I am a Canadian, a free Canadian, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledege to uphold for myself and for all mankind.-Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, from the House of Commons, Debates (on the Canadian Bill of Rights), July 1, 1960.
Today is Election Day in Canada. To mark the occasion, some bloggers, led by Nick and Kathy, are doing a blogburst featuring the above quotation. See:
FiveFeetOfFury
Small Dead Animals
Right Girl
Time Immortal
Ghost of a Flea
Halls of Macadamia
Chris Reid
Dust My Broom
Blazing Cat Fur
Wonder Woman
Political Staples
Uncommon Sense
Jack of Hearts
Deborah Gyapong
At Home in Hespeler
Because No One Asked
Free Canuckistan (formerly Free Mark Steyn)
Sleepy Old Bear
Daimnation
Big Blue Wave
The Great Pumpkin
No Libs
Cruel But Fair
The Screaming Pages
Nice Comfy Fur
Right to know Coalition of Nova Scotia
Just Right
The Daily Bayonet
Alice The Camel
Denyse O'Leary
Nova Scotia Scott
Island Breezes
Scaramouche
The Black Kettle
Stubble Jumping Redneck
POETENCY & APOETASY
Alice the Camel
The Sheep Cat
The Nexus of Assholery
J.D. Carriere
A Dog Named Kyoto
Ephemeris
Hello Birdy
The Phantom Observer
Blue Like You
It seems to me that the preamble to the 1960 Bill of Rights is also worth remembering these days amidst confusion as to the nature or origin of human rights:
The Parliament of Canada, affirming that the Canadian Nation is founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God, the dignity and worth of the human person and the position of the family in a society of free men and free institutions;To fill out this post I thought I would offer some further quotations on freedom, collected in Robert M. Hamilton and Dorothy Shields, eds. The Dictionary of Canadian Quotations and Phrases (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979):
Affirming also that men and institutions remain free only when freedom is founded upon respect for moral and spiritual values and the rule of law;
And being desirous of enshrining these principles and the human rights and fundamental freedoms derived from them, in a Bill of Rights which shall reflect the respect of Parliament for its constitutional authority and which shall ensure the protection of these rights and freedoms in Canada:
We will enjoy here that which is the great test of constitutional freedom - we will have the rights of the minority respected- Sir John A. Macdonald, Confederation Debates, Feb. 6, 1865
I believe you realize the value in the interests of true liberty of a free utterance before his fellow countrymen, of the distinctive opinions held by a public man.- Edward Blake, speech at Aurora, Ont., Oct. 3, 1874
It is to our own convictions, right or wrong, that we must after all be true. To put forward opinions we do not hold, or ignore difficulties we cannot solve, or deny or conceal the tendencies and results of policies we undertake to propound, would be dishonest and unworthy.- Edward Blake, to the Members of the West Durham Reform Convention, Feb. 9, 1891
Parliament itself could not abrogate this right of discussion and debate.- Justice Douglas Abbott, Dominion Law Reports (2d), 1957, Vol. 7, 371.
Free institutions will not make free natures, and small is the number of those who are by nature free. Most of us crave for a sheepfold and a shibboleth.- Goldwin Smith, The Bystander, N.S., Jan., 1890
Who wooed the west to win the east,/ And named the stars of North and South,/ And felt the zest of Freedom's feast/ Familiar in his mouth- Charles G.D. Roberts, "Epitaph for a sailor buried ashore", 1893
Freedom breeds loyalty. Coercion always was the mother of rebellion- Sir Wilfid Laurier; attributed
It is our proud boast that Canada is the freest country in the world. It is our boast that in this country liberty of all kinds, civil and religious liberty, flourish to the highest degree- Sir Wilfrid Laurier, addess at Tercentenary Celebration, Quebec, 1908
Praise for faith in freedom/ Our fighting fathers' stay,/ Born of dreams and daring,/ Bred above dismay- Bliss Carman, "In the day of battle", 1916
Since you who walked in freedom/ And the ways of reason fought on our front,/ We foresee the plot is solvable, the duel worthy.- Earle Birney, "For Steve", 1945
To be indifferent to one's own fate and to be absorbed in another's, to forget the shrinking of the body of flesh and nerves as completely as if that body were already in the grave and as if the ghost that had driven and been driven by it were already free of it - this was to know freedom- Philip Child, Day of Wrath, 1945
Freedom has nothing to do with lack of training; it can only be the product of training. You're not free to move unless you've learned to walk, and not free to play the piano unless you practice. Nobody is capable of free speech unless he knows how to use language, and such a knowledge is not a gift: it has to be learned and worked at.- Northrop Frye, The educated imagination (1962)
Only the tiniest fraction of mankind wants freedom. All the rest want someone to tell them they are free.- Irving Layton, "Some observations and aphorisms", Tamarack rev., (1968)
Freedom and justice do not depend on the goodness of the people up top, but on the courage of the people down below.- Richard J. Needham, A friend in Needham (1969)
Men are entitled to as much freedom as they can get - no more and no less.- Irving Layton, "Aphs", The whole bloody bird, 1969
Vote for those who promise reasonably to help institutionalize a greater degree of freedom for our nation...- Covenant Zone, Oct. 14, 2008
Or who will help set the scene for a greater degree of human self-understanding in our nation...
That we citizens may better recognize the shared necessity and responsibility from which our performance of new freedoms will emerge...
