Social License to Murder

Imagine for a moment, that thousands of people descended on one of Canada’s major cities, like, for example, Ottawa.

Imagine that these people were all armed with firearms and were celebrating something. As part of the celebration they fire thousands of rounds of ammunition into the air. Imagine that miraculously, out of all of those rounds, only one innocent person was killed by a round striking them in the head as it falls out of the sky.

Was that person murdered?

Murder Charges
Murder, as defined by the criminal code, is when the offender either:

1) means to cause the death of the other person;
2) means to cause bodily harm that he knows is likely to cause death, and is reckless as to whether death is caused of not;
3) means to cause death or bodily harm that he know is likely to result in death to one person, but ends up killing someone else (i.e. a gun shot misses the intended target and kills a bystander);
4) is in the commission of an offense and does something he knows or ought to know may cause death (even if death is not intended).
Murder is thus not limited to crimes where the offender actually intends to kill the other person. Simply intending to cause significant bodily harm can meet the definition.

At the very least, it meets the definition of Manslaughter

Manslaughter charges
Any “culpable homicide” that does not meet the definition of murder is said to be manslaughter. Culpable homicide is defined to include when a person causes the death of another human being by:

(a) by means of an unlawful act;
(b) by criminal negligence;
© by causing that human being, by threats or fear of violence or by deception, to do anything that causes his death; or
(d) by wilfully frightening that human being, in the case of a child or sick person.

Manslaughter is reserved for killings where the level of intent is less than murder. Practically speaking, manslaughter is when someone is doing something wrong and someone else ends up dead as a result of it

It is well established, that killing someone by knowingly violating laws is a criminal offense. Even in the case of thousands of rounds fired in the air by thousands of people, if a death results, a crime was committed. It may be near impossible to identify the specific person that cause the death, but that does not mean that a crime did not happen.

So apply the above to the occupation of Ottawa taking place January, 2022. During a deadly, global pandemic.

We have people knowingly not accepting vaccines, not accepting distancing guidelines and refuse masking. We know that these people are most responsible for prolonging the pandemic, for causing most of the hospitalizations and deaths. We know that they are deliberately violating the laws to do so.

And Ottawa police, so far, do nothing.

It isn’t a stretch to say that people have and will die because of these protests. It isn’t a stretch to say that people have and will die because of the actions of these people before and after this occupation of Ottawa.

The actions and beliefs of Black Lives Matter protestors did not threaten anyone. No lives were at risk.

The actions and beliefs of pipeline protestors did not threaten anyone. No lives were at risk. Until the police moved in.

The actions and beliefs of the people occupying Ottawa threaten the lives and security of everyone. Implicitly or explicitly.

But they’re allowed to continue. They have a social license to murder. Protected and sustained by the police that are there to supposedly protect us.

We’re all just waiting for the bullets to fall.