Bug-loving bureaucrats.(Between The Lines)

ITEM: The owner of a small hardware store in Chelsea, Quebec, according to the Ottawa Citizen for August 3rd, "has been fined $12,000 for selling common household products to kill ants, wasps and hornets without a permit" on three occasions in 2001 and 2002. The store owner said the fine and added court costs represented "about three years' worth of net profits for the store."

According to the Ottawa Citizen, officials front the Quebec Ministry of Environment said the fine levied is not part of a "crackdown due to Quebec's tough new Pesticide Code, which came into effect in April. The new code will make the sale of most commonly used household pesticides illegal in Quebec by April 2006."

ITEM: "The withdrawal of 81 pesticide products ... brings the UK into line with an EU-wide directive on pesticide regulation," reported the BBC on July 25th. Manufacturers "have withdrawn the products rather than put them through health and safety trials to comply with the new regulations." Continued the BBC: "Labour Euro-MP David Bowe welcomed the ban, which he said underlined the potential hazards of many of the chemicals in everyday use."

BETWEEN THE LINES: Nowhere in either account is there even a hint that the interventionist bureaucracy isn't all-knowing or that its attacks on liberty might not be justified--scientifically or otherwise. And, yes, it can happen here. It is not just Canadian and European ...