STEPHEN WOODWORTH: I’d be busy arresting and jailing people all day long if it was made illegal to lie for political purposes!

Here’s a reply I composed to someone who proposes putting politicians in jail when they do things he doesn’t approve of:

 

I don’t know where you live but in my country, Canada, my political opponents do many of the things you describe or that I consider to be unjust, uncharitable, or deceitful. Because defending my country’s democratic way of life is so very important, I’m going to describe it to you in greater detail than we usually do on FaceBook.

Except for corruption, fraud and theft in my country all the other things you describe are not prohibited by law.

Also, my political opponents are supported by, and include, about 30% of the population who agree with their policies on the issues you mention. We would have to build a lot more jails to hold them if we criminalized their political choices.

In my country if I wanted to make their objectionable conduct subject to jailing, I would first have to pass a law prohibiting it. We have what is called “rule of law,” by which we mean, among other things, that if something isn’t specifically prohibited by law then it’s permitted. My political opponents want to do away with that, by the way.

To give just one example, for instance, not only is there no law prohibiting authorities from cracking down on protests but in fact there’s a law which *authorizes* them to crack down on protests. To make matters worse, that law contains no consequences for authorities who don’t follow its procedures and rules. I would have to first get my elected representatives to enact an amendment adding consequences. I can’t just make up my own rules and put them in prison. In my country, we call that “democracy.”

To use another case you mention, lying, I can’t tell you the number of times I wished it was illegal for my political opponents to lie! Every day on FaceBook one or more of my political opponents lie. My political opponents have lied in their political campaigns. They even lie in Parliament, and I couldn’t even get the Speaker to reprimand them for doing so the one time I tried!

The Speaker gave an explanation I found hard to swallow, even though I had no choice but to accept it, although I fully understand his reasoning. He said it’s not always easy to know when someone is lying so it’s up to the electorate to decide whether someone is lying, and their remedy is to put such people out of office, and it would limit free speech if one partisan or faction could punish another one just for saying something, even if it was inaccurate. So somehow I have to convince electors to throw the “bums” out of office. Democratic electoral remedies are a lot harder than just arresting people! 

Anyway, I’d be busy arresting and jailing people all day long if it was made illegal to lie for political purposes!

Even when something is illegal in my country, we have rules that limit how we respond, including things like due process, the requirement that the benefit of reasonable doubt be given to the accused, the need to prove guilty intent, and many others! So, on the previous example of lying, for instance, even if we made it illegal to lie for political purposes, we would still have to prove they actually knew what they were saying was a lie and they weren’t just deluded.

We’re aware that there are countries in the world where whoever gains power can get away with simply jailing anyone they disagree with, like Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and so on. We’ve made the decision that there are significant disadvantages to those systems, so we bend over backwards not to head in the other direction.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some laws I’s like to see enacted to curb some political abuses! However, I have to do it the democratic way. Right now, public opinion in my country often seems to be going the other way, in non-democratic directions.

The irony is that even proposing non-democratic measures is legal in my country, and if my political opponents can convince enough people to support them, then that’s what will happen. The irony is that I can’t see any way to stop them except by democratic persuasion and elections, or I become just like them! As a wise man one said (paraphrasing), democracy has a lot of flaws but it’s still better than any other system of government.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for your patience and thank you for this dialogue! May all your good endeavours be blessed!

 

 

Stephen Woodworth ... was Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre (Conservative) from 2008 to 2015, after having practised law in his riding for almost 30 years.

He studied Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University for 2 years, followed by attaining his Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario. He served in local government as a School Trustee from 1994 to 2003. He is a lifelong community volunteer and political activist, and the Executive Director of The Democracy Defence Initiative.