There is much wisdom in the saying, "There is a time for everything, and a season for everything", or "To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."
The Byrds sang about it, and you can read a much-expanded version of this expression in the Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3. My point, which I assure you I'm getting to, is this applies to most everything in life, including the right to freedom of expression, or freedom of speech.
The Americans tend to be much more adamant or vocal about protecting this right than we are, but we quiet Canadians still uphold that right. I maintain, however heretical this may sound to the champions of civil liberty, that right should be subject to reasonable restrictions.
For an example, I point to the vandalism perpetrated on the city's cenotaph only days before Remembrance Day, with the despicable rendering of the soldier into the "The Joker" of Batman fame, with the word "Deathsayer" written across the base of the statue, along with political slogans painted or written into the granite stone underneath, something to the effect that the government is deceptive and trains up killers (thus, soldiers). I may have that part wrong, but the exact wording was removed before I saw it.
My point here would be, this is a very strong argument for curtailing the right of expression if I've ever seen it. You cannot justify the defacing of a public monument, and it certainly can't be justified on a monument set up to honour the men and women who gave their lives for this country, and for the freedoms we enjoy in this country. That freedom does not extend to criminal activity, and this vandalism was very certainly a criminal act.
They could argue, weakly, that those soldiers who died in the First and Second World Wars provided the very freedom that allowed for this expression - but again, this cannot extend to a criminal act.
There is a time, and a place, to express one's opinion about war; for example, not everyone is going to agree with what we're doing in Afghanistan, and that is a perfectly legitimate opinion for a person to have - but that does not grant the right to deface the community cenotaph, and thereby to disrespect every veteran represented by it.
This heinous and cowardly act would certainly break the hearts of those men and women of long ago who put much effort and time into commissioning the statue and the monument for the honour of Weyburn's veterans, both living and dead. Shame upon those who perpetrated this vandalous act.
