John Carpay: In Canada in 2023, it takes remarkable courage to state the obvious. At a public meeting of the Waterloo Region District School Board in January of 2022, a teacher raised concerns about school library books promoting transgender ideology to children. In a shocking display of blatant censorship, Waterloo school board chair Scott Piatkowski expelled Carolyn Burjoski from this public meeting, after [...]
John Carpay: The more that people possess virtues like humility, wisdom, courage, and self-control, the less that people need regulations and laws to govern their conduct. In a society where most citizens possess a high degree of virtue, people have the capacity to cooperate with each other to achieve social, economic, financial, and community goals. Virtuous people don’t need thousands of laws [...]
John Carpay: Censorship spreads like a cancer, starting small but then expanding everywhere. Once upon a time, only 15 years ago, pro-life student clubs were the only groups facing censorship on campus. Pro-life students were barred from renting rooms or other spaces on campus that were freely available to everyone else. Pro-life students were expressly prohibited from setting up recruitment tables at [...]
John Carpay: Since early 2020, the majority of religious leaders around the world have supported lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccination passports, and other coercive measures that violated the freedom, prosperity, and well-being of millions of citizens. As just one prominent example, in August of 2021 Pope Francis and other bishops praised the new Covid vaccine as “safe and effective.” Vatican City pressured all [...]
JOHN CARPAY: Since early 2020, the majority of religious leaders around the world have supported lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccination passports, and other coercive measures that violated the freedom, prosperity, and well-being of millions of citizens. As just one prominent example, in August of 2021 Pope Francis and other bishops praised the new Covid vaccine as “safe and effective.” Vatican City pressured all [...]
John Carpay: My recent 23 hours in a Calgary jail on Dec. 30-31 remind me of the fact that our circumstances can feel either incredibly difficult or quite easy depending on what we compare them to. On the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 30, I was working at my office when I received a phone call from Calgary Police Services detective Mark Weir [...]
John Carpay: After six weeks of witnesses testifying under oath in October and November, the Public Order Emergency Commission process has provided Canadians with important evidence on the government’s decision to use the Emergency Act. The biggest and most glaring revelation was the absence of violence in Ottawa during the three weeks in January and February of 2022, when thousands of Canadian [...]
John Carpay: Interim writer, John Carpay, Law Matters Canadians remain divided about the Freedom Convoy truckers’ protest in Ottawa in January and February of 2022. Some Canadians saw the truckers as heroes resisting unjust laws, while government-funded media portrayed thousands of peaceful protesters as a harmful nuisance at best, and as dangerous racists and violent criminals at worst. I know [...]
John Carpay: Since lockdowns were first imposed in March of 2020, Canada’s federal and provincial governments have paid little attention to the harmful effects of their policies. Instead, politicians and government-funded media repeat endlessly that “lockdowns save lives.” We know how propaganda works: when people hear a claim often enough, they come to accept it as true. Public health agencies and most [...]
John Carpay: In Nanjing, a man crosses the street while the pedestrian light is still red. Within seconds, a billboard-sized screen nearby displays his name, his face and an admonition to obey the traffic lights. The Communist Chinese government surveillance cameras have captured the moment, secured an image of the man’s face, compared it to a central database of faces compiled over [...]
John Carpay: Must freedom perish in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil? This question was asked by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in a speech he gave to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on June 8, 1982. Four decades later, Reagan’s speech is just as relevant. “Democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of oppression,” noted Reagan. How true today, considering Communist [...]
John Carpay: Will Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, empower the federal government to censor controversial and unpopular speech on the internet? Not immediately. But the Online Streaming Act (OSA) is a significant and dangerous first step towards government control of the internet. The stated purpose of the OSA is not particularly controversial: to bring influential streaming services like Netflix, Disney and [...]
John Carpay: The constitution of Communist China expressly protects human rights and fundamental freedoms, including private property rights; freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession and demonstration; and religious freedom. Unlawful detention is expressly prohibited, as is the unlawful search of a citizen’s person or home. However, these rights and freedoms are subject to Article 1 of the Constitution, which declares [...]
John Carpay: A person who is arrested or put in prison because of his or her political beliefs is a political prisoner. This also holds true for peaceful activists who are wrongfully arrested under trumped-up criminal charges. Long-standing readers of The Interim will immediately think about Mary Wagner and Fr. Tony Van Hee as examples of Canadians who were arrested or imprisoned [...]
By John Carpay: A friend of mine, a priest I have known for 32 years, recently told me to stop complaining about vaccine passports and various lockdown measures (masks, anti-social distancing, etc.) because they exist for the common good and are intended to save lives. Referencing the encyclical Diuturnum Illud, my priestly friend says that disobeying the law is a sin, unless that [...]