Seems the silly bureau-critters infesting Ottawa’s National Capitol Commission don’t like being called out for blind enforcement of stupid rules.  They’ve publicly and officially apologized to Adela and Eliza Andrews for the absurd shutdown of their lemonade stand this past weekend.

And apologize they should.

Two girls, 5 and 7, selling lemonade?  This is the heinous offense you want to harass on a Sunday afternoon?

Clearly there are many who shout a resounding YES to this sort of Nanny State Nonsense.  I coined by Bureaucrat’s Rule Number One for precisely these morons.

“The Rules Are More Important Than People.”

On the original CBC story commenters were very supportive of precisely this sort of state-sanctioned stupidity.

Kathrine Young wrote:

“…following laws/rules is also an important life lesson we should learn at a young age”

Katherine Young’s position is that since the kids had a well-built stand and large coolers they were clearly not there for the right reasons.  Wow.

“I realize my view is very unpopular (going by previous comments) but take a look at that lemonade stand — well-built and not cheap — plus two coolers and a giant drink cooler. Looks like this little business was meant to last at least all summer.”

How dare these little vagabonds try doing a job right, as they say. Or how dare their father want them to look professional as if that in itself is some sort of crime.

Like I said… wow.

Ms. Young would have them sitting on milk crates and offering styrofoam cups to passersby, presumably, in order to meet her personal criteria of what a lemonade stand ought to be.  She wasn’t the only one to hold such an absurd opinion, either.

There were some clearer heads too, thankfully.

Jim Nickerson wrote:

“30 plus shootings this year by useless thugs and the city has to shut down a lemonade stand? What the hell is this world coming to!”

What Mr. Nickerson doesn’t understand, of course, is that little girls at a lemonade stand aren’t going to shoot back.  That’s generally the preserve of “useless thugs” hence the city’s desire to leave them alone.  Officer safety and all….

Then James Bilodeau made the best comment of all.

“Not the governments job at any level to make the people feel good. The government’s job at all levels is to ‘collect’ money any way, any how.”

Ah yes… follow the money.  It’s all so clear now!  How could I have missed the most blatant and obvious reason why these vicious little felons were shut down.  They hadn’t paid the protection racket!

My snotty attitude about mindless bureaucratic observance of “The Rules” aside, all in all I must say I’m pleased that Ottawa’s National Capitol Commission backed down.  Their statement shows there might be some actual human beings inhabiting their offices and that’s a refreshing tidbit of information to learn.

“We reviewed the situation with the Junior Conservation Officer on duty.  Given the location of the lemonade stand, the Conservation Officer acted in good faith in applying the federal land use rules in place.

However, we believe the situation could have been handled differently. Children’s lemonade stands are a time-honoured summer tradition that contribute to a lively capital and the NCC wants to encourage these activities whenever possible.

We apologize to the Andrews family for the inconvenience.” 

Perhaps we can try something new then…

Christopher’s Rule Number Two:

“People Are More Important Than Blind Obedience To The Rules.”

Yeah, I like that.

But why number two? Because there’s already a Rule Number One.  We’ll get to that later…