Fallout. The result of Tony Clement's nuking of the federal public service.

I've watched in awe at the decade-long performance of Tony Clement. He's lied, he's laughed at the fatal results of a tainted food supply, he's misappropriated millions of taxpayer dollars to feather his own electoral riding with pagodas and pools, he's created the most inept "red-tape' elimination formula known in the developed world and then he was let loose to destroy the federal public service as only a freaked-out refugee from the Mike Harris "Common Sense Revolution" could - with no foresight and no thought of consequences. He creates wreckage with no plan beyond that which his single-firing synapse has developed over a five minute period. Clean-up, adjustment and adaptation? Not his problem. Anyway, it's just too hard for him. The perfect conservative.

So, if you haven't read Sooey Says today, you need to.

Harper's leading hillbilly

Andrew Potter pulled no punches on this one.

Tony Clement is the dumber than a sack of hammers and has a bag full of the stupidest ideas to hit government since the invention of the failed curved machine gun barrel.

In his six years in power, Stephen Harper has successfully positioned the Conservatives as the party of neither the left, nor of the right, but of the deeply stupid. And as Canadians have come to realize, when Tony Clement is sent out to sell a policy, things are about to get seriously neuronally challenged.

...

There is nothing wrong with trying to reduce red tape. Only the most naïve statist could believe that every single one of the alleged 2,600 regulations on business for which the federal government is responsible are necessary. Those rules that aren’t should be eliminated.

But equally naïve is the dopey libertarianism that motivates the commission’s report, and Clement’s gleeful endorsement of the one-for-one recommendation. Conservatives love these sorts of things. They pull off the neat double-shot of catering to the desired special interest while allowing the government to wrap itself in a thin gauze of ideological principle.

...

To see how confused this is, try applying the one-for-one rule to everything else the government does. How about, for every new law the government wants to enact, it has to eliminate one. For every criminal it wants to imprison, it has to release one. For every tax it wants to cut, it has to increase another. For every cabinet member it wants to add, it has to fire another.

...

... in his drunkard’s walk through Stephen Harper’s cabinet, from Health to Industry to the Treasury Board, Tony Clement has earned a more precise title: Minister of Everything Stupid.

Potter left out the part where Clement went to Denver to attend, (of all things), the US Democratic convention in the middle of a listeriosis crisis in Canadian meat packing plants.

H/T Holly Stick

Who's the Jack Ass now, Tony?

Jesus H Christ on a popsicle stick. This is the same guy who made a joke about Canadians dying from listeriosis.

Isn't it wonderful? If you criticize a politician in a position of power, you get a personal swipe.

We're their frigging bosses!!! By their own standards we can call them on anything we want to. We are their employers. And they are obliged, by their subordinate position, to sit there with their mouths shut and their Blackberries silent.

Goddamn, I hate every politician in this country, and Clement is an excellent example as to the, "why".

A compost heap is too comfortable a position for him to land.

Apparently we the public are "annoying" to Steve now

“They don’t bother us. It’s just that they are annoying,”
a "senior Conservative official" told the G&M's Dear Jane this morning about the public uproar in reaction to the 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 Lib/NDP/Green/I-don't-fucking-vote-for-any-of-those-bastards public either.
Not even Con voters support Steve's "Après moi, le déluge" style of government.

According to Angus Reid, only 31% of people who voted Con last time "side with the government's argument that the long form census is intrusive", while 53% of previous Con voters "believe that the long form census yields data that is important to make policy decisions in all areas of public service, and should remain mandatory."

Jane's column header today is Clement digs in heels and gains a supporter on census
The "supporter" turns out to be a rightwing radiohead.
Ok ... that's one.
I dunno, Jane, I don't think you're helping here.

Over the weekend Feschuk took the piss out of Jane's many columns consisting almost entirely of quotes from anonymous "seniory super-inside long-time party whatever" Con sources. Lols.

For a decent column on actual facts regarding the census : the incomparable Zerb.

Toxic toys, now with 700 times more lead, and coffee with flame retardant

"The Star shopped at 18 retailers in the GTA and found lead in about one in every four [children's] products purchased."
A pacifier.
A Disney bracelet testing at 445 times the legal limit on lead in jewellery marketed to children.
A child's jewelry clasp at 700 times the federal limit.

Wait. A pacifier? We still permit lead in pacifiers?

"Since 2002, Health Canada has proposed that it be made illegal to sell a pacifier with more than 90 parts per million lead. But there is still no law banning lead in pacifiers.
Meanwhile, the Star found a pacifier at Everything For a Dollar on Warden Ave. that tested at more than 10 times the proposed limit."

Apparently Health Canada may issue "recall notices", but "a recall notice does not allow the government to actually demand a recall of dangerous items", leaving "retailers to police themselves".

Liberal MP Paul Szabo :"The system doesn't work. Imports from China are a disaster."

In reference to the proposed pacifier law, "Health Minister Clement told the Star he would consider adding such a measure to any law he proposes, should he be re-elected Oct. 14."

I guess this falls into the category of "lazy fare" economics.
Stop buying crap, people.

Note : Would also be wise to avoid foods containing flame retardant :
"Mr. Brown 3-in-1 Instant Coffee products distributed in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba, however, revealed melamine levels three times as high as those that made the Chinese children ill."
M&M's milk chocolate snack and Snickers peanut Fun Size were withdrawn in Korea after testing for melamine, although Mars and Nestle's both declared them "absolutely safe by recognized international standards."

We have standards. Yes we do. And they're flame-retardant too.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Free market food safety

Inspectors failed to adopt more rigorous U.S. measures reads the G&M headline and the accompanying article includes this statement from Steve :

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that the massive Maple Leaf meat recall highlights the need for Ottawa to overhaul its meat-inspection regime.
"It's necessary to reform and revamp our food- and product-inspection regime after some years of neglect," he said yesterday. "As you know, in the recent budget, we put considerably more inspectors and resources into this."

But scroll down to read former CFIA inspector Bob Kingston :

"Under the old system, inspectors had a more hands-on role on the plant floor, did more of the tests themselves and had more freedom to investigate.
Under the new rules, instead of heading to the plant floor to inspect with their own eyes, inspectors are sent to the office to confirm that the meat packer has performed the required tests and the results are satisfactory."

"We don't swab for listeria any more. The industry does all that themselves," he said. "They just document all this stuff. We read their reports. If their reports say they do everything fine, then they do everything fine."

The Maple Leaf Toronto plant was one of the plants where the CFIA began testing the new industry-based inspection system a year ago. To date 15 victims of listeriosis have died.

Health Minister Tony Clement :

"Government policy was to hire 200 more inspectors, that's what we've done since we achieved power in January '06," he said from the U.S. Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo.

"When it comes to health and safety, you can't scrimp and save; you've got to do your job on behalf of Canadians and that's what we're doing."

What you're doing, Tony, is privatizing food safety as outlined in the SPP and lying about it.
Presumably a full scale government assault on CFIA for being unable to deliver under these conditions is now underway and more industry-based oversight will be recommended.

SPP : Outsourcing food safety to industry - Part 1 and Part 2

Tony (I'm not in the pocket of agri-food) Clement discusses ethics.

As Impolitical and LuLu point out, the idea of Tony Clement discussing medical ethics is just slightly more than grossly uncomfortable.

"I find the ethical considerations of supervised injections to be profoundly disturbing."

Right. And the chair of the Canadian Medical Association's ethics committee was having none of it.

Bonnie Cham, chair of the association's ethics committee, took Mr. Clement to task during the meeting's question period.

"I found the use of medical ethics to justify a political decision, which will affect social policy to be troubling at best and misleading at worst," the Winnipeg doctor told the health minister.

"Ethics consist of a balancing of rights and harms, as do all medical decisions that physicians in this room help their patients reach every day. IV drug users, as the rest of us, have the right to compassion and to access and care, which has proven to be beneficial."

Sorry Dr. Cham, that's not the way this lot thinks. Now, if the kid of a Conservative Party leader suddenly turned to illicit drugs as a result of listening to his Big Daddy's Beatles records, well, that would be a different story. It wouldn't be his fault and there would be harm reduction efforts popping up all over Sussex Drive.

But I digress.

Let's check Clement's qualifications:

Medical doctor: No.

Lawyer: Yes.

Qualification in medical ethics: None.

Degree in political science: Yes.

Personal heros: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (Neither of whom were medical professionals).

Riding: Parry Sound -Muskoka, where he took the seat with 28 votes after a judicial recount. (Gee, he was OK with that judicial decision.) Why is he representing Parry Sound - Muskoka when he was actually living in Brampton at the time of his election? Well, because when he ran in 2004 in Brampton he got creamed by Liberal Colleen Beaumier and it was pretty clear he wasn't going to do any better in 2006... so he switched to Parry Sound - Muskoka where he (COUGH!) owns a (COUGH!) cottage. Change of address cards were issued to those who needed to know.

Medical affiliations: When appointed Health Minister he held a 25 percent share in Vikram Kharuna's Prudential Chem Inc., a pharma company. That, of course, was a conflict of interest and he was forced to divest himself of his holdings, not on taking office but in July 2006 after consumer lobbyists blew the whistle on him. And Vikram Kharuna? Oh yeah, suddenly he ends up being appointed by the Harper cabinet to a directorship on the Asia-Pacific Foundation.

Previous medical exposure: Minister of Health and Long-Term Care in the Ontario governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves where he earned himself the nickname "Two Tier Tony".

Famous for: Little other than the attack ads he employed against fellow neo-con Jim Flaherty in a failed bid to gain leadership of the Ontario Conservative Party.

And then there is the Chalk River fiasco during which Clement displayed either gross incompetence or a distinct lack of ethics.

Then of course there was his decision to ditch the online Canadian Health Network in favour of a picture of himself and a link to the Throne Speech. Not to mention how he installed the heads of food production companies on the panel advising a revision in the now badly mangled Canada Food Guide.

Yeah. Doctors really need an "ethics" lecture from the ethically challenged.

How are those hospital wait times coming Clement?

Spin Doctors Without Borders...again

As noted by Dana below, a mere three days after the G&M reported:
Safe-injection site in B.C. wins court protection

"North America's only sanctioned safe-injection site for drug addicts won a major court victory Tuesday, thwarting any chance of the federal Conservative government closing it down" ,

Tony Clement announced at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health that he will be asking Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to appeal the BC Supreme Court's decision "as soon as possible".

Kady O'Malley live-blogged the committee hearings in her own inimitable way today, noting that:

"It occured to me as I was scurrying back from the foyer that this is the *second* meeting this week where the only witness on hand to defend the government’s policy on a controversial issue is an import from the United States—and not just the U.S., but the United States of Right-Wing Think Tanks."

Ah yes - Colin Mangham.
Colin Mangham is "director of research" for the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, an offshoot of , wait for it , the Drug Prevention Network of America, headed up by Calvina L. Fay of Drug Free America, Save Our Society From Drugs, and Drug Watch International, dedicated to "combating the drug legalization movement globally".
DPN of Canada lists her as an "honorary board member" who has "served as an advisor to President Bush on drug policy".
Rounding out the board of our very own 'war on drugs' Canadian clonetank is past president ReformaTory Randy White and REAL Woman Gwen Landolt as current VP, plus a couple of Scientology's Narconon graduates.

Back to Kady :

"Dr. Colin Mangham, who huffs and puffs over the "bad science" and sloppy journalism behind support for the program...[snip]...At one point, he mentions in an offhand way that he’s a graduate of UBC, but his accent is glaringly American. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.
He then goes into a rant about how people who support InSite, including some in this very room, are, in fact, part of a larger movement towards drug policy reform. He demands that "elected representatives" stop these "activists."
By this point, there are hisses and catcalls coming from the visitors’ gallery."

"Bloc’s Christiane Gagnon : does he have any data to support his contention that the vast quantity of research that supports harm reduction policies is worthless?
Well, no, not exactly. He provided a “second opinion” on research produced by other people, to “critique” it, just like a first year university student would do."

Ok, our score so far : 22 positive peer-reviewed studies in favor of InSite published in prestigious scientific journals ... versus one "second opinion" from a promoter of the wildly successful and universally admired US 'war on drugs'.

So why am I still worried?

Cross-posted at Creekside

Update : Wow! Four posts on this at the Gazetteer from Ross - who is, incidentally, a scientist, the peer-reviewed kind, the kind who does his own research.