The formerly petulant, provocative, partisan, populist Pierre Poilievre is back, and the leopard hasn’t changed its spots. Ridden on a rail out of Ottawa for his support of the insurrectionist Truckers’s Convoy and its occupation of the Capital, Mr. Poilievre was banished by Ottawa voters.
Enter the good ultra Conservatives from Alberta, who gave up a justly won seat by Damien Kurek, a well respected member of the Battle River-Crowfoot community, so that Poilievre could win a by-election. Yep, not even the Long Ballot could stop the shamed Poilievre from winning a seat in rural south eastern Alberta. He has now earned the moniker Parachute Pierre.
In the U.S.A. they would call him a carpetbagger, and it didn’t take him long to revert to the same populist Republican playbook that cost the Conservatives the last election. Sloganeering, innuendo insults, the blame game, the staged photo ops – nothing has changed. Prime Minister Mark Carney could have held off the by-election much longer, but he acted with integrity. Poilievre has responded by thanking him with populist slogans like “Axe the Carbon Tax 2.0” and “Jail not bail”
Parachute Pierre used to blame all of Canada’s ills on Justin Trudeau. With Prime Minister Carney in charge, Poilievre now simply targets “The Liberals” as the source of all evil. At a recent photo op in Brampton, close to the riding of Brampton North-Caledon Liberal MP Ruby Sahota (the actual Secretary of State for Combating Crime) Mr. Poilievre announced his “Stand on Guard” law.
While gaslighting a Brampton family as his backdrop, Poilievre announced “After ten years of Liberals, the system treats victims like criminals and criminals like victims.” Nonsense. This all relates to a home invasion where the perpetrator, the criminal, was incapacitated by the homeowner, the victim, who was subsequently charged with assault. Note, None of the details of the assault were released, which leads one to wonder why Parachute Pierre leapt to the defense of the homeowner.
The police made the assault charge, indicating that they thought the amount of force used to stop the intruder was unreasonable. Mr. Poilievre finds this offensive. Under Canadian law we are allowed to stop any intruder/attacker with reasonable force. That means that once the attacker/intruder has been neutralized either through a de-escalation talk or by a physical response, that you stop applying force. But Parachute Pierre wants no limits to the force you apply to stopping an intruder. “The use of force, including lethal force is presumed to be reasonable against an individual who unlawfully enters a house and poses a threat to anyone inside.” This is a close copy of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law that allows you to shoot and possibly kill anyone “invading” your property.
Think of Rodney King. Think of Dudley George. Think of the death of Sammy Yatim by police officer James Forcillo – way beyond excessive force. Now think of the North York van attack by Alek Venassian, who wanted “death by cop” but was calmed down by Officer Kenny Lam. There are choices.
Caledon MP Kyle Seeback appears to be echoing the same sentiments when he recently claimed, “Soft on crime Liberal laws are having Canadians living in fear.” Whoa, slow down there, Mr. Seeback. My family is not living in fear, except for the truck traffic in Caledon. You seem to forget that the “soft on crime” bail system in Canada is a partnership between the federal and provincial governments. Bail rights are protected by the Canadian Constitution. I am not living in fear, YOU are creating a crisis.
In the press statement from your website, you added that “Under Mark Carney’s Liberal Government, repeat violent offenders are being released onto our streets, families are paying the price while the system keeps giving second third and even fifth chances to dangerous criminals'” I think you need to slow down a little Mr. Seeback and first talk with fellow Conservative, the Honourable Zee Hamid, Ontario MPP on bail reform, as well as your your colleague in Ottawa, neighbour Ruby Sahota, our “Crime and Punishment” mentor.
You are right about one thing – Canadians do need to feel safe in their homes and secure in the knowledge that the reasonable use of force to defend one’s self and family from uninvited intruders, will remain protected by our Constitution,
Sadly Kyle, based on your ten years of blame game chatter, and Mr. Poilievre’s lifetime spouting of prickly propaganda, I doubt if the Conservatives will be much help.
The way I see it.