Engineering 101

I just caught the end of a bullshit interview with our Minister of Public Safety, Stockwell Day. Day was the consummate performer: no real answers, half smiles and a flawless haircut. The subject under discussion was our "broken" national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

The Conservative Government had just appointed a new commissioner for the "scandal-plagued" organization. No one can deny that the RCMP has problems. Their pension plan is in disarray apparently (much like our very own CPP?) and they helped to facilitate the torture of an unlucky Canadian in Syria. And apart from these highly visible stories are stories of executions and the constant harassment of First Nations peoples. And let's not forget that the RCMP are one of many security services that perpetuate and enforce through violence the rigid hierarchies of the Canadian state.

What struck me about the new appointment was that it followed the Americans' lead. William Elliott, the new commissioner, is a "bureaucrat with a political past". He is very close to the government and is likely to be very accommodating to Prime Minister Harper.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Following 9/11, George W. Bush declared that the US's security services, the FBI and the CIA had failed in preventing the attacks of that day (despite evidence that several FBI agents unsuccessfully attempted to warn their superiors about the plot months in advance). Bush's response was a complete overhaul of the agencies and the advent of the Department of Homeland Security. And where else to start but at the top.

Prior to Bush, intelligence agencies were arms-length from the federal government (useful when leaders don't want to know about contras and death squads around the world). But theoretically this meant that politics didn't influence "intelligence". In theory, to make good decisions politicians need straightforward facts. However in the run-up to the Iraq war, following the engineered discrediting of the CIA and FBI, politics stained all the intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and the gleeful welcome American liberators would receive.

In the end it was a complete fabrication. But now the lies have become reality in the smokescreen of collective memory.

Is Steve Harper learning the lessons of his southern benefactor? Is Canada heading toward our own 9/11 or dodgy intelligence leading us to war? Is Harper about to guarantee himself a majority government? A political appointment is sure to help.

I warned you.