“Those who give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Lucky for Ontarians, some new changes to the Emergency Management Act may show us some martial law first-hand. Just imagine: once locked inside their homes after an imposed curfew, children will be able to watch tanks and armoured trucks roll by, looking for hidden bearded enemies or natural disasters that lurk somewhere in the darkest of shadows.
The proposed amendments had a first reading in the Ontario legislature Nov. 1 and will seek to prohibit travel, evacuate entire regions, seize or destroy property without a warrant, fix prices, impose curfews and conscript workers into service.
Why? “There’s nobody who doesn’t agree that somewhere along the line, we’re going to have a problem. That’s just the nature of the society we live in,” said Monte Kwinter, the provincial minister of community safety in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen last June.
Well, thank heaven, this guy’s on the case. Should we have Kwinter draft up more double-negative legislation promising to protect us from vague threats that could happen in some dark, dystopic hinterland of his imagining? By that token, we should certainly take preventative measures against an alien attack. What about those BSE-infested beasties? Perhaps we should draft a hasty bill and erect a perimeter of high-voltage electric fences to keep the hamburger at bay.
As long as Ontario has been around, there have been three provincial emergencies – the ice storm, SARS, and the blackout.
One wonders if tear gas and imposed curfews would have saved us from cold nights, infestation and that all-embracing darkness.
Remember three years ago, almost to the day, when the Ottawa police called in the Toronto police, the OPP and RCMP to protect members of the G20 and International Monetary Fund bureaucrats from vicious protestors? Police waddled around in robotic-looking suits and marched German shepherds around, who sank their teeth into plump young boys marching with parents. Robocop look-alikes lobbed shock grenades and dispersal gas into peaceful crowds. All for the reason of justifying their existence – anything but to appear unnecessary.
That is the very nature of these bills: drastic measures are taken to inflate the order side of law, and when there is public backlash the state clamps down further, proving to themselves that these measures were needed in the first place; Self-perpetuating unnecessarily hostile legislation.
Last month, the Ottawa police purchased a new armoured vehicle which will house their non-lethal weaponry – as non-lethal as the kind that killed a 21-year-old student celebrating after the Red Sox whipped the Yankees last fall.
It will cost nearly $110,000 and will allow for a rapid response to “emergencies.” Heavy-handed smackdowns will become more popular as the police now have more toys to show off.
The police say it will “provide a positive image,” in the city. Martial law and over-the-top reactions always evoke “positive” feelings, don’t they?
With George W. Bush set to visit Canada Nov. 30, perhaps the officials have a special someone they’d like to impress with their new toys and Patriot Act-like legislation. The playground just got a little darker. “Hey George, look, we can ignore civil rights too!”