IONclad Blog

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Letter to Global News

Hello,

I don't know what I expect from writing this letter.  However, what has been happening lately in our beautiful country has been of great concerned to me.  As a visual artist, political agenda, ridings, and most of that world wasn't something I paid much heed.  However, of late, our government has been making some very questionable decisions 'on our behalf'.  As a television viewer and citizen of Edmonton, it disturbs me that the only news I ever see is either traffic related or personal stories which (apparently) seem to be positioned to fill the space between other stories which are basically retelling of what's on the news services already.   Because of this, your television news has been marginalized in my life.  Real news, about what's actually happening in our world, and sometimes even in our own city, I find on web-casts of various European news broadcasts.  I find that rather Orwellian and outrageous that so many things never make it into our public consciousness, that I have to go searching for news about my own back yard on the other side of the planet. On the other hand, we all certainly know about Suzie's cat having 6 toes... for weeks we hear about THAT.

International news, not mediated by American/Canadian big money interests is almost NEVER seen on local television - I can only assume that Canada and the U.S. are in fact not the same thing, since I've lost faith that what we see, is what is real.  It would impress me (and likely many others) if your news hour presented news that actually made people aware of important issues! 

What prompted me to write today was Health Canada's choice to remove this product from our shelves:
http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/Coconut_Bev_Vanilla.html

This doesn't appear to be motivated by anything.  Myself and other fans of additive-free high quality non-dairy, non-gluten products are aghast and outraged.  There was nothing in this product that isn't in 100+ other products.  In fact, Aspartame has volumes and volumes of evidence to suggest how toxic it can be, but.. hey, that's in the gum that we let our children chew... but coconut milk warrants our taxes being spent on all the nonsense involved in removing a national brand product from every store shelf in Canada.

After the closure and product seizure of one B.C. health food store I was concerned. Government thugs showed up and put this poor man out of business, for the crime of.... wait for it... having vitamins and supplements available on shelves all over the world.  Wow.  No warning to replace these $300k worth of products over a period of time.  No... our government just put him out of business.  Was there even one moment of air time for him?  This CRIME against this legitimate business man went unnoticed.  As far as I know, he is now homeless living on the street.  It seems just as likely a scenario as any other in a country where an upstanding citizen, doing everything right, can be ruined and his career ended for the reasons our government supplied... that is... "today this is bad, therefore... sorry... you are the weakest link.. bye bye."  Whew, one less person polluting the pool, now people can go get their natural foods products at Walmart.  As intended.  The bill that became law that allowed such a travesty of justice was forced through.  By my calculations by .0003% of Canadians. A law which dictates WHAT WECAN AND CAN NOT EAT!  I'm not sure, but I doubt that's the definition of democracy in any book.

As for my beloved coconut milk.  If I was given a reason... or had an alternate product.. I wouldn't be so angry.  However, our government has ensured that as a consumer I am completely without choice.  Now if I want healthy milk alternatives I would what... need to ship them from the U.S.?  Like that's going to happen.  Heaven forbid anyone find a tasty replacement for milk..  Thanks Health Canada for putting a gun to my head and MAKING me chose the products you want me to eat.  The problem is, the products Health Canada asserts are 'healthy' are loaded with toxic chemicals, carcinogens, sodium and sugar.   Do I have a choice to eat healthy food?  My own government is trying... no... ARE removing that choice, 100 products at a time... silently.. in the shadows... without hardly any notice... all the while while organizations that could rally the other 99.9997% of the population to say.  "No, this is about ME, not 200 sixty year old men in a city several provinces away".

Put this on the news. 
Restore faith that we still have some freedom of speech.  So many people I know are actually talking about moving to ANOTHER COUNTRY.  This is getting to be very distressing for a lot of people.  The only person I see telling the unvarnished truth is Rick Mercer.  Why can't he be Prime Minister?
--
Ian Davis
Digital Artist