Friday, April 15, 2011

 

Guergis accuses Harper of smear campaign; Harper remains unapologetic

.
BC Mary comment: Google "Harper Government Scandals" and you will get 4,400,000 results, maybe more.  That's even BEFORE we heard from Harper's former Cabinet minister, Helena Guergis this morning. O Canada ... oh, oh, oh ... Canada, what can your citizens do?
_____________________________

Tories re-brand government in Stephen Harper's name

By Bruce Cheadle
The Globe & Mail - March 4, 2011
1,926 comments

See the story HERE:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-re-brand-government-in-stephen-harpers-name/article1929175/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-re-brand-government-in-stephen-harpers-name/article1929175/

**********************

On the road to the Harper Government's tipping point

By Lawrence Martin
The Globe and Mail - March 8, 2011
965 comments.


Story is HERE:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/lawrence-martin/on-the-road-to-the-harper-governments-tipping-point/article1933110/

**********************

Tories used praise for Liberals to defend G8 summit costs: Fraser

CTV - April 11, 2011


Quote:
Canada's auditor general has rebuked the Conservatives for recycling an unrelated quote by her [Sheila Fraser] about a previous Liberal government's security spending in a parliamentary report on the costs of the G8/G20 summits in Ontario last summer, CBC News has learned.

The Conservatives' report, presented as a dissenting opinion to the Commons the morning Parliament was dissolved last month, quotes Sheila Fraser giving high marks to the Harper government for prudent spending on the summits.

The report quoted the auditor general as saying: “We found that the processes and controls around that were very good, and that the monies were spent as they were intended to be spent.”

But in a scathing letter addressed to members of a Commons committee on Friday, which was received by the clerk and members on Monday, Fraser said the quote had nothing to do with the summits.

Instead, she said, the Conservatives inserted a 2010 comment she made during a CBC News interview on security spending by a previous Liberal government after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.“The comments attributed to me in the [Conservative] report are completely unrelated to G8/G20 spending,” Fraser writes in her letter.“I would appreciate it if the report could be modified as it is clearly erroneous.”

The earlier Jan. 13 version of the report suggested the manner in which the funding for the G8 infrastructure legacy fund was approved may have been illegal and the money was ultimately used on projects that were of dubious connection to the G8 summit in Huntsville.

The January draft report said that some of these projects included spending:

$274,000 on public toilets located 20 kilometres from the summit site
$100,000 on a gazebo that was an hour's drive away
$1.1 million for sidewalk and tree upgrades 100 kilometres away
$194,000 for a park 100 kilometres away
$745,000 on downtown improvements for three towns nearly 70 kilometres away.

Canadian Press reporter Joan Bryden said the January draft indicated that the government tabled supplementary spending estimates that asked for $83 million for a border infrastructure fund, which was supposed to pay for improvements at Canada's border crossings.

"Why 50 million for Huntsville and environs? Why was that suddenly so important, or such a large amount of money? Why did it go to projects that had nothing to do with the summit," Brydon said Monday evening on CTV's Power Play.

**********************

Draft report questions Conservative G8 spending

CTV - April 11

Click HERE:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20110411/ag-says-tories-misinformed-parliament-on-g8-fund-110411/20110411?s_name=election2011

**********************


BC Mary comment: Which brings us to the question of Harper's police-state. The media is muzzled, the public is robbed of information in broad daylight. This is serious. Citizens have work to do!


The Globe and Mail - April 15, 2011

Quote:

On the last day of March, reporters in Halifax – standing behind a yellow barricade at least a dozen feet away from Stephen Harper – called out to him to explain why only five questions. He refused to respond. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton answer all the questions they’re asked, the reporters pointed out. Why had Mr. Harper limited reporters to five questions a day? He refused to explain. “If there’s another subject, I’ll answer it,” he told them.

When the reporters properly pushed back, getting into a bit of a shouting match with the Prime Minister, he again refused to elaborate. “If there are other subjects I’m not addressing, I’ll take them. What’s the subject? One subject.” Mr. Harper was then asked a question about Libya. He answered it and walked away.

So there we have it: The Prime Minister who promised more openness and accountability, who’s been in power for five years, has told the press to get used to it – you can cover my campaign, but you can ask only five questions.

Members of the media were predictably indignant. Paul Wells, of Maclean’s, speaking on April 5 on a morning radio show, lamented the restriction: “The fact is we can’t ask the Prime Minister about real situations that concern real people, we can’t press the Prime Minister for straight answers on things like the cost of his programs, promises he made in the past he hasn’t kept, things like that.”

Journalists play a vital role in our society. We depend on them to ask questions and demand answers. Mr. Harper and the other party leaders are running for the highest office in the land. Even opposition MPs are allowed to ask follow-up questions in the House of Commons. But not reporters covering the Conservative campaign.

The only astonishing thing is that the media are taking it. They are playing along, accepting the unacceptable.

It’s the middle of an election campaign. Reporters are not only entitled to ask the Prime Minister about his record and accomplishments, they’re required to do so. It may be good politics for Mr. Harper to build a bubble around his campaign, and throw a blanket on the media. After all, the Conservatives are leading in the polls. But what’s incomprehensible, inexplicable in fact, is that the media have accepted it. True, when the policy was announced, some journalists objected. Their complaints were ignored, then it was on to the next scripted stop.

Ask any reporter. Since Mr. Harper took office, the bureaucrats have stopped talking to journalists because they fear reprisals. Many government MPs won’t return telephone calls if it’s the news calling. Cabinet ministers regularly refuse to comment. The Harper government has established more roadblocks to access to information than any other government since the act was put on the books.

Mr. Harper’s refusal to provide information to Parliament on the cost of his law-and-order initiatives is just the latest in a long list of his top priority: information control. How long are reporters going to allow themselves to be pushed around? When are they going to say, “We’ve had enough”?


End of quote.

 

Full story is HERE.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/stephen-harpers-five-question-limit/article1985570/


*********************
Read THIS about the hiring of Stephen Harper's personal choice of advisor for the P.M.'s office:  

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=28263408&ocid=tweet

***********************

India Times - April 15, 2011

Click HERE:

http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/article/0aZm26pfxhe0l?q=Stephen+Harper

*********************

And then The Harper Government tries to snatch the ballot box from a university!! From "The Harper Government", there's no shock, no shame, no human emotion whatever. 


Ignatieff slams attempt to annul Guelph student votes

CTV - April 15, 2011
20,200 results

Click HERE:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20110415/guelph-university-vote-mob-legitimacy-dispute-110415/

********************
Elections Canada validates contested student ballots in Guelph

The Globe and Mail - April 15, 2011
1,685 comments

Click HERE:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/elections-canada-validates-contested-student-ballot-in-guelph/article1986799/

*********************

Then ... Helena Guergis, former Cabinet Minister in "The Harper Government", takes centre stage today, April 15, 2011, with what looked to me like vivid images of Violence Against Women. Harper violence, that is. 

Guergis slams Conservatives over 'destructive campaign'

Vancouver Sun - April 15, 2011

Click HERE:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/decision-canada/Guergis+slams+Conservatives+over+destructive+campaign/4622291/story.html

*********************

 Don Martin is no Lefty. He's not even fair, sometimes. But I think the Harper Government stench freaked him out on the Helena Guergis last week. 

Go HERE
http://electionblog.ctv.ca/author/dmartin.aspx

By Don Martin
CTV - April 18, 2011

Power Play: The Last Word on Helena Guergis

If nothing else, former Conservative MP Helena Guergis got a small measure of revenge on Friday.

Almost exactly a year after she was dumped from the Conservative cabinet and jettisoned from the caucus, she unleashed hell's fury against her former boss, Stephen Harper.

The Prime Minister's Office had sent a letter of incendiary allegations -- including fraud, drug and prostitution -- against her to the RCMP last year.

So far, so good: it's only proper to alert police to concerns about possible illegal behavior.

But like all political hangovers, it's not the action but the reaction which causes the pain.

While Guergis was quickly cleared of any wrongdoing, she remained forgotten and not forgiven by her former party.

Harper delivered an icy, dead-eyed obituary to her life as a Conservative on Friday, which could send a shiver though the spine of some voters just warming up to his potential as a majority prime minister.

Harper dismissed his former minister as an irritating trifle, unworthy of even being named in public, which will seem excessively mean for a guy who needs to warm up his hypothermic personality.

What's even stranger is how Harper shows remarkable tolerance for others who have alleged black marks on their resume.

Two of his most valued senators are hard at work on the campaign, despite facing fraud allegations from Elections Canada. And Harper stood rock solid by minister Bev Oda, even as MPs prepared to find her in contempt for misleading Parliament.

Look, as a newspaper columnist, I called for Guergis to be fired several times. Her various aloof antics were, I felt, grounds for her demotion to be a mere backbencher.

But to punish the innocent without a hint of remorse, while rewarding the potentially guilty with patronage plums, sends a very warped message from a government campaigning for, of all things, law and order.

Don Martin is the host of CTV's Power Play, with two editions during the election campaign: 5 and 8 pm ET on CTV News Channel.

- 30 -

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

BC Mary comment: There's much, much more, as anyone can expect with so many tell-tale clues to the quality of "The Harper Government". If only Canadians will read up on it, and then NOT vote Conservative. 

As yet, Big Media doesn't seem able to understand the seriousness of the embedded criminality. "The prime minister has a duty to shuffle his cabinet," said that p.i.a., Suhana Mareschand on CBC Newsworld today after the Guergis press conference. 

Shuffle? What shuffle? Stephen Harper saw to it that Helena Guergis was kicked out of cabinet, kicked out of government, stripped of her party membership, and stonewalled ... for cryin' out loud, since when does a Canadian Prime Minister's duty consist of accusing people of crimes without any evidence? Isn't that slander?


And how incredibly brutal that Harper feels he must refer to Ms Guergis as "that individual" ?? I hope that little boy of hers grows up and punches Herr Harper right in the nose, one day.  Or, no, wait ... better that Rahim Jaffer, the boy's father and Ms Guergis' husband, should take care of that issue himself.


Meantime, best wishes to Ms Guergis. If she's courageous and principled enough to stand up for Canada, for responsible democracy, and for the actual old Conservative Party (not this Reform Party in drag), I'll be standing up with her. 

*********************

Comments:
Rahim Jaffer, Guergis husband, was caught drunk driving WITH, get this, cocaine in his car.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/09/16/rahim-jaffer-arrest-impaired-cocaine.html

That the RCMP were unable to prove that it was his, doesnt mean it wasnt his.

That the RCMP were unable to law charges on Guegris for snorting coke doesnt mean that too didnt happen.

Frankly, Guergis and Jaffer's credibility is nil at best.
 
before you discount harper and beleive guergis, remember her husband, Rahim Jaffer, was caught driving drunk and in possesion of coke.

Thank you for listing to ...
 
Both of you show a shocking disregard for elementary justice. YOUR credibility is nil.

Was Jaffer booted out of the Harper Cabinet? No. Only Guergis has been booted out, without cause. That's what we're talking about here.

Only Guergis has been described in lurid, destructive terms, without proof.

You suggest that Guergis is guilty by association? Is that your standard? If so, you're tumbling backwards into old history. It's a typical Reform-Con method of changing the subject away from the deliberate, self-serving illegalities of the Harper Gang.

Have the decency to be embarrassed for yourselves.

However, if witch-hunting is your expertise, why not concentrate on the ex-convict who was hired for the prime minister's office? Look up whoever forged a letter misrepresenting what Sheila Fraser said in praise of the Martin government, NOT Harper's Gang. Look into the Contempt of Parliament charge... in which Harper makes history as the first-ever head of state in the British Commonwealth to behave so stupidly.

There's lots for you to do, without feeling you must harass the mother of a small child who is under attack already.

It will improve your minds, too, if you repeat over and over: "Innocent until PROVEN guilty."
 
It appears that YOU are saying Harper is guilty by association?

The contempt of parliament was Bev Oda's doing, not Harper's.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/951327--conservatives-ruled-in-contempt-of-parliament
 
Obviously comments made by individuals driven by ideology and no common sense. Amen to your rebuttal, Mary!
 
Ole and BC Mary,

With all due respect, there is reason that Jaffir and his spouse should be removed from the representing the public.

Jaffir, caught drunk driving and WITH coke in his possesion. I mean, come on!!!???

And now allegations of Guergis doing coke off a whore's breast?? Rings true, her husband had coke in his car.

I beleive that she was doing coke, and did do coke, I beleive that to be true, and that the snitch backpeddled is not compelling and does not change my mind, nor does the Guergis parading her baby change my mind that even mothers to be can be coke heads.

These 2 are bad eggs. But they have company.

And BC Mary, just becuase she has paraded her baby infront of cameras doesnt mascarade the fact that Guergis is not up to the job, or innocent of her misdeeds.

So the cops couldnt lay charges. That doesnt make her innocent.

OJ got off a murder rap. That didnt mean he didnt do it.

But you are so quick to point the THEY BAD, WE GOOD, finger.

The Conservatives, like everyone else, are desperately tyring to find women, any women, to fill their ranks. But alas, its a hard thing to do.

Carol James. Useless
Elizabeth May. Whine whine whine
Bev Oda. Incompetent
Guergis. FLAKE! Watch her CRY!!! wah wah wah wah FLAKE!!

It give me confidence in the Harper administration that he is not affaid to smoke out these losers.
 
What can I say about these Harper "shills"?
Well for the main

Annon
"So the cops couldnt lay charges. That doesnt make her innocent."

What the, are you saying you know the law better than OUR law enforcement cops? Total disbelieve
Guilty before Innocent?
We are in bad shape if this is your view.
 
The Law is perverted. It lets child killers walk free, it lets murders free.

Allan Schoenborn should not be given day passes, he should be sent to the gallows!

You dont put a Mad Dog in a petting zoo, you put that mad dog DOWN!

Why are we warehousing and feeding criminally insane and dangerous child killers?

The Law is perverted.

The Law lets druggies and theives like dave basi get house arrest and divert 6M from Health and Education for his defence. UNREAL!!

I do not know the Law better, which is why I am voting for a party that does, the Conservatives.
 
Rosemary is fascinating.

She's the real thing: the voter who will re-elect the Un-Conservative Stephen Harper.

Let's hear what she can tell us about why we need to spend $36Billion or more to buy 65 Stealth aircraft which have no engines?
.
 
Such a great article which Canadian Press reporter Joan Bryden said the January draft indicated that the government tabled supplementary spending estimates that asked for $83 million for a border infrastructure fund, which was supposed to pay for improvements at Canada's border crossings.Such a big money its good if this budget will go t the infrastructure it would be a good improvement.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home