By now you may have heard that our government has relieved Linda Keen of her position as president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Count me among those who feel that it was done late last night precisely because an emergency parliamentary committee which met yesterday decided to have both Keen and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn testify today. There's nothing like throwing the star witness against you off balance.
The government's position is bolstered by documents prepared by the AECL's lawyers which dispute the CNSC version of events. There would be a lot of ground to cover to deal with all the details but for the moment there's one thing in particular that caught my eye:
The pumps' power supply upgrade was agreed to by AECL in 2005, during the commission's licence-renewal process for the 50-year-old reactor. AECL believed then, and still does, that the upgrade was needed, but that it was not a strict condition of its operating licence.
The CNSC apparently does think it was a strict condition of the operating licence but you would think that difference would be easy enough to sort out. But read that again. The AECL is running an aging nuclear facility that's located on a fault line, and one that only continues to be in service because the same corporation is eight years behind schedule in getting two planned replacement reactors up and running. They agreed in 2005 that an upgrade was "needed" but two years later still hadn't taken care of it. And they're hiding behind the fact that it wasn't a "strict condition" of their operating licence? No matter how this turns out, I'm inclined to think that Linda Keen has never been our biggest problem here.
Update:
If you're a complete fanatic, Kady O'Malley at Macleans is liveblogging the committee hearing. Her preamble of this morning is here and episode 1 is here.
Downer update:
After indicating early this morning that she would still testify before the committee, Keen subsequently begged off. As suggested in comments here, a couple of us are speculating that it's on the advice of her lawyer. Meanwhile Lunn testified that he's the most wonderfullest cabinet minister ever and a real humanitarian, said he fired Keen for a lack of leadership without saying specifically what that means in this context and then smarmed away. (Can I use smarm as a verb?) The committee has now voted to do nothing further until Jan. 29th.
So Lunn probably keeps his job for at least another couple of weeks.
Bummer.
Whooee! PogFeller, I hope you'll forgive me for reposting a comment I made elsewhere today. (I really am a lazyass.)
Harper promised transparency and he’s delivering. This is a transparent move to undermine an arms-length regulator. Lunn’s incompetence is transparent. Cabinet’s bully-boy schoolyard tactics are transparent. Harper’s allegiance to MDS’s bottom line is transparent. Harper’s small-minded vindictiveness is transparent.
Harper has set up the environment-vs-economy framework and now he’s made it even more clear (transparent) which side he’s on. The truth is… without a healthy environment, there can be no economy.
In real life, I’m directing an amateur theatre production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People.” The similarities between this issue and Ibsen’s 19th century work are striking. I’m still working on designing the printed program and promotional press release. Harper and Lunn just made that a lot easier and assured me a full house. I suppose I should be thankful.
A big troublem is that the truth is taking a backseat to political expediency and economic considerations. Harper’s minions simply deny facts and put up a smoke screen.
Dr. Stockmann and Linda Keen — fired for telling the truth. An inconvenient truth.
JB
Never worked in a nuclear plant - but I have generated electricity and worked in many processing plants. Any insurance company would jack up premiums to amazing heights as soon as they learned of any private company operasting without backup capabilities.
Accicident investigators often point out that any large disaster never has a single cause - it is always a web of deficiencies/situations and 'unconventional operating techniques' ie, lack of cooling backup).
A 50 year old plant, even if it has been well maintained and updated, operating in this situation has two of the necessary conditions for disaster in place.
Now a pump seal failure, line blockage or even an operations mistake/poor judgement will complete the 'major accident circle'.
From O'Malley's liveblogging: two emails have now been received stating that Keen will not be appearing this afternoon -- that in spite of the fact that this morning she told the committee she would be there.
Lawyer's advice? Very disappointing.
Lunn has been quite the jerk. At one point he actually said that he "serves at the pleasure of the prime minister." Heh. I think we call that the Alberto Gonzales gambit. Heh.
Listen up, Lunn: You serve, as does the prime minister and everyone else in that committee room today, at the pleasure of the people of Canada. And don't you be forgetting that. Twit.
Probably lawyer's advice. And probably what Harper had in mind when he gave the go-ahead to fire her. And let's face it, this decision came from the top.
Oh, those effing fuckwads!!! Can we please put an end to Harper's reign of horror? Soon? Please, please, please, pretty please???
for skdadl: its actually 'public servant of the people and parliment of canada under common law'
and those like I say it every morning. Keen has been added to my list of mentors.
Thank you, d. I wasn't sure what the Canadian tradition had become. That phrase as it rolls off Dubya's lips creeps me out something awful -- it is of course an ancient expression from English common law, but nowadays, and especially as spoken by the Smirker, its ick factor is 'way off the scale.
I thought the pizza for lunch break was a nice touch. They don't do that in the U.S. Senate. ;-)
skdadl: those of us say it as it means...pogg one of the cornerstones that founded this country. do not think for an instant that some of us don't do 'risk assessment' every day and know where the $$$ comes from. why do you think they don't like me/us?
was the pizza paid for as hospitality?
I'm not often an Elizabeth May fan, but this is terrific. Via Impolitical
'Tis indeed. Aside from nailing the government to the wall she's suitably hard on AECL which is as it should be. She raises an excellent point: with a reactor that's more than 50 years old, who's to say that while it's shut down for routine maintenance they wouldn't discover some other problem that required them to extend the down time? So if these isotopes are so critical, why isn't there a contingency plan in place to cover the gap?
Why would you look at that (see the second block quote).
You know, I think it's only a matter of time before the slogs at the Grope and Pail and its comrades in the diligent press pick up on the fact that this "crisis" was nothing of the sort, that these acts are certain to cause a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, and that the timing of her departure was almost certainly designed to pre-empt her testimony this afternoon. They do love a scandal, and a story in which the government manufactured a crisis for the apparently express purpose of railroading a public servant who was just doing her job, and in so doing served to undermine the regulator of the nuclear industry, will play very well in the media.
Indeed, we should all immediately write to the opposition leaders and ask them to drop any further mention of Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber, and instead call for a very much needed inquiry into the government's unimaginable bungling on the Chalk River/CNSC debacle.
So, all agreed then? Whatever pennies that are now left over after the GST cut should go to the two new replacement reactors at Chalk River. What an excellent 2008 budget priority.
I thought As It Happens was coming close to the manufactured crisis aspect while talking to a Liberal MP tonight, but didn't quite get there.
Well now we know why the dapper liddle man was missing in action until his testimony. He was in the studio rooms of McLoughlin Media being primped and prepped; where all Ministers go for a tune-up or touch-up in a media crisis. No wonder McLoughlin is always on contract.
http://torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/01/17/4777781-sun.html