Losing Your Rights And Freedom, If Only For One Day

A 7 p.m. curfew was even announced on the news along with a requirement of identity cards which would soon be issued for all citizens. All residents who were not citizens would immediately be deported regardless of marital status, age, health conditions or whatever fate might awate them upon arrival to their countries of origin.

Gays and Lesbians were arrested along with families who were separated from their children. People were being taken away and detained for having voiced their opposition in a public manner at one time or another or even having their names on a list of banned organizations ranging from enviromental groups to ethnic and religious social clubs.
For example, members of Jewish hiking groups and elderly residents of Muslim and Christian care homes were arrested with their whereabouts unknown.

While people rioted in the streets and were tear gassed, virtually every public facility, such as community centres, high schools and colleges, theatres, and large shopping malls was shut down and boarded up. Does this scenario seem really frightening to you?

The images really scared me, and although it was only a nightmare, which completely disappeared when I woke up at 2:15 am, everything that I saw seemed so realistic, which is all the more unnerving as if I were looking into some dark day in the near future.

Now, please don't be alarmed, I've never experienced a nightmare that actually came true, but even the very idea that our freedoms could be erased one day has made me think what we Canadians take for granted on a daily basis.

It made me think of how when I was briefly employed as a canvasser during the last federal election, people actually screamed and berated me for knocking on their door at dinner time.