• ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
    link
    22 years ago

    Yes, indigenous people are treated unfairly by the police, in some cases even murdered by the police. But this is a completely different topic than that of political freedom.

    That’s a false statement. Harassment of Indigenous people is fundamentally political in nature. Canada illegally occupied unceded land that belongs to these people, and it violates their sovereignty. This is a political issue.

    By any reasonable definition, Canada is much more politically free than Russia/Belarus.

    If you’re white.

    No police officer is going to do anything to any indigenous person for just holding up a protest sign in downtown Vancouver or Winnipeg or Toronto.

    You set up a false narrative that ignores actual political activity of Indigenous people that they get arrested and even murdered for.

    I’ll also remind you what Canadian government did when the trucker protest blocked the bridge to US. Whatever we might say about this protest, it definitely was peaceful and citizens were expressing their views in a democratic fashion. The government invoked emergency powers to disperse this protest. Interestingly, this protest was allowed to go on right up to the point where it started affecting business interests.

    • @joshlemer
      link
      -2
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Canada illegally occupied unceded land that belongs to these people
      Yes, and these people are not prevented in any way from expressing that view, and advocating for change on the issue.

      if you’re white.

      What exactly are you even saying here? Are you saying that non-white people don’t have more political freedom / freedom of speech than a non-white person in Russia? I have never seen anyone, not even a person of colour, taken away by police immediately as soon as they so much as hold up a piece of blank paper.

      You set up a false narrative that ignores actual political activity of Indigenous people that they get arrested and even murdered for.

      Okay I know you don’t want to admit that you used hyperbole and I know that you probably like really love Russia and Belarus and don’t like Canada and you disagree with our whole society and everything but you really are not staying focused on what we’re talking about. Your claim is that Western countries like USA and Canada bestow less freedom to their populations and are more authoritarian than Russia and Belarus. This is just plain false. That isn’t to say that all political activity, broadly defined, is permitted. Virtually anything and everything could come under the banner of political activity, and so obviously there are going to be limitations on it. In Canada that tends to be when your political activity infringes on the rights of others in society. Yes, we live in a Capitalist society so that includes people’s property right. Protesters in Canada are only removed from the situation by the police when they do things like physically block people or projects or disrupt infrastructure.

      You know perfectly well that that kind of political activity is not tolerated in virtually any society, least of all Russia and Belarus.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
        link
        32 years ago

        What exactly are you even saying here?

        I’m saying that, as the numerous articles I linked earlier explain, Indigenous people in Canada suffer incredible amounts of abuse and political repression. The fact that you continue to deny this clearly shows that you’re not interested in comparing actual freedoms people have in Canada or whether the laws are applied equally.

        Your claim is that Western countries like USA and Canada bestow less freedom to their populations and are more authoritarian than Russia and Belarus.

        No, that’s just the straw man you keep using. What I said was that western regimes are themselves often culpable of the same crimes they accuse their designated enemies of. I’ve even linked an entire book documenting such repressions in US in another comment in the same thread.

        Protesters in Canada are only removed from the situation by the police when they do things like physically block people or projects or disrupt infrastructure.

        Oh you mean when a protest is an actual protest as opposed to a parade.

        You know perfectly well that that kind of political activity is not tolerated in virtually any society, least of all Russia and Belarus.

        Another straw man.