Re: Our View, ‘Moral Bylaw a Step in the Wrong Direction,’ Gazette, Sept. 4.
Not all discrimination is bad. Most of us discriminate in what we will wear, what we will eat, where we will live and how we will behave. Most despise corruption and strive for high moral standards. Some welcome corruption and scorn morality. Good government cannot have it both ways.
Even our Charter of Rights and Freedoms are not absolute — restrictions do apply. By our laws, individual rights must be balanced against the rights of all others. See the latest printing of the Canadian Constitution under “Restrictions.”
Liquor, gambling and smoking are not evil in themselves but can become so if not controlled, whereas pornography, fornication and adultery, as proposed by the owners of strip clubs, peepshows, swinger clubs and adult-only video stores, are utterly evil to begin with and, by their very nature, are a complete abandonment of all that is good and wholesome. They are a continuous insult to the good moral standards of any society.
If they want to privately indulge in evil, God will reckon with them. Society cannot stop them but we don’t have to lay out the red carpet along with the blessings of the law. We moved to St. Albert 24 years ago to get away from this sort of thing in Edmonton. We don’t have to accept every kind of business that wants to set up shop here in St. Albert. We don’t want their tax dollars — it would be wrong to accept them.
Helen Ferguson, St. Albert
