Conservatives Don't Understand Freedom

[mbarrick]

When you pick up a gun and commit a crime you lose your right to be free.

From now on the justice system will stop giving you the benefit of the doubt and send you to jail for a long time.

— Stephen Harper

Nice sentiment, sure to get support from the backwater rednecks and easily the panicked sorts that elect these fascists.

What they are talking about here, hiding it behind the newspeak "reverse onus", is eliminating the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and replacing it with a presumption of guilt. Much like the Americans doing away with habeas corpus, this flies in the face of the fundamental qualities that differentiate free countries from authoritarian tyrannies.

Section 11(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states states pretty damn clearly: "Any person charged with an offence has the right ... to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal".

Comments

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

it's funny how easily the mass populace will get behind these types of bills because on the face they seem to provide security...and of course the media won't do their job of providing the explanations of the dangers of such legislation...i'm with you on this, anything which presumes you guilty is dangerous on its face...as much as i'm not a fan of guns personally i could see how this could be used at some point in the future to round up gun owners, or at least disarm them...funny it's just one further step from the registry, which the conservatives vehemently opposed...but didn't dismantle after all..."security" and "crime" are two bogeymen that you can effectively use to whittle the rights of individuals...