Le prix des mots

Engaging in speculation can be a risky business.

Julien Fréchette's Le prix des mots explores how engaging in what can be thought of as scholarly research can be risky as well, if you draw conclusions from your research that directly critique those who seem like enormously wealthy capitalistic players.

In Canada anyways.

Mining is big business in Canada.

When I look around my apartment and count the gadgets and appliances I frequently use that wouldn't exist without mining, and consider the social programs that can be supported through the extraction of minerals, as well as the jobs that can be consequently created, I don't see much of a problem with it, as I've stated before.

But said mining operations must proceed ethically in an environmentally and socially responsible manner so that tax payers aren't left cleaning up potentially irremediable pollution for generations to come, and the workers can enjoy a fruitful share of their profits.

According to this article, containing information from Canadian Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Scott Vaughan's final report after five years on the job, if there was currently an oil spill or nuclear accident within Canada, Canadian taxpayers would be exposed to huge financial risks.

According to this look at closure alternatives for Yukon's faro mine, moving the tailings could take between 10 to 20 years, and this article states that "with devolution, managing the cleanup of the mine became the responsibility of the Yukon government, while Ottawa is still obligated to pay the bills," although it doesn't mention whether or not Ottawa is exclusively paying for the cleanup with tax payers money (I think it's safe to speculate that this could partially be the case).

To speculate further, applying environmental regulations can also be a tricky business. Constant vigilance is possibly required. This requires chill lefties to adopt psychological dispositions that can be stereotypically associated with their right wing counterparts, although there are probably plenty of chill right wingers as well as a plethora of tenacious left wing professionals. The adoption of such dispositions will possibly lead to a conservative comedic backlash, and it's possibly easier for people to appear chill when they're sitting on boatloads of cash (that can possibly be used to conservatively prop up pop culture [people with money often don't do this and many are deserving of a sincere degree of respect due to how hard they work, their intelligence, the jobs they create, and their commitment to democratically ensuring that those jobs are available for years to come]).

Le prix des mots is about what I consider to be a courageous book, based upon what I've seen in the film, Alain Deneault's Noir Canada, and the problems Mr. Deneault and his publisher Écosociété encountered after its publication.

It was only published in French in Québec but ended up being prosecuted for libel in an Ontarian court afterwards.

Parts of Mr. Deneault's defence are presented in the film and it seemed to me like he was on trial for drawing logical conclusions from the articles he cited in his book.

Perhaps the language he used was too direct, but if everyone who draws logical conclusions from cited articles ended up being sued for libel, you would have to place written and verbal communication themselves on trial, as, according to my understanding of the phenomenons, that's what they do.

One could potentially interview/interrogate/subpoena everyone who ever wrote about/interpreted/criticized/discussed a specific printed entity, if they had the financial resources, until so much ambiguity was attached to every nuance that it would be impossible to make a clear point, the clear points people are often taught to make using the active voice in school, as if the active voice itself is reserved for the forces of capital.

If that clear point happens to be true and it's made in the defence of people who don't have vast financial resources by someone who also doesn't have vast financial resources, this could be (is?) a serious problem.

Écosociété confidently stood by Mr. Deneault throughout the proceedings.

His book is about the activities of some Canadian mining companies in Africa and how they (possibly) affected local populations.

Looking forward to picking up a copy.