Editor:
The FIS Cross Country World Cup once again shone a light on the heart-warming spirit of humanity and hospitality displayed by so many Bow Valley residents and businesses. Thank you all.
The suspicious death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny shone a light on the morally feeble decision by the Bow Valley Credit Union (BVCU) leadership team to sponsor Russian President Vladimir Putin apologist Tucker Carlson’s recent visit.
I don’t doubt Brett Oland’s strategy for growing BVCU membership by appealing to what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service calls the “freedom movement” is effective. There are probably enough Albertans harbouring apocalyptic anxiety about government overreach and control to make a business case for attracting their investment dollars – even if it means losing a few existing clients along the way.
Canada supposedly rests on a free market of capital and ideas and there should be space for dissenting perspectives and real freedom of choice. There’s some courage in owning your convictions; at least people know where you stand. But we’re not just talking about the gold standard and vaccine skepticism here.
The credit union movement in Alberta has a long grassroots tradition of giving ordinary people real agency. The organization is not exaggerating when it states “At BVCU, our members are owners.”
Well friends, now you own the association with Tucker Carlson. All of you. Not just his misogyny and racist conspiratorial fantasies which have long been known. But his absurd relativism and sordid sophistry when he shrugged off questions about Navalny’s death by saying “All leaders kill people.”
I respectfully invite BVCU members to remember Navalny’s extraordinary courage as he returned to certain imprisonment and likely death after Putin’s alleged attempt to poison him. Few of us would dare risk our lives for the freedom of others in this way. It is a reminder there still exists something in the human spirit that cannot be bought, corrupted or silenced.
It cuts cleanly through the moral squalor of your new BVCU mascot Tucker Carlson and the discordant myopia of your CEO.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said she would “continue the work of Alexei Navalny. … And I call on you to stand beside me.” Well, now there’s a way to express your solidarity and demonstrate that you do indeed cherish freedom. Stand with the heroic legacy of Navalny. Or stain it by continuing to stand with a moral leech like Carlson. Julian Norris,
Canmore
