Grassroots Democracy & Land Freedom
We live in an age in which democratic rights are under increasing pressure from governments of all stripes, as well as from non-governmental entities, including corporations, that often control elected officials. It has become difficult in Canada to pretend that governments at any level believe in democratic governance. This includes the narrative of control from municipalities, regional districts, the province, or even at the national level: all increasingly seem oblivious to the reality that legislation passed often decreases the basic rights and liberties that our ancestors considered essential to the very nature of democracy in Canada and thus to our identity as a people.
Where is the Power?
The word democracy derives from the Greek word, dēmokratia, from dēmos 'the people' and kratia 'power, rule', from ancient Athens. In history and in our current world, there are various examples of the types of democratic states including those that are top-down, and the US and Canada as examples of two different types. Bottom-up democratic governance occurs in the autonomous mostly Kurdish region of northeast Syria; various First Nations sometimes had other forms, for example, that of the Iroquois Confederation and their Great Law of Peace.
I'll save the discussion on the plusses and minuses of all these for another time, but I want to focus now on the nature of democratic governance here in the Cowichan Valley. Spoiler alert: there really isn't any. In regard to the CVRD, we have a system where directors are elected to manage the region and in so doing pass "bylaws" to enforce some supposed desires of the population. This is largely fiction, and over the last few months we have witnessed an uprising of ordinary people against the growing list of restrictions passed by the directors- restrictions which are wildly at odds with the wishes of many of those they supposedly represent and govern.
Hired Staff, Not Voters, Decide
As has become crystal clear, true democratic governance is not really how the process works. Directors are elected, true, but with a tiny fraction of the eligible population even voting. Those elected, rather than creating policy that reflects the wishes of their constituents, now defer to the hired staff to provide guidance. In many cases, directors simply "rubber stamp" what the staff present to them. The Official Community Plan (OCP) in its various versions, including the blatantly offensive Cowichan Zoning Bylaw (CZB), was a case in point.
Officially, residents of the Cowichan Valley have the ability to give feedback and voice objections to proposed bylaws, but this never really happened and hence the bylaws were rammed through without significant citizen review and acceptance. So rather than having citizens exercising their "democratic rule", they found themselves the recipients of a top-down set of policies that extensively violated the very democratic principles that the CVRD directors were elected to enable.
More Voters are the Solution
What's the solution? The people of the Cowichan Valley need to assert a desire for their democratic rights to govern themselves through their elected officials. They will do this on October 17th by electing a new slate of directors who will act to truly serve the people and their rights and protect the land from excessive regulation.
For those of you who don't care what happens to our valley and our rights, the response might be to not vote at all. However, anyone who wants us to have control of our valley needs to get out and vote for those who will really represent our wishes.
Bring out your friends and family who may not typically vote and get them involved to bring back democratic governance to the Cowichan Valley. What happens here in Cowichan in this election is nothing less than the future of us all and our children.
It's time for a change. Take back your valley!
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