Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Sky is Falling (according to the Macdonald-Laurier Institute)

Described by John Ibbitson as an Ottawa-based think tank, The MacDonald-Laurier Institute insists that serious crime is on the rise, notwithstanding the fact that Statistics Canada's data show the opposite.

Claiming some sort of statistical legerdemain on the part of a venerable organization that has, at least until the abolition of the long form census, commanded world-wide respect for the integrity of its work, the Institute assures us, amongst other things, that there is widespread underreporting of crime. (Hmm, would this be similar to Donald Rumsfeld's 'known unknowns'?)

This, the latest in a series of assaults on data and logic, no doubt engineered to help the Harper Government in its wasteful expenditures of prison expansions, is once more a reminder of the danger that would accrue to our country should the electorate ever hand a majority government to the Harper buffoons.

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