What a week, eh? On top of a pandemic, the first major blaze of the wildfire season in B.C. is sparked in Squamish.
This has left many in town wondering if next a swarm of locusts will descend on us.
[We shouldn’t joke, swarms of desert locusts invaded parts of Kenya last week.]
With the early wildfire season have come new restrictions. Campfires were banned and a temporary checkpoint was installed in the Squamish Valley to keep visitors out.
This added to all the restrictions and penalties in place due to the pandemic.
Sunday it was announced police and other law enforcement officials are now empowered to issue $2,000 tickets for price gouging of essential goods and for the reselling of medical supplies.
All of this has sparked a small chorus of complaints that perhaps government intervention has gone too far.
Small protests throughout North America have popped up, including recently on the streets of Vancouver, with protesters decrying government “tyranny,” during COVID-19.
And it is necessary to be alert to overreach by government and law enforcement.
“It is important that people are actively aware and informed about their rights during the pandemic, and that police officers and compliance officers absolutely not overreach their authorized powers,” BC Civil Liberties Association’s Harsha Walia told Glacier Media after earlier expanded police officers duties were announced on March 31.
But we must be wary too of jumping on the conspiracy bandwagon during this critical time.
It is always prudent to ask who benefits most from each change.
Who gains the most by a campfire ban, for example?
True, firefighters have a bit less to do, but mostly, we all gain when our homes aren’t burned to the ground from an errant spark or abandoned fire.
That’s not overreach, that is governance.
Now, if suddenly Mayor Karen Elliott announces municipal elections are cancelled and she will be in power for another 16 years, mimicking Russian President Vladimir Putin, then we should take to the streets.
Or if our government starts having people jailed who criticize its handling of the pandemic, as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has done, then we have a problem.
Most of the measures we have seen thus far have been to the leading governments’ detriment, if anything.
Governments that tank the economy usually aren’t popular long-term so it seems more likely an errant leader would try to kick-start the economy too early (President Donald Trump comes to mind here), rather than advocating holding the line.
Of note too, unlike with our neighbour to the south, the person leading us through the pandemic is the provincial health officer.
To their credit, B.C. politicians of all stripes have been careful to keep this about health and not politics. Should they stray too far from that, then we should raise a critical eyebrow.
But until then, not starting fires and flattening the curve by following the rules seems our best path forward out of this unprecedented time.
