Canadian bureaucrat fights charges over leaked climate document
This week's hottest eco-scandal comes from Canada. For real! Where else would Mounties descend on a federal office to arrest an anarchist-leaning, punk-drumming bureaucrat for allegedly leaking a climate document to activists and the press? We swear on our stack of Celine CDs: this happened Wednesday at the Environment Canada office in Ottawa. Jeff Monaghan, 27, who's worked at the agency for four years, was released but still may face charges; yesterday, he described the arrest as a "witch hunt" and an attempt to "bully public servants whom [the agency], in a paranoid fit, believe are partisan and embittered." Monaghan did not admit to leaking the draft, which confirmed Canada's plan to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, but he didn't so much deny it, and spoke about the need for "real action" on climate change. He called the charges against him "an extension of a government-wide communications strategy pinned on secrecy, intimidation, and centralization." And our little Canada-loving hearts broke.
source: The Gazette, National Post, James Cowan, 11 May 2007
source: The Chronicle Herald, The Canadian Press, Jennifer Ditchburn, 11 May 2007
source: National Post, CanWest News Service, Meagan Fitzpatrick, 10 May 2007
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DaveGreenAndRed Posted 6:51 am
11 May 2007
Mind you, the RCMP have always been up for partisan political work. The former Commissioner announced an investigation into the Liberal Party in the middle of the last federal election. The Liberals immediately dropped in the polls, never recovered from it, and the Conservatives won the election. And guess what? No charges were ever laid against anyone in the Liberal Party.
Hmmm...
And then there are the files the RCMP acknowledges maintaining on hundreds of thousands of Canadians - environmentalists, labour leaders, members of the New Democratic Party, etc...
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