The Evolution of Democracy, Episode #2 *** OPT OUT of Tree Canopy by-laws***

I have no scientific data to support my hypothesis but I suspect that the rise in high blood pressure cases leading to heart attack or stroke can be linked to tirades over idiotic public policies.

The gall!

The City of Ottawa posted its updated Urban Tree Canopy by-law earlier this year. This is what it said…

TREE permit application fees

NEW Tree Permit Application Fees as of February 1, 2024! 

“For the removal of a City-owned tree or a distinctive tree that is unrelated to an infill development, the application fee is $174 per tree, maximized after five trees, by ownership. For tree removal associated with infill development, the fee is $870 per tree maximized after five trees, by ownership. If the tree removal is a part of a development application under the Planning Act, as a part of a Site Plan or Plan of Subdivision application, for example, the tree permit fee is included in the development application fee.”

When I Googled “tree canopy by-laws” …

I found that Ottawa’s tree canopy policy is not uncommon in other urban areas. In my city, Kawartha Lakes, a similar by-law was passed this year. These rules seem to be spreading like a nasty virus across the province. This is why I am proposing a property rights “vaccine” below.

As a longtime Libertarian, I believe that protection of ‘individual person & property rights’ (IPPR) and the ‘non-agression principle’ (NAP) are essential for a civil society.

Unfortunately, the authors of the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms were not Libertarians.

They were career government bureaucrats and politicians who carefully crafted the Charter to exclude any IPPR revisions.

Instead, they empowered the federal government to practice aggression against citizens with impunity using taxation, laws and regulations.

Millions of Canadians are “flipping the bird” at Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, Christia Freeland, and their unholy power cabal. The level of power that they can exercise is unprecedented in Canadian history. Voters can’t wait ‘til their day of revenge at the polls in 2025.

While the defeat of the LIBERAL/NDP cabal will be satisfying to many, the “deep state” will still remain and continue to regulate us into oblivion.

The excessive cost and scope of authority under the control of the “deep state” is firmly entrenched in the institutions of every level of government - federal, provincial and municipal.

The Freedom of Informed Choice “vaccine”

Digital Direct Democracy was written to describe a viable way for individual Canadians to wrest their IPPR and NAP from the iron grip of the deep state and the cabal. Its a simple idea.

OPT OUT of the laws, regulations and taxes that don’t apply to you if you agree with the IPPR and NAP.

IF the CHARTER fails to protect these rights, BOYCOTT its authoritarian provisions and endorse the Statement of Principles (SOP).

If you haven’t read it yet, please do so and endorse it online here.

If you are a property owner (who isn’t?), it is possible to voluntarily claim your IPPR and NAP rights, and it won’t even be necessary to claim fealty to libertarianism! Here’s how.

Imagine if you could use the online Citizen’s Preferences Database (CPD) to OPT OUT of any obligation to subscribe to the Urban Tree Canopy By-law. It’s nonsensical to allow strangers to enact rules that define what you can, and cannot do with your personal property. Unless you intentionally subscribed to those rules in the past, then your declaration to “unsubscribe” (OPT OUT) is both morally and ethically sound under the Statement of Principles.

Protect your health from “regulatory risk”.

I will never forget a frustrating incident described by my Toronto neighbour, Mike, about ten years ago. He wanted to remove an old maple tree from his yard for good reasons. Mike had to buy a $100 permit from the City to get permission to remove the tree so that he would avoid a much bigger fine if caught doing so without said permit.

Such is the power of the state. It can force an honest, law-abiding taxpayer to cough up money so that he could exercise the property rights that he had assumed he possessed when he bought his house decades earlier.

I watched Mike’s face turn rage red as he ranted his outrage. An OPT OUT ability would have been good for his blood pressure and his health.