For the past several years, my attention has been riveted on a show called Breaking Bad, without doubt one of the greatest television series ever produced, ranking right up there with The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and The Wire. The tale of a chemistry teacher (played by the incredibly talented Bryan Cranston) who becomes a high-level meth producer and distributor after being diagnosed with lung cancer, the show has become increasingly dark over its five-year run, which is about to end with just two episodes remaining.
In a famous scene, shown below, the protagonist, Walter White, talks to his wife about the knock on the door, something we very frequently associate with either bad news or something deeply unsettling. Well, as reported by Thomas Walkom in today's Star, that knock on the door has come to Kincardine residents opposed to the plan to dump nuclear waste nearby. Who was knocking? The OPP "Provincial Liaison Team":
When Beverley Fernandez came to her front door one day last week, she found two Ontario Provincial Police constables patiently waiting.
Fernandez, who opposes plans to bury nuclear waste on the Lake Huron shoreline near her Kincardine-area home, was scheduled to testify at an environmental assessment hearing into the scheme.
The officers had tracked her down. Now, they told her, they were there to help. In particular, they wanted to help by knowing if her advocacy group, Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, was planning any demonstrations.
They told her that plenty of plainclothed officers would be present at the hearings. They said they weren’t trying to stifle anyone’s free speech. And then, very politely, they left.
This performance was repeated with several dump-site critics but, curiously, none of the advocates of the plan except for Kincardine Mayor Larry Kraemer received such 'courtesy calls.'
Former provincial deputy environment minister Rod McLeod, who lives in the area, said he knows of at least six dump critics who were approached by police for a quiet chat.
The subliminal message, he said, is patently obvious: Behave yourself; we’ll be watching.
Who instigated these obvious attempts at intimidation? According to OPP Sgt. David Rektor, the liaison team took it upon themselves, as the OPP likes to have a “proactive approach” in situations where there might be “two ideas opposed to each other.”
Unfortunately, this version of 'the truth' does not square with that of the spokesman for Ontario Power Generation, Neal Kelly's. In an email, he said that the OPP’s “engagement” came at the request of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and “local municipalities.”
Perhaps the question of who instigated the 'visits' is ultimately of secondary importance. What is of paramount significance is the fact that the Ontario Provincial Police are attempting to intimidate and stifle the expression of an opinion that some do not like, clearly evidenced by the fact that none of the groups advocating for the nuclear dump site were visited.
Obviously, that Saturday knock on the door by Jehovah's Witnesses is not the only thing citizens of Ontario have to worry about.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
Pope Francis Has His Work Cut Out For Him
A Scientist Speaks Out
By now, the plight of government scientists is reasonably well-known. Despite the Harper propaganda machine's vehement campaign to deny the practice, more and more Canadians have become aware that the regime has been systematically muzzling its scientists, whose research and hard data frequently contradict and expose as lies the ideology that passes as truth in our debased democracy.
Because we have a collectively short memory, every so often we need to be reminded of some harsh realities, as was done on September 16 when scientists rallied against government efforts to suppress much-needed information.
David Schindler, described as the Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology emeritus at the University of Alberta, has a well-written piece in today's Star reminding all of us of the government's odious practices.
Entitled Remove the muzzle from government scientists, the article begins by reminding us of the proud and often pivotal role Canadian science, much of it governmental, has played in some far-reaching environmental initiatives, including the fact that
Canada was the first country to regulate phosphorus in sewage and detergents, leading to the recovery of many lakes from algal blooms.
Canada also led global efforts to decrease emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals, resulting in the Montreal Protocol.
...policies to control acid rain, based largely on science from government departments, were implemented.
Shindler himself left government science when things began to change. The first changes were somewhat subtle, beginning in the 1990s:
Scientists ... were warned to avoid directly criticizing government policies, even environmentally harmful ones. Rebukes were mild for a scientist who challenged his political masters. At worst, a scolding letter was “put on your file.”
Things steadily deteriorated, with restrictions reaching their nadir once the Harper regime became ensconced:
Shortly after it took office, scientists were told they must have permission from bureaucrats to speak publicly. Bureaucrats and communications officers issued “speaking lines” that must be used to avoid criticism of policies. The permitted lines were often so inane that most scientists chose to remain silent rather be embarrassed by using them.
This weakening of the scientific voice had dire consequences, including the collapse of the cod industry, but much worse was to come:
The government divested itself of the Experimental Lakes Project, government contaminants programs, climate projects and the Arctic PEARL project. The Fisheries Act and the Navigable Waters Act were changed to provide less protection, while expediting large industrial developments.
And now, of course, we have the almost daily spectacle of government ministers defending the indefensible, with lies about subjects ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to oilsands and protection of fisheries.
Shindler ends his piece with the following sobering thoughts:
We must take government science back from politicians who would twist or hide science that reveals flaws in their policies. We deserve to know the truth about the impacts of proposed developments on our environment, in order to avoid mistakes that will be costly to future generations.
Government science once provided this information, and it must be changed to do so again. The health of not only our environment, but of Canadian democracy, depends on it.
We can expect the Harper cabal to continue to fight any such ideas vigorously, as is the wont of repressive regimes everywhere.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
America: A Superpower Of Near-Demonic Dimensions
So says Noam Chomsky in this 2003 video produced for the BBC. I find little with which to disagree in his analysis:
Please Sign This Petition
While many of us know that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is being conducted in unprecedented secrecy (except, of course, in the case of the corporate sector that has full access to the discussions), it is difficult to rally opposition to it with few facts. I received a petition request today from Doctors Without Borders along with a sobering reminder of what could emerge if the agreement comes to pass in its present form:
A Doctor's Perspective On Quebec's Proposed Charter
While the proposed Quebec Charter of Values has elicited a variety of strong responses, some decrying it as thinly-veiled racism, others hailing it as a bold blueprint for secularism, there is something that up to this point has been missing from the debate: the fact that, whether openly acknowledged or not, there exists within humans something more than our prejudices, our instincts, our principles, and our rationality.
There is a spiritual dimension.
It is easy to mock religious sentiment. Professional atheists such as Richard Dawkins do it all the time, but they tend to target the unsophisticated and risible parodies that pass as religious belief today: literal interpretations of the Bible, God as a kind of cosmic Santa Claus who gives us what we ask for, a.k.a. the prosperity gospel, creationism, the ravings of unhinged people like Pat Robertson, etc. etc. In my mind, transcendent reality is likely much more subtle and nuanced, glimpses of which we get as we go about our daily lives.
In yesterday's Toronto Star, Dr. Samir Gupta, who practices medicine in both Quebec and Ontario, offers his perspective on the Quebec Charter that indirectly addresses this other reality. Essentially, he contends that the kind of 'rational' neutrality the Charter calls for would be a grave disservice to many people during those times when something beyond the material is needed:
Doctors play an integral role in some of the most intimate and difficult moments in people’s lives. Moments such as learning that one has an incurable chronic condition, or worse, a terminal disease. Indeed, moments when a person will often turn to religion.
Rather than simply imparting objective information about prognoses, etc., doctors are often expected and called upon by their patients for much more:
...doctors advise families about withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy when their loved one is in a vegetative state. They also routinely propose whether and under what circumstances cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be offered to a patient with a grave and terminal illness.
Gupta points out that such advice often goes beyond the strictly medical to involve the physician's own values and beliefs, especially when asked what decision they would make under such circumstances:
These situations occur every day in our health-care system. As described, they engender a “human” response from doctors — one that is invariably influenced by their religious beliefs, philosophy and world view, whether they like it or not.
Gupta suggests that this ability to advise by drawing upon spiritual dimensions is valued by patients and their families.
An interesting perspective, one that clearly deserves to be part of the debate.
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