Bambi would like to thank one of her friends for sharing the powerful cartoon above entitled “Today’s democracy”.
Sadly, it applies to so many countries historically known for defending, sometimes with blood, perhaps the most important value in the world: Freedom.
Here is a translation of the cartoon above (by an unknown source): The Raven (the free bird on the tree branch) asked the parrot: “Why are you in a cage?” The parrot replied: “Because I talk…“.
This is how citizens are feeling in so many countries of the world, including us in Canada and in the nearby United States as well as in Lebanon (+ several others countries) where worrisome stories are increasingly occurring.
In Canada, citizens have been/risk increasingly being the target of forces of censorship. Bambi is not talking about her own censorship saga here (even if it is a sad and unacceptable example of the erosion of our democratic societies). She is talking about “illeberal” bills by so-called Liberal governments. Yes, she is referring to Bill 36:
She is also talking about dangerous practices in the USA like what Facebook is doing right now: Encouraging its clients to denounce each other in the name of so-called anti-extremism:
The link above is in French. Thank you Mr. Vincent Dessureault for interviewing one of our most talented thinkers on the topic, Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté. Like the latter, Bambi is for a liberal approach to speech in life. It is definitely the healthiest approach to a society. Saying otherwise is a slippery slope that we usually see in the former Soviet era or under dictatorships, not in free societies. It is precisely for this reason that Bambi has never been on any social media. Many of her family and friends found her odd for that. She told herself: I do not trust those things. If one day someone decides you are a terrorist, they can go after all your friends, etc. Remember, for having grown up during a bloody, absurd civil-war, she knows what she is talking about here.
See what is happening today with those big tech companies. They even dared to silence their own President. How could this be done, whether you like him or not and whether he says vulgar things sometimes or not. No one should silence anyone in life, not Mr. Biden and not Mr. Trudeau. Not Mr. Aoun and not even Mr. Nasrallah… and surely not human citizens or deer.
Everyone has a place in a democratic society. Everyone’s insights are valid. Of course, as long we do not call for violence or do not resort to defamation, all expression in all languages and in all countries that respect themselves must be protected.
The last example Bambi will conclude with sadly happened in Lebanon to two foreign journalists. It gave Bambi goose bumps, reminding her of the kidnapping of journalists during war times… Luckily, they are released now and the Lebanese Press Syndicate publicly condemned the action. Same for many journalists and the “Samir Kassir eyes (SKeyes) Center“… “established in Beirut in November 2007 at the initiative of the Samir Kassir Foundation, which was founded following the assassination of Lebanese journalist and historian Samir Kassir on June 2, 2005.” (https://www.skeyesmedia.org/en/About-Us).
Enough of censorship. Enough of intimidation of any citizen/all citizens, journalists, scholars… in any country of the world. Just ENOUGH!
Thank you Bambi for addressing this sad situation that exists here in Canuckistan as well, a jurisdiction where injunctions, safety orders, non-disclosure agreements, the suspension of the open court principle, publication bans and Anton Pillers are some of the tools used by dishonest individuals to cause a chilling effect.
Bambi thanks you, Fred, for your kind words and for sharing your deep comment and thoughtful observations. We can/must do better, indeed– Let’s hope we will!