Prominent professor cheers on arrest of Canadian protesting lockdowns

A Canadian political science professor who specializes in Charter rights and constitutional law praised the arrest of a Toronto man trying to save his restaurant from the effects of the government-imposed lockdown.

Adam Skelly, the owner of the now-notorious Adamson's BBQ which split public opinion and enraged elected officials by opening its doors to the public in spite of lockdowns, was arrested on Thursday after nine charges were pressed against him for defying the government's orders.

Macfarlane, a professor at the University of Waterloo, falsely stated that Skelly is "[actively] helping spread the disease." No cases of coronavirus have been reported thus far as a consequence of the restaurant defying pandemic-related lockdown orders.

"[Defying] public health order in the middle of the pandemic, these things harm others," Macfarlane said. "Anyone who calls themselves 'libertarian' should recognize that this falls squarely in the appropriate limits of freedom."

Macfarlane did not explain why libertarians would see such restrictions on freedom as appropriate. The Ontario Libertarian Party, however, was present at the protest outside of the restaurant pledging support for Skelly. "Civil disobedience is the step needed to be taken when protests and petitions continually fall upon deaf ears," the party wrote on their official Facebook page on Wednesday.

This is not the first time where a tweet by Macfarlane has sparked controversy. Following the death of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September, Macfarlane tweeted to his followers to "[burn] Congress down before letting Trump try to appoint anyone to the SCOTUS."

Macfarlane eventually deleted the tweet and issued a statement claiming his comments were not meant to be taken literally. "I don't think any reasonable person would see a 'burn it all down' tweet as a call for violence. To be clear: it wasn't," Macfarlane tweeted.

When US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement confirming that Trump's nominee will receive a hearing, Macfarlane tweeted "[it] is an irrefutable empirical fact that McConnell is a piece of [sh*t]."

The Post Millennial reached out to Macfarlane for comment but did not receive a reply before time of publication.