It seems the Conservatives really are serious about the environment: they're even recycling their own reports!
In case you haven't caught this one already, The Scott Ross has done an extraordinary job uncovering an article John Manley wrote for 'Policy Options' last October - before he was asked to head the Independent Panel on Afghanistan.
As it turns out, not only are the observations and conclusions in the 'Manley Report' virtually unchanged from those of the earlier article, there are actually entire paragraphs duplicated verbatim:
On page 4 of the Manley Report it states:Whenever we asked Afghans what they thought ISAF or Canada should do, there was never any hesitation: “We want you to stay; we need you to stay.” Without the presence of the international security forces, they said, chaos would surely ensue.
Now compare that to what John Manley wrote three months ago, on page 12 in Policy Options:Whenever we asked Afghans what they thought ISAF or Canada should do, they did not hesitate to say that we must stay. Without the presence of the international forces, chaos would surely ensue.
This plagiarism not only leaves me wondering why Manley would do this, but also wondering did the Panel ever ask Afghans what they thought ISAF or Canada should do? Or was that just something John Manley had done for his Journal article, and re-wrote almost word for word for the Report?
Kinda like taking a history essay you wrote in Grade 9 and handing it in again in Grade 10.
I'm not even going to get into all the many, many ways this is wrong - I'll just going to point you in the direction of The Scott Ross and Dave at the Beaver and let them explain it all for you.
Good work, gentlemen. Carry on.
Meanwhile, I've sent a Blog Alert to Garth Turner. Let's see if he bites, or if this is just going to pass unnoticed by the pols, the public and the MSM.
MAclean's Kady O'Malley is coverign this quite extensively, and if you look at Ross's new entry this evening, CBC's "As It Happens" did an interview with a policy expert where they disxussed the apparent Manly "cut and paste" job. They even gave credit to Scott Ross, so no, it's not getting completely ignored.
ReplyDeleteI also disagree with Garth's last blogpiece. This Cons. government deserves to be terminated now, with extreme prejudice. It has done more acts in the past few weeks to show it is unfit for government then most governments do in 4 years.
(apologies for the typing mistakes.. typing too quickly does that)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Scott's view of Garth's position that the opposition should try to work with the Harper gov. What makes Garth think that Harper's gang would change their tactic now of either ignoring their failures or blaming the 'previous Liberal gov.'
ReplyDeleteIt's time for an election before things get any worse than they already are.
I agree with both of you - we need to bring down the government over the next budget. Yeah, sure, we'll have to read it first, but we all know it's going to look just like Bush's "economic stimulus package": more corporate tax breaks and cash handouts for everyone.
ReplyDeleteBecause that's what liberals do, isn't it? Just throw money into the streets?
I spanked Garth pretty hard over this on his blog, so I was relieved when he acknowledged receipt of my email about the Manley Report. I was afraid he wasn't talking to me any more.
BTW, I must admit to having a bit of a vested interest in a spring election. I bet my husband twenty bucks that an election will be called before May 1st.