Tag: Military and Intelligence

What’s more interesting in the Auditor-General’s latest report on government fiscal atrocity isn’t what it says, which you can already read about at your leisure in any credible mainstream news source, but what it leaves out. Being an Auditor-General is a tough job, especially when you’re continually investigating a government

As other political bloggers know, there’s no feeling quite like vindication without attribution. Which I felt this week after parsing the latest data from Public Works and from the Parliamentary Budget Officer on the cost of the Joint Support Ship. A couple months ago, I predicted that the true cost

Like many of my readers, I am old enough to remember the beginning of January 2013, when the press was all abuzz over reports that Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page had completed what promised to be an incendiary sequel to his takedown of the F-35 project, this one involving the

I’m going to be honest: I know virtually nothing about Mali. I could find it on a map and I could find it on Wikipedia, and that’s pretty much it. I don’t think I’m the only person in this situation. Unlike most of the media, though, I’m going to be

A week ago, I predicted that this year’s military procurement scandal would be the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy: the plan to build 29 new ships for the navy and the Coast Guard, most of them advanced warships, at an official cost of $35 billion but a true total cost that

I’ve been putting a great deal of thought recently into the likely true cost of the Harper government’s multi-billion-dollar National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, aka the plan to shower practically unlimited military construction dollars into Halifax and Vancouver in the hopes that they magically morph into votes for the Conservative Party.

Once one has been a blogger for even a little while, one learns to develop a pretty thick skin when it comes to blasé incompetence from our paid professional betters. You see, the difference is that blogs are peer-reviewed. Commenters and other bloggers jump on us when we make an

In my last post, I estimated that under Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s controversial new plan, the total cost of the F-35 Lightning fighter comes out to around $127,000 per hour. We’re kind of back in medieval territory here, where several lowly peons must labour for an entire year just to

I have to say, it’s pretty depressing that not one of the many, many professional journalists in Canada is literate enough to read a government report. To their credit, some are trying. But they also had a whole press briefing slash lock-up slash sleazy play-time with the people they’re supposed

I was almost tempted to let the matter rest, but then DND said this: In 2010, the Department calculated that… the estimated cost for acquiring, sustaining and operating the [F-35] fleet… was $25.1 billion. Ha! Here’s what their website says DND’s original public estimate was: the total estimated cost and

You read it here first, on Sixth Estate: the F-35 jet fighter will cost $48.7 billion. Well, almost, anyways. The government spent a great deal more than Sixth Estate earns from this blog (presently zilch) getting a world-class accounting firm to estimate the cost for them. It turns out that

If only there was a way for the news media to search through this country’s voluminous laws before writing a story. Oh wait, there is. This week Conservative MP David Tilson’s private members’ bill gets to third reading. You can read about it in a local paper and, better yet,

Even by the steadily declining standards of the Globe & Mail, Canada’s “paper of record” hit an unusual low in its angry and Orwellian response to the announcement that the European Union was being given this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. It’s definitely a bit of a head-scratcher, although notably less

Several days ago I posted an analysis of the latest procurement travesty at the Department of National Defence: the replacement of the army’s medium-weight transport trucks under the Medium Support Vehicle Systems project. I pointed out that there appeared to be a minor financial boondoggle in the making: although the

In my head, I’m writing the press releases already. As I pointed out in a recent post on the botched purchase of new medium-weight trucks for the military, the supposedly militarist Harper government is long on praise for the Canadian Forces, but very decidedly short on getting the military the

Today’s MLVW, ©Tyler Benoit Creative Commons The Harper regime is developing a wonderful ability for horrendous timing. A few days ago, corrupt President of the Treasury Board Tony Clement went on a Twitter-fuelled rampage against Canadian aid workers in Cuba because they were “choosing to live in a communist country.”

The recent kerfuffle over the Canadian government’s decision to wire for sound the Ottawa Airport, and begin recording travellers’ private conversations, has touched a nerve — the same nerve which was tweaked earlier this year by the government’s proposal to commence en masse surveillance of people’s Internet browsers, email, and

There’s been no official announcement, but I can only assume it’s happened, and a while ago too, given that former diplomat turned Conservative MP Chris Alexander apparently has trouble spelling basic four-letter words in his press releases: Parliamentary Secretary Chris Alexander Starts 8 Wing’s New Fire Hal I wish I

It has to be asked. The opposition and the prattling classes are unhappy that Defence Minister Peter MacKay attempted to conceal a $105 million conversion of 13 new Leopard 2 armoured engineering vehicles (AEVs) by German arms dealer FFG under the heading “Vehicular Power Transmission Components, Quantity: 1.” And so