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CP Knight's avatar

In any sort of protest movement there is going to be all manner of behaviour that is found to be objectionable by some, and laudible by others. For my part, I'm in broad agreement with Dan McCarthy that military monuments ought to be treated with respect, and there are certain standards of conduct, decorum, and civil discourse that ought to be respected in their presence. Call me old-fashioned, but I was brought up with such values. My time in the military reinforced them.

But, with all respect, Mr. McCarthy has missed the point here - the point is not that this particular protest movement is misbehaving against norms of civility that were present mere decades ago. Rather, the point is that this particular protest movement exists, and we ought to be asking ourselves, "Why?" Why is it that there is such an apparently large and vocal group of people in our society for whom Mr. McCarthy's norms apparently no longer apply? Why are so many people defying authority to express their outrage in ways that would have been considered unthinkable even 10 or 20 years ago?

Canadian institutions are not "under unprecedented attack." Rather, Canadian institutions have been neglected and have atrophied. Perhaps this is because of a conspiracy of elites to create a "post national" Canadian identity (as the tinfoil-hat camp might suggest), or perhaps it's the result of all of us taking our eye off the ball during a long period when our institutions really didn't need much strength anymore. What's the underlying cause here?

In any event, here we are. Canadians of our present not behaving like the Canadians of our youth. Let's not point fingers at bad behaviour - instead, let's try and understand it.

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Capital Traffic Czar's avatar

Where were you when the Sir John Macdonald statue was being removed from Victoria City Hall? How about when the statue of Cook was thrown into Victoria harbour? Where were you when the proper name was removed from Langevin Block? I am glad you decided to draw a line in the sand at the War Memorial, but honestly, this kind of crap has been going on for awhile now and I find it terribly rich that the hot air and talking heads all come out in force for a rally or event they don't support politically, but keep their big mouths shut when it something progressive, or woke. Shame. You have an affinity for monuments and statues and you are a Liberal. What a joke.

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