Wednesday, April 11, 2012

History Repeats Itself



The Globe and Mail reports this morning that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in particular will feel the consequences of the Harper government's drive to reduce spending. Bill Curry reports that:

the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Agriculture Canada will be among the hardest-hit departments as Ottawa rolls out where it will cut 19,200 jobs across the country.

These cuts are being made in the aftermath of the listeriosis outbreak of 2008. The Harperites appear to have forgotten that "an independent review of the listeriosis outbreak found 22 deaths and 35 serious illnesses were connected to contaminated Maple Leaf Foods deli meats."

Those of us who live in Ontario remember an even more serious tragedy, which occurred in Walkerton, after the Harris government reduced funding to the Ministry of the Environment. Like his federal cousins, Premier Mike Harris tried to blame the debacle on the previous NDP government. However, a public inquiry laid part of the blame for the Walkerton disaster on cutbacks ordered by his government.

Jim Flaherty --a Harris alumnus -- insists that the cuts are "back office stuff."  After the F35 boondoggle, Canadians would be foolish to believe anything Mr. Flaherty tells them.

History continues to repeat itself.

6 comments:

Angry said...

This latest cut in the supervision of our food supply safety, following a string of similar cuts, many of which you've highlighted in your blog, demonstrates how little importance Harper's government attaches to the welfare of Canadians at the most basic level. How can Canadians be so stupid?

thwap said...

Flaherty is quite capable of being so disconnected from reality that he can't see the connection between his cuts to food inspection and subsequent food poisoning deaths.

That's one of the manifestations of his low level of brain functioning. He gets genuinely lost when you draw a line between A and B.

His belief in the "free market" is like his belief in magic: The guy in the top-hat says "abracadabra!" and that makes the rabbit appear in the hat.

He cuts taxes, and jobs appear. Don't ask him to explain it.

Owen Gray said...

Harper and Company are clearly hoping that citizen stupidity will give them a free pass, Angry.

Like you, its time for Canadians to get angry.

Owen Gray said...

Flaherty has been seduced by magical thinking, thwap. Which is another way of saying that he has ditched analysis for moralizing.

Like his boss, he sees the world as he wishes it to be -- not as it is.

Anonymous said...

Harper and his henchmen ministers, have no morals or ethics, what-so-ever.

Harper is a Neo-Nazi Reformer of his, Northern Foundation Party from 1989. The skinheads organized Harper's shady party. This has been posted, long, long ago. We were warned, if Harper won a majority, we could kiss Canada good-bye.

We know the election fraud and the robo-calls, came from Harper and his Conservatives. There were records posted, that says so. Well over half of Canadians did not want Harper as P.M....and he knew it, and he cheated. Harper is all about, dirty tactics, dirty politics. This is far from the first time, Harper has used dirty tactics, just ask Gordon Campbell.

Canadians stupidity, did give Harper a free pass. Harper has given Canada to China. Harper is now controlled by China. Disbelieve that too, if you like.

Harper has permitted China, to buy up the tar sands. China refuses to pay Canadians wages. Harper is allowing China, to bring their own people to work their huge tar sands projects. China refuses to refine the oil in Canada. They can pay their people crap wages, to refine the tar in their own country. Harper has also permitted China, to bring over many thousands of their people, to build the Enbridge pipeline. China wants the tar oil, yesterday.

Same in BC. Harper's favorite henchman, Gordon Campbell, shipped BC mills to China, along with their raw logs. This put 131,000 BC mill people out of jobs. China also owns BC mines. They are bringing their own people to work those jobs too.

All of this started, long, long ago. Fadden of CSIS warned of China's huge inroads into Canada. Kiss Canada good-bye.

Owen Gray said...

We were warned, Anon. We can hope that, until 2015, the courts and Elections Canada will stop the Harper juggernaut.