Canadians' Security and Other Government Priorities

List of Articles:

* Playing games with Canadians' security -- Berger on the 'Wall' -- The election debate behind the documents-in-pants caper

* Federal government committed to marijuana decriminalization: Martin

* Immigration Minister Judy Sgro keeps job, fires aides (two of whom cost taxpayers' $$$ for accommodation)

* Bulgarian Olympian lands in Canadian jail over decade-old, transatlantic car fraud -- Note use of fake documents

* Political correctness run amok -- CRTC

* CRTC: Censoring a voice of reason -- His critics say he is vulgar -- but Jeff Fillion's real 'crime' was that he dared skewer Quebec's sacred cows

---

Playing games with Canadians' security -- Berger on the 'Wall' -- The election debate behind the documents-in-pants caper

So much for the Canadian govenment touting how great their intelligence was. It was an alert U.S. Customs oficer who noticed Ressam sweating which aroused her suspicion and he was caught after trying to escape. We're short at least 700 CSIS agents. When is the government going to take protecting the public seriously instead of cranking up the hot air? Security is so tight in Parliament that Frank magazine staffers were able to access restricted areas. If security can't protect MP's what the h*** are the rest of us supposed to do? Instead of playing games, they should implement Senator Kenny's recommendations, in addition to getting the staffing for our security agencies up to where it was 10 years ago.

There's no shortage of money -- the gun registry, the sponsorship scandal and all the money falling out the back door of the Brink's truck as it travelled across the country on the election route attest to that.

From today's vantage we can see the consequences. Ahmed Ressam was one of the would-be Millennium bombers whom the French had identified to U.S. intelligence agencies as an al Qaeda operative planning to attack America. But the "wall of separation" meant that when an alert U.S. customs officer stopped Ressam as he tried to enter the country from Vancouver, the Justice Department had no idea who he was. This helps illuminate the claim made in the missing memo, according to Mr. Ashcroft's testimony, that our success in stopping these 1999 attacks was a result of sheer "luck."

Berger on the 'Wall' -- The election debate behind the documents-in-pants caper. July 21, 2004

[. . . . ] Mr. Berger admits to having deliberately taken handwritten notes he'd made out of the Archives reading room. On the more serious charges involving the removal (and subsequent discarding) of highly classified documents--including drafts of a key, after-action memo Mr. Berger had himself ordered on the U.S. response to al Qaeda threats in the run-up to the Millennium--he maintains he did so "inadvertently."

There's only one way to clear away the political smoke: Release all the drafts of the review Mr. Berger took from the room.

If it's all as innocent as Mr. Berger's friends are saying, there's no reason not to make them public. But there are good reasons for questioning Mr. Berger's dog-ate-my-homework explanation. To begin with, he was not simply preparing for his testimony before the 9/11 Commission. He was the point man for the Clinton Administration, reviewing and selecting the documents to be turned over to the Commission. [. . . . ]

Mr. Berger admits to having deliberately taken handwritten notes he'd made out of the Archives reading room. On the more serious charges involving the removal (and subsequent discarding) of highly classified documents--including drafts of a key, after-action memo Mr. Berger had himself ordered on the U.S. response to al Qaeda threats in the run-up to the Millennium--he maintains he did so "inadvertently."

Federal government committed to marijuana decriminalization: Martin

Federal government committed to marijuana decriminalization: Martin Alexander Panetta, CP, July 21, 2004

OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government is committed to marijuana decriminalization and will reintroduce legislation to make it happen, Prime Minister Paul Martin said in his first statement on the issue since winning re-election.

The Liberal government will bring back a bill that died with the election call and re-table it after Parliament resumes sitting in October, he said Wednesday following a meeting of his new cabinet. "The legislation on marijuana - the decriminalization of minor quantities of marijuana - that legislation will be introduced."

According to the original bill, anyone caught with 15 grams of pot or less would receive a ticket instead of criminal charges. But those caught trafficking more than 15 grams would receive harsher penalties.

Critics say the bill could lead to more cases of intoxicated driving and cause traffic snarls at the Canada-U.S. border while American customs agents intensify their search for drugs.

They also bemoan the 15-gram ceiling for non-criminal use, calculating that it would become legal for someone to carry more than 30 joints at a time.

[. . . . ]


Immigration Minister Sgro keeps job, fires aides

Minister keeps job, fires aides Campbell Clark, July 22, 04

[. . . . ] Some of those fired said people were told the staff are not "diverse" enough.

The staff fired at Ms. Sgro's office ranged from her chief of staff, Ian Laird, to junior aides.

Mr. Laird and Ms. Sgro's senior policy adviser, Ihor Wons, became the subject of controversy when hospitality and travel expenses for ministers and their staff were made public recently.

The two aides filed expense claims of roughly $3,300 a month to live in temporary accommodations in Ottawa for six months after they were hired. [. . . . ]

How quickly a Minister can move since her own position might have been threatened by the bad publicity; however, look how slowly things move when aliens can enter Canada using fake documents. The following is only example.


Bulgarian Olympian lands in Canadian jail over decade-old, transatlantic car fraud -- Note use of fake documents

Bulgarian Olympian lands in Canadian jail over decade-old, transatlantic car fraud CanWest News Service, July 22, 2004

A former Olympic weightlifter from Bulgaria was sentenced to one year in a Manitoba jail yesterday after pleading guilty to a bizarre, nearly decade-old fraud case that began in Winnipeg and spanned the globe. Encio Encev, 49, admitted to entering Canada on a bogus passport in 1995 and obtaining a bank account and credit cards using his fake identity. He and two other men then purchased five vehicles worth more than $200,000 that they planned to ship to Bulgaria, where they would sell for big profits. [. . . . ]

Political correctness run amok -- CRTC

Political correctness run amok Arthur Weinreb Monday, July 19, 2004

The CRTC, an independent government body is out to control the media in such a way that the values of the Liberal Party of Canada and their values only are reflected in programming. We all know from the past election, anyone who does not agree with the Liberals is un-Canadian and does not have so-called Canadian values. [. . . . ]

CRTC: Censoring a voice of reason -- His critics say he is vulgar -- but Jeff Fillion's real 'crime' was that he dared skewer Quebec's sacred cows

Censoring a voice of reason Frederick Tetu, National Post, July 22, 2004

[. . . . ] Observers in the rest of Canada might have already wondered why Quebec's nationalist leaders haven't leapt to Fillion's defence. Think about it: a federal institution, based in Ottawa and headed by an anglophone, closes the most popular radio station in Quebec city, the heart of Quebec's French heartland, for reasons of content. It would seem to be a golden opportunity for the likes of Bernard Landry and Gilles Duceppe to protect les interets du Quebec, and lambaste the CRTC for not being sensitive to francophones' preferences, for not understanding Quebec's unique character, and so forth. Since Quebecers often like to brag that they are more culturally permissive than English Canadians, the CRTC's decision could easily have been cast as an act of Anglo-Saxon Puritanism.

Yet none of this has happened. On the contrary, Agnes Maltais, a former Parti Quebecois minister from Quebec city, and one of the only surviving PQ MNAs in the region, was quick this week to tell anyone who would listen that the CRTC's decision was "une decision juste."

But this sanguine reaction should not come as a surprise. Jeff Fillion -- along with Andre Arthur, the anchor of CHOI's sister station -- has long been disliked by Quebec's separatists. [. . . . ]