For these notes, you will be
regularly told to stop and write
three key points
Then compare your notes with your classmates to see
if there is anything you should add.
When you are done, hand in your notes for your
teacher to review
Those who are willing to give up their liberty for security
deserve neither
Illiberalism
How do we protect ourselves, and our liberal principals
without becoming illiberal?
How do you balance individual
rights and protecting society
Reasonable Accommodation: bike helmet laws,
kirpan, hijab, minarets, banning burkas
Racial profiling
Hate crimes (punishing people for thoughts, not
actions)
Dealing with terrorism – watch lists, restrictions
at airports, wiretapping
Curfews
Stop and write three
key points
Canada’s war
measures Act
• Legislation created to deal with crisis situations in which the
legislative process must be suspended
• Martial law; habeas corpus
• Historical use:
• World Wars One and Two
• Used to control the economy and media, conscript
soldiers and put enemy aliens in internment
camps (Banff, Raymond)
• Japanese Canadians – racism, slave labor,
conditions in the camps
• apology (1988)
Stop and write three
key points
The FLQ Crisis
• FLQ – separatist groups during the Quiet Revolution
• Used terrorism to gain attention
• Trudeau “Just watch me”
• House of Commons agreed to the application of the War
Measures Act to allow the government to:
• Control the media
• Implement martial law in some Quebec cities
• Search homes and arrest people without a warrant
Were these actions necessary?
Are they illberal?
Emergency
Legislation Today
• WMA has been replaced with the Emergencies Act and
the Anti-terrorism Act
• The goal is to have limited suspension of rights
specific to the situation
• Some applications:
• No-fly list (Maher Arar)
• Level of security / arrests at G20
Issue: Guilty until proven innocent
Stop and write three
key points
Usa Patriot Act (9/11)
• Post-9/11: emotionally charged atmosphere
•
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate
Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001
Includes actions such as spying on
domestic communication without a
warrant and tracking purchases
Other issues
• Guantanamo Bay – detainees, not prisoners
• Omar Khadr
• Obama’s attempts to close – military tribunals
• Renditions, secret prisons
• Effectiveness of torture (create terrorists)
• Abu Grhaib, Canadian treatment of prisoners
• Issues: international law (Geneva Conventions);
reputation of “liberal” nations around the world (helps
to support the rejection of liberalism by dictators)
Stop and write three
key points
Other Crisis
Situations
Control of individuals during a pandemic – SARS
Censorship
 South Park/Mohammed (other cartoons)
 Banning Christian displays at public buildings
 Books: Huck Finn, Mockingbird, Anarchist Cookbook, Mein Kampf
 TV/Video Games – where do we draw the line? (FCC)
Immigration
 Arizona law targeting Hispanics
 Quebec law targeting Muslims
 Dutch immigration test
Canada’s illiberal
past (immigration)
• Chinese Head Tax – needed cheap workers for the
railways
• “they’re stealing our jobs”; creation of Chinatowns =
changing society
• $200 tax to keep families separated (= husbands will go
home)
• Komogata Maru
• Blocked the landing of a ship from India – undesirables
• Only wanted immigrants from “favorable” nations
• NINA
How do we create a
liberal society that
extols individual
freedoms without
imposing our values
on others?
Illiberalism: to be narrow-minded, to act
in a way that goes against democratic
values
Stop and write three key
points
Then compare your notes with your classmates to see
if there is anything you should add.
When you are done, hand in your notes for your
teacher to review
“The only thing I will not
tolerate is intolerance”