Canadians have always prided ourselves on being courteous, compassionate and respectful.
We have our differences, of course, and tempers sometimes flare. But on balance we’ve managed to resolve our disputes with civility and acceptance of conflicting views.
However, of late, our capacity for restraint has suffered. Our public dialogue is becoming increasingly harsh, at times verging into violence.
We learn that public health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has received death threats, as have public health officers in other provinces.
In Henry’s case, she had to be accompanied by security officers during her run in the Royal Victoria 8K race.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, has been the victim of racialized hate messages, while Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps quit her social media accounts after being vilified with misogynistic and homophobic posts. She too has suffered death threats.
Crowds of protesters gather outside Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s house every weekend and scream invective.
During the recent federal election, gravel was thrown at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau while he made a campaign stop.
Demonstrators have mobbed the home of Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger, banged on his front door, yelled obscenities, and when ordered by police to disperse, left a coffin in his driveway.
Alberta’s former municipal affairs minister arrived home last week to find a wooden gallows and a noose erected on a nearby fence. The words “No to masks, end the gov’t, hang ’em all” were painted on the gallows.
And now we have Health Minister Adrian Dix advising that surgeries are being cancelled at hospitals across the province because more than 3,000 health-care workers have refused a COVID vaccination and have been sent home.
This is a different form of incivility, yet in days gone by it would have been unthinkable that members of a caring profession would place their self-interest above the safety of their patients.
Henry noted that while staff have been speaking with these workers in one-on-one meetings, some remain adamant and dogmatic. Indifference to the fate of those in one’s care is untenable in a health profession.
No doubt some of this has to do with the power of the internet to provide a platform for aggressive and divisive viewpoints.
And the COVID epidemic, now in its second year, has likewise contributed to widespread frustration and discontent. We are all on edge.
We cannot simply sit back and allow disarray and uproar to become the norm. Societies are not built in a day, and neither are they dismantled in a day. The process of decline is gradual and piecemeal.
Yet as we look across our country, there can be no question that the civic values we built upon are under fire. Hard-edged dogmatism is on its way to replacing reasoned debate.
How do we arrest this? Probably not literally.
While law enforcement has a role to play, and there have been instances where arguably the police should have intervened, the solution in the main lies elsewhere.
There’s an old saying: Give a dog a bad name and hang it. Too many of the groups and individuals who take part in violent protests do so anonymously.
Even when their identities are known, they are rarely called out by name.
They may be indifferent to the dismay their actions cause. Suffering public disclosure might have a more restraining impact.
It’s disappointing that the B.C. Nurses’ Union declines to condemn members who refuse COVID vaccination.
The union disapproves of these refusals, and advises its members to get their shots. However, it will go no further. That has to change.
But in the end, while public officials have an essential part to play, it falls to each of us to take the lead.
We have to speak out in support of civil discourse, and in opposition to bullying and violence.
We are not an intemperate people. Those few who are need to hear from us.
