Juno News - The left reaches peak Ford Derangement Syndrome over notwithstanding clause

When Ontario Premier Doug Ford deployed the Notwithstanding Clause to pass a bill shrinking the size of Toronto City Council, it was not an act of defiance against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was the only decision to preserve the integrity of the Charter, which is why the clause was put into the Charter in the first place.

00:00:00.000 When Ontario Premier Doug Ford made the decision to deploy the Notwithstanding Clause to pass a bill shrinking the size of Toronto City Council,

00:00:07.860 it was not, as the left would have you believe, an act of defiance against the Constitution, against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

00:00:14.660 In actuality, it was the only decision to preserve the integrity of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,

00:00:21.060 which is why the Notwithstanding Clause was put into the Charter in the first place.

00:00:25.660 This is the only way that we can fight back against judicial activist judges who, instead of interpreting the Constitution through a legal lens,

00:00:34.580 do it through their own political and ideological lens.

00:00:38.260 And, to be honest, even a lot of legal scholars and political scientists, even if they aren't fans of Doug Ford or the bill in question,

00:00:45.580 tend to believe that this is a legitimate use of the Notwithstanding Clause.

00:00:49.920 But the criticisms and condemnations that have come, not just from opposition parties, but a few social justice activist groups, should concern many Canadians.

00:00:59.400 Penn Canada, which is supposed to be a group that stands up for the rights of authors and journalists and other forms of artists to express themselves in other parts of the world,

00:01:08.920 has condemned this, as has Amnesty Canada.

00:01:11.720 Now, Penn Canada and Amnesty are groups that have a great track record of doing a lot of very important work,

00:01:19.260 specifically standing up for the right to free expression of people in parts where freedom of expression does not exist.

00:01:26.080 Penn Canada, which is normally the one that should be standing up for the blogger in Saudi Arabia who's getting however many lashes,

00:01:32.780 or an author in Africa that's going to jail for challenging authority, is now going after Doug Ford.

00:01:39.560 And I'm sure that when they put their virtue-signaling statement out condemning Doug Ford,

00:01:44.640 all of those imprisoned authors probably had a sigh of relief and rejoicing in between lashes,

00:01:49.700 because Penn Canada is truly standing up for the little guy in this.

00:01:53.420 And what about Amnesty?

00:01:54.400 In fact, there's a brutally honest Toronto Star piece about it where the article says that Amnesty is usually standing up against brutal dictatorships and human rights regimes,

00:02:03.960 but now it's time for them to criticize a Canadian government, something they've never before done.

00:02:09.960 This hysteria shows really Ford derangement syndrome is alive and well.

00:02:15.460 The fact that we are now conflating human rights abuses by brutal dictatorships with a province expressing its own autonomy

00:02:23.980 and using a legally enshrined mechanism to put forward a legislative agenda,

00:02:29.700 this shows where Canada's left really is.

00:02:32.120 They honestly can't distinguish between a conservative head of government and a dictator.

00:02:37.060 And this is something that the right is going to have to contend with in every election moving forward.

00:02:42.520 For the True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lutton.

Juno News - September 14, 2018

The left reaches peak Ford Derangement Syndrome over notwithstanding clause

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