Good work!

Posted by: Jesse Gritter at November 25, 2005 11:15 PM

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Give 'em hell Angry!

:D

Posted by: David Lockwood at November 25, 2005 11:23 PM

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"With reports from Stephen Janke..."

Ooooooh. How professional. ;-)

Congrats Angry. You've done yeomen's work on this one.

Tell Julie that she done well too.

Posted by: The Hack at November 25, 2005 11:55 PM

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"I hope wading through my amateurish attempts at journalism wasn't too much of a burden."

I have followed this story with great interest. Unfortunately there are probably hundreds ,perhaps thousands of similar situations in our government, all sucking off hard earned tax dollars.
I'm not qualified to judge if your efforts are "amateurish" or not but you have exposed it which is more than I can say for the msm.

Good work and congrats on a succesful conclusion.

Horny Toad

Posted by: at November 26, 2005 12:15 AM

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"I hope wading through my amateurish attempts at journalism wasn't too much of a burden."

I have followed this story with great interest. Unfortunately there are probably hundreds ,perhaps thousands of similar situations in our government, all sucking off hard earned tax dollars.
I'm not qualified to judge if your efforts are "amateurish" or not but you have exposed it which is more than I can say for the msm.

Good work and congrats on a succesful conclusion.

Horny Toad

Posted by: Horny Toad at November 26, 2005 12:16 AM

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Good work, Angry.

Really, reporters need and use researchers, whistleblowers, insiders and anonymous sources to get stories. All unpaid. I speak from experience. Reporters otherwise rely on press releases and news conferences, even if they are outright lies or old news. They don't have the time, money, contacts, etc. to get the story. You probably made double that small town reporter's salary last year as an engineer. Don't forget what pays the bills.

I think the blog doesn't really matter. It does allow others who share your interests to find you, encourage your work and tell you not to give up.

What people are still waking up to is the power of the internet in politics and government business. You dug this story up from your computer in Ajax. Someone in Vancouver could have just easily done it. There will probably be half a dozen candidates who will create mini-scandals for their parties this election. AND it could have been avoided if the selection committee just Googled that person's name.

Posted by: PlaidShirt at November 26, 2005 01:21 AM

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Well done, Angry. I know you've taken some heat on this so-called "non-story" in the 'sphere, but you hung in there. Way to go.

Posted by: Candace at November 26, 2005 01:34 AM

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Angry you have done a remarkable job. You don't have a $1 billion gubmnt subsidy, you don't even have the resources of a smallish newspaper or so I'm guessing, nevertheless many a pro with much more has done far less and been rewarded far more richly.

Enjoy a job truly well done.

Posted by: Jeff Cosford at November 26, 2005 01:36 AM

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Oh by the way that $1 billion gubmnt subsidy, well you can just forget it now bucko.

Posted by: Jeff Cosford at November 26, 2005 01:38 AM

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Hi, all,

Well, without Steve, there would have been no story.

The person who said we rely on press releases, well that is very true.

What happened is, we saw a story in Le Droit, a French language paper, about how Poilievre wanted an ethics commission. If a story has some connection to either Aylmer (www.bulletinaylmer.com) or to the general west Quebec area (where the Post is mailed), my editor, Fred Ryan, tells me to work on it, so I basically translate the article and see if I can find out anything more.

So I started surfing (as I have a general inclination, or maybe sickess, LOL, to do) and stumbled across Steve's site.

I said to my editor, OMG, Smith might be claiming to be an aboriginal but probably isn't...and no one else is talking about it!

At first he was a bit skeptical--it's "just" a blog, was the feeling--but he also said, if you can get anything on this, it's "dynamite."

And so it began. It's funny, when I called Smith, at first I was polite and conciliatory: "I just want to get your side of the story on this Poilievre press release."

Then I said, "Oh, one other thing. Is Abotech an aboriginal company?"

He was very proud of it: "Oh yes, Abotech was registered with the government as an aboriginal company. I am a non-status Metis."

me: "Are you registered with the band?"

Smith: laughs and says something like, 'that's not necessary, there are a lot of non-status aboriginals who aren't registered with a band.'

Then I hung up and realized I'd forgotten to ask about the cousin connection.

So I called back and talked to a receptionist. I said, "I had one other question for Mr. Smith. I've heard rumors that he and Frank Brazeau are cousins. Would he like to comment on that?"

She actually SIGHED and said, "I'll give him the message." He never called me back, LOL!

I guess he never figured a sleepy little paper would bite him in the a$$. ;) Pardon my French. ;)

Now we (concerned Canadians, I mean, though I'm just a permanent resident) must keep up the heat. I have a feeling this is the tip of the iceberg.

Here you have a government program that shovels out cash to aboriginals, and all they have to do to qualify for the program is to "self-identify" as aboriginal because they feel "pride" in the status, and yet there is (apparently) no way for the public to check up on who is an aboriginal.

May I offer a HUGE pat on the back to Steve. THANK YOU!!!

As I told him and my editor, on Tuesday, I said, I don't even want to HEAR the word "aboriginal" until Friday. ;)

And last night I posted at Free Republic, asking how to save a website (I have a feeling the government of Canada will quickly "update" all the stuff Steve has found, though I did print it out). And I'd posted a link to this website citing it as a source, but then asked the mods to pull the thread when I realized, I don't want any buzz on Angry in the Great White North until Friday.

Anyway.... so I hope you get some buzz now, Steve. You have definitely earned it. :)

p.s. One other question that has been nagging at me: who called for this KPMG audit? It certainly wasn't Abotech. I have seen nothing about this. I'm trying to figure out how to approach them, but I'd thought about calling the firm on Monday and trying to talk to someone, though I imagine I'll get nowhere. Why were these contracts audited in the first place?

Posted by: JulieM at November 26, 2005 07:07 AM

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Steve -- Congratulations on this fine accomplishment. It proves that hard work and investigative research can pay off...every so often!

Posted by: Michael Taube at November 26, 2005 07:16 AM

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Then I said, "Oh, one other thing. Is Abotech an aboriginal company?"

He was very proud of it: "Oh yes, Abotech was registered with the government as an aboriginal company. I am a non-status Metis."

me: "Are you registered with the band?"

Smith: laughs and says something like, 'that's not necessary, there are a lot of non-status aboriginals who aren't registered with a band.'

Remember that Abotech was originally 3253112 Canada Ltd. It became Abotech in April of 2001. We know that Smith was not an aboriginal in high school, which would have covered the 80s. So sometime in the 90s, give or take, he "discovered" he was a Metis. Did that happen immediately before April 2001? And what was Frank Brazeau doing at the time?

All sorts of interesting questions.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. at November 26, 2005 07:52 AM

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I've got a T-shirt I'll be wearing all through the comming election, I'm thinking I might try selling a few...

On the front it says....
I'd rather be a conservative..!!

On the back it says....
Than a Lying Liberal Thief..!!

I'm going to make a fortune.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long live truth, justice and the Stephen Harper way...

Posted by: B Wylie Ajax, Ont. at November 26, 2005 10:42 AM

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Thanks both to Angry and Julie for the story. As a constituent of Mr Smith, I of course am quite interested in how the local Lib friendly francophone media handle it. Perhaps a phone call to Lowel Green is in order, Pierre Poilieviere was on his show last week and didn't mention a word of this. He may be waiting for the election writ to be dropped, but I suspect that it will be the Blok that really runs with it.

Posted by: reido at November 26, 2005 12:47 PM

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The main difference between the MSM and the Blogosphere is that, when reading a blog, one can discern the thought processes of the writer. There's a give and take, not only between individual bloggers following a story and commenting on it, but also between the blogs of the same blogger. As he/she comes up with some new information they try to fit it into their story. Their goal, the elite bloggers, is not to prove their point, but simply to get to the bottom of the story. And they are usually the first to admit when they make an error. It seems to go with the territory.

The MSM does not work this way. In fact, if people really knew how the mainstream media actually works they would be dumbfounded and very angry. Not all MSM writers and reporters are on the take of course, and not all are so inclined to "toe the party line" in order to keep their jobs. There are a few good ones. But they are the rugged individuals who, if truth were known, are probably running their own blog, often under a pseudonym. The strong ones, of course, doing it under their own name.

Good job Angry. Good job. Without you there would be no story.

Posted by: John Crittenden at November 26, 2005 12:58 PM

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First to Steve, about the Globe Story from October 24:

"Mr. Martel said the Liberal association is not very active and that Mr. Brazeau did not attend many of its meetings, and that Mr. Brazeau sent a letter of resignation last month."

I have a couple of thoughts on this:

1. Brazeau didn't attend many meetings, but when he did, he had to leave to use the men's room after drinking too much iced tea, a la Al Gore!

2. He may have sent his resignation, but the Liberal party--head office in Montreal that I called two days ago--still has him listed as the Pontiac secretary. It's one thing to send a letter; perhaps his resignation has not been accepted?

Oh yeah, one more thought--I wonder when Brazeau started working at CAC. In early 2001, perhaps? At some point before the light bulb went off and Smith became nostalgic for the old ways of his people?

I wonder what Smith's company was doing before it became qualified for the aboriginal set asides.

And to you, reido:

Fred has pointed out to me that the fallout in Pontiac from this could be, well, startling to the residents of Pontiac.

The vote could be split between Smith and the conservative Lawrence (Laurence?) Cannon, resulting in a riding with the highest concentration of anglophones in Quebec being represented by a member of the Bloc.

Amazing.

Posted by: JulieM at November 26, 2005 01:04 PM

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Hi, all,

Let me rephrase this, now that I have sent this thread out to the world, I don't just "translate" the article, I investigate it, but it is hard to find out news, and reading the other local papers is one way to do it.

I've noticed that our paper gets a lot of new restaurants who think that their grand opening is a "great idea for a story," people who say that we really should cover their Christmas decorations because people come from "miles around" to see them every year, etc. In other words, hard news is hard to come by.

Posted by: JulieM at November 26, 2005 01:38 PM

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"In other words, hard news is hard to come by."

And you're a weekly! Imagine what it must be like for a daily.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. at November 26, 2005 01:51 PM

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Good work Steve. I nominate you for the next Ontario senate seat. Wait, I'm for reforming the senate. Egad! Anyway, keep up the good work.

Posted by: Scott at November 26, 2005 03:07 PM

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Congratulations Angry. I followed the progress of your scoops on Abotec AND Cindy Sheeman. You are a fantastic investigater. Thanks for doing all you do for the rest of us - I first read your blog when I got the link from Captains Quarters when Ed posted the Jon Braut testimony. You were fearless then, you never looked back. I read your blog as some people read the Gob and Multch for my daily news. Thank-you again.

Posted by: Jema54 at November 26, 2005 04:41 PM

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When your writing contributes to the draw of a paper and the advertising gains a little more exposure, the editor could justify sending a *consultant's* fee your way. Say $200 or so?

Well at least $100 to begin a pattern. That would give more bloggers the incentive as well. TG

Posted by: TonyGuitar at November 27, 2005 05:00 AM

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To Steve, first,

I think finding news for a local paper is more challenging than for those papers whose mandate is to cover federal and national issues. The only reason we covered Smith is because his constituents subscribe to the Post.

Also, in a smaller town, you actually know the people you write about. In my first week or so, I wrote about how Canada Post is opening a new, full-service outlet to replace the one that burned to the ground last summer. I was quoting Marcel Proulx (the MP for Hull-Aylmer), who said something to the effect that the small outlet in our local mall is "inadequate" to serve the needs of the community.

Well....The post office clerk came over to see me, in tears. She said, "We work hard! We're not inadequate." And the next time I went to mail something, she wouldn't even look at me. :(

On to broader topics that are more Abotech related: I was thinking about this today. Because I am very committed to getting the truth out, for a couple of seconds I briefly considered emailing the opposition parties. Then I decided this would be acting more as a person trying to bring down the government, as opposed to getting the truth out, though the latter was my reason.

It's a fine line.

In any case, I hope the newspapers and CFRA cover this, because I think it is especially timely not only in light of the election, but in light of the extra money the Liberals promised on Friday to give to aboriginal people.

I am very much in favor of finding some effective way of helping First Nations people, but I also think there should be some accountability. Wanting to make sure that taxpayer dollars aren't wasted and spent on possibly fake aboriginal companies is not being prejudiced, IMO.

I also think that the voters of Pontiac deserve the truth about what is going on.

Posted by: JulieM at November 27, 2005 07:01 PM

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