Oil sands science seeps out
By Alison@Creekside
Remember that two year Environment Committee study on the tarsands that was ultimately shredded because the four parties at the table couldn’t agree on the wording of the witnesses’s testimony? The Lib members of that committee have now released their own report on the testimony and, as Andrew Nikiforuk reports at The Tyee, it [...]
Canada: Please stop annoying Steve.
By Alison@Creekside
“They don’t bother us. It’s just that they are annoying,” a “senior Conservative official” told the G&M’s Dear Jane yesterday about the public’s uproar in reaction to the Cons’ scrapping of the compulsory long-form census.
“Census freedom,” this same anonymous Conbot amusingly called it.
Apparently we the public are “annoying” to Steve now.
And not just the [...]
Munir Sheikh, StatsCan Jedi
By Alison@Creekside
Munir Sheikh, head of Statistics Canada, in his resignation letter (which has already been removed from the StatsCan website):
“I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue which has become the subject of media discussion. This relates to the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for [...]
A G20 public inquiry? Not at this rate.
By Alison@Creekside
A special meeting of the Public Safety and National Security Committee was held Monday, “Requested by Four (4) Members of the Committee to Undertake a Study of the Issues Surrounding Security at the G8 and G20 Summits.”
Will there be a parliamentary study on G20 security issues?
Well, first they had to agree to a motion [...]
Lindsay Blackett strays from the script
By Frank Moher
So, Lindsay Blackett was just performing a public service when, at the Banff World Television Festival, he called Canadian TV “shit”? Apparently so. As the Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit told the Calgary Herald earlier this week, his intention was to create “a national discussion” about Canadian TV’s crapitude. But I [...]
Harper throws women overboard
By Alison@Creekside
Gerald Caplan, G&M: The Harper government, women’s rights and the cost of speaking out.
The Tories are playing punishment politics with Canada’s progressive NGOs — and eroding civil society in the process.
“Despite the chill on speaking out, this week the Canadian Council for International Co-operation announced its fear that its funding is likely to [...]
On shutting the fuck up
By Alison@Creekside
If there’s one thing Steve does really well, it’s using hot button issues to sew strife and division among his enemies.
Within a day of Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth’s tactical warning on Monday to NGOs that their insistence on having access to abortion included in Steve’s maternal health initiative for developing countries risked blowing the [...]
Blocking the Bloc on Afghanistan
Alison@Creekside
The Sun:
“The Tories’ house leader Jay Hill told QMI Agency the government has not agreed to allow members of the Bloc to review confidential documents related to the transfer of Afghan detainees.”
Haven’t said no; haven’t said yes.
“Bloc MPs would ‘have to swear allegiance to Canada and the Queen’ if they want access to sensitive information, [...]
Ottawa expands its terror kit
By Alison@Creekside
Your government announced on Friday that it needs more powers to combat terrorism.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson: “These provisions are necessary to protect our country from the threat of terrorism.”
A redo of the panicky, now-defunct Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, the new Combating Terrorism Act includes preventive arrest and forcing people to testify at secret hearings [...]
The Colvin e-mails: so unimportant we can’t see them
By Alison@Creekside
Over at the Military Police Complaints Commission, Department of Justice lawyer Alain Préfontaine is trying to prove that diplomat Richard Colvin’s emails flagging abuse of Afghan prisoners were so vaguely worded that the government could not possibly be held responsible for failing to understand what he was talking about.
Colvin and MPCC chair Glenn Stannard [...]
