Apple Sauce and Cow Dung

A major league boneheaded remark from the premier of Ontario:

Toronto Sun: "I think that the Conservatives are bringing kind of a small view to what we're doing here," McGuinty said. "We are participating in a remarkable adventure largely without precedent in the annals of human history. We're inviting people to come here from the four corners of the world.

"It's only natural and predictable that in those circumstances from time to time there will be a little bit of friction ... we need a place in a civilized society to address those kinds of concerns," he said.

"Inviting people to come here from the four corners of the world." Yeah, that's never been done before. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free in Wawa, Ontario. Who knew?

His remarks are in defense of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, an organization whose goal is not about human rights but about telling you how you should live your life.

It should be scary when a politician defends a social program by declaring it's a great adventure that's never been done before. Picture the conversation:

"You sure about this?"
"No idea. But it's going to be great!"
"How do you know?"
"Don't. But it's great!"
"But..."
"Stop asking so many questions. You're ruining the adventure."
"Great."

Adventure and Government. Those words go together about as well as apple sauce and cow dung.

The Ontario human rights racket is run by Barbara Hall. Here she is in the same Sun piece:

The commission is also working on forcing transit systems in Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Hamilton to call out all stops for visually impaired passengers and is keeping a close eye on Oshawa and other municipalities who have tried to restrict the growth of student housing through zoning by-laws.

The public education role will also be beefed up, she said.

"In the past we had one staff person for the whole of Ontario that did public education," Hall said. "Now we will have more and we'll have the capacity to work with communities on the education that is the best for them."

Keeping a close eye on...beefed up...best for them...

Sounds pretty innocent to me. Oh, and by the way, when she says "now we have more" people to run education in Ontario, what she means is, we have a lot more of the taxpayers' money to spend on our social engineering projects. Man, that recession's been tough on everybody.

Once again, it needs to be said: not one person in the Ontario Human Rights Commission is an elected official. Their Ontario Human Rights Code is written by them and enforced by them. They are not trained educators, law enforcement officials, or even politicians. They're just people that have a permanent job of deciding that what you're doing just won't do.

Canada's a funny place. We rail against oppression everywhere, pay lip service to freedom, but when an unelected bureaucrat declares that she's keeping an eye on cities and plans to educate your children properly, it's a big yawn. If your neighbour told you that your kid isn't being educated properly and needs retooling, you'd freak. When a bureaucrat you've never met says the same thing, you shrug.

Funny. Delicious.