The attack on liberty starts by an attack on economic liberty
Jiří Navrátil was born on April 1, 1956, into a Prague family of the so-called former capitalists. On his father’s side the family owned a shoe factory in Nové Město nad Metují before 1948, the factory was later nationalised. Both his mother and father were consequently employed on labourer positions in the Praga car factory in Vysočany. Serving as an altar boy in the church in nearby Hloubětín, Jiří became a member of the 43rd unit after the Boy Scout movement was renewed in 1968. After the forced merger with the Socialist Union of Youth his unit decided not to obey and went into underground. Both brothers of Jiří emigrated – Miloš left in a cargo space of plane to Canada and Tomáš, expelled from the study of medicine, to England. Jiří studied the University of Agriculture and on graduation joined the seed department of the Agricultural Inspection, where he worked until 1988 when he was allowed to join his brother in Canada. He visited Czechoslovakia immediately after the Velvet Revolution and in 1995 returned permanently.