Edmonton has been in a very deep freeze this past week. One day in the midst of it my car registered -34°C. as the external temperature. That does not factor in the further chilling effects of the wind. As I drove along, my car issued a warning: “Ice possible.” Oh. Really? Thanks. Too bad the other drivers trying to navigate (at times unsuccessfully) some very slick streets and hills hadn’t been warned that deep cold and slippery ice just might go together.
Clearly, that was an unnecessary warning. Only the willfully blind and deaf would have refused to see the slippery conditions and ignored the many warnings blaring out from radios and televisions and other media across the city.
For the last few years, the Church and many others in Canada have been calling out “Ice possible!” in another context. When the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and euthanasia was being contemplated in Canada, purportedly for only highly circumscribed instances, the warning went out that allowing it even for a few limited cases would inevitably create a slippery slope toward expanding eligibility to a broad range of circumstances. Ice possible!