Vanishing Canada

All Canadians are losers in the Conservatives war on data.

Canada • September 2015 • Views: 11,786

An article in Canada’s version of Time and Newsweek describes how the information held in Canada’s federal libraries and databases is being destroyed. Mostly in secret.

That makes sense. When all the data is gone Our Dear Leader can remake Canada in his image. Ignorant people are easier to control.

For you Americans ou can expect the same if the teahadis end up with the Presidency.

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13 comments

EiMitch Sep 20, 2015 • 3:17:27pm

I wonder how many wingnuts who defend symbols like the confederate flag will give a crap about someone erasing actual history?

Dark_Falcon Sep 20, 2015 • 5:07:44pm

Never ascribe to a ‘war’ that which can be explained by a desire to trim operations and cut costs. Most government databases are bloated and unwieldy and very often they are needlessly redundant. Maclean’s is being overwrought in order to stir things up, which is par for the course for news orgs.

Interesting Times Sep 20, 2015 • 5:29:23pm

Wasteful taxpayer-funded propaganda must stop, Harper told

Earlier this month, the government admitted that it spent $75-million on promoting itself and the Conservative Party of Canada, during the 2013-14 year. That’s up from the $69-million wasted during the previous year. In April and May, the Conservatives will spent $13.5M promoting its so-called “Economic Action Plan”.

Meanwhile:

Cuts to MD/PhD funding greeted with ‘horror’ by medical scientists

Canada’s medical research community is reacting with shock and disappointment to the cancellation of a 30-year program to train doctors who see patients and work as scientists searching for new treatments.
…
“This is a program whose focus is solely providing benefit to Canadian health, and disease treatment and research, through scientific discovery. If we lose even a small element of that, we’ve lost a great deal of ability to produce that kind of translational knowledge.”

Oh, and how much money will the above cancellation save? A whopping $1.8 million a year.

So, tiny amounts spent on life-saving medical research = bad, huge amounts spent on right-wing propaganda = good. Of course it makes sense in wingnut-bizarro-we-hate-science world 9_9

Romantic Heretic Sep 20, 2015 • 7:01:21pm

re: #2 Dark_Falcon

Never ascribe to a ‘war’ that which can be explained by a desire to trim operations and cut costs. Most government databases are bloated and unwieldy and very often they are needlessly redundant. Maclean’s is being overwrought in order to stir things up, which is par for the course for news orgs.

So, basically, you’re saying that if it saves money it doesn’t matter that it becomes difficult or impossible to make informed decisions?

The_Mess Sep 21, 2015 • 5:20:16am

re: #2 Dark_Falcon

Never ascribe to a ‘war’ that which can be explained by a desire to trim operations and cut costs. Most government databases are bloated and unwieldy and very often they are needlessly redundant. Maclean’s is being overwrought in order to stir things up, which is par for the course for news orgs.

You’re meant to be smarter than this.

And it’s basics statistics 101 that you need lots of decent quality data to produce statistically sound analysis, particular when dealing with environmental issues or social systems. Like say income inequality, which impacts government tax income and operating expenses through increased social costs. For which statistically useful data is no longer available due to Harper’s government stopping the census.

Something no other conservative government in the developed world has been stupid enough to do, even when pressed for funds.

Iwouldprefernotto Sep 21, 2015 • 5:43:37am

re: #2 Dark_Falcon

Never ascribe to a ‘war’ that which can be explained by a desire to trim operations and cut costs. Most government databases are bloated and unwieldy and very often they are needlessly redundant. Maclean’s is being overwrought in order to stir things up, which is par for the course for news orgs.

They are not doing this to save money.

I Stand With Planned Parenthood Sep 21, 2015 • 6:56:20am

Yeah, it’s more important to stay in power —no matter how many children starve.

We’ve seen this before in history.

Romantic Heretic Sep 21, 2015 • 8:21:40am

re: #5 The_Mess

Wish I could upping more than once for that.

Kafitrar Sep 21, 2015 • 10:31:12am

re: #2 Dark_Falcon

Never ascribe to a ‘war’ that which can be explained by a desire to trim operations and cut costs. Most government databases are bloated and unwieldy and very often they are needlessly redundant. Maclean’s is being overwrought in order to stir things up, which is par for the course for news orgs.

So if the government is only deleting redundant data, why can’t Raymond Hoff find any of the pollution reports he created for Environment Canada? Who else would have that data? Unless redundant means “stuff conservatives don’t like” rather than “duplicated.”

Eclectic Cyborg Sep 21, 2015 • 11:26:23am

Hopefully the conservatives get thrashed at the polls next month and some of this damage can begin to be undone.

WhatEVs Sep 21, 2015 • 11:48:27am

My friend works for the Library of Parliament and mentioned that in the last few years, where they had always collected and summarized all available research, both pro and con of whatever the issue was, they were specifically instructed to only use supporting data that was what the report outcome wanted.

It’s no wonder this is happening, especially in environmental. Harper is from oil country. And oil country is hurting with prices being so low.

Must not make any negative considerations that go against what ever it is that Harper wants.

I’m hoping and praying the Libs and the NDP don’t cancel each other out so the Cons win again.

Eclectic Cyborg Sep 21, 2015 • 12:36:26pm

re: #2 Dark_Falcon

Never ascribe to a ‘war’ that which can be explained by a desire to trim operations and cut costs. Most government databases are bloated and unwieldy and very often they are needlessly redundant. Maclean’s is being overwrought in order to stir things up, which is par for the course for news orgs.

I could get really upset about this, but I won’t. I’m guess you’ve never lived in Canada before. We are not simply “America lite”. There are significant differences in Politics, Media and Culture. Careful attacking what you may not understand.

EPR-radar Sep 23, 2015 • 11:36:31am

re: #2 Dark_Falcon

Never ascribe to a ‘war’ that which can be explained by a desire to trim operations and cut costs. Most government databases are bloated and unwieldy and very often they are needlessly redundant. Maclean’s is being overwrought in order to stir things up, which is par for the course for news orgs.

Given the way political conservatism has become allergic to facts, the simplest inference here is in fact a conservative war on data, especially on the kind of data that can put the lie to their endless propaganda.

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