Sunday May 4, 2008
Say it often enough and loud enough…
It\’s not often you catch a politician in a clear falsehood. Generally, political apprenticeships involve learning the skill of not saying anything that can be contradicted later.
Hilary Clinton\’s faux pas over ducking sniper bullets at an airport in Bosnia is a rare exception to that rule.
Another is Al Horning\’s claim, on a Kelowna radio station, that “nobody” had voiced opposition to a proposed sale of crown land in the watershed for Lake Country\’s water supply.
Horning is provincial MLA for the Kelowna-Lake Country riding. His government currently leases lots on upland lakes to some 160 lease holders. The government now proposes to sell a number of those lots outright to the current residents.
At the same time, other government agencies demand improvements in water quality.
Lake Country residents joke about the color of their tapwater during spring runoff periods. They call it “Oceola Tea.” But in the wake of the Walkerton disaster in Ontario that resulted in seven deaths, the Interior Health Authority imposes more stringent standards. Five units of turbidity used to be acceptable; now only one unit is.
As a result, much of Lake Country is on “water advisory” for several months each year.
So while one arm of government pushes municipalities to exercise more control over their water supplies, another wants to sell off those watersheds to private owners.
Clear opposition
Lake Country Mayor James Baker and Kelowna councillor Brian Given organized a rally against the sale. A hastily circulated petition gathered 334 signatures.
Official opposition has come from “all three regional districts, all affected municipalities and improvement districts… the Okanagan Basin Water Board… and the Interior Health Authority,” wrote Toby Pike, General Manager of the South East Kelowna Irrigation District, in a letter to George Abbott, provincial Minister of Sustainable Development.
Yet early in this process, Horning declared that nobody was objecting.
Local columnist George Kozub promptly ranted that he had been turned into “a nobody.”
Former Lake Country councillor Carmen Stanek produced copies of a letter she wrote to all local politicians, including Horning. She also states that she spent three-quarters of an hour with Horning, face to face.
I won\’t accuse anyone of deliberately lying. In today\’s litigious climate, that\’s tantamount to signing away my retirement savings.
But the evidence implies that Horning is either kidding himself or conveniently forgetful.
“The big lie”
What bothers me even more than Horning\’s fudging of fact is that I have heard no storm of protest – aside from the individuals Horning called “nobody.”
The public – and the media – seem to have accepted Horning\’s assertion at face value.
Orson Scott Card, the dean of living science fiction writers, once explained that the secret of writing science fiction is to tell one really big lie and then make everything else consistent with it.
I suspect that George W. Bush is a disciple of Orson Scott Card. Please note, I\’m not suggesting that Bush reads Card\’s novels, or even that he reads anything beyond comic books.
But he certainly follows Card\’s advice. Bush\’s “really big lie” was that Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were in cahoots, producing weapons of mass destruction.
Unfortunately, the media tend to accept a lie – big or little – if it comes from someone they consider authoritative. I admit to having fallen into this trap myself occasionally.
Suppose someone comes to me with a story. To check it, I call some senior executive – public or private – who assures me everything\’s fine. And this person rattles off facts and figures faster than popcorn pops.
Whom should I believe – a person with credentials, or a person with none?
It was with exactly that situation in mind that writer Silver Donald Cameron once penned Ten Commandments for dealing with governments. I can\’t remember the other nine, but the first went like this: “Whatever a government is denying, it is planning to do.”
Cameron added a corollary: “The more vigorous its denial, the sooner it plans to do it.”
The property idol
Horning\’s government maintains that selling crown land to cottage owners will not affect water quality. Presumably, if you say it loudly enough, and often enough, people will believe it.
I don\’t. I see a big difference between owning and leasing. In our society, property ownership has become a kind idol, a sacred cow. Possession is more than nine-tenths of the law – it becomes virtually carte blanche to do what one wants.
As long as those lake lots are leased, the owner – the province of B.C. – can regulate what residents may do with the land. Whether it will or not is another question.
As soon as they hold title to that land, though, the owners will want to enlarge their cottages. Add a guest house. Build a garage for their cars, snowmobiles, and boats. Clear trees to improve the view. Bulldoze a new driveway. Put in lawns and docks…
How can I be sure of that? Because I\’ve seen it happen, too many times. Humans have an insatiable urge to “improve” their property.
But I have yet to see anyone deliberately reduce the footprint of their house or garage.
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For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to [email protected].
It\’s also worth pursuing Charlene Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
Vancouver and Victoria have strictly regulated watersheds. No one gets in without permission.
Mayor James Baker wouldn\’t go that far. “Our watersheds will be multi-use recreation areas for years to come,” he noted in a letter to local newspapers.
But, he says, “When we see municipalities in other jurisdictions having to buy back private lands in their watersheds, we realize [that] some time in the future we might have to do the same.”
Both practically and ideologically, Baker and Given argue, “it is an extremely retrogressive step on the part of the province to convert public land to private land on the upland reservoirs.”
Recent provincial legislation protects me from breathing second-hand smoke in bars and restaurants. I object when the same government expects me to tolerate second-hand piss in my drinking water.
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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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