The attached legal opinion, commissioned by Friends of the Earth and conducted by international legal expert Dr. Roda Verheyen, finds Canada in current violation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (especially the Kyoto agreement), and likely in further violation of “the customary international law principle of good faith.”

The crime, however, is that the Kyoto Accord currently allows no enforceable penalties. The consequences under the agreement as it stands are only that the UNFCCC will assess higher greenhouse gas reducted targets against Canada in the future -an irrelevancy as long as the Canadian government is happy to flout those targets so unconscionably.

The greater crime is that violating the pinciple of good faith also seems to arouse no concern whatever among the members of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

That is bewildering. It’s one thing for Harper to peddle the Tim Ball view of climate change denial.

(For example, Harper has said: “We have difficulties in predicting the weather in one week or even tomorrow. Imagine in a few decades.” Which sounds woefully similar to the Tim Ball version: “Environment Canada can’t even predict the weather. … How can you tell me that they have any idea what it’s going to be like 100 years from now if they can’t tell me what the weather is going to be like in four months, or even next week?”)

It’s another matter entirely when the Prime Minister acts to endanger Canada’s international diplomatic – and honourable trading partner – status by showing that we are not, any longer, as good as our word.