- Reaction score
- 5,874
- Points
- 1,360
...and no one's going to jail, I bet.
Adscam/ Gomery Inquiry/ et al
- Thread starter bossi
- Start date
- Reaction score
- 1,297
- Points
- 1,060
Not unless there was a Columbian necktie or two involved.
If don't pay my taxes, they can ultimatly put me in jail, but behavior like this (and the sponsoship thing as a whole) goes unpunished. It makes me sick everytime I see the almost 50% taken off the top on my paycheck.
I wish someone would come up with a system to make politicians accountable. God knows I've racked my brain over it, but given the backroom dealing, blackmail, extortion, and corruption implicit in politics I don't see it ever happening.
Makes me want to move to a small uncharted island in the pacific.
I wish someone would come up with a system to make politicians accountable. God knows I've racked my brain over it, but given the backroom dealing, blackmail, extortion, and corruption implicit in politics I don't see it ever happening.
Makes me want to move to a small uncharted island in the pacific.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 410
I noticed this item at about the same time I heard that Art Eggleton is linked to the "middleman" company that chartered the Antonovs for the DART deployment to Sri Lanka ... hmmm ...
(no wonder so many Member's of Parliament walk into jammy appointments when they "retire" ...)
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Ottawa/Greg_Weston/2005/02/08/923659.html
Grits continue to hide billions
By Greg Weston -- Sun Ottawa Bureau, Tue, February 8, 2005
The next time Paul Martin proclaims how very, very committed he is to transparency and accountability in public spending -- watch for it ad nauseam when the PM appears at the Adscam inquiry later this week -- someone should whack him over the head with a copy of the auditor general's report.
It doesn't much matter which report.
Every year since 1996, the auditor general has pounded the Liberal government, over and over, for hiding billions of dollars of taxpayers' money in so-called "independent foundations."
Next week, Auditor General Sheila Fraser is expected to take another round out of the Martin government over the same issue in her latest compendium of government waste, mismanagement and general stupidity.
Good thing, too. At last count, Fraser tallied a staggering $9.1 billion of taxpayers' cash that the Liberals have stashed in foundations over the past eight years.
That's roughly the equivalent of about $1,000 from every taxpayer in the country. It is also far more than even the Liberals have been able to spend.
Fraser recently noted that even though the government publicly lists the money as having been spent, $7.7 billion is still in the foundations' bank accounts.
But most of all, the federal watchdog of public spending is rabid over the lack of anything resembling the transparency and accountability that taxpayers should reasonably expect.
The foundations are essentially fronts for government cheque-writing on a massive scale, providing handouts to all manner of no doubt worthy causes from garbage recycling to telemedicine.
But don't ask how it's disbursed or to whom.
The books of the foundations are conveniently exempted from the Access to Information Act, and are even off limits to the AG.
Unlike the usual flow of funds from the treasury, the government has simply filled the foundations' bank accounts and given them up to 10 years to spend it all.
But not to worry -- our money is in the good hands of foundation boards packed with qualified Liberal appointees.
As Fraser warned in one of her earlier reports: "I am concerned that these huge amounts of public money are provided up front to foundations when there is such a limited assurance of proper controls and accountability."
Last year, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale all but promised to open the foundations and their books to scrutiny. In an interview with me after the April 2004 budget, Goodale said without qualification: "I am perfectly willing and indeed very interested in having the auditor general review the foundations.
"The fact the auditor general is somehow limited in looking into them raises the spectre of concern, and therefore casts a cloud over what they're doing."
And finally: "I want to solve the issue of transparency and accountability."
But apparently a funny thing happened on the way to Fraser's office -- namely, not much at all.
Months after Goodale's published interview with me, Fraser was so alarmed by the billions still hidden from scrutiny in foundations that she refused to sign off on the government's annual accounts without adding a lengthy cautionary footnote.
The AG said she was "very concerned about the accountability and governance arrangements for these foundations.
"I urge the government to implement proper accountability structures."
Paging Paul: Please call your auditor general for an urgent message. It's not your money.
(no wonder so many Member's of Parliament walk into jammy appointments when they "retire" ...)
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Ottawa/Greg_Weston/2005/02/08/923659.html
Grits continue to hide billions
By Greg Weston -- Sun Ottawa Bureau, Tue, February 8, 2005
The next time Paul Martin proclaims how very, very committed he is to transparency and accountability in public spending -- watch for it ad nauseam when the PM appears at the Adscam inquiry later this week -- someone should whack him over the head with a copy of the auditor general's report.
It doesn't much matter which report.
Every year since 1996, the auditor general has pounded the Liberal government, over and over, for hiding billions of dollars of taxpayers' money in so-called "independent foundations."
Next week, Auditor General Sheila Fraser is expected to take another round out of the Martin government over the same issue in her latest compendium of government waste, mismanagement and general stupidity.
Good thing, too. At last count, Fraser tallied a staggering $9.1 billion of taxpayers' cash that the Liberals have stashed in foundations over the past eight years.
That's roughly the equivalent of about $1,000 from every taxpayer in the country. It is also far more than even the Liberals have been able to spend.
Fraser recently noted that even though the government publicly lists the money as having been spent, $7.7 billion is still in the foundations' bank accounts.
But most of all, the federal watchdog of public spending is rabid over the lack of anything resembling the transparency and accountability that taxpayers should reasonably expect.
The foundations are essentially fronts for government cheque-writing on a massive scale, providing handouts to all manner of no doubt worthy causes from garbage recycling to telemedicine.
But don't ask how it's disbursed or to whom.
The books of the foundations are conveniently exempted from the Access to Information Act, and are even off limits to the AG.
Unlike the usual flow of funds from the treasury, the government has simply filled the foundations' bank accounts and given them up to 10 years to spend it all.
But not to worry -- our money is in the good hands of foundation boards packed with qualified Liberal appointees.
As Fraser warned in one of her earlier reports: "I am concerned that these huge amounts of public money are provided up front to foundations when there is such a limited assurance of proper controls and accountability."
Last year, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale all but promised to open the foundations and their books to scrutiny. In an interview with me after the April 2004 budget, Goodale said without qualification: "I am perfectly willing and indeed very interested in having the auditor general review the foundations.
"The fact the auditor general is somehow limited in looking into them raises the spectre of concern, and therefore casts a cloud over what they're doing."
And finally: "I want to solve the issue of transparency and accountability."
But apparently a funny thing happened on the way to Fraser's office -- namely, not much at all.
Months after Goodale's published interview with me, Fraser was so alarmed by the billions still hidden from scrutiny in foundations that she refused to sign off on the government's annual accounts without adding a lengthy cautionary footnote.
The AG said she was "very concerned about the accountability and governance arrangements for these foundations.
"I urge the government to implement proper accountability structures."
Paging Paul: Please call your auditor general for an urgent message. It's not your money.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 110
Why do the people of Canada continue to reward the present reigning party with election after election when all these cold hard facts about lying, scamming,fraud and waste keep slapping them in the face?
Why do people keep saying that even if the Conservatives did win the election that they would be just as bad when you haven't even given the Conservatives a chance since the 80's?
And before you start bashing Mulroney's conservatives remember that the economic winfall that the 90's Liberals enjoyed was a direct result of policies put in place by the Conservatives(NAFTA, GST) that the Liberals, I might add, promised to eliminate but didn't. Now Martin has the nerve to claim responsibility for the boom of the nineties. Give me a break. Let's not forget the White Paper on defence that was started but eventually abandoned due to political pressure from opposition. This was a very real thing that could have occurred if the Canadian public had have been more optimistic and supportive. But everyone wanted to hang Mulroney and his Conservatives over the GST and Nafta (which turned out to be a success.)
Furthermore the New Conservatives are not the Progressive Conservatives of the past but an entirely new party that has never been given a chance to prove itself. So save your prejudgments for the other two parties.
That's it, I'm done now.
Why do people keep saying that even if the Conservatives did win the election that they would be just as bad when you haven't even given the Conservatives a chance since the 80's?
And before you start bashing Mulroney's conservatives remember that the economic winfall that the 90's Liberals enjoyed was a direct result of policies put in place by the Conservatives(NAFTA, GST) that the Liberals, I might add, promised to eliminate but didn't. Now Martin has the nerve to claim responsibility for the boom of the nineties. Give me a break. Let's not forget the White Paper on defence that was started but eventually abandoned due to political pressure from opposition. This was a very real thing that could have occurred if the Canadian public had have been more optimistic and supportive. But everyone wanted to hang Mulroney and his Conservatives over the GST and Nafta (which turned out to be a success.)
Furthermore the New Conservatives are not the Progressive Conservatives of the past but an entirely new party that has never been given a chance to prove itself. So save your prejudgments for the other two parties.
That's it, I'm done now.
- Reaction score
- 35
- Points
- 530
That is enough to make me pull my hair out.
M.
M.
- Reaction score
- 25
- Points
- 430
Breaking news on the radio; 0900 EST Thursday 2005 03 03: Chretian lawyers trying to close down Gomery Inquiry by dismisal of Judge Gomery.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 110
Haven't heard anything of that out here in the PST.
- Reaction score
- 25
- Points
- 430
Seems his lawyers are taking the matter to the Federal Courts in the hopes of getting Judge Gomery dismissed.
[EDIT: 1028 EST]
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1109860877610_105270077
Court asked to consider removing Gomery: report
CTV.ca News Staff
A month after their arguments failed to budge John Gomery from the helm of the sponsorship inquiry, lawyers for former prime minister Jean Chretien are asking the courts to intervene.
Citing sources close to Chretien, reporter Mike Duffy says briefs were filed with the Federal Court of Canada on Thursday morning.
"They're asking not that the commission be shut down, but that Justice John Gomery be removed as the head of inquiry," Duffy told CTV Newsnet in an interview from Ottawa.
First spurred by a pair of newspaper interviews published last December, in which Gomery said the sponsorship program was run in a "catastrophically bad way,'' Chretien's lawyers have argued that he has repeatedly shown bias.
Chretien's legal team argued their case in front of the veteran justice last month. When it was all over, Gomery said he regretted the "distraction," but had decided to stay put.
They then had 30 days to take their case to court.
MORE TO COME...
[EDIT: 1028 EST]
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1109860877610_105270077
Court asked to consider removing Gomery: report
CTV.ca News Staff
A month after their arguments failed to budge John Gomery from the helm of the sponsorship inquiry, lawyers for former prime minister Jean Chretien are asking the courts to intervene.
Citing sources close to Chretien, reporter Mike Duffy says briefs were filed with the Federal Court of Canada on Thursday morning.
"They're asking not that the commission be shut down, but that Justice John Gomery be removed as the head of inquiry," Duffy told CTV Newsnet in an interview from Ottawa.
First spurred by a pair of newspaper interviews published last December, in which Gomery said the sponsorship program was run in a "catastrophically bad way,'' Chretien's lawyers have argued that he has repeatedly shown bias.
Chretien's legal team argued their case in front of the veteran justice last month. When it was all over, Gomery said he regretted the "distraction," but had decided to stay put.
They then had 30 days to take their case to court.
MORE TO COME...
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
Chretiens team is hoping to trip up and unravel the enquiry befor it completes its work, thus saving themselves anymore embarrasing revelations and most importantly, Chretien would be able to finish his memoirs as a self proficised saint. Yeh right >
B M.
B M.
D
dutchie
Guest
Isn't this the second time that Cretien has shut down a public inquiry early? I wonder what he has to hide....
Thank God he's not the PM anymore.
Thank God he's not the PM anymore.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
Caesar, what does Chretien have to hide you ask?
Just about any half rumour that was heard about his time in office, of which he was able to squash, hide or defend quite well from, to this day.
Because parliament can not clear the air of Liberal political machinations to control power, Canadian political morality/ideals are steadily being lowered to the lowerst common denominator, until one day we will be a true banana republic. :rage:
B M.
Just about any half rumour that was heard about his time in office, of which he was able to squash, hide or defend quite well from, to this day.
Because parliament can not clear the air of Liberal political machinations to control power, Canadian political morality/ideals are steadily being lowered to the lowerst common denominator, until one day we will be a true banana republic. :rage:
B M.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 60
I do not know how to approach the matter without sparking a fire that will go nowhere. But I feel bad. I've heard people suggesting that if the scandal happened, not only it was because of the Quebec separatist's menace but also because of the way business is done here, in Quebec (which implies that it is careless, fraudulent or even machiavelious) and I just wonder...
Are we really to blame for all this? do the rest of the Canada really think that it is Qubec's fault? Or is the reaction about the same as here, being that our politicians are somewhat unashame of doing illegals things, justifying it by lies and are that this might exist (or could have existed) for other motives than this one?
I don't know... I think I need a reality check...
Are we really to blame for all this? do the rest of the Canada really think that it is Qubec's fault? Or is the reaction about the same as here, being that our politicians are somewhat unashame of doing illegals things, justifying it by lies and are that this might exist (or could have existed) for other motives than this one?
I don't know... I think I need a reality check...
mdh
Sr. Member
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
Helene_alone
I certainly don't blame Quebec - if anything the electorate of Quebec are as outraged by the scandal as anyone in English Canada - which is the reason why the Bloc has done so spectacularly well against the Martin Liberal Party.
I do blame the Chretien machine which doled out gobs of cash in an attempt to increase the presence of the federal government in the province - primarily in the sustained panic that overtook the feds after almost losing the country in 1995 referendum.
For what it's worth I think there is good chance that Mr. Martin will continue to pay for the sins of his predecessor, and the BQ will remain the dominate federal force in Quebec. In fact, there was recent speculation that the Bloc could topple the minority Liberals on a budget vote, go to the polls and increase their share of seats past the current 54.
The real mystery is why Ontario federal voters - normally a pretty fastidious bunch - continue to support a clapped out party that stands for nothing except perpetuating itself in power.
Cheers, mdh
I certainly don't blame Quebec - if anything the electorate of Quebec are as outraged by the scandal as anyone in English Canada - which is the reason why the Bloc has done so spectacularly well against the Martin Liberal Party.
I do blame the Chretien machine which doled out gobs of cash in an attempt to increase the presence of the federal government in the province - primarily in the sustained panic that overtook the feds after almost losing the country in 1995 referendum.
For what it's worth I think there is good chance that Mr. Martin will continue to pay for the sins of his predecessor, and the BQ will remain the dominate federal force in Quebec. In fact, there was recent speculation that the Bloc could topple the minority Liberals on a budget vote, go to the polls and increase their share of seats past the current 54.
The real mystery is why Ontario federal voters - normally a pretty fastidious bunch - continue to support a clapped out party that stands for nothing except perpetuating itself in power.
Cheers, mdh
- Reaction score
- 33
- Points
- 560
Short answer; don't blame Quebec, blame Cretien.
Unfortunatly, it is hard to imagine anyone connected with this will either be punished or spill enough beans to fully expose the corruption to the light of day. Imagine if Mr Dithers; the president of the Quebec caucus and Finance minister during the period in question can be proved not to be as clueless as he claims...he could share a cell with Mr Creitien, rahter than both of them continuing to milk taxpayers for huge sums of money.
Unfortunatly, it is hard to imagine anyone connected with this will either be punished or spill enough beans to fully expose the corruption to the light of day. Imagine if Mr Dithers; the president of the Quebec caucus and Finance minister during the period in question can be proved not to be as clueless as he claims...he could share a cell with Mr Creitien, rahter than both of them continuing to milk taxpayers for huge sums of money.
- Reaction score
- 25
- Points
- 430
Ottawa Sun 2005 03 10 Editorial:
http://canoe.com/NewsStand/OttawaSun/Editorial/
Thu, March 10, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following the money
The stench around the federal sponsorship scandal continues to grow stronger with each passing day, as does the suspicion that it was set up and run by a government without moral principles.
Members of the Lafleur family are providing us with daily jaw-dropping details about the massive waste of taxpayers' money through a program that was supposed to make Quebeckers feel at home in Canada.
Ironically the sponsorship fiasco may end up doing exactly the opposite, stirring up separatist emotions in a population that feels embarrassed by a government that thought its patriotism could be so easily bought.
This week we have heard the first direct evidence that some of the sponsorship money paid out by the feds flowed right back into the coffers of the Liberal Party.
Here's how it worked: Lafleur Communication Marketing prevailed on its own staff members and others doing contract work for the company to make donations to the campaign of a local Grit candidate.
In most cases the donors were then reimbursed by Lafleur at the same time as the company was billing the government for millions of dollars in commissions.
Yesterday Eric Lafleur, son of the firm's founder, startled us yet again when he disclosed that the name of one of his own employees, Michel Octeau, was used to bill thousands of dollars from the federal government despite the fact Octeau never worked for his father's company. "There are places where Michel Octeau is billed a relatively significant number of hours and I don't remember seeing Michel Octeau work on those projects," said Eric Lafleur.
The younger Lafleur also said he met occasionally with Chuck Guite, the former bureaucrat who ran the sponsorship file for several years.
Small wonder that former prime minister Jean Chretien was in such a rush to get the Gomery commission shut down. The extent of the rot that had set in under his watch may give him something he had always craved while he was in office -- a legacy that will long be remembered.
And another thing ...
Nice work by local police forces who pooled their resources to raid a multi-million dollar marijuana production network yesterday.
About 100 cops from the Surete du Quebec, RCMP, Gatineau and Ottawa police took part in the operation that netted both drugs and weapons.
Hitting the kingpins in the drug industry with the full force of the law is the right way to curtail this illegal business.
http://canoe.com/NewsStand/OttawaSun/Editorial/
Thu, March 10, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following the money
The stench around the federal sponsorship scandal continues to grow stronger with each passing day, as does the suspicion that it was set up and run by a government without moral principles.
Members of the Lafleur family are providing us with daily jaw-dropping details about the massive waste of taxpayers' money through a program that was supposed to make Quebeckers feel at home in Canada.
Ironically the sponsorship fiasco may end up doing exactly the opposite, stirring up separatist emotions in a population that feels embarrassed by a government that thought its patriotism could be so easily bought.
This week we have heard the first direct evidence that some of the sponsorship money paid out by the feds flowed right back into the coffers of the Liberal Party.
Here's how it worked: Lafleur Communication Marketing prevailed on its own staff members and others doing contract work for the company to make donations to the campaign of a local Grit candidate.
In most cases the donors were then reimbursed by Lafleur at the same time as the company was billing the government for millions of dollars in commissions.
Yesterday Eric Lafleur, son of the firm's founder, startled us yet again when he disclosed that the name of one of his own employees, Michel Octeau, was used to bill thousands of dollars from the federal government despite the fact Octeau never worked for his father's company. "There are places where Michel Octeau is billed a relatively significant number of hours and I don't remember seeing Michel Octeau work on those projects," said Eric Lafleur.
The younger Lafleur also said he met occasionally with Chuck Guite, the former bureaucrat who ran the sponsorship file for several years.
Small wonder that former prime minister Jean Chretien was in such a rush to get the Gomery commission shut down. The extent of the rot that had set in under his watch may give him something he had always craved while he was in office -- a legacy that will long be remembered.
And another thing ...
Nice work by local police forces who pooled their resources to raid a multi-million dollar marijuana production network yesterday.
About 100 cops from the Surete du Quebec, RCMP, Gatineau and Ottawa police took part in the operation that netted both drugs and weapons.
Hitting the kingpins in the drug industry with the full force of the law is the right way to curtail this illegal business.
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
mdh said:
Because people prefer the status quo? They don't want things to change and are afraid that if the Conservatives get to power, things will change. The known devil is better than the unknown one, especially the devil with Reform flavours still swirling around party policy. Or you can blame the Liberal vote-buying in the 416 and 905 ridings that have a large and growing immigrant community. Or you can blame the effete intelligensia that gravitates around Toronto and would rather have corrupt but "caring" liberals than a right of centre party - no matter how much better government it could deliver. There is no rhyme or reason to it. The one conservative win in Ottawa itself displaced the one liberal politician and minister who actually displayed fortitude and principles and a clear understanding of the nasty world in which we live.
