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Commentary
According to Aldous Huxley, the tyrant of the future will use drugs and propaganda to convince the individual to “love his slavery.” In a 1958 interview with Mike Wallace, Huxley explained as follows: “You have to get the consent of the ruled. And this they will do partly by drugs, as I foresaw in ‘Brave New World,’ and partly by these new techniques of propaganda.” Huxley believed that these two weapons would build the tyrant’s dream of an obedient society.
It is Canada’s strange fate that these things, drugs and propaganda, are hot-wire issues in 2023. Today’s drama is so intense that one might ask if Canada is fulfilling Huxley’s haunting prediction.
Canadians are living with a national government that is driven, more than any other, to instruct and educate its population. Foremost is the government’s agenda on climate action, gender politics, and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Almost daily, these agenda issues infiltrate federal directives big and small. With a singular voice, the supporters of these ideas declare: the planet is on fire, transgender women are women, and DEI must be the Bible of every institution.
Along with the CBC, this is dutifully supported by Canada’s mainstream media, who were paid $595 million by the federal government in 2019, and much more since. According to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, paying this money to so-called “Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations” is done to ensure “reliable and credible information.” Some may believe this, but many critics call mainstream media echo-chamber news—and now and again propaganda.
Today, many Canadians are critical of climate action, gender ideology, and DEI. Many sensible people believe these issues have often become radical and illogical. But it appears the government has little tolerance for dissent and no interest in robust and wide-open debate, and so these opponents are now in the crosshairs of a censorship assault. As the saying goes, propaganda is impossible without censorship.
In their party platform, the Liberals stated they intend to “put a stop to harmful online content” and “tackle extreme and harmful speech.” The Western Standard reports that Minister Rodriguez “remains determined to suppress speech the prime minister described as ‘destabilizing for democracy’”—a startling comment. It turns on its head the U.S. Supreme Court statement that “government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
These censorship promises have been put into action. In 2022, the Twitter Files disclosed over 200 episodes where the government asked social media companies to delete data, at times complaining the material was “offensive.” More substantially in 2023, the government rolled out censorship powers in the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act. And more is coming. Before year end, Canadians can expect to see the Online Harms Act together with its ominous Digital Safety Commissioner.
Freedom of expression in Canada is in jeopardy. So much so that Elon Musk recently advocated for “a new government in Canada” that would respect free speech rights. Musk believes in a marketplace of ideas, or as George Orwell said, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
Meanwhile, as if to follow Huxley’s prediction, Canada’s government has also become a world leader in legalizing and distributing illicit drugs. Indeed the government will not condemn drugs and has stated it will invest millions in “public education to reduce the stigma.”
Cannabis was legalized in 2019 and today over 3,700 stores sell the products across the land. Before long, drugs like fentanyl were decriminalized in British Columbia. And just as fast, radical policies unfolded for so-called “safer supply” of drugs and “safe injection sites.” A recent National Post op-ed said these policies “could have been devised by the drug cartels.” Similarly, the Washington Examiner says Canadian drug policies are “controlled by a clique of ideologically driven researchers who simply do not believe that rehabilitation is possible” and who “push for hyper-libertarian policies that minimize exposure to recovery-based treatments.”
Canadians are now observing an avalanche of drugs, all sponsored by a government that claims more and better drugs will cure addiction, and that enabling addicts is a form of healing them. Drastic things are happening in Canada.
But this liberalized drug policy fits hand in glove with the suppressive censorship policy. Two dystopian novels predicted that drugs, like censorship, would be used to stifle opposition. In Huxley’s “Brave New World” the drug “soma” is distributed to create conformity and “stability.” And in Lois Lowry’s novel “The Giver,” drugs are handed out to prevent dissension or “stirrings.” The novels present a depraved but simple message: A fried society is a compliant society. Or in the Canadian context: Drug addicts don’t organize freedom convoys.
Very recently, drugs and censorship have washed over Canadians like a fast-water tide. In their own way, each of these weapons attempts to make Canadians more compliant and less resistant. But in truth they are attacks on bedrock principles. These are turbulent times and Canadians are searching for answers. John F. Kennedy may have diagnosed the current Canadian government’s mindset when he said, “A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.