Last Sunday my family’s life changed dramatically.
We were the target of a hate crime. My home was attacked, my property destroyed and my wife and children now live in fear that someone wishes them harm. This is not some faraway place, it happened right here in North Cowichan.
I believe in free speech, and parents’ right to choose what they teach their children, I have Canadian flags and signs out the front of my house presenting my views. I have a 4’x8’ sign on my little utility trailer that reads:
SEXUAL 1
ORIENTATION 2
GOVERNMENT 3
INDOCTRINATION
I drag it down to the legislature lawn many a Saturday and spend a few hours talking to anyone who will listen about what “SOGI123” is and why I object to it being taught to children. I have had this and other messages on my sign since the original Freedom Convoys, proudly on display on my trailer out the front of my house for years. It gets a lot of attention, from both supporters and detractors of my messages. But never, until now has it felt dangerous. Most Canadians, whether they agree or not with my message will talk to me about it. I frequently have great discussions in my driveway with people who both love and hate my perspective. It has in my mind until now been a beautiful example of Canadian democracy at work. We can agree to disagree and live and let live.
That all changed Sunday night. Saturday afternoon I noticed an older blue F150 idling at the top of my driveway, a middle-aged woman looking at my sign and furiously texting. I approached her, as I do whenever anyone stops to read my sign and try and start a conversation. Usually, people talk, about whether they are pro or against my sign, they always say so. Not this day, it was different, this woman on seeing my attempts to engage in discussion instead looked calmly away as though she had never seen me, and quietly drove off like she had not even been there. It was such a strange response, so unlike any other I have seen over the last 2 or more years, it disturbed me at the time, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.
I determined I would not worry my wife with it, and got on with my day.
That night someone destroyed my signs, damaged my trailer, and pushed my Canadian flags into the dirt. This was no casual passerby seeing the sign and not liking it. I have seen that before and I know what it looks like. I accept it as a consequence of publicly speaking my mind. This was different. The violence and aggression of the attack are frightening. A great deal of effort was spent to destroy what I had built. The message is clear. We will hurt you if you keep expressing your views. The intention to intimidate and frighten us is hard to refute, this was a very thinly veiled threat of violence against anyone not adopting the SOGI123 agenda.
A police report was made, lip service paid to an investigation was paid, and I was told that “if” the investigating officer thought it worth following up she would be in contact. A work week later and I have heard nothing. I can only assume that to the RCMP this kind of violence is acceptable when it is directed at a tax-paying white male with a job.
I have a question for the RCMP and the mainstream media: “Would the response have been different if I was one of the celebrated minorities instead of a “fringe minority?” If I were a purple-haired trans activist, or if my sign said “Support Trans Babies” would this be splashed across every TV screen from Victoria to Fredericton”.
The RCMP seem entirely disinterested in finding out who did this, so now we feel we are on our own, we need to take matters into our own hands to provide security for my family. I have spent my life not locking my doors, trusting the good nature of the majority. That is what life in Canada meant for most of the 24 years I have lived here, sadly this is not the Canada I emigrated to. If you had told me in 1999 when I landed in Canada that 25 years later I would live in fear of violent thugs I would not have believed you. Yet here we are, 2023 and my wife and I now live in fear of violence by hate-filled activists, all because we dared to express an opinion that differs from the extreme leftists who control the government and schools.
What has happened to Canada?
Paul