You go girl.
Linda Keen, deposed President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, is suing the Federal Government to get her job back.
While she is at it, she should sue Gary Lunn for being stupid, PM Harper for being arrogant and the rest of Canada's Greatest Government (TM) for just being.
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
Privatize AECL?
I wonder if there is any truth to the rumour floating around that Minister of Woodworking, Gary Lunn, is shopping AECL around to General Electric or even 
France's Areva Group? It could explain why Lunn recently jumped all over Linda Keen at CNSC and protected the asses over at AECL.
GE are biggies in the nuclear world. It makes sense that they would want AECL, considering that AECL has 22 installations around the world and all their research is paid for by the Canadian people.
It would not look too good to the GE folks if AECL was blamed for the isotope fiasco. Keen was a opportune target.
By the way, this sell off idea first surfaced in the Toronto Star back in May, 2007, well before the isotope misunderstanding.
But GE folks are not stupid. I wonder if they have used the isotope misunderstanding to get the price down or even walk away from the rotting mess.
You can be sure that Lunn and Harper will find a way to blame it on the Liberals.
France's Areva Group? It could explain why Lunn recently jumped all over Linda Keen at CNSC and protected the asses over at AECL.GE are biggies in the nuclear world. It makes sense that they would want AECL, considering that AECL has 22 installations around the world and all their research is paid for by the Canadian people.
It would not look too good to the GE folks if AECL was blamed for the isotope fiasco. Keen was a opportune target.
By the way, this sell off idea first surfaced in the Toronto Star back in May, 2007, well before the isotope misunderstanding.
But GE folks are not stupid. I wonder if they have used the isotope misunderstanding to get the price down or even walk away from the rotting mess.
You can be sure that Lunn and Harper will find a way to blame it on the Liberals.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The government that can't shoot straight
Jeez, when will the federal government learn that Canadians are not all stupid.
They fired Linda Keen from her post as President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission saying she was incompetent, a Liberal hack and all sorts of stupid names. This happened at 10 PM on the night before she is to testify before a Commons Committee. Minister of Woodworking, Gary Lunn, claimed that Keen knew less about her job
than he did. Sso he slammed her in the media and sent her pink slip with a comment that she must be some sort of dumb.
Finally Keen got to testify on the Hill and what does she tell us? "Nuclear reactors are in communities where Canadians live. They (Canadians) need to know that the commission will make its decision based on what's right." Sounds right to me.
She also explained that her mandate was to protect Canadians from undo risk nuclear risk. She had no mandate to make sure that MDS Nordion's (Nordion's name seldom comes up in these debates but they and their bottom line, I believe, are central to this issue!) contract with AECL for isotopes was fulfilled.
She also pointed out, backed up by her peers in many other countries, that if AECL tried to get their reactor licenced today, it would fail.
So what is new on this file to warrant another Blog entry? Well, within an hour of Keen's
that could go wrong with a reactor. testimony on the Hill, Health Minister Tony Clement told the press that Keen was so dumb that she claimed that the AECL reactor was more dangerous to Canadians than is allowed by international standards.
Clement says, with a straight face I might add, "When you balance the health and safety of Canadians versus the possibility of an earthquake never seen in the Ottawa Valley in human history, she got it wrong." Notice he didn't mention anything about terrorism or even mechanical disaster, or any other of 10,000 things
"She got it wrong," Clement told reporters. Guess what, Tony. YOU got it wrong!!!
I checked the mandate of the CNSC on their web site. It reads: "The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is an independent federal government agency that regulates the use of nuclear energy and material to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy."
They fall under the the Nuclear Safety and Control Act which came into force on May 31, 2000, when it replaced the Atomic Energy Control Act. The NSC Act provides the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) with its regulatory authority. I went from one end of the CNSC site to the other and I could find nothing to suggest that the Commission was responsible for the supply of isotopes to MDS Nordion or the financial health of foreign hospitals and doctors.
The government got it wrong and rather than saying they were wrong or even just shutting up until the issue passed over... they blow of their collected mouths and try to lie their way through it.
By the way, AECL now tells us that the two emergency pumps that were the centre of this conflict initially have been connected to emergency power, as the CNSC has required. Mind you, that is the second time, AECL has told us that the work has been done. The first time was
months before this murky episode broke onto the national stage. Do we believe them now?
Finally, it is important to note that Minister Clement is eminently qualified to tell Keen she was wrong because prior to being elected to the Ontario PC party in 1995, he, according to his own web site, was "... counsel to a national law firm, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Toronto Faculty Of Law and was a small business owner." He maybe just a little short on nuclear experience but that didn't stop Harper or Lunn, now did it?
One last thing. If you want to know more about Clement's comment that there is no "possibility of an earthquake... in the Ottawa Valley in human history"; check out the map at: http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/historic_eq/images/caneqmap.pdf. The Ottawa Valley's pretty much saturated with small to medium quakes.
They fired Linda Keen from her post as President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission saying she was incompetent, a Liberal hack and all sorts of stupid names. This happened at 10 PM on the night before she is to testify before a Commons Committee. Minister of Woodworking, Gary Lunn, claimed that Keen knew less about her job
than he did. Sso he slammed her in the media and sent her pink slip with a comment that she must be some sort of dumb.Finally Keen got to testify on the Hill and what does she tell us? "Nuclear reactors are in communities where Canadians live. They (Canadians) need to know that the commission will make its decision based on what's right." Sounds right to me.
She also explained that her mandate was to protect Canadians from undo risk nuclear risk. She had no mandate to make sure that MDS Nordion's (Nordion's name seldom comes up in these debates but they and their bottom line, I believe, are central to this issue!) contract with AECL for isotopes was fulfilled.
She also pointed out, backed up by her peers in many other countries, that if AECL tried to get their reactor licenced today, it would fail.
So what is new on this file to warrant another Blog entry? Well, within an hour of Keen's
that could go wrong with a reactor. testimony on the Hill, Health Minister Tony Clement told the press that Keen was so dumb that she claimed that the AECL reactor was more dangerous to Canadians than is allowed by international standards.Clement says, with a straight face I might add, "When you balance the health and safety of Canadians versus the possibility of an earthquake never seen in the Ottawa Valley in human history, she got it wrong." Notice he didn't mention anything about terrorism or even mechanical disaster, or any other of 10,000 things
"She got it wrong," Clement told reporters. Guess what, Tony. YOU got it wrong!!!
I checked the mandate of the CNSC on their web site. It reads: "The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is an independent federal government agency that regulates the use of nuclear energy and material to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy."
They fall under the the Nuclear Safety and Control Act which came into force on May 31, 2000, when it replaced the Atomic Energy Control Act. The NSC Act provides the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) with its regulatory authority. I went from one end of the CNSC site to the other and I could find nothing to suggest that the Commission was responsible for the supply of isotopes to MDS Nordion or the financial health of foreign hospitals and doctors.
The government got it wrong and rather than saying they were wrong or even just shutting up until the issue passed over... they blow of their collected mouths and try to lie their way through it.
By the way, AECL now tells us that the two emergency pumps that were the centre of this conflict initially have been connected to emergency power, as the CNSC has required. Mind you, that is the second time, AECL has told us that the work has been done. The first time was
months before this murky episode broke onto the national stage. Do we believe them now?Finally, it is important to note that Minister Clement is eminently qualified to tell Keen she was wrong because prior to being elected to the Ontario PC party in 1995, he, according to his own web site, was "... counsel to a national law firm, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Toronto Faculty Of Law and was a small business owner." He maybe just a little short on nuclear experience but that didn't stop Harper or Lunn, now did it?
One last thing. If you want to know more about Clement's comment that there is no "possibility of an earthquake... in the Ottawa Valley in human history"; check out the map at: http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/historic_eq/images/caneqmap.pdf. The Ottawa Valley's pretty much saturated with small to medium quakes.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Catching up before Christmas
This is probably my last post before Christmas so I thought I would just comment on a few things in the news.
I decided not to weigh in on the Elmwood School Silver Bells fiasco. I would, however, like to point out something to those progressive persons who believe in inclusiveness. Inclusiveness, the way you go about it, is really exclusiveness. When you change the lyrics of a Christmas song (by the way Mr. L Green of CFRA, Silver Bells is a Christmas song not a Christmas Carol) to make non-Christians feel included, you run the risk of excluding Christians.
Second, there was an article in the Ottawa paper the other day that reported that a neurologist was suspended from practice for a year for calling a rather corpulent patient "fat". I do not condone that type of behaviour but it did remind me of an incident years ago when I worked in a hospital. About 7 PM one weekend evening the emergency department called in a Plastic Surgeon to sew up the wrists of a women who had tried to commit suicide. This was her third slashing and the third time that this particular surgeon had been called away from his dinner and family. He was pissed.
I remember him looking the women straight in the eye and yelling at her to do it right the next time. He showed her the correct technique to get at the artery. While I did not condone his behaviour either, I do know that that women straightened up and became a nurse, working ultimately at that same hospital.
Sometimes a good kick in the ass can be good medicine, too.
I decided not to weigh in on the Elmwood School Silver Bells fiasco. I would, however, like to point out something to those progressive persons who believe in inclusiveness. Inclusiveness, the way you go about it, is really exclusiveness. When you change the lyrics of a Christmas song (by the way Mr. L Green of CFRA, Silver Bells is a Christmas song not a Christmas Carol) to make non-Christians feel included, you run the risk of excluding Christians.
Second, there was an article in the Ottawa paper the other day that reported that a neurologist was suspended from practice for a year for calling a rather corpulent patient "fat". I do not condone that type of behaviour but it did remind me of an incident years ago when I worked in a hospital. About 7 PM one weekend evening the emergency department called in a Plastic Surgeon to sew up the wrists of a women who had tried to commit suicide. This was her third slashing and the third time that this particular surgeon had been called away from his dinner and family. He was pissed.
I remember him looking the women straight in the eye and yelling at her to do it right the next time. He showed her the correct technique to get at the artery. While I did not condone his behaviour either, I do know that that women straightened up and became a nurse, working ultimately at that same hospital.
Sometimes a good kick in the ass can be good medicine, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
