A Canadian town has plumbed new depths in the bureaucratic curtailment of individual rights and freedoms.
A Canadian town in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has become the first municipality in the country to officially require a QR code to enter and leave.
Officials say that the requirement of a QR code to enter or leave the archipelago Îles-de-la-Madeleine will only be for tourists, while residents will be required to show their driver’s licence to enter or leave.
The decision to require a QR code and identification for the municipality’s 12,000+ residents came after the municipal government announced they would begin charging all visitors who come to Îles-de-la-Madeleine $30, something which hasn’t gone down well with the locals or their family members who visit them.
Of the many concerns, one that officials sought to address was ensuring that visitors had paid their fees before leaving, hence the introduction of a mandatory QR code to leave the islands. If you don’t pay, you can’t get the QR code and won’t be able to leave.
This was initially intended for residents, too, but following an outpour of criticism, officials backed down and now say that residents only have to show their driver’s licence.
Residents, however, aren’t happy about this either, saying it’s absolutely ludicrous to have to prove their identity whenever they want to leave their homes and go to other places within their own country.
Many have also stated that this is an attack on their Charter Rights, which officials have denied.
There's more at the link.
I can't for the life of me figure out how any city council can dictate to residents and visitors whether or not they may enter and/or leave. Just who the hell do they think they are? What happened to individual rights and freedoms? Where and how do some bureaucrats get the idea that they can be petty dictators like this? Who gave them the right to insist that the rest of us are at their beck and call?
It's quite amusing to contemplate what would happen in my northern Texas town were our Mayor and Council to try anything similar. The result would be a short, sharp and somewhat profane discussion between them and the citizens, followed by the use of rails, tar and feathers to indicate to them that they should consider rapid relocation elsewhere. The local cops certainly would never dream of trying to enforce such an ordinance. They want to go home after their shifts . . . and they know just how many townsfolk would object, ballistically, to any attempt to apply such restrictions.
Perhaps a bunch of us should plan a visit to Îles-de-la-Madeleine - without bothering to get the QR code on our phones, even if we agree to pay the fee - then dare the local cops to do something about it. That might make for pay-per-view-level entertainment on local channels.
Peter
20 comments:
Rebellion is terrorism. That could put the wholes Canadian state in danger, and Canada has the right to defend herself, so Canadians should comply, unless they want to be arrested and sent to some friendly Gulag in Alberta digging for bituminous sands.
Sir,
Quite frankly, I am surprised at the bevy of questions you asked following the post excerpt. Did you not notice the antics of our elected persons during covid? How are these measures any different in theme? Those fifteen minute cities won't implement themselves, you know.
This is just prepping the battle space, and seeing if anyone objects and to what extent.
Tempus fugit.
Mike in Canada
Just a 'tad' over the top, and it fits with what Fidel Trudeau is doing up there... sigh
That's what happens when the population is composed of subjects, not free citizens.
It's comparable to the cost of getting on and off of Manhattan Island.
They sound French.
Prisons work pretty much the same way.
Canadians have never had individual rights and freedoms.
Their masters are simply more public about it these days.
"Perhaps a bunch of us should plan a visit to Îles-de-la-Madeleine - without bothering to get the QR code on our phones, even if we agree to pay the fee - then dare the local cops to do something about it."
You would be tortured and executed, just like if you'd tried it on some other dictatorship, like Ukraine or Washington DC.
A test case to see how far they can push it and extra revenue.
Like rust commies never stop, until eliminated and the metal of the nation well painted.
I'd love to go up and do that just to harass them, but that would entail me leaving the United States. That is something I will never do again in my lifetime.
It's Queerbec. Need I say more?
The biggest bunch of whiney pussies you will ever see on this planet, and I'm including soy boys.
Quebec can go to hell and I will pay their way. Nothing but a burden on Canada for decades. My Canada does NOT include Queerbec.
Or Morontario for that matter. Screw everything east of the Manisnowbah/Saskatchewan border.
It's amazing what a government can pull in a country without a Second Amendment.
Hey Peter,
The Officials need to wear Black uniforms with overcoats and come up to people and say with an accent "Your Identification Card Please"? I wonder how long before some blue enclave tries that crap here?
Winner winner chicken dinner!!!!
They will continue to push until you push back. They won't stop until you kill them. Grok that.
My buddy got pulled over in Vancouver, WA for driving around in his car during the first week of Covid shutdown so let's acknowledge that fascists gonna fascist. It's what government does best and it's why there have to be controls on government. We have a Constitution and it still didn't stop local governments (Washington state Governor Inslee) from issuing orders preventing you from going for a drive (or fishing, swimming, surfing, etc).
Isle de la Madelein is an small chain of islands in the middle of the St Lawrence River; only way in and out is by boat. With a summer population many times bigger than the year-round tax base. And, as an island, cost of living is more expensive than the mainland, where transport is cheaper. So I can understand the local officials looking for a new revenue source. They're just doing it the most boneheaded way imaginable. This wouldn't even be a thing if they'd just colluded with the ferry company to raise the ticket price and get a kickback.
This is more "theft from visitors", than an assault on personal liberty (which Canadians don't really have now anyway). Still a remarkably stupid thing to do.
Steve O from Canada
Easier to control access with over two hundred miles of cold water between you and the mainland. Tourism usually draws it's labor from adjoining cheaper areas, can't do that on an island. And tourism is all they've got, besides seafood. Winter sports aside, who wants to be cold on vacation? This place is selling ecotourism, and those visitors will absorb the QR requirement as one more modern technology imposition on people who are getting used to being fee'd to death already. Those who want to vacation there will suck it up. They may or may not return. Why the residents should show id to leave is odd, but Canada doesn't value or guarantee personal liberty or freedom of speech as the US does. They don't have to, because Canadians are defenseless subjects, trusting in Ottawa, the RCMP, and the scurrilous pansy Trudeau to protect their peacenik butts and wave the leaf. The millennial seeking an "experience" will pay once for it, maybe twice, but they usually go somewhere else for the next experience. The Canadians I grew up around in Europe were mostly decaffeinated, and didn't have much to say about Canada, and I wasn't inspired to visit.
rickm
Remember The Conch Republic!!!!!
I forgot about that bit of Americana that was completely Florida Man at his best.
I’m afraid that at some point here in my little hamlet of rural America we may do the same, not as a matter of revenue, but as a matter of survival...(..from the urban marauders of the failed state, or foreign invaders invited into our country to steal, kill and destroy..)....enforced by locals with brass and lead.....God help us defend our homes and families....
This isn’t new in Canada. You can drive to Prince Edward Island for free, but to leave you have to pay to drive back over the bridge or you pay to take the ferry both ways. In British Columbia, you have to pay to take the ferry to Vancouver Island and return to the mainland. At one time you had to pay $10 cash for their airport improvement fee to fly out of Vancouver, no cash no fly. Don’t know if they still charge it or if it’s hidden in the airfare.
So the fees charged at Isle de la Madeleine are in effect an access fee. Nothing new here. There isn’t a tax or a fee that Canadian governments don’t like.
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