Robert Menard – An Ungruntled Freeman Writes a Love letter

[Burnaby49]

Don’t blame me for the linguistic abomination that is “ungruntled”. That’s Menard’s doing in yet another of his pathetic crusades to pretend he’s still relevant rather than a forgotten remnant of a failed political philosophy that he stole from American sovereigns.

His whining this time is about VIA rail, a Canadian Crown Corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service. They are apparently now requiring government-issued identification before boarding any of their trains. The horror! The horror! Identification requirements imposed on a Freeman!

Well Menard is going to bat for the infinitesimally tiny portion of Canada’s population that cares in the slightest about this. What, you may ask, is his brilliant battle plan, what knockout blow is he going to inflict on the forces of oppression? He’s going to send a sarcastic letter! This from his Face Book Page;

Robert Menard

I've decided to craft a letter to the CEO and President resident of VIA Rail.

I am trying to be as diplomatic and professional as I can be. For those who know me you will realize how challenging that can be. Anyways here's it be. Let me know what you think in the comments.

---
Subject: VIA Rail’s Orwellian Trainwreck – A Love Letter from an Ungruntled Freeman

Dear Mario Péloquin, Supreme Gatekeeper of Train Tickets and Grand Poobah of Useless Policies,

I hope this letter finds you lounging in your cozy office, contemplating just how brilliant you must feel for enacting such a genius policy that demands Canadians provide government-issued identification to travel by train. There is nothing quite as charming as a public servant trying to regulate the right to travel like a dictator in a bureaucratic wasteland, right? You must really be proud of yourself.

Let’s start by acknowledging that you’ve succeeded in turning a simple train ride into a high-stakes game of bureaucratic roulette. No longer can Canadians jump on a train and travel freely—no, no, no, you’ve managed to make it as difficult as convincing a toddler to share their candy. Now, we must present a government-issued identification before boarding, as though VIA Rail were somehow the TSA and we were boarding a high-security flight. But I suppose that makes sense, since trains have such a history of security breaches—who could forget that time a random passenger, lacking a driver’s license, hijacked an entire train with nothing but their freedom of movement?

But wait—what’s this? A publicly funded Crown corporation, bound by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, thinks it can impose arbitrary policies restricting the fundamental right to travel? That’s right, you’ve done the impossible: you’ve found a way to enforce a requirement for identification on something that doesn’t even need one. You, sir, are the shining beacon of why we don’t trust bureaucrats with unchecked power. Your policy is, frankly, more absurd than a mime in a music video.

Let me point out, oh great overlord of the rails, that your policy violates the Canadian Charter. I’m sure you’re familiar with Section 6(1), which guarantees the right to travel freely. But I’m guessing you don’t spend much time reading the Charter; after all, it’s clearly a lot easier to just pluck random policies out of the air that make your life easier, while disregarding the rights of the citizens you're supposed to serve.

And let’s talk about the reason you think this is necessary. Security? Really? Security? Do you honestly believe that a train, which has no security screening, no x-ray machines, and no gatekeepers other than a single ticket agent, suddenly needs to collect personal data to ensure safety? Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. That makes total sense. Because when I think of dangerous criminals plotting to wreck the nation, I think “You know what, they’ll surely be foiled by a quick glance at someone’s driver's license.”

Furthermore, I find myself asking—what exactly are you doing with this precious data? Do you have a special file on people who prefer the window seat? Are you building an army of the country’s most fervent train enthusiasts? Or, perhaps, are you running these names through databases like CPIC, in which case I must inform you that you’re not only violating privacy laws but laying the foundation for a creepy, dystopian surveillance state where no one can board a train without becoming part of your big brother fantasy. Are you perhaps worried that my grandma is going to stage a hostile takeover of the snack cart?

Now, let’s talk about something even more fun—your discriminatory policy. You’re creating two classes of citizens: those with government-issued ID and those without. And who exactly are the people left behind? Indigenous peoples, homeless individuals, those who reject government-issued IDs on principle, and—let's not forget—those who just want to exercise their right to remain free from the government’s jurisdiction. Congratulations, Mario, you’re turning VIA Rail into an exclusive club for the elite few who have access to “acceptable” documents. It’s like a secret society, except it’s useless and discriminatory. The kind of social club where the only thing you get is to prove you’re a willing cog in a broken machine.

This, of course, violates the Charter’s guarantee of equality under Section 15(1). You’re making the absurd claim that you can condition someone’s right to travel on whether they’ve “signed up” to the ID scheme. Do you get to decide who is worthy of basic human rights now? What’s next? Will we have to hand over a blood sample just to board the bus?

Let’s also be clear here: there is no law requiring identification for train travel. Unlike air travel, which has actual, enforceable regulations, your policy is merely an arbitrary decision you’ve plucked out of the ether. Are you really telling me that VIA Rail can create laws now? You’ve got to be kidding me. You can’t just make up rules like a toddler wielding a crayon, especially when the law doesn’t back you up.

And finally, let’s talk about the common law right to travel, shall we? That little thing that predates your misguided existence and predates the very idea of the Charter. It is a fundamental liberty that cannot be conditioned on compliance with some random policy you thought up while playing chess with your reflection in the mirror. Your requirement for identification is not only unconstitutional but also fundamentally unjust. It’s not your job to act as a human checkpoint for the rights of free citizens, Mario.

• So let me summarize, you brilliant tactician of tyranny:

VIA Rail is a publicly funded corporation – meaning you’re bound by the Charter and cannot impose arbitrary restrictions on fundamental rights.

Your identification requirement has absolutely no legitimate purpose other than to make everyone feel like they’ve stepped into a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare.

You’re collecting personal information, likely without any reasonable justification, and turning Canadians into mere data points for your surveillance fantasies.

You’re discriminating against vulnerable populations, from Indigenous people to the homeless, for simply wanting to travel freely.

You’ve crafted a discriminatory two-tier system where those who don’t have government-issued identification are left in the cold, not because of law but because you felt like it.

Your policy is not backed by any legal mandate, and it’s just an absurd, bureaucratic solution looking for a problem.

Now, I suggest you re-evaluate your deeply misguided efforts before you become the punchline of a VIA Rail parody sketch, where the plot involves train conductors morphing into the Ministry of Silly Walks. Because that’s where your leadership seems to be heading.

Yours, in utter disbelief and sarcasm,

A Freeman who still believes in the right to travel freely, despite VIA Rail’s best efforts to destroy it.

So let’s break that down a little;

VIA Rail is a publicly funded corporation – meaning you’re bound by the Charter and cannot impose arbitrary restrictions on fundamental rights.

The fact that Menard thinks this is an arbitrary restriction doesn’t mean anyone else does.

Your identification requirement has absolutely no legitimate purpose other than to make everyone feel like they’ve stepped into a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare.

What does Menard know about VIA Rail’s purpose in proposing this? You have to provide government ID to fly or even take a Greyhound bus. Why are trains any different?

You’re collecting personal information, likely without any reasonable justification, and turning Canadians into mere data points for your surveillance fantasies.

Unlike Amazon, Netflix, Google, Facebook, (which Menard seems happy to use regardless of their Orwellian data mining) or any other website you frequent along with all airlines, and most large businesses? If VIA Rail is doing this without ‘reasonable justification’ Menard has failed to explain how he arrived at that conclusion.

You’re discriminating against vulnerable populations, from Indigenous people to the homeless, for simply wanting to travel freely.

I think this is where it cuts close to home since Menard can’t fly (refuses to provide required ID) and probably can’t get anyone to provide free car rides for him after the Toronto incident that had Menard turn a normal traffic stop into criminal charges.

You’ve crafted a discriminatory two-tier system where those who don’t have government-issued identification are left in the cold, not because of law but because you felt like it.

If Menard doesn’t have government-issued ID (which I doubt) it’s because he’s chosen not to. Live with your decisions Rob.

Your policy is not backed by any legal mandate, and it’s just an absurd, bureaucratic solution looking for a problem.

Again, just Menard doing what he does best, giving vague meaningless statements without anything to back them up. Banks don't have a "legal mandate" to require government ID if you want to cash a cheque but nobody argues their right to do so.

And finally, let’s talk about the common law right to travel, shall we? That little thing that predates your misguided existence and predates the very idea of the Charter. It is a fundamental liberty that cannot be conditioned on compliance with some random policy you thought up while playing chess with your reflection in the mirror. Your requirement for identification is not only unconstitutional but also fundamentally unjust. It’s not your job to act as a human checkpoint for the rights of free citizens, Mario.

Sure Rob, let’s talk about the common law right to travel. Canadians have the right to travel and always have had it but Menard is deliberately perverting its meaning. The right to travel means the right to go from one place to another unhindered by any laws. Menard wants us to believe that what it really means is the right to have a third party provide transportation for him under his terms rather than theirs.

If he’s unhappy about restrictions impose by VIA Rail he is in no way forced to travel with them and VIA Rail is not required to waive their rules because of Menard's claim that his sovereign right to travel on their trains means that he doesn't have to meet their stipulated ID requirements.

Our common law right to travel is contained in Section 6 of the Charter where it says;

6. (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.

(2) Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right:

1. to move to and take up residence in any province; and
2. to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.

(3) The rights specified in section (2) are subject to:
1. any laws or practices of general application in force in a province other than those that discriminate among persons primarily on the basis of province of present or previous residence; and
2. any laws providing for reasonable residency requirements as a qualification for the receipt of publicly provided social services.

(4) Sections (2) and (3) do not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration in a province of conditions of individuals in that province who are socially or economically disadvantaged if the rate of employment in that province is below the rate of employment in Canada.

See anything in there relating to VIA Rail being required to provide Rob with a train ride even if he refused to provide government-issued ID? It doesn’t matter if common law “predates the very idea of the Charter”. The charter is statutory law which, notwithstanding idiotic sovereign claims to the contrary, overrides common law. So if you want to argue the right to travel in Canada you must do it on the basis of Section 6 rather than some sovereign wet dream of an all-powerful common law.

Not that it matters. All this tempest in a teapot does is serve as a theme for Menard to do what he does best, bloviating endlessly about his sovereign rights without having to get out of his chair and do anything about it. In fact I may have been in error at the start of this posting where I said he was going to send a letter. He never said he’d make the effort to actually send it. His specific words were

“I've decided to craft a letter to the CEO and President resident of VIA Rail.”

And he’s done that by making this Face Book posting. So, on his terms, a job well done.

[Albert Haddock]

“I've decided to craft a letter..."

I'm imagining some sort of artisanal woodwork project.

[Burnaby49]

Or making hydroponic gardens from abandoned furniture, or becoming the head of a computer video games empire, or starting a cheese and meat smoking business, or inventing an affordable ventilator during the covid crisis, or finally writing a long-promised new book, or arranging an international Freeman/comedy conference, or any of the dozens of other projects that Menard has promised over the years. The fatal flaw was that carrying them through to success or failure would have required Menard to do more than sit in his chair and fantasize about them.

It's my opinion that the vast majority, if not all, of these schemes were nothing but vaporware to con suckers to give Menard money as an 'investment' in financing them. That was certainly the case with his ventilator scam. In that one he claimed that a video of a school project level ventilator design that he found on You Tube was actually his design. Menard then touted this as his brilliant solution to the critical shortage of ventilators during covid and tried to exploit it in a GoFundMe campaign.

[Rupert68]

Reading that crap has made me very gruntled.

This will be as devastating as his takedown of WestJet.

Hi Rob! Still a perfect record of losing I see.

[Albert Haddock]

Or making hydroponic gardens from abandoned furniture, or becoming the head of a computer video games empire, or starting a cheese and meat smoking business, or inventing an affordable ventilator during the covid crisis, or finally writing a long-promised new book, or arranging an international Freeman/comedy conference, or any of the dozens of other projects that Menard has promised over the years. The fatal flaw was that carrying them through to success or failure would have required Menard to do more than sit in his chair and fantasize about them.

I think the appropriate expression is "all mouth and no trousers".

[DNetolitzky]

*sigh*

Rob's failure to produce the promised rebuttal to my writing, in the form of a limited edition book with custom hand-carved and painted wooden covers, that really hurts.

I know I make mistakes. Here I've lost the opportunity to truly understand Freemanism.

I guess I'll instead have to continue to reference Rob's masterwork, "Registration, Application and Submission Means: Drop'em, Bend Over & Don't Expect Lube How The Government REALLY Gains Power".

Yeah, I located a copy. Tee hee hee.

[JamesVincent]

So, is the opposite of ungruntled being gruntled?

[The Observer]

So, is the opposite of ungruntled being gruntled?

Apparently so:

gruntled
adjective
grun·​tled ˈgrən-tᵊld
informal + often humorous
: in good humor : happy, contented

The question I have is can a person be regruntled? Or pregruntled? Maybe degruntled? And what about semigruntled? Can we accept autogruntled? Is there a doubt about being antigruntled? Have we considered the implications of being supergruntled or subgruntled? And finally, is there a possibility that one can be telegruntled?

[Albert Haddock]

"I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled" - P. G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters.

[Burnaby49]

Rob is no longer gruntled, ungruntled, disgruntled, regruntled, co-gruntled, or whatever other variants you can somehow torture into a combination of letters on a page. He’s just sad, overwhelmingly sad because nobody, nobody at all excepting himself, cares in the slightest how Canadian’s fundamental freedoms are being ripped from us while we apathetically watch and do nothing.

Robert Menard
March 19 at 7:30 AM

So I posted my VIA rail issue on some public pages and it is just astounding to me how many people simply do not care about the erosion of our rights and freedoms and not only don't they not care they are apparently in full support of it!

There were people who were arguing that VIA RAIL can do whatever they want on their own property even when they realized or were informed that it is a crown corporation. They didn't have much to say when I then asked whether or not they thought they should be allowed to disregard the criminal code because it's their house.

If the government came out and said that you need a government issued identification to leave the house and walk down the street I swear to God there are people out there who would actually believe it is a good idea!

For those of us who stand up for our rights and freedoms this is a very sad State of affairs.

What precipitated this bleak despair? It was the complete lack of interest from anyone regarding this overwrought verbiage dump he’d made on Face Book. A cry to arms that went totally unanswered.

Robert Menard
March 18 at 3:22 PM

Well, I'm back. Robby's got a bee in his jock strap and is itching for battle.

The following is a work in progress. Imma gonna pump it up and throw in some funny bones into the soup of justice.

I don't know if you can see the same very dangerous slippery slope I do, but I know how these asshats operate and if we let this slide, you should buckle up for the rapid erosion of all your rights in the name of safety and bureaucratic overreach.

I have been researching this for days, and have been on the phone all day with VIA RAIL and Transport Canada. Was a disgusting runaround. No one can point me to the supporting regulations or statutes. Because they simply do not exist.

ENJOY

VIA Rail and the Erosion of Our Freedoms: A Line We Must Not Cross

There was a time, not so long ago, when Canadians could travel freely, unburdened by the creeping hand of bureaucratic overreach. A time when stepping onto a train was a simple act, not an exercise in compliance with an authoritarian encroachment masquerading as a security measure. VIA Rail’s policy demanding identification from passengers is a violation of our Charter rights, an affront to our history, and a dangerous precedent that cannot be allowed to stand.

A Manufactured “Requirement” With No Legal Foundation

The agents of VIA Rail claim this demand is mandated by Transport Canada. Yet, curiously, there is no Act, no regulation, no statute that explicitly requires it. If there were, we would have been presented with the citation already. But there is none. This is not law—it is policy, a fabricated requirement without a compelling reason. This is not about security. This is about control.

Unlike air travel, where identification is required due to a well-established (albeit flawed) system involving no-fly lists and security screenings, VIA Rail lacks any such infrastructure. No baggage scanners. No metal detectors. No security teams trained to assess threats. Just ticket agents, who have neither the authority nor the means to do anything meaningful with this demand beyond denying service to those who refuse to comply.

Ask yourself: What happens to your name once it’s checked? Is it compared to a government blacklist? No. Does it prevent crime? No. The only way it could even theoretically be used for security is if it were run through the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), which would be an outright violation of privacy rights.

So what, then, is the purpose?

It serves no legitimate function beyond conditioning the public to accept being tracked, monitored, and policed in their most basic movements. It is a violation of Section 6 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees our mobility. It is a violation of Section 7, which guarantees liberty and security of the person. And it is creeping toward a violation of Section 8, which protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures.

If VIA Rail is allowed to demand this, what’s next? Will Greyhound follow suit? Will city transit demand identification before you board a bus? Will parks, sidewalks, and grocery stores implement checkpoints? This is how freedom dies—not with a bang, but with a bureaucratic shrug.

A Historical Betrayal

Our ancestors would be horrified at this encroachment. Freedom of movement has been a cornerstone of human liberty since time immemorial. In Canada, our vast landscape demanded that people be free to travel without interference. The early railway barons, for all their greed, never dared demand that settlers present identification before boarding a train. They understood that restricting movement was a power only wielded by tyrants.

Imagine telling the pioneers of the Underground Railroad, who sought refuge in Canada, that in the future, the government would require papers to board a train. Imagine telling the veterans of the World Wars, who fought against fascist regimes, that their grandchildren would need state-issued ID just to travel within their own country.

This is not progress. This is regression into a system of control that should be met with absolute and unwavering defiance.

This Ends With a Courtroom Reckoning

VIA Rail executives, policymakers, and Transport Canada bureaucrats should be on notice: this will not stand. This policy will be challenged in court, and it will be struck down. There is no legal justification for it. There is no rational basis for it. And there is no world in which this is anything but a gross violation of the rights and freedoms we are owed as citizens.

To the public: You do not have to comply.

You are not legally obligated to present ID unless they can cite the specific regulation requiring it—and they cannot. Do not meekly hand over your personal information simply because a uniformed agent claims you must. Ask them for the law. Ask them for the statute. Watch them flounder.

To the agents of VIA Rail: You are wrong.

You are complicit in enforcing an unjust and unlawful policy. You are turning away law-abiding citizens from a service they have every right to access. You are aiding and abetting the erosion of Canadian freedom. History will not be kind to those who enforce tyranny, no matter how small their role.

To those who implemented this policy: Prepare to lose.

This will be fought. This will be challenged. And the longer you push forward with it, the greater the legal and public backlash will become. You have overstepped your authority. You have no justification. And when this policy is struck down, your names will be remembered as those who tried—and failed—to turn Canada into a surveillance state.

The Time to Stop This Is Now

This is a slippery slope, and we are already sliding. If we do not stop it here, there is no limit to how far it will go. Today, it is VIA Rail. Tomorrow, it will be the local bus. Next year, it will be mandatory checkpoints on street corners.

History has taught us that when governments begin restricting movement, it is never in the interest of the people. It is always in the interest of power.

Canadians must stand firm. Refuse. Question. Challenge.

Or prepare for a future where you cannot walk outside your door without presenting your papers to the state.

The choice is ours. And the time is now.
IF YOU LIKED THIS PLEASE SHARE.
WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND MPS

Well I, for one, didn’t need to be told what’s under your jockstrap. Thanks for that image Rob.

This warning cry about the coming terror seems a bit of an overreach;

If VIA Rail is allowed to demand this, what’s next? Will Greyhound follow suit? Will city transit demand identification before you board a bus? Will parks, sidewalks, and grocery stores implement checkpoints? This is how freedom dies—not with a bang, but with a bureaucratic shrug. . . . . This is a slippery slope, and we are already sliding. If we do not stop it here, there is no limit to how far it will go. Today, it is VIA Rail. Tomorrow, it will be the local bus. Next year, it will be mandatory checkpoints on street corners.

Sure Rob. First a train company wants to know who’s riding their rails then it’s the jackboots through your door at 4AM. It all follows inexorably.

You’ll note that while he wrote;

This Ends With a Courtroom Reckoning

VIA Rail executives, policymakers, and Transport Canada bureaucrats should be on notice: this will not stand. This policy will be challenged in court, and it will be struck down. There is no legal justification for it.

He didn’t say that he’d be the one to force the reckoning. He’s big on words, but actions? Not so much.

If anything is sad about this whole pathetic story it is the precipitous decline in Rob’s place in the sovereign world. A quarter of a century ago the sovereign movement swept like an irresistible wave through the mass of Canada’s malcontents, money-for nothing parasites, anti-social loners and anyone with grandiose visions of their own importance. Rob rode the crest of that wave as Canada’s greatest Freeman visionary. But the movement collapsed completely when it became clear to even the densest of its freeloading followers that it was all a scam. However Rob still soldiered on. Once he dreamt of massive Canada-wide sovereign endeavors that would change our entire social and economic structures. Sovereign police forces! Freeman Valley! Endless free money from Rob’s Consumer Credit Notes! 96 Is Your Fix! And many, many other ideas from Rob’s fertile mind. It all turned out catastrophically for Rob’s followers but he tried! Now he quibbles endlessly about VIA Rail not giving him a train ride and is distraught that nobody else thinks that this is of any importance whatever.

[AnOwlCalledSage]

Of course the irony (as a former member of the UK's No2ID group) is that I'd probably be on board (see what I did there) if I was a Canadian citizen. However, he's so unhinged that even those sympathetic to the broad matter in hand would be wary of joining his "campaign".

I'd probably simply not use the trains.