Ted Barris

I was busy at the time. Because it was the weekend, I had a long list of things to do around the house. And I was well into the first few chores when I heard the front doorbell ring. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a woman with a handful of pamphlets, and a pad and pen at the ready.

“I’m Christine McKenzie,” she said, “and I’m running for Ward 5 Councillor.”

I could have said, “Gee, I’m really busy right now,” and I’m sure she’d have responded with, “I can come back another time.” But instead, Ms. McKenzie and I got into a lively discussion about the needs of some of our neighbours in the aftermath of the May 21 tornado.

What’s remarkable is that I’ve had similar front-porch chats with Todd Snooks (also running for Ward 5 Councillor) and Bruce Garrod (running for Regional Councillor) all within the past couple of weeks. I’ve stopped to speak with and listen to each one of them.

Why? Because I’m a strong believer in participatory democracy – you participate in it as a candidate or a constituent, or you run the risk of losing it. I’m also a strong believer in the value of free speech. That’s why, as some will have noticed, the Uxbridge Cosmos will again host a candidates’ forum for the municipal elections on Monday, Sept. 26 at the arena, and why I am honoured to moderate. In my view, ultimately free speech is not free.

If that belief is not one you accept, I point out that Salman Rushdie nearly died last week attempting to preserve that privilege. In case your holidays took you elsewhere, on Friday the celebrated author was about to speak to an audience at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, coincidentally about why in his view the United States is a safe haven for writers.

As he was about to begin his lecture, Rushdie was assaulted by a man with a knife; members of the audience subdued the man, but not before Rushdie sustained critical injuries. In 1988, Rushdie, 75, published The Satanic Verses, a controversial work about Islam and the tyrannical state of Iran. The country’s religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, a decree to have Rushdie killed, complete with a $3 million bounty. All this caused Rushdie to go underground.

He reappeared for the first time in Canada. In 1992, Pen Canada, a writers’ organization mandated to defend freedom of expression, approached then Ontario premier Bob Rae who helped Pen get a private jet to fly Rushdie (when commercial airlines would not) to Toronto to speak.

“The Satanic Verses was not an attack on Islam or Mohammed, but a satire about tyrants,” Rae said on CBC Radio this week. “We arranged the surprise appearance … to help break down Rushdie’s forced isolation.”

Clearly the taboo of revealing his whereabouts ended in that moment, but not the risk to his life. What has suffered equally life-changing wounds in recent days is the freedom of speech Rushdie has campaigned to preserve. Defending his writing and speaking, Rushdie said his book wasn’t blasphemy against Islam, but about “a religion whose leaders … could probably use a little criticism.”

If we dismiss the attack on Rushdie as nothing but an internal religious feud or a squaring of accounts, we miss the point. Consider that Republican lawmakers in the U.S. have introduced more than 150 state laws that would restrict or prevent teachers discussing race, sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.

Some jurisdictions in Canada have banned such books as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (for offensive language), Timothy Findley’s The Wars (for sex and violence) and 27 other published works. One Virginia school board recommends burning books banned from schools.

And if we don’t think particularly highly of the value of free speech, imagine being a woman in Afghanistan now (again) prevented from attending school, expression herself in music, or walking alone. Or imagine being arrested in Russia for including the word “war” in reporting Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Perhaps even more troubling – in our own backyards – is the apathy around this fall’s municipal elections. Despite the fact I’ve been approached by three candidates in my ward, as Cosmos publisher Lisha Van Nieuwenhove pointed out last week, the mayor’s race has only one candidate, incumbent Dave Barton, while at least two wards have (as of this writing) only one candidate each running for election.

“It’s a big job. Huge. Big time commitment,” Van Nieuwenhove wrote. “It’s not something to be taken on lightly.”

Or, in the words of Salman Rushdie: “If we don’t defend free speech, we live in tyranny.”