Editor:
Re: New parks policy limits information, Outlook (June 26).
Reasonable access to information is critical to the functioning of any successful democracy. Without this transparency, democracy cannot survive. If information is not available to everyone, then those in control of the information can create whatever illusion they desire.
Regardless of who made the decision to restrict access of information in Parks Canada, we know from the culture of the Harper administration where this directive originated. The current federal government is incrementally chipping away at Canadian democracy. One of the Harper administration’s greatest attacks is on the overwhelming information coming from scientists and ecologists regarding climate change and loss of habitat and biodiversity, information that the administration sees as threatening to its vision of unrestricted corporate profit and unimpeded capitalism.
Why would Parks Canada or the federal government restrict access to information unless it had a vision for Parks that is unacceptable to the Canadian people? Knowing the track record of the Harper administration, we can assume this means opening Canadian Parks to private enterprise.
It could also mean opening the parks to oil and gas exploration, mining, logging, fracking and God knows what else. It could be the beginning of the end of Canadian parks as wilderness preserve, the end of wildlife habitat and the end of our access to the land that we so love.
It is beyond me why anyone living in this country with the power to vote would continue to support this government that is so destructive to democracy and so contemptuous of the common man or any truth that stands in the way of its totalitarian vision.
I think most Canadians want to live in a democracy. But what we have witnessed in this country in the last few years is a steady march away from a democracy where the power resides in the hands of the people, to oligarchy, where power lies in the hands of the few. These are the moves of tyrants and fascists and we all know what that leads to.
It is the duty of all Canadians to resist this assault on our well-being and our way of life. If you are reading this and believe that democracy in Canada is threatened, then you must act. You must write letters and lobby for justice and transparency. And you must exercise your right to vote. Otherwise, we will lose what we hold most dear.
Tim Murphy
Canmore
