There are two opposing theories of liberty. The libertarian one in a presumptively free and democratic society says you can do anything that’s not forbidden by law. The opposite position is that you can’t do anything unless it’s specifically authorized by government. That’s the position in countries like Vladimir Putin’s Russia that new Canadians who fled communism know full well.
To his eternal credit, Ontario’s Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean stated the libertarian position for freedom of expression and the right to protest. On Monday February 7, 2022 he imposed an injunction on the truckers engaged in the Freedom Convoy. Ruling from the bench to forbid honking their horns, he said that “provided the terms of this Order are complied with, the defendants and other persons remain at liberty to engage in a peaceful, lawful and safe protest.”
Constable Kristina Neilson
Peaceful as it was until its brutal dispersal despite a pending agreement to end it, the protest on Parliament Hill aroused Ottawa residents to high dudgeon that continues with unrelenting vindictiveness. This was not some faraway Indigenous protest blocking rail lines or causing multi-million-dollar vandalism at pipeline construction sites. To paraphrase the playwright Congreve, in Heliopolis (Sunny Ways City) there’s no fury like that of a scorned Little Lord Fauntleroy, or an Alice in Blunderland.
I come now to the case of Constable Kristina Neilson. On February 5, two days before Justice McLean’s ruling, she contributed $55 to the protesters’ cause, with the expectation that her donation was private and legal. But following the evidently criminal hacking of the crowd-funding website, her donation became known. Evidently then at the behest of Interim Police Chief Steve Bell, the Ottawa Police Service Professional Standards Investigation charged Ms Neilson with acting in a ‘disorderly manner, or in a prejudicial manner likely to bring discredit on the Ottawa Police Service.’ She pleaded guilty, presumably because she wanted to keep a job she liked doing. At the time of writing she awaits notification of the penalty for her dastardly conduct.
Now consider her background. Prior to joining the Ottawa police, Ms Neilson had served in the Canadian Armed Forces for a decade. She was deployed to the Persian Gulf twice and also did a tour of duty in Afghanistan. For her exemplary service she was selected for sentry duty at the National War Memorial for Remembrance Day ceremonies. Ms Neilson was also recognized for assisting in the rescue of a young woman who’d jumped from a bridge into the freezing Rideau River. The Ottawa police chief at the time said her actions represented the best of the police service and commended her actions.
Ms Neilson’s experience illustrates a mindset developing in Canadian governance for which the templates are Franz Kafka’s The Trial and Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon. It’s not a prerequisite for persecution and torture for you to have committed any offence. At least not one that you could be expected to know of. It’s enough that you offend some egotistical and self-important Ding-dong.
Ottawa police officer Nermin Mesic
Let’s now consider another case. In 2016 Ottawa police officer Nermin Mesic threatened the tenant in property he owned after he fell behind with the rent. He ordered the tenant into his car, drove him to a dead-end street and told him that if he didn’t pay up, there’d be violence. Mesic demanded that the tenant prostitute his wife or sell his child to come up with the money. He threatened he’d pay people to harm him if he didn’t. “I’m going to bury you,” he said. “I’m going to feed you to the fish. OK. With a big brick around your neck. Do you understand that?” The next day, he called back and repeated the threats. The tenant recorded both conversations, and took the recordings to the police in Gatineau, Quebec.
Mesic was arrested and charged. After suspension for four and a half years, with full pay of course, he pleaded guilty and received an absolute discharge, meaning he has no criminal record. He was demoted for a year but he was still a cop. He still carried the gun and the badge. He was still a serving officer, out on patrol despite an earlier incident reported in the Ottawa Citizen. In 2009, he’d been convicted for discreditable conduct for “slapping a youth twice across the face during questioning, kicking him, grabbing his throat and forcing him to the ground.”
For the decision in Mesic’s second case dated August 31, 2020 Ottawa’s retired Deputy Police Chief Terence Kelly found that his latest actions were “an embarrassment”. But he was remorseful and could reform. Kelly said, “Throughout his career he has acted in a professional matter.”
A reasonable and informed outsider could well find that it was Chief Bell who brought his own service into disrepute by charging Ms Neilson. Worse than that, a law-abiding Canadian may now fear consequences for questioning any accepted orthodoxy. Don’t even think of supporting a pro-life organization, one supporting gun-ownership or one promoting Alberta’s petroleum industry. On the other hand, if you belong to an in-group or are woke enough, you’ll be a hero and get a bonus cheque pretty much whatever you do.
Colin Alexander was publisher of the Yellowknife News of the North. His forthcoming book, to be published soon by Frontier Centre for Public Policy, is Justice on Trial: Truckers Freedom Convoy and other problematic cases.
