The Pardy School of Law
How the law works, and how it doesn’t.
The Dr. Jordan B. Peterson Podcast: A flavorful and expansive conversation on freedom of speech hosted by Jordan Peterson with guests Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe and Konstantin Kisin, a Russian-British satirist/author/podcaster. Through the lens of the Online Harms Act (C-63), the discussion travels back in time to revisit Bill C-16, to the shifting ground of today the rule of law flounders on. We may think we believe in Voltaire's dictum, "I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," but we can see that this is not true in practice for many of us. How do we avoid tyranny when our desire for safety necessitates a managerial state and our loss of autonomy? Are we willing and able to accept that freedom isn't a safe ride and that some harm is a consequence of freedom and a price worth paying? To what extent should we be free? Join Jordan, Bruce and Konstantin as they explore the concept of freedom itself within the landscape of meaning we navigate as a society.
See the premiere on May 9 at Isabel Bader Theatre: “Covid Collateral” looks at scientists who spoke out against the lockdowns and were silenced. It also examines ignored treatments and evidence, including the possible use of the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin and a study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology that found only 0.17 percent of those infected with the virus died. Public health experts were saying the rate was closer to 3 percent at the time.
Vanessa Dylyn, writer, director, and producer.
WATCH THE DEBATE!
VIRTUE vs. FREEDOM
Livestream Recording of the 2024 Rand Debate now available
The 2024 Rand Debate, co-hosted by Augustine College and First Freedoms Foundation, saw Queen's Law Professor Bruce Pardy debate Wilfred Laurier’s Professor David Haskell on the topic of virtue vs. freedom, inspired by an article Bruce wrote published by the Brownstone Institute: Freedom and Virtue: Friends or Enemies?
According to Bruce (a freedom person), "virtue people" believe societal flourishing necessitates governments whose first responsibility is the promotion of virtue. David argues the evidence supports the prosperity created by virtue that reflects Judeo-Christian values and tradition. Bruce, however, points to individual autonomy as the primary accomplishment of the West, an accomplishment unique to western civilization. Freedom, he says, is the absence of coercion and individuals must determine the meaning of virtue for themselves. David argues that if the public sphere is an ideological vacuum, an ideology of some sort will move in to fill it. Governments, to that end, serve as virtue signallers.
No winner that night was declared. There was no vote to decide.
The greater takeaway is: which type of person are you? What sets the stage for a life of meaning and discovery? What do we need to evolve as individuals and as a community? Is there an objective good? If there was, would choice matter more? Discover for yourselves, what matters to you. Our society depends on it.
Reality Check Radio: New Zealand journalist and film-maker Alistair Harding [director of ‘We Came Here for Freedom’ – a two-part film about the 2022 Wellington parliament occupation protest] compares notes with legal mind Bruce Pardy on the pandemic experiences of New Zealand and Canada. Alistair recalls instances in which the New Zealand government was found to be breaking the law and was able to “simply change” the law “overnight” to serve its agenda (in this example, misusing emergency use authorization laws for New Zealand’s vaccine rollout). He also talks of the loss of “faith” in the country’s legal and legislation systems as a result. Sound familiar? Alistair and Bruce unpack the challenges of confronting the premises on which our countries are now governed (based on authority rather than evidence). Is there a silver lining? Bruce claims a bitter victory for clarity. More people, he says, now see the erosion of freedoms in our societies that COVID-19 unmasked. The era has, at least, produced a vision of what freedom and a free society is or should be.
Bright Light News: Bruce Pardy and host Glen Jung discuss the chill on free speech posed by the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63), its potential to further erode the freedoms of Canadians, and the possibility of life imprisonment if an offense is deemed motivated by hate. It is unclear, however, what the threshold is for crossing the line between speech someone may find offensive and “wandering into hatred,” notes Bruce. “The government,” he says, “has reserved for themselves the discretion to [determine] the rules and regulations as they go along.” Also on the table for discussion is the WHO pandemic treaty, which Bruce cautions should not be confused with ceding sovereignty to the World Health Organization. The issue, he says, is that our leaders will “hide behind” WHO recommendations to pursue their own agenda (such as climate change lockdowns or mandatory vaccination for travel).
Dangerous Speech: Host Obaid Omer and guest Bruce Pardy dig into government overreach. Bruce describes the root of the issue as the mandate itself. People object to the problem of overreach without recognizing that the government has been given the mandate to supervise us, he says. Did cohorts, in particular Gen X, who came of age during a time of high institutional trust, take their hands off the wheel and miss the institutional shifts that have led to rampant government overreach in education, health, and almost every aspect of today’s society? The notion of reform is challenging when institutional populations are hijacked by ideology and self-reliance has been eroded. ”We the people," says Bruce. "Have to change the ideas in our heads."
The Andrew Lawton Show: The federal government’s proposed Online Harms Act is coming under fire for having an ill-defined test for what constitutes hate speech. Bruce Pardy joins the discussion.
February 29: Bruce Pardy was the keynote speaker for this webinar discussion on UNDRIP and property rights in Canada, along with community leaders from across B.C. and Canada. [Bruce’s portion begins at 16:12].
National Parents Rights Virtual Summit 2024: Bruce Pardy’s presentation to this year’s summit looks at the original premise of public schools and how that premise (parents don’t know what they’re doing) has shaped the education landscape and the reality parents face: parents do not have the rights they assume they do. The managerial authority governing healthcare, schools and human rights operates on a pyramid of oppression that supposes children are the oppressed and parents are the oppressors. Decisions that parents might think they control for their children are instead determined by external actors (health practitioners, for example) in accordance with how the Human Rights Code is interpreted. Originally conceived to liberate people from the oppression of the state, human rights can now be applied by one citizen against another, explains Bruce. Over time, the Human Rights Code has become weaponized to protect “so-called vulnerable groups” to flip the power dynamic. That means, if you are at the top of the oppression pyramid, it is not possible for you to be discriminated against. It also means that not everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law and that some people are entitled to unequal treatment. Understanding these shifts is central to parents in their fight to change the status quo. [This presentation was recorded on Saturday, January 27].
Leaders on the Frontier: Bruce Pardy and host David Leis discuss online censorship and government regulation of online platforms in relation to Bill C-63 (the Online Harms Act) and amendments to Canada’s Criminal Code and Human Rights Act. The upshot: “cancel culture on steroids”. Bruce describes the Act as an extreme example of the trend by government to leverage law as a tool “not to protect you, but manage you … and your thoughts.” Under this Act, “if you commit the crime of mischief motivated by hatred on a prohibited ground, you can be thrown in jail for life.”
February 29 at 6PM (PST): Register here for a webinar discussion featuring Bruce Pardy as he unpacks UNDRIP and property rights in Canada, along with community leaders from across B.C. and Canada.
Episode 581: Bruce Pardy drops by the Shaun Newman Podcast to discuss the B.C. government plans to share management of Crown land with First Nations. A proposed amendment by the government to the B.C. Land Act to incorporate agreements with Indigenous governing bodies will permit First Nations veto over how most of B.C. is used. Mining, hydro projects, farming, forestry and more at the heart of the B.C. economy will be at risk and, ultimately, the prosperity of the province.
Further Reading
B.C.’s plan to ‘reconcile’ by giving First Nations a veto on land use
The Proposed WHO “Pandemic Agreement”
James Roguski and Bruce Pardy discuss the proposed WHO pandemic treaty and amendments to International Health Regulations. Researcher James Roguski and his team are the reason we now know and have access to information about the proposals on the table that would handover enormous decision-making power to the WHO in the event of future public health emergencies.
See James Roguski’s Substack here for more on this.
If you live in Canada, sign the Canadian petition and spread the word: http://CanadianPetition.com
The proposal for negotiating the text of the WHO pandemic agreement is available here: https://apps.who.int/gb/inb/pdf_files/inb7/A_INB7_3-en.pdf
See here for the proposed amendments to International Health Regulations: https://apps.who.int/gb/wgihr/pdf_files/wgihr2/A_WGIHR2_6-en.pdf
The Andrew Lawton Show: The World Health Organization is forging ahead with its planned pandemic treaty, which is likely to include a range of measures that should concern Canadians. The draft agreement puts the WHO at the helm of public health emergencies, getting countries to commit to “follow WHO’s recommendations.” It also asks states to commit to restricting “false, misleading, misinformation or disinformation.” Law professor and Rights Probe executive director Bruce Pardy joins the show to discuss.
Further Reading
WHO health treaty a convenient cover for more government overreach
Are Libertarians Being Conned?
The Canadian Libertarian: Host Bennett Hunter delves into a recent article by Bruce Pardy on freedom and virtue with guest Tim Moen, former leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada. In his article, Bruce discusses two camps (the virtue people and the freedom folks) currently filling up town halls in their shared goal to push back against woke globalism; two camps who are nevertheless akin to oil and water in other respects. The essential difference between the two worldviews, according to Hunter and Moen, is the "original sin of the state". Virtue people, for example, might see the institution of state as a means for imposing their concept of the common good on others (depending on who holds office). Freedom people see the state as an enemy of the common good from the get-go. For the latter, although the philosophy of liberty cannot guarantee virtue, it does foster the genuine respect for one another that is "more conducive to creating a genuinely free and prosperous society," says Hunter. Unsurprisingly, the two camps tend to approach woke globalism differently: one looking to nationalist authoritarianism as an antidote, the other: seeing authoritarianism itself as the crux of the problem and woke an extension of it.
The Nanny State’s a Bitch - Holiday Listening!
Chapter 23 | Professor Bruce Pardy | Audio Book Sample
Canary In a Covid World: An audio book sample of Bruce Pardy reading the chapter he contributed to “Canary In a Covid World” is now available here.
The complete audio book is offered by the following platforms: Amazon, Apple Books and Audible. Every chapter is read by the author (except where indicated). Bruce Pardy, executive director of Rights Probe and law professor at Queen's University, contributed Chapter 23 to this collection of essays on “How Propaganda and Censorship Changed Our World” during the Covid-era. The original version of this chapter by Bruce (different title) is available here to read in full: “Anatomy of the Administrative State”.
‘Future of Free Speech’ in Canada Event - Pre-Event Thoughts
Just before they took the stage as featured speakers for the ‘Future of Free Speech’ in Canada event on Dec. 4, Rebel News reporter Tamara Ugolini interviewed Bruce Pardy [law professor and executive director of Rights Probe], Meghan Murphy [journalist and founder of Feminist Current], and Trish Wood [journalist and host of the Trish Wood is Critical Podcast] for their pre-event thoughts on Canada’s free speech crisis. If you missed the event, hosted by the Lighthouse Community Foundation, listen along for a taste of the night’s presentations, moderated by editor Jonathan Kay.
Has law in Canada lost its way?
Bruce Pardy returns to the Leaders on the Frontier Podcast to continue the discussion on Canada's legal landscape with host David Leis. Bruce describes this landscape as "shifting ground"; ground that has shifted over time to such an extent, a new landscape has formed. Where once law provided society with a set of guardrails, it now serves as a blueprint for managing our lives, herding us in a direction rooted in a terrible worldview: we think the worst of each other. That blueprint is determined and implemented by the administrative state (which Covid-19 made painfully apparent). The pandemic, however, presented the latter with a perfect storm for justifying its existence; one that doesn't guarantee us good outcomes but control. A state of control that the truckers' protest in Ottawa revealed as one we should at least be questioning that also revealed what happens now when we do. Tune in for the full discussion.
What is the responsibility of the legal system and is it working?
From tyrant kings to the administrative state: are we repeating history by vesting too much power in a centralized bureaucracy? What are the competing visions for how the law works and who benefits from the vision that rules Canada’s legal system today? What happened to the concept of law as a set of guardrails? David Leis and Bruce Pardy discuss all this and more on a new episode of the Leaders on the Frontier Podcast. Watch or listen here.
Canary In a Covid World: Missed reading this collection of 34 essays from contemporary and credentialed thought leaders on how Covid propaganda and censorship changed our world? Now you can listen to it! The audio version entered the listening stream this week and is available for purchase from Amazon, Apple Books and Audible. Every chapter is read by the author (except where indicated). Bruce Pardy, executive director of Rights Probe and law professor at Queen's University, contributed Chapter 23 to this project: “Anatomy of the Administrative State”. The video tease above was created for the book version. Note: The title of this essay published in book form appears as “The Nanny State’s a Bitch”.
Canada's Free Speech Crisis
Join the Lighthouse Community Foundation at their inaugural event, for an evening of thought-provoking discussion, reflection, and debate on the pressing issue of free speech in Canada.
A panel of distinguished speakers will address the current state of free speech in Canada, examining the challenges and threats to this fundamental right.
For more information and to purchase tickets, see here: Event: Canada's Free Speech Crisis — LIGHTHOUSE (lighthouseforum.ca)
Report On 2023 Diefenbaker Lecture
by Barry W. Bussey | First Freedoms Foundation
On a cold November 9, 2023 evening in Ottawa, First Freedoms Foundation and Augustine College hosted the 2023 Diefenbaker Lecture. The event had some 80 registrants who were thoroughly engaged in Professor Pardy’s presentation. A presentation that challenged the current alignment of the legislature, executive and judiciary. With the legislature’s delegation of power to the administrative state, meaning the bureaucracy, and the courts’ consistent deference on how the bureaucracy implements the law, we are, says Pardy, left in a situation where we are increasingly run by the administrators. These administrators are the “experts,” the ones with the special knowledge that is known by no one but them.
This leads to our society being ruled by powerful officials who make the rules as they go. Rules are fluid. The problem in this system is that those who make the rules as they go are not subject to those rules. The apt saying that power corrupts is now applicable to the managerial state that has officials with power to make decisions affecting citizens with little responsibility for those decisions. We are no longer under the rule of law but rule by law!
The answer, according to Pardy, is to reimagine our government so that there is a Constitution of Consent: citizens are subject to no laws prescribing their conduct except those to which they have consented.
Counterpoint with Tanya Granic Allen | Guest Bruce Pardy | Pack Animals
The discussion for this episode focuses on Canada's culture wars. A recent National Post piece, authored by Bruce Pardy, characterizes the five culture war factions identified by an Angus Reid study as animal caricatures. Those caricatures are as follows: "zealous activists" (wolves), "quiet accommodators" (sheep), the "conflicted middle" (ostriches), "frustrated skeptics" (leopards), and the "defiant objectors" (lions). Recognize yourself?! Although we tend to think of the political climate at present as polarized, Bruce points to the meat of the struggle: wolves vs. lions. How this will play out, he says, depends on the people in the middle (a sizable 62%).
A conversation with Bruce Pardy and Fr Dcn Andrew Bennett | Rule of Law vs. Rule by Law
Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good (Regent College, UBC): A conversation focused on Canada's legislative transition from "rule of law" to "rule by law"; the status of freedom of speech; the promises and perils of the contemporary university; and more. Professor Pardy is joined by Houston Centre Director Jens Zimmermann and Fr Dcn Andrew Bennett, Program Director for Faith Communities at Cardus.
Rule of Law essentially refers to hands-off limited government. Rule by Law is more of an imposition by the administrative state on every aspect of our lives as citizens.
TNT Radio - Trish Wood | On the Fringe
Many of us think we are still living in a Western liberal democracy with "a fairly open economy" in a society where "there are certain values that we more or less hold to be true," but, says law professor Bruce Pardy, "in many respects, that world no longer exists." What world do we live in? Bruce and TNT Radio's Trish Wood discuss at length the world the rupture of Covid revealed; a world that had long been forming but one we could not see as clearly as we were then rudely able to. Thanks to Covid, we realized at last that we are, indeed, being managed to death. The "managerial state" Covid unleashed, says Bruce, dates back to the industrial revolution and the rise of a new managerial elite (experts, technocrats, bureaucrats, academics and political actors). This elite took it upon themselves to order society in a certain way through mass bureaucracy, mass media, mass standing armies, and so on. This stew came to a head during Covid when the rule of law (as we thought we knew it) went out the window, by way of being tossed. Free of restraint, big government and big business have taken control of the post-enlightenment era and the new reality has set in: repressive tolerance. The result is a Canada that is increasingly "stupid, poor and fractured" and a laughing stock on the global stage.
Liberty Dispatch | September 12, 2023
Law professor Bruce Pardy joins hosts Andrew DeBartolo and Matthew Hallick to discuss his recent article published by the Brownstone Institute, "The Anatomy of the Administrative State." What is it? And how does it undermine principles of freedom and self-governance? How can we fight back? Tune in!
Background Reading: "Anatomy of the Administrative State" | Brownstone Institute: https://brownstone.org/articles/anatomy-of-the-administrative-state/.
Counterpoint with Tanya Granic Allen | Guest Bruce Pardy
Bruce Pardy and Counterpoint host Tanya Granic Allen rake through the massive cultural shift that first gained its foothold in academia and, from there, everywhere else. Whether it's referred to as critical theory or "Woke" ideology, the reality is a cultural shift that has left us with a society that is no longer "genuinely pluralistic". A society "where it is not possible to disagree," says Bruce, and possibly, a society where even this conversation may become increasingly difficult to have and access. Tune in while you still can.
Is There Such a Thing as Objective Morality?
Bruce Pardy and Liberty Curious host Kate Wand unpack the argument for liberty and how a society might accomplish genuine liberty. Arguments for liberty are examined, such as the moral argument for liberty (that liberty is inherently good) and the utility argument for liberty (a society organized around the liberty principle will produce the best outcomes for people). This broad-ranging conversation looks at objective truth and the difficulty of proving the truth of a moral assertion. For example, how do you prove one opinion is more correct than the other without relying on intuition, emotion, consensus, tradition and “holy books”?
Liberty Dispatch ~ August 28, 2023
On this episode of Liberty Dispatch, Andrew DeBartolo and Matthew Hallick are joined by law professor, Bruce Pardy, to discuss the importance of Canada's legal revolution and what it means for the rights and freedoms of all Canadians.
Public Lecture | Bruce Pardy: The Charter, the Bench, and the Barcode: Is the Law in Canada Losing Its Way?
Thursday, September 28, 2023
7:00 PM — 9:00 PM
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the document that was supposed to protect Canadian liberty. The Bench refers to the roster of Supreme Court judges that have instead transformed the Charter into an ideological blueprint. The Barcode stands for the transhumanist, digital fate that awaits Canadians on the other side of the slow-motion legal revolution currently underway: a technocratic administrative state regulates life, including private behaviour and speech, in the name of common good. The individual is increasingly becoming subordinate to the collective. The law is becoming arbitrary and unequal. Is the end of Western liberal civilization, as we have known it, conceivable?
Bruce Pardy, Professor of Law at Queen’s University and Executive Director of Rights Probe, will delineate how broad discretion in the hands of a managerial aristocracy has replaced law as the foundation of our modern Canadian system of government. Pardy will address some of the following questions: have we rejected the legal principles upon which our society was built? Or is the present deterioration of law’s rule actually a consequence of those principles? How could we recover civic life based on the rule of law in Canada?
The lecture will be held at the UBC Sage Catering Lecture Hall (6331 Crescent Road Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2). Paid parking is available at the UBC Rose Garden Parkade.
The Hrvoje Moric Show: Bruce Pardy joins the conversation at the 19:10 mark to discuss the age of democracy and to consider the possibility that it may be ending. As we bear witness, the cornerstones of society - the legislature, courts and state - have signed over their power to a technocratic, bureaucratic machinery that we cannot vote out. No plucky would-be leader could run on a platform to get rid of it either (they wouldn’t get as far as the ballot box). So, what does it mean to be swallowed up by a technocratic, administrative state? Tune in and don’t tune out.
LISTEN HERE [Bruce can be heard at 19:10]
The Triumph of the Administrative State: A wide-ranging discussion with Bruce Pardy and Jan Jekielek for American Thought Leaders [see video] focused on the Canadian experience. The administrative state succeeded beyond its wildest dreams thanks to the rupture of COVID, when Canada’s nanny state became extreme and people succumbed in ways they would not have contemplated as possible once. When a truckers’ convoy drove to Ottawa to, essentially, park and question the consensus, the government of Canada felt threatened by the affront of grassroots’ skepticism. They responded by implementing the Emergencies Act to address the political trouble the Act was not designed for. “In many ways, the most disappointing thing about this experience during COVID was the fact that a great many people supported the regime, and they didn’t seem to have very much appreciation for the aberration that it represented,” says Bruce. Taking a deep dive into why that aberration is of great concern forms the rest of the discussion, in particular: Why do so many feel that being managed by their government is desirable? Is the “American spirit” that gave birth to democracies throughout the world dying? Can we revive this spirit? And why do Canadians see the diversity of political “tribes” and states across the border as a negative? What is real diversity? What is pretend diversity? [An almost full transcript of the discussion is available via the link below].
Liberty Curious with Kate Wand: Guest Bruce Pardy gets into the weeds of Woke origin, its spread throughout the culture, how critical theory serves as an umbrella for offshoot theories and how they dovetail with one another to form the current group think that has become the norm. What is the new standard? Bruce argues Woke ideology in essence serves an anti-Western agenda; an agenda that rejects the basic tenets of Western civilization and thought: evidence and reason vs. subjective perception. To argue in favour of data and proof is to out yourself as privileged, wrong and a voice that should be silenced, says Bruce. What is at stake? Individual autonomy - the crowning achievement of Western civilization. An achievement that is precarious, perhaps itself an aberration, and one that has never been “pure and absolute” but the focus of an ongoing struggle to “protect it from the inclinations of various people to impede it.” The intricacies of the current struggle and its implications are mapped out over the course of a conversation that travels from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt to the “grievance studies” programs throughout Western academia, and the God-shaped hole at the centre of our current society where transhumanism (a quasi‐medical ideology) has found its base of disciples.
Join the discussion or drop in as per the lineup of topics below:
0:00 - Intro 1:30 - Four doctrines of the apocalypse 8:47 - Woke sums it up 9:22 - The core of the proposition 14:30 - Deconstructing Western Civilization 16:00 - Postmodernism 19:00 - Morality and Consensus 25:55 - What is the Western ideal? 29:25 - Is the West committing suicide? 36:12 - 'Becoming God' 38:30 - Where the threads come apart 40:00 - Is Woke a religion? 45:00 - How did Critical Theory escape academia? 46:33 - Other factors 51:44 - Privilege 56:26 - Critical Theory seeks to deconstruct Western Civilization 58:00 - What is the Utopia? 1:03:15 - Lines in the Sand 1:10:10 - Individual Solutions 1:13:45 - Last ThoughtsThis discussion flows from a chapter Bruce contributed to the book, “The 1867 Project: Why Canada Should be Cherished—Not Cancelled,” a collection of essays by Canadian critical thinkers edited by Aristotle Foundation president Mark Milke. The chapter written by Bruce is available to read in full here: “The Four Doctrines of the Apocalypse: Critical Theory and Our Compromised Institutions.”
NCI panel says court failures suggest foreboding future
An online panel of lawyers organized by the National Citizens Inquiry on COVID-19 said the courts have failed to uphold Canadian rights since the pandemic began and a bleak future awaits.
Lawyer Shawn Buckley described the Canadian experience as “the largest intrusion of government overreach into our personal lives, even in wartime,” without the courts putting on the breaks.
Queen’s University law professor Bruce Pardy agreed. “I think governments will interpret what has happened so far as a green light to go ahead and do it again,” he said.
Social Justice, Covid, and Transhumanism, with Bruce Pardy
Bruce Pardy and Leslie Elliot of The Radical Center discuss the connections between critical theory, Covid overreach and transhumanist ideology.
Bruce Pardy joins The Ezra Levant Show to discuss Canada's eroding freedoms and more. Shedding light on the pursuit of judicial power, the shortcomings of the charter, and the erosion of judicial restraint, important questions about the state of the judiciary and the rule of law in Canada emerge.
Bruce Pardy talks about his latest essay, Legal Canons and Social Fables: The Law in Canada Has Never Been Perfect but Now it is Losing its Way, and whether Canadian law can be saved from its “descent … into Alice-in-Wonderland surrealism”.
Wokeism Is Modern Fascism With a Smiling Face
As a law professor and prominent civil rights advocate, Bruce Pardy has witnessed first-hand how the woke ideology evolved from a variety of left-wing academic disciplines to dominate our public and private institutions. The single ideological lens that has emerged is rigidly enforced through state institutions, professional bodies and social pressure. In an interview with the National Post’s Jamie Sarkonak, Pardy shares his experiences as an academic and a member of the Law Society of Ontario, which has been embroiled in a public battle between lawyers who think that adherence to DEI should be required of anyone practising law, and those who believe in freedom of conscience.
This interview is accessible as subscriber-only content. Go here to link to the National Post page for this video.
Bruce Pardy in conversation with journalist Trish Wood on the lessons of COVID-19 under a managerial state. "In a way," says Bruce, "the biggest obstacle and biggest trauma has been our own disbelief" that a system and society we thought we knew was one we no longer recognized. The transformation began before the pandemic but the Covid event caused many of us to realize a cultural insanity had crept in and taken over. What is it, what do we do and how do we move forward?
The LeDrew Three Minute Interview: Bruce Pardy joins Stephen LeDrew - lawyer, broadcaster and former president of the Liberal Party of Canada - for a three-minute dive into various topics. First up: Canada Is Not Broken - But Big Government Is Trying To Break It! Watch or listen via audio podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-ledrew-three-minute-interview/id1596182259.
The LeDrew Three Minute Interview: Episode Two. Are Canadians stupid to continue to vote for governments that continue to raise their taxes? Bruce Pardy joins Stephen LeDrew for Three Minutes. Watch or listen via audio podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-ledrew-three-minute-interview/id1596182259.
The LeDrew Three Minute Interview: Episode Three. According to Bruce Pardy, if you were trying to create a plan to ensure Canada failed, that plan might include a lot of the policies that we currently have in place. Watch or listen via audio podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-ledrew-three-minute-interview/id1596182259.
The LeDrew Three Minute Interview: Episode Four. Are we witnessing a cultural decline in an era where book publishers are rewriting books to satisfy the woke mob? Bruce Pardy joins Stephen LeDrew to unpack this moment of literary revisionism. Watch or listen via audio podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-ledrew-three-minute-interview/id1596182259.
The Tyranny of the Administrative State: Bruce Pardy recaps his presentation to the National Citizens’ Inquiry into Canada’s Covid-19 response for Just Right Media and host, Robert Vaughan. Why did the legal system fail to protect our civil liberties during Covid? One of the main takeaways from the Covid debacle is the triumph of the administrative state. What does this mean going forward and why would Bruce prefer to see a “night-watchman state”?
Taking the Trudeau administration’s online censorship bill as a starting point, the conversation at large on this episode of the Ezra Levant Show encompasses the government’s increased influence “on everything”. Bruce Pardy gets into the weeds of government overmanagement with Rebel News senior editor, Tamara Ugolini, as they ponder how to fix a broken administrative state.
“People are allowed to say things that are false.” What’s that?! Bruce Pardy looks at popular notions around truth and free speech, and offers the following bombshell that will either infuriate or liberate: “Free speech,” he says, “is not dependent on the idea that what I say is assessed to be true. People are allowed to say things that are false. I’m allowed to say what I think because I think [those things] not because they’re true.” However, many people feel “they’re entitled to hear the truth” when “they go online, watch TV or listen to [someone] speak.” According to Bruce, that expectation is incorrect. “The job of a free citizen,” he says, “is to hear all kinds of things — most of which are wrong — and to assess them for themselves and decide for themselves what is true.” Truth is ultimately a question for the individual to answer, not the collective. “Once you get collective truth,” Bruce cautions, “you’re toast”.
Follow the entire discussion at The SAM Podcast (Students Against Mandates) below.
Bruce Pardy is one of a number of witnesses who have stepped up to testify at a citizen-led inquiry into Canada's COVID-19 response. The purpose of the citizen-funded initiative is to investigate independently what went right and what went wrong with the responses and actions to COVID-19 taken by our governments across Canada, and to look at how national crises might be better managed in future. [Learn more about the National Citizens’ Inquiry here].
Bruce's testimony touched on concerns he has raised throughout the pandemic and continues to voice, including the emergence of Canada's administrative state. Bruce addressed the notion of the public good and how many of us have bought into the premise that governments should manage society and that our officials should fix social problems. But, says Bruce, "We shouldn't have officials deciding the public good." When that authority is the role of the state, there's no way to avoid a repeat of the government interventions we saw during the pandemic - and their impacts on the fundamental freedoms of Canadians - unless this premise is challenged.
Over time, and well before COVID-19, legislatures "instead of passing statutes that contain the rules are, more and more, passing statutes that delegate rule-making authority to the administration.... Now the executive branch is doing the work of the legislature," says Bruce. What happened to the rights and freedoms contained in the Charter? What happened to our perception of how we thought our system worked? What happened to the notion of a "solid and written law" that we thought we could depend on? Bruce's testimony covered these topics, which he has sounded the alarm on right from the get-go:
Western liberal democracies, especially Canada, have descended into authoritarianism. COVID appears to be the reason, but this transformation has long been underway. The virus simply unleashed the gathering storm. Over time, managerial states have steadily expanded their reach into every aspect of modern life. Governments supervise behaviour and speech, mainstream media propagandize, public schools and universities indoctrinate, and professional regulators require ideological comportment. The chattering classes now demonize the ideas upon which their own civilization is based, including the sovereignty of the individual over the group, freedom of speech, and equality of treatment under the law. While we once celebrated liberties and achievements, people are now fearful, ashamed, dependent, and obedient.
The law will not protect us. The law is a product of culture, and when the culture turns, the law goes with it. ~ [Excerpt from "The first obstacle is our confidence that things won’t get worse"]
The one silver lining according to Bruce: "If we don't like what we see, we gotta fix it."
Go directly to the video recording of Bruce Pardy’s testimony here
Professionals are being supervised in their political attitudes by their regulators and nowhere is this more apparent than at the Law Society of Ontario. As such, the stakes could not be higher for the LSO's “bencher” (governor) elections now under way.
Bruce Pardy joins Barry W. Bussey to look at exactly what's at stake for election candidates and the more than 55,000 lawyers the Society represents. On one side, we have the FullStop group of candidates (whose mandate is to Stop Bloat • Stop Creep • Stop Woke) and the Good Governance Coalition (establishment activists who wish to continue the ideological agenda of the pre-2019 program that caused the FullStoppers to come into existence).
At the heart of this struggle is a "Statement of Principles" that if imposed would require lawyers to promote equality, diversity and inclusion in their professional and personal lives. Why would these seemingly desirable objectives be a threat to the practice of lawyers and their capacity to serve their clients? Listen in to learn more.
Bruce Pardy and Barry W. Bussey continue the conversation on the LSO's “bencher” elections.
Once upon a time, Bruce recounts that the elections did not draw much attention from members but all that changed when it seemed an established interest within the Law Society of Ontario was intent on “coming after us with a political agenda that required us to embrace a politics we did not agree with in order for the right to carry on with our licenses.” This prompted a small group of lawyers, who would never have thought to run for bencher, to run on the platform of getting rid of it. They succeeded in halting implementation of an ideological agenda but the agenda did not go away. “A tyranny of an established interest entrenched inside the law society is doing its damnedest to make sure it stays there,” says Bruce. The test of the upcoming election is to find out whether that agenda is “actually the view of the majority or if there’s a lot of lawyers out there who don’t agree with this.”
Bruce Pardy stops by The SAM Podcast (Students Against Mandates) to discuss the Rouleau report, Covid restrictions, the separation of powers in Canada, parliamentary supremacy, Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and how we got to the bad moment we’re in.
A two-parter! Bruce Pardy and Barry W. Bussey rake over the final word from the Emergencies Act inquiry - the Rouleau report.
Bruce concludes that the inquiry served as a “cleansing process” for the justification of implementing the Emergencies Act: a process that produced a “performance” if not an outcome. The conversation continues from part one through to part two on what the inquiry’s court-like performance means for cases that are ongoing and our expectations around this process. Interestingly, Bruce submits the problem is not the government: “It’s your fellow Canadians who think that everything that happened [here] is fine.” Barry concurs that “we all need to recognize our role in the political process,” and that if we “reward those who lie, we are reflecting ourselves in our politicians.”
Watch Now!
Capitalism is defined by freedom. Corporatism - the economic force now dominating the United States - is a genuine source of oppression. In this video, Bruce Pardy and content creator, Kate Wand, explore the growing partnership between America’s technocratic governments and powerful corporate elites. The resulting corporatist system prevents open competition and enables governments to favour, protect, subsidize, and benefit the business interests they are acting in concert with.
Bruce Pardy joins The Ezra Levant Show to dig into the results of the Emergencies Act Inquiry in Ottawa. “It is a mistake to think that this was going to be a court-like process,” says Bruce. “The inquiry was simply putting together a report, not a binding report, and it can’t find liability.”
Andrew Lawton devotes the latter part of his show (at the 51.36 mark) for a look into the Commission’s findings with Bruce Pardy, who has maintained from the outset there was no legal basis for the invocation of the Emergencies Act. The point of the Commission’s inquiry, he says, is to perform a “ritual” with court-like trappings. Nevertheless, the process did confirm for Bruce the evidence wasn’t there to support the belief the invocation of the Emergencies Act was justified.
Are Canada's courts committed to upholding the Constitutional rights and freedoms of individual Canadians, or, has the focus shifted to group rights?
What is the managerial state, and how is it operating in Canada?
Do the courts, and society in general, treat movements on the "left" with the same standards as those on the "right"?
Why does any of this matter? Lawyer Bruce Pardy explains.
Canada’s legal revolution and its dangers
Lawyer Bruce Pardy joins Liberty Coalition Canada to explore the "quiet and unopposed" revolution that has transformed Canadian society, with a focus on the Josh Alexander case, where a student at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Renfrew was suspended as well as banned for a month because he questioned the non-binary use of bathrooms at his school. On the surface, what may seem like a dispute over bathroom use and trans rights is more fundamentally a dispute about the expression of ideas in speech, says Bruce.
What is freedom? "Freedom is supposed to be universal and reciprocal," says Bruce. "You are allowed to call yourself whatever you want. You're allowed to dress however you want. You're a free person. That's what being in a free society means. But everybody else is free, too. If they don't want to call you what you want them to, they have the freedom to do that. We've lost that idea. Freedom only travels, apparently, in one direction." The test for free speech, he says, “is not truth but what you think.”
From a legal perspective in Canada, formal equality has been rejected in favour of substantive equality. If the focus is on equality of outcome, that means different rules for different people to achieve a same result. But, says Bruce, everyone is infinitely different, and the equality of the rule of law (or "blind justice") means different outcomes according to those infinite differences. To achieve equality of outcome, the state inevitably steps in to manage, regulate and dictate in areas of our lives it has no business to - an outcome that is the very opposite of freedom and free society. Listen via the link below for the full discussion and for recommendations on how to advocate for the return of open debate and the free flow of opinions and ideas.
The path we're going down is intolerable and untenable: an interview with Bruce Pardy
Bruce Pardy joins The Ezra Levant Show to discuss the state of everything from law and politics to freedom, journalism, activism, as well as the ongoing impact of the Covid scare on civil liberties and our collective psyche. Bruce, a law professor - or “professor of freedom” as Ezra has dubbed him - describes how “the Covid debacle pulled back the curtain” on the way our institutions, government departments, courts, legal and medical professions work. People were “shocked and appalled,” says Bruce, to discover that the world they thought they knew did not really exist and that the apparatus of society did not work the way they believed it did. A fundamental belief in these systems of governance and organization has been profoundly damaged as a result of the Covid rupture, he says. Or, as Ezra put it, a large group of people in Canada saw that all of the checks and balances had failed simultaneously: “opposition parties did not oppose, conservatives were not conservative … the media went from skeptics to propagandists … doctors were either silent or silenced … the police became enforcers of goofy mask rules …” etc.
Bruce cautions that although Covid pulled back the curtain, the trends in force today have been deepening for decades as a result of an ideological agenda that took root in the nation’s universities and graduated into society and its institutions through the school of thought now in control: the woke worldview. The old joke that university politics are vicious precisely because so little is at stake has proved false over time, says Bruce.
The positive in a sea of negative? Freedom Convoy 2022 proved that “the nobodies” in trucks and “the nobodies” with camera phones can indeed speak truth to power and that, to quote George Orwell’s 1984: “If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”
Join law professor Bruce Pardy (executive director of Rights Probe) and Kate Wand (content creator and host of AIER's Liberty Curious) as they dive into political tribalism and the differences and similarities between the various schools of thought. Explore along with Bruce and Kate as they discuss the eternal “monkey in the middle” - classical liberalism. A political tradition that, at least in recent times, tends to team-up with the “losing side”. Through the lens of classical liberalism, how might we view the world differently and approach problems and choices in a more hands-off style that respects individualism? How would this work in reality? Can it work? Why is it a tough sell compared to a binary worldview? Interesting threads of conversation are given further pause, such as the concept of “free will”. Is there such a thing or does it exist for one camp and not another? Listen along or drop in according to interest:
0:00 - Introduction 2:08 - Champions of free speech 3:38 - The “horseshoe” political spectrum 8:16 - Classical liberal values 11:35 - Fusionism 16:05 - Different takes 20:00 - The nanny state 23:00 - Universal values 25:10 - The righteous mind 29:18 - Consequentialism 33:08 - Managerial state 36:50 - Markets 38:02 - Founding principles 41:20 - Is everything broken? 44:45 - Universities feed the administrative state 46:44 - The collectivists 49:25 - Political ubiquity 52:54 - Critical mass 54:52 - Collectivist ideologies 58:20 - Historical cycles 1:00:42 - Classical liberalism led us here? 1:06:51 - Free markets parallel with human society 1:08:35 - Last thoughts.
Watch the video here
Tune in Tuesday, January 10. Contact freedomloverscanada@gmail.com for Zoom info.
Bruce Pardy with Barry W. Bussey & Prof. Iain Benson | First Freedoms Foundation
Unpacking the year that was and the state of freedom in Canada. Freedom Convoy 2022 takes the spotlight with law professor Bruce Pardy noting that here was the first time in Canada, in a long time, where “everybody saw” a group of people articulate “opposition to an agenda that the elites were pushing.” Was it a threat? Well, it did constitute a threat to the chattering classes. It also meant “a lot of people suddenly understood they were not alone in [their] thinking about vaccine mandates and Covid rules.” Will the ‘22 “burst of light in the darkness” fade or will it stand as an inflection point? [A First Freedoms Foundation video feature]
Watch the video here
Bruce Pardy in conversation with Leighton Grey
What happened to society's broad agreement about government overreach, the legal definition of certain words and a political landscape that once included a middle ground? In this podcast episode of “Grey Matter,” constitutional lawyer Leighton Grey and lawyer Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe discuss the obvious divide in our political system and how villainizing each other isn’t a productive exercise, some of Pardy’s thoughts on the Emergencies Act Inquiry, and why it’s important for the inquiry to reach a decision on truth and justice blindly. Pardy and Grey explore the idea of the Alberta Sovereignty Act and how it affects the rest of Canada, how Bruce feels as a classical liberal about the irrational reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, and what we can be doing to correct the errors the current government has made in its handling of the situation. See | Hear: Listen to the podcast via the link below or tune into the VIDEO version of the conversation.
Listen in here 🎧
This episode’s recommended reading:
Intellectuals and Society — Thomas Sowell
The Law — Frederic Bastiat
The Road to Serfdom — F. A. Hayek
New Discourses
Curious about human rights? Want to learn more about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Tune in here for a discussion on rights contained in the Charter and how they have affected our lives. This video is the Socratic discussion in its entirety led by Bruce Pardy, professor of Law and Executive Director of Rights Probe. Presented by The Ideas Institute "Soapbox" on October 23, with a special introduction by Trish Wood. For a video teaser of this talk see here.
Individual autonomy – the crowning achievement of Western legal systems – is now at risk. The law is moving from individualist to collectivist; from blind justice to social justice; from equality of treatment to equality of outcome; from capitalist to statist; from economic competition to political conformity; and from neutral adjudication to judicial activism. The managerial state has become ubiquitous. Join Bruce Pardy as he discusses the state of law in Canada. [Read more here]
Human Rights and the Law
Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe has long argued that Canada is threatened by an expansive managerial state and a legal system distorted by progressive ideology. He warned of dire consequences as soon as COVID lockdowns were imposed in the spring of 2020, and is one of the authors of the Free North Declaration, a call to arms to protect civil liberties from COVID irrationality and overreach. Bruce joins The Canadian Story podcast to discuss “pandemic amnesty”.
Listen in here 🎧
The Rule of Law and the Current Challenges to Democracy
Human rights advocate, Aga Wilson, talks to Rights Probe executive director, Bruce Pardy, about the current challenges to democracy and how the legal system in many cases has been used to benefit the current global Covid-19 narrative, as well as Bruce’s views on natural law and common law.
Watch the video here
Episode Seven of Free Expression: The Future of A Fundamental Freedom. In this episode, Dax speaks with special guest, Bruce Pardy, Professor of Law at Queen’s University.
Travel Mandate Lawsuits: Ruled Moot, with Lawyer Bruce Pardy
Free to Fly hosts lawyer Bruce Pardy, to discuss the travel mandate decision, appeals, silver linings (if any), and the state of our judiciary moving forward.
Bruce Pardy and Rights Probe: https://www.rightsprobe.org/about
Rupa Subramanya's article: https://www.commonsense.news/p/court-documents-reveal-canadas-travel
Thirteen Things That Can’t Be Said About Aboriginal Law and Policy in Canada
From the archives: (September 18, 2020 | C2C Journal) The number of topics open to robust and far-reaching discussion in Canadian public policy is becoming smaller by the day. Among the many areas in which it appears heterodox thinking is now forbidden is Aboriginal law and policy. Bruce Pardy digs deeper into one of Canada’s cultural taboos. [See More]
Play the video below for a summary.
Deconstructing the Narrative: Emergencies Act Inquiry & CCP Police in GTA with Danny Bulford, Vincent Gircys & Bruce Pardy
[FULL PANEL DISCUSSION] As the Emergencies Act Inquiry continues its probe into the Trudeau government’s invocation of a national emergency for the Freedom Convoy, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expand their international police presence in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), former police officers Danny Bulford (RCMP), Vincent Gircys (OPP) and Queen’s Law professor & Rights Probe executive director, Bruce Pardy, break down the merits and impact of the inquiry and discuss their concerns over the CCP having policing powers on Canadian soil.
The real-world consequences of Covid lockdowns are bleak!
A special episode of the Liberty Dispatch hosted by Andrew DeBartolo and Matthew Hallick featuring three very different Canadians with three very different stories, but all with one commonality - crazy COVID mandates have drastic real-world consequences.
[Interview 1] - with former educator and concerned father, Rodd Moffitt (07:31-26:23)
[Interview 2] - Interview with former OPP officer, Elijah McCaughan (28:45-51:37)
[Interview 3] - Interview with civil-rights lawyer, Bruce Pardy (56:03-1:24:18)
In Canada today, “to be progressive is to be neutral and to not be progressive is to be wrong.”
Special guest, lawyer Bruce Pardy, returns to Freedom Feature for an in-depth discussion of progressivism.
Free Speech in Medicine Conference, Cape Breton
Preview #1 - Bruce Pardy
Well-known lawyer Bruce Pardy will kick off the inaugural Free Speech in Medicine conference on October 28th in Cape Breton. Listen here for a taste of what’s in store.
The Barbarians vs. The New Status Quo
Bruce Pardy joins The Shaun Newman Podcast to discuss the culture shift in ideas.
The first annual Free Speech in Medicine Conference, Oct. 28-30.
Featuring Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe as a guest speaker.
See here to register: https://www.freespeechinmedicine.com/
Join The Soap Box, October 23.
It’s been one week since Western University announced its booster mandate for the upcoming year, a policy that’s been criticized by lawyers, doctors, professors and Western students alike. Over the weekend, hundreds of people protested the policy on Western’s campus. In this special edition of The Andrew Lawton Show, Andrew discussed the mandate with infectious diseases specialist Dr. Martha Fulford, law professor Bruce Pardy, ethics scholar Prof. Julie Ponesse, and student activist Kendra Hancock.
An important university embarrasses itself, trashes its historic reputation and imperils its students by imposing dangerous vaccine mandates for the campus. Western University is an outlier and students who just recently got the news are pushing back hard against the school’s unscientific decision to require both boosters and masks. Trish Wood - of the Trish Wood is Critical podcast - speaks to Kendra Hancock, one of the students behind the movement against the policy and Bruce Pardy, a lawyer who specializes in issues of personal agency. Listen in here.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent Covid mandates - specifically on travel bans for those who choose not to get vaccinated - have arguable basis in science, logic, and precedent. Dr. Jordan Peterson sits down with five experts investigating the matter from all angles, including Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe.
Dr. Julie Ponesse and Bruce Pardy look at the particulars of the Dobbs v. Jackson case to understand why a revisitation of the abortion issue came before the Supreme Court in the first place.
Human rights in Canada
The Facts & The Fiction is joined by Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe for a discussion on the state of human rights in Canada.
Is there a struggle underway over the established order of things? Yes. Should we create an alternative society? Yes. Would the managerial, nanny state leave us alone to do that? No. OK. So, where do we go from here and how can the rule of law be saved?
Can Canadians rely on the Supreme Court of Canada to protect their Charter rights and freedoms or has the highest court in Canada been compromised by its progressive agenda? On this episode of the Rupa Subramanya Show, Rupa and Bruce Pardy discuss the politics that drive Canada’s Supreme Court.
For those following Ontario’s laws, Bill 100, passed April 13, 2022, is leading the province down an already well-worn path to a social credit system. Join Bruce Pardy, Executive Director of Rights Probe and professor of law, for this Bright Lights News discussion on the scope of Bill 100 and the enormous powers now available to law enforcement - including the potential to outlaw protests and seize property. WATCH HERE
The rule of law in Canada. Why is it different these days? Perhaps it's had a gradual makeover that time has finally made fully apparent: an unrecognizable rule of law.
In this interview hosted by Barry W. Bussey of First Freedoms Foundation, featuring Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe, the impact of critical theory [the makeover brush] on the rule of law is the subject of discussion.
According to Bruce, the rule of law - the rule of law we thought we knew - can be thought of rather simply as "the opposite of the rule of persons".
Roundtable Discussion of the response by SAFS (Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship) to university COVID policies.
Led by Bruce Pardy (Law, Queen’s University), featuring David Haskell (Communication, Wilfred Laurier University) and William McNally (Finance, Wilfrid Laurier University).
Part of the 2022 Annual General Meeting for the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship.
A summary by Bruce Pardy of his portion of the presentation (beginning at the 31:03 mark) follows below. The video segment Bruce appears in is impaired by poor microphone performance, hence the summary.
***********************
Academic freedom and “free speech” encompass the right to be free from censorship and compulsion – the right to say what you think and not to say what you do not believe. Freedom of expression has been described as the most important liberty. But it is not more important than bodily autonomy, including the right to refuse medical treatment, for without it we lose the right to govern our own bodies, and with it, control over health decisions.
Rights are not absolute but limited by the rights of others. Speech that threatens imminent violence is an assault, for example. But rights must not be curbed on the grounds of an amorphous “common good”, for that provides authorities with the power to restrict liberties at their discretion and on the thinnest of pretenses.
Vaccine mandates interfere with bodily autonomy but refusing to take a vaccine infringes the rights of no one. People do not have a legal right to be protected from respiratory viruses. If they did, the law would already be full of restrictions to prevent the spread of colds, the flu, and the many other viruses to which we are commonly exposed. And yet, during COVID, many universities made vaccination mandatory.
Andrew Lawton devotes the latter part of his show (at the 51.36 mark) for a look into the Commission’s findings with Bruce Pardy, who has maintained from the outset there was no legal basis for the invocation of the Emergencies Act. The point of the Commission’s inquiry, he says, is to perform a “ritual” with court-like trappings. Nevertheless, the process did confirm for Bruce the evidence wasn’t there to support the belief the invocation of the Emergencies Act was justified.
Bruce Pardy joins The Ezra Levant Show to dig into the results of the Emergencies Act Inquiry in Ottawa. “It is a mistake to think that this was going to be a court-like process,” says Bruce. “The inquiry was simply putting together a report, not a binding report, and it can’t find liability.”
Lawyers are the last line of defence. But if lawyers have been compromised by requirements imposed on them by their own regulator, where are you going to go?
Canada’s legal revolution and its dangers
Lawyer Bruce Pardy joins Liberty Coalition Canada to explore the "quiet and unopposed" revolution that has transformed Canadian society, with a focus on the Josh Alexander case, where a student at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Renfrew was suspended as well as banned for a month because he questioned the non-binary use of bathrooms at his school. On the surface, what may seem like a dispute over bathroom use and trans rights is more fundamentally a dispute about the expression of ideas in speech, says Bruce.
What is freedom? "Freedom is supposed to be universal and reciprocal," says Bruce. "You are allowed to call yourself whatever you want. You're allowed to dress however you want. You're a free person. That's what being in a free society means. But everybody else is free, too. If they don't want to call you what you want them to, they have the freedom to do that. We've lost that idea. Freedom only travels, apparently, in one direction." The test for free speech, he says, “is not truth but what you think.”
From a legal perspective in Canada, formal equality has been rejected in favour of substantive equality. If the focus is on equality of outcome, that means different rules for different people to achieve a same result. But, says Bruce, everyone is infinitely different, and the equality of the rule of law (or "blind justice") means different outcomes according to those infinite differences. To achieve equality of outcome, the state inevitably steps in to manage, regulate and dictate in areas of our lives it has no business to - an outcome that is the very opposite of freedom and free society. Listen via the link below for the full discussion and for recommendations on how to advocate for the return of open debate and the free flow of opinions and ideas.
The path we're going down is intolerable and untenable: an interview with Bruce Pardy
Bruce Pardy joins The Ezra Levant Show to discuss the state of everything from law and politics to freedom, journalism, activism, as well as the ongoing impact of the Covid scare on civil liberties and our collective psyche. Bruce, a law professor - or “professor of freedom” as Ezra has dubbed him - describes how “the Covid debacle pulled back the curtain” on the way our institutions, government departments, courts, legal and medical professions work. People were “shocked and appalled,” says Bruce, to discover that the world they thought they knew did not really exist and that the apparatus of society did not work the way they believed it did. A fundamental belief in these systems of governance and organization has been profoundly damaged as a result of the Covid rupture, he says. Or, as Ezra put it, a large group of people in Canada saw that all of the checks and balances had failed simultaneously: “opposition parties did not oppose, conservatives were not conservative … the media went from skeptics to propagandists … doctors were either silent or silenced … the police became enforcers of goofy mask rules …” etc.
Bruce cautions that although Covid pulled back the curtain, the trends in force today have been deepening for decades as a result of an ideological agenda that took root in the nation’s universities and graduated into society and its institutions through the school of thought now in control: the woke worldview. The old joke that university politics are vicious precisely because so little is at stake has proved false over time, says Bruce.
The positive in a sea of negative? Freedom Convoy 2022 proved that “the nobodies” in trucks and “the nobodies” with camera phones can indeed speak truth to power and that, to quote George Orwell’s 1984: “If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”
Join law professor Bruce Pardy (executive director of Rights Probe) and Kate Wand (content creator and host of AIER's Liberty Curious) as they dive into political tribalism and the differences and similarities between the various schools of thought. Explore along with Bruce and Kate as they discuss the eternal “monkey in the middle” - classical liberalism. A political tradition that, at least in recent times, tends to team-up with the “losing side”. Through the lens of classical liberalism, how might we view the world differently and approach problems and choices in a more hands-off style that respects individualism? How would this work in reality? Can it work? Why is it a tough sell compared to a binary worldview? Interesting threads of conversation are given further pause, such as the concept of “free will”. Is there such a thing or does it exist for one camp and not another? Listen along or drop in according to interest:
0:00 - Introduction 2:08 - Champions of free speech 3:38 - The “horseshoe” political spectrum 8:16 - Classical liberal values 11:35 - Fusionism 16:05 - Different takes 20:00 - The nanny state 23:00 - Universal values 25:10 - The righteous mind 29:18 - Consequentialism 33:08 - Managerial state 36:50 - Markets 38:02 - Founding principles 41:20 - Is everything broken? 44:45 - Universities feed the administrative state 46:44 - The collectivists 49:25 - Political ubiquity 52:54 - Critical mass 54:52 - Collectivist ideologies 58:20 - Historical cycles 1:00:42 - Classical liberalism led us here? 1:06:51 - Free markets parallel with human society 1:08:35 - Last thoughts.
Watch the video here
Tune in Tuesday, January 10. Contact freedomloverscanada@gmail.com for Zoom info.
Bruce Pardy with Barry W. Bussey & Prof. Iain Benson | First Freedoms Foundation
Unpacking the year that was and the state of freedom in Canada. Freedom Convoy 2022 takes the spotlight with law professor Bruce Pardy noting that here was the first time in Canada, in a long time, where “everybody saw” a group of people articulate “opposition to an agenda that the elites were pushing.” Was it a threat? Well, it did constitute a threat to the chattering classes. It also meant “a lot of people suddenly understood they were not alone in [their] thinking about vaccine mandates and Covid rules.” Will the ‘22 “burst of light in the darkness” fade or will it stand as an inflection point? [A First Freedoms Foundation video feature]
Watch the video here
Bruce Pardy in conversation with Leighton Grey
What happened to society's broad agreement about government overreach, the legal definition of certain words and a political landscape that once included a middle ground? In this podcast episode of “Grey Matter,” constitutional lawyer Leighton Grey and lawyer Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe discuss the obvious divide in our political system and how villainizing each other isn’t a productive exercise, some of Pardy’s thoughts on the Emergencies Act Inquiry, and why it’s important for the inquiry to reach a decision on truth and justice blindly. Pardy and Grey explore the idea of the Alberta Sovereignty Act and how it affects the rest of Canada, how Bruce feels as a classical liberal about the irrational reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, and what we can be doing to correct the errors the current government has made in its handling of the situation. See | Hear: Listen to the podcast via the link below or tune into the VIDEO version of the conversation.
Listen in here 🎧
This episode’s recommended reading:
Intellectuals and Society — Thomas Sowell
The Law — Frederic Bastiat
The Road to Serfdom — F. A. Hayek
New Discourses
Curious about human rights? Want to learn more about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Tune in here for a discussion on rights contained in the Charter and how they have affected our lives. This video is the Socratic discussion in its entirety led by Bruce Pardy, professor of Law and Executive Director of Rights Probe. Presented by The Ideas Institute "Soapbox" on October 23, with a special introduction by Trish Wood. For a video teaser of this talk see here.
Individual autonomy – the crowning achievement of Western legal systems – is now at risk. The law is moving from individualist to collectivist; from blind justice to social justice; from equality of treatment to equality of outcome; from capitalist to statist; from economic competition to political conformity; and from neutral adjudication to judicial activism. The managerial state has become ubiquitous. Join Bruce Pardy as he discusses the state of law in Canada. [Read more here]
Human Rights and the Law
Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe has long argued that Canada is threatened by an expansive managerial state and a legal system distorted by progressive ideology. He warned of dire consequences as soon as COVID lockdowns were imposed in the spring of 2020, and is one of the authors of the Free North Declaration, a call to arms to protect civil liberties from COVID irrationality and overreach. Bruce joins The Canadian Story podcast to discuss “pandemic amnesty”.
Listen in here 🎧
The Rule of Law and the Current Challenges to Democracy
Human rights advocate, Aga Wilson, talks to Rights Probe executive director, Bruce Pardy, about the current challenges to democracy and how the legal system in many cases has been used to benefit the current global Covid-19 narrative, as well as Bruce’s views on natural law and common law.
Watch the video here
Episode Seven of Free Expression: The Future of A Fundamental Freedom. In this episode, Dax speaks with special guest, Bruce Pardy, Professor of Law at Queen’s University.
Travel Mandate Lawsuits: Ruled Moot, with Lawyer Bruce Pardy
Free to Fly hosts lawyer Bruce Pardy, to discuss the travel mandate decision, appeals, silver linings (if any), and the state of our judiciary moving forward.
Bruce Pardy and Rights Probe: https://www.rightsprobe.org/about
Rupa Subramanya's article: https://www.commonsense.news/p/court-documents-reveal-canadas-travel
Thirteen Things That Can’t Be Said About Aboriginal Law and Policy in Canada
From the archives: (September 18, 2020 | C2C Journal) The number of topics open to robust and far-reaching discussion in Canadian public policy is becoming smaller by the day. Among the many areas in which it appears heterodox thinking is now forbidden is Aboriginal law and policy. Bruce Pardy digs deeper into one of Canada’s cultural taboos. [See More]
Play the video below for a summary.
Deconstructing the Narrative: Emergencies Act Inquiry & CCP Police in GTA with Danny Bulford, Vincent Gircys & Bruce Pardy
[FULL PANEL DISCUSSION] As the Emergencies Act Inquiry continues its probe into the Trudeau government’s invocation of a national emergency for the Freedom Convoy, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expand their international police presence in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), former police officers Danny Bulford (RCMP), Vincent Gircys (OPP) and Queen’s Law professor & Rights Probe executive director, Bruce Pardy, break down the merits and impact of the inquiry and discuss their concerns over the CCP having policing powers on Canadian soil.
The real-world consequences of Covid lockdowns are bleak!
A special episode of the Liberty Dispatch hosted by Andrew DeBartolo and Matthew Hallick featuring three very different Canadians with three very different stories, but all with one commonality - crazy COVID mandates have drastic real-world consequences.
[Interview 1] - with former educator and concerned father, Rodd Moffitt (07:31-26:23)
[Interview 2] - Interview with former OPP officer, Elijah McCaughan (28:45-51:37)
[Interview 3] - Interview with civil-rights lawyer, Bruce Pardy (56:03-1:24:18)
In Canada today, “to be progressive is to be neutral and to not be progressive is to be wrong.”
Special guest, lawyer Bruce Pardy, returns to Freedom Feature for an in-depth discussion of progressivism.
Free Speech in Medicine Conference, Cape Breton
Preview #1 - Bruce Pardy
Well-known lawyer Bruce Pardy will kick off the inaugural Free Speech in Medicine conference on October 28th in Cape Breton. Listen here for a taste of what’s in store.
The Barbarians vs. The New Status Quo
Bruce Pardy joins The Shaun Newman Podcast to discuss the culture shift in ideas.
The first annual Free Speech in Medicine Conference, Oct. 28-30.
Featuring Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe as a guest speaker.
See here to register: https://www.freespeechinmedicine.com/
Join The Soap Box, October 23.
It’s been one week since Western University announced its booster mandate for the upcoming year, a policy that’s been criticized by lawyers, doctors, professors and Western students alike. Over the weekend, hundreds of people protested the policy on Western’s campus. In this special edition of The Andrew Lawton Show, Andrew discussed the mandate with infectious diseases specialist Dr. Martha Fulford, law professor Bruce Pardy, ethics scholar Prof. Julie Ponesse, and student activist Kendra Hancock.
An important university embarrasses itself, trashes its historic reputation and imperils its students by imposing dangerous vaccine mandates for the campus. Western University is an outlier and students who just recently got the news are pushing back hard against the school’s unscientific decision to require both boosters and masks. Trish Wood - of the Trish Wood is Critical podcast - speaks to Kendra Hancock, one of the students behind the movement against the policy and Bruce Pardy, a lawyer who specializes in issues of personal agency. Listen in here.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent Covid mandates - specifically on travel bans for those who choose not to get vaccinated - have arguable basis in science, logic, and precedent. Dr. Jordan Peterson sits down with five experts investigating the matter from all angles, including Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe.
Dr. Julie Ponesse and Bruce Pardy look at the particulars of the Dobbs v. Jackson case to understand why a revisitation of the abortion issue came before the Supreme Court in the first place.
Human rights in Canada
The Facts & The Fiction is joined by Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe for a discussion on the state of human rights in Canada.
Is there a struggle underway over the established order of things? Yes. Should we create an alternative society? Yes. Would the managerial, nanny state leave us alone to do that? No. OK. So, where do we go from here and how can the rule of law be saved?
Can Canadians rely on the Supreme Court of Canada to protect their Charter rights and freedoms or has the highest court in Canada been compromised by its progressive agenda? On this episode of the Rupa Subramanya Show, Rupa and Bruce Pardy discuss the politics that drive Canada’s Supreme Court.
For those following Ontario’s laws, Bill 100, passed April 13, 2022, is leading the province down an already well-worn path to a social credit system. Join Bruce Pardy, Executive Director of Rights Probe and professor of law, for this Bright Lights News discussion on the scope of Bill 100 and the enormous powers now available to law enforcement - including the potential to outlaw protests and seize property. WATCH HERE
The rule of law in Canada. Why is it different these days? Perhaps it's had a gradual makeover that time has finally made fully apparent: an unrecognizable rule of law.
In this interview hosted by Barry W. Bussey of First Freedoms Foundation, featuring Bruce Pardy of Rights Probe, the impact of critical theory [the makeover brush] on the rule of law is the subject of discussion.
According to Bruce, the rule of law - the rule of law we thought we knew - can be thought of rather simply as "the opposite of the rule of persons".
Roundtable Discussion of the response by SAFS (Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship) to university COVID policies.
Led by Bruce Pardy (Law, Queen’s University), featuring David Haskell (Communication, Wilfred Laurier University) and William McNally (Finance, Wilfrid Laurier University).
Part of the 2022 Annual General Meeting for the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship.
A summary by Bruce Pardy of his portion of the presentation (beginning at the 31:03 mark) follows below. The video segment Bruce appears in is impaired by poor microphone performance, hence the summary.
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Academic freedom and “free speech” encompass the right to be free from censorship and compulsion – the right to say what you think and not to say what you do not believe. Freedom of expression has been described as the most important liberty. But it is not more important than bodily autonomy, including the right to refuse medical treatment, for without it we lose the right to govern our own bodies, and with it, control over health decisions.
Rights are not absolute but limited by the rights of others. Speech that threatens imminent violence is an assault, for example. But rights must not be curbed on the grounds of an amorphous “common good”, for that provides authorities with the power to restrict liberties at their discretion and on the thinnest of pretenses.
Vaccine mandates interfere with bodily autonomy but refusing to take a vaccine infringes the rights of no one. People do not have a legal right to be protected from respiratory viruses. If they did, the law would already be full of restrictions to prevent the spread of colds, the flu, and the many other viruses to which we are commonly exposed. And yet, during COVID, many universities made vaccination mandatory.
A Canada Strong & Free Network discussion on the Charter at 40 moderated by John Robson and featuring Suzanne Anton QC, former attorney general of British Columbia and former crown prosecutor, Bruce Pardy, executive director of Rights Probe and a professor of law at Queen’s University, and the last living drafter and signatory of the 1982 Constitution, Brian Peckford PC. WATCH HERE
The Chinafication of Canada. In the last two years, the federal government have vastly expanded their power in the name of public health, and constitutional challenges have thus far been unsuccessful at stopping it. It still stands to be seen whether courts will condemn Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, which was used to conscript tow truck drivers, limit free expression, and freeze bank accounts. In an Epoch Times op-ed, constitutional lawyer Bruce Pardy and economist Patricia Adams write that Canada needs a new constitution. Pardy and Adams joined True North’s The Andrew Lawton Show for an in-depth discussion about the similarities between Canada and China when it comes to social credit, press freedom, and the rise of the state.
Bruce Pardy is the executive director of Rights Probe (RightsProbe.org) and professor of law at Queen’s University.
Patricia Adams is an economist and the President of the Energy Probe Research Foundation and Probe International, an independent think tank in Canada and around the world.
Digital ID, net-zero, and the slide to a social credit system. Bruce Pardy joins Dr. Tammy Nemeth on The Nemeth Report to dig deeper into Canada’s slow-motion slide towards a managerial surveillance state and social credit system.
The Nemeth Report looks at the role of hydrocarbons in a modern technological way of life through the lens of the environment and climate change. [Podcast format] LISTEN HERE
At the end of the long Covid day, what did we all catch? A managerial state. Free to Fly - A flight plan through legal turbulence. Bruce Pardy sits down with Free to Fly Directors, Greg Hill and Matt Sattler, to discuss mandates, the Canadian legal landscape and where we go from here. WATCH HERE
Bills S-233 & 67: Noble Social Goals or Mainstream Establishment Agendas?
Bruce Pardy, Exec. Dir. of Rights Probe and Professor of Law, discusses federal Bill S-233, Universal Basic Income, and Ontario Bill 67, an anti-racism bill; bills that could become Trojan horses for mainstream establishment agendas. WATCH HERE
Bruce Pardy with Barry W. Bussey
In this Freedom Feature conversation, law professor Bruce Pardy, Executive Director of Rights Probe, comments on the underlying ideas that were made apparent in the loss of freedoms during the pandemic. Bruce and Barry discuss a range of issues from self-censorship and conformity to the legacy of the Charter.
Democracy Doesn't Work Unless Citizens Think for Themselves | Julie Ponesse & Bruce Pardy
Dr. Julie Ponesse is joined by law professor and Rights Probe Executive Director Bruce Pardy to discuss the state of freedom in Canada, why autonomy and civil liberties have lost their footing, and where the collectivist approach to law came from.
There are still people who value civil liberties in this country.