Corruptos Join Saddam, Marcos, Noriega--$355-MILLION & Latest Fashion: Liberal Party of Canada Pin, Mint Red, Muslims & Polio, China & Currency

Updates are below the Liberal Pin. NJC

My source has forwarded to me a picture of the new Liberal Party of Canada Commemorative Pin. These pins, embossed in gold, will be handed out to all party members who have received government contracts, patronage appointments, or little envelopes. My source assures me that at least 50,000 such pins will be awarded.

New Liberal Party of Canada Pin

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Update 1:


From the Forensic Accountants, THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM AND ADVERTISING ACTIVITIES -- Kroll Lindquist Avey Report -- 189 pages of what looks very interesting, perhaps explosive -- via Newsbeat1




Kroll Forensic Accountants "ready to blow the lid off Adscam" & Angry in the Great White North

Forensic accountant to tell all -- Firm followed the Adscam money trail -- "they're ready to blow the lid off Adscam" by Stephanie Rubec, Parliamentary Bureau, May 24, 05



Wanted: Liberal Party of Canada for theft of $2 million Angry in the Great White North, May 24, 05 -- or here

$2 million -- that is the amount of taxpayers' money the Kroll accountants say they could identify entering the Liberal Party coffers. [. . . . ]

Other tidbits: The accountants studied 28 million pages of documents, and over a longer period of time, in particular covering a time period after the Auditor General's report -- this is the primary reason they were able to identify nearly $100 million dollars more in taxpayer money being moved through the Sponsorship Program. Among the other discoveries, $51 million went into the pockets of the advertising firms. [. . . . ]

To write and thank Auditor General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, who has been doing a superb job, champion of ordinary Canadians . . . all the ones who do the paying instead of the receiving:

Sheila Fraser, Auditor General of Canada, 240 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G6.

Since An email was not obvious on her site, and while this is obviously someone who arranges the AG's speaking engagements, still, a message should get to her by emailing: galeysh@oag-bvg.gc.ca or call (613) 995-3708.

Sheila Fraser deserves our appreciation.



First bombshell from the accountants or for the original, Sponsorship loss now $355 million, probe finds

The total amount of money lost in the sponsorship scandal now appears to be $355 million -- more than $100 million than was originally thought.

[. . . . ] The new figure of $355 million is from the forensic accounting firm, Kroll Lindquist Avey.

"They have in the past looked for money from such people as Saddam Hussein, the Marcos family, Manuel Noriega -- that sort of thing," [CTV's Jed] Kahane said.

Adscam allegations proven in court? or see Coffin may change plea on fraud charges -- may plead guilty -- lawyers in negotiations with the Crown CP, May 24, 05

Gagliano rebuffed in bid to intervene in Gomery-removal case -- Who says there's no good news? CP, May 24, 05

OTTAWA (CP) - Alfonso Gagliano has been rebuffed in his bid to help oust Justice John Gomery from the sponsorship inquiry.

A lawyer for the ex-public works minister couldn't persuade a Federal Court judge that Gagliano should be allowed to help remove Gomery. [. . . . ]

Taxpayers lay out $1M for Liberals' Gomery war room -- "to handle the fallout from the Gomery commission." -- Why?

Documents obtained by CanWest News Service through the Access to Information Act reveal the rapid-response war room, which is in almost daily contact with the Prime Minister's Office and the government's top bureaucrat, Alex Himelfarb, is operating out of the Privy Council Office.

The cost of the strategic office, which does everything from prepare answers for Question Period in the House of Commons to keeping the PMO abreast of testimony at the inquiry, covers the salaries of staff and expenses.

The Gomery war room and its cost came to light on the heels of last week's complaints from Judge John Gomery about federal officials exaggerating the cost of his inquiry.

Wasting $$$ unto the end? Misspeaking themselves, as well.



No Quid pro Quo for Chuck Cadman

Victims' rights on agenda, Cotler tells Cadman



Stronach hits back at 'disgraceful' attacks on her for jumping to Liberals -- Stronach owed the CPC money

Conservative officials have pointed out that [Stronach] jumped to the Liberals the day before a deadline set by her old party to pay $379,000 that they say she owes from her leadership campaign. [. . . . ]

DFO: Hiding "systemic criminal activity in the salmon fishery"

Feds must cut native net -- DFO accused of ruining the Pacific salmon fishery

[. . . . ] Where 75 fisheries officers are needed, DFO has 30, and it has already hinted it could lay off as many as 10 of those this year. Judge Williams added that by 2003, illegal poaching on the Fraser had become so endemic and guns and violence so widespread, "portions of the river were a no-go zone for DFO staff." There was no longer any meaningful monitoring of the upstream catch because fisheries officers were intimidated.

Where DFO is complicit is in covering up the native activities. One of its own internal reports had alerted the department as early as 2003 about the systemic criminal activity in the salmon fishery and had documented numerous cases where armed native fishermen had threatened DFO staff. But DFO tried to keep that report from the Williams committee and only very reluctantly released a heavily black-out version to Judge Williams last month -- after he had completed his interim report. Then they shut down his inquiry before he could made his final evaluation.

Technology troubles at Royal Canadian Mint leave monarch red-faced Dean Beeby, CP, May 24, 05

[. . . . ] Newly disclosed documents show the 25-cent coin project was beset by technical problems that produced thousands of quarters with a red splotch on Her Majesty's right cheek. [. . . . ]

The Liberal Red-Faced 25-cent coin -- another symbol?

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A Conspiracy Theory Spreads Polio by Daniel Pipes, New York Sun [NY Sun title: "Conspiracy Spreads Polio"], May 24, 2005

A worldwide campaign begun in 1988 to eradicate the polio infection was on the verge of success when, early in 2003, a conspiracy theory took hold of the Muslim population in northern Nigeria. That conspiracy theory has single-handedly returned polio to epidemic proportions.

The theory's source seems to be a physician and the president of Nigeria's Supreme Council for Shari'a Law, Ibrahim Datti Ahmed, 68. Dr. Ahmed, an Islamist, accuses Americans of lacing the vaccine with an anti-fertility agent that sterilizes children (or, in an alternate theory, it infects them with AIDS) and considers them, according to John Murphy of the Baltimore Sun, "the worst criminals on Earth … Even Hitler was not as evil as that." [. . . . ]

The ignorance is boundless.

Now, that idea about lacing something with an anti-fertility agent . . . hmmmmmm . . . an idea whose time has come . . . but where is it needed . . . and for what?



China Currency vs US $

U.S. government warns China to overhaul its currency system; calls it unfair 5/17/2005

American manufacturers say this system has undervalued the yuan by as much as 40 per cent. The weaker yuan makes Chinese goods cheaper in the United States and American products pricier in China.

"While China's 10-year-long pegged currency regime may have at times contributed to stability, it no longer does," the Treasury report said. The report called China's currency policies "highly distortionary" - posing a risk to, among other things, China's trading partners and global economic growth. [. . . . ]

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