For the second time in two years the Bush-wannabe administration of Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has quietly released an important report on the impact of climate change, while trying to bury it in the dead of summer.

The report, entitled Human Health in a Changing Climate: A Canadian Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacity has been released last Thursday at 4:30 p.m., just before a long weekend in most Canadian provinces. The 500-page document that warns about the harmful impact of climate change on the health of Canadians has been authored by more than twenty first-rate specialists in the fields of public health and the environment.

H/T to the daily blog gang at Four Freedoms Blog for bringing this up and inspiring this diary..

For a moment, let's set aside the campaign gabbing John McCain made during his recent visit to Canada at the invitation of Tory PM Stephen Harper.  Let's set aside the false claims that he made about Obama wanting to abandon NAFTA and claiming the Democratic nominee advocates "...retreating behind protectionist walls..."  Let's set aside the words of McCain's adviser, former Cheney spokesman and known energy industry lobbyist Steve Schmidt, who has criticized Obama's choice to use the thousands of individual donations amounting to millions in TRUE public financing, instead of using what I like to call McCain's campaign welfare (another word for the capped matching tax dollars a candidate may receive to fund their campaigns)..

John McCain is in Ottawa today paying homage to his kindred spirits - the Conservative Party minority government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his minions -  on a campaign trip paid entirely by the McCain campaign.

But serious questions are being raised about the role of U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, who appears to have become personally engaged in partisan politics in arranging and promoting McCain's appearance.

(I haven't seen this diaried anywhere else here -- if it has, I'd be happy to remove this posting).

In a front page story Tim Harper of the Toronto Star reports that 27 year old lobbyist Frank Sensenbrenner is at the "epicentre of a scandal over a leaked Canadian memo which wounded Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama."

Sensenbrenner, was not registered as a lobbyist at the time he received a no-bid contract from the Canadian government with the backing of Prime Minister Harper's office and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. The Canadian embassy employed Sensenbrenner to exert influence in Congress where his father, Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) was once the head of the House Judiciary Committee. He introduced the Patriot Act.

Frank Sensenbrenner denies having anything to do with the scandal.

More:

I hope I will be forviven for borrowing from Megadeth - but the question posed in this title essentially summarizes the last seven years which have followed the tragic day of 9/11.

The following likewise summarizes these same last seven years:

"Violence is the last refuge of incompetence" - The Sixth Principle of Incompetence.

The free sharing of intelligence databases between American security agencies and Canadian ones paves the way for full, unrestrained and potentially abusive domestic spying-by-proxy on both sides of the border. Why? Because Americans can spy on Canadians without warrants and Canadians can spy on Americans without warrants, being allowed to store their data into databases ... which are in turn freely shared between American and Canadian security agencies.

That's North American integration for you.

Fighting Global Climate Change is not just about saving the planet. It is first and foremost about saving ourselves.

But the way things have been going with regards to the Kyoto Protocols and Environmental summits over the last year or so, it looks like we keep running in circles around the matter of fighting Global Climate Change - while we keep on screwing up the planet's climate cycle.

To get away from the Vile Bushie administration?

Think again. My fiance is Canadian and I tried for YEARS to go there........good luck if you're American and not RICH..........you are not going to get there.

But don't despair. My fiance is absolutely as pissed as I am at his (Stephen Harper) govt which seems to be in league with Bushie. Canada is no more liberal than we are. There are forces there trying to do away with their govt universal health care as we speak. And may succeed.

From February 2006, when it formed a minority government, the (Neo)Conservative Party of Canada lead by Stephen J. Harper instantly transformed Canada's official policy with regards to the war in Afghanistan from one of acting as a dutiful N.A.T.O. member to one of pro-active war leader.

More than two years later, the war that was started by the U.S. and the British in 2002 has now apparently become Canada's to own - until 2011 and beyond.

The National Post is reporting that Blueprints for the new post 9/11 Counter-terrorism Building housing the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit were found laying out in the open, in a pile of trash.

The trashed blueprints, stamped with Department of National Defence markings, show everything from the location of the security fence to the floor plan of the new home of the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit at CFB Trenton.

It is clear today that in Pennsylvania Hillary Clinton intends to attack once again on the Goolsbee memo.  With many thinking it had an affect in Ohio it is time for everyone to take a step back and arm themselves with the facts of this absurd situation.

The best roundup of the entire situation, the one with the least spin I've seen, comes from the CBC

'NAFTAgate' began with offhand remark from Harper's chief of staff
NAFTAgate...

It seems that Hillary was doing the wink wink herself.

I was on my way home from work tonight and heard on my local radio station the real story about this and then read this in my online local newspaper.

More after...

Harper says Obama leak might have been illegal

~~~

Let's remember folks that harper has paid people like Luntz and Rove surrogates to design, dig and dish dirt on Liberal opponents. harper is currently mired in a mess of his own (he and his people bribed a dying man and his wife with an insurance policy) so I suspect he's trying to polish his image.

harper is a Canadian R-thug with extreme leanings on the far, far right. harper is one of the few right wingers and bush supporters left on the international political stage. He is trying to save face, no more, no less.

~~~

From the article;

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper says leaks from his government that rocked Barack Obama's U.S. presidential campaign were “blatantly unfair” — and may have been illegal.

Mr. Harper announced Wednesday that an internal security team has been called into the Foreign Affairs Department to investigate one of the leaks."

...

This just off the wires and I don't have more than a moment to post and opine on this (and I put the "b" word in non-upper case to avoid DHS-style alarmism).

Just posted from Reuters, Canadian PM Stephen Harper has decried the "leak" of the position on the Obama position on Nafta as "blatantly unfair" and "may well be illegal".

Stephen Harper is trying to make John McCain the next President of the United States.

Back when the Canadian Commission on Maher Arar issued its report, I had noticed that in this report it had stated that the Canadian government should be "more restrictive" of their intelligence to countries with "questionable human rights" records.

Well, it appears that the Canadian government actually listened somewhat to this report and now officially regards "the land of the free" as "the land of the torturers".  What's more, the Canadian government now trains its U.S. diplomats on how to look out for torture.

The goal of the workshop was to teach diplomats who visit Canadians in foreign jails how to tell if they've been tortured. It also listed countries and places with greater risks of torture. The list includes Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and China. But surprisingly, it also included the United States, Guantanamo Bay, and Israel.

It notes specific "U.S. interrogation techniques," which include "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation." The U.S. has repeatedly denied allegations by international groups that it tortures prisoners captured in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. However, U.S. officials have refused to comment on the Canadian list.

Earlier today U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates criticized NATO allies for their conduct of the war in Afghanistan. It seems America's friends just don't measure up.

In a Los Angeles Times article by Peter Spiegel Gates faults NATO force in southern Afghanistanthe British, Dutch and Canadian forces were criticized by implication.

But coming from an administration castigated for its conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, such U.S. criticism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is controversial. Many NATO officials blame inadequate U.S. troop numbers earlier in the war in part for a Taliban resurgence.

"It's been very, very difficult to apply the classic counterinsurgency doctrine because you've had to stabilize the situation sufficiently to start even applying it," said one European NATO official, who discussed the issue on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the alliance. "Even in the classic counterinsurgency doctrine, you've still got to get the fighting down to a level where you can apply the rest of the doctrine."