The Opposition is part of the government

Sometimes I think the Liberals forget that. For them, the Opposition is a nuisance, a relic of the Westminster system. That attitude is clear today:

Opposition parties made a last-ditch effort to pry the Gomery report on the sponsorship scandal from the government's hands on Monday, saying they had received word from the judge himself that he would consider their request for an early copy.

They are angry that Prime Minister Paul Martin will get the report before everyone else. Mr. Martin will be able to begin reading the report on Monday evening after it is delivered to Ottawa personally by Mr. Justice John Gomery, who presided over the sponsorship inquiry.

Mr. Martin said that precedent requires the government to receive a copy of such a significant report in advance of the public, the opposition parties or the media.

"The fact is, Mr. Speaker, the government's always received reports of this significance in advance because they are in the unique position of having to act."

But the government cannot act without reporting to Parliament, and those meddling Opposition parties with their questions and allegations and whatnot.

I think one of the problems here is that in our system, the boundary between the executive and legislative branches is blurred. Our executive branch (the PM and his Cabinet) is lifted out of the legislative branch from the ranks of the winning party, and then see themselves both as executive and legislative. So when the report is in Paul Martin's hands, in his mind, Parliament has the report.

In the American system, the executive and legislative branches are entirely separate. The President's cabinet is selected from wherever he can find qualified people. If such a person is sitting in the Congress, he'll resign the seat to join the executive.

So if the executive gets a report akin to Gomery, the legislative branch is under no illusion that it has received the report as well, nor for that matter is the President. Clearly Congress has not, and you can be sure that a bipartisan uproar would ensue. Why? Because the Americans spend a great deal of time worrying about separation of powers. That cuts across party lines, and any move to limit the power of Congress to keep an eye on the President would be fought tooth and nail by members of both parties.

In Canada though, the Liberal MPs would feel that since their fellow MPs, who happen to be Prime Minister and his cabinet, have the report, everything is fine.

To them, the "government" has the report and can act. But the legislative branch is not just the Liberals. It's the Conservatives, and the Bloc, and the NDP as well (and the independents). In a properly functioning system, the Liberal MPs would be joining their fellows on the other side of the floor demanding that the Parliament's role in this be respected, and that Parliament have ample time to study the report, in order to hold the Prime Minister to account.

But that's not the way things work around here. It's too bad. Sometimes I think that at least some of the problems we have in our Canadian system would go away if the people in it showed some loyalty to the system, and not just their parties.

But then with all the power to hand out patronage goodies concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office, and with Parliament powerless to do anything about it, loyalty to the system doesn't give you much, and so I doubt things will get any better soon.

The Abotech Affair: The Status of Frank Brazeau

Frank Brazeau, cousin of Liberal MP David Smith, representing the riding of Pontiac, was a civil servant in the Consulting and Audit Canada branch of Public Works and Government Services Canada, until he was suspended without pay as a result of contracts that he managed that had been sole-sourced to a firm called Abotech.

Abotech is David Smith's company, now run by his wife. It is run out of the Smth family home in Gatineau, Quebec, across the Ottawa River from Ottawa.

Details are scarce. The government refuses to give any detailed answers during Question Period. Nor will the government release the KPMG audit that resulted in disciplinary action being taken against Frank Brazeau, and also resulted in more than one six-figure contract with Abotech to be terminated.

Here is the entry showing Frank Brazeau as the coordinator representing CAC to Indian and North Affairs Canada. You see, each major department that issues contracts has a coordinator assigned to report to INAC on compliance with PSAB, the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business. This program is designed to direct a certain percentage of contracts to aboriginal businesses. Abotech is such a business, and David Smith claims aboriginal status (see the index in the expanded entry of the post to find other articles discussing these issues).

Frank Brazeau, an aboriginal from the Kitigan Zibi reserve just outside of Maniwaki, Quebec, David Smith's home town, was in a position to help direct these CAC contracts to Abotech. He no longer appears on the current version of the coordinators list.

Makes sense, being suspended and all.

But then why does this entry appear in Government Electronic Directory Services, under PWGSC Project Management Services, created October 28, 2005?

It's the same Frank Brazeau -- compare the email addresses and phone numbers. I think that "creation" timestamp is misleading; lower down there is a "Last Updated" timestamp of July 15, 2005, which is earlier than the creation date. That tells me the creation time is some computer generated value refering to when the web page was created, and not the underlying database record.

How long does it take to update the directory? Or are they holding off from making the update for some reason?

The Canadian Government vs the Roman Catholic Church

It's one thing for the government to fund an abortion group counselling women seeking abortions. But it's another to fund a group that sees its role to "fight" the Catholic Church? Does that cross the line to justify government funding? According to the Canadian government, that's not a problem and money keeps flowing.

The truth at Kashechewan: Band engineering or bad management?

We've all heard the horror stories of sewage being pumped as drinking water to the people on the Kashechewan reserve in northern Ontario.

The provincial government is moving people from the reserve -- their future is uncertain.

But now another claim is being made -- that the system is fine, but is being mismanaged:

Tap water at a remote native community on the shores of James Bay in the grips of an emergency evacuation is good enough to drink, according to the technician sent in to take over management of the Kashechewan treatment plant.

Chris LeBlanc, a process expert with Northern Waterworks Inc., said he showers and drinks the troubled community's water. He said the outcry over chlorination levels in the Kashechewan water system is misguided and potentially dangerous, but nevertheless one he hears frequently.

According to LeBlanc, the community demands that the chloriination be turned off:

"The community doesn't like the smell of chlorine in water," he said, which often results in them "pressuring [operators] to shut off the chlorine in the water. So they do."

The result, he said, is many native communities are like "Walkerton waiting to happen."

The unspoken implication is that a properly trained manager would find a way to address the people's concerns without compromising safety, but 61% of the water system managers on reserves are not certified.

So who to believe?

Well, in case it matters, the firm for which LeBlanc works, Northern Waterworks Inc, run by the LeBlanc family, donated $2000 to the Liberal Party in 2004. On the other hand, the LeBlancs seem like professionals dedicated to making sure that the people who run these water systems are trained professionals. They were hosting training course as far back as January of 2002:

January 14, 2002 marked a historic date for the evolution of training for Water Treatment Plant Operators in the north. Keewaytinook Okimakanak in conjunction with the Keewatin Patricia District School Board, Northern Waterworks Inc. and the Municipality of Red Lake played host to the first of a series of Water Plant Operator evaluations designed specifically to provide data that will ensure future training is specific to their needs. Keewaytinook Okimakanak is presently pursuing options for the establishment of a permanent training centre located in Red Lake that will be designed to provide the communities with an affordable and sustainable source for training services. The long term objective of this project is to ensure that all northern communities have a safe, reliable source for drinking water being operated and maintained by Provicially Certified Water Treatment Plant Operators.

They run the water systems at the following locations:

Red Lake WTP
Red Lake WPCP
Balmertown (Sandy Bay) WTP
Balmertown WPCP
Cochenour WTP
Cochenour WPCP
Madsen WTP
Madsen WPCP
Musselwhite Mine WTP
Attawapiskat First Nation WTP

We haven't heard of any problems from these locations. Let's hope Northern Waterworks Inc knows it's business.

David Smith and Abotech: Is the the CBC good for anything?

Recall that post about David Smith and his time in Maniwaki? Thanks to the crack fact-checking abilities of the CBC, I need to make a major revision.

Grrrrrr!

Here's is the bio printed by the CBC about David Smith, Liberal MP from the riding of Pontiac. I've posted it in its entirety:

Party: Liberal Party of Canada
Age: 50

Education: Graduate in administration from Heritage College, Hull. Currently registered at graduate-level specialized public administration program at eNAP in Gatineau.
Career Background:
He has more than 15 of years experience in organizational management, human resources, property management, and management of multidisciplinary complex projects. He works as a business manager with Public Works and Government Services Canada. He was previously director of strategic development for Jaguar Solutions and executive director with AGM Informatique. He was also manager of Ameublement Branchard for six years.
Community Involvement:
He was a member of the CEMB, working on the school establishment council, and also served as a volunteer with the Quebec Ice Hockey Federation and the Canadian Cancer Society. Currently serves as a volunteer with the Saint-Pierre Chanel scout movement. He is also a member of the Quebec Aboriginal Alliance.

Political History
Party: He has been involved in political life for a number of years, particularly with the Liberal Party of Quebec.
Municipal: Currently, municipal councillor in Maniwaki. Defeated Liberal MP Robert Bertrand for the nomination.

First, David Smith was 40, not 50, at the time of the election.

Second, he worked for "ASM Informatique", not "AGM Informatique".

Third, I can't find a company called "Ameublement Branchard", but there is one called "Ameublement Branchaud" with stores in Maniwaki and in Gatineau.

And finally, and this is critical, according to research performed at the Maniwaki Town Hall, he was councillor from November 12, 1990 and resigned on July 20, 1992. Then he moved to Gatineau.

The Wikipedia entry on David Smith repeats the same mistake:

Smith served as a city councillor in Maniwaki, Quebec until 2004. At this point, he ran in the Canadian federal election, 2004 for the Liberal Party of Canada in the riding of Pontiac where he won.

Quoting the same bad source as the CBC, or just repeating the information run by the CBC?

This alternate bio contradicts the CBC bio:

At the time of his nomination, Mr Smith was a strategic planning officer for service integration at Public Works and Government Services Canada. Prior to that, he was a business manager for the same department. Mr Smith has more than 15 years experience as a businessman and former director for various businesses in the Outaouais.

Mr Smith was a municipal councillor for the town of Maniwaki. He was responsible for many committees such as public security and fire protection. He also served as a Board member for educational settings and was a member of the Quebec Liberal Party and also a member of their youth wing .

It doesn't provide the details, such as that David Smith counciller for just under two years over 12 years earlier.

But this changes things. Here is a new timeline:

1990 Smith elected municipal councillor
1992 Smith resigns from municipal council; moves to Gatineau
1995 Trepanier/Godbout opens Inter-reseau in Maniwaki
2000 Trepanier/Godbout sells Inter-reseau in Maniwaki
2001 Trepanier/Godbout opens Jaguar Solutions in Gatineau
2002 Smith works for Jaguar
2002 Earliest online evidence of the existence of Abotech
2004 Smith is working for PWGSC as a strategic planner; don't know when he started
2004 Smith elected to Parliament; reins of Abotech given to Anne Ethier
2005 KPMG audit results in the suspension of Brazeau and of contracts with Abotech being terminated

So it looks like Smith was in Gatineau when Trepanier and Godbout were running Inter-reseau in Maniwaki. This suggests that they do not go as far back as I first thought. On the other hand, Smith did work for Jaguar, there is still the overlap on the fire management work, and there is still the problem of the shared fax number.

On the other hand, there is the problem of David Smith working for PWGSC while his firm is taking contracts from aboriginal set-asides.

When I can, I'll try to gather more details on the other players and get them into the timeline.

And from now on, the CBC goes on the same list as the National Enquirer as a source I use.

Irans calls for Israel's destruction; the CBC does it bit to help

The President of Iran was remarkably candid recently:

Newspapers across the Middle East reported the statements by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a conference on Wednesday of conservative students. Ahmadinejad said, "There is no doubt that the new wave of [attacks] in Palestine will wipe off this stigma [Israel] from the face of the Islamic world."

More from the Times:

"Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury. Anybody who recognizes the Zionist regime is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world," said Mr Ahmadinejad.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Iran's recenlty elected president.

Arab nations were generally silent, of course. Most were probably more embarrassed than shocked or surprised. You have to wonder just how many agreed with the sentiment.

But other nations were quick to call Ahmadinejad out on what he said:

Israel on Thursday called for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations after Ahmadinejad told a conference called "The World Without Zionism" that he hoped Israel would be wiped "from the face of the Islamic world."

Countries around the world expressed their outrage, including Canada, the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and France. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel would call for an emergency session of the UN to discuss the comments.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the criticism:

But after a walk through crowds of cheering supporters, Ahmadinejad said the reaction of Western nations carried no weight.

"Westerners are free to comment, but their reactions are invalid," he said.

"They become upset when they hear any voice of truth-seeking. They think they are the absolute rulers of the world."

And the Europeans thought they could talk to these people about giving up nuclear weapons?

Despite the looniness of the Iranian leadership, there are still some professionals left in the Iranian civil service, and they tried to repair the damage:

Iranian diplomats tried to downplay the comments.

"Mr. Ahmadinejad did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict," Iran's embassy in Moscow said in a statement.

Diplo-speak for "We diplomats had hoped no one would notice what Ahmadinejad had said."

It'll be interesting to see if the UN actually does anything:

Israel demanded a special UN session on Friday, two days after Ahmadinejad made his comments at a student rally in Teheran.

The UN has always been quick on the uptake when it comes to criticizing Israel.

By the way, it was cute of the CBC to recast the comments as having been made "at a student rally". Makes it sound like an off-the-cuff remark by one rogue politician caught up in the heat of the moment at some-run-of-the-mill student event at some single college somewhere. Recall that on October 27 and 28, the CBC reported that Ahmadinejad was speaking "at a conference...of conservative students" called "The World Without Zionism":

These programs are conducted in different forms including holding nationwide conferences on The World without Zionism inside and outside Iran, Qods vigil ceremony and carrying out special programs during rallies marking the World Qods Day; moreover the bells of schools across Iran will be rung as part of the Ring of the World without Zionism concurrent with the World Qods Day.

In addition to conducting these programs the Student Movement will hold workshops and question-and-answer meetings for students to better know Zionism. In this line, students from across the country will get together the night before the Qods day and pray to God for the liberation of the holy Qods and the oppressed Muslim Palestinians.

Moreover, the Student Movement with setting up special platforms at the World Qods day rallies will hold photo and caricature exhibitions as well as prepare places for the gathering of students.

This was an elaborate, nation-wide event, covering student university through to grade school, with well-heeled backers, not the least being the Iranian government.

Prince William? Nice guy? Ready to be King?

I ask because the alternative is Prince Charles:

The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11.

The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America's "confrontational" approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths.

Prince Charles, who is about to embark on his first official foreign tour since his marriage to the Duchess of Cornwall, wants Americans - including Mr Bush - to share his fondness for Islam.

Right. Tolerance. A concept that Islam can teach the rest of the world.

First, I'm not sure how you can be "fond" of a religion. It's not a hobby. Or a pet.

To give the His Royal Highness credit, he's been remarkably consistent on this position, criticizing the United States all the way back to November 2001, just two months after 9/11:

The Prince raised his concerns when he met senior Muslims in London in November 2001. The gathering took place just two months after the attacks on New York and Washington. "I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational," the Prince said, according to one leader at the meeting.

Those present at the meeting in 2001 included Sir Iqbal Sacrani, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, and Hashir Faruqi, the chief editor of Impact International, an Islamic affairs magazine.

The same Iqbal Sacrani who thought that a Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day should be scrapped because it was offensive to Muslims (he wanted the day to remember Palestinians in an equivalent way), the same Iqbal Sacrani who said "There is no such thing as an Islamic terrorist", the same Iqbal Sacrani who refused to distance himself from an organization that called Christianity and Judaism "sick or deviant".

Seems like the Prince should be concerned about the intolerant and confrontational individuals in his own immediate area before flying across the Pond to lecture the Americans.

Back to Prince WIlliam, Prince Charles' eldest son and second in line to the throne. Nice guy, is he? Doesn't talk to plants or anything like that? Just wondering.

"Ghazw": For those who can't say "terrorist"

For institutions like our taxpayer-funded CBC who can't bring themselves to use the word "terrorist", the traditional label "ghazw" might suffice:

In its active participle form of gha-zi- ("one who takes part in a gha-ziya"), the word is technical term for a Muslim frontier/march warrior whose constant attacks against a neighboring infidel power open the way for the expansion of Islam. Thus as an institution the gha-ziya fits entirely within the conceptual framework of jihad:

For the gha-zi-s in the marches, it was a religious duty to ravage the countries of the infidels who resisted Islam, and to force them into subjection.
Cambridge History of Islam, p. 283

Gha-zi- warriors depended upon plunder for their livelihood, and were prone to brigandage and sedition in times of peace. The corporations into which they organized themselves attracted adventurers, zealots, and religious and political dissidents of all ethnicities.

When performed within the context of Islamic jihad warfare, the ghazw's function was to weaken the enemy's defenses in preparation for his eventual conquest and subjugation. Because the typical ghazw raiding party often did not have the size or strength to seize military or territorial objectives, this usually meant sudden attacks on weakly defended targets (e.g. villages) with the intent of terrorizing/demoralizing their inhabitants and destroying material which could support the enemy's military forces. Though rules of war in Islam's rules of warfare offered protection to non-combatants such as women, monastics, and peasants (in that, generally speaking, they could not be slain), their property could still be looted or destroyed, and they themselves could be abducted and enslaved.

But then the slavery market is a tough one to get into, and you have to keep your captives alive and such, so these ghazawat partaking in a ghaziya in Indonesia had little choice in preparing this land for the expansion of Islam:

Three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded in a savage attack on Saturday by unidentified assailants in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi.

The girls were among a group of students from a private Christian high school who were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Major Riky Naldo said.

Naldo said the heads of the three dead victims were found several kilometres from their bodies.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody religious war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1000 people from both communities.

A government-mediated truce succeeded in ending the conflict in early 2002, but there have since been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations of Christians.

Let's recall the CBC rules:

Distributed to staff at cbc.ca, after some poor worker bee made the egregious error of referring to the London transit bombings as "terror attacks" -- which the CBC later went in and retroactively changed to "attacks" in the best traditions of the Ministry of Truth in 1984 -- it reads in part:

"'Terrorist' and 'terrorism': use extreme caution before using either word ... Rather than calling assailants 'terrorists', we can refer to them as bombers, hijackers, gunmen (if we're sure no women were in the group (my italics)), militants, extremists, attackers or some other appropriate noun."

"Ghazw" is an excellent choice. For the CBC, it avoids using a word with a technically bad connotation. Indeed, the CBC could even argue that it is being culturally-sensitive.

On the other hand, once people understood was it means to be a ghazw, no one would be fooled by those apologists arguing that Muslim thugs grabbing defenseless schoolgirls and sawing off their heads has nothing to do with Islam. Of course it does, everyone knows it, and everyone would be waiting for the day the ghazw start to show up in major Canadian cities with their bomb belts and car bombs, preparing the ground for the expansion of Islam.

And when it happens, we can all say "Oh well, there ghazw the neighbourhood!"

[Michelle Malkin has more. Beware -- graphic!]

Combatting the allure of gangs -- Canadian style

From Yahoo:

Posters for "Get Rich or Die Tryin"' show the chart-topping gangsta rapper stripped to the waist in a crucifixion-like pose with his tattooed, bullet-scarred back to the camera and arms outstretched, holding a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich sent a letter to distributor Paramount Pictures urging the billboards be yanked, starting with one outside a public school in Altadena, a suburb north of Los Angeles.

Here's a variation of that billboard for the same advertising campaign for rapper "50 Cent":

Officials were concerned that the image of the gun pointed straight at the camera glorified violence and would undermine efforts to combat the allure of gang membership.

Funny thing is, in Canada, we had the same sort of advertising campaign during the last federal election, courtesy of the Liberal Party:

But in a strange reversal, this ad was acceptable, as the image of the gun pointed at the camera was designed not to glorify but to decry support of the Conservative Party.

A political party which seems to count as a gang and deserves no better treatment, according to the Liberals, the Canadian media and the chattering classes.

A strange attitude, given that it's the Liberals who always seem to be caught stealing money.

Canadian Content, the CRTC, and the Internet

Bill Gates speaks:

Compact discs and DVDs are on the verge of extinction, Microsoft chief Bill Gates has claimed.

He warned film fans awaiting the arrival of high-definition discs that the format would soon be obsolete.

The Microsoft tycoon believes homes will soon have a single, remote device to control all their "digital lifestyle" and entertainment needs.

Films would be as easy to download from the Net as music is now, he told a technology conference.

Interesting, but the next bit is where the rubber hits the road for Canadians:

TV shows will also be broadcast online, giving viewers more choice and the ability to customise what they watch. For example, football fans who want to see match highlights but have only 12 minutes to do so will be able to get their chosen clips edited instantly into a 12-minute programme.

Canadians, of course, have little freedom as to what they watch on TV. Thanks to the CRTC and the arts lobby led by the likes of Margaret Atwood, the government not only manages the airwaves for frequency allocation, that is to say, to make sure that cell phones don't interfere with TV, and TV doesn't interfere with radio, and so on, but also content.

Rogers Cable, Shaw Cable, Cogeco cable, Look TV, Starchoice satelllite -- it doesn't matter. No matter what system you pick, the content is the same, dictated by the government to ensure that there is enough Canadian content. It doesn't matter that no one watches it because CRTC rules demand that these Canadian channels be packaged together, sometimes in obligatory packages that you must pay for as a viewer, sometimes with popular American channels with the expectation that many Canadians will pay for a few Canadian channels they don't watch in order to get an American channel that they do watch.

We pay for the channels filled with programs we don't watch, and a piece of that money goes back to the artists. Some of them probably think that it means they are successful.

Of course, the GST is applied to this fee.

It's not as bad as all that, of course. Many Canadian content channels are very good. Teletoon and the Comedy Network put out some really good stuff. But then there's the bloated CBC acting as the Liberal Party cheerleader, or high-brow channels like Bravo showing artsy Canadian movies no one would want to watch, even though we all paid for it with tax-funded arts grants.

But if Gates is right, and cable and satellite delivery of content, which is controlled by the CRTC, gives way to an internet-based scheme, what does that do to the Canadian system of controlling and manipulating what Canadians see on TV? The internet is the perfect marketplace, the not-so-invisible hand on the mouse clicking into and out of websites based on whatever decision the consumer makes concerning their likes and desires.

And the government's ability to control it is extremely limited.

Does that mean the CRTC, as a means of content control, is on its way out, like the CDs and DVDs?

Well, don't count the government out yet. There's nothing as dangerous as a cornered bureaucracy. Just as the government has mandated the inclusion of the V-chip to allow parents to block content from their children, will our paternalistic government take the same route by including a C-chip in every monitor and TV sold in this country?

Far-fetched, but imagine that the streaming video Gates says we'll be watching in lieu of traditional TV can be blocked by the C-chip. You want to unblock it? Two things you can do.

First, switch to a Canadian stream with CRTC-approved content. That stream carries the necessary descrambling codes required, purchased by the content provider from the government, and designed to expire after a set period, creating a revenue stream for the government.

Second, request that the C-chip be disabled for the duration of the unapproved webcast. Of course, that'll require a message to, and a reply from, a government server to approve the request, which consists of charging you, the viewer, a fee, which will need to be paid off on your monthly ISP bill.

Of course, GST will be applied to these fees.

Is it practical? Hard to say. But CanCon rules are so ingrained in this country, and so part of the way the Canadian government (Liberal or not) sees its role in our day-to-day lives, that I wouldn't put it past the CRTC to think about how to make something like this work.

[And yes, that would mean the C-chip could be used to monitor your viewing habits. I wouldn't expect our Supreme Court to be too bothered by that, though.]

"Christian", David Smith, and Maniwaki [major update]

[A major update based on new information that contradicts information provided by the CBC]

As you recall, my theory is that Abotech is a shell company created by faux-aboriginal David Smith, Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac.  Abotech, with the help of now-suspended bureaucrat (and cousin of David Smith) Frank Brazeau, lands contracts from the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business program, run by the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, under the leadership of the Honourable Andy Scott, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-Status Indians. The work is then handed off to one of David Smith's former firms to do the actual work, after David Smith takes his cut. Jaguar Solutions was one of those firms. It has done work for aboriginal contracts in the past.

Curiously, Abotech and Jaguar have the same fax number. A smoking gun?

When I called Jaguar Solutuions, "Christian" answered the phone, and after a moment on hold to confer with someone, he denied any connection between Jaguar Solutions and Abotech.

So is that it? A clerical mistake, explained away by the fact that David Smith briefly worked for Jaguar Solutions in 2002, according to "Christian".

Or is there more?

"Christian" was very careful not to give his last name. Well, that's not going to stop me. His full name is Christian Trepanier, as indicated by the domain registrar's entry for Jaguar Solutions:

I'm willing to bet the person he was talking to was Yvan Godbout. They go way back, but more on that later.

When was David Smith elected to municipal council? The last regularly scheduled municipal election in Quebec was November 3, 2002. The next is coming up in two weeks, on November 6 (thanks to Chief Whiteduck for that tidbit).

Let's assume that he was elected on November 3, 2002.

That means that prior to becoming councillor, he was working for Jaguar Solutions:

He was previously director of strategic development for Jaguar Solutions...

Trepanier told me that Smith was at Jaguar for maybe a couple of months in 2002 and brought no business to the company.

Now I can't be certain when Jaguar Solutions was founded, but I can guess. You see, Yvan Godbout and Christian Trepanier had sold their previous business in 2000, to "reorientate" their careers:

"We decided to sell the company and to reorientate our careers", Mr Godbout declared while speaking to the shareholders. "Lino Solutions Internet of Telebec, a major partner of Crossnet for several years, seems to us ready to continue our work while respecting our vision and our development philosophy. Lino offers complete Internet services: access, solutions of businesses, multi-media contents, electronic trade...", concluded Mr Godbout.

What business was this?

An Intenet Service Provider called Inter-reseau, founded in 1995.

Where did they work? Maniwaki, Quebec:

In the presence of its employees, Mr Yvan Godbout, one of the shareholders of Crossnet, announced today in Maniwaki the sale of the company to Lino Solutions Internet of Telebec.

Founded in 1995, Inter-reseau ( www.ireseau.com ) is a supplier of Internet access and services for the area of Valley-of-the-Gatineau which serves customers located at Maniwaki, Mount-Bay-tree and the surroundings.

This was a two-man operation. I know because I found this on a newsgroup dated October 21, 1995:

Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.networking.ras
From: Christian Trepanier
Date: 1995/10/21
Subject: Only one RAS connection at a time

I'm setting up a NT 3.51 server to act as an Internet service provider with a pool of 10 modems. Everything is fine with the hardware for RAS (Digiboard 16/e) as long as I have only one client at a time. On the second call, be it on the Digiboard or COM2, I get the following messages under the Port Status of the Remote Access Admin:

Modem Condition: Normal
Line Condition: Line non-operationnal

The hardware and cabling are not to blame as the various help files would suggest.

Anyone with suggestions...

The return email address used was the one for Inter-reseau. Trepanier is clearly a guy who gets his hands dirty.

Might explain why the "president" of Jaguar Solutions is answering the phone -- that always stuck me as odd. How many people work at Jaguar Solutions that the president has to pick up the phone?

By 2001, Trepanier and Godbout sell out to Telebec, and move to Gatineau to start Jaguar Solutions. In 2002, David Smith works for Jaguar Solutions for a short time as director of strategic marketing.

Did David Smith move to Gatineau when he was working for Jaguar, or was he working long-distance from Maniwaki to drum up business?

Maybe the latter. Why? First, there is the problem of David Smith moving from Maniwaki to Gatineau and back in such a short period of time.

But more than that, when elected in November of 2002 (if that's true), he went on to work on the municipal council specializing in fire protection issues:

Before entering federal politics, Mr Smith served as municipal councillor for the town of Maniwaki. He played a key role on various committees which tackled such issues as public security and fire protection.

Jaguar Solutions works on fire management systems.

Almost makes you think it was part of a plan. Then maybe he was just applying the skills he gained at Jaguar to help his community. Still, how much could he have learned in such a short stint with Jaguar as a sales person?

So Trepanier and Godbout were the "go to" guys for internet service in Maniwaki for almost six years. Maniwaki local, David Smith, is a businessman and computer consultant. In a small town like Maniwaki, I figure they all had to know each other. He knows them well enough that soon after they create a new firm, he gets a high-level position with them. Then, for some reason, he leaves that position soon after (according to Trepanier) and goes into politics, including making decisions on policy involving exactly what Jaguar Solutions specializes in.

Just how far back do David Smith and Trepanier and Godbout go?

Remember how I said that Trepanier was a hands-on guy. He registered domains, for example:

#N .branchaud.qc.ca
#S .CA Domain;
#O Ameublement Branchaud inc.
#C Christian Trepanier
#E ctrepanier@ireseau.com
#T +1 (819) 449 7171
#P Inter-reseau inc., 140 rue King, Maniwaki, Quebec, J9E 2L3
#R Automatically generated from a .CA domain registration form
#W registry@cs.toronto.edu (UUCP Liaison); Tue Aug 24 00:57:43 -0400 1999
#
# BRANCHAUD.QC.CA is a For-Profit Corporation, Provincially Incorporated
#
# Meuble detaillant
#
# received: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 19:00:00 -0500
# approved: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 19:00:00 -0500
# modified: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 20:00:00 -0400

Ameublement Branchaud? Ring a bell?

[David Smith] was also manager of Ameublement Branchard [sic] for six years.

"Branchard" is second typo in the CBC bio for David Smith. The first was when they misspelled ASM Informatique as "AGM".

Almost like whoever provided the information to the CBC didn't want to make it too easy to track down the links.

But then I'm just being paranoid.

Ameublement Branchaud had its domain registered in 1997. If David Smith was manager then, he would have known what was going on. But his bio says he was a manager for 6 years. In 1997 David Smith would have been 33. Since he would not have been a manager when he was working at Jaguar Solutions in 2002, we only have a window from about 1987 to 2001 for him to have been a manager.

Remember too that we have jam "executive director" at ASM Informatique in there somewhere. Still haven't figured out when exactly he worked with ASM.

Unless he was made a manager right out of Heritage College, I think it's fair to say that the six stint as manager probably overlapped Ameublement Branchaud's move to the web. Given that he is a computer consultant today, I'd guess he was very involved in that process in 1997, working with Christian Trepanier to establish a web-presence for the company, including designing and building the web pages.

(Of course, he didn't have to be a manager at Ameublement Branchaud to be doing this -- he could have been a non-manager given the project to work on, becoming manager later.)

I know that Trepanier was involved in more than just registering the domain name because when you go to the earliest versions of the Ameublement Branchaud web site available on the Wayback Machine, the pages are copyrighted by Inter-reseau.

So Christian Trepanier and Yvan Godbout of Jaguar Solutions and David Smith might go as far back as 8 years. Back to Maniwaki. Back to Ameublement Branchaud. Back to Inter-reseau. Back to early days at Jaguar Solutions.

We still don't know how close they are today. Except for the tantalizing hint of the shared fax number, which Christian Trepanier shrugged off.

Nothing incriminating in this post. Just very interesting.

Kashechewan: Tip of a very dirty iceberg

After reading up on Kashechewan, consider this from the Globe and Mail:

Meanwhile, about 50 other native communities in Ontario are operating under a boil-water advisory.

And then this (hat tip to slaidlaw):

[Dr. Murray Trussler] said that when he asked about protecting people from hepatitis A, Ontario offered to provide 100,000 doses of a vaccine against it, but the federal government turned it down, saying there was no hepatitis A problem in Northern Canada.

"This is absolute rubbish. There's 100 native communities in Canada currently under a boil-water advisory. Any time you are under a boil-water advisory, there's probability you are going to run into hepatitis A sooner or later," Dr. Trussler said.

For crying out loud. Fifty communities? A hundred? Vaccines turned away?

What are they doing at the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development?

Incompetence and corruption. Shame on Canada. Shame on all of us.

Kashechewan: The short end of the environmental stick...again

A major news story revolves around the horrific situation on the Kashechewan Reserve near Timmins, Ontario:

The Ontario government declared a state of emergency last night at a remote native reserve plagued with contaminated drinking water, paving the way for the removal of as many as 1,100 residents.

The government will charter planes to airlift residents of the Kashechewan Reserve in need of medical attention to Timmins, Cochrane and other neighbouring communities. Kashechewan is a fly-in community about 450 kilometres north of Timmins, on the coast of James Bay.

I guess "near" is a relative term when it comes to Northern Ontario.

Something like 60% of the Cree residents need medical attention.

The problem? They're being forced to drink sewage:

The community's dirty water problem is blamed on the location of the treatment plant's intake pipe, which is 135 metres downstream from a sewage lagoon. As a result, sewage goes directly into the water-filtration system.

The water is brown, the school has been closed, and now, they've discovered E Coli in the water.

Turns out this is not the first time Kashechewan has been plagued with environmental problems created by inept engineering:

The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) pleaded guilty on November 14, 2000 in the Superior Court of Justice, Sudbury, Ontario to charges under Section 36(3) of the federal Fisheries Act.

The story began in the summer of 1990 when DIAND, on behalf of the Kashechewan First Nation, contracted for the services of R.M. Belanger Construction Ltd. This contract was to replace an old fuel system which had been constructed in the 1970’s and had been leaking oil for some time. The mechanical piping joints used in the 1990 construction (victaulic joints) were not rated for use in conditions where temperatures go below -29° Celcius or where frost heaves occur. Furthermore, the piping was buried only 60 to 90 centimeters below the surface, which is an insufficient depth to counter the effects of frost.

Incredible. It's Northern Ontario! It gets cold. Really cold!

So what happened? Delays and disaster:

In 1992 DIAND contracted engineering consultants J.L. Richards and Associates Ltd. to clean up the historically contaminated soil which originated with the old fuel system in place prior to the Belanger installation. Upon completion of this project, J.L. Richards recommended that the victaulic joints and piping installed by Belanger should be replaced because the joints were prone to loosen and allow leakage. J.L. Richards also identified further areas of contamination.

DIAND planned to remediate the remaining contamination in spring 1993 and at the same time, have the Belanger system replaced. However, this project was not completed that year as planned.

On March 3, 1994 120,000 litres of diesel fuel escaped the Belanger fuel distribution system at the community school and ended up in the soil and on the ice and in the water of the Albany River. Charges were laid under the Fisheries Act on July 4, 1996 following an investigation by Environment Canada.

Well, as a result of the charges, hefty fines were levied:

Belanger: $1
DIAND: $1

To be fair, Belanger also paid $40,000 into a fund for pollution prevention. DIAND kicked in $200,000 for Kashechewan and six related communities.

Nevertheless, when firms know that the punishment for a major polluting mistake affecting the health and livelihood of hundreds of people is less than what it costs to buy an extra large coffee at Tim Horton's, these firms will not take their responsibilities seriously. Sure there was the $40,000 "donation", but that can be written off for tax purposes, and written up in the company prospectus as a pro-environmental initiative. You can't hide the bad publicity of a major fine from either the public or the shareholders, and that's why the fines have to be meaningful.

The same goes for fines levied against the government. I don't like to see tax money being spent that way, but it's sure cheaper than treating and moving an entire community of a thousand ill people in a remote part of the province.

In any case, I guess that fund ran out when the sewage plant was designed. Maybe the money was gone by 1995. Why 1995? Because according to this resume, that's when J. L. Richards and Associates worked on the sewage plant.

Yes, the same J. L. Richards and Associates that worked on the Belanger fuel clean up:

J.L. Richards and Associates
Lady Ellen Place, Ottawa, Ontario
1994 - 1995

Senior Technician involved in the preparation of drawings using AutoCAD Release 12. Extensive use of features such as X- referencing, paper space and block data extraction. Familiar with the AutoPROF profile generation program for sewer design, downloading survey data for SoftDesk software and rastor-to-vector mapping work.

Selected projects:

• Palladium, site utilities, grading and road services


• Village of Rockcliffe, sewer and watermain upgrade


• City of Hawkesbury, water main


• Kashechewan First Nation Indian Reserve, sanitary sewer upgrade

I don't think anyone in Kashechewan is laughing about the phrase "sanitary sewer".

You think there are problems in Hawkesbury or Rockcliffe? I doubt it.

Few details have been revealed about the history of the sewage and water treatment systems in Kashechewan. It might be that J.L. Richards inherited a mess and did the best they could, or that they didn't work anywhere near where the problem lies. I can't find any evidence of a tendered contract for work on water systems in Kashechewan (just stuff for the airport and on telecommunications). Hopefully someone will get to the bottom of what happened, and hopefully the fines will be somewhat more than a loonie.

Abotech and Jaguar: Jaguar denies links

I just got off the phone with "Christian" at Jaguar Solutions in Gatineau, Quebec. As you recall, David Smith, Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac, was once "director of strategic development" at Jaguar Solutions.

In addition, Abotech, the firm David Smith founded, and now the subject of a government audit, shares a fax number with Jaguar.

I asked Christian about this and about David Smith and Abotech:

• David Smith worked at Jaguar Solutions for only a couple of months in 2002


• David Smith did not bring any work in during his work there


• Christian has heard of Abotech, but nothing recently, except for seeing it mentioned in the news


• He does not know why Abotech would list the fax number for Jaguar Solutions


• Jaguar Solutions does not get faxes for Abotech


• Jaguar Solutions does not work with Abotech


• Christian has not seen David Smith in years

David Smith and the Native Alliance of Quebec

Recall that in my conversation with Chief Jean-Guy Whiteduck, a major question was how a person can be recognized as an aboriginal without the consent of a band.

He pointed out that there are organizations like the Native Alliance of Quebec that have had a questionable history of providing such recognition without the cooperation of any legally recognized band. One such band is the Kitigan Zibi band, lead by Chief Whiteduck, located near in Maniwaki, Quebec, the home town of David Smith, member of Parliamant for the riding of Pontiac.

That triggered a memory and I went back to David Smith's biography published for the June 2004 election:

He is also a member of the Quebec Aboriginal Alliance.

That is the same organization -- the person writing the biography translated the French title of the group, Alliance Autochtone du Quebec, instead of using the official English name.

So now we can be sure that David Smith's aboriginal credentials are not coming from any recognized band, but rather from this organization that provides recognition independent of the tribal leadership, recognition that, at least in the opinion of Chief Whiteduck, is no recognition at all.

The Link between Abotech and Jaguar Solutions

Sometimes the most obvious things are just under your nose.

But a reader spotted this based on the links I've been providing, and I'll share it with you.

As you recall, my theory is that Abotech is a shell company created by faux-aboriginal David Smith, Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac. Abotech, with the help of now-suspended bureaucrat (and cousin of David Smith) Frank Brazeau, lands contracts from the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business program, run by the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, under the leadership of the Honourable Andy Scott, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians. The work is then handed off to one of David Smith's former firms to do the actual work, after David Smith takes his cut. Jaguar Solutions was one of those firms. It has done work for aboriginal contracts in the past.

Does Frank Brazeau get a piece of the action? We don't know...yet. He might just be a patsy, taking the fall for someone else at INAC.

One of the problems with the theory was that I had no specific evidence linking Abotech and Jaguar other than David Smith worked at Jaguar in the past, and was president of Abotech.

Now we have a link, and it's been there all the time.

Here is the contact information for Abotech:

Here is the contact information for Jaguar Solutions:

Abotech and Jaguar Solutions share the same fax number!

As you recall, Jaguar Solutions is only 1.4 miles from the corporate offices of Abotech, which happens to be the Smith family home.

So now when the government needs to fax information to Abotech concerning a contract Abotech is working on, the information pops up in the Jaguar Solutions office.

Why? Unless all the work done by Abotech was simply handed off the Jaguar Solutions. Recall that Jaguar Solutions is not an aboriginal company according to the government's Aboriginal Business Directory, and to qualify for PSAB contracts, one-third of the work has to be done by an aboriginal business.

Maybe it became a nuisance to get papers at Abotech, and then hoof it up the road to Jaguar Solutions to drop them off. It wasn't like the staff at Abotech needed to actually see the papers faxed over -- it was really Jaguar's problem. And if there was something that David Smith, or the new president, wife Anne Ethier, needed to see, well, it doesn't take long to drive just over a mile to go to Jaguar.

Copyrighting

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Attribution:

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I'm bringing this to everyone's attention for two reasons:

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The Abotech Affair: Will the Mounties get their man?

Report of RCMP action with regards to the Abotech affair.

The Smith-Brazeau connection -- Deeper than I ever imagined

From my post on David Smith, the Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac, and his questionable aboriginal status:

One more thing. According to Chief Whiteduck, the family name of Brazeau is common enough in Maniwaki. I haven't figured out if Frank Brazeau, who seems to play a major part as the "inside man", came from this branch of the family. If he did, one wonders just how far back Smith and Brazeau go.

The answer: two generations.

From a source on the reserve who would prefer to remain unnamed:

Brazeau is from our reserve and is an aboriginal...Smith is from Maniwaki but is not an aboriginal. Funny coincidence, but Smith and Brazeau are related on their MOTHER's side both of whom are french quebecers. Smith's mother ... Suzanne Clement Smith and Brazeau's grandmother ... Thelorèse Clement Fournier are sisters. That means Brazeau's mother and Smith are direct cousins.

Wow! This means that Frank Brazeau, the bureaucrat suspended without pay over the bad contracts, and Liberal MP David Smith, former owner of the company Abotech that profited from those same contracts, are related!

A "funny coincidence"? Or evidence of a conspiracy between cousins who grew up close to each other, one a Liberal member of parliament, and the other a bureaucrat in the department in charge of allocating contracts to aboriginal firms, and also the former secretary of the Liberal Party riding association for that very same Liberal MP? Remember that Brazeau became the secretary for the Liberal association right after the 2004 election, the same election that saw David Smith first elected for that riding.

If this information is good, this is amazing!

I wonder if the RCMP is reading this.

On the question of who manages Abotech and subcontractors

Let's revisit the Strategis entry for Abotech. We know the kids aren't running the company. We know David Smith, Liberal Party MP for the riding of Pontiac, formerly the president of Abotech, claims not to have anything to do with the company since he was elected. We know that wife Anne Ethier, who is supposed to be in charge, is formally trained as a nurse.

So what services does Abotech claim to provide?

IPS Steam consultants in: Project Executive IT, Senior Project Manager IT,Project Manager IT, Project Administrator, Technology Architect, Senior Platform Analyst, Platform Analyst, Senior Network Analyst Network Analysts, IT Security Consultant, Applications Architect, Applications Architect Product Specialist, Senior Applications Analyst, Senior Application Analysts, Product Specialist Applications Analyst, Applications Analyst Product, Specialist Applications Programmer/Analyst, Applications Programmer/Analyst Product Specialist, Database Administrator, Database Administrator Product Specialist, Database Analyst, Database Analyst Product Specialist, Senior Web Developer, Senior Web Developer Product Specialist, Web Developer, Web Developer Product Specialist, Systems Auditor, Quality Assurance Consultant, Senior Tester, Tester, Senior Technical Writer, Writer.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

All out of his house.

I'm an engineer with 15 years experience. I know lots of engineers in computers and software. I don't know any one engineer who can claim all those skills.

This is a description of a firm with at least 15 employees, all senior consultants and all highly paid.

Do they hang out in the kitchen? Obviously not. Clearly Abotech subcontracts the work.

And finally this:

We are an Aboriginal IT consultant Firm.

Well, the problem is this. To maintain that "aboriginal business" status, you have to be careful not to subcontract too much of the work away to non-aboriginals:

In respect of a contract, (goods, service or construction), on which a bidder is making a proposal which involves subcontracting, the bidder must certify in its bid that at least thirty-three percent of the value of the work performed under the contract will be performed by an Aboriginal business. Value of the work performed is considered to be the total value of the contract less any materials directly purchased by the contractor for the performance of the contract. Therefore, the bidder must notify and, where applicable, bind the subcontractor in writing with respect to the requirements that the Aboriginal Set-Aside Program (the Program) may impose on the subcontractor or subcontractors.

So even if Abotech subcontracts, the firm taking the work has to be aboriginal. Then what exactly does Abotech bring into the mix?

And if the subcontracting firm is not aboriginal, then Abotech has to retain enough of the work, one third or more, to qualify under these rules. Since David Smith is not leading the company, and no one has ever claimed that Anne Ethier is aboriginal, that leaves it to Cynthia, 14, and Sebastien, 16, to take on the work of IT Security Consultant and Specialist Applications Programmer/Analyst, respectively.

The government should have caught this:

The bidder's contract with a subcontractor must also, where applicable, include a provision in which the subcontractor agrees to provide the bidder with information, substantiating its compliance with the Program, and authorize the bidder to have an audit performed by Canada to examine the subcontractor's records to verify the information provided. Failure by the bidder to exact or enforce such a provision will be deemed to be a breach of contract and subject to the civil consequences referred to in this document.

Well, maybe they're catching it now, but I'd be interested to know exactly how long this has been going on.

[Hat tip to sslider for starting me on this track]

David Smith's extended Liberal Party bio

From a reader, this cached bio from the June 2004 election:

[Liberal] Candidate for the riding of Pontiac

David Smith is a manager who distinguishes himself by his integrity, his dynamics and his active involvement in the community. Mr Smith is presently studying at l'ecole nationale de l'administration publique in Gatineau. He has also studied Business Administration at Heritage College in Hull and at the Cite etudiante de la Haute-Gatineau, in Maniwaki.

At the time of his nomination, Mr Smith was a strategic planning officer for service integration at Public Works and Government Services Canada. Prior to that, he was a business manager for the same department. Mr Smith has more than 15 years experience as a businessman and former director for various businesses in the Outaouais.

Mr Smith was a municipal councillor for the town of Maniwaki. He was responsible for many committees such as public security and fire protection. He also served as a Board member for educational settings and was a member of the Quebec Liberal Party and also a member of their youth wing .

Mr Smith has worked with various community and charitable organizations. He was a board member with the Maniwaki Chamber of Commerce and has volunteered with the Canadian Cancer Society and the Saint Pierre Chanel Scout movement.

David Smith was born in Maniwaki and raised on a farm. He is 40 years old, and married to Anne Ethier since 1987 and are the parents of two children Cynthia 13 and Sebastien 15.

Also:

Authorized by the registered agent for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Some notable tidbits.

First, no mention of Abotech or of David Smith's aboriginal status. I wonder why.

Second, clearly his kids are too young to be running the business. As I deduced, the children are under the age of majority. In fact, they should still be in high school. If David Smith is not running the company, his wife, Anne Ethier, who is a nurse (confirmed via Don Corkery), is running this computer consulting firm on her own.

Update: Here's the same bio, not cached.

David Smith is as aboriginal as my Polish grandmother

That's the opinion of the Chief of Kitigan Zibi Band in Maniwaki, Quebec. Recall that Maniwaki is where Liberal MP David Smith, representing the riding of Pontiac, grew up.

I know because I spoke to Chief Jean-Guy Whiteduck an hour ago.

The "Polish grandmother" crack was mine, but Chief Whiteduck thought it was funny and laughed.

David Smith is embroiled in the Abotech affair, in which the computer consulting firm which he once led, now operated by his wife, and run out of their home in Gatineau, has had contracts terminated as a result of a KPMG audit of government contracts. Details are scarce right now, but there are hints as to what is going on. To me, the hints seem to point at contracts that are set-asides for aboriginal businesses. As an aboriginal, David Smith could have enjoyed preferential treatment in winning these set-asides.

First to make it clear -- no one seems to believe David Smith's claim to be an aboriginal, except the Liberal Party:

The Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission (APC) congratulate Mr. Todd Russell for his election on May 24th as the newest Liberal member of Parliament representing the riding of Labrador. Mr. Russell,who is of Inuit ancestry, will join fellow Aboriginal Liberals Hon. Ethel Blondin-Andrew, Minister of Northern Development, Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell, MP Nunavut, Mr. Paul Devillers, MP Simcoe North, and Mr. David Smith, MP Pontiac in caucus.

It's not just the Chief. His receptionist, another person in the band with whom I've had several email exchanges, David Smith's high school teacher (more on him later) -- all agree that David Smith's claim to be an aboriginal is bogus.

The Chief is adamant. There is no way that David Smith is a legitimate aboriginal. He is not recognized by the band as an aboriginal. So how could he be recognized as an aboriginal if aboriginals don't recognize him as such? Well, you can apply to be recognized through an organization like the Native Alliance of Quebec:

The N.A.Q.'s membership is open to all persons of aboriginal ancestry be it Metis, Status Indians (C-31), Non Status Indians living off-reserve in Quebec which meet the following criteria:

• You must be of aboriginal ancestry (identity)
• You must self-identify as an aboriginal person (pride)
• You must be accepted by your community (belonging)

To become a member of the N.A.Q., you must attend a meeting of your local N.A.Q. community where you will be provided with the necessary documentation to apply. Persons residing in isolated areas may apply by mail directly to our Headquarters or to one of our Regional Offices.

You must also provide documented genealogical proof of your aboriginal ancestry. You must clearly show how you are directly related to a person who is qualified as an Aboriginal individual.

Needless to say, Chief Whiteduck is not particularly trusting of the NAQ and the vigour with which it checks these claims. In fact, the NAQ seems to have a pretty bad reputation, including allegations that the former chief of the NAQ, Guillaume Carle, sold membership cards printed by his own company, Nighthawk Technologies, to anyone for $70 each. After a legal fight, Carle was removed from his position.

A reader emailed me to tell me that at one point, 80% of the Maniwaki residents carried cards in the mistaken belief that they would gain tax benefits. When that was understood not to be true, the number of residents carrying such identification dropped to 20%. Chief Whiteduck related a similar experience.

But on what specifically could David Smith base his claim? It might have something to do with the farm he grew up on, which is part of the band lands. If you grow up on native lands, doesn't that make you a native? Perhaps, but when he grew up, the farm was not part of the band lands. It was an enclave inside the band lands but not recognized as theirs. It is actually subject to a land claim fight, but in the 90s (Chief Whiteduck could not be sure of the year), the band simply bought out the owners for expediency.

So technically his home is part of the band lands, but only recently.

He was not recognized as a member when he was a young man. That comes from Don Corkery, David Smith's high school teacher. David Smith went to high school at Cite Etudiante de la Haute-Gatineau.

Chief Whiteduck vouched for Mr Corkery's identity.

At the time, teachers knew who the native and non-native students were. It was part of the student's file, as well as occasionally discussed in staff meetings. Mr Corkery is adamant that David Smith made no such claim when he was in high school, nor in Mr Corkery's opinion, would such a claim have been justified. Based on David Smith's age, he was in high school during the 80s.

So not a native in the 80s, but a native now. Could David Smith have decided to become an aboriginal when his family farm was bought? After that, creating Abotech in his home and engaging in a scheme to land contracts from the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business with the help of Frank Brazeau seems at least to be a feasible story.

One more thing. According to Chief Whiteduck, the family name of Brazeau is common enough in Maniwaki. I haven't figured out if Frank Brazeau, who seems to play a major part as the "inside man", came from this branch of the family. If he did, one wonders just how far back Smith and Brazeau go.

Update: Sharp-eyed Paul asks if once David Smith stopped being president of Abotech, did the firm stop being "aboriginal"? Recall that his two kids are part owners. If they have been granted some sort of aboriginal recognition because of their father's status, and the ownership of the firm is structured the right way (essentially, 51% ownership by aboriginals), then Abotech might still be able to play the set-aside game.

[Many thanks to Chief Whiteduck for taking the time to talk to me. Not only did he answer my questions, but he took the time to explain many of the subtleties surrounding these issues, as well as to share with me a bit of the history of the band and of Maniwaki.]

Major developments in the Abotech affair (and a major correction)

New developments on the story of David Smith, the MP for the riding of Pontiac.

From Hansard:

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, CPC): Mr. Speaker, Frank Brazeau, the secretary of a local Liberal association and a public servant, used his influence to secure $1 million in contracts for the Liberal member of Parliament for Pontiac. The KPMG auditing firm has found irregularities in contracts totalling $15 million also given by Mr. Brazeau.

Will the Prime Minister release KPMG's report now? Otherwise, what is he trying to hide?

Hon. Mauril Belanger (Minister for Internal Trade, Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Minister responsible for Official Languages and Associate Minister of National Defence, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this matter is now before the Ethics Commissioner, as members well know. The member for Pontiac has committed to making the results of whatever the commissioner says public. I would hope that members opposite would wait for a response from the Ethics Commissioner before commenting further.

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, CPC): Mr. Speaker, this is more stonewalling.

A Liberal riding secretary used his influence to direct almost $1 million in contracts to a Liberal member of Parliament. Both men are close friends and ardent loyalists of the current Prime Minister and both have been lavishly rewarded for it. A KPMG report found that more than $15 million saw irregularities in the way it was handed out in the form of contracts.

Why will the Prime Minister not immediately release this KPMG audit so that taxpayers can know just how much he has been rewarding his Liberal friends?

Hon. Scott Brison (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, first of all, the review-and it is not an audit, it is a review-was commissioned by the department as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen competition and to increase accountability.

The fact is that these contracts with the company were cancelled as a result of this review, but it is important to recognize that in all cases services were received for taxpayers' dollars and that in fact there were valuable services provided by the company. Furthermore, there has been disciplinary action taken against this employee.

Until now, the question has been limited to whether David Smith was actually far enough removed from the company he used to run (now run by his wife, and out of the family home) to be able to insulate himself from the disturbing hints of improperly granted contracts from PWGSC.

Now the circle widens.

François Brazeau, public servant and Liberal Party member, is named. Who is Brazeau? Not some two-bit bureaucrat, that's for sure:

François J Brazeau
Director General

Public Works and Government Services Canada<snip!>

I had the wrong Brazeau! There is a Frank Brazeau (as opposed to François), and while François is linked to David Smith by virtue of both having worked for PWGSC, this Frank Brazeau has a different link:

Frank Brazeau was a contracting officer at Consulting and Audit Canada whose performance came under the scrutiny of auditors at KPMG. In their recent report, the auditors raised allegations of irregularities in Mr. Brazeau's handling of contracts, finding a lack of documentation, backdating of contracts, manipulation of requests for proposals and irregular invoices.

Mr. Brazeau was initially suspended with pay, but he is no longer receiving a salary "pending further review," according to a senior federal official.

What is the link?

It's amazing. He helped coordinate the PSAB program for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. What is PSAB?

Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business!

So there is the link to contracts that are supposed to go to aboriginal business. As I suggested earlier, I wondered if David Smith's Abotech was a front for non-aboriginal businesses landing work that was supposed to be set aside for aboriginal businesses.

And there is yet another link:

In addition to the past professional relationship between Mr. Brazeau and Mr. Smith, sources said that this past year Mr. Brazeau became the secretary of the Liberal association in Mr. Smith's riding of Pontiac, a rural area north of Gatineau, Que.

Association president Luc Martel confirmed in an interview that Mr. Brazeau was elected after the 2004 federal election, in which Mr. Smith first entered the House of Commons. 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. "We didn't meet very often, and when we did meet, he wasn't available," Mr. Martel said.

KPMG has found $15 million, managed by Brazeau, suffering from "irregularities". At least $1 million went to Smith and Abotech. Did other "aboriginal" friends of Frank Brazeau enjoy the rest of the good times? How about any Liberals and friends of Liberals?

And in case I have to say it, one final question: Did any of these friends offer a "success fee" to Frank Brazeau?

[Huge thanks to JM for catching the Brazeau mixup!]

Al Franken: Inadvertently funny

From 2002, the "State of Mind: America 2002" national townhall broadcast:

From the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and The Museum of Television & Radio in New York City

Co-hosted by Dr. Fred Goodwin, host of The Infinite Mind in Washington and John Hockenberry in New York. Produced in association with WAMU/Washington, D.C. and WNYC/New York.

This landmark event explores the mental health and emotional well being of Americans as the nation heads out of the turmoil of 2001 into a challenging 2002.

Among the speakers, Marilyn Benoit:

Dr. Benoit is the president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She is clinical associate professor of psychiatry and the Program Director for Child Psychiatry training at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Benoit has testified before Congress numerous times on issues related to children and adolescent development such as teenage pregnancy, youth suicide, TV and media violence, and community violence.

and Dr Roemarie Truglio:

Rosemarie Truglio is Vice President of Research and Education for Sesame Street. A widely published expert on child development whose articles appear in child and developmental psychology journals, she has consulted for NBC and Puzzle Place and served as an Assistant Professor of Communications at Teachers College of Columbia University. Dr. Truglio's area of expertise is the role television plays in the socialization and education of children.

And Al Franken:

Al Franken is perhaps best known for his work on Saturday Night Live. A respected political satirist for outlets such as Comedy Central and Politically Incorrect, Mr. Franken was the featured speaker at the 1994 and 1996 White House Correspondents Dinners.

Now in 2002 he was at this event as a speaker on the topic of mental health. In retrospect, perhaps he should have been an exhibit:

It's a clip of the last few minutes of an exclusive promotional sales pitch for Al Franken's new book, "The Truth (with jokes)," featured at Amazon.com. (Thanks to my web guy, Mark Jaquith, for the technical assist.) The video skit blurs truth and fiction as a psychotic Al Franken kicks a man potraying a conservative reader in the groin, smashes a stool over his back, and grins as another man playing one of Franken's fans cracks a bottle over the conservative's head.

There is absolutely nothing funny about the clip, though I suppose it is somewhat amusing to imagine Franken's obsequious team of overpaid Harvard libs crowded around the set telling their boss what a comic genius he is.

Franken is, of course, baiting us to be outraged. But what you should feel for this man is pathos. The guy needs professional help.

Beside some choice stills from the videotaped beating ("Hey, it's all in good fun!"), Michelle Malkin lists some of Al Franken's anger management problems (1 2 3).

Al Franken speaking at an event focusing on mental health and emotional well-being? Now that's funny!

Cindy Sheehan: Desperate for attention [clarification]

From Reuters (hat tip to LGF), Cindy Sheehan will tie herself to the White House fence, and keep tying herself to the fence until such time as all cameras are aimed at her...or something like that.

Nuff said.

Clarification: I guess "Nuff said" was too subtle, judging by the comments. Unless something significant comes to my notice about Cindy Sheehan, I doubt there's much more to be said on the topic. Chaining herself to the fence? Her tragedy has completed the transformation into a farce. I'll maintain my net of contacts, but I doubt there is much Cindy Sheehan can do to draw my attention. I've discussed the truth of Cindy Sheehan's politics, her family dynamic, the events at Camp Casey, her bus tour, Casey's grave -- I've done my bit telling the facts that the MSM refused to discuss.

Red Ensign Standard XXX is up

The Red Ensign has been raised at Quotulatiousness.

Abotech: One competitive contract awarded

Looking through the MERX database, I can only find one award to Abotech. Abotech, as you recall, was owned by Liberal MP David Smith, representing the riding of Pontiac. After the June 2004 election, he passed control of the company to his wife. The contract itself seems to be on the up-and-up, but then the problem that has prompted the interest in Liberal MP David Smith's former company is with sole-sourced contracts. Presumably they wouldn't appear in the MERX database.

And this one contract I was able to find prompted some new questions.

The Abotech Affair: The Link between Indian Affairs and Public Works

In the emerging picture of Liberal MP David Smith, representing the riding of Pontiac, and his (former) firm Abotech, and the question of work that might have been done by Abotech in relation to aboriginal contracts (David Smith claims to be an aboriginal), it has to be noted that he himself did not work for the Ministry of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Before becoming an MP, David Smith was a senior bureaucrat with Public Works and Government Sevices Canada.

Abotech received significant contracts, all from PWGSC, all under the category of "Other".

I have theorized that Abotech is taking advantage of its categorization as an aboriginal business to get contracts set aside for aboriginal businesses, and then pass the work off to the firms that David Smith once worked for (after a suitable cut, of course).

You'd expect that contracts would have been tendered from Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

What I have discovered is that Indian Affairs and Northern Development moves quite a bit of money through PWGSC.

Consider the following line items in the "2004-2005 Public Accounts of Canada: Professional and Special Services":

INDIAN AFFAIRS AND NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT

Department

Department management and Administration

Engineering and architectural services (including research):
PWGSC: $3,136,376

Informatics:
PWGSC: $225,125

Protection Services:
PWGSC: $149,753

Other professional services:
PWGSC: $2,398,137

Indian and Inuit Affairs

Accounting services:
PWGSC: $241,772

Engineering and architectural services (including research):
PWGSC: $10,535,048

Non-professional contracted services:
PWGSC: $138,916

Scientific services:
PWGSC: $151,920

Other professional services:
PWGSC: $7,569,018

Northern Affairs

Engineering and architectural services (including research):
PWGSC: $755,135

Scientific services:
PWGSC: $5,185,853

Other professional services:
PWGSC: $5,268,974

That's $35,756,027, or an astounding 21% of the $173,395,663 budget for Indian Affairs and Northern Development essentially subcontracted to PWGSC, home of the Sponsorship Program, and now subject to more questions about how Abotech was given contracts.

Was the money handed to Abotech by PWGSC without competitive bidding entrusted to PWGSC by Indian Affairs and Northern Development? Maybe Minister Andy Scott can give the Opposition a rest and pose a few questions of Minister Scott Brison during Question Period next week.

David Smith, Abotech, and Nursing

One of the questions left unanswered in the Abotech affair is whether it is reasonable to believe Anne Ethier, wife of MP David Smith (Liberal-Pontiac), could effectively lead a major computer consulting firm with no other employees.

It is an important question, because if the answer is "No", it suggests two possibilities, neither of them good news for David Smith:

• David Smith is still running the company with all the implications of ethical conflicts (or worse).


• The company does little actual work, bringing into question the money paid to it by the federal government.

Thanks to sharp-eyed reader JM, we might have an answer. This web page from the Universite du Quebec en Outaouais lists an Anne Eithier-Smith as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Nursing.

The name is right.

The place is right. The university campus is in Gatineau, at 238 Blvd Alexandre-Tache, three miles from the Smith residence on Rue Meilleur.

Not a lecturer in the business school, or the faculty of computer sciences. Nursing. Not to knock nurses, but unfortunately we are left with the impression that neither Anne Ethier (if this is indeed the right person), nor the kids who are also part owners of Abotech, are formally qualified to run this company. So is it company that is easy to run because someone else is doing the actual work that the government is paying for, or is David Smith still running Abotech from behind the scenes?

Small Dead Blog Awards -- Thanks everyone

The voting for the Small Dead Blogs Awards wrapped up Friday night, and yesterday the results were announced yesterday.

As there were some concerns about some odd voting patterns Friday afternoon, I've held off saying anything, but as of this morning, it seems like the results have been finalized.

Angry in the Great White North won in three categories:

All I can say is that I was really honoured that some many people thought so highly of my blog. All the blogs nominated were examples of the best the blogosphere has to offer, with a special focus on Canada, of course, and I hope you follow the links and visit these great sites:

Best Canadian Blog

• Angry in the Great White North


• Bound by Gravity


• Project Alberta

Best New Canadian Blog

• Waking Up On Planet X


• Exposed Agenda


• mkbraaten.com

Best American Blog

• Captain's Quarters


• Little Green Footballs


• Instapundit

Best New American Blog

• Either Orr


• Western Resistance


• Barone Blog

Best Blogging Tories Blog

• Bound by Gravity


• Monte Solberg


• Political Staples

Most Outrageous Canadian Moonbat Blog

• My Blahg


• Small Dead Animals 2.0


• Here in Canuckistan

Most Humorous Blog

• The Wingnuterer


• I am (also) Canadian


• Relapsed Catholic

Best Blog Run by a Member of the MSM

• The Zerb


• Michelle Malkin


• Inkless Wells

Best Hard News Blog

• Angry in the Great White North


• primeminister.ca


• Sound Politics

Best Whistleblower Blog

• Angry in the Great White North


• Captain's Quarters


• Black Rod

Best Photoblog

• Photojunkie


• Jackson's Junction


• Making Happy

Best Canadian Political Blog

• Sinister Thoughts


• Monte Solberg


• Civitatensis

Best American Political Blog

• Captain's Quarters


• Instapundit


• Michelle Malkin

Best Coverage of Iraq War by a Blog

• Michael Yon


• Arthur Chrenkoff


• Iraq the Model

Weirdest Canadian Blog

• Buckets of Grewal


• Plato's Stepchild / Robot Guy


• Overheard at Western

Best Blog Post

• Canada's Corruption Scandal Breaks Wide Open


• Tipping Point


• Tribes

Could David Smith's kids be running Abotech?

I haven't written anything about Cynthia and Sebastien Smith, children of MP David Smith (Liberal-Pontiac), who is caught up in questions about contracts awarded to his company Abotech, which he says is owned and managed by his wife Anne Ethier. The kids are also part owners.

Because Abotech seems to run exclusively off of government contracts, his participation in the company would raise ethical questions. However, since the company is run by his wife and kids, and it is a home-based business, one wonders just how much distance there really is between David Smith and the workings of Abotech.

Reader Larry Joe posted this comment:

I want to know how old these children are? A 41 year old man could have children old enough to be doing meaningful work in the family business... but it's not all that common these days to start having children at 20-21 years of age.

Fair question, and since the kids are owners of the company, considering their role is legitimate (and not creepy delving into personal family affiars).

From his official Liberal party bio:

Married to Anne Ethier since 1987, they have two children, Cynthia and Sebastien.

Now I'm going to go out on a limb and posit that Cynthia and Sebastien were born after David Smith and Anne Ethier were married. If so, and assuming that they got started on having kids right away, that would make the oldest one 17.

Not of an age to be running a six-figure company. Of course, they could be much younger.

They might have been born before David Smith and Anne Ethier. David Smith, who is 41, would have been a dad at the age of 19 for the kids to have reached the age of 22, which I think is the minimum age these kids would have to be, that is, at least old enough to have gotten a bachelor's degree. Honestly, I think they'd have to be older.

But continuing with this theory, Anne Ethier is probably younger than David Smith. Just playing the odds here. If she is a year or two younger, then she would have been 17 when they had their first child. That would have been 1983. They didn't marry until four years later.

It might have happened that way. We just don't know.

But it's more likely that they got married in 1987, and started having kids a year or two later, making the oldest 15 or 16. Old enough to sign papers to be owners of a company in a legal sense, but I don't think old enough to be contributing much to running the place.

The press confirms David Smith works out of his home

The Ottawa Citizen ran a story Thursday, and local Conservatives aren't cutting David Smith much slack:

Reports of $1 million in federal contracts being awarded to a company once owned by Pontiac Liberal MP David Smith leave serious doubts about Mr. Smith's integrity, the head of the new Quebec wing of the federal Conservative party said yesterday.

Lawrence Cannon, a former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister who is now the Tory candidate in Pontiac, said a published report yesterday shows Mr. Smith is closely linked to Abotech Inc., a Gatineau computer consulting firm.

We get confirmation that Abotech is run from his home:

Mr. Smith, 41, a former federal public works employee, said his wife and two children have run the company from his home since he was elected in 2004 and he has nothing to do with it. He said he cleared his Abotech connection with federal ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro and believes Mr. Cannon is "just playing small politics."

I reported that Abotech's corporate address was in fact David Smith's residence on Wednesday.

We also learn more details about how the Ethics Commissioner gave David Smith and Abotech a clean bill of health after the 2004 election:

Mr. Smith said he has provided all the information required on his assets and business interests and the holdings of his wife and family. He said he met KPMG auditors to explain his connection with Abotech and later told ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro he would co-operate with an investigation.

"When I was elected, I submitted everything to the ethics commissioner for review and he consulted me on some issues," Mr. Smith said. "He said everything was in accordance with the regulations.

"I told Mr. Shapiro that my wife is now the majority shareholder in Abotech and the other shareholders are my two children. I wrote to Mr. Shapiro and requested that he look into these recent allegations. I have always been very transparent and answered all questions about myself."

But we still don't have an answer as to how a firm that he once run, a man who had years of experience in computer consulting, was handed over to his wife and kids with absolutely no further involvement from him, and yet continued to provide services worth hundred of thousands of dollars to the federal government.

David Smith, Jaguar Solutions, ASM Informatique -- close, literally

An interesting tidbit about David Smith, Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac, and the two computer firms he once worked for as a senior manager, Jaguar Solutions and ASM Informatique.

As you already know, David Smith is in some trouble because the computer firm he once led, Abotech, which had made quite a bit of money from government contracts, is having some of those contracts terminated as a result of a government audit. They were sole-sourced, meaning the government ministry was just handing money over to Abotech without looking for competitive bids.

When he resigned as president of Abotech to avoid conflict of interest, he simply made his wife president. So that means he's sleeping with the boss. But if that doesn't make you suspicious about just how much distance Smith has put between himself and Abotech, it also turns out that Abotech is run out of David Smith's house.

Now it turns out that Jaguar and ASM do significant work with First Nations, though neither is listed as an aboriginal business. Abotech is listed, since David Smith is an aboriginal, so you have to wonder if Abotech is really just a front, landing contracts meant to go to aboriginal business, taking a cut, then handing off to Jaguar or ASM to do the real work.

That's just a theory, of course.

What follows is not a theory.

Here is a map showing the route from Apotech corporate headquarters to Jaguar Solutions:

That's a distance of 1.4 miles.

You might think that's close, but then consider the distance between David Smith's constituency office in Maniwaki and the offices of ASM Informatique (I won't be using a map for this one):

David Smith, Constituency Office
100 Principal Street South Suite 225
Maniwaki, Quebec
J9E 3L4

ASM Informatique inc.
100, Principale Sud, suite 241
Maniwaki (Quebec)
J9E 3L4
Tel: 819.449.4159
Fax : 819.449.4728

What's that, maybe 8 or so doors over?

Maybe he originally worked for Jaguar because it was close to home. Maybe everything in Gatineau is within spitting distance of everything else. Maybe 100 Principal Street is the only commercial office space Smith could get in Maniwaki. Or maybe he really liked the building from his ASM days. But this certainly caught my eye.

Celebrities teaching classes

Via Drudge:

Cameron Diaz surprised a class at Stanford University when the "Charlie's Angels" star helped lead a lecture on environmentally friendly design.

Diaz's appearance Thursday came as part of taping for an mtvU program called "Stand-In" in which celebrities teach a class. On Tuesday, Madonna lectured students at New York's Hunter College.

A champion of environmental causes, Diaz served as a sidekick for friend and renowned environmental architect William McDonough, a consulting professor at Stanford.

Sure Cameron Diaz is easy on the eyes, but if I had a choice, I'd want Dolph Lundgren to teach my class:

Dolph Lundgren is living proof that brains and brawn do go together. Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Lundgren attended the Royal Institute of Technology. Spending time abroad in the United States on various academic scholarships, he attended Washington State University and Clemson in South Carolina. In 1982, he received a scholarship to complete his Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney in Australia. The following year, he was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship to the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He's as smart as a whip, and could think circles around Cameron Diaz:

During her interview on Inside The Actors Studo, said that she doesn't read scripts and wishes movies were filmed from start to finish because sometimes she doesn't understand them.

But not just that -- having Dolph Lundgren teaching my class would be like having my twin brother as my professor.

Two sides of a coin

With a hat tip to Michelle Malkin, this from the Carolina Journal:

A Raleigh activist and bookstore owner told a panel at Howard University Law School on Oct. 14 that the solution to many of the problems faced by black people is the extermination of “white people off the face of the planet.” Dr. Kamau Kambon, who taught Africana Studies 241 in the Spring 2005 semester at North Carolina State University, also said this needs to be done “because white people want to kill us.”

Kambon’s solution received slight applause in the room, to which he responded, “I don’t care whether you clap or not, but I’m saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us.”

Prior to his call for genocide against white people, Kambon, who owns Blacknificent Books in Raleigh, told the panel that “we are at war.” He said that white people had set up an "international plantation" for blacks, which made “every white person on earth a plantation master.” He said that, “You’re either supporting white people in their process of death, or you're for African liberation.”

He stressed one point in particular. “White people want to kill us. I want you to understand that. They want to kill you,” he said. “They want to kill you because that is part of their plan.”

Well, it's not part of my plan, but then I don't speak for everyone.

In particular, I don't speak for these people (hat tip to NealeNews):

Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans.

Known as "Prussian Blue" — a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes — the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine.

"We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white … we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."

Songs like "Sacrifice" — a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy Fuhrer — clearly show the effect of the girls' upbringing. The lyrics praise Hess as a "man of peace who wouldn't give up."

Where do attitudes like this come from?

Blame the parents like April Gaede. Blame the teachers like Dr Kamau Kambon.

But hope that most people have enough sense not to listen to either of them. And enough sense to get out of the way when the pushing and shoving starts.

On the other hand, they really are just two sides of the same foul coin.

Killing us with kindness

The Supreme Court of Canada came down with an interesting ruling today:

The top court said yesterday that Ottawa was within its rights to use the EI system to provide payments to natural and adoptive parents when they take time off work to care for young children.

The ruling quashed a 2004 Quebec Court of Appeal decision that said the federal government can't use EI to offer social benefits, which are exclusively under provincial jurisdiction.

The Quebec court had said unemployment insurance was conceived after the Depression to replace wages of people who lost their jobs for economic reasons, not for breaks in employment for personal reasons such has having children.

But the Supreme Court said Parliament had the right to adapt EI "to the new realities of the workplace."

So now the door has been kicked wide open for the federal government to expand into any social program it wants by merely attaching it to employment.

Unintended consequences, anyone?

Typical Canadian attitude to government -- give the government the benefit of the doubt to stay honest and under control. Of course, since the Supreme Court is packed with Liberals, what would you expect? A ruling that affirms that government should have narrowly defined areas of responsibility and is required to submit to strict oversight in those areas, while leaving as much as possible for private citizens to manage on their own?

Of course not. That would be, well, American!

And within seconds, the hands come out:

Activist groups say they will press the federal government to beef up the employment insurance system after the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling that Ottawa has legitimate constitutional power to create add-ons such as parental leave.

Another key area for expansion of EI, said Canadian Labour Congress executive vice-president Barbara Byers, is in education and training. Workers who take a break to upgrade skills should be able to collect benefits, she said. "They need to give people limited income to go back to school and deal with the skills shortage the government keeps talking about."

So who in the government is going to respond to these requests for more, more, more!

The minister who best understands what it's like to be a working stiff and watching a huge percent of his or her paycheque disappear into the EI hole.

The minister who best understands what it's like to be a small business owner wishing he or she could hire more people and expand, but can't because as an employer, he or she has deliver to the government an equal amount of the EI deduction taken from employees, hence every employee costs a wage, benefits, and the ever-growing EI deduction.

Who is that minister looking out for the working stiff and the hard-pressed businessperson? Why, it's Belinda Stronach, of course!

Human Resources Minister Belinda Stronach hinted yesterday that EI benefits may be expanded. "What this judgment really says is that the federal government not only has the right, but also the responsibility to evolve EI programs as society evolves," she said.

Just great. Not only is the government allowed to start imagining new social programs attached to EI, it has to!

And thanks to the Supreme Court and our system of government, there is absolutely no way to stop them.

Most fundamental change...anywhere!

Always be suspicious about hyperbole. For example:

The federal government will spend $40 million annually to bring in new auditing and oversight rules in the wake of the sponsorship scandal.

Treasury Board President Reg Alcock says the 158 "separate actions" to be taken within the civil service represent the most fundamental change in any government system in the world.

Sheesh, why not the whole universe?!

If we changed into a republic, that would be pretty fundamental too. So would Quebec or Alberta separation. But adding new rules to look for cheaters, because you assume that they are there?

How about a civil service and an governing party with a proactive attitudue towards fairness and honesty and respect for the taxpayer, instead of always acting with furtiveness and defensive counterattacks? Would that also count as fundamental?

Just saying...

David Smith, Jaguar Solutions, ASM Informatique, and Government Contracts

Here is a theory to explain what David Smith, Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac, and Abotech have been doing for the government for the last few years.

It links his former employers, the federal government, and Abotech in a plausible network to deliver federal contracts designated for aboriginal businesses to non-aboriginal businesses.

It is just a theory.

Liberals: David Smith might have done something wrong. Really!

Yesterday I posted on how questions about David Smith, Liberal MP for the riding of Pontiac, and Abotech couldn't be asked on the floor of the House of Commons because the rules state that when the Ethics Commissioner is investigating a problem, there can be no comment.

It seemed like the government was able to hide behind the Commissioner.

Well, apparently, this is not the case. The Ethics Commissioner is not investigating anything. He was approached by David Smith seeking an opinion. That's covered under different rules, rules that do not exclude asking more questions:

Mr. Jay Hill (Prince George—Peace River, CPC): Mr. Speaker, yesterday in response to a question during question period the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons said:

—the hon. member for Pontiac denies any wrongdoing on his part, but has written to the Ethics Commissioner to ask him to look into this matter. I hope the member opposite waits for a response from the Ethics Commissioner before commenting on this issue in the House again.

Later in question period the member for Nepean--Carleton asked the following question:

The Globe and Mail is reporting today that KPMG had found irregularities in the activities of the firm run by the family of the MP for Pontiac.

The Speaker then ruled the question out of order, citing subsection 27(5) of Appendix 1 to the Standing Orders which reads:

Once a request for an inquiry has been made to the Ethics Commissioner, members should respect the process established by this Code and permit it to take place without commenting further on the matter.

Mr. Speaker, the subsection you cited is a subsection of section 27. Section 27 deals with the matter of a member who has reasonable grounds to believe that another member has not complied with his or her obligations under the code. Under section 27 the Ethics Commissioner would then conduct an inquiry into the matter.

In the case involving the member for Pontiac, it was not another member who initiated an investigation; it was the member himself who made an inquiry. Such inquiries are covered under section 26. Section 26 deals with seeking an opinion and has nothing to do with an investigation. Subsection 26(1) states:

In response to a request in writing from a Member on any matter respecting the Member's obligations under this Code, the Ethics Commissioner may provide the Member with a written opinion containing any recommendations that the Ethics Commissioner considers appropriate.

Therefore, there is no investigation under way. An opinion has been sought and under the rules there are no restrictions regarding the asking of questions in this House.

The remaining subsections of section 26 deal with the opinion being confidential, that the opinion is binding on the Ethics Commissioner and that the last subsection provides rules for the publication of said opinion.

Mr. Speaker, with respect, I contend that you applied the wrong section of the code. A member cannot initiative an investigation into himself. A member can seek an opinion and that is covered under section 26 and not section 27.

Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I would submit that if your ruling were to stand, it would mean that at any point when government members' activities were called into question, all that would be required to avoid any further questions in this place would be to have those members request the Ethics Commissioner to look into the matter. Given the government's propensity toward questionable behaviour, at some point soon the Ethics Commissioner could be looking into dozens of Liberal members and the opposition would be unable to ask any further questions.

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I understand and appreciate the comments made by the opposition House leader.

I am conscious, Mr. Speaker, that the rule was designed precisely to allow the Ethics Commissioner to complete his work obviously in a timely way but to complete that work free from increasingly nasty comments made about the work he has undertaken in this particular case.

If we want the Ethics Commissioner, who is an officer of the House, to be able to do his work, I think that the minimum respect for the institution of the Ethics Commissioner requires that he be able to do that work free from undue comment which can be publicly very harmful to members of the House before the Ethics Commissioner has in fact arrived at some conclusions.

Mr. Speaker, I want to tell you and members of the House that it was always the intention of the member for Pontiac that the Ethics Commissioner's report, once it is completed, be made public. I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the member for Pontiac that once the Ethics Commissioner completes his work and arrives at a conclusion, the member for Pontiac will be very happy to make that report public.

The Speaker: I thank the hon. House leader for the opposition and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government for their interventions on this matter. I was going to say something on the issue anyway before the issue was raised. I will say it now.

Yesterday during question period, this matter was alluded to in a question by the hon. member for Toronto—Danforth. The government House leader replied, as indicated in the comments earlier, that the hon. member had asked the Ethics Commissioner “to look into this matter” and asked for members to refrain from referring to the case until the work had been completed.

Later in question period, the Chair reminded members of section 27(5) of the Ethics Code in Appendix 1 of the Standing Orders that enjoins members from referring to an inquiry being conducted under that section.

I now understand that a request made by an hon. member to the Ethics Commissioner to clarify his obligations under the code is mandated under section 26 of the code, which governs opinions sought from the commissioner.

Accordingly, I wish to clarify that there is no specific rule prescribing members from raising this matter in the House. However, I urge them to be judicious in their language and the phrasing of any such reference.

I remind them that the questions that are asked about this must deal with government business and government responsibilities, and not the responsibilities of the hon. member under the code. He cannot be questioned on this matter in the House during question period because questions must be directed to ministers and must deal with matters of ministerial government responsibility.

I know that all hon. members would want to avoid a situation where, in the heat of the moment, they would find themselves contravening Standing Order 18 which specifically prohibits the use of offensive words and I quote:

—against either House, or against any Member thereof.

I think that will deal with the matter. We could now move on to orders of the day.

So Dominic LeBlanc tried to run interference, and spin the Ethics Commissioner's interest in the David Smith matter as a full blown investigation in order to shut down debate, but the Speaker was not having any of it. David Smith asked merely for an opinion, and that means it's fair game.

No questions were actually asked because Points of Order are dealt with after Question Period, which means we'll have to wait until today to see what the questions are asked and what answers are given.

While we wait, we can amuse ourselves with the spectacle of the Liberals demanding that the actions of one of its members be dealt with as a serious ethics violation worthy of a full-blown investigation as a means of protecting the party.

Leave it to the Liberals to make corruption into a virtue.

Please, no special favours! We'd prefer to lose fair and square

Sometimes lies are so pathetic as to be laughable:

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan is interfering in the battle over whether a B.C. firm will beat out a company in her riding for a $200-million defence contract, a Conservative MP charged yesterday.

Cascade, Spar Aerospace of Edmonton and IMP Group International Inc. of Halifax are the three bidders for a five-year maintenance contract for Canada's aged 32-aircraft fleet of C-130 Hercules transports, used to carry troops, military gear and aid to the world's hot spots.

Spar, a division of L-3 Communications of New York, has maintenance facilities at the City Centre Airport in Ms. McLellan's riding and another at the Edmonton International Airport.

The allegation is that McLellan interfered on behalf of Spar. The evidence consisted of a suspicious sequence of communications:

[Ms. McLellan's director of communications, Alex Swann,] acknowledged Ms. McLellan was approached by Spar and subsequently contacted the offices of Defence Minister William Graham and Public Works Minister Scott Brison about the company's concerns.

And the substance of those concerns?

"She and her office have sought an understanding of the process, and received assurances from the offices of the ministers involved that they and their departments are committed to a fair, transparent, competitive bidding process," Mr. Swann wrote in an e-mail.

So Spar called the MP for the company's riding hoping she could tell the company that there was no chance for special help, because they certainly didn't deserve special consideration?

Yeah, right. No CEO guarding shareholder value would want help landing a contract. McLellan's story makes sense. We should be ashamed of ourselves to think otherwise.

Seriously, the truth is that Spar was putting the screws on McLellan:

Spar's new president went public in July, expressing concerns that if his company, which already services the Hercules fleet, loses the new competition, it will potentially have to lay off hundreds of workers.

"It would have tragic and catastrophic consequences," Patrice Pelletier said, adding that many of Spar's 600 highly paid workers could be tossed out on the street if Cascade or IMP win.

Mr. Pelletier said he was contacting Edmonton-area municipal, provincial and federal politicians, including Ms. McLellan, to warn them of the risks to the community if the contract was lost.

And not just Spar:

Edmonton politicians, including Mayor Stephen Mandel and New Democratic Edmonton-Calder MLA David Eggen, have lobbied Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan to intervene in the contract issue.

Who to believe?

As always, follow the money.

From 1993 to 1998, Spar Aerospace donated $86,575.02 to the Progressive Conservatives.

From 1997 to 1998, Spar Aerospace donated $15,486.00 to Alliance/Reform.

From 1993 to 2002, Spar Aerospace donated $207,624.86 to the Liberals.

Spar donated twice as much to the Liberals as to anyone else, but the fact that it donated serious cash only to parties capable of forming a government (notice nothing to the NDP) tells me these donations were investments designed to result in future consideration.

I think Spar is calling in a marker, and I think Anne McLellan answered the call.

All this complicates life for Minister Scott Brison, who spoke on the floor of the House of Commons yesterday:

Mr. John Reynolds (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, CPC): Mr. Speaker, fully two months ago, Cascade Aerospace in British Columbia was informed that based on merit and price the company had been awarded a federal contract for maintenance work on Canada's fleet of Hercules C-130 aircraft.

Then, weeks later, Cascade was informed that the contract was being re-evaluated.

I would like to ask the government if it will guarantee to the House that the contract will go to the best bid, based on merit and price.

Hon. Scott Brison (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this has been a fair, open and transparent process. I can guarantee the hon. member that in this process of procurement and in all our procurement processes we will always deliver the best possible value for Canadian taxpayers while providing the best equipment and services to our Canadian armed forces.

We are operating an open, transparent and accountable process and we are investing to ensure that our Canadian armed forces have the equipment to do their jobs.

I wonder who will be fielding the questions during the next Question Period -- Scott Brison or Anne McLellan?

Abotech Scandal Update #4: The nature of the work performed -- "Other"

Lots of money flowed into Abotech from the government. To do what? It's not obvious.

Abotech Scandal Update #3: Now Abotech is an aerospace company?

What exactly is Abotech? Computer consulting firm or launch facility for spacecraft?

Small Dead Blog Awards are about to wrap up

Tomorrow at midnight, the voting for the Small Dead Blog Awards wraps up. You can still vote for those categories in which I have been nominated on the left hand panels. After holding a tenuous lead Best Canadian Blog for the duration of voting, a last minute surge of votes for Bound By Gravity has put him almost 20 votes ahead.

It could be worse. When the contest started, I half expected Andrew Coyne's dormant blog to beat us all by sheer name recognition.

If you haven't already voted (you can vote once every 24 hours) then check out the candidates (the names in the panel are hyperlinked to the blogs) and cast a ballot. Canadian blogging is coming of age, and it's good that we start to measure ourselves against each other and challenge ourselves to improve our craft.

Cheers all!

Hiding behind the Ethics Commissioner

Now that the Ethics Commissioner is involved, David Smith and the dealings of his former company Abotech are off limits in the House of Commons.

More problems at the Mint? Part II

From a reader:

I wonder how many of these people are federal Liberal Party members, former members and which of them has donated money to or volunteered to work for the party anytime in the past and up to the present?

Well, I can tell you this. I ran the board through the elections donation database, and between the board members and the companies they worked for, a total of $47,272.27 went to the Liberal Party over the years.

The Progressive Conservatives and the Reform/Alliance got $2,638.96. Nothing shows up for today's Conservative Party.

I skipped one company. J Marc Brule was a partner at KPMG. KPMG is a big place, and Brule could hardly be held solely responsible for their donation patterns. If you want to include KPMG, though, the breakdown for the board of directors of the Mint and their companies turns into this:

Liberal Party: $518,675.23 (or 70%)
Conservative Party: $0 (or 0%)
Progressive Conservatives: $116,702.09 (or 15%)
Reform/Alliance: $65,212.20 (or 9%)
NDP: $37,555.00 (or 5%)

Add this to Triassi's history, and the Mint starts to look like just another Liberal corporate stronghold where loyal Liberal supporters can get plum jobs, and where Liberal MPs and bureaucrats can park themselves while waiting out scandals, or while waiting to get re-elected.

More problems at the Mint?

If David Dingwall's insane expenses were approved by the Mint board of directors, one wonders what the expense records of those other directors look like:

An audit of the mint expenses by PricewaterhouseCoopers had been expected in time for Dingwall's appearance before the committee, but won't be completed until next week.

It'll be interesting to see who among the board, in an environment in which no expense appeared too trivial to justify, was able to resist the temptation of expensing their way to hundreds of thousands in fee stuff.

We already know Chairman Emmanuel Triassi likes to spend the money he prints:

The chairman of the Royal Canadian Mint, who approved the expenses of former president David Dingwall, ran up $26,351 in expenses in the first three months of 2003, documents obtained by The Globe and Mail show.

Emmanuel Triassi spent the money on business travel across Canada and to Switzerland, food -- including meals at pricey restaurants with fellow board members -- and a limousine trip.

Mr. Triassi was appointed to the part-time job as chairman of the Mint by his friend, former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano.

Mr. Triassi's meal charges include a Jan. 19 dinner at the upscale Cafe Henri Burger in Gatineau, Que. with six members of the board of directors that cost $598. The meal included lobster bisque, beef filet, cocktails and a $79 bottle of wine.

On March 17, 2003, Mr. Triassi and six board members dined at Quebec City's Ristorante Michelangelo. The $760.24 bill included a $100 tip.

Triassi was already mixed up in scandal with his Liberal friends, a question of patronage investigated by the Standing Committee on Transport and Government Operations in 2002:

There were also other allegations: allegations that concerned architects and project managers at Benny Farm, for instance. Benny Farm was, it seems, a big real estate project built with federal funds. Here, people were asked to withdraw supervision and management of the project from those who had it, because they had made successful bids, I presume. One always presumes good faith. So they obtained this contract through legal means and had the carpet yanked out from under them in favour of a friend of the regime, a certain Emmanuel Triassi, who later was also appointed president of the Royal Canadian Mint.

Who applied the pressure to hire Triassi after he had been passed over?

Alfonso Gagliano, the star of the Gomery Inquiry.

Gagliano later appointed Triassi to the job at the mint he currently holds.

For the record, the Directors and Officers of the Royal Canadian Mint:

The Board
Emmanuel Triassi, Chairperson
David Dingwall, President and CEI (resigned)
Timothy J Spiegel, Human Resources
Sheldon F Brown, Nominating Committe
Louis Proulx, Corporate Governance,
Ernie Gilroy
Hilary Goldenberg
Tom Taylor
J. Marc Brule
Ghislain Harvey

The Senior Officers
Richard J Neville, CFO
Beverley A Lepine, COO
Neil Hallam, CIO
Marguerite F Nadeau, Vice President (Corporate and Legal Affairs)
Nancy Cogger, Vice-President (Marketing and Sales)
Pam Aung Thin, Vice-President (Communications)
Craig Szelestowski, Vice-President (HR and Lean Enterprise)

Business Line Leaders (Execute Directors)
Manon Laplonte (Canadian Circulation)
Greg Smith (Numismatics)
Peter J Ho (Foreign Circulation)
David Madge (Bullion and Refinery)
Andre Aubrey (Internal Audit)

One more thing from the 2004 annual report:

Administrative costs increased 5% to $22.0 million from $21.0 million in 2003.

One million in increased administrative costs. David Dingwall expensed almost $750,000 in 2004. I'm not an accountant, but don't expenses fall under administative costs? If so, does this mean that David Dingwall was personally responsible for 75% of the increase in administrative costs in 2004?

Dingwall doesn't get it

From the National Post:

David Dingwall says he didn't abuse his expenses as president of the Royal Canadian Mint and suggests he's entitled to a severance package.

Dingwall, who quit last month after revelations of hefty expense accounts, told a House of Commons committee Wednesday that not one penny was spent without the approval of the Crown corporation's board of directors.

In a letter to the committee, Dingwall also said that because he had turned the mint into a profitable corporation, taxpayers were not on the hook for the expenses, which he broke down in detail for the committee.

Technically, he's right. As a profitable Crown corporation, the Mint pays its own way. But as a Crown corporation, the majority shareholder is me and every other taxpayer in this country. So that means that it doesn't matter that the board approved the expenses, and that those expenses were paid out of the operating budget. If those $748,000 in expenses weren't justified, then the operating budget was higher than it needed to be, and that means the Mint was not as profitable as it should have been, and that means the government was not realizing as high a return as it could have, and that means I paid more taxes than I potentially needed to.

As a shareholder, I expect the Mint to work diligently to maximize my return on investment. Anything less is wasting my money, as sure as if I had written the cheques to Dingwall myself.

Breaking news on Cindy Sheehan moving to Berkeley...not!

From the ContraCostaTimes:

Cindy Sheehan, the Gold Star mother who has become a lightning rod for opposition to the war in Iraq, has moved to Berkeley. According to her sister, Dede Miller, Sheehan moved here about a month ago.

"She enjoys Berkeley and the city's progressive nature," said Miller. "But she now lives in Berkeley because some nice folks offered her an apartment space in their home, and Berkeley is not too far from Vacaville, where her kids live."

Um, old news, people. I posted about this three days past, and revealed that the "nice folks" are the Pearcy's who like to decorate their Sacramento home with effigies American soldiers, hanging by a noose, with crude signs hanging around their necks.

So go ahead and enjoy Berkeley's vicious progressive nature.

Abotech Scandal Update #2: MP David Smith's six-figure company is run out of his home

So Liberal MP David Smith, representing the riding of Pontiac, is in hot water because the company of he was president has had several lucrative government contracts terminated as a result of an audit. The reasons include the fact that the contracts were sole-sourced.

My interest was piqued by the fact that I could not find any web presence for this computer consulting firm called Abotech. What sort of computer company doesn't have a web presence?

It's not even listed in the Yellow Pages. How did it ever get any contracts?

David Smith, a high ranking bureaucrat with Public Works and Government Services Canada before becoming an MP, claims to have severed all ties with this company when he was elected to parliament in June 2004, but the federal database lists him as president as recently as April 2005.

But maybe the data is old. On the other hand, the new president of the company is his wife, and his two kids are the other major owners. So the question remains about how severed he really is.

That questions becomes more complicated when you realize that he eats and sleeps at the head office. That's right, Abotech is run out of David Smith's house.

Abotech Scandal Update

The Abotech story continues to intrigue me. More inconsistencies are developing. Just who is in charge of Abotech?

Another Liberal scandal brewing

Is there another Liberal scandal starting to form on the horizon?

Cindy Sheehan: Congratulating rudeness

From the San Francisco Independent Media Center:

In addition to the warmth and inspiration provided by Cindy, and the compelling anti-war displays and activities we've had out there before, the Capoeira Arts Academy Performing Group performed live percussion, dance and theater acts in the context of opposition to Bush's war.

Cindy Sheehan attended the sixth major anti-war rally in Sacramento since August 14, 2005. This time over 400 people gathered at 16th & Broadway, Saturday, October 15th, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Cindy Sheehan is constantly described as warm and inspiring -- everybody's favourite mom.

Here's a shot of Cindy Sheehan hugging two protesters:

Here's a close-up of that girl's arm:

Let's be clear. Cindy Sheehan portrays herself as America's grieving mom, but at the same time she lets rip with screeds filled with curses and vulgarities. She sets the tone, and worse yet, seems to endorse that sort of thing, as we can see by these pictures. I know my kids will be taught that dissent and criticism is best delivered in an even tone, without swearing and cheap shots. When you stoop to that, your message is lost.

Too bad these girls seem happy to take Cindy Sheehan's advice. She's hardly the best role model to follow.

As an aside, one wonders if Carly or Janey Sheehan would get more attention from their mom if they used their bodies as billboards for insults aimed at George W Bush using crude allusions to penises.

Is Quebec trying to annoy the United States?

Gilles Duceppe, head of the separatist federal party Bloc Quebecois, said an independent Quebec would have a military:

An independent Quebec would have its own military forces and spy service, says Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, taking a firm stand on a traditionally wrenching issue for separatists.

"There'll be an army, of course," Duceppe said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press. "We have to have those organizations, I would say." The leader of the sovereignist Bloc indicated the notion of creating a distinct security apparatus in a newly independent Quebec was no longer as controversial as it has been in the past.

It seems obvious that as an independent country, Quebec would require some kind of security force.

Lord knows Canadians would be in no mood to do the job.

But then Duceppe mentions something else:

As the 1995 referendum approached, the Parti Quebecois government of the day said that, after separation, the province would take part in UN peacekeeping missions and take steps to remain a member of NATO and Norad.

The Defence Department memo concluded "it is impossible to determine whether an independent Quebec would eventually gain entry" to these organizations. "However, it is unlikely that membership would be automatic."

Duceppe said while an independent Quebec would co-operate on security issues with the rest of Canada, the United States and Mexico, he stressed the importance of forging alliances with European partners.

For "European partners", can we read "France"? The sovereigntists have also made nice with Scottish and Catalonian nationalists. But it is France that matters.

The United States might not like to see Canada break up, though picking up an ally in oil-rich Alberta without dealing with Ottawa would be a nice benefit. But for Quebec to seek the help of France, and allow the French to get a serious foothold of some sort within North America (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon hardly count) -- no, that's not going to fly.

The sovereigntists had better think carefully about what friends they want to seek out. The Canadian government might be spineless when it comes to protecting the integrity of the country and of the continent, but the Americans take it seriously, and you don't want to be on the receiving end of an annoyed United States.

Of Cindy Sheehan and Warlocks

No, this is not a Hallowe'en themed post. But it does deal with something scary, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the favoured weapon of the insurgents/terrorists in Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan discussed IEDs on Monday, and points out that the US government is happy enough to have soldiers blown up rather than spend money on protecting them.

Well, as seems to be typical, she's either uninformed, or lying.

Berkeley Veteran's Day event canceled for fear of radicalization by Cindy Sheehan group

Michelle Malkin has the story of a Veteran's Day Ceremony in Berkeley being canceled because of the risk that a co-founder of Cindy Sheehan's Gold Star Families for Peace, Bill Mitchell, would hijack the non-partisan event:

Berkeley's Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 11, was abruptly canceled on Monday because the volunteer organizing committee split over the political content.

At issue was a proposal by the chairman, singer/songwriter Country Joe McDonald, to have Bill Mitchell, a co-founder of Cindy Sheehan's organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, as the keynote speaker.

Mitchell's and Sheehan's sons were killed in Iraq the same day.

Some committee members worried that Mitchell would inject an unwelcome note of partisanship into the event, which has been scrupulously non-political in years past.

Other groups would not share the stage with Bill Mitchell:

Edwin Harper, adjutant of the local Disabled American Veterans chapter, which has participated in past Berkeley Veterans Day observances, threatened that his group would pull out.

"They have the other 364 days and 23 hours to make their political point," he said. "This one hour should be reserved for honoring veterans, period."

McDonald, backed by other members of the committee, disagreed, saying that not permitting Mitchell to express his point of view would be tantamount to censoring free speech.

Unable to agree, the council decided to kill the whole idea:

But on Monday, McDonald, a U.S. Navy veteran, circulated an e-mail among the committee reading, "The disagreement over the participation of Gold Star Families, with their anti-war reputation, in our 2005 ceremony has made it impossible to continue. Without consensus we have no program. The event is cancelled."

The question I set to myself was this: Would Bill Mitchell have used the the event to push a partisan agenda?

My answer is "Yes", and here's why.

Cindy Sheehan gets approval from a rabbi, sort of

You'd think there would be some difficulty here. Cindy Sheehan has been accused of making anti-Semitic comments, which she denies (saying that an email had somehow been altered), and has certainly aligned herself with anti-Semitic organizations like Crawford House.

But apparently getting forgiveness wasn't too hard. Of course, it helps when the rabbi in question is Michael Lerner, Abbie Hoffman in a yarmulke (actually, Hoffman was born Jewish, but you get the point).

Making judicial appointments in Canada -- still a secret process

Allegedly, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler had gotten the message about the unilateral and unchecked power of the justice minister to make judicial appointments, and of the prime minister to make appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada. This unsupervised and unchallenged appointment of judges inevitably leads to cronyism.

So now judicial appointments will be reviewed by a panel. But in secret. And they can't actually talk to the potential appointees. They just get a list of names to look at.

And even then, the government can ignore the panel at their discretion.

How is this better?

Assisted Suicide in Canada: C-407 Revisited

Andrew at Bound by Gravity has a post about the Assisted Suicide bill, C-407, currently in Parliament. I had given this bill some thought back in July, and list 17 specific problems with the bill as it was written, and I invite you to read up and consider those problems. As Andrew says:

That about sums it up. Canada does not need a law with such an enormous potential for abuse.

Scandal-paloozza II

From Hansard:

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, reports today indicate that ethics in government now rivals health care as a public concern. I guess this is not surprising, since there are growing waiting lists for both.

As an example, in February of this year, the Indian affairs department awarded a contract to a company with instructions that there be no traceability for the work done. Why, nearly two years after the Auditor General condemned this practice in the sponsorship scandal, does the government still award contracts with no proper audit paper trail?

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the government and the minister have had 12 years to complete these reviews. Their time is up.

For the second example, despite the misuse of money at the Mint and Technology Partnerships Canada, the Prime Minister is still negotiating a severance package with David Dingwall, this in spite of the fact that not a single expert has come forward to say that there is an entitlement to severance when one quits a job.

I ask the Prime Minister, why is it that Liberal insiders continue to get generous severance packages even when they are not entitled to them?

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, if the Prime Minister wants to pay severance to David Dingwall, he should be able to stand up and defend it himself.

In a third example, a newly released audit of travel expenses at the federal fisheries department has uncovered yet more horror stories. Unauthorized claims, vacations on the public dollar and luxury flight bookings are only some of the examples.

Why can the Prime Minister not get a grip on the pervasive misuse of tax dollars throughout his government?

Mr. Brian Pallister (Portage—Lisgar, CPC): Mr. Speaker, we have learned that the Prime Minister's Office spoke with David Dingwall before he submitted his letter of resignation. We also know that the Prime Minister knew that Dingwall's remuneration agreement did not include severance. Therefore, severance pay would be entirely at the discretion of the Prime Minister.

I would like to ask, when the Prime Minister spoke with David Dingwall who raised the issue of severance pay? Was it Mr. Dingwall or him?

Mr. Scott Reid (Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the multiculturalism minister was accompanied on a Team Canada mission to China last January by Michael Lo and Queenie Tin, shareholders in the Kingston Education Group. Mr. Lo and Queenie Tin also appear to be investors in Grand Canadian Academy, the minister's own education company in China.

Is it not therefore the case that the minister has been using official Team Canada trade missions to promote deals which benefit his investment partners?

Hon. Ed Broadbent (Ottawa Centre, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Industry.

The minister said on the weekend that he would take into account the NDP seven point proposal for ethical and accountability reform. I have sent him a copy. My question is about what he can do today.

Will he put an end to the David Dingwall lobbyist loophole? Specifically, will he bring in a measure that will make it illegal for a lobbyist to accept contingency fees? Will he accompany it by a requirement that if this happens, there will be a $35,000 fine and a sentence of up to two years in jail? Will he take some action?

Just one day, October 17.

Scandal-paloozza

From Hansard:

Mr. Peter MacKay (Central Nova, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the people of Canada do not believe David Dingwall is entitled to compensation. He misused his expense account. He did not comply with regulations on lobbyists. He resigned but is now claiming severance pay. Such an abnormal situation cannot happen under a Liberal government.

When will the Prime Minister deny compensation to David Dingwall? When will he stop betraying the Canadian taxpayer?

Mr. Michael Chong (Wellington—Halton Hills, CPC): Mr. Speaker, it has been over a year since the government ordered an audit of Technology Partnerships Canada and we still have no answers. The government told us that 11 of the 33 audits completed showed that $2.4 million was illegally paid out to lobbyists. Yet the government refuses to reveal the names of those involved in these illegal payouts.

When will the government tell this House who was involved in these 11 illegal payouts?

Mr. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC): Mr. Speaker, we learned that the Minister of State for Multiculturalism funnelled $4,900 from his 2004 election campaign into one of his own companies. Thirty-four hundred dollars was paid to Greenwood Academy for advertising. The minister's own conflict of interest disclosure states that he is the sole owner of Greenwood Academy through a holding company called Grand Canadian Academy, which he also owns.

Could the minister tell us why he funnelled election funds into one of this own companies?

Mr. Bradley Trost (Saskatoon—Humboldt, CPC): Mr. Speaker, in the year 2004-05, I spent $66,577 for the entirety of my air travel. This includes all my flights to Saskatoon and across the country. However, the finance minister spent $67,100 on one flight to his constituency in Regina. That is $523 more than for my entire year's travel.

Why does it cost so much more to fly to Regina than to Saskatoon?

Hon. Ed Broadbent (Ottawa Centre, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for Democratic Renewal.

The head of the Public Service Commission revealed yesterday that 35 former Liberal staffers have received preferred, non-competitive access to well paying public sector jobs.

This continuation of cronyism undermines competitiveness and objectivity in the public service. It is not allowed in Britain. It should not be allowed in Canada. What is the minister doing to put an end to this undemocratic practice?

Just one day, October 7.

Second Amendment in San Francisco

The second amendment to the US Constitution:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

My understanding is that this clause is currently interpreted as allowing Americans to own firearms short of assault weapons. So maybe an American reader can explain how this proposal in San Francisco could ever survive a constitutional challenge:

Within the limits of the City and County of San Francisco, no resident of the City and County of San Francisco shall possess any handgun unless required for professional purposes, as enumerated herein. Specifically, any City, state or federal employee carrying out the functions of his or her government employment, including but not limited to peace officers as defined by California Penal Code Section 830 et.seq. and animal control officers may possess a handgun. Active members of the United States armed forces or the National Guard and security guards, regularly employed and compensated by a person engaged in any lawful business, while actually employed and engaged in protecting and preserving property or life within the scope of his or her employment, may also possess handguns. Within 90 days from the effective date of this section, any resident of the City and County of San Francisco may surrender his or her handgun at any district station of the San Francisco Police Department, or to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department without penalty under this section.

How did the YWCA Week without Violence get involved in anti-war rally?

The YWCA sponsors a post and essay contest every year to promote non-violence in schools:

Led by YWCAs in thousands of communities in the United States and more than 40 countries on six continents, the YWCA Week Without Violence is always observed the third full week in October. Topics for the Week Without Violence include: A Day of Remembrance, Protecting Our Children, Making Our Schools Safer, Confronting Violence Against Women, Facing Violence Among Men, Eliminating Racism & Hate Crime and Replacing Violence with Sports, Recreation & Fun.

It has a local apolitical focus, dealing with violence stemming from bullying, vandalism, violent video games, and the like.

Well, in Brooklyn this year, the contest is being co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Parents for Peace. Peace in the classroom and playgrounds? No, not quite:

Brooklyn Parents for Peace is a network of Brooklyn residents — parents, neighbors, and educators — alarmed by the growing militarism of our society and its effect on our lives and our children's future.

We seek to inform ourselves and our community about issues of war and peace and to enable ourselves to respond effectively.

We hope to give our children a role model of active response to problems which easily lead to hopelessness, cynicism, and despair.

Parents for Peace was founded in 1984. Our earliest initiatives included organizing local opposition to the Staten Island home port for nuclear-capable Cruise missiles and the U.S. intervention in Central America. We subsequently mobilized local opposition to the Gulf War and economic sanctions which penalize Iraqi children.

After the terrible events of September 11, we reached out to affirm our sense of community and to oppose a military response to this tragedy. We have continued to organize for peace and social justice, specifically for compensation to civilian victims of US bombing in Afghanistan; ending of the Israeli occupation and a peaceful solution of the conflict, guaranteeing security of both Israelis and Palestinians; preservation of civil liberties in Brooklyn for all including immigrants; apprehension of terrorists through methods which respect international law; avoidance of a new war in Iraq.

Well, this sounds like your run-of-the-mill anti-war protest group. Cindy Sheehan will be the keynote speaker at their event this Saturday.

That event will also mark the judging of the contest entries, and the presentation of the winners, including a reading of their essays.

So you can wonder just what sort of essays and posters are going to be scored more highly by the judges. Seems to me that the children are best set on the task of dealing with violence in their immediate area; they are hardly equipped to consider issues of statecraft and history. Moreover, children will work hard to please their parents, meaning we might get treated to essays that repeat the verbage of the anti-war movement without real comprehension.

Too bad the YWCA didn't think that maybe the highly charged political agenda of the BPFP was not a great fit for Week without Violence. It'll be interesting to see the winning essays and posters. Assuming they get posted, I'll let you know next week.

Cindy Sheehan treats herself

Something I had noticed earlier, but hadn't planned on mentioning. Still, I've received more than a couple of emails, so I'm not the only one to have thought it odd:

Peace mom Cindy Sheehan peered out a window 14 floors above the Civic Center on Friday and asked, Want to see my new car?

She pointed to a sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle convertible parked near City Hall. She explained she hasn't treated herself to much since her son, Casey, died in Iraq in April 2004, but she'd always wanted such a car and recently decided it was time for a change.

The base price for a 2006 Volkswagen Beetle is $17,180. In California, shipping pushes the price up to $17,795. A covertible goes for a cool $21,920 base, or $22,535 with shipping. This is for the 2.5L version. If she has the TDI, add $1,210 to the base price. We can only speculate on what options her Beetle has.

She does not have a recent job history, only recently having signed up with Speaking Matters. As well, being a paid speaker is not regular work. So I have to think that financing was out of the question, especially with her notoriety making her a serious risk (can't make payments if you're in jail for trespassing), meaning she paid cash. I'm guessing here, of course.

This in turn means she either had money left over from the original $250,000 she received upon Casey's death, the money she said had run out, or the cheque for the additional $238,000 has arrived into her Alliance chequing account over which she has sole control.

So she treats herself to a new car. Can't fault her for that, except that Casey and his family back in Vacaville have yet to be treated to a simple gravestone.

The Pro-Victory Blogroll

If you have a blog and you want to be counted among those who are doing their part to promote victory against those who would destroy America and the West, consider joining the Pro-Victory blogroll:

Similarly, with the argument over the war on terror, 'our" side has a bit of a dilemma. The other side has staked out "anti-war" as their rallying cray, leaving us to be called "pro-war." That's not entirely accurate, at least in my case, and rather damning. So I reject that.

So, what should "we" call ourselves? That's a tough one.

I thought about "pro-freedom," but I disliked it. It's too vague for my tastes. It could mean anything, and therefore means nothing. I don't like that sort of thing. We need something clearer, more precise, perhaps with some historical context that truly captures the sentiment that we didn't choose to fight this war on terror, but dammit, we're gonna win it.

And then it hit me. Let the other side be "anti-war." If they choose not to recognize that the war started a long time ago, and we've only recently started fighting back, that's their stupidity. We have more important things to worry about than their whining and kvetching.

We're pro-VICTORY.

It's a good word. It says exactly what our goal is: to win, to defeat the enemy, to stop those out to destroy us and our way of life and impose their tyrannical vision on people.

And it has positive historic connotations, too. In World War II, we built "Victory" ships, bought "Victory" bonds, sent heroes on "Victory" tours. It's clear, it's concise, and it doesn't overpromise or overcommit or flail about in rhetorical helplessness.

So follow the link back and follow the instructions, and be counted.

The Anti-War Movement: Speaking in absolutes

Absolute nonsense, as it turns out.

Carolyn Parrish: Winner of the "Scariest MP Ever" Award

From the Globe and Mail:

Carolyn Parrish is looking forward to a future in politics -- even as she prepares to give up her federal seat.

"One of my major disappointments in my whole life, and it will turn out to be one of the major disappointments of most Canadians, is Mr. Martin's leadership. He has been so fragile and he's been so tentative," Ms. Parrish said in her first interview since it was announced that she would not be running in the next federal election.

Paul Martin is "too keen to sit on the knee of the American President. He's been weak on softwood even though he's running around making noises now. He's been weak on beef. He's been weak on caucus management. He's got a whole bunch of yes men sitting in the front row. He is thoroughly intimidated by someone like me -- and I am really not a scary guy."

Provincial politics has never really interested her. And besides, she said, "I think I would frighten [Liberal Premier Dalton] McGuinty to death."

At some other time, I might consider the "thoroughly intimidated" comment from the point of view of her own image of herself versus what the objective evidence suggests.

I mean, if he was thoroughly intimidated, why didn't Paul Martin make her a cabinet minister? Obviously he wasn't so afraid of her that he couldn't muster the courage to turf her from the caucus.

And we have no evidence of the "death fright" she says she inspires in Dalton McGuinty.

But then, why waste time? She's on her way out. Let's help her along. If it matters, and makes her leave quickly with a promise never to return, I say we nominate her for the "Scariest MP Ever" award. We'll make it official that everyone in the cabinet and in the PMO was shaking in their boots when she was interviewed by the press. Provincial premiers soiled themselves at the mention of her name. "Angry in the Great White North" became "Frightened-out-of-his-Skull in the Great White North" when writing about her.

Whatever it takes. Just go.

German film: "Paradise Now"

No it's not about the virtues of Germany's health care system. It is a film, partly financed by the German taxpayer, that asks the question: Is it better to attack evil Jews who oppress Palestinians with non-violence, or with suicide bombers?

Here is an excerpt from the reviewer:

The film expresses no moral criticism of the Palestinian suicide attackers’ practice of murdering Israeli civilians. The only thing under dispute is whether suicide attacks actually weaken the “occupiers”. In one of the film’s most ridiculously revisionist scenes, the main character shrinks from the bomb attack at the last moment, because there’s a little kid on the bus – as though the history of Palestinian suicide attacks weren’t synonymous with a history of murdering countless innocent women, children and other civilians. At the film’s conclusion, the screenplay replaces the suicide attack with one on a bus full of Israeli soldiers. The suicide enjoys the mitigating aura of a quasi-military action.

Read the whole thing.

Wishing Patrick Sheehan luck

Just some tibits from a solid source:

Casey's life insurance benefits? Almost all spent on flitting about with the likes of Michael Moore.

The divorce? Patrick Sheehan wants what benefits remain, and those are substantial.

I'm wishing him luck.

Here's a question. Has Cindy Sheehan retained legal counsel? If so, who, and who is paying for it?

[And if you haven't read the update, check out the details about Cindy Sheehan's new digs in Berkeley.]

Mayor David Miller shoots TTC driver

Well, he didn't actually shoot the TTC driver, but the lack of leadership from the socialist mayor of Toronto even as the city has suffered through a horrific summer when it comes to gun violence made the wounding today of a TTC driver an inevitable tragedy.

Sheehan vs Feinstein? [Major Update]

From Cindy Sheehan's interview with progressive newpaper The Bloomington Alternative:

I think Nancy Pelosi is changing her tune, but not nearly fast enough. I have met with her a couple of times lately. I am not thinking of running against Hillary, or Nancy, or Dianne Feinstein, for that matter. If it were anyone, though, it would be Feinstein because I am a Californian and I believe she is a despicable warmonger. People have been begging me to run, but I think I can do more good on the outside of Washington than the inside.

Interestingly, having vacated the family home in the wake of Patrick Sheehan's divorce petition, Cindy Sheehan chose to move to Berkeley. Not to her mom Shirley's place to stay with her brother Scott.

Not to Venice, California, the home of Code Pink. Her sister Dede is a full-time member of Code Pink.

Not to Crawford. Not to Washington, DC.

But Berkeley.

It's a 15 minute drive over the bridge to the address of Feinstein's San Francisco office on Post Street.

Update: Thanks to my reporter friend, we know that Cindy Sheehan has taken up residence with the Pearcy's. Who are the Pearcy's? Well, Stephen Pearcy is a Berkeley lawyer who spends weekends in Sacramento. The Sacramento home was host to this:

"Your taxdollars at work" and a soldier hung in effigy. An Iraqi flag. Gutter-talk on posters where children can see.

Yeah, Stephen Pearcy is a major activist figure in the anti-Bush anti-war movement.

I find it hard to imagine why Cindy Sheehan would feel at home with these people. Stephen Pearcy is also an artist, or so he claims, having applied his considerable Michelangelo-like skills to this piece:

I can see where Cindy Sheehan and Stephen Pearcy would have common ground here, since Cindy Sheehan is on record as calling the United States a "morally repugnant" system. But she claims to so concerned about the troops, and so distraught about her own son's death, that I would have thought that she would not appreciate the imagery of soldiers being hanged, regardless of the political point behind it.

But then she might be comfortable with those using a dead soldier to pursue a political agenda than I would have guessed. Some would say they are not all that far apart on using that tactic. It does suggest that Cindy Sheehan sees those who use dead soldiers as pawns in a political activist game as kindred spirits, and I find that really disturbing.

I guess Cindy Sheehan is a more complex person that I've given her credit for.

[On the question of how Democrats who voted for or against the war resolution will fair in 2008, Captain's Quarters has an analysis.]

Bono mad because Hillary mixes entertainment and politics

Now isn't that an example of the pot callin the kettle black?

Orgies at teen proms!

What I've never understood is why a school would pay and sponsor a purely social event. I get the appeal of having some sort of rite of passage, but let the kids and parents set it up and pay for it, if they wish.

Looks like my stick-in-the-mud attitude is catching on, at least where proms have become orgies of booze and sex.

[By the way, how many extra hits do you think I'll get from that title, eh? Sorry to disappoint, but no pictures here. In fact, no naughty words either.]

Muslim Rage: Danish newspaper being threatened over cartoons

A Danish newspaper ran a series of satirical cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.

Not surprisingly, they've had to hire security guards.

A message to Cindy Sheehan

Does she read my blog? I've been provided hints that she does. If so, this is for you, Cindy Sheehan.

Read this. This is an extract:

But I am not leaving this land because the bad guys are not going to leave us or you to live in peace. They are the same ones who flew the planes to kill your people in New York.

I ask you in the name of God or whatever you believe in; do not waste your son's blood.

We here have decided to avenge humanity, you and all the women who lost their loved ones.

Take a look at our enemy Cindy, look closely at the hooded man holding the sword and if you think he's right then I will back off and support your call.

His blood didn't go in vain; your son and our brethren are drawing a great example of selflessness.

God bless his free soul and God bless the souls of his comrades who are fighting evil.

God bless the souls of Iraqis who suffered and died for the sake of freedom.

God bless all the freedom lovers on earth.

A question has been asked that deserves an answer. Post a comment there, or here, or send me an email. Or post a message on the website of your friend Michael Moore.

(Hat tip to Michelle Malkin)

Michelle Malkin or Michael Moore: Who serves the truth?

Today marks a historic moment. In Iraq, the peope are voting on a proposed new constitution.

It will be accepted or rejected by the people, defended from those who would impose their views on them with violence, a view that itself is the political manifestation of violence exercised as a means of control. They will be defended by Americans soldiers, representing the oldest functioning democracy on the planet, by their allies and friends, and by Iraqi themselves, who have braved car bombs and suicide bombers to sign up with the security forces to defend their own people.

For a full round-up, read Michelle Malkin.

If on the other hand, you would prefer to pretend that nothing at all good is happening in Iraq, that Iraq is a quagmire no better now than when Saddam was in power and slaughtering his enemies (and his perceived enemies, and his critics, and their families), the go to MichaelMoore.com, where there is not a single direct mention of the vote on the home page. From the home page there is one link to a story, lifted from AP, about a sabotaged power line causing a blackout ahead of the vote. I can only assume there would have been no acknowledgment of this key vote if there was no attack by these "Minutemen":

First, can we stop the Orwellian language and start using the proper names for things?

Speaking of Orwellian, does shoving any mention of the democratic constitution of Iraq down the memory hole count as Orwellian?

What did you expect? She's still a man!

Another one of those things that everyone should have seen coming, but a combination of willful blindness and abject stupidity compounded with a shocking lack of common sense has compounded the misery of people whose lives are full of misery already.

Poet, Activist, Friend of Sheehan, Mangler of the Bible

I wish liberals would not quote from the Bible.

Not because I don't think the Word of God is for them. Of course it is. But because they can't resist misquoting the Bible in order to make a political point.

Bush vs Sheehan: Staging the news?

In the US, the main stream media has been gloating over how a teleconference between President George W Bush and a group of soldiers in Iraq was staged:

It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."

Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote and efforts to train Iraqi troops.

For example:

"If the question comes up about partnering - how often do we train with the Iraqi military - who does he go to?" Barber asked.

"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.

"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit - the hometown - and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.

Staged? Or just organized? Via Michelle Malkin, from a soldier who was part of that group:

First of all, we were told that we would be speaking with the President of the United States, our Commander-in-Chief, President Bush, so I believe that it would have been totally irresponsible for us NOT to prepare some ideas, facts or comments that we wanted to share with the President.

We were given an idea as to what topics he may discuss with us, but it's the President of the United States; He will choose which way his conversation with us may go.

We practiced passing the microphone around to one another, so we wouldn't choke someone on live TV. We had an idea as to who we thought should answer what types of questions, unless President Bush called on one of us specifically.

But because the President was not subject to what in Canada we call a "scrum", the whole event was somehow phoney.

You want a real example of staging?

The camp at Crawford is full of Cindy Sheehan supporters, people from all walks of life, but off to the side are a small group of professionals skilled in politics and public relations who are marketing Cindy Sheehan's message.

Cindy Sheehan kneels before a cross with her son's name on it, touches his picture, wipes her tears. It's an outpouring of emotion that is part of a scheduled news event organized daily for the television, radio and print reporters who crowd in to capture a mother's grief.

Cindy Sheehan: "I'm never going to see him again, I'm never going to hold him again, I'm never going to hear his voice again."

Sheehan's message hasn't changed since she got here, but the support staff interested in getting that message out to the world has grown considerably. [emphasis added]

Just to be clear to everyone. This is organized:

And this...

is staged:

There's a difference.

(And then there's a difference between staged and just plain lying!)

[More from Blogs for Bush, Say Anything, and Michelle Malkin]

Canadian Health Care: Wondering how long it'll take us to die

Gruesome as it sounds, this seems to be the approach to fixing health care.

Good news -- Kyoto is dead! Someone tell the Liberals

From the Ottawa Citizen:

Polls always show that Canadians claim to support environmental measures. But polls only show good intentions, not reality.

If one thing was clear this summer, it's that the Canadian public will not under any circumstances be told to use less energy. Gasoline prices go up, and we get angry. If they hurt enough to restrict our driving, we howl. The government cowers. And Lord knows what we will do if our access to winter heating fuel is curtailed.

So intead we get propoganda:

Instead the feds ask us plaintively to buy better furnaces, drive less, and even - I am not making this up - use electric fishing dories with rechargeable batteries.

It's hypocritical of all Canadian governments to pretend they have a Kyoto plan, or even subscribe to the general idea behind Kyoto. They don't. They should do the honest thing, admit it, and stop talking about it until they have even one concrete measure to show us.

Good piece from the Dark Matter blog. But I think there is an element not mentioned. The government isn't play-acting for our benefit. As Tom Spears points out, Canadians aren't listening.

Instead the message might be aimed at the international community. As the Liberals continues to pull away from close links with the US (like pitching hard to be more helpful in fulfilling Communist China's voracious energy needs), we become more and more like Old Europe and less a member of the Anglosphere. Australia and the US have abandoned Kyoto. But France and Germany are still pushing it hard, even as they themselves cheat their way to success.

For some reason, though, instead of taking the realist view like Australia or the US, Canada is acting like a central European country. I suppose in many ways that makes sense -- Canada's onerous tax regime and institutionalized rule by quasi-socialists makes us more continental European than Anglosphere.

Is there a deeper reason for being good little Kyotonians? Is there some payoff to expect from France and Germany and the others? In a weird way I hope so, because then it would justify all this time and money we're wasting on this fool's errand.

Getting fired from a government job? Ka-ching!

From the Ottawa Sun:

According to the government's little-known guidelines, employees who work for cabinet ministers and ministers of state are eligible for rich departing rewards that come close to a full year's pay.

"Employees have a right to severance pay when they end their services voluntarily, are dismissed, die or are laid off owing to lack of work or discontinuance of a function," reads the Treasury Board policy.

"Severance pay stays the same, whatever the circumstances of termination, that is the amounts will be the same for resignation, death, dismissal, layoff and retirement."

Now I understand the basis for this -- employees of cabinet ministers will likely be fired in case of a change in government. In that way, it is not like the private sector, and for that reason, they are given extra protection against being "fired".

Most of us don't get fired just because we get a new manager in the department.

In fact, the article makes that point:

Lise Jolicoeur, spokeswoman for Treasury Board President Reg Alcock, said the policy is designed primarily for those who lose their jobs due to electoral defeat or cabinet shuffle.

But what about someone who is fired for cause? Reckless use of an expense account, for example? Or taking friends on government-paid trips?

Clearly the severance system needs to be tightened up.

But there is more:

Departing staffers are also eligible for an additional "separation payment" up to six months' pay at the minister's "discretion."

This is disturbing. Ministerial discretion? That is just asking for abuse. If they work hard, they get paid overtime. They might also get promotions, or be able to follow an ex-minister into private practise, or whatever. But for the minister to simply decide to give a chunk of taxpayers' money to someone they like with zero oversight? With overtime, there is a paper trail -- timesheets and policies describing pay rates. But this seems to be an arbitrary and unmanaged reward system, which is a step away from cronyism:

Tory MP John Williams called it "a form of legitimized corruption" and noted that there's no other organization in Canada where employers generously reward their "friends" when they quit their jobs.

John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the policy is "ludicrous" and urged the government to scrap "ministerial discretion" for payouts.

"I think people will view this in the same way as they viewed the whole Dingwall scandal -- that Ottawa is Disneyland of the North," he said.

Is this going to change? Yes and no. If there is enough of a stink made about it, the rules on paper will be altered to look more responsible. But I also suspect that the favours and payouts will continue through some other means, for as long as it takes for someone to notice. Our system in Ottawa runs on the notion that the government is accountable to no one, and that ministers, and especially the Prime Minister and the PMO, have broad discretion to spend money as they see fit without checks and balances.

Until that fundamental aspect of our political system changes, this sort of thing will continue to happen, no matter how hard we try to clean it up.

What about Jesus, God, and the Bible? What about rules?

From Bay Windows, a story about two bloggers who decided to punish "homophobic" ministers in African-American churches:

Last month, [Keith] Boykin and [Jasmyne] Cannick profiled nine ministers on their Web sites...Throughout the campaign, Boynkin and Cannick argued that the ministers' homophobic comments, in the absence of other evidence, suggested that they have some sort of unnatural obsession with homosexuality and that they may be gay themselves. Boykin and Cannick invited readers to send them any evidence they might have about the ministers' sexuality.

Now this is par for the course. One of the first insults progressives, and especially progressive homosexuals, level at their enemies is that they're gay.

But put aside the unseemly tactics used by these socially enlightened liberals. Look at their view of the churches themselves:

"The church is the biggest problem in the black community in terms of homophobia, and I don't think the church has changed one bit in 10 years' time, largely because nobody's challenged them on it," he said.

No change in 10 years?! Wow, quite the conservative institution. Can you imagine sticking with one idea for all of ten years?

How does an organization progress if their beliefs are so set in stone? I mean, no idea or philosophy lasts a whole ten years!

Yet McLee said painting the black church as an anti-gay institution obscures the larger issue of the struggles around homosexuality in all denominations. "I think firstly it's wrongheaded to label this a black church problem. The homosexual and faith question is a church problem. The white church has struggled with it, the Jewish faith community has struggled with it, the Latino church has struggled with it," said McLee. He pointed out that many white evangelicals have been just as vocal in opposing gay inclusion in churches.

Actually, the struggle for many churches has been minimal. Those that hewed to Scripture had no trouble whatsoever. The troubles started when they dropped two thousand year old teachings in favour of ideas that are on the order of ten years old or so.

Go the original article and do a search on "Jesus", "God", "Bible", "Scripture" -- you won't find those words in the main article. In fact, there is nothing whatsoever in the main article about what these churches believe in, or the roots of those beliefs in what is called the truth of revelation. God reveals His truths, and if you believe, you accept them, even if they seem at odds with prevailing human attitudes.

Remember what I said about which churches struggled? The ones which tossed revelation underwent massive pain (the Episcopalians, the United Church).

To the people who wrote this article, to the people who run this paper, to the activists featured in it, a church is a country club. The rules that guide it are infinitely malleable and can be changed if only enough pressure is brought to bear on the people who run it. Because it's people who run the church, after all, not God or Jesus or whatever. Then once you're in, you can do as you please, demand full access to any and all the trappings of faith that make you feel good. You can insist that everyone accept you and your words and actions, regardless of whether they are at odds with the rules, because in fact, there are no rules, except the ones you choose to follow or introduce.

And don't bring up God or the Bible -- since when do those things matter when you're trying to decide about right and wrong? The only criteria for deciding right and wrong is how it makes you feel. Anything that makes you feel bad about yourself, or guilty, is clearly wrong.

The only rule is that there are no rules, and anyone who insists that there are rules will be hounded into leaving, because rules have no place in a church, at least not when these people want to be members.

Bill Clinton's General, Wesley Clark, is stuck on stupid

This guy was a general in the US Army?

Gen. Wesley Clark looked very much like a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination during last night's Fredericksburg Forum.

Clark, an early front-runner in the 2004 Democratic race, ultimately lost the nomination to John Kerry. But at the University of Mary Washington event, he sounded like he was already back on the stump as he slammed George W. Bush, saying the president lacks a real foreign policy in Iraq and beyond--even in his second term.

"We've got to very quickly take the military out of the lead role in every action we take around the world," Clark told the forum crowd at UMW's Dodd Auditorium. "Our military's overstretched and overcommitted right now.

I'm curious which country he thinks should take over the lead role in military actions in which the US continues to be involved? France? Germany? Canada? Mainland China?

And by lead role, I assume he wants generals from these other countries to be giving orders, setting strategies, and deploying American units.

The right strategy, according to Wesley Clark, is to convert to Islam in order to become credible to young Arabs confused by their religion:

"And there's only so much our country can accomplish by killing people," he said to the cheers of some in the audience.

"We've got to go beyond that," Clark said. "We've got to put in place a real strategy for fighting and winning the war on terror, and that starts with the ideology. We've got to change people's minds."

He said America must persuade young Arabs by appealing to their faith. "We have to convince them that the Quran doesn't call for the killing of innocent people."

You see, he problem with his idea is that these young Arabs are not going to listen to the son of a Reform Jew who grew up as a Baptist then converted to Catholicism when he tries to convince them they are reading the Quran wrong.

Pitching this idea is what a real general would call being "stuck on stupid".

[Evidence that another bastion of liberal silliness, the New York Times, has become less stuck on stupid.]

Harold Pinter and what it takes to win a Nobel Prize

For the Nobel Prize in Literature, apparently impeccable leftie politics and a pottie mouth.

Cindy Sheehan -- Putting family "above all things"

Cindy Sheehan gives us a lecture on family values. But her family is suffering because Cindy Sheehan has, for some reason, neglected to have a headstone placed at Casey Sheehan's grave.

[Apparently, she can afford a brand new car.]

Best of the Blogs

From the print edition of the Toronto Sun, in the "Best of the Blogs", page 21:

WHAT'S HOT AND ON THE WEB

Not just black and white

Angry in the Great White North (angrygwn.mu.nu) offers an analysis of a proposal by the black community leaders for a separate, black justice system:

I can only imagine the frustration within this community to suggest these changes in the justice system. But I don't think they've thought it through...

You can't expect the population at large to be colour-blind...If we are going to be treating blacks differently inside the justice system, we're going to be treating them differently outside the justice system.

Tax Cuts? What tax cuts?

At Let It Bleed (letitbleed.blogs.com), Bob Tarantino laments the Liberal's new vote buying scheme to give taxpayers a part of the federal surplus in the form of rebate cheques and the Toronto Star's sad take on it:

The Toronto Star is extremely upset about Liberal plans for budget surpluses...(Quote from the Star's editorial; "While it may have some appeal for those who love American-style tax cuts, this bill is a bad idea that will handcuff government in how it spends unexpected surpluses and further aggravate federal-provincial relations.")

You gotta love the fact that the Star's ability to discuss financial matters is so atrophied that they liken a tax refund coupled with increased program spending and debt reduction to "American-style tax cuts". If only.

Here are the full blog entries:

• Justice in Ontario -- Blind, but not if you're black from Angry in the Great White North


• offensive for him to enshrine his pandering into law from Let It Bleed

USS Cole Remembered

Speaking of milblogging, today is a noteworthy, if sad. anniversary:

Today is the fifth anniversary of the U.S.S. Cole bombing. Please take a moment to note the event on your blogs today if you have a chance. Stars and Stripes pays tribute to the 17 sailors killed in the terrorist attack, the dozens wounded, the survivors, and the families affected.

For those who need reminding:

On October 12, 2000, USS Cole came to the harbor of Aden, Yemen for a routine fuel stop. Cole completed mooring at 09:30. Refueling started at 10:30. At 11:18 local time (08:18 UTC), a small craft approached the port side of the destroyer, and an explosion occurred, putting a 40-by-40-foot (12 m-by-12 m) gash in the ship's port side. The crew fought flooding in the engineering spaces and had the damage under control by the evening. Divers inspected the hull and said the keel was not damaged.

Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 others were injured in the blast. The injured sailors were taken to the United States Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near Ramstein, Germany, and later to the U.S.

The attack, organized by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization, was carried out by suicide bombers Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa.

I'd like to note this aspect of the USS Cole bombing:

One of the 2000 millennium attack plots, the attempted bombing of USS The Sullivans, is widely seen as a trial run of the Cole bombing. This attack failed when the bombers' boat, overloaded with explosives, began to sink.

Why does this particular element interest me? Because the 2000 millennium attack plot was the centerpiece of the Sandy Berger scandal:

Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, admitted in federal court that he deliberately took classified documents out of the National Archives and destroyed some of them at his office.

Rather than the "honest mistake" he described last summer, Berger told Robinson that he intentionally took and deliberately destroyed three copies of the same document dealing with terror threats during the 2000 millennium celebration. He then lied about it to Archives staff when they told him documents were missing.

Robinson did not ask Berger why he cut up the materials and threw them away at the Washington office of his Stonebridge International consulting firm. Berger, accompanied by his wife, Susan, did not offer an explanation when he spoke to reporters outside the federal courthouse.

"It was a mistake and it was wrong," he said, refusing to answer questions.

So we'll never really know what it was that Berger was trying to hide. He paid a ridiculously low price for a crime the scope of which we still don't really understand:

A judge on Thursday ordered Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, to pay a $50,000 fine for illegally taking classified documents from the National Archives.

The punishment handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson exceeded the $10,000 fine recommended by government lawyers. Under the deal, Berger avoids prison time but he must surrender access to classified government materials for three years.

"The court finds the fine is inadequate because it doesn't reflect the seriousness of the offense," Robinson said, as a grim-faced Berger stood silently.

Any link to the USS Cole, besides the tenuous connection to the attempted attack on the USS The Sullivans? We know Berger was deliberately hiding something, and was willing to risk jail and a hefty fine to keep it a secret.

Why? My guess is to keep Hillary's chances alive.

Like many figures in the Clinton White House, I guess he'll just get away with it. And that's the system those 17 sailors died protecting. It's a shame, really.

So which is it? Army or Navy

Noticed this interesting entry in Sitemeter:

Domain Name: army.mil (Military)
IP Address: 147.240.236.# (Naval Ocean Systems Center)
ISP: Naval Ocean Systems Center

So why is "army.mil" being serviced through the Naval Ocean Systems Center ISP? Just wondering.

Why this flag won't fly

The Newfoundland Tricolour has been raised!

But there is a fundamental reason why this flag won't fly in today's Canada.

Taxing the Church -- Why it's a bad idea...for the State

In my post about Slinger's suggestion about how to deal the Catholic Church with the audacity to enforce her own rules within the walls of her own churches, I focused on how the attitude Slinger exhibits essentially puts politicians, and by extension, the State, above both the Church and above the people, answerable to no one.

To me that seems to be such an obviously bad idea that I thought the discussion could end there.

I didn't discuss the issue of Slinger's proposed punishment -- taxation. To me, it is so clearly a bad idea that I thought I could pass over it without comment. But from the comments people have left on the blog (from both those who support Slinger and those who don't), I get the feeling that just about everybody seems to misunderstand what the purpose of a tax exemption for the Church actually is.

The State is not doing the Church a favour by granting tax exempt status. It's the other way around. The Church is doing the State a favour by accepting it.

The clueless artistic elite

Any writer who works in the cluelessness of the artisitic elite deserves to be read. So go read! Or are you waiting for some CBC hack to read it for you on the air? Not going to happen:

In 2005, Canadian homes have access to hundreds of TV and radio stations, from all over the world (including private Canadian stations). Does it make sense to require citizens to pay for one they may not want, when they can choose to pay for others they do want? It is hard to see the CBC as a public service, least of all an essential one, in spite of the best efforts of some of Canada's artistic elite to peddle that notion. One wonders whether such people have a clue what things appear on the average Canadian's radar.

Salvation or a Bowl of Soup

Joey Slinger of the Toronto Star gets clever, pushing hard to put the Roman Catholic Church in her place. Why? For daring to decide who does and does not get communion.

Who the hell to these guys think they are?

Make the CBC a bastion of eco-communism

From the opinion pages of the Toronto Star:

Patrick Watson [former chairman of the CBC] has taken the recalcitrant bull by the horns in proposing a bold new start for public broadcasting in Canada, and demolishing the CBC in its present form. His ideas are breathtaking, a little scary, and I think deserving of a scorching, soul-searching public debate. They raise enormous questions, for media is the pulsing, breathing heart of our national culture, and CBC is its central artery.

Watson proposes, as I read him, the demolition of CBC as it now exists, to be replaced by a broadcaster that would cease competing with the private stations for advertising, ratings, Hollywood movies and major sports. Instead (and at a lower cost) the new entity would be quintessentially Canadian, seek out the best in regional drama, homegrown sports, even sitcoms, run frequent repeats of good stuff from other channels, and most importantly, offer what Watson calls "a constant, reasoned, informed and diligent challenge to power, and a questioning of the civic values promoted by commerce."

Questioning the civic values promoted by commerce? You mean getting the best value for the money?

I thought that was the whole problem with the CBC in the first place. But Watson suggests we need to question that "civic value" itself. Convenient for the CBC, I suppose.

Who is writing this anyway?

Douglas Leiterman is a former parliamentary correspondent and TV journalist. He and Watson co-produced This Hour Has Seven Days.

Another CBC hack. Explains that "CBC is its central artery" thing.

But to give Watson credit, he is thinking outside the box:

How is this desideratum to be accomplished? Here Watson takes a deeper plunge. Sell off the real estate, the broadcast centres (and no doubt the sprawling Ottawa head office), and put the whole shebang out for public tender. Invite bids from anyone — including, he suggests, the present CBC managers — to devise and build a broadcast service that would knit the country together and win back the viewers who have deserted CBC.

The subsequent portion of the opinion piece takes a look at the implications of this plan, and it has to be said that Leiterman brings up some excellent points.

But Leiterman shows his true colours at the end:

Watson has rendered a public service in proposing surgery for public broadcasting. It's astonishing that this man, who has devoted much of his creative life to vitalizing the CBC, can now contemplate its demolition. This underscores the need for reform and the urgency for government to take action.

Astonishing?

Surprise! Some people don't like the CBC!

But how to begin? Not more public hearings, that would be useless. Maybe a commission of vast experience ranging across the cultural and business mosaic. For argument, here's a shopping list of unconventional thinkers: Lloyd Axworthy, Margaret Atwood, Conrad Black, Adrienne Clarkson, Jean Chretien, Garth Drabinsky, Michael Ignatieff, Laurier Lapierre, Stephen Lewis, Peter Pearson, David Suzuki and of course, Watson.

Imagine what astonishing ideas such a consortium would produce.

Leiterman spends a lot of time being astonished, doesn't he?

Let's see, with the exception of Black and Drabinsky, you've got an excellent cross-section of the best that America-hating eco-communist Canada can offer. That's 10 out of 12. Of the two token conservatives, Conrad Black is busy with his own troubles with regards to Hollinger, and Garth Drabinsky, as far as I can tell, is still facing charges for accounting fraud in the United States and Canada resulting from the bankruptcy of Livent.

A consortium made up of two conservatives who probably won't even show up, and a bunch of lefties and hard-lefties. This is the group that's going to revolutionize the CBC?

Astonishing ideas? Let me guess: more government funding, more Canadian content, more funding for the arts, more preferential treatment when bidding for broadcast rights, more focus on environmentalism, more focus on socially progressive issues, more critical treatment of the United States, less focus on profitability, less focus on ratings, less focus on government scandal. Yeah, that's astonishing.

People who watch the BBC are nutty

From the BBC:

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has topped a BBC poll to find the person most people would like to lead a fantasy world government.

More than 15,000 people worldwide took part in the interactive Power Play game, in which players were invited to choose a team of 11 to run the world from a list of around 100 of the most powerful leaders, thinkers and other high-profile people on the planet.

Users were required to pick at least one each from a select list of leaders, thinkers and economists, and had a free choice of any other eight, including the option of selecting "wild cards" from areas such as sport, politics, arts and design.

The second choice was former US President Bill Clinton.

Here's the list:

1 - Nelson Mandela
2 - Bill Clinton
3 - Dalai Lama
4 - Noam Chomsky
5 - Alan Greenspan
6 - Bill Gates
7 - Steve Jobs
8 - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
9 - Richard Branson
10 - George Soros
11 - Kofi Annan

Chomsky? Soros? Annan?!!

Serving politicians were generally absent from the winning list. British Prime Minister Tony Blair narrowly missed out, coming 12th.

US President George W Bush was placed 43, ranking below two of his fiercest adversaries on the world stage, Fidel Castro - 36th - and Hugo Chavez, 33rd.

On the other hand, Bono came in at 14th, followed by Michael Moore at 15th.

Are these people on to something? Am I being too quick to dismiss this? Have I misjudged these potential leaders?

No! And why do I know this?

Because Osama bin Laden came in at 70th out of 100. How did he earn even a single vote?! Clearly the people playing this game are all nutters.

I'm fed up with engineering

Engineering is headed to the scrap heap as a profession in Ontario. Why? Because people are forgetting that engineering is about being scientifically right, not about about being politically correct.

Catholic Carnival #19

The Catholic Carnival #19 is up at Living Catholicism.

Newsflash: Norway surrenders to al Qaeda

Norway has preemptively surrendered to Islamic terrorists.

Preemptive surrender? It just like George W Bush's doctrine of "preemptive war". But where preemptive war means to take action against an enemy before a massive terror attack, preemptive surrender is to guess what an attacker would do if that attacker was victorious in a war, and do that thing in the hope that the attacker would forego attacking altogether.

Just a wordy way of saying "cheese-eating surrender monkey".

"7 Myths About Islam" -- from the History News Network

Read the whole article. To entice you, here is the countdown:

• First, it is untrue that Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion.


• Second, despite the claims of even President Bush in a number of public statements, Islam is not solely a "religion of peace."


• Third on the misinformation parade is the allegation that jihad does not mean holy war.


• Fourth is the whopper that Islam spread peacefully from Arabia.


• The fifth tiresome myth is that the European Catholic Crusaders started the war with Islam.


• Another fairy tale about Islam is that poverty produces terrorists.


• And finally, we have politically-correct mendacity number seven, which even British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently repeated: that Islam has been “hijacked” by terrorists.

Just setting the record straight.

Justice in Ontario -- Blind, but not if you're black

A recommendation is being floated by "community leaders" to make excuses for people charged with crimes, based on their race.

Of course, we all know what that means. It means "black".

Canada's JTF2 -- Gets a lot of favours, which is worrying

Joint Task Force 2, the ultra-secret commando unit based in Ottawa, is getting all sorts of shiny new toys.

Not the regular troops though, serving in Afghanistan, who continue to make-do and borrow from allies in the theatre.

The Opposition is complaining about the double standard. But I found elements of this story disturbing on a much deeper level.

Cindy Sheehan to receive $238,000 any day now

Remember impoverished Cindy Sheehan?

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan recently signed on with a speakers' bureau, and her appearance on the lecture circuit drew mixed reaction Tuesday night, especially from her younger supporters at the University of Maryland.

Sheehan previously told Cybercast News Service that she was not taking money from organizations like MoveOn.org or private financiers like George Soros but that her recent 51-city bus tour was funded by "grassroots fundraising."

She said her contract with Speaking Matters, which has not yet disclosed how much a Sheehan appearance will cost, will help her "finally make some money ...'cause Casey's insurance money's going to run out pretty soon.' "

Well, here's the full skinny on the insurance:

The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief Act 2005 (Public Law 109-13) increases this immediate cash payment from $12,420 to $100,000 for survivors of those whose death is as a result of hostile actions and occurred in a designated combat operation or combat zone or while training for combat or performing hazardous duty.

The supplemental also increases the maximum amount of SGLI coverage from $250,000 to $400,000 for all service members effective Sept. 1, 2005 and provides that the department will pay or reimburse the premiums to service members, who are deployed in a designated combat zone for $150,000 of SGLI coverage.

So $150,000 for the insurance policy, $88,000 for the death gratuity, and a reimbursement of premiums. I've been told the cheque could arrive any day now, if she doesn't already have it.

Corrected the sum in the title. Linked at the Weekend Edition.

Lucien Bouchard -- Making excuses?

From the CBC:

Former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard says he arrived late and wasn't ready for the 1995 Quebec sovereignty campaign in which in played a key leadership role, and which his side nearly won.

In an interview with the Montreal newspaper La Presse, Bouchard said he got directly involved only three weeks before the Oct. 30, 1995, vote when the campaign for the Yes side was flagging.

"I got involved without being prepared", Bouchard told La Presse.

Jacque [sic] Parizeau was the premier of Quebec at the time and the leader of the Yes campaign. But the charismatic Bouchard, leader of the Bloc Quebecois in Ottawa, was brought in by sovereigntist strategists to bolster the campaign.

"I landed there when there were three weeks left. I didn't have any speeches. And away I went".

I'd be interested in more detail about where he felt unprepared. Clearly he had long since come to the conclusion to vote for separation. He had founded the federal Bloc Quebecois, so in terms of political connections with the provincial Parti Quebecois party machinery, that must have been in place.

He mentions speeches specifically. I suppose crafting new speeches is not a straightforward exercise, but he must have had staff to help him do that. Speeches that were going to be delivered by the now-sidelined Jacques Parizeau could have been the starting point for a re-cast speech -- the heavy lifting had been done, now it was just a matter of Bouchardification.

I'm not saying he's not telling the truth. If he says he was unprepared, I'll take him at his word. But at first glance, I'm puzzled by what exactly required so much preparation in a campaign in which he was already deeply involved from the beginning that moving to the new position as key leader (which he already was anyway, just not the key leader) would have caused him to be caught flat-footed.

The more cynical part of me wonders if he is trying to inject an excuse into the history books. The referendum was lost because they came to him too late. If only he had a week or two longer...

Belinda Stronach: Eager for the rest of us to get studying

When Belinda Stronach goes on about post-secondary education, I just want to retch:

Human Resources Minister Belinda Stronach confirmed yesterday that the government is looking at various ways it can bolster spending for advanced education, including cash grants for low-income Canadians. She cited several other options, including the expansion of a federally funded program that helps pay tuition for low-income students, offers money for research and international education, and provides more resources for skills development.

One option not suggested for making the post-secondary dollar go farther was to reduce the number of students in the system by having as many as possible drop out without having completed even one year of education, and then be catapulted into the position of CEO of a billion-dollar automotive parts concern by their parents.

I guess that sort of thing doesn't happen all too often. In fact, what are the odds of such a person, having scoffed at a post-secondary education as being pointless, believing that money is more important than learning, ever being in a position of making decisions on post-secondary education for the rest of us?

"I would like to see that we engage Canadians and that we elevate the level of debate around the issue of education to the same level that health care has had," Ms. Stronach said. "It's so important to future competitiveness and for securing investment in this country."

Not that important to Belinda Stronach, obviously.

Recall the Belinda timeline:

1966: Belinda Stronach is born.

1985: Drops out of York University's business school after one year.

1988: Becomes a member of the board of directors of Magna International, the auto-parts giant started by her father.

I'm not skipping anything. That's her timeline as reported. Born. Drops out. Board of Directors at daddy's company.

I could be wrong, though. Maybe she really does believe that having more people work hard and study and suffer through the stress of tests and exams and achieve success with their post-secondary education is important to the future of Canada.

So the rest of us had better get going on that right away. If we don't, Canada's ability to secure investment will be at risk, and that might put her fortune at risk.

Ms. Stronach, who has been involved in talks with several educational leaders, noted that a number of departments are involved in the initiative. She said one of the key concerns is access to postsecondary education, noting that students from low-income families are only half as likely to attend university as those from high-income families.

And students from the highest income families are not likely to go at all. They'll depend on the all the others to do the heavy lifting required to keep Canada economically viable and so keep their fortunes safe.

At least that's the example that Belinda Stronach is setting for us. If Canada were a lifeboat, and it was overloaded by one too many people, and we had to toss out the most useless person...

Ramadan Watch 2005 -- New York

Ramadan Watch 2005 continues. From the New York Daily News:

A terrorist plot to attack the subways with bomb-laden baby carriages and briefcases - the most specific threat ever made against the city - triggered a massive security crackdown yesterday.

Details of the chilling scheme came from an informant, but officials kept it secret for three days while suspects were rounded up in Iraq and security was quietly ramped up here, sources said.

The first thing that came to my head was that I hope New York's Finest don't satisfy themselves to check if the stroller being pushed by the surly young male actually has a baby in it.

When it comes to dealing with Islamic terrorists, that would not at all guarantee that there wasn't a bomb in the stroller as well. Using kidnapped babies as a smokescreen is the next logical step, after all, after kidnapping people with mental handicaps to use as bomb carriers.

[More at Michelle Malkin]

The post that got yanked

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I posted a story about Cindy Sheehan's visit home, and now it's gone. It was in draft mode when I realized I had gotten the key fact backwards and then deleted the draft. In fact, though, I hadn't deleted it, but posted it instead. I noticed 30 seconds later, and deleted it immediately, without thinking.

I regret that, because in that 30 seconds, it might have gotten onto my RSS feed. If it has, or if you saw the story during the short time it was up, I apologize.

First, the article in question got the facts right. Patrick Sheehan lives in Vacaville with the kids, and Cindy Sheehan is now living in Berkeley, about a five hour a forty minute** drive away. In my first (and second and third) read, I thought the article had gotten it backwards, and that was the gist of my post. On my fourth read, I saw my error and tried to kill the draft.

Second, I should not have deleted the story after it had made it to the blog, but rather corrected it. For a moment I thought I had time to remove the story from the blog as I had originally intended, but in retrospect, I shouldn't have even tried.

So this stands as the correction. Apologies to you, my readers, and to the Associated Press. And maybe a quick email to Moveable Type to implement a "Confirm" inquiry prior to committing posts to the blog.

Cheers everyone!

[** Double-checked with Mapblast and made the correction. Thanks to reader Not a Yank. I had done a check with Mapblast earlier, and must have mistyped one of the points of the trip. Not ever having been to California, I didn't know the value was unreasonable.]

Are Canadian bloggers pussies?

Read this article coming out in Maisonneuve and decide for yourself.

(free registration required)

[Michelle Malkin looks at American examples of bloggers being mistreated by their main-stream media]

Al Gore's "Marketplace of Ideas"

Former Vice President Al Gore delivered a speech in which he reveals where true power lies.

Weapons? No.

The truth? No.

Faith? No.

Apparently, it's full motion video.

If it weren't for TV and its constant moving images, American democracy would be much healthier (which is code for "Democrats would be in power"). I think his analysis is flawed though. But in the marketplace of ideas (which he misses so much), I invite you to decide which of us is right.

Gas price relief in sight -- if you're an MP

Is it fair for MPs to be expected to pay for the increase in gas prices, given that travel is part of the job?

Hell yeah!

Teen jihadists and polygamy

From the World Tribune:

The U.S. military has encountered a new type of Sunni insurgent — a largely untrained teenage foreigner. Many such insurgents come from Saudi Arabia and Yemen as well as from such North African states as Algeria and Libya.

One thing people rarely connect is the relationship between countries where polygamy is legal (Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Libya, and Yemen all happen to be places where polygamy is legal) and the recruitment of young teen boys as soldiers.

As the pool of women is reduced, even slightly, by the practise of polygamy, the number of teen boys who see no future in raising a family look for other ways to attain immortality. If not children, then what?

Remember too that in these countries, the imbalance is exacerbated by selective infanticide and honour killings, which erode further at the pool of eligible brides. The widespread practise of cousin marriage (in Saudi Arabia, 60% of marriages are between first or second cousins) does not eliminate the number of eligible women per se, but custom requires the women to be segregated (head-to-toe burkas in public, otherwise restricted to the home) in order to ensure that this pool of eligible women is available exclusively to the boys in the family. For boys born into families with few female relatives, the world outside is almost devoid of women, most being jealously guarded by other families to be mates for their sons.

So you get a lot of angry and frustrated single men with no prospects for marriage. And it's off to Iraq with them. Apparently, for most it is a short trip:

"The very interesting thing is that the younger foreign fighter that we're seeing now — very poorly trained," said Col. Robert Brown, commander of the U.S. Army 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. "We would call them more like RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] for hire."

"We did face well-trained foreign fighters prior to January elections," Brown said. "We have not faced well-trained foreign fighters since. Since February of this year until now, we have not seen any well-trained, in fact, very poorly trained foreign fighters. So whoever was training them before, I don't know, but apparently they've lost their support and they're not able to train them."

Simple advice for celebrities

From the Sun:

BRITNEY Spears and Kevin Federline reportedly fear a steamy home video is about to be made public.

A member of the singer’s entourage is believed to have copied one of the couple’s personal video tapes – allegedly recorded while Britney was still expecting baby son Sean Preston – and is threatening to release it.

If you don't want this to happen, then...

Suddenly in Canada traditional marriage is important again

Well, important for non-Canadians.

If you are already in the country, marriage means whatever you want it to mean thanks to Svend Robinson and the Liberal government in Ottawa. But beware if you are trying to enter the country. Then if you haven't done every last bit of the marriage ceremony to the most conservative and strict interpretation, then go back home!

We don't need your kind here. Only people who take marriage seriously are allowed to enter Canada.

We have standards to maintain, doncha know.

For Sale: Two tickets for the Rapture

The Roman Catholic Church continues to set the record straight on what constitutes Catholic teaching.

In this case, the obvious statement that you can't take everything in the Bible at face value. You'd think this would be obvious, but apparently some people need to be told.

Rick Mercer vs Atomic Betty

Rick Mercer is fearful of going up against this girl without the CBC and our tax dollars to prop him up.

Cindy Sheehan provides a long overdue correction, but it's another lie

Apparently when Cindy Sheehan said "this country was not worth dying for", she was talking about Iraq.

She made that remark on April 27. This "correction" is being provided on October 4. A span of 5 months. Why so long?

Maybe she was hoping no one would remember the context of her original statement.

Sorry to disappoint, but I remember.

Is Cindy Sheehan lying about the insurance money and her "no taxes" pledge?

Cindy Sheehan is out of money, and so is compelled to start making paid appearances. Or so she claims.

Problem is, according to what I've found out, she's got at least another tax-free $150,000 payment coming to her this month.

In fact, all the money she claims to have received and spent in 2004 was tax-free, courtesy of the US Department of Defense, making her "I'm not paying taxes!" pledge a bit of theatrical nonsense.

[Is Cindy Sheehan lying again? Read the latest and decide for yourself.]

Donald Sutherland, George W Bush, Adolf Hitler, and stupid things to say

Donald Sutherland blubbers:

Choking back tears, "Commander-in-Chief" star Donald Sutherland warned this week: President Bush "will destroy our lives!"

The star of the new ABC drama, which follows the first woman President of the United States, lashed out at the real White House during a dramatic sit down interview with the BBC.

Sutherland ripped Bush and his administration for the war and Hurricane Katrina fallout.

"They were inept. They were inadequate to the task, and they lied," Sutherland charged.

"And they were insulting, and they were vindictive. And they were heartless. They did not care. They do not care. They do not care about Iraqi people. They do not care about the families of dead soldiers. They only care about profit."

At one point during the session, Sutherland started crying: "We('ve) stolen our children's future... We have children. We have children. How dare we take their legacy from them. How dare we. It's shameful. What we are doing to our world."

Sutherland went on rip Karl Rove's "methods and means" against people like Cindy Sheehan.

"We're back to burning books in Germany," Sutherland said of NBC's editing out of Kanye West's comment on Bush during a hurricane relief telethon.

I guess Sutherland is angling for an ambassadorial posting.

And did Donald Sutherland just compare Bob Wright with Adolf Hitler**?

Editing out Kanye West babbling "George Bush doesn't care about black people" is the same as Nazi book burning? Does that mean Kanye West is our generation's answer to H.G. Wells?

Seems like stupid things to say.

I guess a Canadian education is not all that superior to an American education after all.

** It should be mentioned that this is a refreshing change from comparing George W Bush with Adolf Hitler.

The Church hammer is coming down

The Roman Catholic Church is moving to make consistent her treatment of Catholic politicians. Fireworks might be in the future.

Good news from New Orleans

Looks like the dire predictions of doomsayers and environtmental alarmists are not coming true:

Pumps set up by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been working 24/7 for weeks to remove the flood waters from New Orleans' streets left in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now the job is close to completion.

Before Hurricane Rita passed, the pumps had cleared most of the flood water from Hurricane Katrina and only 10 percent of the city was still affected. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina on August 30 the hurricane levees surrounding New Orleans were breached in nine places, allowing water from Lake Pontchartrain to enter the city streets.

What about Hurricane Rita?

After Hurricane Rita dumped more rain on the flooded city on September 24, engineers redoubled their efforts and have planned to have East New Orleans dry by today, rather than the October 8 date earlier projected.

And the deadly bacteria?

As the floodwater recedes in New Orleans, scientists have been testing it and the mud it leaves behind. So far, results of the testing in New Orleans are encouraging, according to Jerry Fenner, who's leading a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team that is assessing the city's environmental health risks.

Fenner said that while concern has focused on bacteria in New Orleans' sewage contaminated floodwaters, they cannot survive long once the water is pumped away.

And the toxic soup?

Carlton Dufrechou, director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said there is no "toxic soup" in Lake Pontchartrain. The lake can recover from the damage caused by bacteria, toxins, pesticides and metals being pumped out of the city into the lake, state environmental officials said last week at a briefing on the lake's status.

Al Hindrichs, water quality coordinator for the Louisiana Environmental Quality Department, said most damage so far seemed to come from the hurricane itself, rather than from the floodwaters being pumped out of New Orleans. The biggest hits to the lake seem confined to the shore areas, officials said. Fish kills were found on the north shore because of low oxygen levels, not toxins or oils, Hindrichs said.

The situation is still precarious, and more testing will be required. More work to bring the drinking water facilities back online, though even most of those are working right now:

In Mississippi, there are a total of 1,368 drinking water facilities that served some 3.2 million people. EPA has determined that 1,253 of these facilities are operational, 79 are operating on a boil water notice and 36 are inoperable. It should be noted that operational facilities may still be in need of repair or reconstruction. EPA's Water program is continuing to assess all drinking water plants in the affected area.

In the Louisiana affected area, there are a total of 173 public owned wastewater treatment Works. As of Thursday, the EPA determined that 140 of these facilities are operational and 33 facilities are either not operating or their status is unknown.

Sounds like New Orleans and the rest of the region is going to get back on its feet. Even the death toll seems far less than feared.

From September 1:

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco gave the grim news that "thousands" of people died in the hurricane and its aftermath in New Orleans and surrounding parishes, though she said no official count had been compiled.

Brown said those who ignored the city's mandatory evacuation order bore some responsibility.

"I think the death toll may go into the thousands and, unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," he told CNN.

From September 21:

The number of deaths in Louisiana blamed on Hurricane Katrina has risen to 799, the state's Department of Health and Hospitals said Wednesday, bringing the overall death toll to 1,033.

Mississippi reports 219 people killed in the storm, Florida's toll is 11 dead and Alabama and Georgia each report 2 killed.

The death toll is still being worked out -- there may be many that might never be found. Still, everything is trending in the right direction.

Ramadan Watch 2005

Tomorrow, October 4, marks the start of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic year, and a period of fasting for practicing Muslims. It will run until November 2 (one lunar month), ending with the holiday of Eid ul-Fitr.

The question is whether Islamic terrorists have planned to make Ramadan a memorable one this year. Year after year, the chatter tends to go up, but generally Ramadan has been uneventful (or at least not extraordinary). With the Bali bombings on the weekend, though, one wonders if this year is going to be different.

John Roberts and Anna Nicole Smith

From the Independent:

It's not every day the Supreme Court of the United States takes an interest in ageing pin-up models with artificially enhanced breasts and a claim to hundreds of millions of dollars from one of Texas's most extensive family oil fortunes.

That, in itself, might explain why the eight justices - soon to be joined by their new chief, John Roberts - have decided to take up the case of Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy centrefold turned trash-TV reality star, and her decade-long pursuit of the estate left by her improbable husband, the geriatric oil tycoon J Howard Marshall II of Koch Industries.

Anna Nicole Smith appearing before the US Supreme Court?

Which leaves one thing that needs to be said:

The tale of Svend Robinson:On

The tale of Svend Robinson:

On April 15, 2004, Robinson admitted to the theft of a piece of jewelry valued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at $Cdn 21,500. He claimed the theft was stress-related. He announced that he was going on a medical leave of absence and was stepping aside as a nominated candidate in the 2004 federal election. He turned himself in to police on April 14, and was formally charged with one count of theft over $5,000 on June 21. On August 6, he pled guilty, and was given a conditional discharge. He was sentenced to a year's probation and 100 hours of community service, but will not have a criminal record, a sentence the Crown described as "appropriate."

You'd think that was the end:

Part of him dreads what's ahead because he knows how cruel and vicious politics can be. He knows, too, that over the years he has become a larger target than most, and those who delighted in his spectacular fall last year will want to make any comeback as difficult as possible.

Still, it's sounding more and more likely that Svend Robinson will do it, will run again in the next federal election.

"I'm pretty close," Mr. Robinson said in an interview. "It would take something pretty significant for me not to go ahead now. And I just don't see what that would be."

Pretty significant? I guess theft over $5,000 is child's play. A ring worth twenty grand? Come on...we need something significant!

Dave Dingwall gets in hot water over lobbyists fees that were against the rules. But he finally loses his job over expenses he submitted as president of the Mint. He spends some money, keeps the receipt, fill out a form, signs it with his name, submits it to another employee who reviews it and approves it.

He loses his job.

Svend Robinson steals a ring worth twenty grand, sneaks away and hides out for a week, then turns himself in before the cops arrest him, whines and cries on TV, is charged and prosecuted.

He is set for a comeback to the public trough.

Maybe it's a gay thing. Maybe the rules are different. They get more sympathy.

I bet if Ralph Goodale or Monte Solberg took the ring, they'd be facing harsher treatment.

Funny thing is, I'm probably skirting close to getting charged for making that comment under Canada's draconian hate crime laws, laws we have thanks in part to Svend Robinson.

Time for a new ambassador

When the senior diplomat is incapable of acting, well, diplomatic, it's time for a new diplomat.

Maybe I didn't put that very diplomatically, but Frank McKenna doesn't deserve the effort.

Angry in the Great White North by Steve Janke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. Based on a work at stevejanke.com.