Remember the film Groundhog Day when you woke up, everything was like the day before? Yesterday we went for a little drive and there were a few bare spots with some green grass showing through.
This morning, it is just as white as it was a month ago. Farmers were starting to get their spring cropping equipment tuned up for planting season. It only seems like a few years ago, (probably 40) that some eager friends of mine had some fields of small grains up four inches on the fifteenth of April when we received our last inch of snow. That time, that inch of snow just acted like fertilizer on that field of grain.
That few minutes of thinking back made me think “why in this day in history do we still have “oppression” in this modern world when some groups feel that they have the right to force others to accept all their ideas, even though most of mankind has a much more accepting mind.
When Abe Lincoln won the American civil war, people thought that oppression of one colour of skin over another was ended. If you have read the book Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire, you realize that even some civilized countries accept oppression by one group over another including rape and mass murder when they favor that group to run the country.
Even now in 2023 there are countries that condone women being forbidden to receive the education equal to a man. Some women are not treated much better than a dog in those countries. We are now witnessing a major power country kill thousands in a neighboring country while at the same time destroying billions of dollars-worth of that country’s infrastructure.
Even here in Canada, the most admired country in the world, we are trying to regain the trust of our native people who have been severely oppressed by both governments and religions that were imposed on them centuries ago! We also are witness to one language being declared superior to another and people being refused the right to express their chosen religion.
Some thirty odd years ago I was chosen to sit as a panel member when my own province of Quebec discussed the problem of a severe shortage of veterinarians in our province. When the facts were presented, we realized that there was a shortage of French speaking veterinarians throughout the entire world.
At that time, Quebec had just passed a law that placed veterinarians in the same class as medical doctors who were required to pass a French proficiency test before being accepted as a permanent vet in Quebec. This is in a time when there is a shortage of French speaking vets in the entire world. I mentioned that all the animal patients that I knew didn’t speak either of Canada’s official languages. All the medicine and other products used to treat animals came in a container with both French and English instructions on the container. Both the Canadian Veterinarian Association and the Quebec Veterinarian Association were in agreement to allow any Canadian accredited veterinarian to practice anywhere in Canada.
Many Quebecers have been successful in becoming veterinarians but have chosen to move out of Quebec because of less regulations and higher pay elsewhere. Last year, there was only one new veterinarian who graduated in the province of Quebec while all the vets are a year older, and many are of retirement age. We have recently noticed an exodus of teachers, professors, doctors, and other professionals to other provinces and states because of the same less restrictions and more pay.
The communist and dictator-controlled countries are having a great time watching a “free”, democratic country like Canada squabble about such petty things when nobody in their country says a word. Those countries are also smiling as people openly express anarchy in our streets, disrupt our tranquil cities and towns, and even block our international borders which is not only a deterrent to travel, but closes down international trade and severely interrupts some manufacturing on both sides of the border.
This freedom of expression and protest costs free countries like Canada billions of dollars. A problem which would never happen in either a communist or dictatorship. Some people will never appreciate freedom until they spend a few days or years in prison in one of those very “oppressive” countries.
Let’s enjoy our freedom to live in the world’s most respected country, but don’t be afraid to warn others of the extreme dangers of allowing “oppression” to get a “toehold”
Even though everything is white on the third of April; get your lawn mower ready to cut the lawn on the first of May.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
