Jesus said in John 8:32, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
On Independence Day our thoughts naturally turn to freedom. We think of how we fought for and won our freedom from Great Britain, an oppressor which is now our ally.
Few of us think of another ally, Canada, in this regard. We don't recognize the danger Canada poses to our nation and its freedom
Beginning in 1994, NAFTA opened our borders with our neighbors to the North and the South even more than they had already been. Since then much has been made of the dangers of illicit "imports" that cross our border with Mexico. But the liberal news media has ignored the greater dangers America faces from our Northern neighbor.
The constant flow of illegal immigrants and drugs that flood through our borders with both Mexico and Canada has only gotten worse with the weakening of border control caused by NAFTA. And our open borders have become an open invitation to terrorists to enter the US from those countries. It has been documented that most of the 9-11 terrorists entered the US from Canada. But these dangers are ones that all intelligent people recognize as harmful to our country and our way of life.
Today we will discuss some of the invisible dangers that emanate from Canada to the United States. These dangers are in the forms of ideas and attitudes that have harmed Canada, perhaps irreparably. They will inevitably harm the United States as well, unless we learn from Canada's example.
Lest our Canadian readers send angry emails, let me hasten to clarify that I recognize Canada as a friend and ally of the United States. And I know from corresponding with our many Canadian readers that most Canadians are far more conservative than their politicians and jurists. But most Canadian subscribers will agree that Canada, once a democracy, has effectively become a liberal Socialist nation. Canadian conservatives are appalled by that development. And US citizens should be alarmed by these facts.
Among the states in our union, California has taken the lead in liberalism. They have over-taxed and over-regulated their citizens to the point where a revolution is brewing. Not the kind of revolution where an armed militia marches on the state capitol. But we recently saw Californians overwhelmingly approve a measure that affirmed marriage as being as God created it, between one man and one woman. By a large margin they rejected the perverted concept of homosexual "marriage." But even though Conservative Californians are finally taking action to rescue their state from the Socialists, they cannot erase the past. The fact is that California has for many years been the harbinger of dangerous liberal ideas and policies that have spread to the other states.
Just as California has been an early-warning system of things to come for the other states, Canada seems to have taken on that role among the nations of North America. Over the years many of our sister nation's liberal attitudes and ideas have invaded our nation. Here are a few that I fear may take hold in the United States if we are not vigilant.
LEGALIZED DRUGS.
Canada is well on its way to legalizing all drugs. When their Senate's Special Committee on Illegal Drugs first met, their very first witness was a Dutch doctor, Peter Cohen, who extolled the virtues of drug use in Holland. He conveniently neglected to mention the 30% increase in crime that followed Holland's decision to legalize drugs. A prominent Canadian Senator, Pierre Claude Nolin, has taken the lead in pushing for legalization. He often speaks on college campuses, where his liberal views are warmly received. Claiming that 25% of Canadians have used illegal drugs, Nolin says he believes "the act of criminally prosecuting drug users may be more socially detrimental than the effects of the drugs themselves."
Here are some Canadian drug facts. The New York Times has described Canada as "one of the world's leading havens for concealing illegal narcotics profits." According to David Kilgour, a Canadian Member of Parliament, "In 1992, six days after the Chinese police arrested dozens of her accomplices, Ms. Lee Chau-ping, the most infamous female drug trafficker in the world, moved to Canada. She had promised Immigration Canada officials that she was going to open a new fast-food franchise." The Chinese asked Canada to arrest her. Instead, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) dragged their feet investigating her, allowing her to escape again. (See article below.) And the United Nations Human Development Report named Canada as the industrialized country with the highest number of illegal drug crimes per capita.
It is only a matter of time before Canada follows Holland's example. Let's pray that the United States does not follow Canada.
In the 1990's and early 2000's, the provincial governments of British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec granted restricted rights to homosexuals, equivalent to those granted to heterosexual common-law couples. On June 10, 2003, the definition of marriage in Ontario was widened by the courts so that homosexual couples were allowed to marry for the first time. On July 8, 2003, the province of British Columbia followed suit.
On July 20, 2005 Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize perverted unions of homosexuals and lesbians. The Canadian federal government passed the Civil Marriage Act, which redefined marriage to include same-sex couples. Queen Elizabeth immediately granted her Royal Assent to the measure.
According to many polls, Canadian adults support homosexual marriage in much larger numbers than adults in the United States. We are already seeing a spillover effect in which more and more Americans have changed their views to mirror those of Canadians. As in Canada, most Americans have little training or grounding in Biblical or moral principles. Thus, they have no idea how sinful and sick the concept of homosexual marriage is, or of how such "marriages" tear away at the foundations of our society.
"Who is responsible for Canada being considered as the Club Med for international criminals, as an immigration sieve?" asks Canadian legislator Michel Gauthier. Lots of people would like to know the answer to that question. In the article, "Canada Under Fire as Haven for Terrorists," (see link below) Ottawa Dispatch author Anne McIlroy describes how terrorist Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian caught in The United States with a trunk load of explosives, got his Canadian ID. "All it took to give Mr. Ressam a squeaky clean new Canadian identity was a fake student card and a forged baptismal certificate. It appears that passport officials did not even do basic checks that would have verified whether his documents were indeed legitimate."
Canada has a similar problem to the US when it comes to immigration. Here the Democrat Party regularly undermines every attempt to slow or halt illegal immigration, because most illegal immigrants vote Democrat. In Canada, the Liberal Party must keep the immigrants (legal or illegal) flowing in to maintain its position. The result is that 17% of the Canadian population is made up of immigrants, and that percentage is growing. Unfortunately for the US, Canada is a favorite entry point for the thousands of terrorists operating cells in our country. Also unfortunate for us is that our legislators are following Canada's example, even in the wake of 9-11. Before long Osama will be able to come to Los Angeles, get a library card, and use that to get a US passport.
There are hundreds of websites in dozens of languages advertising for immigrants to come to Canada. One of them (second link below) has lots of information about the beauty of Canada and the opportunities there. Then they ruin it all with endorsements from two people that would make sensible people run the other way: Bill Clinton and Jane Fonda.
In the article "Socialism is Crippling Canada" (first link below), Eric Margolis reveals that under the Liberal Party "the federal government went from consuming 30% of national income to 53%." People used to talk about the "Creeping Socialism" in Canada. Today I think my phrase is far more accurate. Socialism has affected all areas of Canadian life. For purposes of brevity, I will focus on the worst of these: Socialized medicine.
Hillary gushes when she talks about Canada's health care system. So do many Canadians (after all, the government pays for it – what's not to like?). But many Canadians have nothing good to say about socialized medicine. These are the people who are so ill that they can't afford the months of waiting to receive medical procedures essential to their health, and sometimes to life itself. These Canadians often come to the US to receive prompt quality medical care.
There are two basic problems with socialized medicine. First, by its nature it must be rationed. There are a limited numbers of dollars (limited by how much the government can squeeze out of taxpayers without destroying them financially). Those dollars must be distributed among a certain number of people. The inevitable result is rationing and months-long waiting lists.
The other problem is a lack of motivation. In America, doctors have historically had a profit motive to encourage them to give quality care, and to keep costs reasonable so that patients don't go to the doc down the street. As America creeps toward socialized medicine, we see that motivation decreasing. If you want to see what medicine in America will look like in ten years if the liberal Democrats have their way, look at Canada. There doctors get paid the same whether they give great care or terrible care. And they get paid the same whether they see twenty patients a day or two. Start looking for a country where you can fly for medical care if America adopts the Canadian plan.
Here are two quotes from the first article link below: "Waiting lists for surgery in some Canadian hospitals can stretch from months to as long as five years." (National Center for Policy Analysis.) "In Ontario, cancer patients may be asked by their hospital to sign a waiver acknowledging the danger of being forced to wait for treatment." (National Post of Canada.) No thanks, Hillary.
Canada has other liberal ideas that we would do well to shun. They provide pornography to prison inmates. Excuse me; isn't that what got many of them into trouble in the first place? And their obsession with having two national languages has produced two distinct cultures and the very real possibility that Quebec may declare itself a separate nation. All American social engineers, please take note.
As you read this list, you surely recognized that we already have strong liberal voices in this nation espousing all these disastrous policies. My point is not that just because Canada has these problems, it is inevitable that we will adopt the same wrong-headed laws and policies. Rather, it is that liberals are using the fact that our friend and neighbor to the North, so much like our nation in so many ways, has adopted them, and has apparently survived. Their argument is that therefore the United States can adopt them without harm. Absent from their arguments is the fact that Canada has been seriously, perhaps fatally, damaged by the liberal rot that is eating away at the very soul of that nation.
Dr. Tom Barrett has been an ordained minister for 30 years. He has written for local and national publications for most of his life, and has authored several non-fiction books. He has been interviewed on many TV and radio programs, and speaks at seminars nationwide. Tom is the editor and publisher of Conservative Truth, an email newsletter read by over fifty thousand weekly which focuses on moral and political issues from a Biblical viewpoint.
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