Governments lose sight of principles

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/08/2012 (5062 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Re: “Bye-Bye Blue, I’ll Miss You, (Brandon Sun, Aug. 4.)

I enjoyed reading your article, James O’Connor, even though I didn’t know the word meaning of “Dipper.” (A bobbing bird?) But really, if you put all the orange/blue/red government members in a sack and shook them about, they, in my view would still emerge the same, and do what governments do … and that is the problem.

We speak of right, left and centre, something that I can relate to as good, bad and ugly.

It is by my experience and conclusion that when a citizen of Canada attempts to confront and address an irresponsible action/or a government’s disregard, for lack of concern on regulated enforcement; (with the appropriate authoritative body) those efforts will most often result in exasperated failure.

It could be compared to fighting a fire with a hammer.

Part of the problem is that our bureaucratic experts, their masters and our structure of society does not include a cost factor or account for the social and environmental consequences that would be experienced. They take our resources for granted and ignore the “precautionary principle.” As for their concerns, they have none. Their philosophy being, use and abuse. It’s there for us to take.

In support of their endeavours, industries and governments alike will often use words like “sustainable development.” What is sustainable development, I ask?

Brandon University Prof. Joe Dolecki, speaking from the perspective of economics, tells it this way: “Sustainable development means that we can continue, as in the past, to rape, pillage and plunder the environment; we just call it something nice so that we can feel good about what we’re doing.”

Today, caring people are continually in conflict to save their communities, their health, their way of life and to preserve precious water sources, along with the environment.

Why, one might ask. Why have governments deserted their obligations to uphold and protect what we must have to sustain ourselves and the unborn generations?

Justice Horace Kever, the presiding judge during the inquiry into the tainted blood scandal expresses the following as a solemn warning:

“The relationship between a regulator and the regulated must never become one in which the ‘regulator’ loses sight of the principle that it ‘regulates only’ in the public interest and ‘not’ in the interest of the regulated.”

That memory is still with us, and for some, the rest of their lives.

Does all this sound familiar? It should. Today’s governments have lost sight of principles and with no integrity whatsoever for the public good. They blindly march in “lockstep” to the demands of industry, under the guise of development, ignoring and not showing any gratitude or respect for what matters most — our environment, our water sources, and taking care of what we should be thankful to have, for our sake and the sake of future generations.

The result — economic disaster.

And when we complain of these actions, their cavalier responses and attitude are a spectacle that flouts the very core of our cherished democracy.

The book of Numbers, in the Old Testament, Chapter 35:34, shares the following.

“You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell.”

John Fefchak

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