Another Blame-Canada Day

Hey, first we blamed them for the power outage, now we’re pointing the finger at them over mad cow.

One can’t help but think of the South Park song. Maybe Trey & Matt shouldn’t have given the U.S. Government the idea, because they seem to have taken it to heart.

According to U.S. blames Canada for mad cow in the Ottawa Citizen, the claim may be premature:

“As yet there is no definitive evidence that confirms that the BSE-infected cow originated in Canada,” Dr. Evans [Canadian Food Inspection Agency chief veterinary officer] said at a hastily organized press conference in Ottawa. “Based on our understanding of the information compiled to date, it would be premature to draw such conclusions at this time.”

It would not be the first time we Americans have followed the advice of Matt and Trey.

Immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, American media reported that some of the terrorists had come from Canada and some politicians, such as New York Senator Hilary Clinton, repeated the claim even though it was later proven to be false.

And the power outage? Well the recently released initial report indicates that there were many conditions in play, including high power flows from Canada, but it concludes that none of these were unusual, and prior to 3:05 p.m. EST the status of the system was normal. The outage was in fact caused by transmission lines that short-circuited into trees, and as the load on other lines increased, causing them to sag, more and more transmission lines went out from touching trees, resulting in a classic massive outage cascade. Most the blame seems to be with a negligent Ohio utility company, not Canada.

We need to find the truth about this sick cow and get the problem under control. We cannot let the political and public relations aspects overwhelm the real health issues.

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