A Cultural Revolution of our own.

[Omnitheo]

Following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany, and Communist China, The Canadian government has destroyed thousands of scientific documents, research papers, and other valuable and irreplaceable records.

When they announced last year that they would be closing down national archive sites across the country, they assured canadians that anything set to be sold or destroyed would first be digitized. Unfortunately in their great haste to close these archives, only a bare fraction of the material was backed up, and the majority was simply burned or sent to landfills.

Which documents suffered the worst? surprise surprise, anything dealing with climate change or environmental studies. Perhaps the government didn't feel these studies were worth keeping, since it has also shuttered the organizations which performed the studies in the first place.

So Canadians, welcome to our new fascist regime. Heil Harper.

http://boingboing.net/2014/01/04/canadi ... ies-t.html
http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/12/23/Canad ... Libraries/

[Captain Awesome]

Godwin's law strikes again, hole in one style.

[Omnitheo]

well godwin's law is in regards to the length of the debate. Technically I made the analogy in the first post. Either way, when we're talking about burning books, I think it's justified.

Of course I could also have compared this to the Spanish Inquisition at the same time, but we've so far only silenced the scientists, not burned them alive.

As you chose to comment on the nazi comparisons, rather than the actual issue raised, would you say that the comparisons were instead detracting from the topic at hand?

[Captain Awesome]

As you chose to comment on the nazi comparisons, rather than the actual issue raised, would you say that the comparisons were instead detracting from the topic at hand?

Well, I think anytime anybody uses such extreme hyperboles they take away from the topic at hand. Instead of calmly stating the facts in a logical fashion - These and these documents were lost, that is why they're irreplaceable, and this is why it's important to us - calling everybody and everyone Nazis and proclaiming our PM solely responsible for it for some reason is just drama building, not informing public.

[Glacier]

Back in 2012, when Canada's Harper government announced that it would close down national archive sites around the country, they promised that anything that was discarded or sold would be digitized first. But only an insignificant fraction of the archives got scanned, and much of it was simply sent to landfill or burned.

Unsurprisingly, given the Canadian Conservatives' war on the environment, the worst-faring archives were those that related to climate research.

Okay, so who ORDERED the documents burned? The PM? A bureaucrat? Climate research documents were singled out? This doesn't sound like SCIENTIFIC research to me. Sounds more like hyperbole to me. How do they know that the climate research took the hardest hit? Maybe before passing guilt they should find out who ordered what exactly.

[grammafreddy]

I get nervous when governments clean house. They are so polarized in that only their own stuff is deemed worth anything. Its a shame so much of our history and research gets destroyed. You can't unburn anything. It's just gone.

Mind you ... with this environmental stuff, who knows how much of it was fabricated or slanted to any particular viewpoint and then proven wrong after the truth came out about global cooling, global warming, climate change.

[Omnitheo]

Okay, so who ORDERED the documents burned? The PM? A bureaucrat? Climate research documents were singled out? This doesn't sound like SCIENTIFIC research to me. Sounds more like hyperbole to me. How do they know that the climate research took the hardest hit? Maybe before passing guilt they should find out who ordered what exactly.

Actually that's why I linked my sources in the original post.

[Glacier]

Actually that's why I linked my sources in the original post.

The links suck. For example, "[a]n irreplaceable, 50-volume collection of logs from HMS Challenger's 19th century expedition went to the landfill, taking with them the crucial observations of marine life, fish stocks and fisheries of the age" is not even true.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

Enviro research scientists accuse Canadian gov't of 'libricide'

Stephen Harper's campaign against science has reached a new low, as research scientists say a century of environmental research has been ordered to landfills and incinerators following the closure of research libraries. Despite insistence from the government that documents were scanned and are available digitally, scientists with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who spoke with The Tyee on the condition of anonymity, say important documents, including a 50-volume set of the HMS Challenger's 19th century expedition logs, which recorded observations of marine life and sea conditions, are now lost forever.

Nine of eleven libraries across the country were closed and their contents – all paid for with public money – loaded into trucks and hauled away, allegedly to be scanned and made available online. Dalhousie University biologist Jeff Hutchings and University of Alberta water ecologist David Schindler compared the burning of books to the similar acts during the rise of fascism in the 1930s.

"It must be about ideology. Nothing else fits," said Hutchings.

Completing the comparison to 1984's 'memory hole', the documents were not recorded in a list prior to their destruction, so nobody can be sure how much was scanned and what precisely has been destroyed.

Whatever your position is on climate change science, environmental research, or evidence-based policy, removing and burning irreplaceable documents to erase recorded history to further political objectives is unforgivable.

http://observationdeck.io9.com/enviro-r ... 1494852513

[kgcayenne]

It's disgusting. I take it as the destruction of documents that might get in the way of furthering the financial gains of his uptightyrighty friends in land-raping industries.

[flamingfingers]

It's disgusting. I take it as the destruction of documents that might get in the way of furthering the financial gains of his uptightyrighty friends in land-raping industries.

Bingo!!! Time for Harper to take a walk in the snow. His arrogance and hamfisted 'ram 'er through' policies need to be ended!!

[grammafreddy]

Who is the minister in charge of all this?

[flamingfingers]

Who is the minister in charge of all this?

Why do you ask? As if he (whoever he/she is) will go up against what Harper has decided?

[grammafreddy]

Who is the minister in charge of all this?

Why do you ask?

Because I want to paint my house blue?

Because I have a cold?

Because it is snowing?

Because the price of eggs went up?

I give up - why do people ask questions?

[flamingfingers]

Sarcasm does not become you GF. Let Google be your friend and you may find your answer here:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilat ... ities.aspx