Recent taxpayer-funded newspaper ads begin with this carefully crafted statement: “The Yukon government has approved a land use plan for public lands within the Peel Watershed Region.” I draw your attention to the verb “approved,” which the Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines as “confirm; declare acceptable.”
What exactly has the government confirmed or declared acceptable? Oh, yeah, its own plan, developed behind closed doors and in near-total disregard for the democratic process and public opinion. How nice to be able to “approve” your own plan! More truthful wording would have been “announced,” “declared,” “imposed,” or even “rammed down our throats.”
On the other hand, had the government accepted the several-years-in-the-making, democratically-developed Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Commission’s plan, it could have justifiably and proudly used the verb “approved.”
Karen Walker
Whitehorse