Romanians Know that Free Speech Isn’t Free
There is a cost for speaking out and protecting free speech. Romanians who remember life before 1989 remind us that in the face of Totalitarianism, truth is more important than ever.
The trucker protest in Ottawa is effectively over. Harsh military-style tactics used to disperse the protestors shock us, but few paid attention. Just days prior, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada’s history. This act endows the government with extraordinary powers such as confiscating assets and arbitrarily determining punishments for even the smallest crimes – all for the purpose of saving the nation from an invading army or an imminent rebellion. Such a step is supposed to be ratified by parliament.
Rather than wait for parliamentary approval, Trudeau ordered federal police and those from other provinces to move in. Ottawa police were rumored to be sympathetic to protesters. Some of these mercenaries were mounted on horseback and others arrayed in tactical gear. This overwhelming show of (brute) force succeeded in ending the protests – not without first trampling protesters, beating others, and firing tear gas canisters at point-blank range.
World leaders and major media outlets were largely silent on the whole affair. One of the few voices of official condemnation was that of Cristian Terhes, an obscure politician from Romania. Terhes, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), condemned Trudeau in no uncertain terms, comparing him to former Romanian president Nicolae Ceaușescu (pronounced: chow-SHESK-oo).
Terhes hoped the movement would spread globally because, “At the end of the day, all these elected officials, they have to understand they were elected in those offices to work for the people, not to behave as masters of slaves.” It is spreading globally. While there are no longer any truckers protesting in Ottawa, other protests have sprung up in fellow Canadian cities such as Quebec City, Calgary, and Victoria. This is in addition to protests around the globe. A trucker convoy in the United States begins today.
A couple of months ago few would have believed that peaceful protesters would be jailed and beaten while their supporters would have their bank accounts frozen. This is not a one-off occurrence. We are seeing a progression and one that really isn’t about COVID. It is about compliance. Those that don’t comply are being fired and having rights removed. Governments only set the tone as corporations often take it upon themselves to punish those that don’t comply.
There are many good reasons to speak up – the truth is telling us to do so
We have been told health measures were put in place to protect us, particularly our kids. As a society we are forging ahead with vaccinating younger and younger portions of the population. Schools remained closed far too long. Many kids are still being forced to mask while mandates are being relaxed on adults. The narrative is that children have been at risk throughout this pandemic; they are filling up emergency rooms. It has been obvious to many of us that kids are at low risk of getting seriously ill from COVID. Yet, now, based on the CDC’s own data, we see that kids have been safer in the last two years than they have been during the pandemic. I think you would agree that trips to the Emergency Room (or ED - Emergency Department in CDC’s words) is a good proxy for harm to people. The average number of ER visits per week for kids exceeded 200,000 prior to the pandemic. That dropped to less than 150,000/WK for much of the pandemic. While this is starting to return to prior levels, trips to the ER remain well below pre-pandemic levels, even with Omicron running wild in December and January.
I pick small pieces of data like this because, where possible, I like to show how the CDC’s own data contradicts their talking points. The problem is that there is very little data. Often, the public must rely on data from Israel, the UK, and other more transparent nations. The New York Times just made this very point in an article by Apoova Mandavilli. People, liberal and conservative, are noticing how the CDC cherry-picks what data it releases to the public. One CDC official is quoted in the article as explaining that they don’t want to release much of the data because it, “might be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective.”
Off the record, the CDC is saying that if we saw the whole picture, we are likely to conclude vaccines are no longer worth taking. One might defend their actions by saying that the public isn’t entitled to the data because most of public, like me, are not medically trained. However, those cited in the article complaining about not having access to the data are doctors. Members of the American Academy of Pediatrics have pleaded with the CDC to no avail.
The CDC’s withholding of data erodes the public trust. Paul Offit’s experience makes this point. Dr. Offit is Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He sits on the scientific committee that advises the FDA whether to approve a vaccine. When deciding about booster shots, he had to make recommendations based on Israeli data because of the CDC’s unwillingness to publish data from the US. As recently as last month, most colleges required boosters to return to classes. This is effectively mandating boosters on the population most at risk for side effects. Dr. Offit made headlines when he said publicly that he discouraged his 20-year-old son from getting a booster shot. He was not the only doctor making that choice. If our nation’s top doctors won’t follow CDC guidance for their own family, why should people trust the CDC?
Thus, it is entirely reasonable to speak out against mandates and other public health decisions.
“We will hunt you down for speaking your mind or supporting others that do”
Speaking out, though, comes at a cost. Everyday Canadians are learning this the hard way. In response to allegations of police brutality, Ottawa’s new Police Chief Steve Bell simply said that protesters were told to go home, and had intended to “escalate” police tactics if protesters remained. You will find no apologies here. Rather, he was saying, if people were kicked, beaten, punched, or fired on (tear gas cannisters at close range), it is the fault of the protesters for not leaving when told to do so.
Bell also went on to outline how they were using cameras and other surveillance equipment to identify those who did leave peacefully. For them, Bell said authorities would spend the next few months hunting them down, freezing their assets, taking away their licenses, and filing various charges – simply for having been there in the first place. Many protesters claim that their bank accounts are already frozen.
Canadians need not have attended the protest to feel the government’s wrath. One Member of Parliament highlighted the story of a mother, working minimum wage, who had her bank account frozen because she donated $50 to the protesters. Authorities are even trying to freeze the cryptocurrency accounts of people who have made donations to the protesters.
As the police crackdown began, protest organizer Tamar Lich was arrested on a charge of ‘counseling to commit mischief.’ No property damage by her was alleged. Nor was any physical harm alleged. She was arrested for conspiring to commit mischief. At her arraignment she was denied bail and will be held for an undetermined amount of time. In the words of the judge, "Your detention is necessary for the protection and safety of the public." They wouldn’t let her out of jail because they fear she would continue being an instigator of free speech.
Failure to comply comes at a high cost nowadays in Canada. Just ask Pastor Artur Pawlowski of Calgary, who was also arrested recently for inciting mischief. Unfortunately, you can’t ask him. Not only is he being held without bail, but he is also being held in solitary confinement. Pastor Pawlowski has had many run-ins with Canadian authorities during COVID beginning with his arrest for failing to wear a mask at an outdoor protest. He then gained international notoriety when he kicked police out of his church Easter Sunday last year. Police were trying to shut down his church as simply holding services were deemed in violation of health orders. When he spoke two weeks ago at a rally for truckers working to close a border crossing, authorities had had enough. They locked him up and have effectively thrown away the key. Why is he so outspoken? Pastor Pawlowski grew up in Communist Poland.
Those most outspoken about totalitarian rule are often ones who have lived under it. Poland, Hungary, and Romania all had to earn their freedom. Romanians know something about the terror that must be endured. Ceaușescu’s death by firing squad on Christmas Day 1989 ended 42 years of Communist rule, in which the secret police hunted dissenters and terrorized the people. Pastor László Tőkés paid a heavy price for his dissent in the late 1980s. His church was regularly harassed and attacked. Authorities worked to shut down their services. Attackers broke into his home. He and friends fought off knife-wielding thugs while the secret police looked on. Yet, it was the courage and persistence of Pastor Tőkés and others that helped bring down Communism in Romania.
It isn’t always the government that enforces compliance
Don’t be fooled into thinking it is only the government that enforces social compliance. Jennifer Sey was Levi’s Brand President. She was being groomed for the position of CEO based on the outstanding performance of the business under her leadership. There was just one problem. She spoke her mind on the wrong social issues. Sey is a mother of four living in the San Francisco Bay area where Levi’s is headquartered. In her words, “I publicly questioned whether schools had to be shut down. This didn’t seem at all controversial to me. I felt—and still do—that the draconian policies would cause the most harm to those least at risk, and the burden would fall heaviest on disadvantaged kids in public schools, who need the safety and routine of school the most.” Her views have overwhelming popular support as evidenced by three commissioners being voted off the San Francisco School Board last week by a wide margin (more than 70% in favor). They were seen as not doing enough during the pandemic to reopen schools.
The Levi Strauss & Co. prides itself on standing up for social causes but apparently only certain issues are acceptable. Sey made it clear that she was expressing her opinions, not those of the company. Regardless, complaints and requests to stop speaking out came from all sides. Eventually Levi’s fired her. She was offered severance, but it came with the condition that she not talk about why she was fired. She declined the $1 million dollars in severance to be able to tell her story, which she did here. We know how much free speech is worth to Jennifer Sey.
Governments may set the tone, but it is often corporations that willingly enforce social compliance.
In Conclusion
Christians like Pawlowski, Tőkés, and Terhes that grew up in Eastern Europe under Communism do not take the events of the last many years lightly. I highly recommend the book Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher. In it, Dreher interviews many Christians who survived life under Communism. They see a storm gathering and consider our modern Western culture one of Pre-Totalitarianism. Those who experienced the horrors of state-sponsored surveillance under Communism marvel at how casually Americans allow themselves to be tracked by Apple iPhones and Amazon Alexa devices. Their stories of persecution need to be told and Dreher’s book gives them a voice.
Dreher wrote his book just before the pandemic. I wonder: how much closer to Totalitarianism we are today? Those he interviewed have advice for us: Value nothing more than truth. Speaking truth will cost us. Yet, abandoning it will cost us far more.
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