Tea at Trianon: To Censor the Canadian People

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, December 26, 2022

To Censor the Canadian People

It all depends on what your definition of "hate" is. From Slay:

Canada’s liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has renewed his government’s push to crack down on so-called “hate speech” and censor the Canadian people. Trudeau has signaled that one of the contentious proposed laws, Bill C-36, tabled and dropped in 2021, could make a comeback. The Liberal Party leader indicated during remarks made several months ago that his administration will be forcefully pushing plans for “countering hate rhetoric” online. A new memo has now been leaked from Trudeau’s cabinet that reveals the PM is planning to renew the plans proposed in Bill C-36. According to the government memo, Trudeau reportedly believes that social media has created a “new way to foment anger and hate that is different from anything we have seen before…and it is destabilizing our democracy.”
It also states that Trudeau claims he “believes in free speech,” but that he also “emphasized the need for governments to take online rhetoric seriously.” The plans to reboot the censorship agenda have also been affirmed in comments from Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who also suggested a version of Bill C-36 could in fact be reintroduced. C-36 was presented last year, as an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act. It sought to make related amendments to another act regulating hate propaganda, hate crimes, and hate speech. Those behind the bill said its goal was to deal with hate propaganda and hate crime, but also to define hatred. (Read more.)