Sea-doo Day and the right to protest

Stockwell Day does one of the best impressions of a deer in the headlights that I know. It seems to come naturally to him as does, apparently, his inability to understand why so many of us are concerned about agent provocateurs at peaceful protest rallies.

His “what’s the problem here folks?” local sheriff’s response to the appearance of state hooligans at a federally-hosted international conference — one that was designing, behind closed doors, the futures of all of us in international capitalism — is revealing on a number of levels.

It shows he still thinks in the blame-the-other-guy mode that so characterizes the work of Cabinet ministers in the provinces, where blaming the feds is a reflex response to whatever goes wrong. It shows he’s so keen on winning more Quebec seats that he’s unwilling to criticize the conduct of some of the worst folks in Quebec; those in the Quebec provincial police force who were willing to undermine one of democracy’s most significant rights, - putting decent people in harm’s way and legal jeopardy. And it shows that like his boss, and his boss’s bosses, he just doesn’t get democracy.

Sure, the right to dissent is a difficult one to recognize, especially when times are tough. But without it we get the sorts of regimes that people like George Bush, Steven Harper and Stockwell Day wish to invade in the name of their people.

The right to dissent is similar to a number of our more challenging and civilizing legal principles: the right of those charged to the presumption of innocence, even when virtually everyone has pre-determined their guilt; the principle that the presentation of prosecution’s arguments must determine verdicts, not the strong sense of juries that the defendant is guilty; the rights even the putatively worst of our citizens have to due process, to a fair trial, and to qualified legal defence.

It can appear that we’d be better off just getting the business done and getting those we disdain off the streets for as long as possible. Such appearances, we know, are both misleading and dangerous.

First sign democracy is in decline

Suppressing the right to protest is the first sign that a democracy is in decline. It happens either when those in authority think their own vision is so powerful, so correct or so important that it must simply be imposed if what they take to be “democracy” is to flourish. It’s used not only during crises, when the temptation to suppress opposition must be most compelling, but also when a certain sort of confidence or a certain sort of person assumes political power. The desire to resist is, in part, the noble desire to oppose this sort of blind power.

Political protest is disruptive, often insulting, sometimes angry, and mocking of those in power (the powerful can’t stand being mocked) and it slows down decision-making. But it’s valuable.

Tolerating protest is one of the litmus tests of freedom of political expression and the right to assemble. Protest allows every voice to be seen and heard, often including those who most understand the issue in play. It draws the attention of the rest of us to issues in public policy in which we have an interest; it educates the citizen; it allows politicians to gauge the intensity of our political views; it takes some of the steam off issues that otherwise might be vented in more violent ways; it develops and extends a strong sense of political agency central to a democracy and arguably to human well-being; and it can be fun, the citizens’ version of question period.

These are reasons that Stockwell Day and Jean Charest somehow missed in their political education, and I’m pretty sure that Steve didn’t get much of this during his economics classes. But they’re the worse for it, and good on those of you who still have the political courage, energy and love of community for taking it to the streets.

Now that you know some of the putative anarchists seeking to turn your honorable conduct into ugly violence are really state cops, your efforts could be even more rewarding. Bring your cameras, eh?