Can we expect this soon? For those Conservative spokespersons who don’t believe that the sorry tale of a Prime Minister’s Office scrambling to come up with the very best way to deceive the public, as told by witnesses at the Senator Duffy expenses trial, has had an effect on the
Continue readingTag: Senator Duffy
CuriosityCat: Duffy scandal: The Troublespotter who did not read line 5 of the email
Chris Troublespotter Woodcock Imagine you hold one of the most powerful offices you can hold in a democracy such as ours, and your job is this: “My job was to spot trouble, try to identify it and come up with a strategy for dealing with it,” Mr. Woodcock testified. And
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy scandal: The differences between the Duffy Trial and the Harper (Governance) Public Trial
PM Stephen Harper, the leader of the “Harper Government”, is on trial by the public for the manner in which he governed his Prime Minister’s Office (the PMO), while senator Duffy is facing 31 charges in his criminal trial. That there are two trials is undeniable, despite the PM’s attempt
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy Scandal: PM Harper does not get it that there is a second trial going on
Harper defence to Trial #2 Here’s what Harper is saying in response to questions about the senior advisors and senators involved in a cover up of the real facts in the Duffy senate expenses scandal: The Conservative leader refused to respond to direct questions whether Novak had his support and
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy trial: How many in the Harper PMO were walking around in a cloud?
Donald ‘Darth Vader’ Bayne Barrister Donald Bayne, the Darth Vader defender of democracy (and of the sad figure of Senator Duffy), scoffedat the answer given him by Harper’s former Chief of Staff about the reactions by Canadians to Wright’s payment to Duffy of $90,000: Nigel Wright testified Tuesday that he
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy trial: Nigel Wright and Emails change the ballot box question
The Plausible Deniability chickens come home Stephen Harper, blinking furiously, tries to stick to his two self-chosen ballot box questions (security and economic growth), while disregarding question after question about what he knew about the cesspool of misdirection and lies that a group of senior Conservatives indulged in while trying
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Senate trial: The Missing Prime Minister “Shut Down” Email
Barrister Bayne, Duffy and Nigel Wright chronicleherald Yesterday Donald Bayne, the bulldog barrister acting for senator Duffy in Duffy’s criminal trial, focused on an email that Nigel Wright, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, had not disclosed as part of the 400 plus pages of email data dump. Found
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Senate Scandal: Nigel Wright tells the truth and sinks Harper
Things have veered sharply off course for the most controlling politician Canada has had for many decades. What was to be a tightly controlled and swiftly administered exercise in damage control, has turned into a nightmarish exposure party that is guaranteed to sink Stephen Harper’s government in the coming elections.
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy senate scandal: Nigel Wright says PM Harper “good to go” on coverup points
As expected, the now famous words “good to go” were front and centre in the cross examination of state witness Wright by Duffy’s defence counsel yesterday (my underlining): It gripped a packed courtroom, not because Wright dropped bombshells but because the top insider finally told the story behind one of
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy & Senate Scandal: Email snippets
Going squirrelly Nigel Wright is on the stand, and a blizzard of emails is being released (see hereand hereabout them and how to access them). In no particular order, here are a few extracts from the emails that The Cat finds either curious, worthy of further exploration, raising questions about
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Latest in the Drip-Drip-Duffy saga: Going Squirrelly
Here’s the latest revelations in the Drip-Drip-Duffy saga: Plan to prevent Duffy ‘from going squirrelly’ During the course of the interviews, the RCMP also cited a February 2013 email from Wright that said he had been on the phone with Duffy, Tkachuk and Senator Marjory LeBreton, the former government leader in the Senate. According to
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Trial, or Why we will have an election called within a month
Here’s to me… The Duffy trial is beginning to lurch out of control, if you are a member of the Conservative government of Canada. In just a few days, voters have been exposed to a cascade of visual and sound bites that have snapped necks and focused attention as seldom
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Coming soon: High Noon in Ottawa, starring Senator “Sixgun” Duffy
The Mounties have ridden into town, dismounted, and placed their investigations in the hands of the state prosecutors. The prosecutors have carefully drafted 31 charges against a senator, and the stage is now set for an epic High Noon shootout on a dusty street in front of the Parliament in
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Wright Case & The Mounties: Did they or did they not?
Yes, we consulted … Seems to be a little bit of confusion about who was consulted when the Mounties decided that there was no case to make against Wright. Here’s one report (my underlining): Commissioner Paulson says the facts uncovered by investigators – many of which were publicly detailed in
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Saga: The Mounties Close In
Mounties closing in Amazing how some politicians fail to understand one simple fact of a modern democracy such as Canada: The wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. Our justice institutions are highly developed, well staffed, with advanced methods that are applied to serious cases. Our court
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Senategate: Senator Duffy’s “written guarantees”
Interesting reading, the transcript of Senator Duffy’s speech in the Senate in which he revealed that he had received a cheque for some legal expenses. Even more interesting is what the legal work covered, based on the underlined part of his speech: Wait until Canadians see the email trail in
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Deal: The PMO-Duffy Email and the Mounties
Hot on the trail of the Email The Mounties are as iconic Canadian as you can find. The Mounties always getting their man is so much part of the Canadian DNA that nobody smiles when the phrase is used. It is bedrock Canada, as authentic as the hard, unyielding Canadian
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Deal: Persons having dealings with the government
Interesting articleby Crawford Kilian on the Sensitive and International Investigations unit of the RCMP affidavit (that unit is charged with investigating matters of significant risk to Canada’s political, economic and social integrity). Some further thoughts based on that article: If Nigel Wright is a “person dealings with the government” and
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Deal: Is PM Stephen Harper from Barcelona?
I know nothing! Poor Manuel, the harried waiter in Fawlty Towers, is often denigrated by Basil Fawlty with the words: “He’s from Barcelona”. Now we face an equally valid question: Is Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, from Barcelona? In this famous episode of Fawlty Towers, Basil Fawlty tries to get
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Senator Duffy: The Tory Big 5 who knew
The Duffy Deal: Up go the numbers The latest news from the RCMP is interesting – the number of people in the know about the Wrigh/Duffy agreement regarding his expenses is increasing: Lawyers for Mr. Wright told the Mounties that while their client kept Mr. Harper in the dark about
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