The Way I See It: More book burning

Last week I discovered the CPSIA and the implementation of a law that has a lot of people up in arms. Rightly so. Even misinterpreted, the law reads as though books published before 1985 need to be destroyed due to high lead contents in pigmentation used in the ink process for images within the covers of said books. Closer scrutiny shows that there is a one year moratorium to allow businesses that deal in used products and books and even libraries the time to figure out what to do with the more than one hundred years worth of books (in some cases more than two hundred years).

This morning I read that is now being examined in Canada. Typical that the Canadian government would follow in the footsteps of stupidity so closely.

Bill 6, which is the successor to Bill 52, is the CCPSA, or the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, is the Canadian answer to the American law. There is some wiggle room here and there, however, so it’s not all gloom and doom for books in Canada. There is one crucial bit that I read at ecoDomestica reDesign’s web site.

Here’s the crucial bit: The regulations in Section 36 explain specifically that the Governor in Council (ie, the Governor General signing orders from Federal Ministers) may create regulations that exempt a class of consumer products or a group of people, the nature of the documentation required, etc, and how technical reference documents (such as those that set the limits for lead and phthalate content in children’s products) can be incorporated into the Act. So, provision is made for creating exemptions, prohibitions, and technical references later; it’s not clear to me when in the process this happens.

ecoDomestica reDesign asks the question why Canadians have been so quiet about this law coming to pass. Well, it really isn’t the GST (Goods and Services Tax) that Mulroney brought in during the last years of his administration of the 1980’s. And it’s not the gun control law that had people scratching their heads as to why it was needed. However, that does not detract from the fact that any repeat of the CPSIA is a mistake, which in the long run will only hurt small business.

Tim’s rant begins here:

Are we that stupid in this country that we would blindly follow the Americans in a law that is receiving a lot of attention and that is bringing up a lot of hostility toward? Why would we do something such as this? Is it the Canadian government, once again, trying to make peace with the sleeping giant by making laws that appease to the law makers south of the border, yet almost ignoring what Canadians truly want? Sadly, Harpers Conservatives currently are the only stable option in Parliament, although Iggy’s Liberals are making strides. Perhaps it’s time to get on the e-mail client and start bombarding MP’s in the area about the dangers of such a law. And pray that Lucy Maud Montgomery is not rolling over in her grave.

As a Canadian, we can’t allow for this mistake to happen once again. Not in this country.

Until next time…

…keep ’em flyin’!