Civil liberties guru lectures in Iqaluit

SEAN MCKIBBON

IQALUIT— Political progress is acquired through confrontation not consensus, civil liberties activist Alan Borovoy told an audience of Iqalungmiut this week at a lecture sponsored by the Nunavut Law Society.

“I don’t know any other ways. From my experience in the real world, the only way to get somebody to do what you want is to stick it to them,” Borovoy said in a response to a question from a Nunavut government bureaucrat about how to ensure that legislation in a consensus government does not become excessive.

However, Borovoy also added that he did not have experience with Arctic culture, and that it’s possible a different ethnic group could find a way to make a non-confrontational system work.

Borovoy, who was also to meet with Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik Tuesday, spoke to a small audience at the Iqaluit courthouse Monday night. The topic of his lecture was how well-meaning federal and provincial legislators have encroached upon democratic freedoms by making laws more powerful than they need to be.

“What I fear in Canadian lawmakers is that they start out trying to address a legitimate problem, and they wind up creating an awful lot more power than they need,” Borovoy said.

He cited a number of examples, including anti-child-pornography legislation considered by the Mulroney government that would have outlawed many sex education books, and anti-gang legislation that increased the ability of police to engage in wiretapping.

“What we’re always told is, ‘Trust us, we won’t use the power.’ But my question is, if they won’t use it then why do they need it?” Borovoy said of the legislation, which gives police the power to engage in wire tapping of gangs for up to a year instead of the regular 60 days provided by a regular wiretap warrant.

Borovoy questioned the efficacy of wiretapping over other forms of police investigation and noted that statistics on police requests for wire tap warrants seemed to show they had little trouble in obtaining permission for the bugging exercises.

“If we ever lose our freedom in Canada it will be because of erosion from within. The job is going to be done not by malevolent autocrats, but by parochial bureaucrats seeking to do good,” he said.

Too often bureaucrats see only a small part of a problem and don’t stop to consider the wider implications of legislation, he said.

Borovoy urged people to participate in democratic processes and not to be passive when they see legislation they don’t like.

He said that people should practice “uncivil obedience,” by figuring out really annoying ways to legally protest actions by the government.

He cited one example in which the libraries in Toronto shut down temporarily to protest anti-pornography legislation.

“It was one of the most effective strikes ever, because the public didn’t mind if the library was closed for a few days and management didn’t mind because it was management that closed the libraries, but it got the government concerned,” Borovoy said.

He also said that access to information is another important check on government.

“Access to information is a really important feature of empowering people,” he said. Borovoy said that information can be used by minorities to embarrass a government into action.

He said that by sending black couples and white couples out to look for apartments to rent in Toronto, he was able to find discrimination by landlords and was able to highlight the need for human rights legislation.

“The press has been crucial in being able to publish news of injustices,” said Borovoy.

He said that the ability of the media to disseminate information about violations of civil liberties can be a powerful tool in eliminating those violations.