THE ADVOCATE 939
VOL. 79 PART 6 NOVEMBER 2021
Dear Editor,
Re: Advocate Subscription
I am thrilled to learn that my
subscription to the Advocate will
continue to include a free membership
with the Law Society.
Angus MacLennan
Surrey
Dear Editor,
Re: Civil Debate
I too write with respect to
Shahdin Farsai’s article on <c2c
journal.ca> and the subsequent
letters to the editor in the past few
issues of the Advocate. My comments
are not about the pronoun
practice direction itself; they are
about the debate around it. Regardless
of one’s opinion about the
practice direction, everyone has an
interest in the profession’s ability
to sustain civil debate and make
room for opposing views.
Character attacks on authors of
opposing views and shaming and
threatening publications for publishing
them have the effect of
silencing debate and curtailing
participation in the profession,
and in this case it seems they are
aimed at doing exactly that. To suggest
that debating the practice
direction is tantamount to bigotry
is an oversimplification and a fallacy.
Nor is any social or legal
issue or decision of the courts
inherently undebatable in a free
and democratic society.
It is bad news for the profession
and society at large when we value
groupthink and take offence at
intellectual opposition. It is of
course far easier to fire quick
tweets condemning an idea and an
author than to write a reasoned
analysis of their views. Tweets, not
essays and debates, are the preferred
tool of campaigners. It
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
By R.C. Tino Bella*
* Letters to the editor may be e-mailed to <mbain@the-advocate.ca>. Letters published do not necessarily reflect the views
of the Advocate or its staff. We encourage a diversity of voices and views in our pages.
link
/www.c2cjournal.ca
/journal.ca