Vol. XXVIII, No. 1 January 2010 Separate or Surrender The Western Separatist has been published by W.S.P. Ltd. since 1983. Address all correspondence to: WSP, Box 101, 255 Menzies Street, Victoria, B.C. Western Canada V8V 2G6. A one-year subscription is $15.00. Members of the Western Canada Concept receive the WS with their membership. Send e-mail to kzubko@shaw.ca. Visit the WCC on the web at: www.westcan.org Phone us at: 250-727-3438 or fax us at: 250-479-3294 Our cover: This month s cover con tin ues our se ries fea tur ing West ern Ca na dian sep a rat ist folk heroes. Pat Burns was a cou ra geous ra dio talk show host who en liv ened the Van cou ver and area ra dio waves in the 1970 s and 80 s. The printed word can not be gin to con vey his in im i ta ble style and his unique voice, but for a sam ple of his ed i to rial opin ions, see page 4. The Untouchables by Richard McBride The official motto of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is Maintiens le Droit or Uphold the Right. The RCMP s unofficial motto appears to be Maintain the Privilege. As Brian Hutchinson writes in the National Post, Whether it is abandoning a post, being caught masturbating in a police vehicle while on surveillance duty, fabricating notes from a crime scene, or drunk driving, any number of infractions by RCMP officers result in no more than being docked a few days pay. Want examples? Mr. Hutchinson sur - veyed 84 adjudication decisions since Janu - ary 2008. Here s my fa vour ite: Con sta ble Milo Kent Ramsey: Cited for dis grace ful con duct by an RCMP ad ju - di ca tion board in 2007 for a se ries of in ci - dents over a 34-day pe riod, in volv ing impaired driving, shouting obscenities and throw ing a rock at a pas sen ger bus. On one oc ca sion he drove his mo tor home while in - tox i cated, hit ting seven parked cars and then The Western Separatist January 2010
back ing over a home owner s hedge and strik - ing a car port. His blood-al co hol level was de - ter mined to be al most twice the le gal limit. He was docked 12 days pay. He pleaded guilty in court to a re lated charge of im paired driv ing. He re mains on ac tive duty in B.C. Even a crim i nal con vic tion, for a crime as se ri ous as as sault, is no guar an tee of dis - missal. It has be come alarm ingly com mon for Mount ies to be con victed of beat ing sus pects they have handcuffed be hind their backs and thrown into the back of po lice cars. The usual pen alty for this is los ing five or 10 days pay. And then there s Cor po ral Monty Rob in - son, who has yet to lose even a sin gle day s pay. Cpl. Rob in son, you may re call, was in charge of the no ta ble op er a tion at Vancouver In ter na tional Air port in 2007 when a just-ar - rived Pol ish im mi grant, Rob ert Dziekanski, was ad min is tered the death pen alty for the crimes of be ing confused and belligerent. Cpl. Rob in son and the Fa mous Four were then rather eco nom i cal with the actualité with the sub se quent (and on go ing) in ves ti ga tions and prob a bly would have got away with it ex cept that, un luck ily for them, their min is tra tions to Dziekanski had been caught on video. A year later, Cpl. Rob in son had an un - for tu nate en coun ter in Delta, BC, with a 21-year-old called Orion Hutch in son. The lat - ter was driv ing his mo tor cy cle, the for mer his Jeep. The Jeep pre vailed, where upon Rob in son fled the scene. He re turned 10 min utes later and blew.16, twice the le gal limit. He claimed he had calmed him self with vodka shots while Hutch in son lay dy ing and was charged only with ob struc tion of jus tice. In cred i bly, he later sued to have his 90-day driv ing sus pen sion over turned. He was un suc cess ful in this, but con tin ues to draw his sal ary, which is prob a bly not unadjacent to $100,000, while sus pended. Af ter two vi o lent and un nec es sary deaths in 13 months. A career nowhere near ordinary, indeed. It would be un fair to sug gest that the great majority of Mounties resemble Monty Robinson in the ex e cu tion of their du ties. But all of them are iden ti cal to him in that they are in no way responsible to the communities and prov - inces in which they serve they re port solely to Ot tawa. And given that a cul ture of ir re spon si - bil ity per me ates the RCMP from top to bot tom, it is no sur prise that Mount ies are in creas ingly wont to treat Al berta and es pe cially British Columbia as the Wild West. Group solidarity is important, even essen - tial, to any po lice force. But this can not be the highest virtue, otherwise discipline devolves to the point of hang to gether, or hang separately. On tario and Que bec have the OPP and the QPP, of course. But there is no rea son why the West ern prov inces could not have their own pro vin cial po lice forces as well. Most Brit ish Columbians would be sur prised to learn of the ex is tence of the Brit ish Co lum bia Pro vin cial Po lice and that it was formed be fore the RCMP and even the North West Mounted Po lice. The BCPP, a highly re garded unit, was dis banded in 1950 for rea sons that remain obscure. Most West ern ers prob a bly be lieve that we are not al lowed to have our own po lice forces. But this is not the case. Po lic ing re mains a pro - vin cial re spon si bil ity un der the Con sti tu tion, and BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba rou tinely en ter into con tracts with Ot tawa whereby they pay the RCMP to as sume this duty. The BC and Al berta con tracts come up for renewal in 2012. The RCMP be came a Con ser va tive Party lead er ship is sue in 2007. Ed Stelmach, of course, prom ised that the RCMP was here to stay in Al berta, and Jim Din ning jumped on board, with his website pro vid ing a gra tu itous in sult of the Al berta Sher iffs as a bunch of rent-a-cops. January 2010 Page 2 The Western Separatist
Pre mier Stelmach ar gues on the ba sis of cost, but ac cord ing to the Al berta Fed er a tion of Po lice As so ci a tions, One of the big gest myths in Ca na dian law en force ment is a be lief that RCMP po lic ing is less ex pen sive than mu nic i pal or regional policing. In BC, as far back as 1994, for mer Jus tice and At tor ney Gen eral Wally Oppal de clared af ter an of fi cial in quiry: The RCMP must make fun da men tal changes and be more re spon sive to the needs of Brit ish Co lum bia s com munities. The force sim ply must be come more ac count able to lo cal needs and al low more par tic i pa tion by lo cal gov ern ment. Brit ish Columbians are en ti tled to an open and uni form sys tem of po lic ing In the event that the RCMP is not pre pared to un dergo the nec es sary change that is sug gested in this re port, it will be im per a tive for the prov ince to con sider es tab lish ing its own provincial police force. As we have seen, the RCMP is no more ac - count able and re spon sive than it was 15 years ago. And yet our pro vin cial lead ers re main more at tached to the sym bols of co lo nial glory than they do to the rights and needs of their own peo - ple. No sur prise there, of course. The only sur - prise is why we con tinue to put up with it. The Cost of Confederation The following excerpts from an article in the National Post, of Tuesday, December 15, 2009, and entitled In Copenhagen, oil-sands hypocrisy demonstrate the double standard that is continually applied to Western Canadian provinces, as opposed to Central Canada, who takes Alberta s money while proclaiming them an embarassment:... But what sac ri fices are the On tario and Que bec gov ern ments talk ing about? So far, all ei - ther has done is make sanc ti mo nious prom ises of deep cuts. Nei ther has made much prog ress in ac - tu ally lim it ing emis sions from in dus tries or residents. On tario is pledg ing to re duce emis sions by 15% be low 1990 lev els by 2020. Que bec is pledg ing 20%. But a pledge is not the same as an ac tual cut. Nei ther prov ince s emis sions have come down ap pre cia bly, un less one counts the shut ter ing of a few man u fac tur ing plants due to the recession.... The On tario gov ern ment, for in stance, re mains the owner of four large coal-fired elec - tric ity plants, in clud ing Nanticoke, on Lake Erie, which is the larg est coal-fu elled plant in North America. Never mind that when the Lib er als were in power in Ot tawa, the Lib eral gov ern ment of On - tario ex tracted a pledge from the feds not to in - clude emis sions from automakers in the na tional caps re quired to meet our Kyoto com mit ments, and to put a larger bur den on en ergy-pro duc ing prov inces such as Al berta and Sas katch e wan. We don t re call On tario and Que bec squawk ing about emis sions fairness then. On tario and Que bec are merely be ing op - portunistic, using the current bad publicity for the oil sands to pile on Al berta in hopes of in - creas ing the taxes that prov ince pays to fund the fed eral equal iza tion scheme, of which both cen - tral Ca na dian prov inces are recipients. Al berta s con tri bu tion to Con fed er a tion is al ready three times higher than On tario s on a per ca pita ba sis. Al ber tans paid an es ti - mated $21.1-bil lion or $5,700 per per son more to the feds than they got back in fed - eral ser vices in 2009. Que bec, on the other hand, re ceives nearly half of all the equal iza - tion dol lars Ot tawa doles out. Much of the money that Que bec uses to fund free col lege and uni ver sity tu i tion and cheap daycare co mes from Ot tawa s taxes on the oil sands. Ditto the money used to bail out On tario automakers. [emphasis added] So here s a sug ges tion for east ern Can - ada s two big, self-righ teous pro vin cial gov ern - The Western Separatist Page 3 January 2010
ments: If you want none of the em bar rass ment of the oil sands, fine; forego all that dirty oil sands money, too. That would ef fec tively mean say ing no to the bil lions on of fer from equal iza tion but that s the price of high principle, right? Oh, and On tario and Que bec should find other, mor ally su pe rior sources for their oil, too such as Ven e zuela, Iran and Rus sia. To do oth er wise would be to share in a Ca na dian em bar rass ment. About a year ago, in Van cou ver s Gastown dis trict, Lib eral Leader Mi chael Ignatieff gave a speech prais ing the oil sands as the en gine of Can ada s econ omy. It is. En ergy is Can ada s No. 1 ex port and big gest source of for eign in come. Ot tawa avoided def i cits for years be fore the re ces sion thanks largely to rev e nues from oil and gas activity in Alberta. In other words, the oil sands have n t just made Al berta rich they ve made the rest of the coun try wealthy, too. If On tario and Que - bec want to turn their back on that wealth, let them say so forth rightly in stead of mak ing a dis play of their hy poc risy on the world stage. [end of excerpts] Federal transfers to the provinces and territories will reach a record $54.4 billion The following excerpts from an article by Canwest News Service, December 19, 2009, demonstrates that the process of equalization continues to operate to Western Canada s disadvantage: Fed eral trans fers to the prov inces and ter - ri to ries will reach a re cord $54.4 bil lion in the com ing fis cal year, the Fi nance De part ment an - nounced Friday. The fig ure in cludes a spe cial in jec tion of $525 mil lion, div vied up among six prov inces, to en sure no prov inces get less than they did this year in com bined equal iza tion, health and so cial transfers. The prov inces get ting the ex tra boost in fis cal 2010-11 are Nova Sco tia ($250 mil lion), Man i toba ($175 mil lion), New Bruns wick ($80 million), Newfoundland and Labrador ($8 million), Sas katch e wan ($7 mil lion) and Prince Ed ward Is land ($3 million.)... The total payments, including everything from equal iza tion trans fers to health trans fers, will be $2.5 bil lion more than the cur rent fis cal year. Trans fers to On tario mark the big gest in - crease, ris ing about $1.2 bil lion to $15.48 bil - lion in the com ing fis cal year. Equal iza tion pay ments will climb to $14.4 bil lion, up $187 mil lion.... The fund ing will be split up this way: British Columbia, $5.06 billion; Alberta, $3.31 billion; Saskatchewan $1.2 billion; Manitoba, $3.4 bil lion; On tario $15.50 bil lion; Que bec, $17.2 bil lion; New Bruns wick, $2.5 bil lion; Nova Sco tia, $2.4 bil lion; Prince Ed ward Is - land, $490 mil lion; and New found land and Labrador $614 million. [end of ex cerpt] This Month's Cover Our cover features Pat Burns, the longtime CJOR talk show host. The following is transcribed from one of his daily editorials, March 16, 1987: The sub ject of West ern Sep a rat ism will not go away, much to the cha grin of emo tional flag-wa vers. The idea of West ern Sep a rat ism is not fos tered by out ra geous red-necks, who are never so happy as when they are stir ring up trou ble and rel ish ing the thought that they have up set the men tal equi li b rium of those per sons who equate any such thought with pre scind. No! The idea has its gen e sis in the best rea son possible for change. January 2010 Page 4 The Western Separatist
West ern ers are sec ond-class cit i zens in their own coun try. A re gion whose sole rea son for ex is tence in the eyes of the fed eral gov ern - ment and it does n t mat ter which party is in power is to act as a milk cow for Que bec and On tario. This state ment is in dis put able, so much so that I will not bother jus ti fy ing it, for if any West erner does not know this by now, he is so stu pid he should be treated as a second-class citizen. The name of the game is power. In or der for any po lit i cal party to cap ture power at the fed eral level, it is nec es sary to ca ter to those two prov inces, Que bec and On tario. since be - tween them, they con trol sixty per cent of the seats in the House of Com mons and in or der to re tain power once a party has achieved it, it must go on ca ter ing to those two prov inces. It is a sim ple ques tion of mathematics. Pe ter Brimelow, a jour nal ist with an in - ter na tional rep u ta tion, re cently did an ar ti cle on the sub ject of West ern Sep a rat ism. Let me quote you a part of it. The last line is the one I like best. In it he says. For an out sider, it is fas ci - nat ing to watch West ern ers work ing their way to wards a po lit i cal so lu tion of their prob lems. A ma jor step was taken re cently when the Wes - t ern Can ada Con cept Party de cided to run can - di dates in fed eral elec tions. Pre vi ously, like the Parti Quebecois, the West ern Can ada Con cept Party felt it some how il log i cal for sep a rat ists to par tic i pate fed er ally. But this ex ces sive Gal lic logic never trou bled Irish Na tion al ists in the 19th cen tury. They elected mem bers to the Brit ish House of Com mons and kicked up so much fuss, that by 1914 an Irish Home Rule Bill was ac tu ally on the stat utes books. Only the out break of the first World War de layed its implementation. The dra matic im pact that sep a ra t ist can - di dates could have was il lus trated by last fall s Pembina by-elec tion in Al berta. Doug Chris tie, the leader of the West ern Can ada Con cept Party, got 2,800 votes, and con se quently the Tory vic tor edged the NDP by only a few hun - dred. In other words, the sep a rat ists or parti - cularist party de fend ing west ern in ter ests of fers a way for West ern ers to dis ci pline the Tory party. It won t be able to take the West for granted anymore. Then Brimelow out lined some of the pol - i cies hatched in Ot tawa to hurt the West. Let me quote: Above all there is the atro c ity of the Na - tional En ergy Pol icy. The Na tional En ergy Pol - icy was es sen tially an at tempt by Ot tawa un der the guise of Canadian nationalism to expropri - ate the West s en ergy wealth. It was the cli max of a de cade of Ot tawa pol i tick ing that has caused Can ada to miss the once-in-a-life time op por tu nity to de velop its high-cost en ergy re - serves which had been pre sen ted by OPEC s price hikes. The Amer i cans were will ing to take the. risk and put up the mas sive ini tial cap i tal in - vest ment needed to bring Can ada s re serves on-stream. Once this in vest ment was in place, con tin u ing to ex ploit the re serves would have been cheap. Ca na di ans could now be coast ing on the re sult. It is one of the great eco nomic trag e dies of mod ern times. All Can ada, but par - tic u larly the West, should be hold ing trea son trials and hanging politicians from bilingual road signs to ensure that never happens again. The following is another editorial by Pat Burns, broadcast August 9, 1986. It took the best part of five years, but it has fi nally dawned on Jamie Lamb, the Sun s Ot tawa Cor re spon dent, that the only way for Brit ish Co lum bia to get a fair deal is to get out of Con fed er a tion and join the United States or at least make noises and threats as though we fully in tended to pur sue that goal. The West ern sep a rat ists, now ap par ently in to tal dis ar ray have been say ing the same The Western Separatist Page 5 January 2010
thing for some years and when they were n t ig - nored by Mr. Lamb s em ployer the Van cou ver Sun, they were char ac ter ized as a bunch of half-crazed malcontents. But the sep a rat ists are right, and now be - lat edly, so is Mr. Jamie Lamb. In our life time and per haps in the life time of our chil dren and grand chil dren, Brit ish Co - lum bia will never get a fair deal from Ot tawa be cause pol i ti cians are not in ter ested in fair - ness. They are in ter ested solely in self-pres er - va tion - get ting them selves re-elected with their fat sal a ries and ex pense al low ances and their obscene pensions. It is a sim ple case of math e ma t ics, there are 282 seats in the House of Com mons. On - tario has 95 of them; Que bec has 75. Com - bined, that makes a to tal of 170 seats or way more than half the to tal rep re sen ta tion in the House of Com mons. And so if a po lit i cal party wants to get it self elected or re-elected, it must ca ter to On tario and Que bec. It re ally does not mat ter if the Con ser va tives, or the Lib er als or the New Dem o crats are in power, the name of the game re mains the same, and any one who thinks dif fer ently is deluding himself. We in Brit ish Co lum bia, or for that mat - ter, all of West ern Can ada are noth ing more than milk cows for the East. When Jamie Lamb sug gests that the new Pre mier of Brit ish Co lum bia, Bill Vander Zalm, dis cuss un ion with the United States with a num ber of state Gov er nors to get Ot - tawa s at ten tion he is on the right track. He does not go far enough. West ern sep a rat ists, whose think ing is way ahead of Lamb s, or most other per sons, for that mat ter, are not re ally in ter ested in join - ing the United States. They pre fer to se cede from Can ada and be an in de pend ent coun try able to fash ion its own destiny. There is not the slight est doubt that we would sur vive. In deed our stan dard of liv ing would be higher once we got the Ot tawa ban - dits out of our wal lets and bank ac counts. If Al berta were to join in such a se ces sion plan, the com bined nat u ral re sources of the two prov inces would make us the wealth i est area in all of North America. Some peo ple think it is her esy to speak this way. Ob vi ously, they pre fer to think that be ing robbed blind is one of Na ture s im mu ta - ble laws which we should ac cept with out question. I am not of that train of thought, nor do I think it he ret i cal ceas ing to be a Ca na dian and be ing just a plain Brit ish Co lum bian with com - plete con trol over my des tiny. I see no vir tue in be ing a per ma nent mug ging vic tim, just to be able to say I am a Canadian. A Separatist Speaks Political Philosophy or Political Pragmatism? I have al ways ad mired the ca pac ity of peo ple of Ste phen Harper to ma nip u late the sys tem to their own ad van tage. When I say ad mired, I should prob a bly say I am left in a state of stark and some what ap palled awe by their abil ity to dis re gard the ef fects of their ac - tions on so ci ety as a whole. It is ob vi ous that Mr. Harper has be come more pow er ful than Charles I, for when he pro rogues Par lia ment, he will not suf fer the fate of that mon arch but in stead will re turn in March with a whole new slate of what ever he chooses to put on the agenda. It is now ev i dent that Mr. Harper has es - caped ques tion ing over the pos si bil ity of war crimes in the ex change of pris on ers in Af ghan i - stan, where it is clear that the Ca na dian Forces handed pris on ers over in cir cum stances where they strongly sus pected tor ture would re sult. Why else would they take pho to graphs of the prisoners beforehand, unless they expected January 2010 Page 6 The Western Separatist
some thing dire to hap pen sub se quently? And why else would the Ca na dian Forces then see fit to res cue these pris on ers from the peo ple to whom they had handed them over. In any event, Af ghan i stan is a de ba cle from which many na tions not only re main re luc tant to ex - tract them selves but a de ba cle to which they re - main di sas trously en thralled. Al ex an der the Great, the Brit ish, the Rus sians and now the so-called NATO forces are ex pe ri enc ing much the same prob lem with this land and this people. In the past we have seen Ste phen Harper s vir tual aban don ment of UN Se cu rity Coun cil Res o lu tion 242, which com pels Israel to re turn the ter ri to ries taken by force in 1967. This too is likely to bode ill in the world, es pe - cially among the Arab na tions. To dis re gard in - ter na tional law, as Can ada ap par ently sees fit to do on oc ca sion, will not in gra ti ate us with cer - tainly those who be lieve that in ter na tional law ap plies both for us and against us. In the ad min is tra tion of pol i tics gen er ally Ste phen Harper has been a con sum mate op por - tun ist. He has con sumed the Ca na dian right-wing and turned it into a force in dis tin - guish able from the Lib eral Party. As po lit i cal com men ta tor Don Mar tin has ob served, Mr. Harper likes it that way. He has al leg edly moved the Con ser va tive Party to the cen tre. In ef fect, this means sur ren der ing the en tire con ser va tive agenda to be come the dar ling of On tario and Que bec. His so journ in Que bec has been short-lived and rather un pro duc tive, but does he re ally care? On tario alone can main tain Mr. Harper in power, if he can sim ply ca ter to that prov ince with auto in dus try bail outs and by pro vid ing other priv i leges and perquisites. I, on the other hand, have al ways been a po lit i cal phi los o pher. I have never been inter - ested in find ing my way to the top of the sys - tem but rather in find ing a sys tem that serves us all better and is as close to per fec tion as is pos - si ble in this world. In this re gard, Mr. Harper has ac com - plished noth ing. He has cast aside all that West ern Can ada gave him by way of hopes, as - pi ra tions and prom ises and be come in ef fect our worst night mare. He has by adopt ing the strat egy of di vide and con quer achieved suc - cess over the left wing but as a re sult there is now noth ing to dis tin guish him from it. On the other hand, West ern Can ada needs a whole new po lit i cal sys tem. We need a re gion ally-rep re sen ta tive sen ate, elected on the ba sis of equal geo graph ical area. We need a rep re sen ta tion by a House of Com mons which will give voice to the ma jor cit ies of West ern Can ada. We need these two bod ies to work in tan dem, so that no de ci sions are made to the det ri ment of the two power bases in the coun - try: the re source base of the re gions and the man u fac tur ing and ser vice base of the cit ies. We need a proper bal ance be tween the ru ral and ur ban dweller and their dif fer ent func tions and preoccupations in the social structure of Western Canada. We need a com mon lan guage of Eng lish, which will unite and cre ate even tu ally a com - mon cul ture. We need a ju di cial sys tem that re - flects our val ues and a Par lia ment un afraid to leg is late those val ues once they have been ar - ticulated through the democratic process. We also need a bal ance be tween the leg - is la tive au thor ity of the Par lia ment and the ju - di cial au thor ity of the courts, which has fre quently be come re mote from the will of the peo ple. For this rea son, we need a third level of gov ern ment achieved by the peo ple them - selves, us ing mod ern tech nol ogy and the pos si - bil i ties of ref er en dum, ini tia tive and re call. We need to know that the whole leg is la - tive pro cess, our for eign pol icy and tax a tion pol i cies are open to scru tiny, cor rec tion and re - buke on oc ca sion from the peo ple who pay for them. Gov ern ment of, for and by the peo ple is now a real pos si bil ity be cause mod ern tech nol - ogy has now re moved the bar ri ers once con sti - The Western Separatist Page 7 January 2010
tuted by rea son of dis tance and the dif fi cul ties of com mu ni ca tion. But with the Internet, TV, ra dio, the tele phone and other me dia we are able to tap into and com mu ni cate with the pub - lic will at all times and be re spon sive to it. Prop erly in formed trust the peo ple was the maxim of Lord Randolph Chur chill, but he lived at a time when com mu ni ca tion with the peo ple was not pos si ble on a daily ba sis, since not all could read and few had ac cess to the printed me dia on a timely ba sis. To day, that is not a prob lem. We are liv ing with 19 th cen tury leg is la tive tech nol ogy in an age of the 21 st cen - tury tech no log i cal ca pac ity, which should be in cor po rated into the leg is la tive pro cess. Ref er - en dum ini tia tive and re call ac com plishes all of this, ac ti vates the in tel lec tual ca pac ity of the masses, and in ef fect, is the most per fect dem - on stra tion of crowd sour cing, that is, the re sort to large mem bers of peo ple to solve a problem. West ern Can ada has the re source ca pac - ity, the in tel lec tual ca pac ity, the fi nan cial, ac a - demic, and lin guis tic ca pac ity, to be a bea con of hope in a world of chaos. Liv ing in the 19 th cen tury mach i na tions of the po lit i cal scene in Ot tawa is a gross waste of time and money. West ern Can ada de serves better and we have the abil ity to give it to the peo ple of West ern Can ada through a prop erly in formed cam paign ini ti ated fed er ally by the West ern Block Party, and pro vin cially by the West ern Can ada Con - cept, so that we pro vide the only pos i tive, con - struc tive so lu tion to the so cial, po lit i cal, and eco nomic prob lems of our day. The West ern In de pend ence move ment man i fested by those of us who are in volved in the po lit i cal phi los o - phy of a better sys tem re quires a com mit ment from each of us to help to com mu ni cate this idea, and for this rea son, I would ask you to take this ar ti cle and dis trib ute it as far and wide as you can through the newspapers, by radio communication, television, and perhaps the Internet. In the pro cess of ad vo cat ing West ern In - de pend ence, I have used YouTube vid eos, which some of you with Internet con nec tions could view and crit i cize, or even par tic i pate in by post ing your own vid eos about the sub ject of Western Canadian independence. This is only one of the many forms of tech nol ogy avail able to help to com mu ni cate our ideas. I look for ward to your ad vice, sug ges - tions, and in put in this new out reach which we hope to ini ti ate in 2010. If you and I work to - gether to pro mote this con cept of a whole new vision using a new political philosophy to cre - ate a better sys tem, then our lives will be ful - filled as in di vid u als and our so ci ety will ben e fit col lec tively. You and I have the duty to be truth-tell ers in an age of de cep tion, to be the fore run ners and pre cur sors of a whole new vi - sion of political involvement. The most dan ger ous man, to any gov - ern ment, is the man who is able to think things out for him self with out re gard to the pre vail ing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitable he co mes to the con clu sion that the gov ern ment he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is ro man tic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not ro man tic per son ally he is apt to spread dis con tent among those who are. H.L. Mencken I hope to be that dan ger ous man as I have been in the past, speak ing out in fa vour of a whole new gov ern ment, of a whole new na tion of West ern Can ada where each of us will have a part to play in the cre ation of that na tion, its political system, and of its daily operation. I look for ward to work ing with you in 2010 to achieve this great goal for the fu ture of our chil dren and our land. Free the West! Douglas Chris tie January 2010 Page 8 The Western Separatist