{"id":5358,"date":"2020-07-16T00:39:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T03:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=5358"},"modified":"2020-07-16T00:41:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T03:41:24","slug":"are-we-still-in-a-free-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/07\/16\/are-we-still-in-a-free-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we still in a free country?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First, we learned from this CBC<\/em> article that \u201cB.C. RCMP officer<\/em>\u201d was \u201csuspended over racially offensive content posted on Facebook<\/em>\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/rcmp-officer-suspension-bc-1.5645620<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear if he was suspended or resigned first but the bottom line is the following question: Why can\u2019t any citizen, including a police officer (who even used another name), express an opinion on social media? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quickly, Bambi was curious to know what was this so-called \u201cracially offensive content<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did he insult any citizen who was of Asian origins? Or was that citizen Arab? Muslim? Jewish? Black? Native? Or someone from his own group, whichever the latter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, not at all. So, really nothing done whilst on the\njob. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All what he did was to express an opinion or circulate\na video on his Facebook page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A video showing a black citizen (perhaps even an American?) \u201ccriticizing the Black Live Matters movement<\/em>\u201d (BLM), “police conduct<\/em>” considered “too soft<\/em>,” and \u201csome of the government’s COVID-19 safety guidelines<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without watching the video, Bambi would not be surprised if it was perhaps one stating the following: some demonstrations are not considered to be at risk of transmitting the covid-19 virus (i.e. the socially acceptable ones, of course) whereas others are more heavily portrayed in the media as a public danger (i.e., the socially non-acceptable ones).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, guess what? Just for this, this police officer\ngot suspended from his position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that make any sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we in an African dictatorship? In Iran, Saudi Arabia,\nor China? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or are we still in North America?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why can\u2019t he say \u201cAll lives matter\u201d anymore (ALL\nincludes black, no?)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is a police officer, for God\u2019s sake, isn\u2019t he supposed to treat all citizens equally? Plus, isn\u2019t it normal not to want to endorse a radical movement that is calling for the abolishment of his own employer ??<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/blacklivesmatter.ca\/defund-the-police\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/blacklivesmatter.ca\/demands\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, related to the above movement, here is another\nperson (this time a business owner) in a different province (Saskatchewan)\nwho was boycotted for a post on Facebook against BLM, according to Global\nNews<\/em>. Again, is this reasonable? Is this democratic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSaskatoon business boycotted after owner\u2019s Facebook comments on BLM protests<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Third, we learned that Montreal\u2019s Saint Catherine\u2019s street\nis now painted with BLM\u2019 slogan in both languages, \u201cjoining a global\nmovement<\/em>\u201d. Is this a good thing necessarily? What about those \u201cblack\u201d citizens\nwho do not endorse this radical movement, like in the first CBC article above? If\nso, their perspective does not matter? In other terms, does their opinion matter\nonly when it fits the current trendy, so-called \u201cglobalist\u201d ideology, endorsed\nby Mayor Val\u00e9rie Plante? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/montreal.ctvnews.ca\/black-lives-matter-painted-on-montreal-s-sainte-catherine-street-joining-global-movement-1.5024169<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To come back to the suspended RCMP officer, the so-called\noffended woman behind this saga pretends to be too \u201cafraid\u201d (to the point of not\nwanting to disclose her identity). Who knows? She may not even be \u201cblack\u201d herself.\nPerhaps just \u201ctoo illuminated\u201d to the point of forgetting that her own opinion\nis not necessarily shared by all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is the RCMP throwing its own employees under the\nbus like that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a society, why are we allowing ourselves to boycott private businesses who are not necessarily fond of the BLM movement? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last but not least, since when having a different opinion\nimplies racism?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, we learned from this CBC article that \u201cB.C. RCMP officer\u201d was \u201csuspended over racially offensive content posted on Facebook\u201d: https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/rcmp-officer-suspension-bc-1.5645620 It is unclear if he was suspended or resigned first but the bottom line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5358"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5365,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5358\/revisions\/5365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}