John Carpay: The Proposed ‘Protecting Victims Act’ Goes Too Far

Benjami Franklin wrote 250 years ago that “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” For decades, the trend in Canada has been towards an ever-increasing body of laws and regulations, so many that even the most diligent and conscientious businessman, school principal, manufacturer, or manager of a non-profit can barely keep up. That trend is accelerating.

Virtue exists among mature and humble people who habitually practice the Golden Rule or its variations: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Human nature being the mix of good and evil that it is, no society will attain perfection. But virtue comes in degrees, so the number of meddlesome rules increases as virtue declines.

Virtue is not hereditary, and it cannot be legislated. It needs to learned, earned, and cultivated anew in each generation, in the home, the school, and places of worship. Absent a commitment to living virtuously, people tend to degenerate into believing that virtue (and even reality itself) depends on their feelings. “Morality is whatever I feel is right” becomes the norm. ---More...

Read John Carpay’s latest column warning Canadians about Bill C-16, the Protecting Victims Act, which would criminalize “a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct” that could cause a spouse to believe their “psychological” safety is threatened. Everyday conversations about…

— Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (@JCCFCanada)February 19, 2026