Shameful, Absolutely Shameful

It's terrible, isn't it, when people resort to stereotypes to express their political displeasure? An absolute disgrace. Unconscionable. Heh heh.



H/t Occupy Canada

The War Continues

The Harper cabal's contempt for the environment, science, transparency, and knowledge in general has become the stuff of dark legend, provoking outrage both at home and beyond our borders. That a putative democracy can be behaving in such a totalitarian manner strains credulity. And the latest salvo against science, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' closing of seven of eleven regional libraries housing a priceless accumulation of aquatic research, is being regarded as a tremendous loss by both scientists and the general public:

Peter Wells, an adjunct professor and senior research fellow at the International Ocean Institute at Dalhousie University in Halifax, has this to say:

“I see this situation as a national tragedy, done under the pretext of cost savings, which, when examined closely, will prove to be a false motive”... “A modern democratic society should value its information resources, not reduce, or worse, trash them.”

Even members of the defunct Progressive Conservative Party are speaking out. Tom Siddon, the former federal fisheries minister in Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government, had this to say:

"I call it [closing libraries] Orwellian, because some might suspect that it's driven by a notion to exterminate all unpopular scientific findings that interfere with the government's economic objectives".

Others are reportedly too afraid to speak out.

Another person piercing this veil of darkness and intimidation is The Star's Rick Salutin, whose column today addresses some of the wider implications of Harper's war against enlightenment and progress.

First he presents a poignant picture of scientists' reactions to seeing invaluable knowledge being either carted off to dumpsters or scavenged:

Scientists were practically or actually crying as they watched their beloved atlases etc. hauled away or dispatched to the shredder. The feds say it’s all been digitized but that’s evidently untrue. Postmedia unearthed a document marked secret that had no mention of digitization.

But scientists are not the only ones affected by these depredations:

For Canadians, it’s like the loss of irreplaceable family photos. This country was built on its coasts and waterways via the fishing grounds and fur trade. We are as we are — nature heavy and underpopulated — due to those patterns.

Yet, as Salutin points out, the loss is much larger:

It goes deeper though. It has to do with being human. What humans do is solve problems with intelligence, when they can, and when they fail, try to learn from that and pass it on for the next round. This gives humans their edge. ...There’s something willfully perverse in turning your back on accumulated knowledge in the name of “value for taxpayers.”

And perhaps the greatest casualty is democracy itself, something the Harper reprobates have shown such ongoing contempt for:

Democracy isn’t about everybody casting one vote. That way all you get is a sloppy aggregation of individual opinions. The whole is the sum of its parts, period. Democracy means people consult together, listen, discuss — so that some voices will weigh more than others, and everyone gets a chance to decide which those are. But that can’t happen if the most informed voices from the past and present are stifled or dropped into dumpsters.

So whether we realize it or not, the Harper war against knowledge is part of a larger battle against all of us. If that's not worth fighting, I don't know what is.

Although I featured this picture in a post yesterday, it seems appropriate to run it again:



For further reading on the Harper war against science, check out John Dupuis' piece here.

Another Clear And Cogent Explanation Of The Polar Vortex

This explanation is offered by President Barack Obama’s science advisor, Dr. John Holdren. Even if Stephen Harper hadn't abolished the position of National Science Advisor in 2008, it is hard to imagine anyone in his employ speaking so frankly.

Aren't We Asking The Wrong Questions?

Newspapers currently abound with stories of the toll taken by the bitterly cold weather that has taken hold of a good part of the continent, followed closely by tales of the perennial 'blame game.'

For example, countless numbers have railed against the decision to close Pearson Airport in Toronto for more than eight hours, prompting a massive ripple effect of cancellations and delays that are still being felt today.

Freeze-ups of Toronto streetcars created commuter chaos, prompting renowned ventriloquist and city councillor Doug Ford to call for their end and more underground transit.

Ontario's perpetually perturbed Tories are calling for an inquiry over the Ontario government's response to the ice storm that left so many without power for so long.

Toronto Public works Chair Denzil Minnan-Wong will conduct a review into the city's response to the emergency.

But shouldn't we be asking some much more fundamental questions? For example, what is at the root of this increasingly volatile weather, and how do we begin the long process of reestablishing climate equilibrium?

Of course, some of the answers may not be to our, or our overlords' liking.



I would express the hope that some real political leadership will emerge from all of this were it not for my reluctance to be dismissed as a hopeless idealist.

That Didn't Take Long

Bob 'Mad Dog' Runciman has a solution for those pesky protestors who dare embarrass the Prime Minister.

For What It's Worth

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield, January 1967

After reading this post by Alison at Creekside, and this one by Doctor Dawg, both dealing with Chuck Strahl and CSIS, and the latter's collaboration with Enbridge in spying on Canadians exercising their democratic rights, please enjoy the entire song:




As well, the CBC's Kady O'Malley weighs in here.

Some Things Never Change

Although the following Rick Mercer rant was made early in 2013, most, I think, would agree that nothing has changed in the interim: