Ayn Rand and Bill 50

[grassfarmer]

I've got to thank parsley for the quote I re-posted below from Ayn Rand - it fits so perfectly the situation in Alberta surrounding Bill 50. Rarely if ever in a free country has such dangerous legislation been drafted and passed with hardly an eyelid batted by the masses, the media and politicians at every level. Only in a dictatorship would you expect the Government to permit it's ministers to override, abolish and circumvent all existing legislation and laws and then remove the citizens right to go to court to challenge these rulings.
As November 11th approaches it's time to reflect on the price paid for our freedom and whether we should now casually give up those very freedoms.

"The greatest guilt of today is that of people who accept collectivism by moral default; the people who seek protection from the necessity of taking a stand, by refusing to admit to themselves the nature of that which they are accepting; the people who support plans specifically designed to achieve serfdom, but hide behind the empty assertion that they are lovers of freedom, with no concrete meaning attached to the word; the people who believe that the content of ideas need not be examined, that principles need not be defined, and that facts can be eliminated by keeping one's eyes shut. They expect, when they find themselves in a world of bloody ruins and concentration camps, to escape moral responsibility by wailing: "But I didn't mean this!"

— Ayn Rand

[parsley]

Give us your take on Bill 50, will you? Pars

[grassfarmer]

Sorry Parsley there have been so many stupid Bills in AB recently I used #50 where I meant to use #36 which strengthens the changes made by #19 and #50.

Bill 36 - the Alberta Land Stewardship Act was passed in the last sitting of the legislature. As usual the bill was passed by ministers who had not read it and do not understand what it contains.

* It authorizes the government to do with private land and Crown land as they see fit in order to implement the Cabinet’s 5-year “regional plans”

* It allows them to “‘extinguish’ existing rights held under licenses, permits, leases, approvals, or any form of governmental approval issued by the Alberta Government, a municipality or government agency (s. 11).” This includes land titles! The legal wording is clear and in black & white.

* “It restricts rights to compensation…(s. 19)”

* It trumps every and all avenues to fight back or protect your rights including the courts (you can’t appeal). It even overrides municipal laws, and other provincial laws that protect Albertans from this kind of “hostile takeover” such as the Expropriation Act.

* It enables a [Cabinet] Minister to file a judgment against a landowner without a trial or a court hearing that is binding as if issued through the power of a court.

* Bill 36 replaces our system of having locally elected officials make land use planning decisions. It replaces it with a centralized decision-making process where the Cabinet in Edmonton makes all the decisions for every inch of the province and whatever the Cabinet says goes.

* No other Western democratic country has tried to impose such a massive centralized and authoritarian planning scheme as that described in Bill 36. No other democratic country has so blatantly stripped landowners of property rights, due process, and court protections.

[cropduster]

Jack Hayden should be horse whipped!!!!!!!!!

[parsley]

Danielle Smith.

First touched base with her years ago. She's solid on property rights.

She wouldn't have a problem making property rights of farms her central election issue, if I know anything about Danielle.

I need to read the bill.I googled this:
http://heartofalberta.com/content/view/204/2/

Property rights is crucial to farming. Pars

[silverback]

You amaze me today Grassy. An NFU member who advocates for the right of other farmers and the cwb to enforce, by jailtime, the single desk, is now lamenting the overreaching of a provincial government over individual property rights????

I guess there is hope after all?

[grassfarmer]

It'll be a tough read Parsley, I'm told it is one of the most complex Bills ever written and even the lawyers have a hard time figuring it out. Danielle is already involved in the campaign to reverse Bill 36 as are her unlikely allies the NDP.

[parsley]

That's why I didn't say I'll get back to you by noon, grassy. LOL

(Rather like I told checking I'd find the mineral rights tax notice SOMETIME. I have mountains of material.)

You know what I preach, silver....that the tide turns AGAINST the CWB...one farmer by one farmer.

We are after, all on the same side...we love the land, above anything else. It's an intergenrational love. And farmers and property rights are twined.
And that twining trumps political memberships.

You shopuld give your head a shake, silver. Alberta obviously elected a sitting member who is a gd communist. Pars

[silverback]

Oh I knew it in the last election and did not vote for these closet liberals/socialists/communists. How many years of lip service have they given us about "Choice Matters"? How many dollars spent telling us how they were going to stand up to the cwb? Seems as though they were instead reading the manifesto for ideas to use against Albertans.

[Burbert]

Albertie is a very backward state. After all, it was Ralph who said global warming has been caused by dinosaurs, and that shoot, shovel and shutup are the best policies to follow in the long run.....

[parsley]

Just teasing you a bit, silver, I would bet my 1/2 my gold you would know what he stood for and you wouldn't approve, but I was mischevious this morning and decided to poke at the old bull a bit with a long stick. LOL