See no Evil

It's the new mantra of Canadian Conservatives, both federal and provincial: If we haven't actually seen detainees being tortured with our own eyes and if our noses aren't being vigorously rubbed into definitive evidence that the tar-sands are dumping the equivalent of a major oil spill into one of Alberta's major watersheds every year - then hey, we can honestly say as far as we're concerned - it isn't happening.

But only by slapping their hands over their ears and chanting LALALALALALALA!!! at the top of their lungs can they maintain this blissful ignorance.

The report suggests more than a decade worth of monitoring and testing has failed to capture the scope of the pollution caused by oilsands operations and estimates some 34,000 tonnes of toxic particulates are being released from the two resource giants every year.

Studies were conducted by several monitoring stations along the waterways for two months in the summer of 2008.

Alberta Energy Minister Rob Renner, noting he and his staff haven't read the findings but will look at them, dismissed the suggestion that the heavy oil industry is having a detrimental effect on the environment.

"We've done an extensive amount of testing that tells us there's not (any) risk associated with development," he said.

"There are no obvious signs of impact from industrial development," Renner said.

Major government policy based on willful, deliberate ignorance to maintain plausible deniability. Cognitive dissonance as a governing strategy. It explains the very real anger with which they respond to critics pointing out unpleasant truths: 'Don't they understand how hard it is to maintain complete and blissful ignorance only to have some smart ass come along and blow it up with ugly truths?'

Aren't Conservatives the ones who preach the gospel of personal responsibility?