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From: robinson@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Zundel etc.
Message-ID: <1052@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-May-85 23:40:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.1052
Posted: Fri May  3 23:40:13 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 4-May-85 12:23:23 EDT
References: <7197@watdaisy.UUCP> <628@lsuc.UUCP> <1039@ubc-cs.UUCP> <634@lsuc.UUCP> <635@lsuc.UUCP>
Reply-To: robinson@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Distribution: can
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 45
Summary: 

*
Mr O, I think *you* missed *my* point. That it was the *government* of
Germany that killed 6 million of their citizens, and, now that you've
brought it up, it was the *government* of Canada that unjustly interned
Canadians of Japanese descent. *No other* entity would have had the power
to commit those injustices. You make a valid point when you state that
a government is a fair reflection of at least a sizable chunk of the
population. However, that does not, and must not, give a government a 
license to do as it pleases. 

In my opinion, since governments have demonstrated and continue to 
demonstrate a propensity to abuse their powers, the easiest way for
citizens to protect themselves from government excesses is to limit
the powers of the government. ( Hopefully, the Charter will do just
that. ) And if that means that such interesting pieces of legislation
such as The War Measures Act get tossed out the window, all the 
better.

I find it very interesting that the implication is being made that
I am not taking a global enough view of the situation, since that is
exactly what I consider those who would throw the lyers in jail to 
be guilty of. Yes, the vast majority of people get a good feeling 
from seeing Zundel thrown into the slammer. And a lot of these people
would say that it is their right to not have to be confronted with
his particular type of libel. However, in the process of being 
"protected" from "dangerous" propaganda, it is necessary to cede ever
greater powers to the government. Just because the government now is
at best benevolent and at worst incompetent does not mean that that
will always be the case. Given the choice between letting a private citizen
print all the lies he wants or allowing an entity that has historically
shown itself incapable of self-policing the power to stop him, I'll
go with the former every time.

>Governments *never* have more power than the people under them allow.
>Yes, I even include Communist Russia.  If the people wanted to overthrow
>their government, they would.  As it is, I expect it to change.  China's

Russia and China are closed societies - i.e. their citizens really
don't realize that things could be a lot better.  However, I think
both Poland and South Africa will illustrate the difficulty of
overthrowing a government  in a police state. They may one day succeed,
but in the meantime the majority of the citizens in those countries
must live without basic rights which we take for granted.

J.B. Robinson