Two hundred and thirty or so years ago, forty tofifty thousand refugees streamed north to Canadafrom Britain’s 13 American colonies to avoidpersecution for not supporting a revolt theywanted no part of. That revolt, among otherthings, eventually led to the establishment of asociety where people had the right to confronttheir accusers, hear evidence against them, andnot be detained without proof of reasonable cause.

It was — in part — a revolt, at least in propaganda,against the overwhelming authority of the state inthe lives of individuals.

One of the ironies of history is that today thedescendents of those refugees have inherited asociety more along the lines of the one fought forby those long-ago revolutionaries, while thedescendents of those revolutionaries have watchedas successive governments, particularly in thelast five years, have set out on a path ofregression, destroying bit by bit many of thethings that their predecessors had fought and diedfor.

One can argue that today Canada comes closerto the ideals of the American Revolution than theUnited States does.

Sixty plus years ago the democratic nations of theworld united to defeat fascist, expansionistpowers that had set out to control large portionsof the globe, and practiced the doctrine ofaggressive, pre-emptive warfare. Upon victorythey were instrumental in setting up aninternational body, the United Nations, to preventa reoccurrence of such practices and build a worldcommunity based on multi-lateral cooperation.

Yetanother irony of history is that just as the U.S.Government has strayed from the path of itsfounders, in recent times it has trashed thesystem that it helped to found and set off on aroad similar to the one taken by the fascistpowers of the 1930s.

Recently the United Nations has undergone a reformprocess aimed at making the organization moreeffective in dealing with the problems that faceus in today’s world. Cracking down on terrorism,curbing the spread of nuclear weapons, expandinghuman rights, reducing world poverty and cleaningup the environment were all on the table. But,precious little was accomplished, mainly thanks tothe United States and its openly anti-UN bias.

This result was not to the liking of PrimeMinister Paul Martin who called the proceeding“empty rhetoric” and demanded action to ensure theprotection of human rights around the world. “Ourcitizens want security based on internationallaw,” he said. “They want opportunity, based onmore effective aid. They want empowerment, basedon respect for human rights. And they want aclean environment. These are not utopian dreams.”

At a time when the world has been seeing a demisein dictatorships of all political stripes, and amove towards more progressive societies around theworld (with some exceptions), it is disheartening tosee the most powerful nation on earth which onceserved as a beacon of progressive and democraticideals take such a turn and begin moving towardsthe type of society that it still claims tooppose.

There are those in Canada who would also love toput a halt to the progressive development ofsociety and begin a program of regression, muchlike the United States. In fact these Canadianswould like nothing more than to tie Canada moreclosely to the U.S. as a vassal nation or even acolony.

They would have our troops on the frontlines of the U.S.’ wars of conquest, open ourborders even more to U.S. economic exploitation andthey would make a mockery of the idea of Canadianindependence. They are not limited to any onepolitical party, though the Conservatives are themost up front about exhibiting these traits.

Canadians who wish to keep an independent Canadabased on the compassionate and progressive idealsthat have made it the envy of many people aroundthe world must be ever vigilant when electingrepresentatives to the various levels ofgovernment. They must be sure that those they votefor are committed to these progressive values andan independent Canada unafraid to resist theregressive and reactionary pressures from south ofthe border.