In the tape at one point, Natural Resources Ministers Raitt and former aide Jasmine MacDonnell speak about their unsuccessful efforts to get Aglukkaq to contribute to a news release they wanted to issue about the medical isotope supply.
On the tape, Raitt says Aglukkaq and her staff seem “terrified” of the issue.
“Good,” Raitt continues. “Because when we win on this, we get all the credit. I'm ready to roll the dice on this. This is an easy one. You know what solves this problem? Money. And if it's just about money, we'll figure it out. It's not a moral issue.
“It's really clear,” said Raitt. “Oh. Leona. I'm so disappointed.”
Shortly after that exchange, MacDonnell says to Raitt the isotope issue is hard to control, “because it's confusing to a lot of people.”
“But it's sexy,” Raitt responds. “Radioactive leaks. Cancer.”
“Nuclear contamination,” MacDonnell says.
“But it's only about money,” Raitt concludes . . .
…Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's press secretary, seemed to suggest Monday that Harper had no plans on taking any disciplinary action.
“While embarrassing, this in no way affects the minister's ability to do her job,” Soudas said in an e-mailed statement. “Ministers Raitt and Aglukkaq have the confidence of the PM.”
[Read the rest of the story]
oh imagine using the term “sexy” to describe an issue.
Now the media would never….never ever refer to an issue as being “sexy” now would they. Hypocrites all of them. When you use the well known phrase in our current culture somehow this is a sign of “disrespect” instead of a cold hard fact.
Way to go media…almost on par with withholding the fact a “fellow journalist was kidnapped (to protect said journalist) and then after releasing the journalist continued to make “public” any other tom dick or harry that was kidnapped without regard for THEIR safety.
bob
From your “rest of the story:”
“The credibility of the minister is completely shot,” said New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen. “She saw the health crisis as an opportunity to make her career. It's a disgrace.”
What’s a disgrace is the shameful distortion of facts on the part of the opposition, whose sole purpose is to discredit the government, hoping it will garner brownie points for their side. Sullen Cullen needs to take a pill, IMO, and verify his facts.
The story of the tape, as revealed by Steve Maher of the Chronicle Herald, is that the conversation between Raitt and her aide took place in Victoria on January 30, 2009.
The question of availability of medical isotopes had not yet been brought up as an urgent matter in QP. As I posted on another blog yesterday:
A quick review of Hansard shows the following:
Jan. 26 2009: Speech from the Throne
Jan. 27: 2 questions from Lib. Geoff Regan re: leakage of heavy water at Chalk River reactor.
Jan 28: 2 questions from Lib. David McGuinty re: leakage of heavy water at Chalk River reactor and its possible threat to Canadians’ health (not isotopes, but rather the release of treated radioactive water.
Jan. 29: 2 questions from Lib. Geoff Regan re: leakage of heavy water at Chalk River and its possible effect on Canadians’ health (same as Jan. 28).
Jan. 30: 2 questions from Lib. David McGuinty re: leakage of heavy water at Chalk River. Isotope production mentioned in his second question for the first time. Isotopes were also brought up in a question by a Bloc MP (see below).
If I understood the Maher account of events, the taped conversation took place in Victoria BC on January 30.
The issue of medical isotopes came up on the same day (Jan. 30) during QP. Here are those questions asked by the opposition, where “isotopes” are mentioned.
From Hansard, Jan. 30:
“Mr. David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, here is the problem. On December 15, the minister released a statement on Chalk River. Eleven days after two radioactive leaks had occurred with no knowledge of the cause and with 7,000 litres of heavy water a day leaking into the Ottawa River, the minister told Canadians, “the reactor at Chalk River continues to produce isotopes reliably”.
Was the minister negligent in the performance of her duties, or did she simply mislead Canadians?”
“Ms. France Bonsant (Compton—Stanstead, BQ):
Mr. Speaker, recent events in Chalk River raise some serious concerns about the safety of the NRU reactor, which, despite being over 50 years old, is still producing 70% of the global supply of medical isotopes.
Can the Minister of Natural Resources, who says she cares about the health and safety of the public, tell us whether she has a supply plan in place in case of a sudden shut-down, and can she make it available so that we need not relive the drama of December 2007?”
On Fridays, QP takes place at 11:15 am, after Members’ Statements. Why would Ms. Raitt be commenting purportedly negatively on Ms. Aglukkak’s handling of the medical isotopes issue, if that issue had not yet been broached as an urgent matter?
With the 3-hour difference, that means that Ms. Raitt made her comment at around 8:15 am? About an issue that had not yet been broached in QP? Unlikely, improbable.
It is thus strange that Ms. Raitt and Ms. MacDonnell would be discussing “the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq and her handling of the medical isotope issue” as stated in Mr. Maher’s affidavit, since the question of medical isotopes was not broached in QP until Jan. 30, the very day Ms. Raitt was purportedly criticizing the Health Minister’s handling of the isotope issue.
And is someone calling her colleague “a capable woman” now considered criticism?
The opposition has accused Minister Raitt of callousness vis à vis cancer patients. What a crock.
The fact is that the “sexy” comment was made on Jan. 30, before the decision to close down Chalk River for repairs, before the issue of medical isotopes became an urgent problem.
Of course, in order to appear compassionate the opposition invariably invokes “women” … next it will be “the children.”
Hypocrites.
Substantive research, Gabby, but Hansard was not the place to look. On Jan. 30, Minister Raitt released a press release declaring that she would be looking to “ensure long-term supply of isotopes”. So Minister Raitt and Ms. MacDonnell would have been very much engaged with isotopes on Jan. 30 and no doubt had spent the previous day drawing up this release, settling on the strategy, and reviewing the communication strategy. The tape, at the very least, may suggest that Minister Raitt was motivated to announce what she did on Jan. 30 partly to show, to her own political credit, that she was on top of a “hot file”.
Click here for the release.
Thanks for your input and the link to the Minister’s press release.
The fact remains that the question of medical isotopes had not yet reached the “crisis” stage when the conversation in Victoria was taped, so I don’t agree that Minister Raitt’s comment re: Minister Akkuglaq was a condemnation of her work, nor that Ms. Raitt was saying cancer was “sexy.”
To your credit, you did quite a number of stories focusing first on the heavy water leakage
http://www.canada.com/Technology/Treated+radioactive+water+enter+Ottawa+River/1258004/story.html
“Treated radioactive water to enter Ottawa River
BY DAVID AKIN, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE FEBRUARY 5, 2009
OTTAWA — Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. will slowly release into the Ottawa River some treated radioactive water collected from an early December leak at its Chalk River Laboratory. …”
Then on the health hazards possibly associated with heavy water
http://www.canada.com/Technology/Nuclear+safety+boss+caught+surprise+interest+reactor+leaks/1325028/story.html
“Nuclear-safety boss 'caught by surprise' at interest in Ont. reactor leaks
BY DAVID AKIN, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE FEBRUARY 24, 2009
… In a report tabled in Parliament by Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, both the CNSC and AECL confirmed the existence of both leaks, and said 47 kilograms of leaked radioactive water collected at AECL's Chalk River Laboratory was to be released back into the Ottawa River in such a way that it would be diluted and pose no risk to human or environmental health. …”
Next, your story about the possibly permanent closing of Chalk River:
http://www.canada.com/Technology/Latest+leak+could+isotope+reactor+Engineers/1613678/story.html
“Chalk River: End of the line for world's oldest reactor?
by DavidAkin on Wed 20 May 2009 08:50 PM EDT
OTTAWA — As radioactive water continues to leak from the nuclear reactor that produces more than half the world's medical isotopes, Canwest News Service has learned that technicians at the Chalk River, Ont., facility are privately wondering if the end has finally come for the world's oldest reactor. …”
Those are just a few of the stories you did on the issue, but suddenly, with the misplaced binder and the “tell-tale” tape, the issue has reached crisis proportions.
Is it about the lack of action by the previous Liberal government on this file (cf. a Greg Weston Feb. 3, 2008 column entitled The Chalk River Isodopes? No.
Is it about the two Maple reactors that went way over budget but are apparently 'unfixable”'? No.
Is it about offering some concrete suggestions about how the problem of the isotope supply can be improved? No.
So what's it about?
It’s all about people suffering from cancer being insulted by those callous evil Conservatives personified by an ambitious minister, according to the howling hyenas on the opposition side.
They’re still hypocrites in my book.