Young Torontonians walked on the streets of their city yesterday (https://www.cp24.com/news/emancipation-day-march-in-downtown-toronto-calls-for-abolition-of-prison-system-1.5048614), in a march “organized by Not Another Black Life in collaboration with other organizations, including the Toronto Prisoner’s Rights Project, Palestinian Youth Movement, Keep Your Rent Toronto, and Climate Justice Toronto”.
They did so to highlight Emancipation Day, which commemorates the Abolition of Slavery Act. The latter saw the light as a law on August 1, 1834.
These young people could have been your kids or Bambi’s own.
They were young. They seemed passionate.
They carried signs of Black Lives Matter, as you can see in the pictures of the CP24 link above.
They found a new cause to walk for, even in the middle of a pandemic and the risk of transmission of the coronavirus.
Until now, this story seems noble and human, up until we learn that they were calling for the abolition of the prison system.
Indeed, it seems that their walk was literally called “A March for Prison Abolition”.
Does that make any sense? Not to Bambi for sure and she is ALL for freedom.
So, if we follow their logic: They want NO police (their initial demand, repeated again whilst marching) AND NO prisons.
Can you imagine life without neither police services nor prisons :)?
Even in an ideal beautiful imaginary world, there would be someone to break the law or to put others at risk.
Life is not rosy all the time.
Life is not all black and white, so to speak, even if the latter vision fits how these people seem to see the world. A vision that is not only unrealistic but also dangerous.
The demand of these people is disconnected from the reality, to say the least.
As soon as the pandemic will be behind us, Bambi would like to offer them all a world trip to tour dictatorships around the world :). Perhaps their call to abolish prison systems where torture is omnipresent would have more utility there.
Of course, this does not mean we do not have the responsibility to keep improving our justice and prison systems (e.g., fair to all, respectful of human dignity, etc.). Bravo for them to be sensitive to this.
So, to conclude this post, back to our title: Can unwise extremism take a country like Canada straight to hell in the long term? Bambi will let you reach your own conclusion… As far she is concerned, she cannot help not to think of stories/memories of gratuitous violence, acts of terrorism, anarchy, civil unrest/war.
We are blessed to live in a normal and functional country with respectable systems.
Is it perfect? Of course not.
Could it be improved? Yes, for sure!
Should we throw the baby with the bathwater then? Why would we do so? And what would be the alternative?
How about if we simply use our critical sense before endorsing absurd demands and slogans?
