CANADIAN ANTI-METRIC CRUSADER RESISTS BIG BROTHER

By Eric D. Butler
Those who have read Malcolm Muggeridge's brilliant essay, "The Great Liberal Death Wish", will remember the reference to the credulous idiots amongst the self-styled academics and intelligentsia. Centralised control of propaganda has during this century been used to foster widespread acceptance of the most incredible nonsense, much of it designed to further the increasing influence of Big Brother.

For years Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders were urged to impose compulsory fluoridation of public water supplies. Not only were the "world's leading experts" in favour of fluoridation, but starting with the U.S.A. the "whole world was accepting fluoridation.' As a student of the fluoridation issue for over twenty years, primarily from the philosophical point of view, I have watched the progressive retreat from fluoridation in the U.S.A., while noting on my many visits to Canada that the issue is now hardly ever raised. Western European nations have done only a little experimenting with fluoridation, most of this now stopped, with the result that it is now true to say that the fluoridation issue is nearly dead in Western Europe.
Effective resistance to fluoridation has developed in New Zealand, leaving Australians with more fluoridation than any other country in the world.

The metric madness has been promoted in the same way that Big Brother was used to promote fluoridation. Every effort has been made to impose a major change without the consent of the people. "The whole world was going metric", and, of course, "metrication is essential for exporting." There could be, perhaps, a small element of truth in the last statement if the exports were being sent to a country completely metricated. But a country like Australia does not export its roads, its farms - or its weather! It does, of course, export meat to the U.S.A. in metric measurements, with the Americans then converting it to imperial measurements! Anyone watching American films cannot help noticing that metric terms are hardly used.

Last year when in Canada I reported on the incredible fact that metrication in Canada was actually illegal because no Act of Parliament had ever been passed. Since then one of those rare souls who are like a breath of fresh air in defying Big Brother and his degrading philosophy, has caused a stir by insisting that he will go to jail to fight the metric imposition. Jim Goodwin describes Delburne of Alberta, Canada, "the anti-metric centre of Canada". That is where I am reporting from. Short, snow white haired Jim Goodwin is proud of his heritage.

As I have been driven many miles by Jim Goodwin, I can testify that he is a much safer driver than some who have driven me. But he thought if he could get a speeding ticket he could launch a campaign against metrics. Eventually he got one, appeared before a Judge in Calgary and told that irate gentleman that he was innocent because the metric system is illegal. "I was charged with a crime in an alien language which I do not understand", says Jim Goodwin. But the Judge did not see it this way and told Jim Goodwin he was fined $30 or would go to jail for 15 days. He became excited when told that Jim Goodwin was ready to go to jail. He had parked his car with friends, had his clothes and was ready! The Judge left the Court expostulating and said he would issue a warrant. That was many months ago. This Canadian Jim Goodwin has made his point and has given the anti-metric movement in Canada a new impetus. No warrants have arrived ordering him to jail.

Jim Goodwin writes the type of letter one would expect from a man prepared to go to jail to uphold a principle. In a letter to politicians and the press, he first annihilates the false propaganda concerning metrication, and then comments, "Change our history, force us to speak a foreign language, flood the country with aliens and our children will grow up as strangers in their own land, the land that you and I fought for and the land that so many kids in their late teens died for. Freedom is not free. You fight for it and guard it and guard it 24 hours a day, forever."

Jim Goodwin is heartened by the news from Britain, where the Country's 10-year-old Metrication Board has been abolished. And also by the following robust comment in the November, 1979 issue of the well known Canadian publication, "Canadian Business": "The editors wish to point out that, in tireless quest for editorial clarity, 'Canadian Business' has resolutely resisted, and will continue to resist, the current mania for metric measurement. We believe our readers are as confused and irritated as we are by hectares, kilometers, kilograms and Celsius. We will therefore continue to describe things as they are, namely, in terms of pounds, ounces, inches, feet, miles and Fahrenheit."
Big Brother is not having it all his own way in Canada. Australia please note.

AN ELECTRIC ISSUE

Mr. Jeremy Lee reports
Crystallising out of the complete bewilderment in the Australian community, and from the pent up anger which has been building up at political gimmickry and broken promises, one major issue is beginning to "gel" throughout Australia - PETROL PRICES. It is so obvious that even the totally insensitive A.L.P. Opposition is beginning to sense it. If there were only some genuine initiative in the Labor ranks, they would be having a field day.

Australians are in a mood to respond to any commonsense alternative. A promise to reduce taxes, petrol prices, interest rates and food costs would ensure a Labor victory at any Federal election. The truth, however, is that the Fraser Government's current policies are really Labor policies, leaving Mr. Hayden without a feather to fly with! He slavishly follows the same I.M.F. and O.E.C.D. nonsense, which motivates John Howard, and the Treasury officials. If Mr. Hayden is not of the same political denomination as Mr. Fraser, he is certainly of the same faith, so he can only nitpick about the shape and colour of the pulpit without criticising the sermon!

The National Times (April 6 to 12) says: "At recent meetings with party leaders, Labor candidates have told how their door knocking campaigns show it is "petrol, petrol, petrol" which is emerging as the dominant issue...... As with Afghanistan, the deceit of the Fraser Government on petrol prices is being exposed. The claim that world parity prices are necessary to ensure future exploration in Australia is blatant falsehood when it can be seen that less than one twentieth of the current rip off goes to exploration incentives.

There has been outrage in the United States at the huge profits made last year by Rockefeller's Exxon, with an annual turnover over $80 BILLION - bigger then Sweden's G.N.P. Exxon emerged as the biggest single monopoly in the world. Its net profits totaled just over $4 billion for 1979. That is about the same figure, as the Fraser Government makes from its petrol tax at the current rate in a full 12-month period.

A further hefty hike in petrol prices can be expected in July when OPEC prices will increase, with the usual flow on to the oil companies and the western tax gatherers. If there is one issue which could persuade Australians to turn to a doctrinaire, left wing controlled, internationalist type A.L.P. Opposition, it is the explosive issue of Petrol prices.

OIL AND OIL SHALE

Total annual world consumption of oil is approximately 22 billion barrels, according to the World Almanac. The propaganda that the world's oil supplies are running out - so widespread that it is taught in many schools as fact - can be completely dismissed by the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Canada has over 500 billion barrels of oil in the Athabasca Tar Sands, currently producing about 160,000 barrels of oil a day. The United States has over 2,000 billion barrels of oil in proven reserves, which include the Green River Shale formation, enough to keep the world going at current rates of consumption for almost 100 years. Mexico, with bigger beds of oil than the Middle East, has a proven 500 billion barrels up her sleeve, while Venezuela, to the south has a further 200 billion barrels. Australia's oil shale, if fully developed, could provide the whole world's needs for a minimum of 45 years. Oil from shale was first developed in Australia in the 1860's, with considerable production in the war years.

The truth is that the West has the potential to survive without the Middle East oil now being used for political blackmail. The full story of why this is being frustrated, and the alternatives that do exist, is contained in a devastating new booklet "The World Wide Oil Scandal", produced by the Institute of Economic Democracy, Ravensbourne, Queensland, 4352 ($1 posted).