THE RECORD
March 06, 2002

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Remember the good old days of BC politics, when Ministers and MLAs could go around without police escorts?

We had a road opening here back in 1981, where our then MLA and Minister of Highways, Alex Fraser, was going to cut the ribbon. He arrived with his wife in a Chevy 2, driven by a friend and mingled with the crowd, shaking hands and the rest of the usual politician gimmicks. Then, as he was standing there with a pair of scissors in his hand, ready to cut, a beat up old pickup came barreling up the hill and the driver shouted out the window: "Wait a minute Alex, till I get my camera!" Alex just stood there mumbling under his breath: "Well, hurry up! I can't stand here all day waiting for you!"

After the ceremonies we went to a private garden party by the lake. By some coincidence I ended up sitting next to Alex for over three hours and we had a good time chatting away. Old Alex liked his booze and was getting quite happy by then. I told him that in Europe he would have arrived in a limo accompanied by police outriders brandishing submachine guns. When I told him that he would most likely have worn a top hat with the associated paraphernalia, he laughed so hard he just about fell of his chair.

Even after 47 years in Canada we are still touched by the fact that fate brought us here and we can live in this wonderful country. Canada always struck us as one of the most civilized places on Earth. Even when we used to go down to Oregon to visit my wife's parents, we could hardly wait to get back to BC and it was a great relief when we crossed the border and finally were in a place we could really call our home.

So what happened to our dreamland? Why do we have to hear the stories that not only the Premier of the province, but also the lowly MLAs now have to have police escorts, they are hiding from the public and their places of business are boycotted by the angry electorate?

The answer is very simple: The garbage that's being taught in our universities as so called "economics" has finally brought the filth and ugliness of the human race to the surface to screw up our lives. It is now called "globalized competitiveness." The theory that turns human beings into pigs, fighting for scraps thrown to them by some self appointed master class.
When Campbell was first elected I wrote in this column that I give him two years before he gets kicked out of office. I abhor violence and don't want to see the guy, or any of his gang, their families, or properties getting hurt, or damaged, but there's some very ugly talk going around. Especially since De Jong announced the exportation of 35,000 loads of logs, while our people lose their homes and may go hungry. The people are not very likely to put up with this, while watching a few enriching themselves.

The scenario and the string pulling going on behind the Campbell government is becoming clearer and clearer by the day. Campbell is not the ugly monster he's painted to be, but a pathetic moron and sacrificial goat on the altar of corrupted economic theories, to be thrown away when the time comes.

The plan for the destruction and colonization of Canada has been in the works for many years, a plan in which the present government of BC is a minor, but important, player. The plan unfolded once Trudeau was out of the way. Mulroney was given his marching orders to proceed with the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, an agreement that had little to do with trade, but was the first step toward the impoverishment and loss of democratic rights of the Canadian public at large.

During the 1988 federal election campaign a powerful group in the Liberal Party attempted to get rid of their leader, John Turner, because he could see through the plans and vehemently opposed the FTA. They succeeded in the re-election of Mulroney, coming up from way behind in the early polls. Although 57 percent of Canadians opposed the FTA, we got it with Lyin' Brian.

Before his election in 1993 Jean Chrétien promised to re-negotiate the already completed, but not signed NAFTA, but he signed it without any public consultations, almost in secret. This makes us wonder whether he may have been behind the '88 campaign against Turner. Jean is a free trader who wanted to force the secretly negotiated Multilateral Agreement on Investments on Canada and right now is engaged in the planning of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The GATS will not only open up some 160 areas for takeover by multinationals, but give them the right to question, sue and overrule even municipal bylaws and referendums if the results cut into their profits.

Enter Gordon Campbell into the picture. After years of a systematic and fanatic campaign by all segments of the corporate media against the former government, Campbell's task was to dismantle the social services and all democratic rights of the citizenry of BC. The so called "market economy " has no room for meddling by citizens in a political system where the artificially created rights of company shares overrule the rights of living human beings.

The next steps on the agenda are the dismantling of the Labour Code and the elimination of the rights of the workers to join unions. With the large log exports the corporations will demand the decertification of the IWA and other mill unions and the rehiring of some of the workers at minimum, or half of their present wages, to "remain globally competitive" and keep those logs here in BC. Any bets on this?

This is part of the great "solution" to the US tariff problem, well planned on both sides for years to destitute BC and force the sale of our resources and water for diversion to California and Mexico. Multinationals control large tracts of Mexican lands waiting for BC waters. It is called the NAWAPA plan, and on the books for over 30 years.

Anybody familiar with history, politics and economic theories could see this coming. Preston Manning and his Reform Party have been trying to pull this over the whole country for years and if Stephen Harper ever gets into position to govern there won't be any more pensions, Medicare, public education, employment insurance, or government protection for anybody who's not at least a millionaire. The neo-classical theory of economics is now the great feudlizer of peoples and the removal of all vestiges of civilization and human rights.

The powers behind Campbell's throne knew it very well that the policies they demand will bring on angry public reaction, directed against Gordon and his caucus. This was part of their plan all along. By this summer I expect resignations to start from MLAs who can't take the pressure and hate directed against them any longer. Then, sometime next year, Campbell will be thrown to the lions and kicked out by an artificial palace revolt to pretend that his successor will make everything better.

Yet, the whole thing will be a sham and pantomime. The powers know it very well, that under NAFTA and WTO rules once Campbell deregulates and privatizes services no future government can re-institute them again. In other words, as long as we are in the NAFTA and the WTO the BC goose is cooked for the feast of our feudal lords, while the ordinary people can have a race to the bottom to feed on the feathers, bones and guts.

Copyright (c) 2002, West's International