Ex-BC Liberal neglects to register as a lobbyist
Graham Bruce, the former labour minister for the BC provincial Liberals, has been lobbying on behalf of the Cowichan Tribes in negotiations. The problem is that he is not registered as a lobbyist.
Notable for the facts, but also because a blogger had already broken this story.
News in BC about Graham Bruce lobbying without a license:
Former B.C. labour minister Graham Bruce has not registered as a lobbyist despite doing paid lobbying work for the Cowichan Tribes since late 2005, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Bruce's work for the Vancouver Island first nations group may also have violated conflict-of-interest rules that forbid ex-ministers to lobby the province within two years of leaving office.
Bruce lost his seat in the May 2005 election.
Bruce claims he didn't realize he was lobbying:
In a phone interview Friday, Bruce said he has met several times with both provincial and federal politicians on the band's behalf -- including twice with Premier Gordon Campbell -- to secure funding for various projects related to Cowichan's hosting of the North American Indigenous Games in 2008.
"After I was out of government, the chiefs said if you're still interested in giving us a hand, see what you can do putting these things together," he said.
Bruce said it never occurred to him to register as a lobbyist or that his work for the band might violate conflict-of-interest rules.
"It never crossed my mind," said Bruce. "Now that you've brought it up... I'll take a look at it."
But then go to the information published on Somena Media. Graham talks not only talks like a lobbyist, he talks like a lobbyist on meth:
"On July 10th, 2006, I contacted the Premier and informed him that I was presenting a proposal to Cowichan Tribes Chief and Council and wanted to ensure that he knew of this initiative because we would be looking for the Province's support in making these initiatives happen. I'm calling in my credits with these Ministers and other government officials to use their full capacity to support Cowichan Tribes with these new initiatives"
That was posted three days ago.
There is a weatlh of material on Somena Media on these negotiations -- if you are interested, or in particular are in the media and looking into this story, you need to be reading this blog.
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Comments
Keep in mind that Libs in BC are a coalition of the old Socred party and others generally on the right of the political spectrum.
There are certainly some members that have connections to the federal party but they don't advertise it much.
Posted by: JackM at October 13, 2007 10:04 PM
Somena Media: Meaghan Champion, aka Meaghan Walker-Williams.
...-
Meaghan Walker-Williams: Blanked Out Times?
Aug 17, 05 | 4:57 pm by John T. Kennedy
Today Meaghan Walker-Williams apparently lowered the curtain on one of the most elaborate productions of sock puppet theater I’ve seen. The link to her group blog [Warning: As of 8/25/05 MWW’s site has been replaced with a porn link site, which may not be work safe for you. ] Blank Out Times appears dead, though the blog can still be seen in Google’s cache.
Meaghan has posted comments here at No Treason under her own name and also as her sock puppet Edward T. Bear of Blank Out Times. When I asked her yesterday to confirm that Edward T. Bear was her sock puppet she responded here:
Anybody who wants to claim that anonymously blogging is inherently wrong, or that somebody who has a f ...-
http://www.no-treason.com/archives/2005/08/17/blanked-out-times/
Posted by: maz2 at October 14, 2007 08:47 AM
Looking a little past the curtain - which Meaghan has already done - months ago - there's a lot more to this story than just the unregistered lobbyist angle. There is mis and mal feasance by Indian Affairs; fiddles with treaty negotiation funds for non-treaty talk activities and blatant nepotism in band council affairs.
Without even exploring whether or not Bruce is actually a trojan horse for other interests, which have little or nothing to do with the advancement and future well-being of the Cowichan people themselves. Not to mention the further accumulation of a very big mortgage on that future.
This is just scratching the surface. Let's hope the Sun and the Times Colonist will start doing some real digging.
Well done Meaghan!
Posted by: g west at October 14, 2007 12:12 PM
"I just found out that some thieves committed a technical violation of the rules governing the advocacy of thieving! Where do I complain?"
What are y'gonna do - eliminate the multi-billion dollar tax-funded native poverty industry? Or are you going to bitch for five minutes and then hire a bunch of lawyers to rewrite the rules so you can pretend that from now on, no one gets hundreds of millions of dollars of unearned dough unless they "obey the guidelines".
Posted by: at October 14, 2007 03:22 PM
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