by Alain Gauthier on July 1, 2010
To all Canadians, here and abroad, Happy Canada Day!
I also want to take a moment to remember our soldiers that fought and are still fighting so that we can live FREE!
To those of you coming here and wanting to change our country, and bring rules and laws of your old country, I say “Have a nice trip back!” Those rules, religious beliefs and laws obviously aren’t working so well since you decided to come to live here.
To those of you coming here and wanting to leave in peace and harmony, I welcome you, including your religious beliefs to the extend that you are not trying to force them on me as I am not forcing my Christian Beliefs on you.
Enjoy the freedom that this day represents to so many of us,
Alain
Marc Emery just recently turned himself into the authorities in the US and pleaded guilty in US Federal Court to drug distribution. I am not looking at turning this into a debate on marijuana usage but just wanting to discuss the legal facts of the matter.
Currently in the US, Canada and several other countries marijuana is considered an illegal substance except for narrow usage. This is where the whole Marc Emery debate is getting sidetracked. It has turned into a debate on marijuana usage not if what he did was legal or not. I have heard arguments that said he should not be guilty of anything because what he did was not wrong. But according to the laws he was acting illegally. He knowingly sent marijuana seeds to the US and in the US this is considered illegal. This is why he was charged and convicted. Marc pleaded guilty. If he really believed he was innocent why did he not plead not guilty and go to trial.
It seems he was fighting the law through civil disobedience. Which is the wrong way of doing it. As Canada is a democracy laws can be changed in 2 ways that I am aware of. The first one is getting a sitting government to pass laws to accept your viewpoint or going to court to prove an existing law illegal. If he was so set in his ways he should have gotten enough voters accepting his viewpoints that the law would be changed. This was not done. Marc took the view point that getting charged and convicted of the crime as a way of making a statement. Is this any different than someone murdering their spouse and saying they should not go to jail because it should be legal.
If Marc and his supporters believe the laws should be changed get parliament to change the rules not practice civil disobedience to get your point across. Remember that at the end of the day the taxpayers of either Canada or the US will have to pay for his incarceration. And as a taxpayer this upsets me because I have to pay higher taxes so someone can make a political statement.
What does organic lawn care have to do with a blog about Canada. Well I have traveled most of the country and have found that people overall really care about their lawns. But with all the chemicals and fertilizers that we pore on it yearly it will take a toll on the environment which is a concern to all of us.
Some of the things we all can do is purchase the proper grass seeds for our organic lawns, that is grass that is designed for our local weather conditions. Getting the wrong seeds can make a lawn look a certain way but it can also add a lot of extra watering, fertilizing, and cutting to make it look good. The proper lawn seed will grow to the weather conditions of the area, being it will naturally go into hibernation at parts of the year when water may be more scarce. Organic fertilizers will work over longer periods of time helping the grass grow at a nice steady pace. Cutting the grass at 3 inches will provide a better lawn for growing conditions.
In walking in neighbourhoods I have seen these professional lawn care companies with the workers wearing masks and once they finish the lawns put signs on them warning people to stay off the grass for usually 24 hours because of the toxicity of what they put on the grass. Now how can that be good for the environment, our kids, our animals and the wild animals that inhabit our areas. What long term health effects is going to happen?
Nice lawns and yards is important to all of us but so it the eco system we all live in. By making some changes to the way you do your lawn care you can go along way to making our environments healthier for now and the future. For more information go to anuplanet.com.
