York Regional Police (YRP) Inspector, Ricky
Veerappan, the head of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Bureau, recently
betrayed Canada’s Charter of Rights, specifically, the constitutional
protection of free speech.
Insp. Veerappan took it upon himself to strong-arm
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan to cancel a Pamela Geller speaking engagement at his
synagogue. Insp. Veerappan explained,
“Some of the stuff that Ms. Geller speaks about runs contrary to the values of
York Regional Police and the work we do in engaging our communities.”
I don’t know what cultural values informs Insp.
Veerappan to presume that suppression of free speech by police officials is a
Canadian cultural value, or is that just the values held by the YRP? He makes a
big deal that the rabbi is a volunteer chaplain with the YRP and that his
position would be re-evaluated if his synagogue hosted Pamela Geller. Get the
message!?
Insp. Veerappan follows a policy of guilt by
association. Insp. Veerappan presumes to
know what Pamela Geller will say before she says it. Insp. Veerappan presumes
that the rabbi endorses the future words that Pamela Geller might speak. It is
a pre-emptive move to suppress speech, but also an intervention preventing you or
I from hearing things that run contrary to the values of the YRP.
It is obvious that Insp. Veerappan does not believe in diversity in
his part of the woods. It is a progressive malady, exampled locally with the
lynch mob swarming of school trustee Gordon Gilchrist a few years back. “We
believe in diversity, said the progressive, “except for this, for that, for
those …”
It is obvious that Insp. Veerappan believes in
exclusion rather than inclusion. One of the values of the YRP is to exclude
speech that “runs contrary to the values of the YRP.”
This makes me wonder what kind of speech might run
contrary to the values of the Cobourg Police. It would be good to know,
especially now, when municipal police intervention to curtail free speech has
set a precedent and direction by the York Regional Police. It would be a heart-warming
assurance if the Cobourg Police Board denounced such free speech meddling by
police.
published May 10, 2013, Northumberland Today.