Mr. Holman Speaks On Mount Polley (And More).

TransparencyOver
TheRockiesVille


Sean Holman, the former proprietor of the much missed Public Eye Online who is now an academic in Calgary, has an excellent piece up on the differences in government transparency regarding mines and mine accidents 'n stuff between the United States and British Columbia.

It's a good piece and well worth reading in its entirety.

Here's the kicker (in which no one is spared):

...There is absolutely no reason why British Columbians shouldn’t be similarly informed about our own mines — except for our willingness to elect governments on both the left and right that exploit our political complacency and infantilism.

After all, how many citizens do you think will put information rights as their top issue the next time they go to the polls? And how many even care about those rights between elections?

But without such information it’s impossible for British Columbians to know how safe our mines are — and whether officials are doing enough to keep those operations safe.

Journalists and activists just don’t know what we don’t know.

Instead, we have to trust that our Father Knows Best government will take care of its citizen-children at the expense of the powerful who are its friends and financiers.

And that’s exactly the way most politicians, once they get into power, seem to like it.


Infantilism?

Ya.

I think that's a pretty good descriptor of what goes on 'round here.


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