Democracy for Everyone in BC

This post is a comment written (with some tweaks) for the following article on the Tyee.

Hot Button Bill: Libs Rush to Change Election Laws
Diverse foes say Bill 42 would crimp free speech, hurt poor voters.
By Andrew MacLeod and Monte Paulsen. Monday, May 12, 2008.
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Most people on here would not understand what a serious and structural attack on democracy this is for those who live (and die) in the lower socio-economic classes.

The BC government, as a matter of policy and practice, denies income assistance clients the human right to obtain identification. If welfare has copies on file, they will not fund replacement ID. That in itself is a violation of people's human rights. With the pittance people receive on income assistance, or disability, there are thousands and thousands of citizens who are marginalized by the BC Liberals already. To use this structurally embedded circumstance and to now push through this legislation, which will disenfranchise (even more) of these citizens is a Charter of Rights violation, as well as quite likely a violation of Canada's commitment to several United Nations Charters.

This exclusion and barrier to full participation in society will now disproportionally disadvantage and disenfranchise individuals with disabilities. There is a new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, I suggest all of these clever lawyers around consider working to put together a case to present at the new UN Committee about democracy, inclusion and justice for marginalized citizens BC Liberal-style. I'm sure the UN would be quite interested to hear about Mr. Campbell's (and his backroom masters')plans and they might even have some feedback for him and his ilk.

Mr. Oppal, if you allow this legislation to be passed, as a learned jurist and now as the Attorney General, you have ceased to have any relevancy as a man of justice, democracy and as a representative of the public good in BC. You will also go down in history as the man who excluded generations of BC citizens from their right to participate in democracy and be included in the province of BC. How is that for a legacy? You should resign if they push it through in spite of your disagreement as the AG. And then, you should write a great "tell-all,"because now, you know where A LOT of the bodies are buried and that will be helpful when the next election rolls around in May 2009.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
- Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Politics.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.

Ensure your MLA knows that if they vote for this Bill, they are history next election, no matter what their political "stripe."