Proof is a proof

“A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.” — Jean Chrétien

The ever-well-informed Carl Powell, expert on Voisey’s Bay, Strait of Belle Isle tunnels, and anything else that involve blasting holes in Labrador bedrock, went on what, even by Carl Powell standards, was a spectacular rhetorical and logical bender on Cracktalk with Comrade Bill Rowe today.

After comparing the Voisey’s Bay work site to a Stalin-era Gulag – yup – Mr. Powell continued as follows:

Carl Powell: It’s [the Voisey’s Bay project] absolutely closed, it has hidden operations, its tailing and effluents treatment; we have some retrograde labour activities that are very close in my opinion to the logger’s strike in Badger in the 1950s.

Bill Rowe: Carl, you’ve just described a Hell on Earth, that I didn’t know existed here in our province, are you sure it’s that bad?

Carl Powell: Yes, sir. Worse. Because I don’t know. I’m not allowed on the site, I don’t think you would be, either. It is a Gulag, it’s closely controlled...

Bill Rowe challenged his caller for evidence to back up his assertions.

And the proof on offer?

That Carl Powell doesn’t know. There: assertion proven!

At least Chrétien’s Philosophy of Proof made perfect, if circular and simplistic, sense.

Proof is proof.

Absence of proof, absence of disproof, absence of any kind of information or evidence whatsoever, is NOT proof.

Oh, and Carl: It’s still not “Andalak”, and Anaktalak is no more an “open sea” than Humber Arm, Bay D'Espoir, or the lower reaches of the Exploits.