Philippe Simard - My Blog

Freedom of expression is one of the most important aspects of a democratic country. It lets the population the right to vote for their representants, to manifest their dissatisfaction towards their governements, etc.

However, in some countries who fought to establish democracy, leaders of the governement apply laws that are against the Charter of Rights and Freedom, which should be the basis of any free nation.

On June 25th to June 27th, in Toronto, was held the G20 summit. A manifestation, which was initially supposed to be peaceful, turned into a situation of police abuse. Over 1100 persons were arrested, only 24 cases convicted. The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper used an old law, which was created in 1939, after the Second World War, to give the security forces the right to intercept and arrest anyone in an arbitrary way. This law is quite similar to the Martial Law. In results, some people were arrested while they were simply walking around the security perimeter, even if they were not showing any signs of menace. Also, some manifestants were emprisoned in prison cells, in groups of 16 people and more, for more then 48 hours and without knowing why they were arrested.

This event is a good example of violation of four fundamental rights : the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, the right of freedom of expression, the right to be protect against arbitrary detention and the right to a fair trial.

Of course, there are worst situations than this, like in Burma or in North Korea, where those rules are applied everyday.

Choosing to report this event is just a way to awaken people from the free nations to stand up against this kind of power. Everyone must get involved to change our world. It is time to build a better world where every humans could live in peace and freedom. People from all over the world must gather to form a huge pressure group to fight against authoritarian governments.

“No one is free when others are oppressed.”

Philippe Simard