The Trust Closed Shop lest the customers come ... - Alcyonenews

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Islands Trust

Posted August 30, 2019

The Trust Closed Shop lest the customers come ...

The July 26 piece “The Trust is Clamming up on Booth Canal” was to prod the Trust to break their silence and come out to stand on guard against the looming peril to Booth Canal. This because the Trust was working underground to facilitate what the Trust exist to prevent, in this instance the “privatization and industrialization” of Booth Canal and over 30 acres of adjacent intertidal foreshore.

To protect and preserve the Island shores is at the apex of the Trust mandate and, therefore, the industrialization of the intertidal foreshore is to the Trust, or ought to be, what Hell is to god-fearing folk.

The Trust silence about the threat to Booth Canal could mislead people to attribute it to the Trust being lax and in need of prodding to earn their oats. But the history of the Trust shows it habitually pursuing surreptitiously things the law, societal conventions and plain horse-sense forbid them to seek. Their methodology is to hide the facts, suppress voices of dissent and create a fait accompli before the people realize what is happening.

Evidently that is what they are doing about Booth Canal. In the past, the Trust fiercely fought back calls to protect and preserve the Canal. Now, it appears, they see the industrialization of the area as a means to relieve them from the pressure to act on their mandate and reverse the demise of Booth Canal. It seems they deem aquaculture to be a final solution to the Trusts’ problem with the Canal.

All the while the Trust has been active underground, aiding and abetting the aquaculture attempt. Evidently, the Trust has been talking with the aquaculture applicant and what we know about the intercourse is ugly. “Yes”, the Trust said, the zoning of these 33 acres forbids aquaculture, but worry not; omnipotent Trust that we are, we will “fix” the zoning of the land.

Thrilled to bits by the “stand” of this superbly supple Trust, the applicant advised the Provincial and Federal authorities that the Islands Trust, “our” Local Government, welcomes the aquafarm with open arms and is ready to rezone the area for it. That is to say, that the application carries the blessing of the “local government”, which can be a substantial factor in granting the application – as decisive as would be a Trust declaration of Trust determination to enforce the current zoning of the area at issue.

This “agreement in principle” carried in the aquaculture application form, states that the Trust sees the area zoning as merely an inconvenience to be:

“mitigated by a successful application to rezone the area in question”

Splendid! So bright it is that they had to cover it up lest it blind us. This is the same Trust who chased the SaltSpring Coffee to the mainland.

We now know that the Trust is betraying us on the Canal. We know the Trust is selling us out. We know that the Trust is surreptitiously doing to us that which the Trust was created

and mandated to protect us against. We must not relax, we must act. Like that British chap said, “We shall fight them on the beaches, but we shall not surrender”. Pertinently, he led us in battle to preserve and protect our right to prevail upon the magistrates when they veer from propriety and threaten our well-being.

The July 23, 2019 LTC meeting Agenda contained no mention of Booth Canal. This and leaking out of word that the Islands Trust is aiding and abetting those who seek the industrialization of the Islands foreshore may had alarmed the people of the Trust.

This is reminiscent of the LTC RAR hearing triple cancellation. In July 2011, the Trust aborted thrice the compulsory hearing (HHH; ArtSpring; and GISS ) due to “overwhelming public interest” threatening their plan to exploit “public apathy”. To the rescue of that vile RAR came Trustees Grove and Grams, who “creatively” re-scheduled the thrice aborted daylight meeting for a midweek, happy-hour/dinner time, setting it for a dark and stormy night, at the Fritz cinema, because, as Grove put it, they wanted a “cosy place”. Thus they shrank the attendees from some 500 down to 23. At the Fritz, the popcorn was good and free, the rest was pure poppycock.

Since they have not given any reason for the cancellation, one suspects that the Trust got hot under the collar, cut and run fast and far. This time around rescheduling would not work and they went “extreme”, they just cancelled the meeting to escape the door-crashing. Arguably this happened because we did not mete out to them their due when they pulled on us the Fritz fiasco. It now falls upon us to foil the purpose of the Trust’s Trojan Horse.

They continue clamming up. The agenda for the August 27 LTC contains no mention of Booth Canal or aquaculture. And nowhere have I seen an explanation for the last minute meeting cancellation, nor a civility to the people who may had arranged to attend. Evidently they are determined to destroy Booth Canal and they may succeed if we the people do not fight hard to protect our Island from the Trust.

I am calling for an immediate SSI LTC Resolution declaring that the Trust would not rezone any intertidal foreshore for aquaculture.