My daughter is studying abroad this year. She made an interesting observation on her blog as she commented about a student on her campus that chose to ignore a minute of silence being observed in memory of the Holocaust. Rather than being outraged, she wrote:
In the State of Israel, where democracy and Judaism and Jewish History are so incredibly intertwined and so impossibly inseparable, and which so many claim is the direct outcome of the Holocaust, Jewish and Arab citizens alike have the unquestionable right, within a democratic framework, to choose to remember or to defiantly forget.
It strikes me as an appropriate point to take away from this experience – and I am very proud that she understands such fundamentals.
In a strange way, her views tie into a concern raised by some of the questions in the telemarketing Do Not Call List proceeding today, especially those in relation to possible limits on when people can place calls.
I have a problem being called at certain times of day, but I also have the ability to turn off the ringer. If the CRTC wants to limit professional telemarketers, I’ll let those folks fight their own battle about how it limits their freedom of expression.
I was more concerned about the spectre of limitations of hours of calling being imposed on public opinion research firms. Their association was cross-examined about whether they would agree to conform to such rules if imposed.
Talk about being on the hot spot. When I was asked the same question on Tuesday (testifying on behalf of volunteer based charities, I was not happy about it. In my view, the question is along the lines of legislating etiquette. Of course we would like everyone to be polite, use the right fork and don’t call after 10 pm (or during the World Series or Super Bowl). But should this be regulated?
In my respectful view, this would be regulation for the sake of regulation. I think that government should have to prove why they need to create regulations – and more than just a survey that says X% of Canadians find telemarketing calls annoying. Duhh.
Did anyone tell them that the government defines your neighbour’s kid, or grandaughter calling to sell girl guide cookies as telemarketing? Are those the calls the public wants to shut down? Are we going to make it an offense under the Telecom Act because a kid calls to sell school dance tickets too late at night?
Or should we gently teach them how to be polite, without making it a federal issue.
How about a common sense approach? Do you really think that making it a crime to call after 10 will make a professional telemarketer stop, or will it be more effective to just hang-up on them? Common sense says that you don’t make lots of successful sales calls at 2 am.
In a democratic society, I think you have the right to be stupid, you have the right to be rude and we should try to teach telephone etiquette, not legislate it.
Just don’t call me Sunday nights in the middle of The West Wing, if you know what’s good for you. I’ll file a complaint at the CRTC.