About That Man Behind The Curtain

While some of the electorate gets all primed to receive the bauble of tax breaks next year, responding as intended to the carefully orchestrated neo-liberal siren call to worry only about oneself and one's own, others who can see beyond the the next paycheck and their own backyard are concerned about our collective well-being.

The Globe and Mail has a story detailing a report by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Harper regime's abysmal failure in its environmental responsibilities.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is not doing enough to reduce carbon emissions, fight climate change and regulate oil and gas emissions, a series of audits from a federal watchdog have found.

The report is really a document of the absolute contempt shown by the regime for anything that could be construed as an impediment to commerce. The specific indictments include the following:

- Canada is not on pace to meet its emissions reductions targets.

- Oil sands monitoring has met delays – including on a key pollutant (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.” PAHs, as they’re known, are a key pollutant linked to fish deformities.)

- The federal government has no firm plan to monitor the oil sands beyond next year.

- An emissions-reduction committee hasn’t met in three years

- The rules around a key environmental protection are murky, i.e. the federal government has no clear guidelines about which projects require an environmental assessment.

When we go to the polls next year, I know that at least some of us will remember these inconvenient truths that puncture the sanctimonious and dishonest government rhetoric that we are constantly being fed.