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Christine Van Geyn: Letting safety override freedom makes us all 'pre-criminals'

Christine Van Geyn: Letting safety override freedom makes us all 'pre-criminals'

National Post20 hours ago
In Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, set in 2054, crime has been eliminated thanks to psychics who predict wrongdoing before it happens. 'Pre-criminals' are arrested for 'Pre-crimes' they haven't committed. But the visions are flawed and open to manipulation. The dark side of 'pre-crime' is totalitarianism disguised as public safety. The film is a timeless warning about the tension between liberty and security.
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That warning is increasingly relevant. In recent years, governments and institutions have embraced what's been called safetyism: the belief that safety, especially from physical or emotional harm, should override all other values, including freedom, autonomy and open debate. When safety becomes the highest good, risk becomes intolerable, state control is normalized 'for your own good,' and dissent is cast as dangerous.
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Consider the uproar over American Christian worship singer Sean Feucht's performances in Canada. Several cities cancelled or denied his permits under the guise of ' health and safety,' not just physical safety, but protecting people from ideas or language they might find upsetting.
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Or take Nova Scotia's sweeping ban on all forest activity this summer without a permit, accompanied by $25,000 fines (plus tax and a victim's surcharge). Concerned about fire risk, the provincial government issued a proclamation under the Forests Act to prohibit far more than what is needed to prevent fires, including fishing from barren rock, walking a dog on a trail, or having a picnic. Its reasoning: anyone in the woods might do something dangerous, like lighting a campfire or committing arson.
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Punishing people who violate burn bans is reasonable. Treating every nature lover as a potential criminal is Minority Report logic, incompatible with a free society. Some defenders of the forest lockdown have even argued that hikers could cause fires by dropping water bottles that might, in a remote theoretical scenario, focus sunlight like a magnifying glass. By that standard, we could justify banning almost anything: driving, swimming, or stepping outside. Such fears say more about an individual's risk tolerance than actual danger.
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This 'safety above all else' mindset has been used repeatedly to justify government overreach. It was cited in 2022 to invoke the Emergencies Act against the non-violent Freedom Convoy protests. It underpinned the Trudeau government's decision to list all plastic manufactured items, from straws and bags to hard hats and medical equipment, as 'toxic' under federal environmental law. It drives 'bubble zone' laws that prioritize emotional comfort for some while stripping others of constitutionally protected free speech and assembly rights.
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