Freedom - What is it?
Lately, there's been a lot of talk about freedom, freedom to not wear a mask, freedom to socialize in large groups without social distancing, freedom to believe or not believe in the existence of a COVID 19 virus. But, what is freedom? After all, there are freedoms to and freedoms from. There's the freedom to wear a mask or not but there's also freedom from the danger of the spread of a deadly virus. For better or worse, the focus of freedoms in the West have focused on the freedoms to. Freedoms to speak freely, freedoms to move about freely, freedoms to practice a particular religion. But, what about the freedoms from? These have particularly come into focus with the COVID 19 pandemic. In the spring, here in Canada, we focused with some success on the freedom from the spread of the covid virus. All but essential services were closed as well as in-person schooling. The government of Canada worked to provide those who could not work from home with freedom from poverty, hung