Kingdom of the Courts – Through this appeal, the government is seeking clarity that the democratically elected Yukon government retains the authority to make final decisions on public lands.
(I amuse myself)
UH OH. Democracy warrior @ElizabethMay will be VERY DISPLEASED with #Yukon appeal to restore democratic authority. http://t.co/zhOBvMuznQ
— Katewerk (@katewerk) December 31, 2014
I don’t know that endless wars were fought to have sovereignty by elected government overturned by unelected judges.
Historically, in the absence of specific agreement, the right of conquest should apply as it applies in setting most of the borders in the world. Having everyone be equal isn’t all that distasteful.
My favourite is the trotting out of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 as the be all and end all solution to negotiations when it pretty much exempted Canada in totality and applied only to what became U.S. territory. Also, it was simply a law, an undemocratic one at that, which like any other law could be freely amended or made irrelevant by new legislation. It only gained constitutional status through Trudeau’s constitution. I am not sure how exempting Pacific and Arctic watershed, Hudson’s Bay Company Land and Quebec could have any meaning other than the obvious.
The Yukon Party (conservative) was the ruling party before the last election. Was presumed by all media, lefties and elite to loose the next election. Based on their stance on the peel. They fought the election on the peel and won with a larger majority than they had at dissolution. They proceeded through the peel process as outlined in their campaign and then came up with the current plan that is now before the courts. They have fought against southern interests. Plants that have been brought in to protest, and idiots that could see that they were loosing and then called for a vote on it. Like the last general election never happened.
What’s at stake here is a duly elected body’s right to legislate in the face of Judicial activism. The judge that ruled against the peel plan is a Liberal. Not a small L. He was leader of the territorial liberals and a member of the federal liberals. I can remember visiting his house down the street when I was a kid and seeing Christmas cards from PET.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Veale
With virtually no private property in the Territories, all resource issues are political and fraught with issues of apartheid. The majority of residents are part of the ongoing 150 year old economic, cultural, and racial quarantine known as the Indian act. Almost totally dependent on the “South” while under quarantine, they continue to be looked at and exploited as if humanoid pets of professional socialists of the judiciary as well as the clergy of the anti-industrial revolution. The government is obviously attempting to move forward economically by increasing mining which is the only thing going for it. Without a capitalist revolution freeing up the sovereignty of individuals, the dystopian hell of feigned sovereignty of the quarantined by their Southern pimps versus nominal sovereignty of the Crown will continue leading to stasis.
Of all the smarmy vicious parasites feeding upon the taxpayer, few are as out to lunch in their entitlement, than our Just-Us bureaucrats.
The actions of these abusers of the intent of legal impartiality are so blatant they boast of their successes.
Selective prosecutions, failure to proceed on charges, until that “failure” allows their comrades to escape being caught.
Police refusing to lay charges arising from motor vehicle accidents, because the offender is the Judges wife.
#1 drug dealer here a few years ago, high school student, judges son, court case after court case, criminals perjure themselves against “911” tapes even, yet zero perjury charges.
Crown witnesses proven to be lying, no charges, victim(suspect) put through 3 trials, zero compensation..
Just-Us, except you get to pay.
Seems to me the whole system has a protected group of “client” and administrators totally divorced from civic good or civilization.
What you bet the canadian justice system gives the UN eco-fund bandits immunity from criminal prosecution?
Wheres Yukon Cornelius and his Bumble snowman? BUMBLE’S BOUNCH after all
John, I agree with most of your comment except the bit about the majority population being (*implied* first nations*) under a (political?) quarantine. If that is not your assertion, then ignore this comment.
My point here is that the majority of the people living there are, in fact, non-native. Total population of Yukon is approx 33,000. The population of the Capitol city, Whitehorse, is aproxx 24,000.
The majority of those folks are predominantly non-native. Everything else you describe is spot-on. The local Territorial government is given the mandate to govern… but the jurisdiction in which they attempt to govern is largely federal. Most of the stuff that a proper Province would be granted jurisdictions are still controlled by the Feds in Yukon, NWT and to a degree, Nunavut.
I believe this court case is an attempt by the current Government to eek out some legitimacy to rule more similarly to what a Province would normally have control over, that being resources, environmental, agriculture and financial. Yukoner’s have been, up to now, treated like a political science project for over 100 yrs. Since the days of the Klondike, Federal control has been very paternalistic. I may be speaking for only myself here, but I firmly believe that Yukon is a mature and fully functioning democratic society capable of fully self-governing no differently than the rest of the 10 Provinces. Yukon also boasts a fully ratified land claims agreement between the First Nations (known as the ‘Umbrella Final Agreement’) and the Government. In many ways the Yukon Government is further ahead of its Provincial counterparts.
With the geography, climate and transportations limitations faced by Yukon, they have thrived and prospered beyond any reasonable expectation. There can not be any false notions that Yukon can’t be devolved into full Provincial status. The Peel Watershed case was predominantly fought by the southern Environut’s and the co-opting of the local First Nations with fear mongering. The same bad actors are also trying desperately to play the same game with oil and gas explorations. First it was the lies about the seismic industry’s slash-cutting, now the threats posed by fracking.
First Nations in the Yukon are full participants due to the Umbrella Final Agreement, but agitators prey upon the Native elders and spread fear among them. When partnerships are formed and progress is as a mutual undertaking, the results have been very beneficial to the first Nations. There is no reason to to believe the Peel Watershed would be any different. However, groups such as CPAWS, Sierra Club and others, That DO NOT EVEN RESIDE THERE, continue to thwart any type of progress or development in the Yukon because they think A) Yukon should become a private Park for only those wealthy enough to charter helicopters and airplanes to come visit, and B) That Yukoner’s don’t need any type of job other than menial tourism jobs catering to the wealthy visitors mentioned above.
Thanks for the corrective information. Unlike the NWT and Nunavut, “Natives” are a minority (about 25%) of the Yukon population.
With 43% of Yukon employment being in the public sector, the idea of economic independence from the South becomes challenging but a worthy goal.
Agreed, John. Too many public sector jobs and not enough industry. However, the main problem with the industry stems from altogether too much Government. Layers of redundancy at a minimum 3 levels, often 4. For any project to proceed, there are often 3 or 4 different environmental assessments that must be done, because, after all, one couldn’t be used by all 4. The process becomes a form of punishment and impedes any meaningful work getting done.
There are and have been exceptions, however. All of them occurred under the Yukon Party’s pro-development leadership. The Territory’s NDP party, as you may expect, side with the environmental groups and oppose almost every form development. They do, as you may also expect, spend lavishly on social programs and growing Government even bigger. A classic example of NDP stupidity was when they built a ‘Young Offender’s’ facility. It cost well over 6 million dollars to build, holds only 12 offenders, and on the first day it opened, they all escaped. Can you imagine if Steven Harper spent 2 million dollars PER INMATE?
I first moved to Whitehorse in the early 70’s and the place was booming in every sense of the word. there were at least 6 major mining operations going on at any given time as well as the more traditional placer mining Yukon is more known for. by the beginning of the 80’s everything was unravelling as metal prices dropped, transportation costs went higher, and the interest rates went through the roof. By the end of the 80’s there was nary a mine in operation anywhere in the Yukon. No mines, no jobs, but plenty of Government.