Will Canada Need a Liu Xiaobo to Draw Attention to Our Own Police State?

The Noble Peace Prize winner this year was not able to collect his award.

And that's because he is in jail, imprisoned for standing up for human rights in China.

The Chinese government did everything it could to prevent Liu Xiaobo from receiving the honour, but in the end, this champion of democracy won the day.

Watch the video at the end of this post, as they discuss his attempts to overturn a police state, at a time when Canada is drifting into one.

We also have the appearance of a modern open society, but that appearance is in direct contrast to what we saw during the G-20 weekend in Toronto. And it's in direct contrast to the treatment of protesters when they tried to peacefully oppose the closing of the prison farms in Kingston.

And it's in direct contrast to the number of people who have been vilified by our government for speaking out. The number of public servants fired and destroyed because they opposed arbitrary decisions.

And it's in direct contrast to civil servants being gagged.

The Chinese people are demanding the basic rights of freedom of expression, freedom of publication and freedom of association.

All things that our current government is trying to take away.

Jim Coyle in the Star suggests that it is no longer simply about public dissent, but public disgust.

It started with an attempt to steal our democracy:

In Ottawa, two years ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper locked and shuttered Parliament in order to avoid having his minority government face a non-confidence vote — the shameless means justifying the desperate end of saving his own political skin.

This was after already silencing the media and everyone else within the new Canadian gated community, that has a sign at the gatepost, "Welcome to Haperland. Enter at your own risk".

Is there a Noble Peace Prize in the future of some brave Canadian who is just going to say they've had enough?