and merely contribute to more overdose deaths.
The fact that London city council could not handle someone whose views disagreed with their misguided support for “safe supply” and felt they were justified in going so far as to docking a fellow councillor’s pay for having a difference of opinion is outrageous. It seems these folks who claim to support diversity have a serious problem with diversity of opinion.
Another similar incident recently took place in Pickering, Ontario. Councillor Lisa Robinson has had her pay docked after she was deemed by the municipality’s “integrity commissioner” to have demonstrated “unacceptable behaviour.” Robinson had weighed in against things such as drag queen story hour events and all-gender washrooms. She rightly commented that if constituents didn’t like what she was saying, then they could vote her out in the next election.
A common characteristic of the woke crowd is that they brook no disagreement with their intractable opinions and can’t accept that anyone is allowed a different point of view. The biggest woke tyrant in Canada is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who, when faced with his authority crumbling around him with the surprise resignation of former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and opposition to his leadership by many in his caucus, showed his true colours by running away. Instead of confronting his nemeses and acting like a leader, he cancelled all of his customary year-end interviews with media and neglected to speak to Canadians about the serious crises within his government. Like all bullies, Trudeau showed that deep down he was really just a coward.
With experiences like this, it is no surprise that the majority of Canadians are turning against the arrogant woke bullies, and deservedly so. The intolerance of these people for anyone who has a different opinion than them is appalling and demonstrates they are insecure in their own opinions. However, as these recent examples show, they continue to wreak havoc in our governments and other institutions, undermine democracy and discourage others from expressing different opinions. We need more mayors, councillors and other elected officials to stand up to these bullies and bring some common sense back to politics.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
