"OCCUPY" our own back yards
Some still don't get the message of the"Occupy" phenomenon. The movement may or may not ever bring any real solutions or actions to the table, but the story line is clear and it is important. Justice and equality is missing in societies in which the disparities between rich and poor are obscene and ever increasing. We need go no further than our own backyard for a glaring, familiar and infuriating example - Susan Heyes versus the Big Guys and the Supreme Court of Canada. Here is Susan's latest dispatch. Read it and weep for your own country.
Please also note that if this story appeared in our local press, I could not find it. Apparently, our rights are not news worthy.
Today, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed my application for leave to appeal (see attached)
This is a dark day for democracy in Canada. By refusing to hear this case, Canada’s highest court has decided that corporations have more rights than small businesses and citizens.
Small businesses are the economic backbone of our country and are the heart of our communities. The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that we don’t matter.
With this ruling, the Supreme Court has given corporations a blank cheque. It has ruled that corporations undertaking megaprojects in Canada are not legally compelled to tell the truth, even when the consequences for citizens and small businesses are as severe as they were with the Canada Line project.
This decision allows corporations to profit at the expense of citizens and small businesses.
The ruling calls into question the integrity of our judicial system including the ruling of the BC Appeals Court. Cut and cover construction for the Canada Line had been ruled out in the Cambie Village in all the materials made available to the public. Yet the case was overturned, with the project claiming that even though they caused a nuisance, they were authorized by statute to do so.
Under the law, this defence of Statutory Authority can only be used when no other less disruptive option is available, and cost cannot be a factor.
We all know that not only was there a less disruptive option, that of a bored underground tunnel, but it was the project, until the secret switch to cut and cover. A bored underground tunnel was the only option presented to the public for the Cambie Village area.
Corporations should be compelled to tell the whole truth, but the Supreme Court of Canada has determined that small businesses and citizens have no legal right to expect truthful information that would allow them to take measures to protect themselves from harm.
For 6 years, rectifying this colossal injustice has been my priority, in the public domain and through the courts.
The legal system has let us down. This is not the Canada I know and love.
This case personifies the worldwide outrage at corporate greed, and abuse of government power.
We as citizens, must continue to demand that our rights are upheld, against all odds.
Susan Heyes
Email: hazelmay@shaw.ca
2 comments:
And now, here is the real story.
Afraid that a mere woman, could actually bring equality (where everyone is treated equally) to our way of life and expect protection from unwarranted and expensive attacks on her way of life from senior governments and their agents, politicians of all stripes met with our learned judges, withing those dark and mysterious private clubs that inhabit Ottawa, to try to sway the verdict.
The best compromise available of course was to dismiss the appeal from the onset, thus the judges in the Supreme Court would not have to rule on its validity. In this way it is a win - win for the politicians and their corporate friends and a lose - lose to Susan Heyes, who is of course, a peon in the eyes of the court; as are we all.
"If the law supposes that,' said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass--a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience--by experience."
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist
This is not a dark day for democracy. Heyes accessed the system to the highest courts. Everybody is entitled to redress their grievances. Sometimes that answer is NO.
Well Mrs. Heyes, were you wronged? No you weren't.
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