Rarer than a unicorn: Canada’s freedom-loving law professor speaks out
Ezra Levant of Rebel News in conversation with Professor Bruce Pardy, executive director of Rights Probe and law professor at Queen’s University.
“What is more rare, a unicorn or a freedom-loving law professor actually hired by a university in Canada?”
So begins Ezra Levant’s interview with Prof. Pardy on his work as a 24/7 freedom fighter at the helm of Rights Probe, a law and liberty think tank, along with some of the key issues facing Canadians today.
Rights Probe is one of several civil liberties organizations to have emerged in the wake of the decline of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and a generation of advocates, who deeply valued free speech, that has largely faded away.
The conversation explores at length the current political climate, where free speech is often suppressed in favour of other values, such as community cohesion and multiculturalism. The prioritization of one value over another has led to what Prof. Pardy describes as a landscape in which the rule of law has been replaced by the power of discretion—a landscape with too many laws, which he warns permits even greater control by those in power as they expand their limits on our freedoms.
The root problem identified by Prof. Pardy is the system of governance itself and a constitutional framework that allows the state unlimited power, with certain exceptions. The default assumption is that the state has unrestricted authority, which is why these exceptions are necessary. Prof. Pardy calls for us to consider the reverse: a state permitted to act only under specific circumstances.
Rather than governance, Prof. Pardy argues that policy, leadership, and “the right values” become interchangeable points of contention; the ascendancy of one ideology over another endures until the pendulum swings to elevate its opposite. We can see how this plays out through the rise of the Left, once ardent defenders of free speech, who now seek to restrict free speech for those who oppose their views, like the transformation of the pigs into farmers in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
The greatest threats to liberty come from within rather than without, says Prof. Pardy; in this case, the governing system where power is concentrated.
The discussion also touches on the implications of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)—an aspirational document that has been incorporated into British Columbia law, a move that has unleashed significant implications for property rights in a province largely without treaties. Prof. Pardy argues this incorporation reflects a broader cultural decline (“the cultural suicide of the West”) and a misuse of governmental power.
From property rights and Aboriginal title, the conversation moves onto Bills C-8 and C-9 and their threat to the further erosion of freedom of expression in Canada. Prof. Pardy points to the “anarcho-tyranny” potential of increasing legal restrictions, where minor infractions are policed—“the tyranny of the small rule and petty bureaucrat”—while serious issues are neglected.
As Prof. Pardy cautions, when we encounter something we dislike and suggest that there ought to be a law against it, we inadvertently empower an unequal application of the law, leading to a two-tiered justice system. Such laws can ultimately be used against us.
WATCH HERE (Paywall Subscription)
LISTEN IN HERE (Free Access)
Background Reading
The essays explored for this discussion include:
Articles of Freedom: What the Constitution of an Independent Alberta Should Look Like
Courts and Governments Caused B.C.’s Property Crisis. They’re Not About to Fix It
Contact us to book Bruce Pardy for an interview or appearance, or to subscribe to our newsletter: rightsprobe@protonmail.com.
