Updated: Dear Anne, I am a minority of one & I don't give a rat's *** . . . -- Emergency Preparedness

Update: There are new posts on terrorism et cetera below this section.

Scroll down or search: David Harris, "Former CSIS honcho calls for limits on immigrants"




Canada a terrorist target -- Deputy PM MacMillan discovers

[. . . . ] The [ Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness (CCEP) ] conference, which got underway Sunday, runs through Wednesday and boasts more than 1,500 delegates from more than 40 countries around the world - a sure sign that disaster management has become a growth industry.

Indeed, the sector has flourished since the recent end of the last century, when one calamity seemed to follow another on an almost constant basis, said Adrian Gordon, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness (Scroll down for links.).

McLellan also announced Monday that Ottawa wants to come up with ways to ensure border security officials treat Canadians and other travellers entering the country fairly by gauging feedback from ethnic communities on dealings with border security officials.

What? "feedback from ethnic communities" !!!


Dear Minister McLellan,

As a citizen, I would like to ask you why you have just discovered--or at least, reacted to--this news ("Canadians need to abandon the notion that their country is invulnerable to terrorism ")?There have been reports prepared by committees for your own government over several years about the lack of security and you avoided answering several questions in Question Period on the laxity both specific and general. What prompted you to discover this now? Were you too busy canvassing "stakeholders" to do anything else? Or am I being too hard on you?

More importantly, I don't give a rat's *** what "ethnic communities" feel about anything that affects my security. Do you not get it, yet?

I am an ethnic minority of one--at least--the one whose security you've been ignoring while your government courts the votes of ethnic minorities.

Well, you haven't asked me yet. I just happen to be white and born here. Does that not mean anything? I can't crawl into an ethnic ghetto to be canvassed, cajoled, jollied along nor paid to maintain my cultural ties, including its home country hatreds. I cannot be paid taxpayer $$$ because I happen to belong to an ethnic voting bloc, even a recent one, so you will notice my concerns.

D*** it, woman, use your common sense! Get your priorities straight! Any ethnic minority member worth listening to is already a Canadian who wants you to take care of security for all of us and doesn't want to be classified as part of a voting bloc to be canvassed about anything simply for his vote. Is that too simple to get?

If anyone is offended, well, I don't give a hoot. No-one worries about what I think. I don't really care any more. I just want some common sense to be applied.




It isn't as if Anne McLellan hasn't been told before.

Sheila Fraser, Auditor General's Opening Statement: April 2005 Report Press Conference - 5 April 2005

Security and intelligence activities account for more than $1 billion in federal expenditures each year. By their very nature, many aspects of these activities must remain secret. But how can Parliament scrutinize the spending and performance of security and intelligence activities if key information is classified?

An example of this arose in preparing the Report being tabled today. Information related to the effectiveness of air passenger security systems was classified as secret. [. . . . ]

Our latest audit found that marine security programs have improved, but there are serious weaknesses in emergency preparedness and in some aspects of air transport security.

In emergency preparedness, funds were not allocated based on an assessment of risks. Equipment purchased for first responders in different cities was not required to be interoperable, thus missing an opportunity to create a national pool of compatible equipment. Training for first responders is progressing very slowly—fewer than 200 of the needed 6,000 intermediate-level first responders have been trained.

[. . . . ] We also found that the Passport Office is not meeting current security expectations for issuing passports. There are many weak points in the process. [How many have been picked up or incidentally found with false Canadian or other false documents?]

For example, watch lists should include the names of individuals on parole or charged with a serious crime. But the watch lists are not complete, because the Passport Office has not found ways to obtain data automatically from other government sources. Without up-to-date watch lists, examiners cannot always determine when an applicant should be refused a passport. {Was the computer contract / HP / Champagne(s) supposed to address that? From the Turks and Caicos? What is the latest on that little contracting fiasco? }

[. . . . ] And while the Act permits the Minister to establish water standards for resource development in the Mackenzie Valley, the Minister has yet to take such action.

The discovery of diamonds and the potential for natural gas development have created significant opportunities in the Northwest Territories. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada should contribute to managing these opportunities in an appropriate way. [The latest deals involving land claims deal with this by ceding to natives the mineral rights. Time for looking at these little deals and happy chiefs again, I suspect. More later, subject to time constraints.]

And finally, I continue to be disappointed in the quality of performance reports provided to Parliament by government departments.

2005 Reports of the Auditor General of Canada -- pdf



2001

National Security in Canada—The 2001 Anti-Terrorism Initiative: Air Transportation Security, Marine Security, and Emergency Preparedness


Reports to Parliament by Federal Institution


2003

World Conference on Disaster Management, 2003 -- Emergency Management and Business Continuity Community -- Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 22-25, 2003


2005

The Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness (CCEP) -- Annual World Conference on Disaster Management (www.wcdm.org) -- for the current conference

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