The Globe and Mail, Monday, March 26, 2001 Do security measures threaten the essence of democracy? By Michael Valpy Thank you, Marc Tremblay. Amid the din and clangour enveloping April's Summit of the Americas, Mr. Tremblay quietly made his way into Quebec Superior Court at the end of last week to ask if his constitutional right to peaceful assembly is going to be denied by police security in Quebec City. His question -- an intricate, complex question that rests at the core of Canadians' democratic liberties -- is one a vigilant news media should have asked the moment police announced their intention of sealing off the heart of Quebec City for the summit behind a 3.8-kilometre security perimeter. Mr. Tremblay is as solid a citizen as they come, a 41-year-old Montreal bankruptcy lawyer who is vice-president of a federal Liberal Party constituency association. "I am," he says, "no protester. But I know that why this country of ours is so beautiful is because of its democracy." The court will hear his petition April 9. Mr. Tremblay will argue that the essence of democracy depends upon what the great U.S. jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. enunciated as the free market of ideas. He will argue that his right of entrance to that marketplace is being excessively limited by the distance police are keeping him from the venue where 34 Western Hemisphere heads of government will meet. The marketplace metaphor is one that opponents of free-market globalization, those planning to protest in Quebec City against the proposed free-trade area of the Americas (FTAA), may find cheesy. But that's what Holmes said. And John Stuart Mill before him. And Milton before that, in his 1644 Areopagitica: that only through the free encounter of ideas can truth and liberty be found. What does this mean for Quebec City? Overwhelmingly, the thousands of people heading toward the summit intend a peaceful protest. On its face, the right to peaceful assembly, Section 2(c) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is a compromise between public order and convenience on the one hand and individual liberty on the other. Beneath that surface, however, lies a deep pool of democratic subtleties in which Canadian courts have merely dipped their toes to date. Reluctantly. American constitutional case law has far outstripped Canadian. American decisions have not only, with the public-forum doctrine, firmly cemented freedom of peaceful assembly into the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression; they have advanced down the road toward the notion that protection of demonstrations from limits imposed by authorities depends on the perceived size of the wrongs being protested against. Thomas Berger, the former British Columbia Supreme Court justice, wrote: "Assemblies, parades and gatherings are often the only means that those without access to the media may have to bring their grievances to the attention of the public." To which is noted that any scan these days of the mass media suggests that the arguments of opponents of free-trade agreements are receiving short shrift. The late constitutional scholar Walter Tarnapolsky took Mr. Berger's argument a step further: "Demonstrations guarantee media exposure and, in Western society, access to the media is essential to the communication of a point of view." Leading to what Mr. Tremblay will ask the court: Is the size of the security perimeter necessary for maintenance of public order and convenience or is it an unnecessary limitation on Canadians' freedom? Do police need this much room to protect delegates and their business or are they primarily creating space for them to have a quiet time and socialize, oblivious to public protest? If demonstrators are kept so far from the summit venue that delegates are unaware of their protest, is a free-market competition for ideas denied? And if the distance so mutes the clash of ideas that media interest in the protest substance is lessened, has freedom of expression been curtailed? Very helpful, Mr. Tremblay. Copyright 2000 | The Globe and Mail Visit the globeandmail.com Web Centre for your competitive edge. News: http://www.globeandmail.com Books: http://www.chaptersglobe.com Careers: http://www.globecareers.com Mutual Funds: http://www.globefund.com Stocks: http://www.globeinvestor.com ROB Magazine: http://www.robmagazine.com Technology: http://www.globetechnology.com ROBTv: http://www.robtv.com Wheels: http://www.globemegawheels.com -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
