A
couple of weeks ago, a woman in Vancouver was fined for tying her dog outside
and leaving him unattended. There was, she quickly learned, a city bylaw that
prohibited this. As the saying goes, you are meant to learn from your mistakes.
Instead, she ran to every news outlet that would listen to her, ranting about
how unfair the bylaw was, and that she shouldn’t be punished for breaking it
because she “didn’t know the bylaw existed.”
We
have been sympathetic to her case, because she’s talking about an adorable
fluffy dog. I love dogs more than the next person, but her ignorance about the
bylaw is not an excuse for not following it. For any other bylaw or regulation,
the argument would never hold up. It has now turned into a huge issue at City
Hall, with Councillor Adriane Carr taking up the cause. She believes that this
section of the bylaw is overkill, and that it is penalizing people who act
responsibly with their pets. Although there are several valid arguments against
the bylaw, one of the loudest seems to be that the it is ridiculous because no
one knows about it.
This
is where we enter an interesting situation. Using this bylaw as an example, the
logic seems to be that if you don’t know about a law, you are not obliged to
follow it. Although this broken bylaw is not putting lives at risk, excusing
the violation of this bylaw is heading down a slippery slope. Soon, we’ll see
court trials where the defendant is screaming at the judge: “Please, Your
Honour, I’m innocent. I didn’t know it was illegal to eat people! Don’t send me to
jail!”
Yes,
this is an extreme example, but the logic still applies. Ignorance does not
forgive our actions. It is our responsibility as a member of society to inform
ourselves about the social contract we enter into by being a part of a
community. You can believe that you cannot be ordered to enter into a social
contract, but we have all still entered into one because we reap the benefits
of living in an organized society.
I’m
not telling you that you have to follow laws to the letter (it might be a good
idea, but hey, I’m not your mother), but if you break a law you should do so as
an informed human being.
This
blissful ignorance is spreading through our society, and it is a pathetic
excuse for wrongdoing. We live in the information age, where everything is
readily available at our fingertips. If we want to know about a bylaw, we can
go to the city’s website and find all the documents we need in less than five
minutes.
The
only excuse for not knowing about a law is laziness, and, quite frankly, that
hasn’t been a valid reason in quite some time. We need to pull our act together
and ensure that everything we do is done as informed citizens. We must seek out
information, and help spread it amongst ourselves. We must go to the source to
get details, and stop swallowing propaganda like it’s candy on Halloween.
Until
we recognize that any lack of information or ignorance is our own fault, we
remain vulnerable pawns in a government’s game. Because we are unaware, they
hold all the power. There are a few voices speaking out, but because we can’t
be bothered to look beyond the Metro or the Province, they’re being drowned out
in this angry ocean of lies.
Do
what you want, but recognize the consequences. I will only accept your
reasoning if you have made the effort to inform yourself, and you should do the
same. The longer we remain ignorant, the longer ridiculous stories like a dog
bylaw are going to remain on the front page; meanwhile, Canada turns its back
on the environment, tries to push through dangerous copyright legislation, and
messes around with a controversial pipeline.
The
government knows exactly what they're doing, and it’s time we follow their
example and educate ourselves.
//Samantha Thompson, editor-in-chief
//Samantha Thompson, editor-in-chief
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