On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Eva Chipiuk points out that high-trust societies can only absorb a small proportion of immigrants from low-trust cultures before the society begins losing some of the advantages of being a high-trust culture:
An asylum seeker, crossing the US-Canadian border illegally from the end of Roxham Road in Champlain, NY, is directed to the nearby processing centre by a Mountie on 14 August, 2017.
Photo by Daniel Case via Wikimedia Commons.
A high-trust society cannot survive when the rules apply to some people and not to others.
Canada was known and loved as a place where you could trust your neighbours, expect fair treatment and build a life with confidence that the rules meant something. That trust was part of what made this country feel like home. It is worth protecting.
The rule of law is foundational to that trust. Everyone is subject to the law, including the people who write it, enforce it and exercise power in our name.
You cannot expect citizens to respect the law while allowing those in power to disregard its limits. You cannot demand honesty while rewarding corruption. And you cannot keep asking people to trust institutions that refuse to hold themselves accountable.
People see the double standard. They see who gets investigated, who gets protected, whose conduct is excused and whose life is turned upside down.
A high-trust society depends on people knowing that the same legal standards apply to everyone. That their rights will be respected. That public power has limits. That wrongdoing will have consequences, regardless of who is responsible.
A low-trust society takes hold when people conclude that the rules are merely tools used by those with power against those without it.
Those two systems cannot coexist. Either we uphold equal accountability, or we normalize selective enforcement and watch trust disappear.
And no, demanding accountability is not what undermines public confidence. The misconduct does that. The cover-ups do that. The refusal to apply the law equally does that.
Institutions are not entitled to our trust because of the power they hold. They earn it through how they exercise that power — and whether they hold their own accountable when it is abused.
Apply the law equally. Respect its limits. Hold people accountable, regardless of their title, position or political allegiance.
The rule of law means nothing if the people entrusted to uphold it are protected when they violate it.
The question for Canadians is: What kind of country do you want? One where you can trust your neighbours, rely on your institutions and know the law applies equally to everyone? Or one where who you know and how much power you hold determine which rules apply to you?
