Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Who wrote the RCMP report and why?

First off, it is a clear fail based on sources alone. If this was a paper from one of my students, I'd fail it for failing to use rigorous sources.

This leaves us with a problem.  Either the RCMP is blindingly stupid, and hires D students to its research, or something much worse is happening.

If the RCMP used rigorous and reliable sources for their report, they'd likely have drawn a very different set of conclusions about what constitutes a threat to Canadian infrastructure and the economy. Climate change, undeniably causally linked to the petroleum sector, is an overwhelming threat.   How would the report have read if that were clearly recognised?

On the other hand, and assuming the RCMP is staffed with smart people, the poor quality of the report suggests that it was written to provide some kind of justification or support for a preexisting set of ideas or initiatives.

Ugh.


2 comments:

Alison said...

Snap! I left the same remarks about a failing grade and a pre-existing framework with the same PP link at Thwap's a few days ago.

So the report was written by the RCMP Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team and looking back over previous years' CIIT reports, this is what they do - guard against criminal threats to the 'Oil Sands'- as they refer to them capitalized - and forge security links with industry stakeholders.

Part of a long email exchange last year between CIIT, local RCMP offices, NEB, and industry stakeholders and their security contractors fretting about possible threats to NEB members re NEB pipeline hearings was CC-ed to CSIS.

gingersnap said...

Was there not a NEB e-mail lauding, citizens inability to question pipelines?

The veto of the Keystone is, Harper's own doings. First Harper threatened, angered and insulted Obama. Told Obama if he couldn't make up his mind regarding the Keystone, the oil will all go to China. This time Harper called Obama a very foul name and hung up on him.

So, what will the police do about Harper and his eco-terrorism?