Free speech isn’t always without its price

January 22, 2014 · 0 Comments

Dear editor:

Re: Bikram Lamba’s human rights commission article in your papers of Thursday, Jan. 16th

Thank you for publishing an article that is to some worrisome, to others cruel and offensive. Why? Because free speech must not be stifled in this country.

From the name of the writer of the article I want to assume that he is an immigrant of one generation or another, but assumption aside. This man seems to be one of those who are full of pride and self-satisfaction at their personal achievements in life, and the heck with the rest who are less fortunate for whatever reasons. He seems to have no qualms about letting refugees stay put in their camps of suffering, nor does he seem to care that the third-worldlers who slave six or seven days a week, fifteen to twenty hours a day and take home fifty dollars a month if they are lucky, are never able to get out of inhuman poverty and suffering and cannot afford the goods they toil to produce, watching them shipped off to those who buy them today, throw them away tomorrow. It appears that this is the kind of person who has no problem suggesting that the poor are poor because they are lazy and that they don’t need to be lifted out of poverty because they will not like being better off for fear of not being able to cope with life improvements.

Past slave labourers, current slave labourers offshore, unofficial as it may be, and immigrants have made this country. If people come into this country seeking a piece of the pie that they are fully entitled to they don’t need the kinds like Bikram Lamba to get in their way. Mr. Lamba seems to be sure he has many supporters of his view in this town from his publishing his personal information as if to be patted on the back. This is an insult to the people of this small town of Shelburne.

Ontario Human Rights Commission with all its flaws must know better than to give much heed to Mr. Lamba’s rantings for they understand that this is Canada; we help each other in this country rather than leave the down trodden in the dumps with their rights obliterated.

Gloria Ramnath

Shelburne