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| Orwell, c. 1940 Colourised by Cassowary Colurization |
A truly free and democratic society must be based on fundamental
rights and freedoms that individuals may enjoy and that are restricted rarely
and only to the extent necessary to protect other rights.
In Canada, 38 years after the proclamation of the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, this should be well understood.
But in Newfoundland and Labrador, these rights are foreign
ideas not well understood or generally accepted.
The latest example of how easily fundamental rights
can be denied with popular support is the decision, supposedly taken by Brian
Jones alone, to stop writing a column for his employer The Telegram.
He did so in the midst of a controversy over a column that
appeared on May 20. There was nothing remarkable
about this column compared to the thousands of others he has written in his
long career as a journalist and editor, except that this time, Jones aimed his characteristically
malodorous vowel movements at public sector workers.
