Eric Brazeau is Canada’s honest to goodness political prisoner.
Yes, he is out on bail while he is awaiting his appeal.
If you have been following his story, he was arrested last July for having had a politically incorrect conversation on the Subway in Toronto. Yes, the subject was indeed Islam…
One of the other passengers had pulled the emergency brake on the train, in between stations, because, well, when somebody is being politically incorrect – what else can you possibly do?
The transit cops gave chase and pursued Eric for a long time before finally arresting him, handing him to the real cops and having him thrown into jail.
Where he was denied bail and awaited his trial in jail.
Yes, violent criminals and drug dealers are routinely granted bail prior to trial, but their actions were deemed to be much less dangerous than Eric’s politically incorrect speech. No violence, no threats, no intimidation – just straight forward statement of his deeply and honestly held beliefs.
His trial in January was a farce: the judge seemed more interested in sound bites than justice, with his ‘you had a ticket to ride, not a pass to harass’ pronouncement…
Finally in April, he was granted bail till his appeal comes up.
Which is awesome, but…
We live in a country with a common law legal system.
This means that each and every case sets a precedent which is binding on judges in all subsequent cases.
What this means is that if anyone charged with an offence for something they have said – whether we like them or not, whether we agree with their opinions or not – comes before the courts with a lousy lawyer and they loose their case, the freedom of speech of each and every one of us in Canada, US, Britain, Australia and other common law countries, our freedom of speech will now be restricted because of the unfavourable outcome in this one trial.
So, regardless of who is charged and for what, if it is a freedom of speech issue and they lose their case – each and every one of us loses along with them.
Which is why we have to make sure that for his appeal, Eric can actually afford a competent lawyer.
And this is how we can do it: his appeal fundraiser is here.
Please, do consider a donation – for freedom’s sake!
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