Monthly Archive: October 2006

Liberal Party leadership candidate Bob Rae got into some hot water when it was revealed that he had supported NDP candidates as recently as the last federal election. Irony of ironies, the Liberal candidate who lost to the one of Bob Rae's favoured NDP candidates is now running for the Liberals in the by-election just called in London-North-Centre.

Just how uncomfortable is that?

The Securities Act, which defines the powers of the Ontario Securities Commission, is undergoing changes because of Bill 151, the Ontario provincial budget bill (An Act to enact various 2006 Budget measures and to enact, amend or repeal various Acts). One of those changes pulls the curtain away that until now hid the true relationship between the OSC and the elected government at Queen's Park.

We now know who is in charge. Here's a hint -- it's not anyone you voted for.

You'll only laugh if you've ever watched Mike Holmes on Holmes on Homes.

At the Gizmo Cafe, a story about how major computer and console gaming companies are bundling spyware with their games in order to target ain-game advertising. Actually, the game is the spyware.

Father Raymond Gravel, a controversial Roman Catholic priest in Quebec, is running for Bloc Quebecois.

To me, the fact that this guy is still a priest is more newsworthy than the fact that he's running for elected office.

Update: Maybe this makes sense after all.

Update: Or maybe Gravel is just a liar.

The Toronto Police issued an alert concerning the disappearance of Eva Ho, pictured below. Eva was last seen on August 14, but the alert was issued two months later.

A friend of Eva's has contacted me, and has provided more details concerning the circumstances of her disappearance.

Joe Volpe has only two days left before he is ejected from the Liberal leadership race. Can he come up with the $20,000 before then, or will he toss in the towel?

Or is this just the calm before the storm?

If the police have who they believe to be Yasmin Ashareh's murderer under arrest, then why are they still canvasing the neighbourhood in which she lived?

A soldier in the Canadian Forces, Harold Kinney, aka Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh, is taking the army to court, demanding that he no longer be forced to salute the Queen, as it runs counter to his political beliefs.

Strange, eh? Maybe not. Look at what we know about his life, and an explanation suggests itself.

I've confirmed with a Toronto Star reporter that Awad Ashareh is indeed Yasmin Ashareh's father. Yasmin Ashareh is the young woman found with her throat cut in the west end of Toronto this past summer. She lived alone in a rooming house, working as a cashier in a local grocery store. Her family is from Somalia, and for some time ago I began to wonder if her father was Awad Ashareh, an important MP in the Somali government and a conservative Islamic cleric who was once the Minister for Religious Affairs in the Somali province of Puntland.

I found a few people who asserted that this was the case, but today I have received confirmation.

Recently I wrote about a press release that showed how the Ontario Securities Commission was caught helping the Toronto Stock Exchange out of a jam by retroactively changing rules. This was in relation to an action taken against Northern Securities.

Though it was clear from the press release what was going on, I really didn't have any background on the litigation itself, nor did I have a view of the bigger picture. Terry Corcoran at the National Post knows all about this stuff, though, and he's written a column in today's paper on this very case. It's worth reading to help understand the true scope of the issue that I tried to explain.

Clearly, the OSC is in need of oversight. The lawyers and judges on its Board of Commissioners are simply not performing that role.

Liberal Party leadership candidate Stephane Dion gives an interview, and puts on quite the show. The thing is, when he's trying to look all deep and introspective, he's really recycling old speeches. But here's the real deal. I'm willing to bet the whole Q&A was a big setup, worked out ahead of time to give Dion a chance to look clever.

I'm not sure who is more pathetic -- Dion for trying to pull this off, or his fans for falling for it.

I've added some thoughts about the nature of propaganda and the new media.

Warren Kinsella delivers a proposition to Madonna. And it makes me think about adoptions, including my own.

Arthur C Pigou was a British economist who espoused the idea that the role of government was to use taxation as a tool of social control. Tax things you don't want people to do, and subsidize actions you want them to do.

Like taxing the heck out of cigarettes, I suppose. Not that high taxes have eliminated smoking.

Heavy levels of taxation is a Canadian tradition. But Terence Corcoran of the Financial Post is fighting the application of Pigou's theories to gasoline consumption, and is using a blog, the NoPigou Club, to do it.

I encourage you to visit it, read the articles, and kick in your two cents. Unless you want to pay $2.50 a liter for gas, of course.

Six years ago, people were talking up the idea of merging the Ontario Securities Commission and the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. The idea has long since been shelved, if not quite officially, but the OSC has maintained a special account with $12 million in it to use on the day that they take over credit unions, loan and trust companies, pension funds, and insurance brokers.

When you reach the age of six or so, you learn to respect the rules of the game. Before that, kids make up the rules as they go along, usually in response to losing circumstances. In kids, it's cute. But when adults do it, it's sort of pathetic.

This was what first came to mind when I read about the Ontario Securities Commission trying to win a fight with Northern Securities by changing the rules, retroactively.

Pathetic.

But as I thought about it, I came to think that this is a lot more serious than just a silly attempt to win a case no one is paying attention to.

If Peter MacKay called Belinda Stronach a dog in the House of Commons, he should apologize to his boss.

Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government in Ontario has tabled a budget. But hidden in the bill, known as Bill 151, is a change to how the Canadian Public Accountability Board functions. That change to the powers of the CPAB, a creation of the Ontario Securites Commission, destroys any semblance of privacy, undermining our Charter rights against unreasonable search. I'm not sure who to be more angry with, the Ministry of Finance for writing such a bill, or the the Attorney General's office for not putting the brakes on it before it was tabled.

Updated: Added an addendum -- there is a line in the bill concerning CPAB in which the disclosure of information must occur even if the information is privileged. Expect the legal profession to get into the fight now that the government is trying to weaken the concept of privilege.

James Heath, a well-known spokesperson for the NDP and former communications director for the party and for Greenpeace, takes his fellow party members, Greenpeace, David Suzuki, and the rest of their lot to task for playing politics instead of giving credit where credit is due. Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have done more than the Liberals managed to do in 13 years on the environment, and yet Harper can't seem to do anything right. James Heath quite rightly points out that this refusal to recognize progress undermines environmentalists, both in their progress to achieving their goals, and in terms of their credibility.

The Progressive Conservatives have levelled a serious charge against Premier Dalton McGuinty -- staff members, using their offices and on government time, are working for the federal Liberal Party supporting the leadership campaign.

Are these guys ever going to learn?!

Courtesy of KAS Publicity, authors Cat Moy and Melanie Morgan were kind enough to answer a set of questions I posed to mark the launch of their book, American Mourning: The Intimate Story of Two Families Joined by War--Torn by Beliefs. When I was offered the opportunity, I decided to ask the obvious question:

An illegal land occupation by Natives from the Six Nations Reserve and the subsequent economic destruction of the town of Caledonia is no reason for Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government in Ontario to get excited. Instead, the occupation goes on for months and months while the businesses in Caledonia are reduced to depending on government handouts to stay afloat. On the other hand, the Natives put up a billboard advertising a smoke shop, and the Feds are called in, threats are made, and the message is sent out that no one is above the law.

I swear, when it comes to cigarettes, everyone just loses their minds.

Justice Minister Vic Toews has introduced legislation that would see people convicted of three violent crimes be designated dangerous offenders and go to jail for life. Jack Layton and the NDP are accusing Toews and the Conservatives of posturing. To me, it seems like they are fulfilling a promise. Posturing is when you say you will do something in the hope of earning some praise, but with no intention of following through with it. Sort of like what the NDP is doing in criticizing this bill.

Terence Corcoran takes another shot at the Ontario Securities Commission in his latest column in the National Post, this time focusing on the Frank Dunn case. He highlights the legal temper tantrum being thrown by the OSC at the thought of the courts trying to assure the legal rights of someone the OSC has targeted.

The Court Challenges Program is history, and good riddance. It was a tool for the Liberal Party, a way of using government money to pay private individuals to pursue the Liberal Party agenda. But special congratulations have to go to Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party. They could easily have declared that they were going to "fix" the CCP, and then used it to fund Conservative-friendly court challenges.

As a blogger, I am acutely aware that what I write is ephemeral. It exists only on the web, to be read and then forgotten by the the modest readership I have gathered, to whom, of course, I am always grateful. But I'm not a product of the digital age. I was raised on books, and to me, unless it appears on a book on a library shelf, it will be lost to time, and probably very quickly. The printed page -- and I mean printed on paper -- is the only real way to preserve information for the future.

So it is with that in mind that I am both excited and humbled to see my name in print in a real, honest-to-goodness book. I'm sure it sounds silly to you, but for me, I know now that my kids and their kids and their kids who will be born well after I'm gone can go to a library, pull this book off the shelf, open it up, and say, "That's grandpa. He made a bit of a splash way back then."

The search is on for Phantom Liberals! And the hunter has taken steps to protect himself or herself from an angry Liberal Party which might try to shut him down.

Toronto Police have issued an alert for a missing girl. I've been subscribed to the alert service for some time, and this is the first one that I recall mentioning where she hangs out on the Internet.

Her fifteen minutes long past, Cindy Sheehan is the subject of a book by journalists Cat Moy and Melanie Morgan. A serious look at Cindy Sheehan had to wait until the intensity of the media spotlight faded away.

In part, the book is an emotional look at the lives of two soldiers, Casey Sheehan and Justin Johnson, close friends and proud soldiers who lost their lives within six days of each other in Iraq, and the dramatically different ways in which Casey's mother Cindy and Justin's father Joe dealt with the grief. But more importantly, it looks at the political phenomenon that was Cindy Sheehan, at the powers behind her crusade, and how she was used by those eager to advance their own agenda.

That analysis might turn out to be very important during the next presidential election.

What is Ward Churchill up to? The infamous professor of Native American studies from the University of Colorado who called the victims of killed at the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks "little Eichmanns" will be in northern Ontario at the end of October at the invitation of one of Canada's foremost academics devoted to queer studies.

Sounds a bit odd.

Terence Corcoran of the National Post looks at the Ontario Securities Commission, and a recent ruling in which the courts essentially said that this was too complicated for the judges to understand, so they ruled that they hoped the OSC was right.

Actually, the courts have ruled, even if you could prove that the OSC was wrong, the courts aren't going to do anything to fix it.

Well, doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Ariela Cotler, the wife of former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, has very publicly denounced the Liberal Party. This on the heels of the resignation of Susan Kadis from the Michael Ignatieff campaign. This all points to the Liberal Party is suffering from deep divisions over the harsh criticism aimed at Israel by most of the senior leadership.

Updated: More on Ariela's politics and influence. Also some thoughts on Liberal MP Susan Kadis.

The mainstream media is reporting that the OSC is threatening to drop the case against Frank Dunn, news first reported on this blog. The report does a good job of explaining the issues of the Dunn case, but I think misses the bigger picture, that the filing by the OSC is after much more than merely complete control of how the investigative teams in the Dunn case are to be constituted, but that it wants the courts out of the business of the OSC altogether.

Immediately after detonating a nuclear device, the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) included in its daily press releases a piece describing the idea first floated 26 years ago by North Korea for a Democratic Federal Republic of Korea, with the two Koreas coexisting with separate political and economic structures, but underneath a federal government unifying defense, international trade, and foreign policy.

The idea is utterly unworkable, of course, and no one in their right mind would trust the North Koreas. But the timing of this peaceful suggestion for reunification made me think that the North Koreans were reaching out, indicating an intention to deal away their nuclear weapons program for some sort of security guarantee.

Today, however, it seems like an opposing viewpoint is making itself heard. Peace, but not reunification under a shared arrangement.

Japan has the power to prod the Chinese into doing what needs to be done to bring North Korea under control. That is because of a little known deal with the North Korean port of Rajin to act as a trans-shipment hub moving Chinese goods to Japan. If Japan maintains a ban on North Korean shipping, Chinese profits will suffer, and there lies the leverage needed to get China on board.

From the CBC, Bob Rae helps Rick Mercer, who is searching for a memorable moment.

The Canadian government has sent nearly $10 million in aid to North Korea through the Canadian International Development Agency. Is that funding at risk because of the alleged test of a nuclear device in North Korea? If the government decides to suspend aid, will it also attempt to stop private efforts to deliver aid to North Korea?

With the North Koreans detonating a nuclear device, the world is trying to understand the motives and goals of what is the world's most inscrutable regime. Hints might be found in the official news releases, in what is said and what is not said.

In a very lengthy post, I look at an ongoing court case the brings into question the role of the Ontario Securities Commission, the breadth of its powers, and how the Charter rights are at risk. The case involves Frank Dunn, the former CEO of Nortel, who is under investigation related to financial restatements. His legal team is arguing that an 18-year-old agreement with the American Securities and Exchange Commission has allowed a joint investigation to be mounted, the side effect being that the SEC can use the OSC to get around American constitutional constraints that would otherwise limit its ability to use evidence against Dunn in an American court. Interestingly, the OSC is more worried about the courts establishing a precedent that there ought to be oversight of the OSC than it is about losing Dunn.

By my reading of the Liberal Party rules, Bob Rae's problems in British Columbia should not be so easily fixed as suggested by the news reports. Either the paper has it wrong, or the Liberal Party is giving Bob Rae a pass.

I don't know if it is called "deafism", but there seems to be a real blindspot -- or deafspot -- in the reporting of protests at Gallaudent University at the selection of a new president, Jane Fernandes.

A notorious alleged pedophile is seen peering through the window of your youngster's school. Should you be alarmed? Not this time. It was only John Mark Karr, and he was there under the supervision of ABC's "Good Morning America".

What the hell were they thinking over at ABC?

The Investment Dealers Association has released a report on securities regulation. It recommends a dramatic reduction in the power of the securities regulators, and a fundamental realignment and redistribution of powers. Needless to say, the Ontario Securities Commission doesn't like it.

John Mark Karr has been set free. As I predicted, way back in the beginning. We will hear of John Mark Karr again -- either as victimizer or victim. Which I'm not sure.

A Toronto lawyer, Richard Boraks, is preparing to file an official complaint today with Elections Canada, alleging that hundreds of new memberships to the Liberal Party were paid for by leadership campaigns and not by the new members. This is a violation of the most basic rule governing memberships. The question that needs to be asked, though, is whether Richard Boraks' complaint is just the tip of the iceberg.

Proving again why he is the #1 Blogging Tory, both in terms of content and in the way he uses the latest technology, Stephen Taylor brings us two video interviews. The first is with Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform Party and founder of the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy. The second is with Alberta MLA Ted Morton, who is in the running to replace Ralph Klein as the next premier of Alberta.

Did you know that the Secretary General of Liberal International, Jasper Veen, was in Ottawa on May 19?

No? Me neither. And the Liberal Party would like to keep it that way. Apparently, the staff at party headquarters are using Caller ID to avoid Veen's calls.

The Liberal Party has not paid its dues, and it's been a while. By the sound of it, Veen is hopping mad.

But amazingly, this email I've received could also explain why the Liberal Party increased Joe Volpe's fine from $1,000 to $20,000.

We get a fascinating look into the process by which Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe was fined $20,000 by the Liberal Party for violations related to his membership drive. The fine was twenty times the amount recommnended by the complaints officer. The complaints officer, Doug Mitchell, is a lawyer who has made a name for himself protecting the Liberal Party. Has Mitchell failed to protect the Liberal Party from itself?

Update: Have I gotten this wrong? Is the reason for setting the fine at $20,000 far simpler? Does the Liberal Party simply need the money to pay an outstanding bill?

The Globe and Mail has carried two stories in the last two days that depended a great deal on material delivered to them from the Liberal Party research group. The Conservatives have a similar group, but you'd be hard pressed to find any evidence of it based on published news reports. And when you look carefully, the same name comes up over and over again whenever that paper is the first to report on news friendly to the Liberal Party -- Mark Dunn.

Guess what? Mark Dunn was re-hired by the Liberal Party only a week ago to manage communications strategy. No wonder we're starting to see Liberal-friendly stories again.

Guess what? With new information, I've decided I was way off base with this post.

Ralph Goodale calls the Conservative cabinet a bunch of thieves and liars. Why? Because they haven't been spending enough of our money on fancy dinners and free flights. Got that? All that money that isn't theirs, waiting to be spent...it just ain't normal!

With his disappointing performance this weekend, Joe Volpe has to think in the long term, since his short term prospects are dismal. He has to decide whether to fight on, while dealing with the $20,000 fine, and while trying to show that he is somehow more valuable than either Ken Dryden or Scott Brison.

When I first read of this hardline Islamic cleric being appointed a school inspector, I was shocked and ready to start ripping into how England had lost its way, how Muslims were running the country, and so on and so forth. But when I read further, I have to say that my fury drained away.

I've found confirmation that David Smith, the former Liberal MP at the centre of the Abotech scandal, is definitely a delegate for Stephane Dion.

When does public education turn into advocacy? When you put on a peep show for children and no one wonders if there's a problem with that.

A familiar name appears on Stephane Dion's list of endorsements, a name I thought would not be seen again on a list of Liberal Party members for a long, long time. I guess it was hoped we would forget about David Smith and Abotech.