Enforce the law

National Post ^ | 2007-05-24 | (editorial page)

[Clive]

Two events in recent days -- one in British Columbia, one in Ontario -- highlight a persistent problem in liberal societies such as ours: the conceit that violent law-breaking is somehow permissible if it is performed in the service of a fashionable cause.

In Vancouver, three activists from the local "Anti-Poverty Committee" (APC) stormed the offices of Gordon Campbell, the Premier of B.C., on Tuesday, overturning furniture and documents, shattering decorations and otherwise making a mess of the place. The trio allegedly gained entry by fraudulently claiming they were delivering flowers. According to an investigating constable, two staffers were "visibly shaken and frightened for their safety."

The purported inspiration behind the alleged crime was to stage an "eviction" of Ken Dobell, a member of the 2010 Olympic Games organizing committee and a "special advisor" to Mr. Campbell. The APC says it is "avenging" the eviction of residents from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside flophouses, a few of which apparently are being turned into condominiums or rental buildings.

Tuesday's act appears to have been a crime. Yet our society sometimes looks the other way when some crimes are committed in the name of class warfare. Consider, for instance, what happened in 2001, when thugs from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) trashed the Whitby, Ont., constituency office of Jim Flaherty, the finance minister of Ontario. The Toronto Star responded with a front-page banner article, in which the newspaper's most radical columnist expressed sympathy for practitioners of what he called "direct action." (The rest of us call it "crime."). He also lectured readers to "get used to it," and described the act as nothing more than "a rough form of street theatre."

Fortunately, the police in Vancouver aren't guided by this sort of hokum. Members of the APC were arrested on the scene, and were subsequently charged with trespass and damage to property. We hope and expect that prosecutors treat the case with the seriousness it deserves. Though the APC represents only a militant few, its rowdy attempts to intimidate politicians with violence degrades public life for everyone.

We wonder, however, whether Ontario police will take the same principled stand with a separate, politically motivated, lawless act in their province.

Yesterday, about 20 protesters from the Six Nations band moved into a private housing development for seniors in Hagersville, Ont., just south of Caledonia, where Six Nations activists have been illegally camped out for 15 months. The Six Nations say both parcels of land were part of a larger tract awarded to them in the 18th century.

Whether that's true or not, the Caledonia occupation has been an ugly mess, featuring noisy expressions of bigotry on both sides, and the alleged attempted murder of an Ontario Provincial Police officer. The local economy has been seriously damaged in the process, and native-white relations in the area have been set back generations -- all because the provincial and federal governments have been too scared to use their state powers to enforce the law. We are now seeing the fruits of this cowardice: a second confrontation in Hagersville, and no doubt more to come as the summer wears on.

Whatever sympathy Canadians may feel for the poor and the allegedly disenfranchised, we live in a law-bound society. Governments should enforce those laws no matter what a person's skin colour or professed motives may be. The longer our government drags its heels on bringing native lawbreakers to justice, the more Caledonias we will witness.

[Clive]

In comparing the responses to the trashing of Campbell's office and the trashing of Flaherty's office, it may be instructive to note that Campbell is a Liberal and Flaherty is a Conservative.

[fanfan]

Canada ping.

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[Savage Beast]

"a persistent problem in liberal societies such as ours: the conceit that violent law-breaking is somehow permissible if it is performed in the service of a fashionable cause."

Yes. Well said. And not only violent law-breaking but any form of violence, mendacity, injustice, oppression, or coercion. It is fashion and groupthink that dictate the dogma of the Left.

The word liberal in this context is a misnomer. There is nothing liberal about such thinking. Obviously, it is quite the opposite.