Randy Hillier, Member of Provincial Parliament for the Lanark, Ontario region since 2007, has announced he will not seek re-election in the upcoming Ontario provincial election scheduled for June 2022.
Mr. Hillier is a fierce defender of civil liberties and individual rights, and he amply demonstrated this during the COVID era as arguably the province’s leading outspoken critic of the draconian and deleterious policies of the Premier Doug Ford’s government.
Randy Hillier’s Mar. 3, 2022, video announcing his decision is embedded below, and a transcript of the video can be read here.
A written statement by Mr. Hillier dated Mar. 3, 2022, can also be read here.
From the transcript:
[I]n the last few years, especially since I came out opposing the narrative that we were living in the most dangerous times of COVID that warranted the, warranted the destruction of our representative democracy, warranted states of emergency and the suspension of civil liberties, the trampling of our charter protected rights and freedoms – I have been offside with public opinion.
Many people in the public clamored and encouraged our governments to take these excessive measures to allay their fears, to allay the anxiety. We have, in effect, been ruled by the mob for the last couple of years. And I don’t see that ending anytime soon.
And as part of that, I’ve have been condemned by a number of municipal councils in my area. Condemned because I dared have a different view, a contrary view, a view that the virus did not require us to trample our Charter of Rights and Freedoms – did not require us to close up our businesses, our schools, our health care, that these were all unnecessary.
And the facts and evidence have borne this out. Every measure that we’ve taken has had limited or no effect, beneficial effect, on the spread of the virus. Everything that we have done has caused far more harm, far more injury to far more people than what the virus ever could.
But because I had this dissenting view, and was willing to share it and be public and to be vocal about this, it wasn’t just municipal councils that condemned me. It was not just the media parrots who condemned me – but also the Ontario legislature has condemned me now on two occasions.
The last one has now taken the never-before-seen action of actually preventing me from being in the legislature and representing that point of view, or my constituents’ point of view, or my constituents who share my view – which is a substantial number. The speaker has been authorized not to recognize me, not to permit me to table motions, or order paper questions.
The house has authorized the speaker to prevent me from asking questions, or attending committees. And this is all apparently now because of some tweets that I put out.
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Our political system is dysfunctional. It is not a representative democracy. At best, it may be considered a stakeholder or corporate democracy in my view, because corporate interests, stakeholder interests in the party are what drives the agenda.
And we saw this during the recent freedom convoy in Ottawa where Justin Trudeau needlessly and recklessly instituted the Emergencies Act – where he said a convoy that was protesting COVID policies, a convoy and a protest of people who were festive, who were having fun expressing their dissatisfaction. A protest, where there was bouncy castles, and hot tubs and pancake breakfasts was characterized by our Prime Minister as an insurrection and an attempt to overthrow the government.
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In my view, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is not a political solution to what ails our society – the division, the polarization, the animus, the censorship, the suppression of views. These will not be fixed politically. Indeed, as I speak, our federal government is enacting even further legislation to restrict political opposition to censor views, to criminalize opposing views.
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We are living in a dishonest age, where honesty has no value anymore. Where dishonesty is the currency of politics. The only solution, the only way that we can ever get back to a free and prosperous country – a country that does have a representative democracy, a country that does respect the rule of law, human rights, our civil liberties, our Charter of Rights and Freedoms – is if we reengage with people and help shape public opinion, help people understand the value of freedom.
