Solvent Contra Nugget (Nov. 23, 2011)

RE: “Tories crack down on the masked man” – John R. Hunt (Nugget, Nov. 23, 2011)

John R. Hunt is a man of stature and integrity. That fact makes it very difficult to read his curmudgeonly article that is essentially cheerleading another Tory attack on our constitutional rights.

I was unaware of this law change, but another law to restrict freedom of expression is not what Canadians need. However, Mr. Hunt seems to think that mask-wearing cowards are running amok intent on destroying property everywhere he turns. Apparently no freedom is too much freedom when the windows of capitalism are being broken … mostly in his imagination.

Hunt says, and I quote: “The Tories are changing the law so anyone who wears a mask while engaged in a criminal activity can be arrested on the spot and hauled off to the hoosegow.”

A poster by the name of  “Catharsismine” said it best on the Nugget site: “if they’re engaging in criminal activity they can already be hauled away, no need for more law, and thus less freedom.”

Using a mask is sometimes appropriate, and sometimes inappropriate. In his terrified view of the world today, Hunt only sees the hooligans that even now are conspiring to break his window and disable the car of his friendly neighborhood police man.

Here are a couple of reasons that I think wearing a mask is inappropriate:

1)      In order to hide one’s face to avoid being identified as a police officer while inciting violence, during a G20 protest for example. There is overwhelming evidence that police agent provocateurs were wearing black masks and destroying property just over a year ago in the streets of Toronto. It stands to reason that they did so in order to sway public opinion in favour of the crackdown that was going to happen regardless of any rioting that day.

2)      In order to hide one’s face out of fear of your husband’s reprisal at home or, your community’s reprisal at your place of worship. There are many types of masks in Canada today. The hijab and burqa are two of them, and they are meant to repress women. When women say they wear these things by choice, I wonder if a sound beating or a face full of acid is their other choice. Often it is.

Here are a few reasons that I think wearing a mask is appropriate :

1)      To hide one’s face while at a protest, if being at a protest may be bad for one’s career. It has long been policy to database the attendees of protests here in Canada the Free. I remember protesting in the 80’s and plain clothes people that we knew to be CSIS would be at the fringes snapping photos of every single person. This was mainly to put a chill factor into the protest mood. People whose employment depends on being good little citizens might be justified in wearing masks at protests for this reason. I hope Mr. Hunt would agree that a person has the right to employment, and to protest too. Nowadays, there are surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology to provide the same chill factor.

2)      Freedom of expression. There is a message that is communicated by someone who is wearing a Guy Fawkes mask (most people think of them as V for Vendetta masks) at a protest. Preventing them from wearing these masks is preventing them from making this statement. This is a freedom of expression issue pure and simple.

3)      And here is the best reason I can see for a protestor to be allowed to wear a mask. When a cowardly police office applies a liberal and nearly lethal dose of pepper spray to a protesters face, it would be advantageous for that face to have a gas mask on it. Preventing these poor peaceful protesters from protecting themselves from the brutality of police is cruel.

So, we see that sometimes masks are good, and sometimes not so good. Do we need to turn in fear to our government and beg for our freedoms to be removed every time we are faced with a complex situation? Before we do so, we might pause to consider how hard our ancestors had to fight in order to gain these freedoms.

I hope Mr. Hunt decides to abandon the sarcastic and grumpy tone to his writing and pauses to consider the importance of the freedoms that the constitution provides. And, if he ever decides that there is something that he’d like to protest in Harper’s right wing agenda, I suggest he wear a mask so that Sun Media doesn’t identify him and decide to put him out to pasture. He’ll be glad of that freedom then.

 

Tony Loeffen