Dec. 28, 2006: Financing Disaster

Funding through EDC and related tentacles

Traditionally, Canada has been a safe country within which to live. I have never had a problem with the use of nuclear power within Canada. However, I do have a problem with what I have learned concerning export and how much it has cost Canadians, and with some of the countries with which Canada has tried to, or would do business. Is there a problem of transparency, as well? In the following I noted a difference between a Corporate Account and a Canada Account, among other things.

The current situation in Canada leaves me somewhat more apprehensive:

* given the corruption that has surfaced in Canada, and the likelihood of more evidence of it to come,
* given the nexus among crime, drugs, criminal gangs, money laundering, terrorists, and the scope for bribery,
* given the past laxity in funding and support for our military and security services,
* given the evident insecurity of our entry points--ports, airports, border, even our north, * given the fact that very little of the cargo entering Canada is inspected, and maybe it cannot be adequately inspected, with the available manpower and instrumentation,
* given the proliferation of nuclear knowledge and theft of same (see previous posts on this website),
* given the other security lapses such as have been detailed concerning our foreign embassies (e.g. Hong Kong, Beijing),
* given the laxity in the areas of immigration and refugee determination,
* given the expanded and expanding "rights" industry aided by various, often taxpayer-funded, activist and refugee-aid groups,
* given the growing lack of faith many of us have in our courts and justice system, a system consisting of appointees, where political connections count, and where usually left leaning philosophy has counted more than respect for the intent of the law and for upholding the laws Canada already has, as opposed to creating new law, and where the primary consideration should be the security of Canadians, ahead of aliens,

I think Canadians have much to worry about, considering what has gone before and what could be coming, considering the security issues and the expansion of population through immigration and refugees controlled by appointees with all that means, and that all have inadequate time and manpower to adequately safeguard us. It is essential that, in future, we have a government which is not corrupt, that is incorruptible.


Note: I considered whether to post the following link or not, because it is from an anti-nuclear group. Canadians do not have to be anti-nuclear to suggest extreme caution. I have been reassured about Canada's use of nuclear power and repairing or building more. People who know something about nuclear reactors and the safety standards surrounding the Canadian nuclear reactors are confident in them. They would build more nuclear facilities.

The report which I suggest people read carefully, concerns security and bribery issues with past international sales. Taxpayers might want to read this closely, particularly as it is the section concerning Canadian international sales ... and their repercussions, in hindsight.



EDC = Export Development Corporation - including a CIDA component

* Check into the differences between a Corporate Account and a Canada Account. Why did Export Development Canada move from using a Corporate Account to using a Canada Account with the sale to China? What is the significance, if any?

* CIDA = Canadian International Development Agency - Is CIDA still involved? Is it connected through EDC or with the Canada Account, internationally? Who and what department are responsible for the Canada Account? For accountability and transparency? What does CIDA have to do with export - nuclear development or the EDC, if there is any current involvement? Was there not a move to merge two government departments under PM Martin and was DFAIT not one of them? What was the other?

EDC Support for Canadian Nuclear Exports

There is much more in the document:

Financing Disaster
How the G8 Fund the Global Proliferation of Nuclear Technology
Executive Summary and section on Canada , 2001 report -- which is Google's cache in html format

Or download the pdf here.

www.cnp.ca/issues/financing-disaster-g8-cda.pdf

www.google.com/search?q=ca
che:oEJJ39408U8J:www.cnp.ca/iss
ues/financing-disaster-g8-cda.pdf+Financ
ing+Disaster+-+How+the+G8+Fu
nd+the+Global+Proliferation+of+Nuc
lear+Technology&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=4




The same table without highlighting

Related concerning uranium: Frost Hits the Rhubarb Dec. 17 - Dec. 23, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_12_17_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Search: Dec. 19, 2006: Mining-Sask Uranium

Specific post: Dec. 19, 2006: Mining-Sask Uranium

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/12/
dec-19-2006-mining-sask-uranium.html


Reminder: Some posts have been bumped up because I believe they are significant.

Dec. 27, 2006: Banknotes, Drugs & Civil Disobedience

Dec. 27, 2006: CIDA: Grants, Contracts, Contributions ...
Funding: doing good with taxpayers' money
2005 Auditor General's Report
Status Report pdf Chapter 5
20050205ce
Canadian International Development Agency
Financial Compliance Audits and Managing Contracts and Contributions

Dec. 27, 2006: Justice delayed ...
May be justice denied ...
Re: Basi / Basis , Virk , BC Rail / B.C. Rail , sale to CN , Justice Elizabeth Bennett , the Justice System and Politics

Dec. 22, 2006: Basi / Basis - Virk - Third Parties
Somewhere, among the turkey dinner, the cocktail parties, the schmoozing ... lies the shadow ... the ghost of Christmases past

Search: "The Legislature Raids"

Dec. 27, 2006: Rural Poverty

Dec. 27, 2006: CIDA: Grants, Contracts, Contributions

Bumped up Dec. 28, 2006

Funding: doing good with taxpayers' money

2005 Auditor General's Report
Status Report pdf Chapter 5
20050205ce
Canadian International Development Agency
Financial Compliance Audits and Managing Contracts and Contributions

Note the difference between grants and contributions, along with the sharp increase in grants.

Contracts down -- Contributions and grants rose

Contributions to Non-Competitive Agreements rose

Would that not be a boon to friends nationally and internationally who would not have to compete, it appears? Do you wonder at the squeals when anyone starts digging into this?







Grants rose



Why? What projects were planned? Any in Africa, for example?

Dec. 27, 2006: Rural Poverty

Bumped up

Understanding Freefall: The Challenge of the Rural Poor





Dec. 21, 2006: Rural Canada -- Interim Report
of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry , December 2006, via newsbeat1

www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate
/com-e/agri-e/rep-e/repintdec06-e.htm

Table of Contents

MEMBERS
ORDER OF REFERENCE..
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.. 1
Committee Mandate. 2
Addendum.. 4
CHAPTER 2: DEFINING RURAL POVERTY.. 5
Rural Definitions. 5
Poverty Definitions. 7
The Committee’s Approach. 13
Conclusion: Some Statistical Evidence. 14
CHAPTER 3: TRENDS SHAPING RURAL CANADA.. 21
Population and Demographics. 21
Rural Economy. 26
Transportation and Communications. 30
Transportation and Communications Costs. 31
Conclusion. 32
CHAPTER 4: THE CHALLENGES OF BEING POOR IN
RURAL CANADA.. 35
Rural Transportation and Rural Roads. 35
Rural Health and Access to Health Care. 37
Rural Education and Literacy. 40
Government and Private-sector Services. 42
Employment Issues. 43
Immigration. 44
Gender Issues in Rural Canada. 44
The Informal Economy. 46
Low Farm Incomes and its Consequences. 48
Hardship in the Forestry Sector. 51
Conclusion. 52
CHAPTER 5: OPTIONS TO HELP THE RURAL POOR.. 55
From the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act to
Community Futures to The New Rural Economy: A Recap. 56
Rural Economic Development58
Income Policies. 63
Education. 64
Other Policy Options. 66
Conclusion. 69
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION.. 71
APPENDIX A: glossary.. 73
APPENDIX B: witnesses heard.. 75

[.... Chapter 1 ....]

The other thing that is different culturally is that there are some strong ideas about self-sufficiency in rural areas. That is one of the reasons why I think poverty is so hidden in rural places. Ideas about self-sufficiency are really important to people, especially men who are farming. — Diane Martz, Research Manager of the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, evidence, November 23, 2006

The rural poor are, in many ways, invisible.

They don’t beg for change. They don’t congregate in downtown cores. They rarely line up at homeless shelters because, with few exceptions, there are none. They rarely go to the local employment insurance office because the local employment insurance office is not so local anymore. They rarely complain about their plight because that is just not the way things are done in rural Canada.

The rural poor are also under-researched. With few exceptions, the academic and activist communities have been preoccupied with studying and highlighting the plight of the urban poor.

Canada’s rural poor have rarely been the subject of political attention. [....]

Scroll through the document and note the tables. Don't miss who appeared before the committee. Were your views represented? My comments are in dark blue. Making presentations, there were:

National Anti-Poverty Organization
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Statistics Canada
C.D. Howe Institute
Citizens for Public Justice -- Here, I think of people always asking for other people's money but perhaps unwilling to move to jobs in other areas, or a group concerned with the urban and immigrant areas. Then there is the idea that the poor need government interference. Sometimes, they just need freedom from government interference. When I see the words "Citizens for ..." I make a guess that the justice is not for the rural poor, but for another group--maybe urban voters, maybe to promote leftist ideas, probably heavily influenced by the UN. Perhaps this is unfair of me. Check for yourself.
Centre of Excellence [Prairie] -- Every time I see the term Centre of Excellence, I think of appointees [Liberal, particularly], preferments and awards ... the usual. First, I have noted people are appointed, then an award follows. Any Centre of Excellence I've checked into was heavily laden with Liberals. Enough said.
Universities -- Would these be learned souls -- people who study poverty, perhaps even see the romance in the farm life, but don't live it, don't know the hard work with little remuneration involved? Then, there is the regulatory aspect ... and the control exercised by marketing boards, control which is coercive. Membership should be the result of a free choice.
A few individuals -- How did these particular individuals come to make presentations? By invitation? If so, from whom?

Comment

This is a report worth reading. Too much farm land has been and is being taken out of production, paved over or used for construction. If rural towns, farms and self-sufficiency for our country are to survive, we need to preserve farmland. We must ensure that the farmers are able to make a decent living and can afford to hire help. It must be worthwhile for their families to stay on the farm. We may have to pay more for our food. Perhaps we should. I want to see fields of produce and grains, cows and chickens, pigs and ducks. Don't you? More importantly, given the global threats, we need to ensure that Canada and Canadians are self-sufficient in food within their own country. The family farm is at the base of this.

A small personal example: The above reminds me, I must leave out more Christmas gift food for my wildlife. This holiday, I walked right by a gray or whitish-gray rabbit lying quite contentedly at the base of a decorative pine (Mugo or mungo? pine). I just assumed it was stone as I walked by. Then, I was taken to watch him later as he scampered across the lawn and reached up to eat the lower morsels of another pine. There are threats about rabbit stew, but I don't think so. He had never moved as I walked up the steps earlier, quite content that no-one would bother him. In that same yard, I have watched bluebirds and other creatures. I want wildlife like this to be viable and visible, not far from the door. It is the rural areas that allow it.

Dec. 27, 2006: Banknotes, Drugs & Civil Disobedience

Bumped up Dec. 28, 06

Cocaine traces 'on Spanish euros' -- "Spain has one of the highest rates of cocaine use in the world" , Dec. 25, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6208877.stm

Traces of cocaine can be found on 94% of euro banknotes circulating in Spain, a study has suggested.

Analysis of notes from a selection of Spain's major cities showed that each one carried an average of 25.18 micrograms of cocaine. [....]

According to El Mundo Spain has just over one billion banknotes in circulation, with estimates suggesting that 142 million have been used directly to snort the drug. [....]

Search: since January 2002 , Germany , methamphetamine, or crystal meth , corrode , 99% of £5 notes



Would we say: "Banknotes go better with coke ...?"

Previously, I have posted an article about the quantity of drugs found in tests of a river in Italy-- shockingly high. (I forget the date.) How does this happen in rich Western societies?

My assessment? First, the bonds of strong families are lessened, fragmented; codes of behaviour and of what is acceptable are loosened or eliminated (Would we term it progressive? Belief, along with ministers, priests and rabbis are treated with diminished respect if not disdain, particularly in the media -- so old-fashioned). The whole system--advertising (equating progress and success with buying, eliminating a spiritual component to life), education, entertainment, many leaders, leftists, progressives and so-called elites--encourages this breakdown, sometimes well-meant, in the name of progress and women's right to work and to have someone else bring up their children--daycare. Sometimes attitudes are associated with not being judgemental or with harm reduction; other times, associated with rights and breaking down negative attitudes toward other cultural practices, dismissing religious and traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and respect for the knowledge gleaned from those who have gone before and the elders ... and over a period of time, nothing is considered evil or wrong any more. Just have fun. Be happy. Coca leaves are just leaves. Marijuana is just a weed. Heroin? Pretty poppies, aren't they? Besides, we are often told that we cannot win against proliferating drugs and globalized drug, criminal gangs and money laundering rings. Is that all there is, then? ... Make money. Buy more?

I say no. Fight. Put manpower and money into investigation; then throw the book at those caught. Our youth are being ruined. It is worth it. The courts? Becoming a joke. It is time for change in how all justices are selected, maybe even for less legalism and more justice. It is time for letters, articles, public meetings publicizing what has been happening ... maybe even civil disobedience. When is civil disobedience appropriate and acceptable? The leftists and activists, those who break the laws in demonstrations, seem to get away with it. (Remember Concordia?) Maybe, it is time for another approach from those who normally wouldn't be caught dead at a public demonstration, nor skirting the edge of involvement in protest.

Dec. 27, 2006: Suffer little children

Female Circumcision / Female Genital Mutilation (FC/FGM) / Cliterectomy


Women and Feminists

We are being treated to a spate of complaints about the loss of funding for Status of Women, supposedly an organization concerned for the plight of women. I believe that much of the funding had another purpose, but investigate for yourself.

What did the Status of Women (SoW) write, say and do to expose the following and to ensure that it could never happen again in Canada? I don't believe I read anything further about these cases, other than that no-one went to jail in the first case. A quick search of Google was futile. News just dies if it is not reported, especially when the organization taxpayers have funded over several years does not take action here in Canada.

Taxpayers funded the SoW. Did the SoW do any of the following: publicize and circulate information on something so horrendous actually happening in Canada, encourage outrage at this child abuse, ensure that further steps be taken? No, this story died. I think it was considered too politically incorrect to publicize a cultural barbarity for what it is, child abuse.

I'm guessing, but, if a man patted a woman on the butt and she decided to become hysterical about it, the SoWs would probably have become involved ... the old woman good, man bad schtick ... admittedly, perhaps an exaggeration, but not by much.


Search: cliterectomy , genital mutilation , female genital mutilation , cutting , FC , FGM , Inter-African Committee (IAC)

There are some articles emanating from the UN / UNESCO in Geneva. I did not have time to read much, but what I did read tended to show concern for "cultural sensitivity". Check for yourself.



Memory Lane: Suffer little children ...

In Canada, Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females, Women's Int'l Network / Gale Group, 2002 -- or here

www.findarticles.com/p/articles/
mi_m2872/is_3_28/ai_90219954/pg_6

For more information, contact the Inter-African Committee (IAC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia or Geneva, Switzerland.



Worldwide, 130 million girls and women have undergone FC / FGM. Each year, at least 2 million girls are at risk of genital mutilation -- 6,000 each day.
http://www.rainbo.org/whoweare/FGM.html

I noted the buzzwords about sustainable economical development, NGOs & CBOs, Global Partnerships and networking, along with "equality, justice and mutual respect". How does "mutual respect" work--how do you show it?--when you know a cultural practice to be abuse or that the degree of male dominance in a culture is abhorrent? I suspect these groups would not approve my bluntness, but why sugar coat it? Genital mutilation is utterly despicable!








Hidden -- Why? Barbarism will never be eliminated if everyone hides it.

The court case may provide rare evidence that the surgical procedure, which is illegal in Canada under laws on female genital mutilation but is still widely practised in some parts of Africa and the Middle East, is being conducted in Canada...

Police will not reveal the religious or cultural background of the family ....

... Sudanese Women Association of Niagara ....

... investigators are still trying to identify the practitioner responsible for the mutilation ...

Parents are responsible for their children. In my opinion, this was simply hidden, allowed to die away. That child was mutilated and it seems that no-one was punished for it. Cultural sensitivity?



Legislative Assembly of Ontario


www.ontla.on.ca/hansard/house_debates/
35_parl/session3/l053.htm#P301_105869

Search: Female Circumcision [I did not have time to read this one.]




Caveat: I hesitated about including this because I would expect the figures to be suspect. Any study done in these parts of Africa may be suspect, in my opinion--incomplete or error prone, simply because of the cultural component. Also, I noted the words "cultural sensitivity" used more than once as I read. Think of what that might mean. Tie aid to change, particularly on the part of the men and those women who still support it. Otherwise, don't waste aid dollars. Greed is amazingly effective. It might even work.
Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females -- or here




Incidence in Africa -- of the studies done: Percentages I noted highlighted in red






Innocenti Research Centre: Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation / Cutting

www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/pdf/fgm-gb-2005.pdf



Was this not considered honour killing? What happened? Check what happened with this case, also -- and here



Previously, I mentioned cliterectomy happening in Canada but I could not find the full article. The above contains the link to this: Nov. 3, 2006: Do we really believe that ...

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/11
/nov-3-2006-do-we-really-believe-that.html

Search: St. Catherines , cliterectomy

American news

Female genital mutilation in Atlanta , Oct. 22, 2006

www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/013701.php



Florida Atlantic U's Feminist Menace , Ari Kaufman, FrontPageMagazine.com, May 11, 06

www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22413

Dr. Wairimu Njambi is an Assistant Professor of "Women's Studies" at the Florida Atlantic University Wilkes Honors College, a feminist, and an apologist for some of the misogynistic cruelties perpetrated against women.

Much of her scholarship, for instance, is dedicated to advancing the notion that the cruel practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is actually a triumph for feminism and that it is hateful to suggest otherwise. According to Njambi “anti-FGM discourse perpetuates a colonialist assumption by universalizing a particular western image of a 'normal' body and sexuality.”

[....] It is a curious irony of modern-day feminism that a woman who justifies the misogynistic torture of young women is admired by self-styled feminists. And it is one of the defects of the modern-day university that a political ideologue is afforded a class to promote her tendentious views. [....]

Dec. 27, 2006: Finance #2

China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd.

finance.google.com/finance?q=China%20Over
seas%20Land%20&%20Investment%20Ltd+0688

Related: Frost Hits the Rhubarb: Dec. 4, 2006: #1 -- "... Parkson , Mindray Medical International Ltd. , China Medical Technology , Natural Beauty ... China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd. ..."

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/
12/dec-4-2006-1.html

Dec. 27, 2006: Finance

Google Finance

Related to: Frost Hits the Rhubarb Dec. 17, 2006: Media ... litany and to Dec. 21, 2006: Banks Globalization Mergers -- Related here

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/12
/dec-17-2006-media-litany.html

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/12
/dec-21-2006-banks-globalization.html


Related: News Junkie Canada: September 22, 2003

newsjunkiecanada.blogspot.com/
2003_09_22_newsjunkiecanada_archive.html

Paul Desmarais has had access to Prime Ministers and people of substance. I found the link was bad.

Search: Ah, the Connections [re Paul Desmarais and Paul Martin] MARTIN SKIPS FAIR FOR DESMARAIS LAIR

Correct link: An oldie but a goodie

There is also mention of: Paul Tellier , Bombardier , "IBM, $301 million to Pratt and Whitney and $9 million to SNC Lavelin"

Also, while you're at it, note another bad link, a post on Kyrgyzstan: the Kyrgyz rats "not susceptible to typical poisons"

Search: via The Drudge Report -- Strange rats invade Kyrgyz region

www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.ht
ml?menu=1&id_issue=5659510

Dec. 27, 2006: Justice or legality?

Do photos lie?

How strange. There appear to be photos of the drugs taken at the scene; yet, Charges dropped in pot case

Conviction of five men from seized ship unlikely, Crown says , Richard Watts, CanWest, December 23, 2006

www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/sto
ry.html?id=b9c84716-2226-41a0-8a11-529ea45027d6&k=15584

UCLUELET I All charges have been dropped against five men arrested aboard a fishing boat the RCMP said was attempting to import $6.5 million in marijuana to B.C.

When police arrested the five and seized the 47-metre MV Baku in Ucluelet May 22, they laid out on the dock 633 kg of marijuana they discovered inside the ship.

... pictures of the marijuana bales ... organized crime.

Now the Crown has entered stays of proceedings on all the charges because there is little likelihood of convictions.

Robert Prior, regional director of the federal office of public prosecutions, ... evidence seized would not be admissible in court. ...

Jim Heller, a Victoria defence lawyer representing one of the five, said he believes some legal issues arose over the original search of the vessel.

For example, Heller said police sent in people from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans instead of police officers to conduct the first search. Some doubts also ... [Who doubted? Why? It does not appear that justice is being served. Marijuana was found. We know the RCMP have been under-manned so what is wrong with using help? The evidence was clearly there to see. Or is a political party planning on legalizing marijuana, perhaps having that as part of an election platform, and this would not fit in right now? Just a guess.]

Now all charges of importing a controlled substance have been dropped against Phil Stirling, 52, a registered owner of the Baku, formerly of Metchosin but more recently living near Chase.

Similar charges have also been dropped against Sean Michael Cochrane, 36, of Alberta; Ralph Ross Harris, 66, of Ladysmith; John Edward Corbin, 46, of Chase; and Walberto Armenta-Ruelas, 40, of Sonora, Mexico.

This isn't the first time a vessel that Stirling, Corbin and Cochrane were involved with has been seized. In 2001, Stirling was owner of a boat called Western Wind. Corbin was engineer and Cochrane was also aboard. The Western Wind was seized in the Juan de Fuca Strait with 2.5 tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated $250 million hidden in the bow. No charges were laid in connection with the seizure.

Baku crew members have been long released on bail except for Armenta-Ruelas.

... immigration regulations.

... a deckhand hired in Mexico.

Meanwhile, John Green, the Victoria lawyer representing Stirling, [....]
10 tonnes of rotten fish ...

According to officers at the time, cameras were inserted into false bulkheads and partitions to locate the marijuana hidden in disguised compartments and false rooms.

Police said they had been tracking Baku from October 2005. The vessel left Halifax in December 2005, headed down the coast, through the Panama Canal and up the coast to Vancouver Island. [....]

Dec. 27, 2006: Justice delayed ...

May be justice denied ...

Re: Basi / Basis , Virk , BC Rail / B.C. Rail , sale to CN , Justice Elizabeth Bennett , the Justice System and Politics


Related to posts last week: Dec. 23, 2006: BC Rail Memory Lane -- and Dec. 22, 2006: Basi / Basis - Virk - Third Parties

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/12
/dec-23-2006-bc-rail-memory-lane.html

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/12
/dec-22-2006-basi-basis-virk-third.html

Memory Lane: News Junkie Canada, Dec. 31, 2003
Drug probe behind raid on B.C.'s legislature: No arrests made, but one aide fired, second suspended -- Cabinet members aren't implicated, Mounties stress

newsjunkiecanada.blogspot.com/
2003_12_31_newsjunkiecanada_archive.html

It mentions:
David Basi, assistant to Finance Minister Gary Collins
Transportation Minister Judith Reid
20-month drug investigation
Basi, who is active in both the federal and B.C. wings of the Liberal party, and Robert Virk, an assistant to Reid.

Fraud trial hits another snag , Mark Hume, Globe and Mail BC edition, 19 December 2006

The original Dec. 4 trial date was set back when Judge Bennett [Justice Elizabeth Bennett - see below] granted the defence access to a highly secure "project room," where RCMP have stored more than 11,000 documents related to the investigation against Dave Basi, Bobby Virk and Aneal Basi.

Defence lawyers had sought access so that they could oversee a document inventory being undertaken by the Crown. That application stemmed from defence concerns that some of the thousands of documents had been mislabelled or misplaced.

Is there any reason for the defence concerns or is this a delaying tactic? Is there an election in the future, somewhere? Does it matter?

Search: William Berardino, special Crown prosecutor , Michael Bolton, the lawyer for Dave Basi



Sob story

'There is nothing to these charges" -- or so it would seem the author would like Canadians to believe , Gary Mason, Dec. 23, 2006

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/RTGAM.20061223.wxbc-mason23/BNStory/National

[....] A cancer that was now apparently eating away at the highest levels of government.

Mr. Basi, the police believed, was a key participant in a drug-trafficking organization. It was in the course of their investigation into Mr. Basi's possible ties to drugs that the police came across information that eventually led to the breach of trust and other charges related to the $1-billion sale of B.C. Rail.

The allegations being that Dave and Aneal Basi and Mr. Virk accepted money in exchange for confidential insider information about the sale. [....]

The sob story goes on for pages ... pages which most people would not read at Christmas. Usually, busy people get the gist on the first page or so, then move on. However, keep going; often, any meat is near the end in these things.

Isn't this whole article like crying out "I'm innocent" by a condemned man? Little is offered on the other side. Yet, this takes pages of what calls itself a national newspaper -- at Christmas ... Something fishy here, IMHO. Somebody is pulling out all the stops to help these lads ... or to keep a lid on something. ...... My guess? Business deals and those who have ... prospered ... or plan to. Keep digging.

I noted a difference in length in these articles -- the same story basically. Perhaps it is not considered a national story ... or it is covered at a different length for different areas of the country ... or I could be wrong, so check.

"The two men at the centre of one of the most riveting events in British Columbia's political history say they will be acquitted of all charges stemming from a raid on the provincial legislature that took place three years ago next week." , Dec. 23, 06. The permalink is for this article.

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
LAC.20061223.NATMASON23/TPStory/TPNat
ional/Politics/?pageRequested=all

[....] At its core, the case comes down to the word of former lobbyist Erik Bornmann, the Crown's star witness, against the word of the two Basis and Mr. Virk. Mr. Bornmann has told police he paid Mr. Basi money for confidential information related to the sale of B.C. Rail. One of Mr. Bornmann's clients, OmniTRAX, was a bidder for the rail line.

It's alleged the money was laundered through Aneal Basi.

It's also alleged that in exchange for information from Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk, Mr. Bornmann agreed to recommend the pair for jobs with the federal government. A colleague of Mr. Bornmann's at Pilothouse Public Affairs Group, Brian Kieran, has told police he supplied Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk with benefits in connection with the B.C. Rail deal.

Dec. 22, 2006: Basi / Basis - Virk - Third Parties -- or The Tide of Corruption, and the Basi, Basi, and Virk trial by Robin Mathews -- or Vive le Canada

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/12
/dec-22-2006-basi-basis-virk-third.html

www.radicalpress.com/?p=263

www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php
/20061117133240355/print

Third Part. The RCMP Raids on B.C. Legislature Offices (Dec. 28, 2003)
The Tide of Corruption, and the Basi, Basi, and Virk trial.

In Courtroom 75 of the B.C. Supreme Court on November 14, 2006, lawyers [....] It would be wrong to call it “the Canadian justice system”, for Canada has a “legal system” out of which justice very, very rarely comes in matters of corporate and political corruption. The lawyers were there to hear the decision made by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett on an application for disclosure – specifically, a request by the Defense to be present at the RCMP Project Room when materials were identified and described, one by one, to make sure all evidence in the hands of the Crown will be known to the Defense.

Were the lawyers in the Chamber really at odds? Or were the nine people (all men) in the Gallery, in fact, witnessing what was a charade, an exercise in smoke and mirrors? [....]

... preparation and selection of documents placed on discs concerned two project rooms [....]

Defense stated more than once that the people who could most competently and thoroughly describe the preparation of documents and their whereabouts were the two corporals, Ma and Mar. [....]

Without giving a reason, and in a single sentence, Justice Bennett refused to permit examination of Corporal Mar. Equally a mystery, she did not ask to be assured that all relevant RCMP materials are and will be available in the room she is ordering to be opened to Defense. She did not question the existence of the Surrey Project Room and especially whether the court will be able to be sure all documents from there have found a place in Victoria.

If I seem to be questioning the quality of the decision by Justice Bennett, that is because I am doing so. She presented a written ruling which she read to those gathered in the Chamber. Her wording, I suggest, needs very close examination. And her intentions in making the ruling the way she did invite close scrutiny. As with other important public documents, however, this one is denied the scrutiny of Canadians who have a perfect right to appear at Criminal Registry in the B.C. Supreme Court and ask to examine it or to have a copy.

By edict, Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm, has denied ALL SUCH DOCUMENTS to Canadians. The clerk at Criminal registry informed me, upon inquiry, that I could not have a copy and could not see one. Finally, she informed me that I might request a copy from William Berardino, Special Prosecutor for the Crown. Who delegated to William Berardino the right to grant or to withhold permission for me or any other Canadian to see a decision made and publicly delivered by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett? Are we living in a madhouse?

Madam Justice Bennett and all the lawyers participating in the hearing are officers of the court. They have an obligation to the court to uphold its values and its reason for being. They are all complicit in the Directive made by Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm to keep information from Canadians – information that Canadians have a right to have access to simply and easily from Criminal Records of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

[....] I was being insulted by an officer of the court for attempting to ask, courteously, a question. [....] .

All the officers of the court who accept Mr. Justice Dohm’s denial of rights to Canadians participate in [....]

Attorney General Oppal has taken an opposite position in the extremely complex case arising out of the raids on Legislature offices on December 28, 2003. Unlike the Picton case, the one arising out of the raids on Legislature offices has the potential – depending of course upon evidence that may be presented – to bring down the Gordon Campbell government (of which Wally Oppal is a part).

If an Attorney General truly wishes to see justice done in the courts in which, as Wally Oppal says, he is “Chief Prosecutor of the province”, then the Crown in the Basi, Basi, and Virk trial has needed a heavy presence of the Attorney General to assure processes run smoothly, simply to demand and to make sure that justice may be reached in the case. Instead, Wally Oppal recently gossiped with journalists in a way that has been interpreted as tending to undermine the Crown and its prosecution. It would seem that in the Picton trial Wally Oppal is “on the side” of the Crown prosecuting. Can it be true that in the Basi, Basi, and Virk trial, on the other hand, he is on the side of the Gordon Campbell cabinet of which he is a part and which he wants to protect from criminal charges that should perhaps be laid against certain cabinet members past or present and certain outside associates?

In addition, have some RCMP officers been deliberately obstructive and inactive in laying charges? Has influence from some sources in the Gordon Campbell cabinet been deliberately obstructive? Has the monopoly press and media in B.C. been deliberately uninformative and uninvestigative? Have some agents of the Crown at all levels of the process been less than diligent, less than effective in their tasks?

A serious question must be asked again. Is there strong intention to derail and to wreck scrutiny of the whole structure of scandalous behaviour which is being focussed upon Basi, Basi, and Virk? And do the actions of Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, the Criminal Registry machinery in operation under Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm, and the actions of Attorney General Wally Oppal – just for instance – lend credibility to the claim that there exists an intention to destroy the whole issue before it can be fairly and judiciously examined?

The RCMP Raids on B.C. Legislature Offices (Dec. 28, 2003).

A Tide of Corruption. Second Part.
By Robin Mathews , Liberation Voice

Nothing can excuse B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal. His comments about evidence in the Legislature Raids process (presently before the courts) are, quite simply, outrageous. Chatting "casually" (?) to reporters at the beginning of November, Oppal called into question wire-tapping procedures used before the raids. They were, as he spoke, being argued before a judge in Chambers.

The tide of corruption upon which the David Basi, Bob Virk, and Aneal Basi legal procedure floats is highlighted by Oppal's unacceptable intervention. In a legal hotchpotch such as this one, in which cabinet employees are under charge - one from the office of a former Attorney General - prudence should dictate silence on the part of Wally Oppal. The position he holds is always a highly sensitive one whatever the situation, for "the highest law officer of the Crown" is also an elected politician sitting in cabinet meetings in which many participants - in this government especially - may be working to defeat the ideals of justice.

... the Attorney General of the day, in 2003, Gary Collins [....]

It may be fair to say that no one in the present government is happy to see the trial going ahead. [....]

... Wally Oppal's comments .... Is Oppal preparing the ground innocently? [....]

Oppal, himself, "chief law officer of the Crown", breached the demands of dignity and prudence when he stepped from the Supreme Court into a Liberal Party candidacy. By doing so, he made a mockery of the absolute need for a clear separation to exist - and be seen to exist - between the politicians and the courts. He is a politician who was very recently a colleague of present Supreme Court judges, allowing no time to lapse between his resignation from the court and his assumption of a political role as a Liberal candidate, and now as Attorney General. Does he telephone his recent Supreme Court colleague, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, who is conducting the court processes involving the men charged? Who knows?

Is there, moreover, a Gordon Campbell government agenda to undermine the courts and to cripple - for political reasons - the legal system in the Province? And, if so, is Wally Oppal assisting with that agenda?

[....] He is also named as one of the parties wanting the water power rights of British Columbians in the Nechako River stripped from them and granted to the foreign Private Corporation, Alcan. [....]

[....] The Crown in British Columbia does not have a distinguished presence, to say the least. Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, sitting on the Legislature Raids trial and hearings, was the judge in the long, long Glen Clark case.

[....] The judge who has kept much of the Legislature Raids material locked away from British Columbians is Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm. [....]

[....] blanket denial of public access to all such documents

[....] a system which is irrational, capricious, discriminatory, elitist, and unjust. It is almost as if he is working against the pursuit of justice in British Columbia and against the goals of a democratic society. [....]

More on Justice Elizabeth Bennett and her decisions

Ottawa told to foot store's legal bills
Vancouver gay bookstore challenged customs' power to seize, censor material -- and On appeal, Gay bookstore denied funds in battle over censorship , Kirk Makin, February 23, 2005, Globe and Mail

www.fradical.com/Taxpayers_fund_Customs_challenge.htm

[....] In a ruling that plucked more than a million dollars from Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium, the B.C. Court of Appeal said a trial judge was wrong to order Customs to fund a challenge against itself.

In a 3-0 judgment, the appeal court expressed grave doubts about funnelling public money into a case that may be of far less significance to the public than the bookstore says it is. [....]

August 28, 1997 -- The Honourable Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointment:
Elizabeth A. Bennett, Q.C., of North Vancouver, is appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver.

www.justice.gc.ca/en/news/ja/1997/bc2808.html

OTTAWA , August 28, 1997 -- The Honourable Anne McLellan, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointment:

Elizabeth A. Bennett, Q.C., of North Vancouver, is appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver. She replaces Mr. Justice C.R. Lander, who has chosen to become a supernumerary judge.

Madam Justice Bennett graduated in law from the University of British Columbia in 1981, and was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1982.

Madam Justice Bennett practised law as trial counsel for the Attorney General of B.C. until 1987 and then as Appellate Counsel until 1984. She then joined the firm of Peck, Tammen and Bennett, where she mainly practised criminal law and constitutional law. Since 1996, Madam Justice Bennett has been acting as Appellate Counsel for the Attorney General of B.C. Madam Justice Bennett is the author of numerous publications on criminal law matters. [....]

What prompted the appointment of Justice Bennett? What is her expertise? What are her political connections, if any, and are they relevant?

CBSA and obscene material seized, pornographic material ... Who has a right to taxpayers' money for court cases? Is justice for the people being served?

OUR COURTS ARE MOCKING JUSTICE

www.realwomenca.com/newsletter
/2004_sept_oct/article_6.html

The non-sentence handed out to former NDP MP, homosexual Svend Robinson, is a continuation .... not a recent development. The courts deal with feminist and homosexual issues in the same manner. For example, the factums (written arguments) filed in the courts by the legal arm of the feminist movement, LEAF (Women's Legal Education Action Fund) on the issues of abortion, and equality, etc. contain very little law, and can be fairly characterized as mainly ideological discourses. Homosexual factums submitted before the courts are the same. Yet the courts regard these factums as legitimate legal arguments.

Canadian courts have degenerated in this manner, not only because of the power that the judges themselves have inappropriately assumed under the Charter of Rights, but also because of the close intermingling of politics with judicial appointments. Under the current system, (which is still in place, despite the recent posturing of Justice Minister Cotler to the contrary), the Prime Minister appoints not only his Liberal party supporters, but also his close friends and colleagues to the Bench. Such judges are always liberal in outlook, and this ensures the continuation of the courts' so-called "progressive" direction. (See article "Supreme Court of Canada is a Political Toy," p. 1.) [....]

Court Orders Federal Government to Pay for the Costs of Suing It

In one of the most bizarre decisions .... on the grounds they were obscene. The bookstore is also challenging the obscenity provision in the Criminal Code as unconstitutional.

Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the BC Supreme Court decided the Little Sister's bookstore quarrel with Canada Customs was a "rare and exceptional circumstance", requiring the federal government to pay the lesbians' court costs in their challenge against the federal customs agency. The judge based her decision on the grounds that Customs was "targeting" lesbian and homosexual materials, even though the Supreme Court of Canada, in a decision in 2000, had ordered the Canada Customs not to "target" such bookstores. (The Supreme Court in that latter case did uphold as constitutional the definition of obscenity in the Criminal Code.)

Judge Bennett further decided that the Little Sister's bookstore challenge merited the federal government to foot the bill - likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars - to be paid in advance. According to Madam Justice Bennett, the test is not the dire financial straits of the litigant. The test is whether the litigant "genuinely cannot afford to pay for the litigation". This is certainly wholly new law, apparently developed to accommodate the lesbian litigants in their challenge against the government. Whether it applies to other individuals in the future who want to bring legal challenges against the government but "cannot afford to pay for the litigation," is a very interesting question.

It is significant that the order for the government to foot the bill applies only to that part of the Little Sister's bookstore argument that deals with the supposed targeting of them by Customs Canada, and the funds cannot be applied for the preparation of the arguments dealing with the constitutionality of the obscenity provision in the Criminal Code.

... a not very subtle way of encouraging the federal government to throw up its hands and abandon that part of the case dealing with the detention of obscene books at the border. Such a situation would allow pornographic material, including child pornography, to flood into Canada and remain here, until ....

Even if the federal government should subsequently decide to proceed with defending the efforts of Customs Canada to stop obscene material crossing our borders, the Little Sister's bookstore won't be too anxious about the outcome of its case. After all, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett will be the presiding judge. [....]

RCMP, Canadian and U.S. Justice Depts. suffer total defeat in Barbarash case -- or The warrant was quashed by Madame Justice Elizabeth Bennett ...

That search warrant was issued by request of the U.S. Dept. of Justice to
the Canadian Justice Dept. several times in 2000 and 2001, and finally
signed by Justice Dohm in 2002, amidst the post-Sept. 11th hysteria. Total
damages from the Maine incidents amounted to no more than $8700.

The warrant was quashed by Madame Justice Elizabeth Bennett [....]

Search: The RCMP's new anti-terrorist unit INSET (Integrated National Security Enforcement Team) , The mandate of INSET , B.C. Civil Liberties Association spokesperson

Scroll down or search for more links: Anarchist Activist's

Dec. 27, 2006: Remember

Don't forget to contribute to your favourite political party before the new year.

Any individual who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada may make these contributions:

* up to $5,000 in total in a calendar year to a particular registered political party and its registered electoral district associations, nomination contestants and candidates

* up to $5,100 in total to the leadership contestants of a registered political party in a particular leadership contest

* up to $5,100 in total to a candidate for a particular election who is not the candidate of a registered political party [....]

Dec. 27, 2006: Senate reform

PM on to something , Opposition beware, by Sheila Copps, Dec. 17, 06

www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/
Copps_Sheila/2006/12/17/2840921.html

The opposition in Ottawa may have quickly dismissed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's call for Senate reform but don't be surprised if he has just found himself a key election issue with which to flog those same opponents.

The public cares little about parliamentary configurations and even less about constitutional amendments. But for years the Canadian Senate has been served up as a symbol of what is wrong with the body politic. Unelected, tenured loafers who while away their Senate senior moments in Mexico on the public pig's back. [She disagrees ....]

He understands that Canadians are incrementalists. [Perhaps not all of us are. Some want reform quickly, before the natural governing party returns, then appoints and funds with taxpayer money more of what has gone on before ... and "justice"]

They fundamentally do not support radical change of any nature but are committed to modernizing their country. [....]

The achievement of long-promised Senate reform would be one change most Canadians support.[....]

Dec. 27, 2006: Gun Registry

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION
Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security
Evidence , June 12, 2006 -- via Punted Posters MINUTES & DEBATE OF BLOC MP MOTION TO RETAIN THE GUN REGISTRY

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=1464&mforum=elwoodpdowd

cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/Committee
Publication.aspx?SourceId=174297

[....] Mr. Dave MacKenzie (Oxford, CPC):

[....] This was an inquiry of the ministry done October 13, 2004.

[....] It says:

Trends in crime statistics can be influenced by many factors including socio-demographic and economic changes, legislative and program changes and changes in police practices. The specific impact of the firearms program or the firearms registry cannot be isolated from that of other factors.

I'll present this to the clerk. That was in bold print from the ministry.

[....] Ms. Kadis mentioned the hits on the system. I've talked to front line police officers, and by and large those hits are automatic links in CPIC queries. You can set up your CPIC system, or your own computer system--some departments do--such that if they run a “10-28”, which is a vehicle registration check, when the name of the registered owner comes back, it also queries the firearms registry.

Make no mistake, 6,500 queries a day are not being made to the firearms registry to determine firearms. The vast majority, and I would say to you that almost all of them, are made because they're automatic links into the system.
(1605)

The fact that you've run a car and found the registered owner's name...and the fact that the individual has firearms in his home means nothing to you. You're not interested in his home. If you ever, for one minute, walked up to a house and wanted to trust that information about whether or not there were firearms in that house, because you'd checked the registry, you'd end up with dead police officers.

They don't trust it, and they can't trust it. That's not because there's something necessarily inherently wrong with it, but you don't know that there are firearms there or not anyway. The individual who is most likely to use a firearm would have the firearm there because they'd stolen it for whatever means.

So the firearms are not going to be registered. It doesn't add to safety--of my son or my son-in-law or my nephew--and for that reason alone, I think we could use those resources in something else.

If you people are intent on supporting this motion, then I say to you, at the same time, it's time we invited people in here from both sides of the spectrum to give us a view of really what the system does or doesn't do. I suggest to you that it does less than you may have been led to believe.

[....]

Mr. Laurie Hawn (Edmonton Centre, CPC):

[....] I agree with my colleague that if we are going to do this, then we need to call in a lot more folks to talk about it who have the actual experience. We talk about front line police officers, and I have a bit of a problem with that. I've talked to an awful lot of front line police officers, most recently an assistant commissioner with the RCMP, and I have not talked to a single front line police officer who would rely on this, or has relied on it, to any extent at all. I just have a hard time with people who tell me that's the case, because I know it's not.

In terms of the 6,500-hits-a-day discussion, when you say that it's inappropriate to question that, I'm sorry, it's entirely appropriate to question that. The misinformation that comes out because of that misquoted statistic skews the argument. To say that we have 6,500 hits or queries to the gun registry, and therefore it must be useful--it's just not true. My colleague has explained why that happens. I suggest to you that you know that's true. The experience in the U.K. and Australia, with similar draconian legislation--and they've had it longer than we have--has proven that it doesn't work.

The École Polytechnique was obviously a horrible crime. The gun registry would not have stopped what happened at the École Polytechnique. You cannot stop a madman who is intent on carrying out a crime like that. It would not have had any impact whatsoever.

We talk about the drastic measures that we're being told we're trying to take, but we're not talking about repealing Bill C-17 at all. That's been there for a long time and it's going to stay there. Criminal behaviour hasn't changed. We're not talking about the inanimate object, we're talking about the person. When you talk about equating drugs with guns, drugs are not legal, period. Firearms are legal, with restrictions, which we have in Bill C-17.

The firearms causing most of the damage in Canada are illegal firearms. Obviously criminals don't register their firearms, and we know that. Those guns are not coming, by and large, from peoples' basements, they're coming across the border. That's a fact. Any police association will tell you that. Canada Border Services will tell you that. Nobody is going to deny that women, that Canadians, that everybody needs protection from people who will intentionally cause them damage.

I have another problem with quoting statistics that go back to 1995 when the long gun registry didn't even come into effect until 1998. Reductions from between 1995 and 1998 have nothing to do with the question at hand. My problem with this argument always has been, on any side of an argument, that people use misleading data, misleading statistics, and half-truths to suit their arguments. Everybody on any side of an argument does that, and I'd be the first to acknowledge that.

I'd just like to finish with the suggestion that, if we are going to do this, we do indeed call some witnesses, including--no kidding--front line police officers, not chiefs of police associations. I don't know why some of them have done the politically expedient thing that they have done, but I can tell you that up to and including assistant commissioners of the RCMP, they're not buying this. Frankly, I don't buy it either. [....]

Think what a couple of billion dollars would buy.

Dec. 27, 2006: Post Christmas

From a friend - especially for hunters

Dec. 24, 2006: Christmas Blessings

May you have a safe, happy and loving Christmas with family and friends.







Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi. 1481-1482 Uffizi Gallery. Oil on wood, Florence, Italy.

And while the couple were in Bethlehem the time came for Mary's delivery, for she was then great with child.

They searched for a place but, finding none, Mary had to give birth in a stable because there was no room for them in the inn.

In that same region there were shepherds, keeping watch over flocks of sheep in the night. Suddenly light shone around them, and they heard an unworldly voice, and they were terrified. The voice said to them: "Fear not! Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people: For you this day is born in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

The original Christmas story , Ian Hunter, National Post, Dec. 22, 06

Thanks to Ian Hunter and the National Post for a reminder that there is a reason we have Christmas.

Christians have something to celebrate!

Those who have benefitted from the love and tolerance that have emanated from that first Christmas might like to join in the celebration.

Merry Christmas

Dec. 24, 2006: The China Videos & Credits

Memory Lane

Frost Hits the Rhubarb May 22 - 27, 2005

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2005_05_22_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

... how two lobbyists, Dingwall and Guite, helped Vickers and Benson gain $45 million in contracts. Neither man was even legally allowed to be a lobbyist; yet through them, the government gave V & B $4.5 million in sponsorship grants for videos that would only be shown in China. [....]

See if the above is in any way related to this:

Dec. 17, 2006: CBC & Friends

AN INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES, DISCOVERY TIMES, THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, ZDF, FRANCE 5 AND S4C

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/12
/dec-17-2006-cbc-friends.html

You might want to check further into what names fit in here:

Note: Credits: China Rises Web Site -- There seemed to be a problem in viewing all of the credits

Note that there are two slides, one barely visible behind the other. The slide would not move to reveal the rest of the credits.