Documentary Reflection
March 16, 2023 By: Keith Gracey
In this story a local MPP Wayne Gates and an environmental activist Owen Bjorgan make statements at a town council meeting, they were speaking against the new Ontario Bill 23 which was pushed through the Provincial Parliament in 2022 against the expressed wishes of a very vocal majority of Ontario residents. The Ontario green belt was created in the early 2000’s with broad bipartisan support in order to arrest urban sprawl, protect local watersheds, and at-risk species. I believe it is important to know that these speakers are not opposed to the creation of new homes but rather, the reduction of farmland, and the potential destruction of delicate ecosystems with Gates stating “Yes, let’s build 1.5 million homes, but let’s not do it while hurting our environment, our food source and all the other stuff.”
What the passing of Bill 23 shows me is that in our current political atmosphere politicians have no accountability to their constituents, and that they will lie directly to potential voters in order to attain political power only to turn around and do the exact thing they said they wouldn’t do. For example Doug Ford in 2018 Tweeted “I was clear during the campaign. I listened to the people and we are not touching the Greenbelt. We will protect it and all its beauty.” Only to turn around and pass a bill to develop the greenbelt.
Modern environmental activism is not seeing results because the politicians involved do not answer to the people they represent, rather they choose to represent the “economy” which at this point in time with wealth inequality at near all time highs means that they work solely for the benefit of the rich. This can be seen in the results of both the Wet’suwet’en and Fairy creek protests, when the RCMP was sent in to remove protestors for the benefit of Corporations whose capital investments were loosing value.
Media Links:
https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/wetsuweten-explained
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/08/16/Judge-Rebuked-Illegal-RCMP-Tactics/