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1 March, 2000 The Right Hon. the Prime Minister "When I use a word", Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone,
Dear Prime Minister, There is an abuse of euphemism that corrupts words; corrupts honest and logical thought; repudiates common sense; leads to many kinds of injustice and evil. George Orwell called such an abuse of euphemism Newspeak. The language of Newspeak was practised by the late Dr. Joseph Goebbels in the interests of the Third Reich. One thinks of words or phrases like lebensraum, final solution and inalienable right. Newspeak is practised in Canada by journalists, politicians and judges in the interests of several political parties, including yours, and in the interests of pressure groups whose votes the parties hope to secure.One thinks of how killing babies is called human rights, of how an abortuary is called a health centre, of how protest against abortion is called hate crime; of how the babies themselves are euphemized away as foetuses. Other human life was once euphemized away with the word untermenschen. What, one wonders, will happen to the aged and infirm when they are dismissed as geriatrics? Gibbon told us that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was caused as much by the decay of morality within the Empire, as it was by aggression from outside the Empire. That Empire also guaranteed a man’s freedom of choice: life or death for the fruit of his body. Canada’s contempt for human life ensure our collapse. Now you yourself strike further chill in our hearts with your Bill C23. Politicians and judges bandy words and phrases: equal rights, spouses, spousal benefits, same sex partnerships, the adoption of children by same sex couples (denying children the right to parents of the opposite sex), fetal tissue (dead babies), the buying and selling of human ova, the sale of baby body parts. What new injustices may be perpetrated in the name of human rights.(Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!) What new assaults is Newspeak to make on words, logic and common sense? What assaults are to be made on the ethics and free speech of Bahais, Buddhists, Confucianists, Muslims, Sikhs, and even of some humanists, all of whom hold that governments must by word and legislation strengthen the bonds of husbands and wives, of parents and children, of extended families. Nothing in one’s previous experience inclines one to trust either your government or the Supreme Court of Canada. Conferences of Catholic bishops, synods of Protestants, synagogues of Jews, may unite in deprecating your Bill, but will you in spite of such distress press on with your Newspeak for the destruction of the family? I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, The Right Reverend Robert Mercer, CR |