By Dr Bryan Brulotte
Canada’s democratic life depends on a simple but essential principle. Citizens may disagree. They may gather, speak, criticize, and even condemn the decisions of governments or institutions. What they cannot do is abandon the norms that separate legitimate dissent from coercion. In recent years, that line has been crossed far too often.
Across major Canadian cities, we have seen demonstrations that bear little resemblance to peaceful civic action. Masked groups have marched into residential neighbourhoods. They have shouted threats outside family homes, vandalized community institutions, and targeted places of worship and children’s schools. They have burned flags, intimidated bystanders, and treated our public streets as a stage for menace rather than debate. These are not hallmarks of democratic expression. They are the tactics of disruption and fear.
We are a free society, not a fragile one. Our political culture has long rested on the idea that free speech strengthens democracy, provided it is exercised with responsibility. The right to protest is not a licence to terrorize communities. It is not a shield for those who seek to mask their identities while engaging in behaviour designed to unsettle, provoke, or silence their fellow citizens. When demonstrations descend into harassment or hateful display, the issue is no longer the message. It is the method.
Some will argue that restricting such behaviour chills dissent. In truth, the opposite is the case. When intimidation becomes normalized, the democratic space shrinks. Ordinary citizens withdraw rather than confront hostility. Community institutions feel compelled to close their doors. Families fear allowing their children to attend school or religious services. A society that tolerates this cannot claim to protect freedom. It merely outsources public order to those willing to shout the loudest.
Canada already possesses legal tools to maintain civility, yet they are too rarely enforced in the context of these demonstrations. Masking one’s identity for the purpose of intimidation is already contrary to the spirit of our laws. Targeting private homes, disrupting essential community services, or inflicting vandalism on religious and cultural institutions is not protest. It is misconduct. It is time for governments and law-enforcement agencies to apply existing statutes with greater clarity and consistency.
We should also consider whether new legislative measures are necessary. Other democracies have established strict perimeters around private residences, schools, and places of worship to prevent targeted harassment masquerading as protest. They have implemented restrictions on masked demonstrations in public spaces. They have drawn careful distinctions between gatherings that advance democratic discourse and those that seek to erode it. These steps do not weaken liberty. They safeguard it by ensuring that public expression does not become a weapon against civil peace.
Critics will say that Canada prides itself on openness, tolerance, and democratic engagement. They are right. But those values require boundaries. A nation that respects diverse views must also defend the rights of citizens to live free from intimidation. A country that celebrates pluralism cannot permit mobs to menace entire communities under the guise of political expression. And a state that upholds democratic participation must protect its institutions, neighbourhoods, and places of learning from those who wield protest as a tool of fear.
Nothing in this argument calls for limits on peaceful demonstrations. Canadians have every right to express disagreement with government decisions and global events. They may march, speak, organize, and advocate. But they must do so within the norms of civility that define a mature democracy. When protests cross into hatred, harassment, or open glorification of violence, they cease to serve any democratic purpose.
Canada has long stood as a country where people from every background can live securely and contribute meaningfully to the public square. Allowing intimidation to take root threatens that heritage. It is time to defend the standards that protect our freedom and hold all citizens to the same expectations of conduct.
When we fail civic norms, we fail democracy.
Header Image: Global News YouTube screenshot from a video response condemning a rally in Vancouver. The speaker stated to the crowd, “We are Hezbollah, and we are Hamas,” and proceeded to burn a Canadian flag. Photo: Global news via Reddit, highhsunflowerr
