The Canadian Senate Scandal
Well, that is the generally accepted media name for the current event.
Basically, for those who don't live in Canada or who somehow have avoided all news outlets for the past, what? 6 months? The Prime Ministers chief of staff, Nigel Wright, wrote a personal cheque to Senator Mike Duffy to cover expenses deemed illegitimate, but that he was supposed to mislead Canadians into thinking he had repaid it himself.
The whole scandal itself stinks of government corruption. Politicians at all levels in the current majority party are flat out lying. Then denying they lied after the lies are exposed despite VIDEO EDIVENCE OF THEM LYING. There is a senate which denies being the puppets of the PMO, and a Prime Minister which denies pulling the strings even though recent documents quite clearly implicate them of this.
I don't think many Canadian will read this. But damn does it need to be said. Everyone needs to collectively, and actively avoid voting for the Conservatives in the next election. People need to be vocal that the corruption, lies and lack of transparency are the reason. The message needs to get through that this isn't the sort of thing people will even consider tolerating.
And the worst part of it... in my mind it doesn't matter whether Mr. Harper was aware of ANYTHING. All of the people implicated, including the one who has outright confessed are agents of his office. He hired them. Hand picked even. But that isn't even relevant. The office of the Prime Minister is guilty. The Prime Minister should be held accountable for the actions of those he chooses to employ. This is wanton negligence.
IF, he truly didn't know it speaks to a culture of intentional and applauded conspiracy. Based on the vast number of high ranking official involved and the perceived (and actual) severity of the issue, the ONLY reason for the PM not to know is because it is generally accepted that the action was wrong and possibly illegal, and that the actions were permitted as long as the PM wasn't directly implicated. IF the PM doesn't support this behavior, he should personally be ordering an internal review and firing anyone found involved. No such action has occurred. To me this says, either he knew about it, or he supports the underlying motive.
When this all started and the lie was uncovered Nigel Wright resigned, or was fired. Which brings us to the first credibility hurdle. Initially Stephen Harper claimed he accepted Nigel Wright's resignation. At the time, the decision was being publicized as a lapse in judgement with no further reaching implications. It was convenient. It made both the PM and Nigel Wright look better. But as things got worse, the PM said he fired Mr. Wright. By that time the scandal had worsened and Harper looked better as the person who fired who right hand man for illegal actions. Also gone was any pretense of the good quality of his character.
This man went, our Prime Minister, went from publicly and vocally supporting Nigel Wright and proclaiming that he had resigned to dragging him through the mud ad nauseum and proclaiming he fired him.
These are 2 VERY different stories. One, the other, or pieces from each is the truth. The rest IS LYING. Contradictory, publicly stated, recorded on video LIES. We all assume that politicians lie. But so rarely are they caught out like this.
Even at this point where he was damning the now fired man he proclaimed that Mr. Wright was the ONLY person in his office who knew about the deal. Only to have it later revealed that at least a dozen people including his own lawyer, and other extremely high ranking conservative party members and other members of his staff were involved.
Well, this is even more embarrassing. With such a massive issue at large... how is it possible that between the initial news to the time when he flip-flopped on whether or not he fired Nigel Wright DID HE NOT HAVE HIS STAFF INFORM HIM OF THE TRUTH. Now, we leave the realm of negligence, and potentially enter the realm of gross negligence. IF THIS IS SOMEHOW TRUE. And lets face it. This really isn't a probability at all. So either they told him the full story and he chose to continue to lie, OR his staff continued to lie to him.
At THIS POINT surely he, had his staff continued to lie to him, he would have ordered an internal investigation and started firing those who had mis-informed him? Nope. Not a soul lost. No action taken directly by the PMO at all. Whether intentional or not, this behavior, in my opinion clearly sends that message that it is OK to do anything, including break the law, to make a problem go away as long as there is a fall guy and the PM is kept sufficiently in the dark.
At this point, in my mind, the PM himself and his office have acted so amazing passively in this case, that the only reasons they could possibly have for this behavior is direct involvement or what I can only describe as what should be considered criminal levels of incompetence. By this point, which was already months ago, there should have been NO EXCUSE for the PM and PMO not taking responsibility at least on behalf the members of its staff and PERSONALLY digging into and publicly dealing with those culpable (publicly because these are people whose jobs are funded by tax payers and we have a right to know).
But the madness doesn't end there. By now, the RCMP have released an affidavit basically implicating the living heck of the PMO. It has alleged criminal wrong doing. And during question period, how does the Prime Minister answer question? By reading, verbatim, from the RCMP affidavit!!!
Maybe this seems trivial to others. But what I see is a man (and the remainder of his office for that fact) substituting a third party document for their own knowledge of the events. WHY? Why would someone respond about their own involvement with someone else's words? Who would ever supplant their own personal knowledge of events for those of a body that has not yet even conclusively proven the things in the document they are reading from? It makes zero sense (from a logical perspective). The only viable reason I can think of is this... they are scared witless. They don't want to add any new information that may further implicate them down the road or be exposed as lies later. And this is made more viable by the fact that the reason for the affidavit was to help in obtaining more documents and information.
I REALLY want to illustrate this example:
Person1: "Did you punch Person3?"
Person2: "This paper from Person4 says they have no proof I did."
THIS is exactly the form of response Stephen Harper provided to at least one question.
Doesn't it sound insane? Does it make any sense at all? Do you see why this tactic is even worse than refusing to answer? My BS-o-Meter is going crazy. He tries to pass off the unproven, inconclusive statement of someone else as proof of an outcome which he is intimately aware of. Why in the name of all that is holy would he not simply say "No" or "Yes". He ACTUALLY knows the correct answers to these questions. The people who wrote that document DO NOT, and are in fact TRYING to find out the correct answer to it. All they have to say at the moment is that they have no proof of his direct involvement. "I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!".
Basically, for those who don't live in Canada or who somehow have avoided all news outlets for the past, what? 6 months? The Prime Ministers chief of staff, Nigel Wright, wrote a personal cheque to Senator Mike Duffy to cover expenses deemed illegitimate, but that he was supposed to mislead Canadians into thinking he had repaid it himself.
The whole scandal itself stinks of government corruption. Politicians at all levels in the current majority party are flat out lying. Then denying they lied after the lies are exposed despite VIDEO EDIVENCE OF THEM LYING. There is a senate which denies being the puppets of the PMO, and a Prime Minister which denies pulling the strings even though recent documents quite clearly implicate them of this.
I don't think many Canadian will read this. But damn does it need to be said. Everyone needs to collectively, and actively avoid voting for the Conservatives in the next election. People need to be vocal that the corruption, lies and lack of transparency are the reason. The message needs to get through that this isn't the sort of thing people will even consider tolerating.
And the worst part of it... in my mind it doesn't matter whether Mr. Harper was aware of ANYTHING. All of the people implicated, including the one who has outright confessed are agents of his office. He hired them. Hand picked even. But that isn't even relevant. The office of the Prime Minister is guilty. The Prime Minister should be held accountable for the actions of those he chooses to employ. This is wanton negligence.
IF, he truly didn't know it speaks to a culture of intentional and applauded conspiracy. Based on the vast number of high ranking official involved and the perceived (and actual) severity of the issue, the ONLY reason for the PM not to know is because it is generally accepted that the action was wrong and possibly illegal, and that the actions were permitted as long as the PM wasn't directly implicated. IF the PM doesn't support this behavior, he should personally be ordering an internal review and firing anyone found involved. No such action has occurred. To me this says, either he knew about it, or he supports the underlying motive.
When this all started and the lie was uncovered Nigel Wright resigned, or was fired. Which brings us to the first credibility hurdle. Initially Stephen Harper claimed he accepted Nigel Wright's resignation. At the time, the decision was being publicized as a lapse in judgement with no further reaching implications. It was convenient. It made both the PM and Nigel Wright look better. But as things got worse, the PM said he fired Mr. Wright. By that time the scandal had worsened and Harper looked better as the person who fired who right hand man for illegal actions. Also gone was any pretense of the good quality of his character.
This man went, our Prime Minister, went from publicly and vocally supporting Nigel Wright and proclaiming that he had resigned to dragging him through the mud ad nauseum and proclaiming he fired him.
These are 2 VERY different stories. One, the other, or pieces from each is the truth. The rest IS LYING. Contradictory, publicly stated, recorded on video LIES. We all assume that politicians lie. But so rarely are they caught out like this.
Even at this point where he was damning the now fired man he proclaimed that Mr. Wright was the ONLY person in his office who knew about the deal. Only to have it later revealed that at least a dozen people including his own lawyer, and other extremely high ranking conservative party members and other members of his staff were involved.
Well, this is even more embarrassing. With such a massive issue at large... how is it possible that between the initial news to the time when he flip-flopped on whether or not he fired Nigel Wright DID HE NOT HAVE HIS STAFF INFORM HIM OF THE TRUTH. Now, we leave the realm of negligence, and potentially enter the realm of gross negligence. IF THIS IS SOMEHOW TRUE. And lets face it. This really isn't a probability at all. So either they told him the full story and he chose to continue to lie, OR his staff continued to lie to him.
At THIS POINT surely he, had his staff continued to lie to him, he would have ordered an internal investigation and started firing those who had mis-informed him? Nope. Not a soul lost. No action taken directly by the PMO at all. Whether intentional or not, this behavior, in my opinion clearly sends that message that it is OK to do anything, including break the law, to make a problem go away as long as there is a fall guy and the PM is kept sufficiently in the dark.
At this point, in my mind, the PM himself and his office have acted so amazing passively in this case, that the only reasons they could possibly have for this behavior is direct involvement or what I can only describe as what should be considered criminal levels of incompetence. By this point, which was already months ago, there should have been NO EXCUSE for the PM and PMO not taking responsibility at least on behalf the members of its staff and PERSONALLY digging into and publicly dealing with those culpable (publicly because these are people whose jobs are funded by tax payers and we have a right to know).
But the madness doesn't end there. By now, the RCMP have released an affidavit basically implicating the living heck of the PMO. It has alleged criminal wrong doing. And during question period, how does the Prime Minister answer question? By reading, verbatim, from the RCMP affidavit!!!
Maybe this seems trivial to others. But what I see is a man (and the remainder of his office for that fact) substituting a third party document for their own knowledge of the events. WHY? Why would someone respond about their own involvement with someone else's words? Who would ever supplant their own personal knowledge of events for those of a body that has not yet even conclusively proven the things in the document they are reading from? It makes zero sense (from a logical perspective). The only viable reason I can think of is this... they are scared witless. They don't want to add any new information that may further implicate them down the road or be exposed as lies later. And this is made more viable by the fact that the reason for the affidavit was to help in obtaining more documents and information.
I REALLY want to illustrate this example:
Person1: "Did you punch Person3?"
Person2: "This paper from Person4 says they have no proof I did."
THIS is exactly the form of response Stephen Harper provided to at least one question.
Doesn't it sound insane? Does it make any sense at all? Do you see why this tactic is even worse than refusing to answer? My BS-o-Meter is going crazy. He tries to pass off the unproven, inconclusive statement of someone else as proof of an outcome which he is intimately aware of. Why in the name of all that is holy would he not simply say "No" or "Yes". He ACTUALLY knows the correct answers to these questions. The people who wrote that document DO NOT, and are in fact TRYING to find out the correct answer to it. All they have to say at the moment is that they have no proof of his direct involvement. "I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!".
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