Updated Again: Has Myriam Bedard Joined a Very Select Group?

Update 2:

I have no idea whether there is any connection between Myriam Bedard and her husband's current troubles and loss of reputation (veracity) and whistleblowing. Nevertheless, whistleblowing comes to mind; it is time to review the testimony and what happened when others blew the whistle on wrong doing in government. Search Google for Johanna Gualtieri; I have run out of time but check this.

I won't be silenced -- "After a four year battle to expose lavish spending by Canadian diplomats from Asia to Europe to Latin America, a whistleblower has been given the right to sue the government for C$36 million" Aug 22, 2002, Asian Pacific News Service

After a four year court battle to expose lavish spending of tax dollars by Canadian diplomats and alleged systematic harassment by managers at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Gualtieri has now been given the right to be heard in a court.

[. . . . ] Gualtieri compiled a litany of waste, abuses and violation of Treasury guidelines that was costing the taxpayer millions of dollars. Gualtieri said when she tried to raise this in reports to her bosses, she was ostracized, sidelined and harassed.

Gualtieri, 40, and her co-worker John Guenette filed a civil suit in June, 1998, asking for $3-million each in damages against the federal government and eight Foreign Affairs managers. They also sued for $30-million in punitive damages to set up a non-profit organization to protect the rights of government employees. [. . . . ]

Search: Lloyd Axworthy [then Min. of Foreign Affairs] , PSAC , the culture of secrecy in the Department of Foreign Affairs





How could I have failed to add these important whistleblowers? Their careers suffered and they suffered other major losses. Some, like ex-RCMP Cpl. Robert Read suffered for years, a parliamentary committee exonerated him and still he was not reinstated. Note the common thread. Under whose watch? What will the proposed whistleblower legislation do for whistleblowers in future? See whether it is designed to protect the government / government department or to protect the whistleblower. Make a guess.

Scroll down for excerpts February 15, 2005:

Robert Read ex-RCMP: "Triads had infested Canada's immigration system" -- "a political silver bullet" -- NATIONAL SECURITY

The Report:

38th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION -- Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates -- EVIDENCE: ex-RCMP Corporal Robert Read, ex-foreign service officer, the blunt ex-foreign service officer Brian Adams, Joanna Gualtieri, Canada's expert on whistle-blowing, civil servant Allan Cutler, et cetera, February 3, 2005 -- you may download it.

Evidence: excerpts from the above report

Bill C-11 Whistleblowers and Quotations: Cutler, Selwyn, Read (RCMP), McAdam (Foreign Service Officer)

Bill C-11 Whistleblowers, Introduction: Mr. Leon Benoit CPC -- EVIDENCE-Quotes from Mr. Allan Cutler, Mr. Selwyn Pieters, ex-foreign service officer in Hong Kong, Brian McAdam and ex-RCMP Corporal Read

The exclusion of the RCMP and over 100 divisions and branches is most curious. One has to wonder why this bill excludes RCMP, CSIS, CSE, the military, etc., and, under clause 6, a total of about 63 divisions or branches of government and 49 corporations.

So much for the "protection" of whistleblowers. Others have written on how it was designed to protect the government.



January 25, 2005 Immigration-Problems-Terrorists, Cdn Diplomat Bolts Beijing, Islamist Hate-Crime Charges, Germany-Deport Islamists,Israeli Apartheid Week in Canada -- note links
End of update.

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Update 1: I decided to use Google and check the parliamentary record of Myriam Bedard's testimony.

If you check this government page for the word "drugs", you won't find it. Why? I watched Myriam Bedard's testimony and she mentioned drugs.

Edited Evidence * PACC * Number 014 (Official Version) - Committees of ... March 24, 2004


Isn't Andrew Coyne being sued for some reason or other -- maybe crossing individuals associated with or in government?

Is there a pattern developing here? Should one not ask?

Andrew Coyne: It just keeps getting better and better...

OTTAWA (CP) - Former Olympian Myriam Bedard made some startling allegations in regard to the federal sponsorship scandal Wednesday, including that she heard Jacques Villeneuve was secretly paid $12 million US to wear the Canada logo on his racing suit.

Bedard, who was appearing before a Commons committee probing the sponsorship scandal, also said she had been told that Groupaction - one of the ad companies at the heart of the scandal - was involved in drug dealing....

Coyne linked to Racer given $12M US to wear Cdn. logo: Bedard

[. . . . ] While with Via, Bedard worked with Groupaction Marketing Inc., one of the Quebec-based, Liberal-friendly advertising companies at the heart of the sponsorship scandal.

Drug allegation

Bedard said that at a meeting with Via president Marc LeFrancois in 2001, he told her that Groupaction was involved in drug trafficking.
[. . . . ] Late Wednesday, Groupaction president Jean Brault denied his company had any involvement in drug dealing.

[. . . . ] Asked why she was fired at that time, Bedard noted it was about the time then-public works minister Alfonso Gagliano was made ambassador to Denmark.

"For some reason, they had to get rid of me immediately," she said. [. . . . ]

Olympic athlete paints picture of sponsorship program corruption Luma Muhtadie, Globe and Mail, Mar. 25, 04


End of update.

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Earlier today I posted this first item; it got me thinking so I checked some whistleblowers who had misfortune after crossing the powerful. I have posted links to other posts and an excerpt from a book which may or may not be apropos. See what you think. NJC




Olympic medalist Bedard stands by her man as he is charged in art thefts

Nima Mazhari, 50, faces charges of theft and possession of stolen property in the disappearance of up to 20 paintings by Canadian artist Ghitta Caiserman-Roth. Mr. Mazhari, a sculptor, photographer and writer, shared studio space with Ms. Caiserman-Roth. [. . . . ]

Think back to the harassment suffered by Mr. Beaudoin of the BDC and a few others. Remember, Myriam mentioned drugs in her testimony--was it before Justice Gomery? Now is there anyone who would like to tar her or her partner's reputation? Who would benefit? Had Myriam Bedard become a whistleblower?



If you scroll down, you will find a post, "Governance and the Guardians: The RCMP", with some intriguing excerpts from Paul Palango's book on the RCMP. The following excerpt came to mind when I read of Myriam Bedard's partner and the art theft charge.

The Common Thread in the Politicization of the National Police Force?

In Quebec, politics have always played a large role in the justice system. The Quebec premier and his minister of justice have historically exercised control over not only the administration of justice but its execution as well. The political level has its hand in everything from the appointment of judges to the laying of charges against an individual. There are none of the checks and balances one might expect to find in a U.S. court for example. There has never been much pretense in Quebec that the province is governed by the rule of law -- that is that all people are subject to the law and equal under the law. In Quebec, from Premier Honore Mercier through Duplessis, from the governments of Robert Bourassa to the current problems of wrongdoing within the province's major police departments, corruption has been a constant. The elite of business, society, and politics are treated differently in Quebec than they would be within the Canadian justice system.

Before long, attitudes about the law and policing which had long been commonplace in Quebec began to be adopted by the federal justice system. [Palango, Paul. The Last Guardians: The Crisis in the RCMP . . . and in Canada, 97]

Updates on the Liberal Sponsorship/Slush Fund Scandal Feb. 27, 05

Since the article below was written, Quebec Olympic gold medalist Miriam (Myriam?) Bedard has come forward and stated . . .

Scroll down the same page for:

Chantal Hebert on the Endemic Corruption

An epidemic of amnesia -- None of the major players in the sponsorship scandal seems aware they were breaking nearly every accounting rule Chantal Hebert, The Star, Feb. 25, 04


Search: Jean Chretien, vindictiveness , "Canada Post CEO, Georges Clermont" , Brian Mulroney , Beaudoin




Read what happened with Francois Beaudoin.

PM, Flags, Promises to Keep to Nfld., Sponsorship / ADSCAM, Beaudoin, ADSCAM 'Dry Cleaning' -- "In the end, Beaudoin was vindicated in a bitter lawsuit, winning restoration of the pension benefits the bank had tried to deny him." January 15, 2005



Francois Beaudoin on Crown Corps and Foundations, CBS' Fenton & Media Revelations, UN & US February 25, 2005

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