A positive approach for 2009

http://www.saveoursundays.ca/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=75


I have learned that so many people are timid in speaking out against Sunday shopping. I can't understand why? It does not matter if you are a cashier, a cart pusher, if you dig ditches or flip hamburgers. There is nothing wrong with speaking out! Sunday shopping may seem normal to a good many of people. So was smoking and now that's naughty. If Sunday shopping was about choice, I'd except it. But I know it's not and the public should be well aware of what this free choice is actually about. This is one example , I have substituted names to protect those who do not want to be mentioned.
Brian- "Sir, I'd like a dept managers job. How do I go about it? Can I still refuse to work on Sunday?''
Manager- "Brian you can train to become a dept manager, but we do require you to work on Sundays."
Brian- "Wasn't being able to work on Sunday a choice?"
Manager- "That's correct, however if you refuse to work on Sunday, how can you expect your employee's to work on Sunday?"
In this scenario the worker has very little choice, but do as the company wishes to get the job. All companies have a way around the laws in our province. There are positions in most retail jobs, but most of them are requiring you to work on Sunday or lose out on that position. Hardly a choice is it?
Now that I have focused on the negative part, lets focus on the positive! Why don't we all in 2009 start communicating with our friends, family and government officials? Communication is a key factor to solving problems. We need to focus on getting a ban on Sunday shopping by contacting government and letting our feelings on the issue be known. Don't let others make you feel like a out cast because you come out against Sunday shopping. There isn't anything wrong with speaking out. People fought in wars to give us that freedom. Another important approach we can all take right now, besides pushing for government legislation is to stop shopping on Sunday, and focus on our families. Let's start thinking about our environment and what we are doing by supporting another day of shopping. It's no good to stop buying plastic bags to save the environment, yet destroy it in another way. I mean seriously..the box stores have convinced most of you to save the environment by buying their bags. When are these companies going to reduce hours to save the environment? We have more traffic on our roads, and business' have lights burning on another day of the week. Our hope for 2009 is that the public will wake up and see the light. So in 2009...lets stop shopping on Sunday. Don't think it will make a difference? Who ever thought gas prices would decrease? I can remember gas prices at $1.40 a litre and now it's 70 cents a litre. Everyone stopped buying gas. It's all about supply and demand.
Can we force stores to close on Sunday. Of course we can. Stop shopping on Sunday ( Supply and demand) . Make a list and shop through the week. Don't think it's possible? Here is another situation, a snow storm is coming on Sunday. The stores suddenly are packed on Saturday. The consumer manages to do all his or her shopping on Saturday to avoid the storm on Sunday. So if consumers can do that, why not stop shopping every Sunday?
We all must take a positive step towards our future of today and tomorrow. This will be a important step forward. To make another important point, we are getting 400- 900 hits a day on the Save Our Sundays web site. It's no problem to see that this is still a issue locally and abroad.
I feel we have a important message to spread to others. If you want change, pass this web site on to five people and ask them to pass it on to five people. Just remember, we have the power to make a difference, whether it be through government legislation or just by not shopping on Sundays. Related story - http://www.saveoursundays.ca/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=72

What ever happened to democracy in this country?

As I sit here on this rainy afternoon, I have to wonder what did happen to Nova Scotia? This October, our province will celebrate Democracy 250. So many people have spoken about how they love choice. Didn't we have a choice in Oct 2004, when we voted No to Sunday shopping? I just cannot believe that so many people have swept this important issue under the rug. How can we celebrate a democracy, when our governments of all levels and ourselves are making a fool of it? http://decisions.courts.ns.ca/nssc/2006/2006nssc290.html On the court web site the Judge clearly quotes the lawyers remarks -"Well, what this application is about is not about social or political considerations. It’s not about the appropriateness of Sunday shopping, nor is it about the power of the legislature to pass an Act dealing with Sunday shopping. This case, this application is about one fact and it is about the scope of the Cabinet’s power to pass Regulations pursuant to the Act." I decided to look even further into this court decision and I came up with some more web sites telling us the same thing. http://www.lancasterhouse.com/services/eslr/esl-e-bulletin.asp#B http://bonologue1.blogspot.com/2006/10/shopocracy.html http://www.mcinnescooper.com/index.cfm?cm=Doc&ce=details&primaryKey=16411 Quote from this web site " It should be noted that this was not really a case about Sunday shopping, but rather the scope of Cabinet’s power to pass regulations under the Act. The judge ruled that the wording of the Act which gave Cabinet the power to make regulations did not give Cabinet the power to discriminate between different types of businesses by size (i.e. square footage), corporate structure or the kinds of goods and services offered." Clearly by our research the courts did not strike down Sunday shopping. Why wasn't this on TV? No where can I see where it was mentioned about the courts striking down the Sunday shopping ban. The Judge did not say the Provincial Government did not have the constitutional power to force stores to close on Sunday. We have heard so many arguments such as "you cannot legislate a family day". Comments like that have me wondering. Why can't we? We legislate a day to celebrate Canada, we Legislate a day for Christmas Day ,Labour Day and so on. Why is it that one of the most important aspects,our families, is thrown aside? Sure, you can have family day anytime. We could use that argument also to do away with all of our holidays. I just love the argument that so and so works at a restaurant and works on Sunday. What makes retail workers any better? Retail workers were not hired to work on Sundays. Secondly, don't these other occupations have the option of going after government legislation to close their doors on Sunday also? To play retail workers off against other workers that work on Sunday wasn't right. I have never seen that comparison with a postal worker and a restaurant worker. Only examples of people working on Sunday were compared to the retail sector. No comparison was made to schools, banks, dentists, MLA's or our legislature that doesn't sit on a Sunday. Now we have a push on for government offices to go to a four day week to save our environment. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080802/four_day_week_080802/20080802?hub=CTVNewsAt11 It's laughable, on one hand, our premier opens the doors to seven day a week shopping and encourages us to drive our cars. Yet on the other hand this party wants to save the environment by reducing the work week to four days. How can we save the environment on one hand, while the other one is destroying it by allowing stores to open seven days a week? Could this have been suggested just to give government workers a long week-end? Seriously, there is something wrong if we continue to remain silent about this. The line that really gets me, and most people have actually bought that argument, is that business' should have the right to open and close when they want to. That government has no place in dictating that to business'and tha twe cannot tell business' when to close...yet,according to these arguments, we can tell them how to spend their money. Just have a look at the labour laws in our province. Take for instance the minimum wage http://www.gov.ns.ca/lwd/employmentrights/MinimumWage.asp .We can tell a business how much per hour they have to pay a employee. A employer may want to pay a employee two dollars per hour. Should government allow that? What about vacation pay, holiday pay? All these things are legislated. Should we allow business to do what ever they want , when they want to? I also want to touch on this aspect of Save Our Sundays. I was asked why not have a day of rest on Monday or Saturday or any other day. Why does it have to be on Sunday? The reason as to why I prefer Sunday is because it has always been the traditional day of rest. Why don't we have a Referendum on which day of rest we should have? Pick a day Sunday to Monday. The only problem that confronts all of us is the religion of commercialism. I'm really disappointed in both the No and Yes people as they have forgotten about our victory vote. I'm so disappointed to think that we are supposed to be celebrating Democracy 250. We aren't sending a proper message to our kids by ignoring a democratic vote. Rodney MacDonald will be extremely happy, that so many people have swept this issue under the rug. I'm wondering if a democratic vote is no longer important, what will be next? As a human race we all seem to forget. I have not forgotten how unique our province once was. Can we go back? There is nothing stopping us from going back. Will we forget in time what Canada Day meant to us? Will we forget in time what Good Friday, Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, Labour Day ,meant to us? Will the same arguments being used to get rid of the legislated days of rest be the same arguments to do away with our holidays? When all is said and done, our premier has come on top by ignoring our wishes. To those of you who voted No and are out shopping on Sunday, you have been had...our premier is so happy that you have chosen to support him in ignoring a democratic vote. Pity help us if we have another vote on something that our premier doesn't like. I have worked a good many years in retail for one of the large chains and I think it's important we all exercise our freedom of speech. We all need to let all political parties that this isn't acceptable. Whether you are for Sunday shopping or against, how can you support Rodney MacDonald? This guy sold us all out. How are you celebrating Democracy 250? Media and it's influence on us Have you ever wondered if the media has influence over you? Have they brainwashed you? From fighting the Sunday shopping debate there is no doubt in my mind, that a lot of people have been swayed by the media. Take for instance that before we even had Sunday shopping. Over and over so we would often hear this same question. " Would you like to shop on Sunday? Don't you think business owners should have the right to decide to open or not?" At that time, I can remember hearing " I'll never shop on Sunday". " I'll never work on Sundays". The majority of Nova Scotians at that point in time were against Sunday shopping. Going off the topic to make my point of the influence the media has with all of us,just look at the war in Iraq. Don't you remember George Bush telling us all that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction? Needless to say, where are the weapons of mass destruction? The media can be good in a lot of ways and in another sense change our ways and habits, and opinions. Sunday shopping is one of those things we should never have bought into. Here's another example..how many of you use the environmentally friendly bags? Over and over the media has been pushing this for big business. If companies really cared about the environment wouldn't they want to reduce their hours of operation? Doesn't that make any sense? After all we would have less cars on our roads. Business' wouldn't have their lights on seven days of the week, like they do now. We are going to be slapped with another power rate hike. Who do you think will pay for it at the grocery stores? Do you think that the companies will absorb the cost and not hook us for it? All these costs are being passed on to us. I have not seen anything get any better since Sunday shopping was allowed in this province or any province for that matter. How many of you work at a bank? How many of you thought that Sunday shopping would be so convenient for you? Now banks are getting in to the act by opening on Sunday. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/09/15/3651158.htm The media has influenced you to want Sunday shopping. But what they did not do, is tell you that one day it could happen to you. Now that CIBC has opened on Sunday, what other banks will follow suit? With out going into a long story, we can't always listen to the media. They support business' and say the heck with family life. How can we undo what the premier has done to us? I have had lots of people ask me "Why should I vote? My vote meant nothing when " I voted "NO" in the Sunday shopping plebiscite". I've been asking myself that question as well. Why vote? It's up to us if we dismiss the fact that Rodney MacDonald sold us out. We don't have that right to complain either, if we continue to remain silent. So...It's simple, we all need to move forward and be leaders. We all need to start speaking out about this issue, instead of sweeping it under the rug. As a member of this society , we will all feel good that we actually did the right thing instead of the wrong thing. We have the opportunity to let our politicians know that the decision regarding Sunday shopping was our choice to make. Not Rodney MacDonald's! So what are you waiting for? Please, if you believe in a democracy, now is the time to make a difference. Contact your member of the legislature and let them know that this decision has to be looked at again. We can't save our environment and look after tomorrow's families by allowing this to continue. Contact your member of the legislature by clicking on this link - http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/MEMBERS/directory/alpha.html You can also make a major difference by passing this on to five people and asking those five people to pass this on. I would like to thank those of you who supported me and taking the time to read this article. This is a real serious issue. If you believe in a democracy, now is the time to do something about it, with elections going on and more to come.