They’re trying to liken this to the Nazis but honestly I think it’s more like the Culutral Revolution, hyperbole wise.
Or maybe it’s like neither, and it’s own special kind of wrong?
My understanding is that this has happened in most federal departments, not just at Fisheries. I do not know why more Canadian media are not writing about it.
I think it’s a bit ironic that the Canadian government—ever more financed by exploiting its natural resources—cannot find the resources to maintain these libraries and archives.
Alas, it’s just one of many forces helping to swirl the formerly great nation of Canada down the crapper.
I myself thought of the comparison with the NSdAP. But is it not the same with all the library burnings? If its the burning of the library of Alexandria or if its the burning of any other library, the entropy of the game is all the same. Only cheaters trie this.
It’s not even a matter of finding resources - countless universities would gladly take such archives.
They are intentionally destroying evidence.
I hate this government more every day. I have never voted for them, 60% of my fellow Canadians voted against them. And they will probably win the next election based on their highly financed, very well oiled political machine.
They don’t give a fuck about the 60% who vote against them, the first past the post system puts us on the margins. They could execute babies in the town square and not lose their 30% base. So all they care about are the 10% of fucking inattentive people who voted for them in the past but have become disenfranchised because of all the scandals (not the electoral fraud, mind you, just the backhanders and graft).
The party knows the names of these people, and they are likely already receiving tons of highly targeted mail, local ads, even phone calls to get their attention and votes. The rest of us can burn as far as the C party is concerned.
A far more accurate comparison would be the Tea Party. And those on the left who enjoy watching the Tea Party destroy the Republican Party REALLY need to learn from what happened in Canada:
Canada’s Tea Party movement started as the Reform movement within the Conservative Party. Their discontent with the Conservative government came from what they saw as a lack of power for the far right within the party. Runaway deficit spending which the Conservative party promised to stop but instead accelerated. A lack of democratic reforms. And other claims that those watching the Tea Party would find familiar. In 1987 they split off to become the “Reform Party.”
Early on the Reform Party was marked by wingnuttyness and racism. It was home to the religious right. Sound familiar?
But it’s extremists who get all the press. Dumb statements and policies are news; reasonable ones aren’t. Because they split the conservative vote, the old Conservative party was reduced to almost no seats in the next election. Some of the far right even celebrated the destruction of the moderate right.
And so most remaining Conservative candidates went over to the Reform Party.
The old conservative party (The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada) dissolved in 2004. The Reform Party renamed itself to the Conservative Party of Canada. They got the wingnuts and racists to stop talking to the press.
But they kept the old Reform Party leadership. The religious right is still in control. And now they run the country.
This could be the future of the American Tea Party. Even if they destroy and replace the Republican Party, they will still be the major party of the right. And it will still be in power once in a while.
As a librarian, I am simply appalled.
Bureaucracy. The same monster that’s destroyed hundreds of Dr. Who episodes.
Dreary soulless fuckers. They could have sold all of this stuff off rather than destroying it. I hope they all stuffer unfortunate logging accidents.
I’m just… speechless.
This is making me a little sick.
As an intelligent human being I am appalled.
Radical right wing conservatives, wherever in the world they are, seem to be vicious, soulless beings who will not respond to reason or human decency. Most of them seem to be ticks sucking on the mindless hound of greed getting what they want without regard for anything else. The times we are in appear more and more like past times when the downtrodden eventually rise up and rid themselves of the pestilence.
Broken link on the text simply sent to landfill or burned. Looks like theres an extra "> in the HTML source.
Jesus christ. I had no idea that this kind of mindless cultural vandalism still actually happened. WTF Canada, eh?
So long and thanks for all the Fireball.
Canadian media aren’t writing about it because journalism about science has been muffled for at least a couple of years. The scientists and organizations are under gag orders. We’re lucky to hear any news at all about the purge. Remember this, for instance:
Canada’s Conservative government has become notorious for muzzling government scientists, requiring them to speak through political minders (often callow twentysomethings with no science background who received government jobs in exchange for their work on election campaigns). Government scientists are not allowed to speak to the press alone no matter how trivial the subject, and the default position when reporters seek interviews is to turn them down.
More: Tightened science muzzle is ‘Orwellian’ – Margaret Munro
Natural Resources Canada (NRC) scientists were told this spring they need “pre-approval” from Minister Christian Paradis’ office to speak with journalists. Their “media lines” also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation.
The documents say the “new” rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.
They also give a glimpse of how Canadians are being cut off from scientists whose work is financed by taxpayers, critics say, and is often of significant public interest — be it about fish stocks, genetically modified crops or mercury pollution in the Athabasca River.
