Piddingworth Greg Benton |
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| 'Piddingworth...where St. George's Cross is not yet banned.' --Mark Steyn |
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| Live as free people, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. (1Peter 2) |
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| Thank you very much for your support! |
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| "I am a Canadian,
a free Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and for all mankind." Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC, FRSC, FRSA, Dominion Day, 1960 |
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| PRECIOUS FREEDOM |
| When John Diefenbaker spoke these words forty-eight years ago, Canada was a confident, prosperous and influential country whose sacrifice and contribution to the world's freedom from tyranny in World War Two was enormous. Geographically, Canada is the second-largest nation in the world. It stretches from the Arctic in the north to the American border to the south; from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It's population today is about 33 million. At the time of the war it was only 11 million. Of that number, an astounding ten percent of the population served to fight in uniform. Freedom, until very recently, was always paramount to the Canadian identity and the proclamation by Diefenbaker of the Canadian Bill of Rights was eagerly posted in just about every school and government office at the time. Some pupils even recited it in their classrooms. It is not surprising that the generations that had just fought two world wars and who had sacrificed so much for their heritage and home would embrace this affirmation of a citizen's fundamental rights having so fiercely faced-off against those whose perverse societies enslaved their people. The decades since, and especially in the previous few years, have seen a toxic mix of apathy, indifference and an aggressively insidious erosion of the meaning of 'freedom' and 'rights' where the laws that were meant to stand on guard for thee have been turned against thee. This is especially true with respect to the freedom of speech and worship and opposition to what a citizen believes is wrong; all of which are now subject to the interpretation and judgment, not of Parliament, but of the politically-appointed Courts and their bizarre satellites, the so-called 'Human Rights Commissions' whose function it is to punish those whose freedom of speech, thought, religion, et al, is claimed to be 'offensive' to someone or some group. These are kangaroo courts of considerable and menacing power over citizens according to their own, not the law's, views of the 'world'. If there is a strong resemblance here to the style of government in those societies against whom we have fought, it is no accident. The ideology of Pierre Trudeau, his ironically titled 'Charter of Rights and Freedoms' and the penchant of his followers toward the control of the state over the personal lives of citizens has managed to become ingrained within the fabric of our society...even to the extent of a mythology that this warmed-over socialism is somehow uniquely 'Canadian'. Of course, it is not. It is very common in places like Cuba, China, and certain African states whose 'central committees' hold the life and death of their citizenry in their corrupt and bloody hands. As I write this on 14 October 2008, Canadians are voting in a national election. The freedom to vote without fear is our right. What is perhaps most frightening is that whatever we vote, the intimidation and muzzling of the citizenry will continue to the point that the words of John Diefenbaker will, if they have not already in some places, become mute. So that they shall not be forgotten, it is time to stand-up against those who would deny these rights to the citizens of this country. G.B. 14 October 2008 |
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