KEEPING WATCH ON HARPER AND HIS NO-LONGER HIDDEN AGENDA

Contributor: "Relayer"

Yaya Canada

May 25, 2012

Here are eleven articles collected over the past eight days.

Two new issues that have surfaced are John Baird’s intervention for his dear Chabad rabbi and another cost miscalculation from Peter MacKay re the Libya mission.

1. MacKay’s math questioned again as cost of Canadian Libya mission balloons to $347M

Defence Minister Peter MacKay has been forced to deny allegations he downplayed the true cost of the Canadian mission in Libya, a move the Opposition claims is another example of how the government keeps two sets of books on military spending ~ one for them and one for the public.

Note: There are loads of anti-Conservative reader comments to this National Post article.

2. Tories overrule officials to fund project of Baird’s ‘dear friend’

ED: The Conservative government overruled federal bureaucrats and gave $1-million to a social hall project submitted by an Ottawa rabbi with close ties to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. After speaking to Mr. Baird, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley personally approved the project even though her officials determined it did not meet the criteria for a federal program.

Note: Chabad is an extreme fundamentalist branch of Judaism and opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.  

ED:These are the (gentile hating supremacists) folks who inspire the settlers in their illegal occupation and murderous tactics.

 Baird and his dear friend Mendelsohn.

“As the MP for Ottawa West-Nepean, he was happy to lend Rabbi Mendelsohn his support,” said Mr. Baird’s spokesman. “Determinations are then made by the department.”

The Ottawa-based rabbi recently joined Mr. Baird on a tour of Israel. During that January visit, Mr. Baird repeatedly joked in his speeches that while he was not Jewish, he did have a rabbi.

3. Harper government has walked away from its environmental responsibilities

Failure to comply with the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act was no surprise ~ the Harperites withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol last December to a chorus of international denunciations.

But it was surprising that Dear Leader’s better course, a sector-by-sector regulatory regime to lower greenhouse gases, had been so utterly abandoned.

 

4. More shabby treatment for Canada’s veterans

Veterans learned yet again this week that federal agencies ostensibly there to assist them don’t have their back.

Monday, the Veterans Ombudsman released a sharply critical report on the Veterans Review and Appeals Board, the body supposed to give sympathetic hearings to veterans who appeal decisions by Veterans Affairs on benefits.

5. Federal Tories tied to Quebec companies accused of corruption

The federal Conservative Party received donations from dozens of employees at three engineering firms now implicated in high-profile police investigations into Quebec's construction industry.

6. Tories refuse to split budget bill in face of NDP sabre rattling

New Democrats are promising a strong reaction to the Conservative government’s refusal to split an omnibus budget bill into a number of parts to allow for more thorough debate.

“They have been trying to move parliamentary committees behind closed doors, frustrating the ability of Canadians to know what's going on in their own government,” he said. “The press is being kept out but the public is also being kept out ..."

7. Green Party: Environmental and Agricultural Legislation affected by the budget bill

“As more and more people are realizing, the Harper Conservatives have packed their so-called budget bill with lots of non-budget items in order to hide them from the public, and even confuse their elected representatives,” said [Green Party leader Elizabeth] May.

8. Federal government flunks freedom of expression, says journalists’ group

Access to information requests denied, digital rights threatened, scientists muzzled.

9. Robocalls gift cards bought in Guelph

The mysterious operative known as Pierre Poutine paid for his attack on the electorate using prepaid “Vanilla” gift cards purchased from two local Shoppers Drug Mart locations.

10. Investigators come up empty-handed in search for video of robocalls suspect

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the video footage they were looking for,” said Tammy Smitham, Shoppers director of communications and corporate affairs. “We don’t keep it for that long.”

Citing corporate security, Smitham would not say how long the closed-circuit security videos are typically retained.

11. UN to probe our 'broken' food system

Canada has the dubious distinction of being the first wealthy nation in the world to face a probe by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food.

De Schutter's mission, characterized by the NDP's aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder as "shocking," comes after the Conservative government tabled a federal budget that included targeted cuts to aboriginal health initiatives.

Ed Note: Remember all those cuts to the military budget? From the Star: "... Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is laying off employees but is not providing public information on where the cuts are falling." It appears likely that they aren't so much in the fighting department as in the services to veterans.