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From the day it emerged that Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright cut a $90,000 personal cheque to cover Sen. Mike Duffy’s fraudulent Senate expense claims, the Conservatives tried desperately to kill the scandal. On Thursday, they tossed Duffy overboard, and on Friday, Sen. Pamela Wallin. Also on Friday, the PMO vowed that Wright [...] The post Statements: Resignation of Harper’s Chief of Staff Nigel Wright appeared first on The Canadian Progressive. -Stephen Harper is never going to be honest with Canadians about the sleaze that is oozing out of his political administration. -There isn’t even any point in the RCMP investigating the Senate scandal because the leadership of the RCMP is in Harper’s hip pocket and will whitewash whatever the Conservatives have done.-Democracy, as we know it in Canada, is likely not going to survive Stephen Harper’s stranglehold on power. Stephen Harper knows he’s got rats in the Conservative pantry and it must be giving him fits trying to figure out just who they are. Somebody is leaking a steady stream of information, documents and e-mails to Bob Fife of CTV about Mike Duffy, Pam Wallin and Nigel Wright and who knows what or whom might be still to come. Mike Duffy has taken refuge in his Cavendish cottage in P.E.I. and is quick to summon the police to clear off nosy journalists. Harper is apparently in Peru although he’s expected back to face down the Tory (Read more…) My article in the Huffington Post: Recently, work took me to Istanbul to meet with the Syrian resistance. We discussed options for the international community to help bring an end to the Syrian war, by destroying the financial networks that enable the Assad regime to purchase weapons and finance assaults against civilians. That’s a word I never, ever thought I’d see appended to Nigel Wright’s name: scandal. We don’t know each other, but we sort of know each other. Long story. Anyway: it’s been a shocker, this mess. And now it’s claimed a guy who I thought scandal could never touch. The Greens are running a tight ship on Vancouver Island these days. In the wake of Andrew Weavers win in Oak Bay Gordon Head on behalf of the BC Green Party, I decided to have a closer look at the BC Provincial election results in the Victoria area. Knowing so little about BC Politics, I trotted off to find the Provincial riding maps, and past Provincial election results in the area. From that point it was a quick and simple matter to visually contrast the Provincial riding maps and compare them to the Federal ridings. You see, the typical Green (Read more…) Marie Victorin was a Roman Catholic teaching brother and naturalist who championed access to nature for all. He was the driving force behind the establishment of Montreal’s lovely Jardin botanique nearly 80 years ago. Since then the garden has delighted people from all levels of society. For decades access was free, but in recent years , under ordinary circumstances, non-residents of Montreal pay a fee, with residents with the $8 Accès Montréaal card getting in free to the exterior gardens. This summer that will change. The city has declared that because of a special exhibit, everyone over (Read more…) An infinite number of monkeys using an infinite number of typewriters will eventually produce the Kirby report on health care reform. This is not a sound argument for spending hundreds of millions of public dollars on monkeys with typewriters. They’re two soul-mates. Only difference is that Rob Ford can be fired. Mike Duffy is settled for life. He won a lottery and he did not even have to buy a lottery ticket, Stephen Harper handed him the prize. Plenty of others have had loads to say about the scandal surrounding Stephen Harper, Nigel Wright, Mike Duffy and the Senate generally – with Wright’s resignation today serving as just the latest chapter of a story with plenty left to be told. But I’ll add a couple of notes to the mix. First, I’m not sure some commentators (especially those thinking that “the cheque” is the real story) have noticed the significance of this juxtaposition of events: A senior government official told Postmedia News on Thursday that Wright wrote a cheque to Duffy’s lawyer “in trust.” The official, who (Read more…) This is too important to miss. Read Miranda Holmes revealing look at Harper EnviroShill Peter Kent and his close personal ties to Canada’s fossil fuelers. This is eerily like the appointments during the Bush era. It has always been my suspicion that Stephen Harper wanted to govern at least until he pushed through the Northern Gateway to get Athabasca bitumen flowing to Asia. With no small degree of help from the New Democrats and Liberals, Harper has already achieved his overarching goal of moving Canada’s political centre permanently to the right but it’s the Northern Gateway he sees as his legacy. To see that through Harper needs to cut some quick deal with Christy Clark, give the environmental review process a laxative, and move to steamroller the pipeline opposition, no matter the cost. People (Read more…) Russell Barth had this on Facebook. Fun game, eh? WFDS If you watch this video from the 5:40 mark, a natural question arises: If someone knocks on your door, will the police arrive if you call them? Recommend this Post NewsTalk 1010‘s hot Sunday night talk show, The Fords, will not have its star dee jay tonight. Shock jock and mayor of Toronto Rob Ford called in sick. Friday. Life is all about planning. WFDS A name that most of us in Canada did not know until he dropped that check into the esteemed Senator from Kanata-PEI’s porcine hands, Nigel Wright, has resigned from the coolest job he will ever have. The job, of course, is being the boss of bosses at the Prime Minister’s Office. Think Tom Hagen. I wonder if Senator Mike Duffy will send a sympathy card? WFDS This and that for your Sunday reading. - Justin Ling writes that the Cons’ aversion to accountability isn’t limited to their own government, as they’re one of the few holdouts against transparency in resource-sector reporting of payments to governments abroad. - Meanwhile, Stuart Trew discusses an international citizens’ initiative to keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership from imposing harmful copyright rules: A coalition website, launched this week as a 17th round of TPP negotiations gets underway in Lima, Peru, calls on TPP negotiators to “reject copyright proposals that restrict open Internet, access to knowledge, economic opportunity and fundamental rights.” The website (Read more…) Holmes Hydro can proceed without environmental assessment The Canadian Press Posted: May 18, 2013 1:30 PM PT Last Updated: May 18, 2013 2:19 PM PT And this is our BC Supreme Court? Bought and paid for…disgusting display of arrogance and ignorance..the Court must have been stacked with Albertans, because no BC judge in his or her right mind would use an excuse like convenience and economic ‘hardship’ to ignore an environmental assessment..really, tell us, what will it take to get this Province to stand up for itself? To protect the beauty we have, to maintain our coastlines and (Read more…) Some priceless tweets about Wright and Duffy and all that: They’re beautiful, those Chiefs of Staff, but lifespan wise it’s like getting a great dane.— Tabatha Southey (@TabathaSouthey) May 19, 2013 Fewer tears at the end, but the kids can’t ride it like a pony, so emotionally on the Chief of Staff vs Great Dane choice, it’s a draw.— Tabatha Southey (@TabathaSouthey) May 19, 2013 @tabathasouthey We’ve had our Great Dane for nine years. Not as spry as she once was, but she hardly ever gives money to senators anymore.— Daniel MacEachern (@DanMacEachern) May 19, 2013 (Read more…) Pierre Poilievre And Howdy Doody: Separated at birth? You decide. Recommend this Post Stephen Harper must feel isolated. He’s shed senators like a mangy dog loses fur. And now his chief of staff, Nigel Wright, has packed it in, leaving the PMO under a very large, black cloud. … and this troubling scandal deepens. How much did Harper know? What DON’T we know about – yet? A what point does the number of misdeeds, lies and deception by Harper government officials lead some to suggest that Harper call an election? Clearly, the government is losing the confidence of Parliament and the people of [...] If you’re not wide awake yet, this should do the trick.
Last week, Toronto Star columnist Rick Salutin compared Joe Oliver to Willy Loman, the woefully misguided drummer in Arthur Miller’s play, Death of A Salesman. In Canada’s ongoing pipeline saga, Salutin wrote: Resources Minister Joe Oliver is the Willy Loman of this drama, without Willy’s panache. His attacks on climate scientist James Hansen or Al Gore are ludicrous; those two lack any personal, financial interest for undermining Canadian oil; their sole motive, wrong-headed or not, is saving the planet. Weak sales strategy, minister. Willy was not much of a salesman. But he was a legend in his own mind. (Read more…) |
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