Now… Let Us All Savage Mike Duffy By Robin Mathews Dec. 22, 2015

A long, long road of sleaze, near criminal, and criminal attacks on Canadian democracy … and much more of ugly behaviour … marked the Stephen Harper Conservative years from 2006 to 2015. Almost numberless were the violations of the trust that Canadians place in their national government.

A part of the aftermath of that orgy of sleaze is the attempt by what I call the neo-fascist Big Media, now, to paper over – even to praise – the behaviour of those years. The (literal) “papering over” of the Harper years is in full swing by those major newspapers that supported him in the 2015 election even despite Conservative last-campaign-days devoted to strident racism and fear-mongering. During the long years up to that time, sleaze was everywhere a person looked ….

Even in the last days of Conservative power, dirty tricks were the name of the game.

Elizabeth Thompson and then Michael Harris (ipolitics) remind us that before the 2015 Election was even called, the PMO and Stephen Harper re-appointed top civil servant favourites when they weren’t anywhere near normal re-appointment date. To move them out will cost taxpayers millions of dollars if those faux-appointees don’t agree to slip away quietly. Every fake re-appointment bears Stephen Harper’s mark. As does the $90,000.00 Nigel Wright handed to Mike Duffy as a personal cheque.

Duffy testified in trial that Harper told him he had to pay back money even though he didn’t really owe it!

All of that is to say again that the Mike Duffy trial looks like a sham from start to finish. For instance -

Why was Duffy alone charged? With a ridiculous 31 charges? And an apparently fake bribery charge for headline purposes? Where are the other “bad” senators?

How is it - THE QUESTION again – that Nigel Wright could hand Mike Duffy a bribery cheque of $90,000.00 which facilitated Duffy being charged with receiving that cheque as a bribe – but Wright is not charged with paying a bribe for writing it and handing it to Duffy?

How is it that on October 20, 2015, finding that Stephen Harper was merely an MP, Defence lawyer Donald Bayne didn’t immediately apply to have citizen Harper testify at the Mike Duffy trial?

And how did the bribery charge continue when prosecution lawyer Joseph Neuberger told the CBC ”a conviction on the bribery charge may be unlikely”. (Advocate Daily.com) And how could Defence lawyer Donald Bayne let Nigel Wright slip away without pushing him very hard on the cheque he paid Mike Duffy as a bribe – pushing until it was all over the front pages of Canadian newspapers and forced into editorials questioning the credibility of the trial?

Something stinks.

If the bribery charge against Mike Duffy was rigged by RCMP and Prosecution at the instancing of the Harper/PMO gaggle, then all in the know at the trial would want to soft-peddle the issue … hoping it would somehow go away almost unseen.

Who has accepted all the absurdity of what seems to be a staged trial? The RCMP investigators. RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson. The judge and the Crown Prosecutor on the case. The Defence lawyer Donald Bayne. Mike Duffy himself… as well as all, all, all the conventional press and media. Something stinks.

The “something” that stinks might just be said to concentrate itself in the Christie Blatchford writing on the Duffy case. Apparently looking for an active ‘cleaning agent’ in the careful attempts to erase the record of Conservative crime from 2006 to 2015, Ms. Blatchford and her employers appear to have found what she needs. She hasn’t merely filled columns of print, but pages of it (obviously called for by Postmedia power brokers who then spread her “dispatches” across Canada).

What better way to take attention away from the Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper which actively crippled and exploited the Canadian Senate for dirty use than by concentrating on Mike Duffy (probably among the lowest ten per cent of Conservative bad actors)? MAKE HIM the big story of Conservative wrong-doing from 2006 to 2015.

What does this apparent across-the-board chicanery mean – with all the apparent across-the-board savaging of Mike Duffy? It constitutes such a stupendously large set of apparent acts of cooperation to shield the Conservative wrecking action in the Senate, in the PMO, in the House of Commons, in the Conservative Party of Canada that one can scarcely believe what is there in front of us all….

Readers who say “none of what has been written in this column so far is anything but sheer nonsense” might seem very clear-headed. Except … except there is just too much evidence of trial chicanery to say outright that it isn’t there.

Can we predict the outcome of the Mike Duffy trial? Mr. Justice Charles Vaillancourt might send Mike Duffy to jail for several years for – as a public servant (a senator) accepting a bribe in order to (a) do a favour to Stephen Harper and his cabinet, and (b) to seek to wipe out or disguise his own petty wrong-doing. Then Mr. Justice Vaillancourt could pile on censure (and perhaps more jail time) for all the other violations of trust that Mike Duffy (along with many, many other senators) is alleged to have engaged in over expense account infractions … and other misdeeds.

The betting – from the information in this column – all goes the other way.

Mr. Justice Vaillancourt will decide that the acceptance of a bribe cannot be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. (Mike Duffy will sigh in relief, and Nigel Wright will be able to come out of hiding overseas and return to Canada.)

The judge will decide that trust practice and lax expense spending rules make it impossible to attach judicial blame to what Mike Duffy did in expenditure. (Duffy will sigh with relief, as will the Honourable Pamela Wallin and many, many other senators.)

The judge will decide that since Stephen Harper appointed Mike Duffy as senator for Prince Edward Island, Duffy’s claims for residence expenses in Ottawa are not clear enough as violations for a judge to rule upon….

Mr. Justice Charles Vaillancourt may find a wrong-doing or two (unique to Duffy) – such as perhaps the Ottawa living expenses - that he can censure and punish with a suspended sentence, house-arrest, and time spent doing constructive community work (the judge showing grand human generosity - in the light of Mr. Duffy’s ill-health).

And so millions and millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been spent in Harper and PMO-directed Senate chicanery, in (what became faux) RCMP investigation and reporting, in Prosecution Office time and expertise shaping a dubious case, in Nigel Wright’s improper activity, and in all the other many, many activities related to other Conservative wrong-doings carefully hidden from Canadians. And now we can look forward to the outcome - the trial outcome (costing a huge amount) doing nothing but covering-up the truth, with Mike Duffy fronting for the innumerable crimes that will never be faced.

That is why the almost unanimous cry has gone up – Far Right Media inspired and Conservative Party approved. It’s a huge smokescreen that’s working wonderfully well:

“Now’s the time… Now, Now. NOW… Let us all savage Mike Duffy!”


Contact: Robin Mathews

Ken Dobell deciples; George Gretes; Laura Miller; Triple Delete 'media fishing trips'

Irony eh, Ken Dobell, the Father of Triple Deleting in British Columbia, a former Deputy Minister to Premier Gordon Campbell, the man who vetted all of the document from the Executive Council, the Cabinet, for the BC Rail trial judges to view, ..... is he still triple deleting his current employers' and clients correspondence?

As columnist Bill Tielman wrote back in 2008:

...... let's not forget that Dobell has a history of thumbing his nose at government regulations intended to protect and inform the public.

Dobell told a 2003 freedom of information conference that he rarely takes meeting notes and deletes most e-mails to avoid their disclosure through FOIs, as required by law.  Snip 

Bill's link to 'Dobell 2003' is no longer valid at The Dogwood Initiative, it is at the WayBackMachine.  Original author is journalist Judith Lavoie of the Victoria Times Colonist from September 26, 2003:

Freedom of information law kills civil service note-taking

Civil servants avoid writing things down because they fear they will become the subject of a freedom of information request, Ken Dobell, deputy minister to Premier Gordon Campbell, acknowledged Thursday.

Dobell, a former Vancouver city manager, was a panel member at a conference in Victoria marking the 10th anniversary of B.C.'s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Dobell said he now rarely writes working notes of meetings and rapidly deletes most of his e-mails.

However, he said, the intent is not to hide necessary information from the media and public, but to avoid having internal e-mails caught up in media fishing expeditions. 

Must be mighty difficult to separate media fishing trips from the public's right to know.

Panel member Norman Spector, a media commentator and columnist who served as deputy minister to former premier Bill Bennett and chief of staff to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, criticized media fishing expeditions and suggested that reporters should be severely restricted in their FOI requests.

Newspapers should nominate several journalists who they believe should have the right to FOI information and, if the information is not used for developing better public policy, the journalist should be deregistered, Spector said.

Snipped

Bloggers, media (Bob Mackin,    Laila Yuile,   Norman Farrell ) ARE severely restricted and as to Spector's theory on Newspapers should nominate several chosen journalists to have access to the information? ... the agents for the government are already in place, have been for eleven years eg. Keith Baldrey et al and they just sit on their hands with the information.

A rebuttal from the floor of the conference:

Still, the idea of limiting access caused some disquiet.

"I do have trouble when I hear people talking about registering journalists -- the first thing that comes to mind is Zimbabwe," said one audience member.

Is there a training school for future Order in Council appointees, deleter delinquents like George Gretes and/or the BC Liberal Party's Laura Miller?   A local chapter of the Local Government Management Association of British Columbia?

You betcha, Dobell, the FOI panel member, set up a scholarship in his name in 2010 through to 2013:

The Ken Dobell Public Service Education Fund Scholarship has been established to encourage students with an interest in federal, provincial, local government or First Nations administration and policy studies to pursue post-secondary opportunities. The Fund recognizes the career and public service contributions of Ken Dobell, former Vancouver City Manager, British Columbia Deputy Minister to the Premier, Secretary to Cabinet and Head of BC Public Service.  Snip 

Previous LGMA Scholarship Winners   2010 to 2013. The winners might want to prepare some answers to possible questions on the topic of not triple deleting emails.

Left out of the LGMA program bio is the reason that Bill Tielman brought it to the public's attention in 2008:

"Who said he's under a cloud?"

- Attorney General Wally Oppal after Ken Dobell charged

Only in British Columbia would a guilty man continue to advise a guilty government, with neither showing an ounce of shame.

Ken Dobell was Premier Gordon Campbell's senior deputy minister for years. Last week, Dobell pleaded guilty to breaking the Lobbyists Registration Act and repaid the $7,000 he received for lobbying while in violation.

That Act was introduced, debated and passed while Dobell himself held the most powerful government staff position.  Snip

A slightly different form of practicing 'triple delete' are the Main Stream Media press who have total access to all of what generates their breaking news headline material, the reports, paid for by the Public and NEVER produce links to the sources.  They quote from the reports with streams of 'facts', sift through the documents and then never, never give the link.

Crossword Puzzle Creator BC Speaker Linda Reid's 2015

UPDATE: December 19, 2015 Linda Reid's  Crib sheet

Across
1. Type of wood in the Reading Room. _________________________

3. Found on a ship and in the Library dome. ____________________

4. A library service named after a fruit.  _____________________

6. Contains titles, authors and subjects.  _____________________

8. Has 140 characters.   ____________________

10. Italian marble on the Rotunda columns.  _____________________

11. Creature who lives in the dome.  ____________________

12. Printed media located in the Reading Room.  __________________

13. First female speaker.  ____________________

Down
1. First BC premier.  ____________________


2. Contains as many pages as a printed book.   ____________________


5. These are set up independent from government and can be either special or royal.   ______________

7. A structured set of data.  ____________________

9. Where the first Legislative Library was housed  _______________

Where Power Really Lies In Climate Change By Robin Mathews Dec. 12th 2015

As we watch , huge criminal corporations, governments, and their lemming environmentalists race to the cliff edge in Paris, refusing to grapple with the reason they are racing….  They refuse – in any meaningful way – to challenge The One Per Cent head on, which is where effective solutions to climate change begin.

While a flood of information pours out of Paris about poor nations and rich nations and island nations drowning … and the undeniable fact of Global Warming, The One Per Cent grows richer and takes more of planetary wealth as a function of misusing populations, wasting raw materials, selfishly exploiting technology, destroying the biosphere and buying governments like picking up so many stock options.

The One Per Cent make up the people behind “Free Trade Treaties” that, in fact, remove national sovereignty, erase conditions for middle nation independence and climate viability, and lash huge populations – like galley slaves – to the profit machines of imperial nations owned by The One Per Cent and working (‘as if ‘democratic and/or “fair” societies) to funnel more and more of the world’s wealth into the pockets of a very few.

Behind all the (sometimes really intense and well-meant) negotiations and trade-offs in Paris operates the mafiosa hand of The One Per Cent.  And until it is addressed as what it is with a demand that (to use the language of Pope Francis) “the downtrodden  change the world economic order” the game of make-believe will go on.

One of the few truth-tellers, Pope Francis has spoken of “savage capitalism” and called money and modern capitalism “dung of the devil”.  He doesn’t pretend the present world order is, somehow, unrelated to the descent of huge populations into poverty and the globe moving ever-closer to climate Break Down.

In all the flood of information from Paris, The One Per Cent is never named as the Central Issue to be dealt with – for that would mean, as the Pope suggests, a reconstruction of power relations in the world.  And so, sad as it is to say, the nice, caring people in Paris (from Canada, too) are living in a land of make-believe. They refuse to ‘grasp the nettle’, to name the Elephant in the Room, to set out positions that demand the redistribution of wealth (and power).

They refuse to speak of a global reorganization of work and of production for use rather than for profit in a process that completely removes the employment of destructive climate pollutants.  By ignoring the broad papal hints, the Paris negotiators bring two inevitable things closer: (1) crisis in climate conditions and (2) the absolute certainty of major, wide-spread wars of “revolutionary” and “repressive” kinds: of social chaos amidst a crumbling and humanly destructive ecosystem.

 

The corrective doesn’t need (or want) name.  Because the general road is clear.  The Ninety-Nine Per Cent can quite easily eliminate The One Per Cent in its character as a grossly wealthy force putting human existence at risk.  Liberated from The One Per Cent burden, many of its members might become useful agents in constructing a new society.  The language has to be about human survival and the absolutely necessary reconstructions of human work, human creativity, human administrative talent, the meaning of wealth, and the human power necessary to effect what is, in fact, revolutionary change in the modes of administering publicly responsible power in the world.

What They Don’t Talk About In Paris

How much, just for instance, has the horrendous, unnecessary, lunatic-driven war in the Middle East – since 1980, contributed to climate change?      Thousands of polluting aircraft, millions of polluting weapons and explosives, numberless polluting fires raging without letup, millions of polluting corpses lying in the desert sun.  The U.S.- backed Iraq invasion of Iran is said – alone – to have cost a million lives.  And then there was the U.S.-instigated demolition of Iraq… and then Libya … and now Syria…. (“Bomb them some more”, says the morally challenged British prime minister, David Cameron, while his representatives in Paris negotiate to prevent climate change.)

Do the Paris environmental experts have a way of computing the number of human murders and increases of warfare created climate pollution in direct relation to the increase in Capitalist wealth? In direct relation to the growing wealth of The One Per Cent? 

Plainly, The One Per Cent –  made up of acceptable environmentalists,  co-operating governments, and Capitalists masquerading as concerned ‘leaders’ – are going to have to be confronted as never before on Climate Change. They are going to have to be moved over by the people… as a start, if anything meaningful is going to get done. They are going to have to be moved over to make room for brilliantly staged reconstructions of power and wealth by peaceful means.  If that doesn’t happen … welcome CHAOS.

There is a lesson here, ‘Writ Large’, as they say. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see it.  Canadians must really challenge the present inaction (called “action” and “new targets” and “hopeful goals” and “real assessments”).  Canadians must move “acceptable” environmental “experts” right out of the picture.  Canadians must insist governments act upon solutions that directly address, directly seize, redirect, and put to constructive environmental use the wealth of The One Per Cent – wealth that has, heretofore, been gained cruelly and often brutally through demonic instruments of human and ecological destruction operated on massive scales. That is wealth which, now, must have a completely different character and function.

If Canadians don’t face that reality, if they don’t face The One Per Cent, and act, directly, for change, then it’s all over. Then it’s Cultural Suicide without a good aspect to be found anywhere in the process. 

Contact: Robin Mathews 

BC Premiers Bill Bennett and Bill Vander Zalm have similarities but.....siblings? Posted September 23, 2012

Bill Bennett  August 18, 1932 - December 3, 2015
  In office as Premier on  December 22, 1975 – August 6, 1986

Bill Vander Zalm was born on  May 29, 1934 - 
          In office as Premier on August 6, 1986 – April 2, 1991

Their similarities would end there, except for the merest of coincidences because they were both members of the same political Party.

• Bill Bennett is older than Bill Vander Zalm by almost two years
• Bill Bennett joined the BC Social Credit Party before Bill Vander Zalm
• Bill Bennett was Premier of BC before Bill Vander Zalm
• Bill Bennett was Premier longer than Bill Vander Zalm
• Bill Bennett left Office before Bill Vander Zalm assumed Office
• Bill Bennett Kelowna bridge named after him, Bill Vander Zalm anti-HST, anti-BC Liberal

While researching down at the Vancouver Public Library, and reading specifically the BC Report magazine (covered earlier in the BBC) we came across something that made us all go Hmmmmmmmm!!!

If some postage stamps can be so rare, because of an error in their printing that they are now worth millions, if not Billions of dollars, why not a magazine?    One Postage stamp is printed in a far greater number for the use of a Country's citizens than one magazine publishing for it's readership in one Province, therefore the value of a printing error in a magazine could be more valuable, depending largely on the topic, of course.

A postage stamp that has an image upside down and the printing right side up, is rare!

Famous Stamps

Once a magazine or book is published, in hard copy, how can they possibly be clawed back from the public domain?    The online version can be removed or "modified" except for the cache version.


In the case of the BC Report magazine, what would be the value of their limited copies, from a once upon a time, robust, four issues per month publication,  now reduced to a state of non-existence?



To the best of our knowledge there are only TWO known copies in existence of this typo:

SNIP                                     Steve MacNaull

Who knows, maybe the typo was what brought about the sudden end to the BC Report magazine.