We don't need no Stinking badges
Our Rulers Declare the Facts in the Preamble to their Laws
“We don’t need no stinking badges!” That is the famous line from one of the outlaws in the “Treasure of the Sierra Madre". In Canada, our governments no longer need badges either. An emergency can exist and the need for emergency powers can be justified by the state’s own declaration of facts, independently of reality. That declaration of facts is of its own creation. There is no higher authority.
As example of the government declaring the facts that will bootstrap its actions is the preamble to legislation or a regulation or order. A law — simply put — commands that you do something (like pay a tax) or refrain from acting (like stealing). If a passage in a law does neither, one may not be dealing with law at all. But what is it? This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For example a law can contain some explanatory passages to explain to the subjects why the orders are needed: “Murder is bad, therefore murder is a criminal offence.” We don’t really need the first part, but no harm done.
In fact, it has become routine for governments to use legislation as a press release, usually in the form of what is called a preamble, sort of a longer version of the “murder is bad” bit above.
For example, a law could say, “Whereas there is a shortage of fuel etc etc it is ordered that the tax on Gasoline will be increased by 1%.” The preamble is the why. The law is the tax. Not that complicated.
But this brings us to a truly remarkable order I just read today. It is called:
ORDER OF THE PROVINCIAL HEALTH OFFICER (Pursuant to Sections 30, 31, 32, 39 (3), 53, 54, 57, 67 (2) and 69 Public Health Act, S.B.C. 2008) SCHOOL STAFF MEMBER VACCINATION STATUS REPORTING – JANUARY 17, 2022
As I started reading its preamble, I shuddered. This Order is truly the mother of all bootstraps. Before we get to the operative part of the order, you will have to read through 28 paragraphs (A to BB) of self justification and declarations of reality that serves in effect — in my view — to reverse the function of the preamble. The preamble it seems in a dystopian world has risen to become the operative part of the Order by the power of its conclusions. The declared facts in this extraordinary Order, operating through a looking glass as they do outside of reality and the possibility of criticism or correction, have become reality. The operative orders follow without need for further reflections.
The Order begins:
WHEREAS: A. On March 17, 2020, I provided notice under section 52 (2) of the Public Health Act that the transmission of the infectious agent SARS-CoV-2, which has caused cases, clusters and outbreaks of a serious communicable disease known as COVID-19 among the population of the Province of British Columbia, constitutes a regional event as defined in section 51 of the Public Health Act;
B. A person infected with SARS-CoV-2 can infect other people with whom the infected person is in contact;
C. Vaccination is safe, highly effective, and the single most important preventive measure a person can take to protect themselves, their families, and other persons with whom they come into contact from infection, severe illness and possible death from COVID-19. In particular: (a) the vaccines available in British Columbia, in company with other protective and preventive measures, are highly effective and provide protection across all eligible age groups against infection and strong protection against severe illness and death; (b) most British Columbians have strong and durable protection from SARS-CoV-2 resulting from the extended interval between dose one and dose two of vaccine that is being utilized in British Columbia; in addition, a new vaccine is now being offered which only requires one dose to be effective, and booster doses are being implemented in order to reinforce the protection afforded by vaccination; 2 (c) a full course of vaccine provides more effective and durable protection against infection and severe illness than natural immunity from prior COVID-19 infection alone, or natural immunity in combination with a single-dose of vaccine (of those vaccines that require two doses to be effective); and (d) a full course of vaccine provides highly effective and durable protection from severe illness resulting in hospitalization or death from COVID-19, with illness being mostly milder in vaccinated people who become infected than in unvaccinated people …
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You get the idea. You may have heard different, but these are the declared facts.
Another theme or the Order is that the public serves the public health system and not the reverse. Technique is efficiency in all places at all times. Management abhors variability, lack of uniformity, fluctuation in input and output. The public is a unit to be managed for the machine:
J. The appearance of the Omicron variant, which is causing significant surges in infection with SARSCoV-2 in other provinces and other parts of the world in addition to British Columbia, underlines the importance of vaccination in protecting the population, and in removing the conditions which foster the development of variants which pose ever greater threats to public health;
K. Preserving the ability of the public health and health care systems to protect and care for the health needs of the population, including providing care for health needs other than COVID-19, is critical. High incidence of transmission and illness in one or more regions have spillover effects on health care delivery across the Province, including in critical care and surgical services. Our public health and health care systems are currently experiencing severe stress, and are stretched beyond capacity in their efforts to prevent and respond to illness resulting from the transmission of COVID-19 in the population, primarily among unvaccinated people;
L. Both the public health and the health care systems are using disproportionate amounts of their resources in their efforts to prevent and respond to the transmission of SARS-CoV2, and to provide care for those who become ill with COVID-19, primarily unvaccinated people who comprise the majority of hospitalizations and ICU admissions;
M. While people who have contracted SARS-CoV-2 may develop some natural immunity for a period of time following infection, the strength and duration of that immunity varies depending on a multitude of factors, including severity of infection. The risk of reinfection and hospitalization is significantly higher in people who remained unvaccinated after contracting SARS-CoV-2 than in those who were vaccinated post-infection. Vaccination, even after infection, remains an important measure to protect against reinfection. It does so by providing a stronger immune response that is known to be effective for a longer period of time than immunity arising from infection.
N. Vaccination is the single most important preventive measure a member of a community can take to protect themselves and other members of the community from infection, severe illness and possible death from COVID-19;
O. People over 70 years of age, and people with chronic health conditions or compromised immune systems, are particularly vulnerable to severe illness and death from COVID-19, even if they are vaccinated …
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The next paragraph of the Order is charming: “Children” we hear are “members of the community” and will also have to be managed:
P. Included among the members of the community who are more likely to be infected are children aged 5 to 11 years. This is because children in this age group have only recently become eligible for vaccination and it will take some time before the members of this group can be fully vaccinated;
Q. Adults and children who are either particularly vulnerable to infection with SARS-CoV-2 or too young to have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine depend upon the people with whom they come into contact to protect them from the risk of infection;
R. Unvaccinated people in close contact with other people can promote the transmission of SARSCoV-2 and increase the number of people who develop COVID-19 and become seriously ill …
Apparently, our rulers are prepared to declare that going to school is beneficial, in the language of pandemic newspeak:
S. Attendance at school in person fosters the educational, social, emotional and physical wellbeing of students, provides a secure source of nutrition for many and enables parents who cannot work from home to continue working, thereby ensuring a continuing source of family income;
T. Schools provide a structured environment for students which in many cases provides greater protection to students from the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV2 than other environments in which they might be ..
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Now we get to the bad guys:
U. Protecting and supporting the ability of boards of education, independent school authorities and francophone education authorities to continue to provide in person schooling is critical to the wellbeing of children and their families. V. Cases of COVID-19 among school staff members can contribute to clusters of infection and lead to the isolation of a large number of children who are identified as close contacts, adversely affecting their well-being by preventing them from attending school and other social activities;
W. Unvaccinated staff members pose a health hazard to students and other staff members due to the higher risk that they can transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others …
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I will omit the rest as you can see where this is going. I assure you there is an actual order, a law compelling someone to do something and others not to do other things, further down, but we have covered what is significant.
Almost no unofficial narrative enters Canada. It is like being in a Dutch attic in 1944 listening to the BBC. The machine of the technocracy is moving on despite what we hear (from the attic) that just perhaps Omicron augurs well for the end of the pandemic. But I said I shuddered and I do because an end to this is not at all evident in such legislation. Emersed in law as I have been, I must look at laws and how they are written to interpret our reality at least in part. A preamble can be a very dark place to look in these times.
Children in some public schools in Canada are not allowed to look at each other while talking. Quebec plans to tax the unvaxed. Waitresses ask for our papers.
As you can see, a provincial government Order aimed at clamping down on unvaxed teachers contains A to BB of preamble of dystopian propaganda. I must try to imagine the hive mind that wrote this, that crafted these 28 paragraphs, A to BB, and the purpose of those paragraphs, in the mind of the creator — but also how the creator sees the subject population.
I write this as a lawyer to warn people (especially people in Canada) that this is the voice of a new kind of government. Something is different. There is no attempt here at rational government. Not a trace left. Not event a pretense. It bears the stamps of technocratic management, in this case the management of people viewed as a herd or product.
The public health state is now existing for itself, to propagate itself. The public, the citizens, now serve the public health system not the reverse. It appears the source of power is perpetuating itself, and existing for itself only. A self perpetuating power does not give power up because of the facts. The facts are what the preamble says the facts are. Reality is what the preamble says it is.