The freedoms we treat as ordinary are anything but

Robert Chenier reflects on Maitte Martinez’s journey to Sarnia as a reminder that fundamental rights and freedoms require constant protection from government erosion

I found the recent “Humans of Sarnia” story about Maitte Martinez’s journey from Cuba to Sarnia to be a powerful reminder of how fortunate we are to live in a country like Canada. Her experience highlights something we too often forget: the freedoms we treat as ordinary are, in much of the world, anything but.

As we see almost daily from the country to our south, rights we assume are permanent — free speech, a woman’s right to choose, marriage equality, LGBTQ protections, end‑of‑life options, and a free press — can be eroded or stripped away by a government willing to do it.

Stories like Maitte’s remind us not only of the privilege of living in a free and plentiful country, but also of the responsibility to protect the rights that make it so.

– Robert Chenier