From: Graydon [address obscured]
To: jus.minister@gov.sk.ca, Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca
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Subject: if fear excuses
If fear excuses -- if what I feel renders it acceptable to discharge a
firearm at a fellow-citizen -- then the next time a car cuts me off
while I'm cycling, I can do my best to shoot the driver. I will have
been afraid; I will have been at immediate risk of death.
If fear excuses -- if what I feel renders it acceptable to discharge a
firearm at a fellow-citizen -- then it's completely right and proper to
find the people trying to fund tar sands projects and shoot them,
because they're participating in a project that's surpassingly,
terrifyingly likely to kill us all by breaking agriculture long before
the seas come up or the great plains of North America become a desert.
I am afraid; if the death risked is not immediate, it is soon, and
grimly certain.
If fear excuses -- if I what I feel renders it acceptable to discharge a
firearm at a fellow-citizen -- then there is no peace, only panic.
You job and your oath require of you that you take the precedent of the
present result of the trial of Gerald Stanley and grind it into dust.
Leave aside, narrowly, that the jobs and oaths of your governments
require much of you that is not done with respect to the First Nations
peoples of Canada; leave aside, narrowly, that the present's ongoing
habits of genocide are a blight and a stain on anything that Canada
might hope to become.
Do the one narrow certain thing you must.
Sincerely,
Graydon Saunders
I'd not previously heard about this case, but I entirely agree with you. All manner of "stand your ground" laws, and in fact, from my PoV, the "right" to kill another person for any reason short of the immediate defense of yourself or another person (and specifically not their possessions) is horrifying, as is the entire concept of the death penalty. As a species we need to be better than this.
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