More Totalitarianism From The Harper

Just as Harper has been tearing down the apparatus of scientific research that would ordinarily be used by governing parties to make informed policy decisions, the next prong of his attack on reasoned governance in Canada has begun.  

It really began in 2012, when the government rolled out a program with specific funding for the CRA to go after charitable organizations that the government suspects of overspending on "political activity".

Disappointing ... But Unsurprising

In light of the Harper Government(tm)'s ongoing assault on science in this country - especially anything resembling the environment - it comes as little surprise that the government is currently not meeting its own legislated obligations with respect to endangered species.

In a case covering four species that Justice Anne Mactavish calls "the tip of the iceberg," the court found there's a major systemic problem in the two ministries charged with protecting endangered and threatened wildlife. 

The 47-page ruling released Friday states that "public officials are not above the law. If an official acts contrary to a statute, the courts are entitled to so declare." 

At issue was a challenge brought by five environmental organizations, who asked the court to enforce provisions under the Species at Risk Act. 

The groups cited four particular species: the nechako white sturgeon, the pacific humpback whale, the marbled murrelet and the southern mountain woodland caribou.

Frankly this comes as no great surprise.  The Harper Government(tm) has demonstrated repeatedly its disdain for any science which is inconvenient to the dogma of "free markets".  In their view, anyone who advocates for the environment is a "terrorist" of some kind.  

In her judgment, Mactavish pointedly noted that lack of resources for the government departments came up time and again in testimony. 

Yet the Conservative government counsel, she wrote, "advised the court that he had been specifically instructed not to raise a lack of resources as a justification for the delay in posting proposed recovery strategies for the four species." 

Mactavish ruled "there is clearly an enormous systemic problem within the relevant ministries." 

It is this last part of the article that is equally significant when evaluating this situation.  It is not just that the Harper Government(tm) has objectively written a great deal of legislation which has effectively gutted not only Canada's laws to protect the environment, but it has also systematically eviscerated the ability of the responsible departments to do their jobs by mangling their mandates and choking off the funds needed to actually do the job.

By no means am I some "bleeding heart" that believes that all development is evil, or that no pipeline should ever be built.  However, I do believe that the government has obligations to ensure that Canada is a good steward of the lands, resources and lives which reside within its domains.  It is not acceptable that our governing party has spent much of the past several years dismantling the laws and infrastructure solely because they find it inconvenient to their political ideology.

Canada is a land rich in resources and wildlife.  We owe it to ourselves and our descendants to safeguard that wealth.

Dear Leader Is In Israel

So, Harper is running around Israel blathering on about how Canada will blindly support Israel no matter what happens.  Frankly, Harper is acting like a little boy in short pants on the foreign affairs file ... but I have already discussed that in detail before.  Today's speech does nothing to change my opinion on that.

More important, and damaging, is the fallout from the Harper Government's ongoing war on science and knowledge in Canada.  The latest chapter in this saga is here, in the form of how this government's ongoing attack on Canada's ability to perform meaningful research and have policy that is informed by facts.

Health Canada scientists are so concerned about losing access to their research library that they're finding work-arounds, with one squirrelling away journals and books in his basement for colleagues to consult, says a report obtained by CBC News. 

The draft report from a consultant hired by the department warned it not to close its library, but the report was rejected as flawed and the advice went unheeded.

In short, our government shut down the research library for our health care system, and the users of that library are finding it necessary to create their own informal libraries.

"Staff requests have dropped 90 per cent over in-house service levels prior to the outsource. This statistic has been heralded as a cost savings by senior HC [Health Canada] management," the report said. 

"However, HC scientists have repeatedly said during the interview process that the decrease is because the information has become inaccessible — either it cannot arrive in due time, or it is unaffordable due to the fee structure in place." 

A recently retired Health Canada pathologist agreed with this assessment."I look at it as an insidious plan to discourage people from using libraries," said Dr. Rudi Mueller, who left the department in 2012. 

"If you want to justify closing a library, you make access difficult and then you say it is hardly used." 

At its root, this is no different than the liquidation of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada libraries, closing the Experimental Lakes Area, the axing of the long form census, or any of a number of other actions taken by the Harper Government which have ultimately removed the ability of the government to make informed policy decisions ... not that the Harper Conservatives have exactly been paragons of informed policy making - it's easier to make it up as you go along.