We’re seeing the effects of our post-literate, feelings-based education system and media on the federal election. Candidate bozo eruptions are becoming more frequent.
Most recently a Liberal candidate on Vancouver Island admitted she has long believed that hijacked jetliners could not have destroyed the World Trade Centre on 9-11, that it was all “a lie.” That was “my truth,” she said, in the lingo of the feelings-first, inner-child crowd.
Now she’s “moved on” to a slightly different fact-free conclusion, that we’ll just never know how those 3,000 people were murdered. And she wants to go to Ottawa and help run this country.
Feelings-based beliefs were on display again at last week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver, where bozo eruptions by local politicians come in bunches.
This year’s main outbreak was an emotional demand that the B.C. government enact a provincial bill of rights. This magic municipal Magna Carta “recognizes the right of every resident to live in a healthy environment, including the right to clean air, clean water and vibrant ecosystems.”
Alert taxpayers may wonder, how many lawyers would it take to define “vibrant”? More on that in a moment.
Local councils across B.C. and around the country have been pitched this scheme by the David Suzuki Foundation, calling it the Blue Dot campaign. In short, it’s part of the bigger plan to save the planet by crushing capitalism, currently being pushed by the Pope, the UN and others.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps was one of the most passionate backers. She quoted the plea presented to her council by an 11-year-old recruited by the Blue Dot team.
There are many such children, terrified by indoctrination about the imminent destruction of Earth and all its cuddly creatures that has bombarded them since they learned to speak. They are found in the wealthiest countries in human history, those enjoying health, comfort and opportunity not imagined by anyone 100 years ago.
In the vast, air-conditioned hall of the Vancouver Convention Centre, there were several attempts at adult supervision.
Coquitlam Coun. Terry O’Neill noted that unlike intrinsic rights articulated in Canada’s charter, freedom of assembly and so forth, this is an attempt to invent new rights that are actually demands for “others to do something for you.”
Indeed, if we’re going to have government by 11-year-olds, we might as well throw in a right to free ice cream.
Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz went off on a rant about how this new “vision” would protect us from things like Volkswagen fiddling its diesel fuel emission results.
The resolution calls for “access to justice when environmental rights are infringed,” which sounds like code for some sort of costly new legal aid program to pursue every individual grievance.
Meanwhile in the real world, class action lawsuits are being prepared to gain compensation for lost resale value of millions of cars. This is what happens in fortunate places like Canada that already have access to justice.
O’Neill read off a long list of existing B.C. legislation that protects water, air, wildlife, food, public health and so on. Helps replied that this bill of rights would “consolidate” all that. One more layer of bureaucracy, that’s the Victoria spirit.
Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb pleaded with rural delegates to reject this “David Suzuki propaganda” that is designed to put more roadblocks in the way of the very resource industries that provide our modern comforts.
Alas, the resolution passed in a show of hands that should have been, but wasn’t, put to a counted vote.
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
