Miskatonic University PressThe American Library Association’s Core Values of Librarianship seem right to me. Stephen Harper and the Conservatives stand against every single one of them.
- access
- confidentiality/privacy
- democracy
- diversity
- education and lifelong learning
- intellectual freedom
- preservation
- the public good
- professionalism
- service
- social responsibility
The list of what they’ve done is overwhelming, but covered well here:
- Vanishing Canada: Why we’re all losers in Ottawa’s war on data by Anne Kingston in Macleans
- Stephen Harper: Master manipulator by Nick Davies in the Guardian
- 2011-2015 Harper Government Wrap-up by “Dave” on the 24 Percent Majority blog
- The Canadian War on Science: A long, unexaggerated, devastating chronological indictment by my colleague John Dupuis on his blog Confessions of a Science Librarian
Of the many terrible things Harper is doing—and he’s almost entirely solely responsible for everything the government has done—the most relevant for libraries and archives is the sustained war on truth, fact and history. He is trying to prevent there from being any basis in fact for any argument about any policy and to prevent any informed expert from making public facts that go against his plans.
The damage done to the country just by stopping the long-form census is permanent, and that’s just one small part of the irreparable harm he’s caused.
It is professionally unethical for any librarian or archivist in Canada to vote Conservative in this election. I encourage all my colleagues across the country to vote for other parties.
(Note: This opinion is mine and does not represent York University, where I work. The academic freedom section of our collective agreement says, “When exercising their rights of action and expression as citizens, employees shall endeavour to ensure that their private actions or expressions are not interpreted as representing positions of York University.” Consider it done.)