In Paradise Lost, John Milton visualizes Hell to be something like a government. After attending a city-council meeting yesterday afternoon, now I understand why.
I live in a conservative town with a steady supply of heavy oil and a love for freedom, but apparently, our city councillors don’t see it that way. Our municipality’s trying to pass a new City Development Plan (CDP) that’s clearly influenced by the WEF and sustainable development goals.* Yesterday’s council meeting allowed citizens to voice their concerns. Here’s how it went:
When I arrived at the meeting, I couldn’t find a seat. There was no more room to sit. All of the chairs were occupied. The council chamber was jammed full to capacity with concerned citizens, and everyone there was ready to defend the cause of freedom.
After a virtue-signalling land acknowledgement and a moment of silence, the meeting commenced. We all sat through the formalities and business of council until, after what seemed to be the longest 40 minutes of our lives, it was time for the people to speak.
Each citizen wanting to talk was given 5 minutes to articulate their questions and concerns before council. After they did so, councillors had the opportunity to ask questions of the speaker and make comments if they pleased.
Every speaker I listened to said entirely what was expected. They did an excellent job of detailing everything wrong with the proposed plan. They voiced their problems and concerns with climate change goals, the possibility of passive surveillance, and the explicit WEF/UN vocabulary present in the document.
However, as much as the meeting was important for citizens to voice their concerns, it was also important for us as citizens to acquire information.
My purpose in going to the meeting was first to support freedom and my fellow man, but also to learn where our councillors stood on the entire issue. After listening to their replies, questions, and comments, I’m now convinced our councillors don’t have the capacity to stand at all.
For example, after a resident(s) voiced their concerns about electric vehicles, a well-known councillor in the community dismissed the concerns and talked about how innovations in the ev sector are dominating the automobile industry.
More than that, the council seemed annoyed and unwilling to listen to any talk about the WEF, UN, and other international organizations. They incorrectly said it was irrelevant and didn’t really pertain to the proposed bylaw at hand.
The more the people asked their questions, the more I realized council didn’t want to answer very many questions at all. Instead, they deferred, defended, and tried to diverge from all our concerns. If someone asked a direct question, council (or, at least, some members of council) would reply with something like, “It’s so nice to see so many people involved. We’re so glad all of you are here engaging with your council. This is an evolving process that can be changed.”**
However, the most eye-opening answer of the afternoon came from the mayor himself. A woman was respectfully pressing council on our concerns about restricted mobility, 15 minute-districts, and surveillance. In essence, she asked the question, “If you [mayor/council] will not change this document, will you add another document that states ‘The people of Lloydminster will never have their mobility restricted and will not be subject to surveillance? Can you make that commitment?’”
The mayor’s reply?
“I cannot make that commitment. I cannot guarantee that. It’s not within my power to do so.”
Apparently, it’s never in any leader’s power to do anything. Everything is always someone else’s problem and is deferred to someone else’s authority. If our rights and freedoms are being trampled, there’s nothing our most-immediate government can do because another government is superior to them. If our mobility’s restricted, our bureaucrats are powerless to change it because another bureaucrat who makes decisions has more power than they do. Which bureaucrats exactly are they talking about? We don’t know. They’re faceless, so we can never know their names.
The truth is that the when it was council's turn to speak, the meeting was tedious and boring. Our pages of history tend to depict this near-everlasting battle for freedom and paint romantic pictures of Nelson, Wellington, Napoleon, and Washington. However, the fight for freedom much more often looks like the tired, dirty, cold, hungry watchman standing alone at the castle's edge at three in the morning. The people who went to council yesterday are like the watchmen who are vigilant while others are sleeping. They stand outside in the icy air so everyone else can enjoy the cozy comfort of the fire; they sit through boring meetings so others can have fun outside, and they keep watch for invaders so mothers can peacefully watch their children.
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*https://www.tannerhnidey.com/post/i-read-my-city-s-planning-document-what-did-i-find-wef
**All of my quotes about the meeting are paraphrases.
Thumbnail Photo by Daryl Mitchell from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/daryl_mitchell/5211171914/sizes/o/in/photostream/