I am a longtime Killer Mike fan, so was thrilled to see that the rapper gave the keynote speech at FIRE’s gala in New York City earlier this month. FIRE was founded as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, but recently changed its name to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. I’ve interviewed both Greg Lukianoff, co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind and CEO of FIRE, and Bonnie Snyder, a member of FIRE and the author of Undoctrinate: How Politicized Classrooms Harm Kids and Ruin Our Schools—And What We Can Do About It. I’m a huge supporter of the work done at FIRE and loved Killer Mike’s speech so much I wanted to share it with all of you.
I found the clip above particularly poignant, considering what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did to Canadians over the last couple of years, quite literally removing our freedom of speech rights, our freedom to religion, and our freedom to assemble under the guise of protection. He has no right to do this. He simply does not. Canadians have a Charter of Rights protecting us from dictators who wish to infringe on these rights. There is no pandemic that can justify taking away these rights. No environmental “crisis.” No “hate speech.” No “phobia.” No “misinformation.”
Remember that.
Just last week Trudeau pushed through Bill C-11, otherwise known as the Online Streaming Act, which gives the government the power to control what Canadians see online.
And of course he did this all as a “good guy” — the kind Killer Mike references in his talk, when he says:
“I want talk to the good guys for a second. You know the good guys…
‘I'm a black activist. I'm working on the behalf of women. I'm doing this for immigrants…’”
This has been Trudeau’s shtick from the beginning: He’s a “feminist.” He’s fighting for “workers.” He cares about the environment. Transwomen are women!
Don’t be fooled. This is the same guy who labelled the regular working class Canadians fighting for their Charter rights as “misogynists,” “racists,” and “anti-science.” This is the guy who villified people for wanted to go back to work and see their families and make a living and to make their own choices about their own bodies. What happened to “my body my choice,” Mr. Feminist?
What Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party did during Covid was unconstitutional. And it is our job to make sure he remembers this and that we never let anyone get away with doing this again.
I’ve posted Killer Mike’s full speech is below. It is excellent, but I recommend we pay close attention, especially, to his words in the clip above. Namely, “The government has no right to to limit your freedom of speech, your freedom of religion, your freedom to assemble.” And “be warned that, once you become in power, to use government as a bludgeon is as evil as the masters before you.”
Killer Mike on the fight for free speech