Nova Scotia’s Forest Fire Rules： Hiking Banned, First Nations Exempt
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
178.60408
Summary
In this episode, we talk about the ridiculousness of the government's new ban on First Nations hiking and fishing in the woods, and why it's a good thing it's not a fire hazard. We also talk about how stupid governments are when it comes to safety.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
But what really just made this chef's kiss for me was when the Nova Scotia government created an exemption for First Nations.
00:00:08.160
So, you know, going for a hike in the forest, going fishing, these things could inadvertently start a forest fire.
00:00:18.560
But if you happen to belong to a First Nation, then the risk might not be so great.
00:00:25.480
I don't know. Is this the difference? I'm going to get in trouble on this one.
00:00:30.980
Is this the difference between an Indian fire and a white plant fire?
00:00:34.100
I don't know where to go with the answer with that one.
00:00:37.200
But I mean, they're inviting this kind of discussion because the absurdity of this.
00:00:40.760
They're just getting so bold and blatant and showing that this has absolutely nothing to do with the fire risk.
00:00:46.920
What's it about? What is it about then? I don't understand.
00:00:50.900
It's control. I mean, I brought many, many safety guys to tears during my 20 years in the oil field.
00:00:59.180
No, I was the surveyor who defied the safety guy who fought with the safety guy who would battle with them.
00:01:09.340
I like to see the guy who shows up in his pickup truck drunk, fired.
00:01:13.100
I like to see the guy who's blasting down the cut line on a quad with no helmet on and jumping off the stumps, disciplined.
00:01:19.180
I don't like the twits and morons, though, who start imposing stuff where there really wasn't a risk to begin with.
00:01:26.820
Like, for example, they started with ATV bans in the woods and things like that, chainsaws.
00:01:31.460
Okay, those are hot items that could start a fire and there could be a problem.
00:01:37.660
But when you start to ban hikers, that's safety guys gone wild where they just go to the length of the absurd.
00:01:44.840
And then it also shows that they tend to be also the ones who are woke to the max as well.
00:01:49.840
Well, oh dear, we've got a First Nations play that's coming up and they're going to be very upset if we cancel this.
00:01:55.660
If there had been any other play, or heaven forbid, a Christian singer.
00:02:02.860
It was a digital interpretation of Shakespeare, which I think is cultural appropriation.
00:02:09.400
Which I think most of us don't mind or care, but it is.
00:02:14.060
And they're just scared of canceling that to upset them.
00:02:18.060
There's no race less likely to light a fire than another.
00:02:22.380
Or if we wanted to dig down into some stats, we might find some stuff they really don't want to find out.
00:02:26.660
Oh, we're going to have to cap our spiciness right there.
00:02:30.260
But it's just bureaucrats gone wild and they've got the authority.
00:02:37.860
And I'm glad this happened with this because it exposed just how stupid it is.
00:02:51.660
And to your point about control, there is the thing that locks that into place.
00:03:02.600
It's when governments don't have an imagination, then they start restricting people.
00:03:13.500
But they want you to become a partner with them in enforcement.
00:03:22.060
And I'm just amazed that people will even tolerate it for a moment.
00:03:25.940
Well, and real safety is difficult, but bans are easy.
00:03:29.480
You know, if, but it's funny that most often, at least we could do a bit of a cost benefit.
00:03:33.620
I mean, how many children die in swimming pools every year across the country?
00:03:36.620
If we wanted to reduce it to zero, there's only one way.
00:03:41.960
You'd make reasonable mitigations like white gardens.
00:03:44.480
Fencing around the pools, training, lots of things.
00:03:47.620
But you do have, we have accepted that as it sits right now, a number of children are going
00:03:55.640
To be honest, I won't be shocked if it gets to a point where they start banning the bloody
00:03:59.360
If you're going to ban people from walking in the woods, because that's the only way they
00:04:02.340
think they can reduce the human ability to light a fire to zero, as ridiculous as that
00:04:07.760
sounded 10 years ago today, apparently it's just a shrug of the shoulders.
00:04:10.500
Well, it'd be the same with the only way to eliminate auto accidents.
00:04:15.760
Of course, we've decided that that is not reasonable.
00:04:20.180
There's things we can do to mitigate things, but people are still dying every single day
00:04:26.960
I think this is actually, this kind of government overreach actually creates danger.
00:04:34.160
You know, I remember saying during COVID that I hope to God we don't actually get the big
00:04:41.020
Like if we, if we got a real, you know, like one of, you know, one of these movies where
00:04:45.440
it's like, it's the black death and it's a genuine crisis, you know, I mean, a restriction
00:04:53.720
of your freedoms can in some circumstances be justified if the trade-offs are appropriate.
00:05:01.440
If you're not going intentionally too far, there is a circumstance under which lockdowns could
00:05:11.080
But the abuse of government power by virtually nearly every government around the world and
00:05:22.440
especially in Canada during COVID made sure that it destroyed our trust in institutions.
00:05:29.420
It destroyed social trust to the point where if we got the big one, if we got, you know, black
00:05:36.140
plague coming, um, so many people, uh, if it, if it happens within, I think 15 years of COVID
00:05:43.520
here, people are going to say, ah, you got, you got us last time.
00:05:49.780
People are, people will not follow, uh, reasonable recommendations or reasonable restrictions.
00:05:55.340
Uh, you know, you do have to curtail some activities during a forest, uh, for high risk of forest
00:06:02.460
Like I ride my quad every single day around my own land here, but if we were under a fire
00:06:07.560
watch, I understand that, okay, maybe that could create a grass fire on my land.
00:06:18.320
But if the government's always, if the government's going around banning me from hiking or fishing,
00:06:23.800
clearly things that have no impact whatsoever, I'm less likely to trust the more reasonable
00:06:28.960
restriction that, Hey, right now you probably shouldn't ride your quad because it could cause