Friday, June 13, 2008

Is The Ghost Of George Orwell Haunting Lotusland?

Surveillances'RUs
EverywhereVille


Well, whaddya know.

The crown corporation known as the "British Columbia Transmission Corporation" has been spying on law abiding citizens who have been protesting the construction of high tension wires in their backyards:

Some Tsawwassen residents fighting the construction of power lines through their yards have discovered they were put under surveillance by the B.C. Transmission Corporation....

{snippety-doo-dah}

Days before the (Supreme Court) hearing (about a possible injunction to halt protests), an unidentified man gave several residents large packages of documents containing newspaper articles, transcriptions of conversations involving the residents and BCTC employees, e-mails, photographs, and video recordings of resident involvement in protests to oppose the transmission lines.......

{snippety-doodle-dandy}

(Protestor Tina) Ryan thinks the package was meant to intimidate her....


Hmmmmmm.......

Could it be that the good folks of Tsawwassen are just a little paranoid?

Maybe.

Then again.

Maybe not.

But the British Columbia Transmission Corporation says it isn't breaking the law by watching and documenting the actions of residents opposing the Tsawwassen power line project.

Thoren Hudyma, a BCTC public affairs officer, said the files were from the Crown corporation, but denied the corporation was attempting to frighten anyone.

"We have a legal right and we have a legal obligation to record this as evidence," said Hudyma.

The surveillance was all being collected as evidence to be used if there was ever a court case, said Hudyma, and was delivered to the residents as part of the legal proceedings.

She said the main concern for the corporation was meeting the completion date for the project.....


All of which proves at least two things.

First, spokesthingy's will say anything to justify their paymasters ends no matter how mean, be they White House press secretaries or low level Crown Corporation flunkies*.

Second, as Hunter Thompson always used to say:

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

OK?


_____
*Gosh, wonder how Ms. Hudyma would feel if somebody started following her around taking pictures of her and her family and then told her to relax because all they were doing was collecting evidence that would be presented to the court of public opinion to demonstrate how the culpability of spokesthingies is turning our public discourse to codswallop (or some such thing).

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