Canadians are not under house arrest. The government should not treat them as if they are.

As government-mandated COVID-19 lockdowns drag on, we are hearing one particular phrase with increasing frequency: “The new normal.”

Now when I think of a “new normal”, I think of a stronger independent Canada. One not reliant on China for our essential services.

But when, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam recently warned Canadians about the “new normal,” she was stating that “[a] lot of what fundamentally characterizes Canadian daily life will not look the same.”

Nearly every major media outlet in Canada has picked up the phrase. Their “new normal” means everything from face masks, mandated social distancing in public, restrictions for worship services, and limits on social gatherings. 

If government officials get their way, our “new normal” could also include digital apps to monitor Canadians and limit the spread of the virus, though that plan is facing pushback due to privacy concerns.

While it is important for governments to address the pandemic, this temporary state of affairs should not be considered our new normal.

It is not the government's place to tell Canadians how to worship, how to think, or how to act.

It is not for the government to tell Canadians which people can visit their homes; and it is absolutely not the government’s place to trace the movements of Canadians, even in the name of public health. 

Governments have a tendency, once they have obtained more powers, to cling to them in the name of the greater good. 

Justin Trudeau’s authoritarian instincts are well known, from his admiration of China’s “basic dictatorship” to his eagerness to suspend Parliament and govern on his own, and Canadians must be extraordinarily vigilant—especially during these chaotic and unprecedented times.

“Normal” is Canadians enjoying their freedom to assemble, associate, worship, and go about their day.

That is the “normal” we must return to. The “new normal” we are seeing proposed is one of constant government oversight, intervention, and, at the end of the day, authoritarianism.

I will never stop fighting this version of "the new normal", and standing up for freedom in Canada.

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