Friday, March 16, 2007
Informational Equality
What in the hell, you might ask, is "informational equality"? Well, its apparently the basis for the Supreme Court of Canada upholding this country's ancient election blackout law.
First and foremost, is this thing called "informational equality". It's the idea that voters in the Western provinces should not be privy to any information that was not privy to those in the East when they were voting.
The problem is that informational equality will never exist across a country as vast as Canada. Everybody reads different newspapers, watches different TV stations, and socializes in different circles. Furthermore, informational equality doesn't matter. In a process like voting, each voter has particular issues that they care about, and if they intend to vote intelligently they'll actively find out each candidate's positions on those issues.
The problem is that the Supreme Court is trying to protect the population from the folks out there who don't vote intelligently. And lots of people don't vote intelligently. If Newfie Joe who's working the rigs in Alberta decides on election night that he's going to vote in Alberta, for whichever party in Newfoundland wins in his home-riding, he'll do it.
Not that it matters, Joe's going to do it either way. He can still find out, with a simple call home, or by checking some blogs, or even turning his Satellite TV from CBC Calgary to CBC St. John's.
The problem is that the SCC thinks that there should be controls on what information voters get, and when. North Korea is probably the most "informationally equal" nation on the planet. On the other hand, the United States is one of the most "informationally unequal" country on the planet. In the USA, they have free speech. You can say or write all kinds of offensive shit and most people wouldn't bat an eye. In North Korea, if you were to write say, that Kim Jong Il is a gay alien from Saturn's second moon who signed a deal with David Koresh for control of the DPRK, you'd be thrown in jail and tortured.
Which is why Free Speech should be more important than "informational equality". This is why Free Speech is actually in our Constitution; whereas "informational equality" is something that the SCC seemed to invent.
Thanks to the archaic elitists that are the SCC, Canada is moving to become more like North Korea, and less like the United States. But who needs Free Speech in a country where saying something offensive is the cardinal sin?
First and foremost, is this thing called "informational equality". It's the idea that voters in the Western provinces should not be privy to any information that was not privy to those in the East when they were voting.
The problem is that informational equality will never exist across a country as vast as Canada. Everybody reads different newspapers, watches different TV stations, and socializes in different circles. Furthermore, informational equality doesn't matter. In a process like voting, each voter has particular issues that they care about, and if they intend to vote intelligently they'll actively find out each candidate's positions on those issues.
The problem is that the Supreme Court is trying to protect the population from the folks out there who don't vote intelligently. And lots of people don't vote intelligently. If Newfie Joe who's working the rigs in Alberta decides on election night that he's going to vote in Alberta, for whichever party in Newfoundland wins in his home-riding, he'll do it.
Not that it matters, Joe's going to do it either way. He can still find out, with a simple call home, or by checking some blogs, or even turning his Satellite TV from CBC Calgary to CBC St. John's.
The problem is that the SCC thinks that there should be controls on what information voters get, and when. North Korea is probably the most "informationally equal" nation on the planet. On the other hand, the United States is one of the most "informationally unequal" country on the planet. In the USA, they have free speech. You can say or write all kinds of offensive shit and most people wouldn't bat an eye. In North Korea, if you were to write say, that Kim Jong Il is a gay alien from Saturn's second moon who signed a deal with David Koresh for control of the DPRK, you'd be thrown in jail and tortured.
Which is why Free Speech should be more important than "informational equality". This is why Free Speech is actually in our Constitution; whereas "informational equality" is something that the SCC seemed to invent.
Thanks to the archaic elitists that are the SCC, Canada is moving to become more like North Korea, and less like the United States. But who needs Free Speech in a country where saying something offensive is the cardinal sin?
Labels: Canadian Justice, democracy
