Dear Editor:
Hans Schmidt made some very valid points in his letter that appeared in the June 3 edition of the Osoyoos Times regarding the importance of education and how higher education contributes to reduced crime and less need for prisons.
Our governments, federal and provincial, have placed priority on hiring more police and building more prisons before creating institutes for higher education, resulting in the evolution of a police state.
We are losing freedom at an alarming rate. There are reports of our secretive government destroying documents before complying with the Freedom of Information Act (Richard McGuire’s article dated June 3).
Bill C-51 will essentially have all citizens treated as enemies of the state. The secretive ulterior motive behind the introduction of Bill C-51 is to enable the conversion of the internet into a public utility.
Not only will we be under perpetual surveillance and spied upon as enemies, but we will also be limited to information which will be nothing more than censored government propaganda.
Our freedom of speech and press will diminish to comply with what the government deems appropriate.
Protests or statements contrary to the will of the government will be labeled as radical and treated as acts of “terror” – as though coming from enemies of the state.
We are being conditioned to live in fear of the government.
Education is knowledge. Knowledge is an enabler. With education we learn to savour information.
With information, we recognize the unscrupulous behavior of civil servants in their sense of entitlement to our tax dollars without representation.
We recognize the trend to build prisons before building institutes for education as perhaps the government anticipates revolt against their oversight of our freedoms. Education is the solution.
Stuart Wozniak
Rock Creek, B.C.
