- Reaction score
- 35
- Points
- 560
N. McKay said:No, it's perfectly possible to protest the actions, or planned actions, of a government without attempting to de-legitimize the election that put them in power. The right to protest is an essential part of that very institution. Surely you don't feel that, the election having been won, all other opinions should be shut down until the next go 'round four years later on the premise that the majority has spoken.
To be clear, I condemn the timing and location of this individual's protest, and besides that I was never a fan of theatrics. Public employees must always act in a non-partisan way, and any sort of protest on the floor of the Senate -- and in the face of the Governor General -- is absolutely not on.
While it is perfectly legitimate to protest the actions or planned actions of the government, there are times and places which I think we all can agree on.
What is pernicious is the suggestion that the election outcome is somehow illegitimate (that old 60% canard) and that the Canadian people should somehow rise up and physically displace the elected government (which is the actual meaning of calling for an uprising modeled on the Arab Spring). You can easily mock the illegitimate result myth by pointing out that 81.8% of voters voted against the NDP, 73.8% voted against the Liberals and a whopping 93.2% of the voters were against the Green Party, but calling for the overthrow of the government (however you try to pretty up the wording) is not only wrong, it is legally questionable as well (although we have seen little evidence of this or any other Canadian government actually applying laws against sedition, treason or other activities directed against the State).