LYTLE: Snitching on your neighbour doesn't solve the water problem

Murray Lytle, PhD, P.Eng. is a retired engineer who has consulted around the world. He was one of the last permanent members of the National Energy Board.In 1982 our engineering team welcomed a remarkable new hire from the Soviet Union. Ernest had been kicked out of Russia in 1978 because he was Jewish and so was “interned” in Italy for a year and then given the option of going to Israel or Canada. He was a mining engineer and so opted for Canada. We became good friends, and I was able to ask him the many questions I had based on my reading of Solzhenitsyn. He had read the Gulag Archipelago in samizdat format. Each week he would get a chapter pushed under the door to his apartment and each week he would push the chapter he had just read under someone else’s door. He assured me that, if caught, he would earn his own number and place in the gulag. “But how would they catch you?”He assured me that there were any number of people who would be willing to snitch on him, if only to get access to a few more potatoes.“What a sad, sick society,” I thought.During the COVID-19 crisis, our own sad, sick society in Calgary, through the agency of hissoner Mayor Nenshi, opened snitch lines to report those who had the audacity to share dinner with family. Not to be outdone, the latest incarnation of our executive Councillor, Mayor Gondek, has also opened snitch lines to report on those who would be audacious enough to spill some water on their flowers.The brave talk about “safe and effective” mRNA shots is now known to have been “aspirational” at best and nonsense at worst. In fact, Pfizer admitted that they didn’t test for transmissibility and some studies indicate that grandma may have been at greater risk from those who took the shots than from those who didn’t. Way to go snitchers. Next time get the facts straight.What civic leader destroys the cohesion of their community by creating snitch lines? In the absence of a few more potatoes, what citizen would snitch? Mayor Gondek seems particularly proud of the number of virtue-signalling snitchers she has provoked. Waterless Calgary, like Soviet Moscow, has no shortage of such people apparently. But at what cost?Maybe instead of punishing cheaters, Mayor Gondek should humbly apologize for not checking into and addressing failing infrastructure. Maybe instead of turning citizens against one another she could leverage her apology to appeal for universal, voluntary action in response to water restrictions. Had she done so her humility might have won my vote in the next election.My point is not to humiliate the mayor but to raise an alarm about the freedom our elected officials feel to hide their errors behind snitch lines. As my friend Ernest told me, this is very damaging to social cohesion and both Mr. Nenshi and Ms. Gondek should feel ashamed of themselves for adopting such a destructive approach to hide their failed governance. They will soon enough be gone but their legacy of broken civic relationships will live on.Murray Lytle, PhD, P.Eng. is a retired engineer who has consulted around the world. He was one of the last permanent members of the National Energy Board..This is what the Western Standard is up againstThe Trudeau government is funding lies and propaganda by directly subsidizing the mainstream media. They do this to entrench the powerful Eastern, woke and corrupt interests that dominate the political, social and economic institutions in Canada. Federal authorities are constantly trying to censor us and stop us from publishing the stories that they don’t want you to read. Ottawa may weaponize our taxes and police against us, but we’ve got a powerful ally on our side.You. Free men, and free women. We need you to stand with us and become a member of the Western Standard. Here’s what you will get for your membership:Unlimited access to all articles from the Western Standard, Alberta Report, West Coast Standard, and Saskatchewan Standard, with no paywall. Our daily newsletter delivered to your inbox. .Access to exclusive Member-only WS events.Keep the West’s leading independent media voice strong and free.If you can, please support us with a monthly or annual membership. It takes just a moment to set up, and you will be making a big impact on keeping one the last independent media outlets in Canada free from Ottawa’s corrupting influence.

LYTLE: Snitching on your neighbour doesn't solve the water problem

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