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I am thinking to write some essays on science and the search for the truth. This interest has been triggered by the continuing skewing of information by our governmental propaganda and most importantly by the recent study on No-Fault insurance by Dr. Cassidy. Just few days ago I pointed out that the truth is not an absolute entity or proposition, but rather it results from our own shared perceptions(1). In this respect, I pointed out how Premier Romanow expressed his governmental achievements in his 1998 NDP Convention and rallied together his supporters by saying "Let's keep on building!"

However, the reality was that Premier Romanow's leadership has been a disaster and only now people are coming to this disappointing realization. We have labelled Premier Romanow as a Magician, as a Saviour and as a Cheater and as time goes by the latter label seems to be the best characterization of this governmental leadership.

By chance I happened to be watching TV at lunch time (July 18, 2000) and I heard that Saskatchewan experienced the highest crime rate of any other province in 1999. In the afternoon, I checked the governmental site for news releases and I find that Justice Minister Chris Axworthy relishes to the news that Saskatchewan reported a decrease of 2.5 per cent in its total crime rate in 1999 and states "The latest release by Statistics Canada shows that our programs are right on track... Programs like SHOCAP, which targets serious and repeat young offenders, are working and the figures released today show they are working(2)."

I become a bit leery about the contentment of Honourable Axworthy and therefore I check out the CBC site only to find out that the Canadian "overall crime rate dropped five per cent, making it the eighth year in a row a decrease has been recorded(3)."

So our government is happy to find out that our decrease in crime rate is smaller than in other provinces, and it attributes this decrease to the good work of the governmental programs while "criminologists say although they can't explain why almost all of the numbers are going down they debunk current theories for this trend."

I shake my head once again, and again I have confirmation that this government doesn't want to learn and systemically uses skewed information to mask our socio-economic realities.

References and Endnotes

Articles by Mario deSantis published by Ensign

1. Premier Roy Romanow: a Magician? a Saviour? a Cheater? By Mario deSantis, July 13, 2000

2. CRIME RATE DOWN IN SASKATCHEWAN, Government News Release, July 18, 2000, Justice - 438 Saskatchewan Government http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/07/18-438.html

3. Crime rate lowest in two decades WebPosted Tue Jul 18 16:44:41 2000 http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/07/18/crime_rate000718