Updated: "Privacy" abuses taxpayers, China-SAmer, Senate -&- Daycare Etc.

I have other commitments and no time for other posts -- but these are must read articles I just had to post -- with updates and comments added. There is one new post below this.



Updates:

Radwanski to face fraud charges Kelly Patrick, National Post, March 16, 2006

TORONTO - The RCMP has laid fraud and breach of trust charges against former federal privacy commissioner George Radwanski, more than two years after announcing it would probe the inappropriate spending that led to his June, 2003, resignation. [. . . . ]

The Mounties' 26-month investigation also resulted in charges against Mr. Radwanski's former chief of staff, Arthur Lamarche. [. . . . ]

Search: during a 2 1/2-year term Auditor-General Sheila Fraser said in a 2003 report , marred by more than $500,000 , Mr. Radwanski's lawyer, Edward Greenspan


Question: Are the taxpayers picking up the tab for this expensive lawyer as they are for others? (I seem to recall they are paying for a lawyer for ex-sponsorship PM Chretien though the details are fuzzy now. Was it only for his appearance before Justice Gomery? You'll have to check.)



Chinese Training Military in Latin America NewsMax.com Wire, Wednesday, March 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- China is training increasing numbers of Latin American military personnel, taking advantage of a three-year old U.S. law that has led to a sharp decline in U.S.-run training programs for the region, an Army general said Tuesday. [. . . . ]

Notice how many leftists--or are they properly termed Communists?--are running governments in South America?



Hillary Clinton Rips Bill's Panama Ports Deal Feb. 27, 2006

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is expanding her complaint about foreign companies owning U.S. ports - and now says a 1999 deal to let a Chinese company [Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa] takeover the ports at each end of the Panama Canal was a mistake.

[. . . . ] Mrs. Clinton neglected to mention, however, that it was her husband who approved the deal in question, when the Chinese company, Hutchison Whampoa, sought to buy the Panama Canal's ports. [. . . . ]

Hillary a little slow on the uptake?



Senate

Lorne Gunter: Putting the regions back into the Senate -- Whether elected or appointed, the Red Chamber won't function properly unless the provinces pick our senators

In a three-part series, the National Post is examining the implications of the Conservative government's plan to reform Canada's Senate. To help guide Stephen Harper, we have asked three authors to offer their prescriptions. In today's second instalment, Lorne Gunter argues for an elected Senate. [. . . . ]

Still, while I favour an elected Senate above the other two choices, I fear electing senators in the wrong manner will eventually be more destructive to regional and provincial aspirations than not electing it at all. [. . . . ]

Paul Vieira: Elected Senate a powder keg -- Stephen Harper's plans for an elected Senate could shake an institution that has withstood previous reform efforts. It could also change the way Canada... National Post, March 15, 2006

[. . . . ] APPOINTMENT BREAKDOWN:

Stephen Harper: one
Paul Martin: 17 [And how long was he in office as PM to stack the deck? That is why Mr. Mulroney had to expand the Senate which was overwhelmingly Liberal.]
Jean Chretien: 44
Brian Mulroney: 24 [Progressive Conservative]
John Turner: one
Joe Clark: one
Pierre Trudeau: 12

PARTY BREAKDOWN:
Liberals: 66
Conservatives: 24 [Are these the ones appointed by Brian Mulroney? Weren't they Progressive Conservatives? Of course they were, with maybe one or two exceptions. Check. ]
Progressive Conservatives: four
New Democratic Party: one
Independent: five

Two nations, only one Lords -- A shrinking house of controversy Joseph Brean, National Post, March 16, 2006

Re: UK

[. . . . ] As with the Canadian Senate, the Lords provide a sober second thought to non-financial bills, but they are generally expected to do the bidding of their elected counterparts in the Commons.

Unlike the Senate, however, the House of Lords is also Britain's highest court of appeal, with a subset of 12 "Law Lords" acting much like the Supreme Court of Canada.

Last year, legislation was passed that will eventually create a Supreme Court.

Premiers not in favour of more powerful Senate -- "There's the potential for provincial premiers losing power -- and politicians are very jealous of that." Paul Vieira, National Post, March 16, 2006

OTTAWA - When Canada came together in 1867 the founding fathers agreed that the Senate would act as the voice of the regions in the national Parliament.

The formula for regional representation in the upper chamber, it was envisaged, would offset the dominance of central Canada in the lower chamber, or House of Commons.

It hasn't worked out that way, and one of the reasons reformists champion an elected Senate is to enhance its effectiveness. Which may explain why some of the provincial premiers are so opposed to Senate reform today. Recreating the Senate as a truly effective voice of regional interests would only detract from their own claim to be the voice of the people. [. . . . ]

Privacy

Medical researchers caught faking it -- Federal grant recipients -- "Officials at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) say they cannot, under federal privacy laws, identify the researchers." Margaret Munro, CanWest, March 16, 2006

More than a dozen scientists and doctors, several of them recipients of sizable federal grants, have been faking research, destroying data, plagiarizing or conducting experiments on people without necessary ethics approvals, the country's lead research agencies report.

One medical researcher, who was awarded $1,347,445 for various projects, fabricated and falsified data .... [. . . . ]

CIHR and NSERC distribute almost $1.5-billion tax dollars a year to close to 16,000 researchers and thousands more graduate students across the country. [. . . . ]

Search: worst case of scientific fakery in two decades , Health Canada also refuses ....

I did a search: news, nserc, plagiarism, fraud

Some of the results:

There may be repetition or overlap; I simply have not the time to read all of this now -- and it it lengthy and detailed.

Caveat: I skimmed but did not read these completely. Yet, there seems to be something to the story of Michael Pyshnov.

Carnegie Foundation: The corrupt Canadian academia...Posted by Michael Pyshnov the scientist who is making the charges: see below for his supporting documents that you may read and judge for yourself. (max2-net131-ip066-toronto.ica.net)Date: 4/7/2005 7:24:02 PM

In 1985 I was a mature PhD student at the University of Toronto. Two of my papers were published earlier in The Journal of Theoretical Biology. I postulated and described a "division wave" of cells in the tissue and showed that the division wave is the only way in which the cells can divide and multiply without destroying the structure of the tissue. In my PhD research I made the discovery (predicted by me) of embryonic cell patterns responsible for the structure of adult organs in Drosophila.

The opinion of the Department about me was this: "We estimate he is of first-class calibre.., our Departmental Graduate Committee ranked him 1st of 7 applicants for PGS-3 awards [the highest scholarship in Canada, NSERC]. He has already proven himself as an independent researcher". My supervisor's opinion was: "Mr. Pyshnov's demonstrated creativity in conceiving of this novel approach plus his superb technical skills uniquely qualify him to carry out these studies of far reaching significance." She said that I am "a man of proven scholarly attainments" and "a very creative scientist".

However, in 1986 my status was fraudulently changed to "lapsed candidate". [. . . . ]

Privacy

University of Toronto Fraud

This site contains evidence of fraud and criminal conspiracy perpetrated by the following: President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) T. Brzustowski, former Ontario Minister D. Cunningham, former Ont. Attorney General J. Flaherty, former University of Toronto President R. Birgeneau (presently - Chancellor of the UC at Berkeley), University of Toronto professors: I. Orchard, D. Dewees, B. Roots, S. Desser, P. Gooch, E. Larsen.

The whole affair was conducted with confidence that reporting it in the media will be precluded, and the complete blackout exists to this day.

Download this site if you wish to preserve this evidence. [. . . . ]

List of documents or if the site is banned: Click on Cached in Google for "University of Toronto fraud"



Maritimes independent media centre: "University of Toronto fraud. The most censored story of corruption."



Bulk of editorial board quits embattled CMA Journal CNEWS, Mar. 16, 06

TORONTO (CP) - The bulk of the editorial board of the Canadian Medical Association Journal resigned Thursday in an ongoing battle with the journal's owner, the Canadian Medical Association, over the issue of editorial independence. [. . . . ]

The New England Journal of Medicine will publish an article with details in the March 30 issue. You won't learn much in Canadian news, imho. See just below.


Bumped up: Medical researchers caught faking it -- taxpayer funded -- with privacy protection ........

The malfeasance occurred at several universities -- their punishments? Cut off research funding from 1 to 4 years. If an adult (not a teen) commits a relatively small crime, his/her name is published, but if a white collar criminal / researcher commits what amounts to a crime using taxpayer money, the system seems to kick in to protect that person. Taxpayers may not know and vote with their feet. How many are mentioned as moving on or fired? The system kicks in to protect itself and those who falsified their research. That doesn't seem fair, does it? It is rather like the sponsorship scam where politicians are protected from punishment for their part in it; they passed time-limiting legislation, as I recall. And they didn't know a thing?



A husband is someone who, after taking the trash out, gives the impression that he just cleaned the whole house. (from a friend)


Daycare and Equality / Equity

Excellent William Watson: Daycare on strike: Canadians can hope Stephen Harper and Jean Charest aren't mapping out a blueprint for a national 'social economy'

Instead union leaders, ministers and senior bureaucrats negotiate one wage for the whole province. The way parents have their say is by providing more or less pressure as union leaders order more or less inconvenience. People's responsibility for their own actions becomes attenuated. Parents would like to help daycare workers but, hey, it's not up to us, it's up to the minister. Workers would prefer not to inconvenience parents and children, but, hey, what can we do, the union called us out.

Shrug!

We see this kind of thing repeated in health care, in education, almost everywhere there are monopoly public services. Reporters from the Gazette in Montreal recently followed a [. . . . ]

Search: "But it is work ... of ... equal ... value. How do we know? Consultants told us so." [re: equality / equity]

Actually, I think parenting is so important it should be done by a parent, not someone outside the home. Our tax structure should reflect this and reward parents who actually think about what they are doing when they have a child -- that there are responsibilities that come with a child. Also, when you choose to parent it may entail making do with less but first, thinking about the consequences. Make a choice about lifestyle versus parenting and what comes with it, responsibilities that no-one else can shoulder in the same way. Obviously, adversity ameliorates this in some cases such as the death of a spoouse -- but I want to hear about the fathers who create single moms too. Where are they and their responsibilities?

I really like this article on daycare and also on reimbursement of women, perhaps because I would like the merit principle rewarded more than the networking and longevity principles rewarded -- leading to that great leveller, mediocrity.



Paul Champagne, DND, Procurement, HP

Note that HP has repaid at least some of the money and they going to court over this. Politicians? Anyone else? ..... I jest, of course.

Operation invoice -- re: Paul Champagne and associates -- "The inside story of the extraordinary scam that stripped DND of $146 million" James Bagnall and Glen McGregor, The Ottawa Citizen, March 11, 2006

After everything that had gone before -- the years of building a private-sector network of impressive range and power, Paul Champagne's change of jobs in November 2000 seemed odd.

He was an independent procurement expert, a fixer with a wealth of contacts inside the military establishment. Now he was proposing to take a salary cut and become a DND bureaucrat. People usually moved the other way. [. . . . ]

willing to take a salary cut. [. . . . ]

the military invoicing scheme [. . . . ]

The criminal proceedings -- scheduled to begin March 22 with a preliminary hearing -- carry potentially large risks for HP and the federal government, as well as the defendants. HP could find its own procurement procedures under scrutiny, while a trial would expose weaknesses in government contracting practices and standards. Some of the flaws emerged following a mid-1990s downsizing, which squeezed procurement and auditing jobs at DND and Public Works, the agency responsible for negotiating and auditing nearly all federal contracts. The reduction in bodies was exacerbated by the slower-than-expected installation of information management systems. A DND post-mortem concluded that managers didn't have access to data that might have alerted them to the invoicing scam. [. . . . ]

Lengthy, detailed, with a timeline -- how he accomplished it: Inside job -- Operation Invoice: Part 2 of a series James Bagnall and Glen Mcgregor, The Ottawa Citizen, March 12, 2006

Operation Invoice, Part 2: Paul Champagne knew his corner of DND and its computer systems inside out. He also knew, it's alleged, that DND was one place where citing national security concerns could smooth the path of vaguely worded invoices for services never rendered. For investigators, it pointed to an ...

In part one, published yesterday and which can be read at www.ottawacitizen.com, Citizen writers James Bagnall and Glen McGregor traced the career of Paul Champagne from the computer operations rooms of Mitel, DY 4 Systems and Monenco to the inner sanctum of the Department of National Defence, where he served as an independent contractor and procurement expert. Although Mr. Champagne earned only a five-figure salary, associates couldn't help but notice that he had accumulated significant wealth by the mid-1990s. It was just the beginning. [. . . . ]

And nobody suspected in DND? in procurement? DCPS?