RTE Roundtable Talk #11: Citizen vs. State

Featuring Karl Harrison

You know how some people have the "Would I want to have a beer with this political candidate?" test for whether or not they would vote for a politician. Though not a politician, Karl Harrison passes that test for me, and that's one of those observations that tells me that the world is full of good people who make good leaders—but the machinery of civilization is so fully gummed up that we rarely get to promote such leaders for a few years at a time as they arise.

Karl is expressing his leadership now by taking on the Canadian government in Ottawa on a Constitutional level. Do I have to mention that this is about the sudden shift toward authoritarian governance under the guise of an "emergency" during the pandemic? You can read more about the specifics of his and others' efforts, based on the Canadian Constitution (including the Charter of Rights & Freedoms) here:

freedomandjustice.ca

We had a great conversation during which I learned more about the 1982 Charter of Rights & Freedoms. You may want to read sections 1, 6, and 33 to best understand Karl's legal actions.

Guarantee of rights and freedoms – section 1

1. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

The Charter protects those basic rights and freedoms of all Canadians that are considered essential to preserving Canada as a free and democratic country. It applies to all governments – federal, provincial and territorial – and includes protection of the following:

• fundamental freedoms, democratic rights

• the right to live and seek employment anywhere in Canada

• legal rights (life, liberty and personal security)

• equality rights for all

• the official languages of Canada

• minority language education rights

• Canada's multicultural heritage

• Indigenous peoples’ rights

The rights and freedoms in the Charter are not absolute. They can be limited to protect other rights or important national values. For example, freedom of expression may be limited by laws against hate propaganda or child pornography.

We discussed many issues, including malleability of interpretation of the charter, and something I've started calling, "velocity of courts" or "velocity of law", which relates to whether or not Western governments can still function in such a way as to stop the harms of most large scale criminal acts.

We also went deep into some tangents about corporatist governance (it's not quite the same thing as Mussolini's fascism, but it's somewhere in the vicinity by description), going back to the history of the East India Companies.

Please subscribe and help our channels grow. And share your favorite videos gratuitously. Command your friends to take a look. Or maybe just the ones who might be most interested in each conversation. Twist some arms if you need to. It's for the greater good. And it's safe. And effective.

You can watch us live on most Tuesdays at 1 PM Eastern, or watch us separately on Mondays or Fridays at 1 PM Eastern. The RTE podcast is on numerous platforms including Rumble, YouTube, Bitchute, Odysee, Stitcher, Spotify, Apple, RokFin, and some other places that Liam knows better about than I do. You can also visit our sponsors. Written transcripts will be available for paid subscribers. We thank all of our supporters and hope that you get something excellent out of each discussion.

As of last week, we are YouTube affiliates or whatever they call it. I think that Rumble is taking enough pie that it's putting pressure on YouTube, so we haven't been censored despite crossing far over a lot of lines that previously resulted in bans and demonetized accounts. Some of our videos have been restricted, however.

You can also find us here on Telegram.