She's the bomb!

Was their there sexism afoot in the Harper government's firing of Dr. Linda Keen (M.Sc.), head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the regulatory body responsible for ensuring the safety of this country's reactors?

Green Party leader Elizabeth May thinks so, as she writes in this guest blog posting on Scott's DiaTribes.

And now I turn to an unexamined aspect of the Harper abuse: sexism. The ways he spit out the name “Linda Keen” day after day in Question Period, suggested he felt he could make hay out of the fact the President of the CNSC was a woman. If CNSC member Dr. Christopher Barnes, with both an Order of Canada and membership in the Royal Society of Canada, had been its President, I simply cannot imagine the Prime Minister rounding on Michael Ignatieff, as he did in the House, demanding if he was prepared to wait for “Dr. Christopher Barnes” with the scorn in his voice he emoted for “waiting for Ms. Keen!”. The Prime Minister has sought to attack and humiliate a career scientist and civil servant who happens to have been one of the few women to hold a senior position heading one of Canada’s quasi-judicial agencies.

Politics is politics -- and maybe it would have made no difference who had headed the CNSC when the government went decapitating.

But, given the Harper's government record, I doubt it.

UPPITY DATE (22/01/08): Joan Tintor writes that May misquotes Harper.

Just for a lark, I checked Hansard. Harper referred to Keen by name a grand total of five times: once on December 12, and four times on December 13. On every occasion, he referred to her as “Ms. Keen,” not “Linda Keen.”

And he never used the word “waiting” in reference to her in the Commons. In fact, if you search the entire Parliament site for the phrase “waiting for Ms. Keen” you get 0 results.

Comments

[johnnykap]

I was just going to call you on that. Their would actually be acceptable but it would imply that they have sexism, which you no doubt believe. So I'm not sure why you changed it.

[sooey]

It is a time-honoured policy of backroom boys IN ALL POLITICAL PARTIES to circle the woman and bring her down. Women are perceived as an easy political kill because it is assumed that the public doesn't like powerful women - either.

But nevermind Linda Keen - what about that isotope "crisis", eh?

[Holly Stick]

I agree that Harper dislikes intelligent, strong women. He gives cabinet posts to lightweights like Rona Ambrose and Bev Oda, and doesn't to Diane Ablonczy. It's little wonder Belinda Stronach did not stick around.

Berlynn at Politics 'n Poetry has reached a similar conclusion about Harper and women:
http://politicsnpoetry.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/harpers-ongoing-war-on-women/
(She also has lots more on nuclear issues, Chalk River, etc.)

But there is also Harper's war on the public service of Canada, his wish to Americanize Canada, with every government appointee chosen for their partisanship rather than on merit. See http://inthehouseandsenate.blogspot.com/2008/01/keen-firing-curiouser-and-curiouser.html

She also has other good posts on the Keen firing.

So Linda Keen has the double disadvantage of being a woman and being a public servant.

[Joan Tintor]

Too bad May misquoted Harper.

http://joantintor.blogspot.com/2008/01/may-too-liberal-with-her-punctuation.html

[Antonia]

Hey Joan, thanks -- and welcome back.

[Katherine Hajer]

Er, didn't you say she was a "Dr." Keen, not "Ms."? Why does Harper keep referring to her as "Ms." when she's a "Dr."? Okay, we all know the answer to that one, but you know what I mean.

[Antonia]

Yes, I did -- and I was wrong. I corrected my post.

[Joan Tintor]

Thanks. Keep the diet tips comin'.