CK Democracy "lite"

"He who frames the question wins the debate" Randall Terry

One of the foundations of democracy is the ability of the commoners to ask their governors, questions pertinent to their own experience and the experience of their peers.

We do not elect Representatives or enpower Governors to think for us, nor to determine the scope of allowable thought in the process of decision making.

This is exactly why "Governance by Survey" can only derive validity through the participation of those whose thoughts, observations and opinions are claimed to be represented.

Democracy is hard, messy, inefficient and founded on "Real" Consensus.
A "False" Consensus can easily be manufactured by narrowing the scope of discussion and thought towards some pre-determined set outcomes.

The pre-determined outcome with respect to the loss of biodiversity in Chatham-Kent has been to ignore the problem and hope that Privatization and subsidies rather than Regulation and penalties will preserve forest biodiversity.
It should be perfectly obvious that any lopsided approach is doomed to failure.

One of the tactics of Opinion Managers is to narrow the scope of thought and expression using restrictive and obfuscating language.

As a concrete example, within the September "Rural and Urban Tree Cover Report-Sept-21-2020-12a" to council on pg.7 three (3) terms were used to describe natural heritage in Chatham-Kent.

See if you can figure out which of these terms does not belong with the other two.

Trees, Prairie, Wetland

Two words describe distinct biomes while the third describes a small subset of species within a particular biome, namely Carolinian Forests.

Using this particular type of categorical misrepresentation, the reality of Woodland Biodiversity and Ecology is abstracted to mere Canopy shade.

This tactic was used in 2014 during the debates on the Forest Conservation bylaw.
CK Counselors were recorded and quoted as stating that "orchards should be considered as forests" and "..a tree is a forest"

As well the vague and unscientific notion of "Urban Forests" is often used by Parks and Recreation managers with a narrow view of a particular set of services to humans provided by a few trees, in a park or a yard.

Yes, trees are good and a city with a lot of trees is great but it's not a forest.

Recognizing and protecting the biodiversity of forest ecologies is essential to any reasonable consideration of the "Environment".

Assessing Forest Ecology in terms of tree cover is quite literally "Not seeing the forest, for the trees"

So to the heart of the issue comes the new tool that the municipality uses to shape your opinions about the environment here in Chatham Kent.

As part of the 2018-2022 "Council Term Priorities" the 2035 Planning Committee shall:

"Implement strategies to help everyone become stewards and adapt to a changing climate"

Of course we know that the ecological destruction in Chatham-Kent doesn't come from those who need help to be good stewards.

Enabling the ongoing destruction of the remaining ecologically sensitive homes of endangered and threatened species is the direct responsibility of this Municipal Government.

Manipulation of language regarding this only serves those who wish to promote the appearance of conservation without actually understanding what is to be conserved.

The following is from a CK
Citizens Engagement Survey Committee insider who shall remain anonymous:

"...I can also tell you the original draft of the Survey mentioned ‘Forestry’ as one of areas of interest/concern that respondents could check off and/or comment on. The final draft didn’t list this item, but the ‘Environment’ question would include the opportunity for respondents to voice their concerns and make comments on Forestry related issues."

Biodiversity loss is not "Forestry" and Forests are far more than simple Tree Cover.

In the arena of politics words are the weapons. What we see here is language being weaponized to limit your thought and your response to environmental destruction in Chatham-Kent within the allowable limits of discussion.

Many of us have read George Orwell's novel "1984". Orwell observed and warned us about the use of language to limit the scope of thought and debate.

We must remain observant and vigilant to check the abuse of power and privilege within this municipality of Chatham-Kent.

I'll finish with another famous Randall Terry quote: "Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me"