Dear Editor:
We do not have a democracy in this country: we have a plutocracy (government by the wealthy).
The rich and their corporations with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, have the best government money can buy.
What has been forgotten, or I should say deliberately ignored and avoided, is our signed commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We may proudly say as Canadians, it was written for the UN (United Nations) by a Canadian named John Humphrey and signed by Canada in 1976.
Article 22 (3) states: Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
I raise this because we need to take a look at the document which our country was not only instrumental in creating but by signing it, was committed to work towards its implementation.
I should add there is so much in this declaration that everyone should take the time to read it, as it is an inspirational tribute to our humanity.
We have no right to talk about being a civilized society and a democracy when it functions on the backs of working people and depends on the suffering of many for the sake of a few.
Those of us who care need to call for an Economic Bill of Rights, to say enough is enough.
We need to shake up the politicians at all levels of government and demand equal rights and a life of dignity for all people.
If we don't, with the neoconservative despots we have in government, conditions in our country and community will only get worse.
Have we not had enough of poverty and inequality?
Our governments have to do more than declare Family Day our new statutory holiday celebrated on Feb. 10.
It's time to eradicate poverty if in fact we believe in the family. B.C. has the highest poverty rate in Canada and, as reported recently, this Liberal government is one of only two provinces in Canada with no plan to reduce poverty.
In this rich province and country, it is, to say the least, an outrage.
Bill Zander, New Westminster
