Dear Editor:
Many Burnaby NOW readers will agree with your North Shore opinion piece, "Protests, demonstrations, part of democracy." I do not.
When the same face shows up over and over again at the various demonstrations I expect that you include this in your report. (Some of us also draw certain conclusions when people, peaceful or otherwise, hide behind masks.) As we saw in Toronto at the G8, "peaceful" demonstrators provided convenient cover for the violent ones who disappeared in their midst. All of this is openly discussed. However, if the information is shared by the government the logical next step, according to you, is crushing people à la Tiananmen Square under tanks?
I do remember the ruckus when the earth was still cooling, because all of us with access to restricted areas at YVR needed to be fingerprinted. Then as now my reaction remains the same. Having my fingerprints on file will prove one thing and one thing only: I did not do it!
Otherwise it was all the same: government paranoia, violation of fundamental rights, police state ... You know the routine! Today we just put shoes on grandma that come easily off and on again and have pretty much forgotten who caused us to spend $7 billion annually on airport security.
More recently a bus driver was injured on the job by sisters who had racked up hundreds of "confrontational" contacts with police. Are you telling us that no such records should have been kept either? Quite frankly, instead of just keeping a record on them, I wish something had been done earlier as a result of these "contacts" and, I bet, so does the injured driver!
Considering facts on the ground, some of us may just conclude that you applied the word paranoia to the wrong people!
Ziggy Eckardt, Burnaby
