MORE FROM THE HARPER INDEX:

There's a couple of new and interesting articles over at the Harper Index, a site devoted to keeping a close eye on the ever devious actions of the federal Harper government. Coming up first on bat is...

CUTS "DISHEARTENING" AS PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH SHIFTS QUIETLY INTO PRIVATE HANDS:

SCIENCE ROLE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DIMINISHING-SOMETHING BREWING AT ENVIRONMENT CANADA:

As part of its long standing initiative to "save money" by government cuts and spend more money by handing out freebies to the private sector that the Conservatives hope to bribe into supporting them the Harper government has quietly been cutting back and planning to transfer science based government initiatives into private hands. From layoffs at the National Research Council, through cuts to 17 federal departments and agencies to possible closure of five federal labs the writing is on the wall as the Harpercrats bundle up their gifts for their friends in the corporate world. Some excerpts from the article...

"The federal government may be quietly privatizing and out-sourcing basic research needed for public policy and safety. Federal science staff have been laid off as a result of last March's federal budget, and 17 federal departments and agencies have been told to slice five percent of expenditures, according to the association that represents federal professionals....

"Along with the research council layoff, she(the association spokeswoman-MM) said she is hearing rumours that something is brewing at Environment Canada. With the bad press the government is having on environmental issue, you'd think that would be the last place for a bunch of cuts. She says public servants are being asked to do more with less and be more efficient, but we have no more room to maneuver other than cutting programs or doing half-assed jobs....

"Five federal labs have been identified by the panel for possible closure, says Demers. Is this just the tip of the iceberg? She asks. There is a lot of concern and worry about where this government is going in terms of increasing cash flow for other priorities. You do not need to be a rocket scientists to figure out where their other priorities are, she said, indicating she meant the military."

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT THE HARPER INDEX

KYOTO UNDERMINED BY RHETORIC AT APEC-GREENPEACE:

Meanwhile Harper got his chance to "shine" at the recent APEC summit in Sydney Australia. Too bad it was such a dim light, much outshone by the television comedy team that snuck a member disguised as Uncle Osama Bin Ladin past most of the summit's security in a motorcade disguised by Canadian flags. Harper's main contributions to the summit were his fawning echoes of Bush's calls to abandon the Kyoto Protocol in favour of the American President's "aspirational goals" (yes, Molly "aspires" to win the lottery as well), and his similar support for Bush's proposal to "repatriate" nuclear waste to the countries where it was mined. Not where it was used. This sets Canada up to be the nuclear dumping ground for the American nuclear industry.

Some excerpts from the article...

"Rather than cleaning up Canada's and the world's environment, this week's APEC summit may have been carefully crafted to move Canada away from Kyoto commitments and closer to importing massive amounts of radioactive waste from abroad....

"Martin says Bush, Howard and Harper have agreed on an approach intended to undermine the Kyoto protocol by moving away from hard targets to what they call 'aspirational goals', which typically mean intensity based target. Looking at the example of Alberta, which adopted intensity based target in 2002, he says,"It's very clear that you can have a reduction in intensity while still having dramatic absolute increases in emissions". The efforts to undermine Kyoto coincide with pushes for so-called 'clean coal' technology and nuclear energy by the leading producers and users of these technologies, including Australia, Canada and the US."

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT THE HARPER INDEX