Freedom Flyer Winter 1988-89 Cover

Freedom Flyer 13

the official newsletter of the
Freedom Party of Ontario

Winter 1988-89




OPEN-LINE ON SUNDAY LAWS

The following conversation took place on the radio phone-in program Talkback, which was aired live on CFPL-AM [Radio '98, London] on December 27, 1988. This was the day after several stores in the Toronto region (but only one store in London) were charged for being open on Boxing Day, December 26.

The program's guest: Ontario's Solicitor-General Joan Smith, who, for the past year or so, has been touring the province trying to sell the Peterson government's newly-announced policy of placing political responsibility for Ontario's Sunday shopping laws squarely on the laps of Ontario municipalities. A highly unpopular move, the Ontario Liberal Party's strategy on this issue has provided more than enough evidence of the unworkability of laws which flagrantly violate our fundamental freedoms. Better still, the arguments, logic and evasive tactics employed in their defense of Sunday shopping laws have clearly demonstrated the lack of respect and outright contempt our politicians have for our fundamental freedoms. To prove the point, witess the following conversation:

The Participants:

1.Program Host: Anne Hutchison,

2.Program Guest: Ontario Solicitor-General [and London South MPP] Joan Smith,

3.Program Caller: Freedom Party President and Leader, Robert Metz


Metz: Good morning Anne. Good morning Joan.

Smith: Good morning.

Metz: Joan and I have debated Sunday shopping several times over the past few years, and there's always been one fundamental question I've really never got around to asking and...

Hutchison: Bob, can I just point out who you are?

Metz: Sure.

Hutchison: Bob Metz actually ran against Joan in London South.

Smith: That's correct.

Metz: Yes, and I've also appeared before Joan at one of the many committees on Sunday shopping. As well, we've debated in other forums on this issue.

Joan, as Solicitor-General, I've never really asked you this question before: Do you consider Sunday closing laws to be justice? If so, I'd like to know on what particular principles of justice do you think Sunday closing laws operate on.

Smith: Well, if you're talking about deep moral justice, I don't think that it has anything to do with Sunday closing. Open or closed, it's not a moral issue.

Metz: You don't think it's a moral issue to have freedom of religion, to have property rights, to be treated equally before the law?

Smith: If a community wants to have a law (where) they want the stores closed, and the majority of the people want that, or elect people who say that, they're entitled to do that, like many regulations we have.

Metz: Well, if the community can "do whatever it wants", i.e., the "majority", what I want to know is: What protection does any individual have from "whatever the community wants"? That's not justice. How is that justice? You're telling me that if ten people want something, and five people have it, the ten people get it. That's justice?

[At this point in the conversation, Joan Smith no longer responds, while the program host, Anne Hutchison, assumes the offensive.]

Hutchison: Bob, the way our society works is we have an Ontario government, a federal government, and a municipal government, and they all make laws in certain areas. The question that we seem to be discussing this morning is whose decision should this be?

Metz: Precisely! And whose decision should it be? (A store) only belongs to one person, the retailer or store owner. Who else - physically, morally, ethically, justly, logically, pragmatically, philosophically, religiously - who has the right to decide with XYZ store except the owner of that store? Who (else) in God's name has that right, and how did they get it?

Hutchison: Bob, I think that's just not the way our society works. Generally because there are unscrupulous business people and unscrupulous people in every area of life, that often we have to have restrictions on...

Metz:... on unscrupulous behaviour, of course! But opening a store on a Sunday isn't "unscrupulous" behaviour. If it were, then it would be unscrupulous on Monday to Saturday!

Hutchison: And do you think that forcing people to work on Sundays is unscrupulous?

Metz: No one is (being) "forced" to work on a Sunday. (But) think of your argument: if "force" is wrong, how can you justify... forcing somebody to close (their retail business)? If force is wrong, then it doesn't matter whether you're "forcing" someone to open or "forcing" them to close.

What you really have to do is define the word, "force".

No one is being "forced" to work on a Sunday.

Nothing (amuses) me more than hearing somebody say "I don't want to work on Sundays, but I think I have a right to a job whose very nature it is to be open on a Sunday." That's like some guy saying, "I'm terribly afraid of heights, but by gosh I'm going to run to government so I can get a job in high-rise construction --- but I (refuse) to work above the second floor!" That's the logic that's at work.

Hutchison: Okay Bob. Thanks for your call. Bye bye.

Obviously there are some people, Joan, and we've heard a couple of them this morning who just feel that the government has no business interfering, that they just shouldn't be making these kinds of laws at all.

Smith: Well, there are people that feel that way. There's a lot of pressure for less government. On the other hand, there (are) people (who) want more and more protection. We realize, for instance, getting a little bit off topic, that the environment needs protecting, and so we're getting more and more laws around traffic because of the numbers of cars on the road and the dangers of this sort of thing.

Basically, democracy is in place, and healthy. If people elect a lot of people from the Freedom Party, they'll get less regulations. But so far we're not overpowered by people voting for the Freedom Party.




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