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Free speech under attack in Alberta |
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Written by June Tagg
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Thursday, July 30 2009, 9:02 PM |
The public controversy over Alberta health-care changes has taken an alarming shift recently. It has moved from a direct discussion of health care to a government curtailment of free speech. (See the July 12 Lethbridge Herald article, “Nurses filing grievance over code.”) According to that article, the United Nurses of Alberta say that “under a new proposed code of conduct being imposed by the Alberta government . . . employees could be disciplined or fired if they speak publicly about the provinces health-care system.”
Many Albertans are opposed to the Alberta government’s health-care proposals. Obviously, the government would like to present its case in the most favourable light, even if that means limiting any information or discussion by those most knowledgeable, the current health-care providers.
You would think that a rational, well-intentioned society would wish to have the most dedicated and knowledgeable workers lead the way in a revision of any vital service, wouldn’t you? And that it would listen to those citizens most affected?
This effort to stop nurses from talking freely smacks of government secrecy, a sense of entitlement and an apparent belief that democracy should not be an impediment to its wishes.
The health of any democratic state can be measured by the degree to which its citizens feel free to voice their dissent against government without fear of punishment or reprisal.
Over the years I have come to read world news with an eye peeled for any infringement of freedom of speech or the press, because that behaviour frequently signals the decline of democracy and its replacement with an accept-what-we-impose regime. We have all watched it happen in China, in Burma, North Korea, Iran, and recently in Honduras, to name a few examples. It can’t happen here? Stand on guard.
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