Boreal

FADE TO BLACK

Triumph of the Irrational

Postscript

My demise will probably mean the end of boreal.ca as tens of thousands of you have known it for more than twenty years. It's where I have tried to live up to the tradition of Thomas Paine of explaining the seemingly complicated in terms we could all understand.

Thank you for dropping in, it's been fun; and considering the subject matter, you have been well-behaved guests.

My everyman's writings on the Koran, Muhammad and Islam are part of what, with Lucette's passing, became a solitary campaign against the willful ignorance that will be our undoing.

What happens to boreal.ca is one thing, my books quite another. In Remembering Uzza, a character is prosecuted under a law that makes it a criminal offence to cause anyone “dogmatic distress” because of something they said or wrote. Under legislation making its way through Parliament that type of offence will likely become reality.

While Bill C-63 is ostensibly aimed at what is posted online, under new powers granted the Canadian Human Rights Commissioner by the legislation, they will be allowed to entertain and rule on any complaints filed by anyone alleging to have suffered the equivalent of dogmatic distress, including from what has yet to be said or published. My books will definitely cause some readers to experience “dogmatic distress”, especially this one.

In my last will and testament I have instructed my executor to transfer all my published and unpublished material, including cover art, into the public domain. You will be free to publish any or all of my books under your own label, just give credit where credit is due. To make it easy, contents of all my books is available as web pages and as free downloadable PDFs. You may want to get ready now.

Bernard Payeur