From: utzoo!utcsrgv!chris Newsgroups: can.general Title: Politics in Ontario Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.986 Posted: Mon Feb 7 15:56:41 1983 Received: Mon Feb 7 16:27:58 1983 After reading Steve Perelgut's article, I started thinking about some the things that bothered me about this country. Here is my list of reasons for change. I'm sure there are more, better, reasons, if you have any ideas, send me a `write'. (by mail) I thought the word 'facist' that Steve used was well-selected. I have recently heard that, when my wife has our first child, we will not be able to leave the hospital with it unless we can PROVE that we have a CSA-approved children's seat for the car. After going through one miscarriage, we are not crazy about buying one; anyone have one to rent? Sure those seats are nice; but damn it! breaking the law shouldn't be that easy. I guess this law is a result of institutionalized health care, where everyone has to be careful not to allow anyone else to do anything dangerous because they would all have to pay for the hospital treatments. I notice that you cannot drive a car with tinted windows; I guess that makes it easier for the police to see in. Forget about privacy; at this moment an RCMP officer is opening and reading someone's mail. And did you know that the police have free access to your bank's records of your cheques? Better remember that the next time you make a cheque out to an organization that may be investigated in the next 7+ years. Talking to the police officer across the street, this new constitution business is hurting. They can't use illegal evidence anymore! Never fear, though; the provinces are going to see about getting around that. Of course the police were against the constitution => now we can all see (if we aren't too apathetic to care) how many of our laws are so bad that they have become unconstitutional!!! I see in this week's Toronto Star that the Toronto police force is going to begin random spot checks on people out walking. When did they stop? I'm sure many people, like myself, have been stopped at night for some `harmless' questioning. Better have a destination in mind, a fixed address, an up-to-date car license, and so on. In regard to gasoline prices, you may be interested to know that the current Ontario tax is directly pegged to the retail price. The current retail price is about 43 cents/litre; it has fluctated wildly amid price wars, with the price being 31 cents/litre one week ago. It has never gone over 44 cents/litre at any service station I have seen. The current tax is based on a retail price of 46 cents/litre. Come again? Where do all those nickels and dimes end up? Did you know that the Licquor Control Board of Ontario had a net profit last year of $555 million dollars, and that a further $111 million in taxes on licquor went to the Ontario treasury? My neighbour makes rot-gut red wine for $1.00 a bottle; in the LCBO they would charge you $3.50 for a similiar product. Doesn't anyone care? Is wine drinking supposed to be immoral, or what? Did you know that if you have an elderly grandparent, it is illegal to make a seperate-entrance apartment (fridge, stove, washroom) for him/her in your own house (illegal bachelorette is what the province calls them)? And that if you decide to put your grandparent into an institutionalized nursing home, that the province knows which homes have had beatings and food poisoning of their patients, and that there is NO WAY that you can get your hands on this information? And did you know that it is illegal to have a fence around your front yard that is higher than 4 feet if you live in some parts of Toronto? And that it is illegal to hang clothes out to drip-dry on your apartment balcony? I have a neat little litter bag that I got at a tourist area. It has the Ontario Provincial Police crest, and the cute slogan: ``If in doubt, don't.'' That seems to sum up life in a Province that would like to make Walkman's illegal in public, where noone really knows if they can carry a opened beer case in their trunk or not without breaking a law, where radar detectors are illegal, where you have to notify the police (through the ministry of Transportation and Communications) of a change of address within 7 days by registered mail if you drive, and where a bylaw like "more than four people who are not related by family may live in the same domicile" can exist in the city of Guelph. Of course, my parents say Ontario is great. They were used to Nazi Germany. Of course, the province says its great. They want us to buy their overpriced eggs and dairy products, go to their tourist areas and see the polluted rivers, help pay taxes to keep around more police officers than almost anywhere else, run empty GO trains around on leased rail lines, and go to school to get a job. Free speech? watch out for the moral censors, the Christian schools, the well-established community standards. Free travel? okay, just don't do it in a boat unless you want to use a marina at night; don't use a trailor until you find out where the campgrounds are (they are illegal anywhere near Toronto). The conclusion? When we live in a province where there are so many laws, restrictions, et cetera, all of which appear equally arbitrary, and where it is impossible to know all of these laws, then an individual is compelled to act only in ways that he/she knows to be not illegal. Free will is a will'o' the wisp, and actions become prescribed by fears of laws that may or may not exist. From the great white fascist North. Chris Retterath.