OTTAWA — Canada’s conservative movement was warned Friday that America’s war on drugs — now being emulated by the Harper government with tough mandatory jail terms — has been an expensive disaster that has stripped millions of people of their civil liberties.
The message came from Ron Paul, a former U.S. congressman and failed contender for the Republic presidential nomination last year.
Paul delivered the opening address to hundreds of conservatives gathered at an annual conference sponsored by the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.
A well known libertarian who is considered the godfather of the Tea Party, Paul spoke about the many dangers that citizens face when governments intrude into either the economy or their personal lives.
“If you believe in liberty, you will protect economic liberty and personal liberty. They are all one and the same.”
Paul said citizen freedom should extend to “personal behavior” and “lifestyle”.
“If we have legalization of religious freedom, some people have this religion or that religion, and some people have no religion. Most people will accept that as rather tolerant.”
“But when it comes to lifestyle in the last 30 to 40 years, we have spent about five to six trillion dollars enforcing laws which I think make no sense whatsoever, (and) has caused our prisons to have more prisoners than China.”
Paul blasted the “irrationality of the drug laws that tell people what they can put in their mouths and what they can put in their bodies.”
“I think the drug war needs (to be) repealed,” he said to cheers and applause from many people in the conference centre, a short walk from Parliament Hill.
Many of the people attending the conference are fervent supporters of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
