Remarkably, in just two years we’ve gone from punishing those who help people taking their lives to punishing those who refuse to help people take their lives.
This ignores the huge difference between governments which prevent people from doing what we consider to be wrong and governments which force citizens to do what those citizens themselves consider to be wrong. In days past, when Canadians were still a free people, we used to say that we valued diversity; now we crush diversity underfoot by insisting that Canadians set aside their own beliefs and conform to the beliefs of those who govern us.
Freedom to claim conscientious objection rather than contribute to anyone’s death was recognized in Canada as early as 1793. That the honourable men and women who serve us in medical professions may now be compelled, against their conscience, to materially cooperate in causing the deaths of others is just one hallmark of the erosion of freedoms we are witnessing in Canada.
Rather than simply burying the memory of those who sacrificed to preserve our freedoms, and rather than simply abandoning our children and grandchildren to a Canada with diminishing freedom, we should rouse ourselves to oppose this descent into authoritarian practices.
Stephen Woodworth