Civil society is based on a balance of rights and responsibilities but while we often speak about our rights, we rarely talk about our responsibilities.
You have the right to free speech but you also have the responsibility to exercise that right with discretion and a measure of concern for others. You can’t spread hate speech.
You have a right to freely assemble but also a responsibility to do so in a manner which doesn’t infringe upon the rights of others. Especially when it comes to the security of their person and possessions.
We hear a lot about rights from protest groups but not a lot about responsibility. A lot of protesters are yelling “I want my freedom” without considering how they might be impacting others and their responsibility to society as a whole.
This results in what we have all witnessed in Ottawa and across the country. Groups of people talking about their rights but not taking any responsibility for their actions.
One truck driver, at the blockade at Coutts, Alberta, went so far as to claim “What is happening here is the government’s responsibility. They can stop it any time they want.”
This is reminiscent of childhood fights where a sibling grabs your arms and uses them to pound on you while saying “Why are you hitting yourself?” After all, they aren’t hitting you – you’re hitting yourself!
Too often we are only concerned with how things affect us and not others.
For example, can you imagine someone actually taking responsibility for spreading COVID? Consider a friend or neighbour, who has tested positive for COVID-19 and is knowingly engaged in public activities which spread the virus, saying “Well, that person caught COVID because of my actions … they caught it from me … I am responsible for their death.”
Not going to happen! People rarely take responsibility for much more obvious damage to others. It would be very unlikely anyone would fess up to killing someone by spreading COVID-19.
What the protesters in Ottawa want is the right to spread COVID-19 wherever and whenever they want with no responsibility for those actions. They want their rights without taking any responsibility.
But responsibilities and rights are the basis of a civil society.
Todd Whitcombe is a chemistry professor at UNBC.
