Lost in the news yesterday, or perhaps more accurately, not covered in the news by the mainstream media yesterday, was the successful victory by Dr. Tim Ball, a retired University of Winnipeg professor, in a defamation lawsuit brought against him by the notoriously thin-skinned Michael Mann of the infamous and thoroughly debunked ‘hockey stick’ theory related to global warming. 

This is the second lawsuit successfully defended by Dr. Ball. The first was dismissed last year in which B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver sued for defamation and lost. Apparently, in the courts, the truth is still an absolute defence. 

And so it proved in the lawsuit brought by Penn State prof Michael Mann as decided by B.C. Courts this week.  

Dr. Ball is called a cynic or a denier deemed so by the worshipers of the religion of climate change. All he has done is merely point out the holes in their arguments and apparently they get all snitty about that. 

If you don’t believe as they do you’re the devil. 

A denier. 

A word correlated to those who deny the Holocaust as though if you don’t accept the religion of climate change you’re the same as the racists who deny the Holocaust. 

Dr. Mann was exposed for manipulating the data he used to create the so-called hockey stick graph. And no amount of protesting he may do will change that. 

Why he is still employed at Penn State is a mystery. There’s a significant credibility issue surrounding his work as upheld by the courts. Dr. Ball, tongue in cheek, said he should be in the state pen as opposed to Penn State. 

The problem is that things like the hockey stick graph, no matter that it has been debunked, is at the heart of our political policy and legislation like the carbon tax. 

And the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, won’t brook any dissension. Neither will the recently rescued from career oblivion after his resignation in the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Gerald Butts, who calls anyone who disagrees a nazi.

I am not a scientist. I am but an old ex-cop and investigator who looks for evidence before coming to a conclusion in matters. And that evidence does not support the position of McKenna or the government. Nor does it support any reason to impose a carbon tax on the economy which is punitive at a time our economy should be flourishing along with that of our largest trading partner. 

But the Prime Minister and the rest of the Liberal government are true believers despite the evidence to the contrary. 

I’m sure that the fact that Butts is a former executive leading the eco-loons at the World Wildlife Foundation plays a role. He believes what he believes and no amount of evidence will sway his opinions. Unfortunately, his opinions, however wrong, have dire consequences on the country as a whole. 

Good on Dr. Ball for standing up to the eco-loons. Pity the media would rather spout the government nonsense rather than cover the result of an actual court case. 

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