Bright Light News in discussion with Bruce Pardy, executive director of Rights Probe and a professor of law at Queen’s University.
Watch the video here at the publisher’s website
In Brief
Bill 100, Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, appears to be a direct response to the Ambassador Bridge protest by Canadian truckers, says Bruce Pardy, executive director of Rights Probe.
The bill, he says, deals specifically with “protected transportation infrastructure,” including points of entry, land and water border crossings, as well as airports that include international flights. The bill, curiously, does not include railways.
In effect, the bill is consistent with the concept of equity – not be confused with “equality” – wherein different groups of people are treated in different ways under the law, according to the rightness or wrongness of their cause, their group or identity, explains Pardy. Bill 100 treats different protests in different ways.
The upshot: “We’re going down the road of having a de-facto social credit scoring system,” he warns. “The trouble you will get into will depend upon what kind of actions, beliefs, attitudes and protests you engage in.”
On the upside, Bill 100 does not mean that you will lose your house for engaging in protest action but it does provide some amendments to an already draconian statute in place: the Civil Remedies Act.
This Act provides for the confiscation of property by the state for either proceeds of unlawful activity or as an instrument of unlawful activity. While that may sound reasonable, says Pardy, “the real problem is that in order for the government to satisfy the requirement of the statute, it is not necessary for them to show that an actual criminal offense has been committed.”