Lanark County crop farmer John Vanderspank will not appeal his conviction for illegal deer hunting.

Vanderspank organized the Father’s Day Nuisance Deer Harvest way back on June 19, 2004, and invited hunters to his property to shoot deer. Vanderspank, who is not a hunter and says he has never hunted, was convicted for "aiding" two hunters who were not authorized to hunt and didn’t do any shooting that fateful day.

It’s a technicality. There’s nothing morally wrong with a man who wants to shoot deer on his property, especially if the deer are munching on the man’s crops. But the Ministry of Natural Resources wanted to nail Vanderspank, who organized demonstrations at the MNR office in Kemptville for not issuing Deer Removal Authorizations fast enough.

None of this should have happened. Vanderspank’s conviction should not have happened. His demonstrations at the MNR office should not have happened. And the plan to send a squad of 12 conservation officers with a dog and airplane surveillance into Lanark County to trap one fed-up crop farmer… well, it’s what you get when someone’s been watching too much television.

Vanderspank was a victim of the so-called post-modern world that equates might with right. All that Vanderspank wanted to do was shoot deer eating his crops. It cost him a $600 fine and $4,000 in legal fees.

When society’s sense of right and wrong begins to slip, what becomes right is simply a power play: Vanderspank’s need to save his crops vs. an officer’s job to uphold the law. When our compass doesn’t guide us to make right decisions, we need laws to stem the chaos and the more morally retarded we are the more laws we need to function in society.

Vanderspank’s ordeal reflects this new way of the world. People are no longer trusted to do the right thing, so we need the Nutrient Management Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Conservation Authorities Act, the Endangered Species Act. The list goes on. We need laws, of course, but we can all think of laws that stopped us from doing perfectly good things or stifled our creativity.

A properly formed conscience, an understanding of the natural law and absolute truth, and the great virtue of self-sacrifice have lost the day. Today’s government man increasingly doesn’t believe in conscience, has never heard of natural law, is suspicious of absolutes and is self-centred. We need laws for people like that. But people like that are also the ones creating the laws. And guys like John Vanderspank first get fed-up, then get burned.