Latest news with #PrivateProperty
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Rampant shoplifting is the ultimate symbol of our descent into anti-Western decadence
Theft is wrong. Private property is sacrosanct. Shoplifting must be stamped out. We are governed by malicious, ignorant fools who cannot grasp the importance of such precepts, and who are vandalising our social order through their negligence, arrogance and suicidal empathy. Take the grotesque moral inversion exhibited by Labour when it tells shopkeepers not to place 'high value' items close to store entrances, in effect blaming the victims of crime for enticing shoplifters. A minister, Dame Diana Johnson, complained that 'some stores…put bottles of alcohol at the front of the store which obviously people will nick.' Note the use of the colloquial 'nick', which trivialises the violation, demonstrates an inability to take shoplifting seriously and implies that it is a cheeky, opportunistic, almost child-like act of rule-bending. The rest of Johnson's intervention is equally reprehensible. Why would a passer-by 'obviously' feel compelled to grab a bottle if they happen to see it? What kind of excuse is that? Why couldn't they choose not to steal? Do they entirely lack agency? Are we 'noble savages', unable to control our impulses, or are we civilised, demanding self-control, deferred gratification and respect for moral tenets such as 'thou shall not steal'? Labour, in common with many Tories, civil servants, charities and the police establishment, succumbed long ago to 'progressive' woke ideology. This divides the world into oppressors and oppressed, powerful and powerless, bad and good. Shop-owners are part of the capitalist class, and regardless of whether they are a major chain or the local independent corner shop, are tainted: they control the 'power structure' and are inherently guilty of racism, sexism and every sin. Shoplifters are defined, equally reflexively, as oppressed, latter-day Jean Valjeans, after Victor Hugo's character in Les Misérables jailed for 19 years for stealing bread for his sister's starving children.
Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
B.C. to appeal landmark Aboriginal title ruling over land in Metro Vancouver
British Columbia's government will appeal a landmark Aboriginal title ruling that grants a claim by the Cowichan Nation over land on the Fraser River in Metro Vancouver, the attorney-general said. Niki Sharma said Monday that the government strongly disagrees with last week's B.C. Supreme Court decision granting fishing rights and Aboriginal title over the parcel of land on Lulu Island in Richmond, B.C. Sharma said the ruling could have 'significant unintended consequences' over private property rights in B.C. and it must be reconsidered by a higher court. 'Our government is committed to protecting and upholding private property rights while advancing the very important and critical work of reconciliation here in this province,' Sharma said, adding that the government preferred resolving land claim issues through reconciliation rather than risking 'considerable uncertainty' through the courts. The B.C. Supreme Court ruled last week that fee-simple ownership and interests in the lands, held by Canada, Richmond and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, 'are defective and invalid,' but did not make a similar ruling for privately owned property. The judge said B.C. owes a duty to the Cowichan to negotiate in good faith the reconciliation of Crown-granted private property on a portion of Lulu Island in Richmond, land that Cowichan ancestors used as a summer home and fishing village. 'The Crown grants of fee simple interest in the Cowichan title lands, and the Crown vesting of the soil and freehold interest in certain highway lands in the Cowichan title lands, unjustifiably infringe the Cowichan's Aboriginal title,' the ruling says. How Indigenous peoples and the private sector can work together to get major projects done At a news conference earlier Monday, the Cowichan's lawyer, David Robbins, told reporters it was up to the provincial government to reconcile private property rights with the ruling. 'They have always understood that fundamentally, this case is about resetting their relationship with the crown,' he said of his clients. 'And so, with respect to the private fee simple that is still encumbering the Cowichan Aboriginal title, they sought a declaration that British Columbia has a duty, to reconcile that fee simple with the Cowichan Nation Aboriginal title through negotiations.' Cowichan Tribes Chief Cindy Daniels said the nation initially tried to get an agreement through the treaty process but there was 'no openness' to discuss the land, and so they went to court. 'As stated in our 2016 declaration of reconciliation, our land and resources objectives are to recover and restore our village and surrounding lands, re-establish our permanent residence and river access, re-establish our cultural practices including those that support food security and sustainability, realize economic development and re-establish the truth of our history in that region,' she said.
