Political Theatre is NOT DEMOCRACY!

The voice of average Canadians goes unheard every day in an alleged “democracy” that claims your vote is your voice. BULL-SH!T!!! Every voter is a gnat to be swatted by the “public elites in power”.

A Movement has begun! GET ON BOARD!

Of all places, it began in the City of Kawartha Lakes (CKL) on the evening of February 13, 2024 at a Special Public Meeting hosted by City Council. This “town hall” gathering was billed as an opportunity for residents to offer their feedback on a draft STRATEGIC PLAN for 2024-2027. Citizen were allowed five minutes each to express their concerns about the document which was written by a CKL staffer (NOT an elected representative!) without consultation with residents for whom the City exists to serve.

About a dozen concerned residents took their turn at the podium. The criticisms were legitimate and expressed well, but they also carrying a tone of futility and frustration because most of us have presented deputations to Council in the past and heard the sound of crickets thereafter. It doesn’t take the genius of Jiminy Cricket to realize that deputations to Council are nothing more than Political Theatre held by the “public elites in power” so that they can claim that the voice of the people has been heard and considered. If that was true, the bureaucratic steamroller of public administration would have been “right-sized” long ago.

“Deaf, Dumb & Happy” ends NOW.

Bob Dylan’s great song, Desolation Row, has in it the following statement:

They’re spoonfeeding Casanova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they’ll kill him with self-confidence
After poisoning him with words.

I feel like I’ve been poisoned with a lifetime of propaganda and empty promises. The antidote is elusive - a phantom battle that pits “our” words against “theirs” in the midst of a maelstrom that is so loud and forceful that “ours” is but a whisper in the wind.

The following is a composition of words which has been written to “spoonfeed” the Mayor and eight ward Councilors of the CKL to make their job of understanding the interests and priorities easy, and to represent us faithfully as is their sworn duty.

****** COPY FREELY ******

I hope other Canadians with use this as a template to be adapted to the local interests and priorities of residents in every municipality across CANADA.

The goal is to make the voice of Canadians loud and clear at the local, provincial, national and international levels of government.

A MOTION TO COUNCIL

MOTION TO INCLUDE by the CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF KAWARTHA LAKES (“CITY”) within its STRATEGIC PLAN the “STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES: THE RIGHTS OF ALL PERSONS & THE DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT”.

(Draft: 05 March 2024)

Subject: STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES for the CITY’s STRATEGIC PLAN

Moved by:

Seconded by:

WHEREAS the CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF KAWARTHA LAKES operates a municipal government under the authority of the City of Kawartha Lakes Act, 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 43 and serves the CITY’s resident persons, property owners and businesses according to the rules defined in Ontario MUNICIPAL ACT, 2001, S.O. 2001, c. 25.

AND WHEREAS the Municipal Act assigns the duty to Council to represent the public;

AND WHEREAS the Municipal Act also assigns duties to Council: to ensure that administrative and controllership policies, practices and procedures are in place to direct the actions of the City; to ensure the accountability and transparency of the operations of the municipality and its senior management; and to maintain the financial integrity of the municipality;

AND WHEREAS the majority of CITY residents are Canadian citizens who count upon the protections from harm and aggression provided by the CONSTITUTION ACT 1982 DOCUMENT.

AND WHEREAS Mayor Elmslie and ward Councillors Ashmore, Joyce, McDonald, Perry, Richardson, Smeaton, Warren and Yeo were dutifully elected on October 24, 2022 by the CITY residents to represent their interests and priorities.

AND WHEREAS the commonly-held expectations of elected CITY representatives is to: provide Representation and Leadership over the duration of the elected term of office; encourage Community Engagement for residents to voice their concerns, advocate for change, and actively contribute to the betterment of their neighborhoods; determine Local Priorities on an ongoing basis and engage in Local Decision-Making representing the expressed interests of constituents; and to prioritize the establishment of practical and affordable Common Rules that are agreeable to the majority of constituents, and exclusive of influence by self-serving special interest groups, especially those with no local jurisdiction and that may be funded by unknown benefactors.

AND WHEREAS the CITY is currently preparing a STRATEGIC PLAN (“PLAN”) to guide its decisions and operations between the years 2024 to 2027 inclusive.

AND WHEREAS the PLAN should reflect the goals and priorities of CITY residents, businesses and property owners, over unelected institutions and special interests groups;

AND WHEREAS there are growing concerns that the PLAN fails to reflect the goals and priorities of CITY residents, businesses and property owners, that these are not well-understood and/or acknowledge by City Council and City Officials who are seen to place the policies of unelected global institutions and unidentified internal and external special interests groups above those of the CITY’s constituents.

AND WHEREAS public spending by CITY is not sufficiently transparent to residents to satisfactorily explain the steady rise in taxation, the growth in CITY debt and bureaucracy, and the rationale for payments to third parties under contractual arrangements with the CITY that are unavailable for public scrutiny.

AND WHEREAS public spending (taxation, debt and payments) by CITY must be transparent to residents;

AND WHEREAS the protection of property rights is omitted as priority in the (draft) STATEGIC PLAN; failure to explicitly define and acknowledge these rights is a serious oversight that has produced declining public confidence in the CITY’s property-related statutes; this especially concerns widespread constituent uncertainties regarding the expected quality, timeliness and fairness of CITY services as defined by the Rural Zoning Report which is currently under consideration as a CITY By-law.

AND WHEREAS the protection of property rights must be explicitly incorporated into the STATEGIC PLAN;

AND WHEREAS the Rural Zoning Report, currently under consideration to become a CITY By-law, not be passed into law until the concerns by property owners about their property rights have been resolved by CITY; confidence that CITY can and will enforce such a By-law in fair, quality and timely manner must first be established among property owners.  

AND WHEREAS (draft) STATEGIC PLAN fails to identify and address excessive taxation and government-imposed regulations as significant drivers of the rising costs of living experienced by every CITY resident as these questionable expenses relate to energy, food, housing, transportation and public services.

AND WHEREAS the STATEGIC PLAN must restrain taxation and regulation, and avoid obstructing affordability and access to energy, food, housing, transportation and public services;

AND WHEREAS the CITY and its PLAN lacks a clear and guiding Statement of Principles, issued by Canadian citizens, that re-affirms the Rights of Persons and the Duties of Government such that no confusion or misunderstandings may continue to prevail among all stakeholders.

AND WHEREAS the STATEGIC PLAN would be greatly strengthened, and misunderstandings would be reduced, with a cleary expressed guiding Statement of Principles on the Rights of Persons and the Duties of Government, that can be shared among other Canadian municipalities;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Corporation of the City Of Kawartha Lakes accepts the following Statement of Principles, written by Canadians for Canadians, to be held henceforth as the fundamental and foundational declaration of public expectation that will guide the actions of every person elected to municipal office by the citizens of the City of Kawartha and by all persons employed, engaged or contracted by the City, its agents and its representatives.

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

The Rights of All Persons & The Duties of Government

Every person has the right to their life and liberty and to the property that they justly acquire. As members of a country of free persons, we have entrusted governments with the duty of protecting those rights for every person in an accountable and transparent manner.

The sanctity of the rights and freedoms of every person must rise above all other laws, acts of government or decisions in our courts of law. No person, institution, group, company or government may arbitrarily suspend or circumvent them under any circumstance.

Should any person violate those rights they must be held to account. Should any agent of government fail to honour and defend those rights, they are in breach of their duty and any harm caused by such a failure must be remedied immediately.

The constitution upon which Canada was established is founded upon principles that ensure that the rights and freedoms of every person are protected. With that in mind, we re-assert those principles.

PRINCIPLES

RIGHTS OF PERSONS

1.      Every person has a body, mind and will of their own. This guarantees them:

(a)    the right to live free from intimidation, coercion, threat or attack from any person regardless of their position;

(b)   the right to hold their own personal beliefs and to express them in ways that do not harm the rights of others;

(c)    the freedom to choose and to pursue their own goals, while respecting their duty not to violate the rights of any other person;

(d)   the right to join with others to pursue their goals and to provide for themselves and their family;

(e)    the right to the property that they justly create, build or acquire and to what they earn while producing goods or services for others;

(f)    the right to defend themselves, their family and their property;

(g)   the right to equal treatment as separate persons under laws that protect the rights of all persons equally.

2.      Every person has the right to be protected from attacks on their person or their property by any person, institution, group, company or government:

(a)    by threat, intimidation, exploitation, coercion, theft or any other means, or

(b)   by virtue of laws, regulations, policies or practices that violate the rights of any person.

3.      The family is a core institution that provides for the needs of persons and that protects and educates children in all thriving societies. It must be protected against unwarranted intrusions, including by government.

DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC OFFICIALS

4.      Governments must protect and serve, not impose. They have been established to protect the rights of every person in a transparent and accountable manner. As a result, governments:

(a)    must protect every person from direct and indirect harms, aggressions or threats against their rights by any other person, group, institution, company or cause, by any foreign power or actor, by any agent of government or by the courts;

(b)   must maintain and manage public property and common assets in a way that respects and protects every citizen’s rights in those assets;

(c)    must create, maintain or support essential infrastructure and services that serve the needs of all citizens and that can not be adequately provided without government involvement or funding;

(d)   must assist with the essential needs of those who can not help themselves, with the aim of encouraging self reliance;

(e)     must ensure that:

(i)     no statute, regulation, policy, program or action of government harms the rights and freedoms or the property of any citizen;

(ii)   no privileges are granted to any person, group, corporation or institution;

(iii) no domestic or foreign organization, company, group or government undermines the rights of any citizen or lays claim to our personal or common lands or resources.

(f)    must hold open and vigorous debates that inform the public of the motivation and risks associated with policies that will have a significant impact on the future of our economy, our national sovereignty and security or the rights or freedoms of any citizen of the country;

(g)   must ensure that citizens have an effective means:

(i)     of preventing the abuse of government powers;

(ii)   of holding those in government and private offices to account for actions that undermine these principles and for damage done to the rights of persons as a result of their actions or omissions while they held those offices.

5.      As representatives and agents of the people, those who hold public offices

(h)   must place their duty to protect the rights of members of the public ahead of their own interests and the interests of any person, partisan, corporation, institution, group or cause.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENS & THEIR RIGHT TO UPHOLD THESE PRINCIPLES

6.      Citizens, as members of a society of free persons with natural rights:

(a)    must recognize and respect the rights of all other persons;

(b)   must be aware of the need to exercise constant vigilance over the actions of those who hold public offices so as to ensure that the powers that are assigned to public offices are not used in a way that harms the rights, freedoms and just interests of any citizen; and

(c)    may act alone or in association with others to identify and bring an end to any misuse or abuse of those immense powers by those who wish to use them for their own purposes or to pursue goals which are incompatible with these principles.

RESTORING THESE PRINCIPLES

If our society is to continue as a society of free persons of real and equal value, the principles listed above must be understood and defended. Honourable, virtuous and ethical behavior is characterized by an unwavering determination to act according to those principles.

All members of our society must accept and act upon these principles so as to ensure that the rights of every person are upheld. Those who hold public office must place the duty of upholding those principles ahead of the wishes, plans or actions of any person, institution, group, company or party, whether public or private.

A constant threat is posed to these essential underpinnings of all sound and enduring societies by the temptation to put one’s personal interests ahead of the rights of others and by the great temptation among those who hold public offices to use the powers of those offices to impose an agenda that violates those principles. To protect against that threat, all members of our society must understand, assert and defend these principles. It is only by doing so that we can retain the promise of living in a country that is peaceful, prosperous, culturally rich, morally-sound and free.