The fate of the children of politically incorrect parents

Ezra Levant debated a Toronto lawyer, Jonathan Rosenthal, on CTV over the issue of the Winnipeg social services removing children from the home of white supremacists after one of the children, a 7-year old, showed up at school sporting a swastika.

Levant started well, noting the danger of authorities making politically correct decisions and taking children away from their parents because the latter espouse politically incorrect ideas. Rosenthal lowered the tone by suggesting that Levant needed psychological counselling and hoped Levant’s wife would do her duty and get him some.

Rosenthal came across as everything Levant accused him of being: an arrogant, puffed-up, left-lib Toronto lawyer. However, Levant needs to stop rising to the bait each time somebody rubs him the wrong way. He has a lot of good solid stuff to say, but he allows himself to start personalize the argument too often. He should learn to develop the art of being “a class act.”

One thing missing from their debate is this thought. When I went to school, the school boards had dress codes. One school I attended (I went to 23 different schools across the country – I am a military brat) did not allow blue jeans. That should give you some idea of how old I am. If you showed up dressed inappropriately in accordance with the posted codes your parents were notified and you were sent home with instructions to come back when you can (or will) comply with the code.
Whatever happened to that? The punishment should fit the crime.

This girl should have been sent home by school authorities to dress appropriately for class. Letting social services remove the children of the family for the improper dress of one of them is way over the top. I think school boards have a pattern of wanting to duck their responsibilities and lay them off on some other agencies.

I hope Rosenthal has no pretensions to one day becoming a judge. He fails to see the slippery slope he is advocating. Judges are required to look down the road to consider how their decisions in one circumstance may inadvertently bite someone else in the ass. Occasionally they fail at the task, like the Supreme Court of Canada in the John Ross Taylor decision concerning Article 13(1) of the Canada Human Rights Code.

Following Rosenthal’s reasoning, one could make an argument that children are brainwashed by the religion of their parents that teaches them to despise others and they should be protected from religious indoctrination by their parents until such age as they are mature enough to evaluate which truths they wish to pursue.

In fact, that argument has already been made by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in their best selling anti-religious books.