I found this little animation of Star Wars Episode IV. It is long-ish, so don't start it if you don't have some time to watch it right through to the end.
]]>Justice John Gomery says the Liberal government "subverted and betrayed" the public trust, "not only because public funds were wasted and misappropriated, but also because no one was held responsible or punished for his misconduct." Justice Gomery released his fact-finding report into the Sponsorship Scandal this morning.
He says that political interference, an excessive concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office and greed all played a role in the scandal. He is most pointed about his criticism of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
"The Prime Minister and his Chief of Staff [Jean Pelletier] arrogated to themselves the direction of a virtually secret program of discretionary spending to selected beneficiaries, saying that they believed in good faith that those grants would enhance Canadian unity," Justice Gomery wrote. Mr. Chrétien, he added, "is accountable for the defective manner in which the sponsorship program and its initiatives were implemented."
He also criticises the Liberal Party of Canada which he says knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions. It is reported the Liberals will be cutting a cheque to the Government of Canada to repay any illegal contributions this afternoon.
The report also alleges Chrétien confidante Jacques Corriveau and Chuck Guite, the bureaucrat in charge of the program, accepted kickbacks for sponsorship contracts, though it clearly states Mr. Chrétien had no hand in those.
]]> While Prime Minister Paul Martin is specifically exonerated by Justice Gomery, one doubts he breathed much of a sigh of relief. The report is specific in saying sponsorship money was funnelled to the Liberal Party and several senior Liberals are specifically identified as having taken part in activities that appear to be criminal in nature. The Prime Minister's Office has said it will hand the report over to the RCMP for investigation. [One wonders what the RCMP is going to do with it, however, since evidence obtained via a public inquiry cannot be used in a criminal proceeding.]The PMO is also suggesting several people named in the report will be kicked out of the Liberal Party in addition to their repayment of ill-gotten funds.
All this to make this appear to be a Chrétien scandal and not a Liberal scandal in the hopes that Canadians will re-elect the Martin government whenever a Federal Election happens.
Already the NDP is calling the report a confirmation of Liberal corruption and is not ruling out brining down the government over the report.
]]>Ontario's Finance Minister, Greg Sorbara, has resigned after police raided his family's real estate company as part of an investigation into another company, Royal Group Technologies. Mr. Sorbara had served on the Board of Directors of Royal Group until the McGuinty Liberals were elected in 2003.
According to the Toronto Star, the company has been under investigation since February 2004 "for interactions between Royal Group subsidiaries Royal Building Systems, Roycon Ltd., Royal St. Kitts Beach Resort Ltd. and a numbered Ontario company."
The resignation forced Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to make the most significant changes to his Cabinet since he assumed the Premiership. Dwight Duncan, formerly the Energy Minister and Government House Leader, replaces Sorbara in the Finance Ministry. The Tourism Minister, Jim Bradley, adds House Leader to his portfolio and backbencher Donna Cansfield is promoted to Minister of Energy.
]]> A series of investigations into Royal Group have been a burr on the saddle of the McGuinty Liberals for at least the last 18 months. In particular, the association of the Finance Minister with the company prompted calls for Mr. Sorbara's resignation last year. At the time, the Premier said his Finance Minister would step aside if he were the subject of an investigation.That is what happened this afternoon. The search warrant the RCMP executed in their raid on Mr. Sorbara's real estate company named the former Finance Minister as the subject of an investigation. It is thought the investigation surrounds a real estate transaction between Mr. Sorbara's Sorbara Group and Royal Group, however none of the allegations in the warrant has been proven.
As bad as this is for Mr. Sorbara - and it is always bad when you have to resign as a Minister of the Crown because you are the subject of a police investigation - it is potentially worse for the McGuinty Liberals. The buzz around Queen's Park has been about Mr. Sorbara cementing his position as the de facto Premier of Ontario. As the story goes, the apparently directionless Liberals would have been even worse off without the Minister of Finance calling the shots.
If that is true, watch for the McGuinty Liberals to list from side to side as they try to find their way without Mr. Sorbara. And all of this comes the day before a Throne Speech that was to set the tone for the run up to the 2007election - I think the tone has already been set.
Further Reading:
Statement by the Hon. Greg Sorbara, Minister of Finance (News Release)
Premier McGuinty announces changes to Cabinet (News Release)
Sorbara steps down amid police probe (Toronto Star)
Ontario Finance Minister resigns (Globe and Mail)
The tragedy that is playing out on the American Gulf coast should not have been this bad. Already, people are blaming various agencies, authorities and politicians for the calamity that has struck the region.
While it is too early for authorities to have the answers and explanations people deserve, it is not too early to start asking some tough, but fair questions.
]]>Again, I don't expect answers right away - authorities have better, more important things to do right now. But once the crisis subsides, Americans must have answers - and quickly.
]]>There may be as many as 80,000 people stuck in New Orleans with little or no food, no sanitation service and a lack of potable water. There is no electricity and both mobile and landline phone networks are down. The water continues to rise in New Orleans and rescuers are working to save in those immediate danger. Everyone seems to agree on the need to get survivors out. But how?
The city's evacuation plan calls for people to leave across land in buses and cars - but roads are impassible because of downed trees, power line and, of course, flood water. Exit by water is troublesome because of floating debris, varying water depths and the simple fact that it will only get people to the levees that still stand - more water lies beyond them. So we're left with exit by air - more specifically, by helicopter.
]]> So let's say you can cram 20 people into a helicopter. It would take 4000 trips to get all 80,000 people out of New Orleans. If you had enough helicopters to do one trip every 10 minutes it would take more than 650 hours to move everyone to safety - that is nearly a month. If you just evacuate the 15,000 or so in the Superdome it would still take about six days. And that is if you have enough helicopters and are organized enough to get them off every ten minutes 24 hours a day.In the meantime the siege mentality that is beginning to set in at the 'dome and elsewhere in New Orleans will continue to grow, making crowd control and the evacuation process that much more difficult.
The challenge is mind boggling, but it has to be done. There is now word the Superdome evacuees will be headed to Houston's Astrodome. While I'm sure everyone will be happy to hear they'll be leaving the Superdome, I can't imagine the idea they'll be calling another dome home is all that appealing. The Louisiana Governor has said the evacuation will begin within two days. She needs to keep that promise - people in the Superdome are counting on her.
]]>Let the blogging begin!
]]>If you needed even more evidence that ageing rock stars should stay out of international diplomacy, here it is.
Bono, from the Irish band U2 (one of the best bands ever), announced yesterday that he plans on kicking Prime Minister Paul Martin's butt. Bono is unhappy with Martin who:
Please, Bono kick away. He deserves it - for many reasons.
But I am intrigued why he thinks the PM has a nice posterior. I guess I'll have take a look at it next time it is in town.
]]>A pair of American astronomers believe they have discovered an earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star. Until now, most exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) discovered have been gas giants or have been orbiting pulsars - conditions that make it unlikely they could support life.
'Earth's Bigger Cousin' Found Circling Distant Star]]>By John von Radowitz, PA Science Correspondent
Astronomers believe they have discovered “Earth’s bigger cousin” orbiting a nearby star 15 light years away, it was disclosed today.The planet could be the first rocky, terrestrial world to be found circling a normal star outside the Solar System.
Virtually all of the nearly 150 other extrasolar planets identified so far have been larger than Uranus, an icy gas giant in our own system with about 15 times the mass of the Earth.
The only exceptions have been three small planets reported orbiting a pulsar, the flashing corpse of an exploded star.
Finding a rocky planet orbiting a common, ordinary star raises hopes of one day discovering another Earth.
Ontario's Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar is in a spot of trouble. According to the Toronto Sun, Mr. Takhar has been caught visiting the company he placed in a blind trust when he joined the provincial Cabinet. Integrity legislation at Queen's Park requires Cabinet minister to place companies they own in a blind trust and maintain and "arm's-length" relationship with them in order to prevent both real and apparent conflicts of interest.
The Opposition Conservatives are calling on Mr. Takhar to step aside while the NDP is has asked the Province's Integrity Commissioner to investigate the matter.
]]> The Minister suggests that he visited Chalmers because he needed to speak with is wife. "I went to see her to talk to her because there is no time to talk at home. I get home late. She is always busy cooking or doing something else at home," he said.Fair enough, Ministers do put in long hours and it can be very hard on their families - though, next time Mr. Takhar should leave out the part about his wife being too busy cooking. Despite that, his presence at the company's offices does not present the appearance of an arm's-length relationship between the Minister and his company. To make things worse, he told the Sun he believe getting updates from his trustee is entirely appropriate - it is nothing of the sort.
If that is how Mr. Takhar's trust is operating, then it is not at all blind and he is in a clear breach of the ministerial integrity code. He is bright guy who should understand the rules and how damaging the appearance of a conflict can be. He should have known better.
This revelation likely warrants Minister Takhar's resignation. At very least, the Integrity Commissioner should investigate and Mr. Takhar should step aside until the Commissioner rules on his conduct.
Ottawa plans to give into pressure from the record industry next week when it introduces legislation that will ban file-sharing and effectively make it illegal for consumers to create backup copies of software they have legally acquired.
According to CTV News, the legislation will continue to allow consumers copy CDs but makes it unlawful to hack or break so-called “digital locks” used to prevent them from doing exactly that. The Internet is chalk-full of tools end-users can use to circumvent digital locks and those tools have been legal in Canada.
While I agree file-sharing is bad and wrong – it is stealing, pure and simple – this legislation is on wrong track where digital locks are concerned. Backing up your software is both wise and prudent.
]]> How many times have you tried to update Microsoft Office in order to patch some massive security flaw only to be confronted with a dialog box asking you to insert you installation CD into the drive only to have to bail out of the update because you can't find the disk or it was damaged when you dropped it on the floor and rolled over it with your chair? (What? that's never happened to you?) The only thing that can save you in that circumstance is a backup copy of you software, or a massive, hour-long download from Gates Inc.It is also now, legal for Canadians to backup their music CDs, and with good reason. Have you ever left a CD on the dashboard of your car on a hot day? Well don't, it won't work anymore.
It is not difficult to imagine that, in light of this new law, the entertainment industry will begin putting digital locks on all of their products making it forever illegal to make legitimate backup copies of our property.
We pay hundreds of dollars for our software, CDs and DVDs each year. Canadians should have and have had the right to protect their investment. For that right we pay exorbitant taxes on blank CDs and iPods designed to compensate the entertainment industry for lost revenues. Will these be rolled back? Don't count on it.
I understand what the government is trying to do, but this is not the way to do it.
]]>Yesterday, the office of Official Opposition leader Stephen Harper announced the man dubbed "Secret Agent Grewal" by some in the Parliamentary Press Gallery is taking stress leave. British Columbia MP Gurmant Grewal earned his nickname by recording conversations he had with senior Liberals about his possible defection from the Conservative Party and then releasing the recordings to the media.
Double-O-Grewal says he had no intention of joining the minority Liberals, instead, he wanted to show to the depths to which they would stoop to keep themselves in power. And, in fairness, he caught them. Prime Minister Martin's Chief of Staff coaches Mr. Grewal on how to deny there is any arrangement while, at the same time, appearing to set out the terms for an arrangement. Health Minister Ujjal Dosanhj makes it that "certain conduct" is rewarded "99.9% of the time." It should have been enough to cost the subjects of his "sting operation" their jobs.
But instead Mr. Grewal now finds himself at the heart of his own controversy. Canadians initially didn't respond well to the fact he secretly recorded the conversations in question and he compounded his credibility gap by choosing to release selected sections of the tapes, insisting other recordings needed to be translated from Punjabi. That coupled with his insistence that he had no intention of crossing the floor gave the Liberals an avenue of attack. They say he approached them about crossing the floor and initially implied he wasn't releasing all the recordings because they proved he wasn't being straight with Canadians.
]]> As soon as the "complete" recordings were released, the Liberals accused Mr. Grewal of doctoring the tapes, an allegation that was supported by a number of forensic audio experts. The apparent editing of the tapes has left overshadowed the important issue of whether the Liberals were willing to trade favours for votes and has prompted the media to increase their scrutiny of the MP. They started asking questions like: Did Mr. Grewal have a "Nixon Moment" and delete embarrassing section of the recordings as the former American President allegedly did to the Watergate tapes? If something is missing, what is it? Is it truly an honest digital transfer problem as the Tories suggested, or is there something more sinister going on? Why did it take so long to translate the tapes?Then it got worse for the BC MP. Mr. Grewal is under investigation by Air Canada for breaching airport security regulations. According to the airline, he tried to get passengers on a flight from Vancouver to Ottawa to transport a package for him. That revelation prompted Conservative Party officials to meet to determine if he should remain in the Tory caucus. It appears the compromise, borrowed from the Liberals and their handling of some of the controversies facing their members, was for Mr. Grewal to take "stress leave."
Mr. Grewal's choices (having discussions with the Liberals, surreptitiously recoding them, editing the tapes, attempting to break airport security regulations) have brought his party into disrepute. The Tories made the mistake of trusting him when he came to them with the recordings, but he has badly let them down. For Grewal I suspect "stress leave" is just the first step on the path out the door of the Conservative Caucus room.
]]>A bunch of my fellow bloggers are abuzz about new shenanigans from former Mulroney-era Cabinet Minister Sinclair Stevens. Mr. Stevens detested the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance, waged a (sometimes dirty) war to prevent the merger of the CA and the Progressive Conservatives and has a massive hate-on for Stephen Harper, the Leader of the united Conservative Party. So it is no surprise that he reared his head last week as it appeared Canadians might be heading to the polls sooner rather than later.
The latest weapon in his war against the Conservatives is the website bloc-harper.com. The site is, apparently, an attempt to smear the Conservative Leader and to tie him to separatists in Quebec. (Mr. Stevens has clearly forgotten he sat in the same Cabinet as the founder of the Bloc Québecois but has not forgotten that age old lesson: Never let the facts get in the way of a good smear.) The site itself states it is supported by "Freedom International" which to the best of anyone's knowledge is a "rights group" out of Australia that has nothing to do with Canada and has not updated its own website since 2003.
]]> Thursday, the site prompted Brent Colbert to ask who was behind the site. Though it claims to be the work of "Freedom International", I commented chez Brent that the really interesting thing was that Mr. Stevens registered the site in the name of the Royal Commonwealth Society of Toronto which boasts the Governor General and the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario as Patron and Honorary Chair respectively. I doubt either the GG or the LG would be that excited about being associated with such a site.Others were on the same track. Monday, Bill Strong posted along the same lines. Small Dead Animals (quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs) ran with it and uncovered today that the registration of the site name has been changed - undoubtedly due in part to the attention the site's dubious provenance has generated and the concerns expressed by Chris Churchill of the RCS (via Brent).
Bloggers' feeding frenzy aside, this is, at its heart, a bungled political black-op. Sinclair Stevens wanted to smear Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party but not look responsible for it. He created something called "Freedom International" and created a website. He failed to realize the his made up advocacy group's name is already taken and that that anyone with the least bit resourcefulness could figure out he was behind the whole thing. He was so careless in the whole thing, he implicated a respected organization in his vendetta.
The lesson here: If you are as blinded by rage as Mr. Stevens, you should never run a black-op - you'll be found out inside of a week.
I found this little animation of Star Wars Episode IV. It is long-ish, so don't start it if you don't have some time to watch it right through to the end.
]]>
Independent MP Chuck Cadman saved Prime Minister Paul Martin's faltering government from defeat in a confidence vote this afternoon. The BC MP says he voted for the government because his constituents did not want to go to the polls in another election.
Mr. Cadman's vote in the Commons deadlocked at 152 favouring the defeat of the government and 152 supporting its continuation. The vote forced the speaker to cast the deciding ballot and, in accordance with centuries old precedent Peter Milliken voted in favour of continuing this Parliament.
The result of the vote underlines the importance of Belida Stronach's decision to cross the floor. Had she stuck it out with the Tories the Prime Minister would have had the unenviable task of visiting the Governor-General tomorrow to resign his government. Instead he is able to carry on.
Mr. Martin owes his government to Ms. Stronach. How's that for a scary reality.
]]>David Kilgour has issued this news release announcing his intention to vote against the Martin government in this afternoon's confidence vote. It all now comes down to BC's Chuck Cadman.
May 19th/ le 19 mai, 2005.]]>Media Release -Communiqué de Presse
Many Canadians from my riding and across the country have offered thoughtful advice on today's votes.
Upon much reflection, I'll vote for C-43 and against C-48.
I have a number of well-known policy differences with the current government. For example, it has failed to demonstrate a sincere commitment to re-establishing Canada's role in the world as a leading nation in peacekeeping and development. Canada is in a position to do more in an increasingly insecure and poverty-stricken world, and this requires courageous leadership.
However, the deciding factor in my decision is a concern about what the postponement of an election will do to Canada's fiscal position. How many more hastily-made long term commitments will the government make if given the opportunity? Those who won the respect of many for restoring fiscal integrity now appear to be putting our economic future at risk. While I support altering priorities within the present fiscal framework to increase spending on affordable housing and overseas development assistance, I believe that the continuous stream of rapidly-conceived spending promises is not financially responsible.
Many Canadians appear not to favour an early election. However, I think it's important to clear the political air through an election. Canadians deserve the opportunity to provide a clear mandate to their government by choosing the vision of the future they prefer.
Mr. Gagliano, who is one of the people at the centre of the scandal, filed the necessary papers with Federal Court asking to join the the former PM's motion.
From the Canadian Press:
Gagliano joins Chretien's move to oust Gomery]]>Montreal — Alfonso Gagliano is attempting to join former prime minister Jean Chretien's move to have Justice John Gomery removed from the sponsorship inquiry.
Pierre Fournier, lawyer for the former public works minister, said Thursday his client filed papers in Federal Court asking to join Chretien's motion.