Whooee! I been postin’ pretty much the selfsame comment at a few Canajun boogs thgis mornin’. I don’t you fellers to feel left out so I hope you don’t mind a little C&P.(I really am a lazyass.)

Harper promised transparency and he’s delivering. This is a transparent move to undermine an arms-length regulator. Lunn’s incompetence is transparent. Cabinet’s bully-boy schoolyard tactics are transparent. Harper’s allegiance to MDS’s bottom line is transparent. Harper’s small-minded vindictiveness is transparent.

Harper has set up the environment-vs-economy framework and now he’s made it even more clear (transparent) which side he’s on. The truth is… without a healthy environment, there can be no economy.

In real life, I’m directing an amateur theatre production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People.” The similarities between this issue and Ibsen’s 19th century work are striking. I’m still working on designing the printed program and promotional press release. Harper and Lunn just made that a lot easier and assured me a full house. I suppose I should be thankful.

A big troublem is that the truth is taking a backseat to political expediency and economic considerations. Harper’s minions simply deny facts and put up a smoke screen.

Dr. Stockmann and Linda Keen — fired for telling the truth. An inconvenient truth.

JB

Whooee! The gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May, has a good take on this whole tawdry affair. TO Centre GPC candidate Chris Tindal has Lizzie’s email on his blog.
http://www.christindal.ca/2008/01/18/dangerous-governance/

The International Herald Tribune sez:

“While the shortage of isotopes was unquestionably disruptive for the medical community and patients, the extent of the danger it posed to health was never entirely clear as there are alternatives to many of the procedures that require them. More expensive and limited supplies of isotopes also remained available from reactors in Belgium and South Africa for urgent treatments.”

Remember John Snobelen’s tactic: “We needed to invent a crisis.” The Commonsense Revolutionaries in the Harper cabinet know all too well how to invent a crisis and they know how to pull the wool over the entire HoC as to the reality of the “crisis.” The Con’s are all crowing about how their decisive leadership saved lives. How many lives? Estimates seem top be rising all the time. The latest estimates I’ve heard from ConMen is “hundreds of thousands.”

Or maybe none.

JB

But the alternative isotopes are more expensive and would cut into MDS-Nordion’s profit margin. MDS’s man in Ottawa, Stephen Harper, assured they would retain their supply of cheap, government-subsidized isotopes and they were able to report to shareholders that their profits did not suffer as badly as they’d first expected.

Underneath all this was Canada signing on to the GNEP at the height of the “crisis.” That tidbit was lost in the media blitz on AECL/CNSC and Mulroney-Schreiber. Uranium producing GNEP members are required to repatriate used nuclear fuel. Sort of like food producers being treaty-bound to import all the feces created by the food exports. Except, of course, feces is not as unhealthy or unmanageable as spent nuclear fuel rods.

This manufactured crisis was very good for the Cons overall plans. It got rid of a pesky regulator who could slow down the sale of AECL. It highlighted problems at AECL causing the public to want to rid ourselves of this troublesome crown corporation. It provided a smoke screen while Harper signed Canada to an absurd international agreement without any Parliamentary debate or discussion.

No sitting party has clean hands on this. The ignorance of the 100% MP’s voting to over-ride Keen and CNSC is damning.

JB