November 25, 2006

Nov. 25, 2006: Dear Mr. Rabinovitch ...

From the Heart ...

A CBC contract with Canadians, Robert Rabinovitch, National Post, November 24, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.html?id=
fcf12abd-f92a-47e6-97a6-e6f07701d3bd

Robert Rabinovitch is CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO, an appointed CEO.

This article started as my Saturday chuckle fodder. The Liberal-appointed Mr. Rabinovitch would simply fix everything with a suggestion to set up another regulatory body -- oversight soon come--but not too soon--and the bureaucracy that props it up--fast fast.


At CBC/Radio-Canada, we are in a period of rapid, exciting change. Yesterday, we had a radio service and a television service with some Internet activity. Today we are a content provider, supplying a wide array of news, entertainment and sports programming to Canadians on seven television networks, four radio networks, the Internet and cell-phones, through satellite radio and iPods, in one-minute episodes on your Blackberry and with Christmas-wrapped DVDs through the mail.


Would the new deals listed get to the heart of why CBC's employees display management-approved, apoplectic and fiendish hatred bordering on disgusted disdain for Prime Minister Harper and his Conservative government? Not just every day ... but at every close encounter with anything resembling news -- even to the point of creating it? CBC's performance is demonic. Now, I understand. That was why Dyane Adam and the live-off-the-taxpayer arts community were and are in distended blood vessel paroxyms of bile. The French industry has just about come to a deal aided by the UN Protocol that would enshrine rights concerning culture and language that we can only guess at. The usual people would thrive ... and a new layer of "artists, commentators and news analysts" would gain worldwide rights to promote the language of the French court. Those with the right political stripe would be set for life. Take that you Anglo fools; you went along with "fairness" and "rights". Dyane's old Tzarist languages department would expand and all would be right with the Francophone world globally ... add the Muslim world to that, hence the courting of those who would ignore or even support barbarism ... Dyane would rise like the phoenix from the ashes ... if only the mainstream media cabal who see $$$ signs in their futures get what they were assured of under the vote-buying with other peoples' money Liberals ... if only there is a return to rule by the natural governing party.

But to return to the keeper of the flame, Mr. Rabinovitch.



... We need to become an integrated media content provider whose raison d'etre is not to make a buck but to connect the country together by ensuring there remains a place where Canadians can share their stories, feed their culture and debate their issues in this new media landscape. Make no mistake: No other organization exists with that mandate. CBC/Radio-Canada is the single largest provider of Canadian media content.


Cue the bogus patriotism along with the heart-wrenching violins ....... Check who really have the power at CBC/Radio Canada. Remember who led the revolt against the Prime Minister in the Parliamentary Press Corps? He was from Radio-Canada, the French clenched fist of media power. In having no other "Canadian" media content provider, thank God for small blessings; Canadians couldn't afford two venues for these characters to promote their agenda. No, I don't hate all Francophones; I just see through the plans of the ones who grasp and use power, those who are ruthless in pursuing what they see as their rightful destiny while walking over the rest, the English speaking majority of us. Nothing will stop them. No underhanded activity is too beneath their dignity or ethical frontier if it gets them what they want. Just cross them in this and find out. The average pea-souper is like the rest of us mostly Molson or Moosehead-swilling, cod fish eating nonentities, willing to live and let live, but that has not been the plan of the powerful Francophone elite. I haven't yet decided whether theirs is the revenge they have sought against the "maudit anglaises" or whether it is the perquisites and monetary rewards of power. Likely all.


... building an organization where programming is conceived for television and simultaneously adapted to other formats.

... regulatory framework [....]

Despite this, television remains the most pervasive medium and the most effective means of tying the country together culturally and democratically.


No, Mr. Rabinovitch, the CBC/Radio Canada is the most effective means of social engineering a whole generation and propping up the politicians who keep you and yours in the business. Do you think all of us are utter fools?


[....] CRTC hearings are so important.

But these hearings suggest another opportunity for the government to bring balance to an industry that has grown increasingly "unlevel" over the past decade.

This opportunity is to institutionalize a regular review of CBC/Radio-Canada.
[....] review the goals themselves.

... Hon. Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage, suggested the government conduct a review of our mandate. [....]

CBC/Radio-Canada would be even more accountable to its shareholders, the public; it would also be more sustainable because it could plan its development with some certainty.


Mr. Rabinovitch, you jest. We are not shareholders; we have been shucked ... forced to support this media business for the supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada and assorted leftists. We do not want to support it, Do you get it? We don't want the CBC / Radio Canada as long as we have to pay tax dollars into this organization that does not represent our views at all. It is completely politicized. Could I clarify that further for you? I hate what the CBC have done and are doing. Potentially, I am a most likely viewer, in that I hate the usual run of the mill schlock and the CBC could appeal to me and mine with a higher level of programming, analyses and discussion ... but the CBC produces politically engineered programming pap and I don't want to see anything but your backs going out the taxpayer $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ door. Do I make myself clear?

Get out of the propaganda business, you and your CBC friends; find yourselves real jobs ... not ones where you are at the beck and call of the left ... begging, then slurping taxpayer dollars. It's too much like prostitution ... for you to ... uh ... try to sell the charms of the business ... a venerable lady who has few other choices left but to sell her soul ... her body being somewhat the less for wear ... and no-one is really interested any more. Accept it. Old age comes to all. Learn, metaphorically, to knit. Now the Chinese have a very interesting public communication system which could probably learn volumes from CBC. Do contact them ...
[....] A regularly mandated review would ensure Canadians are better served.


And I suppose the next Liberal PM would appoint a series of flunkies to do the reviewing ... just as soon as Mr. Rabinovitch, the CBC/MSM and the rest of those who visualize dollar signs as they dance around the taxpayer trough in the future ... with a little help from the CRTC and the UN/UNESCO gang who have their own motives ... just as soon as the leftists, Liberals and the CBC types deliver via their networks a bloody body blow to this Conservative upstart who actually seems to think he's going to change the way things have always been done. ... Ha! The appointed, networked ones will show PM Harper and all those hicks who actually believe there is a right and wrong, who actually believe that there must be an ethical core to those who would run the country ... where power really lies ... and how it is wielded.


But mandate review or not, the CRTC hearings next week are an essential first step in finding the new equilibrium in the system needed to ensure its continuing contribution to Canada.


Mr. Rabinovitch, do you get it? You and your CBC don't contribute, if the CBC ever did, to anything but the perspective from the left. Begone! Equilibrium is impossible ... too left leaning to be tipped up again. The whole edifice is a leaning tower of Pisa.

We do not want a regularly mandated review ... a bureaucracy of appointed yes-men. The country needs to eliminate a leftist/Liberal taxpayer funded propaganda organ. CBC will never be balanced. There is too much at stake for politicians and CBC employees in their symbiotic relationship. The system cannot be improved. Tinkering with it would be just tinkering. It is rotten to the core.

Remember, Canadians, the same thing is planned by the Liberals for the arts community -- taxpayer money, including EI to those who have not paid in to the fund, whose art has so little appeal that they cannot make money from it. Remember pre-election, the promises of taxpayer money to artists and their projects for Liberal votes? If you have forgotten, write a comment and I'll find examples.

Excise this relationship between money and voting blocks, money and broadcasting. Money and everything worthwhile in this country. I'm furious! Another slippery suggestion from one already oiled by too much taxpayer largesse.

I hope I've made myself clear, Mr. Rabinovitch. Please pass it on to your colleagues and underlings.

From the heart,

Frosty

Nov. 25, 2006: 1

Canadian miners top dogs on London's AIM exchange -- London market mining financing stronger than tech -- London's Alternative Investment Market
www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=
03e401d5-45e1-48fe-aa06-3a15e90cfde4


[....] Paul Murphy, leader of PwC's mining practice in Canada, said AIM is especially popular among Canadian mining companies with properties in Africa and the former Soviet Union.

While Mr. Murphy described both AIM and the Toronto Stock Exchange as "friendly" to mining companies, he noted that the London exchange can be favoured by companies keen to avoid Canadian stock exchange requirements or U.S. regulations.

[....] In the first half of this year, some US$6-billion in mining financings was raised on the TSX or its subsidiary, the TSX Venture Exchange. By contrast, about US$3-billion in mining financings has been raised on AIM or its parent, the London Stock Exchange.

Mr. Murphy said PwC will next month issue a report that examines the Canadian capital market for mining.



Activity tops $90-billion on back of energy, gold, metals

www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=
67c996f3-4580-4a76-be71-e7ed0a6e8506


How China's West will not be won -- Multinationals see little reason to invest in barren frontier -- but read the fine print, anyway , Judy Hua and Joy Leung, Reuters, November 23, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=
f8c8f09a-91b5-44ad-9cdf-d8d433384dd3


CHONGQING, CHINA - If you build it, they will come -- except perhaps to China's vast, untapped western frontier.

Nearly seven years after Beijing launched its "Go West" campaign [....]

... Microsoft Corp. to Nokia, Motorola and Siemens [....]

Chen Xingdong, BNP Paribas's chief China economist, [....]

Intel Corp. and Ford Motor Co. ... Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, and Chongqing. Carrefour S.A. and IKEA ...

Chongqing, .... William Kusters, chief of the China Mission of the Asian Development Assistance Board.

[....] For some firms, western China's isolation is a boon. Lafarge, the world's top cement firm, ... Chongqing, Chengdu, Guizhou and Yunnan, ... infrastructure.

[....] Cyrille Ragoucy, chief executive of Lafarge Shui On, a joint venture with Shui On Construction and Materials Ltd.

[....] Frederick Leung, finance director of TV maker Skyworth Digital Holdings Ltd.

... Xinjiang or Tibet ... Sichuan ... Shanghai; ... Henan or Hubei ...

[....] The central government has also directed about 70% of all multinational aid and 70% of all tax revenues toward projects in western China in the past six years, according to a cabinet Web site (http://www.chinawest.gov.cn/web /index.asp). [.... Note: that is a Chinese government website.]



Aid? For China? In whose interest? What business interest?

Watch for business councils -- Asia-Canada .... China-Canada ... in the Liberals' pre-election push to get votes. Then check for Canadian companies ... out of the usual area ... and the suckers will fall for it ... or will they? Do you suppose Prime Minister Harper has discovered a Canadian backbone after all that Lib pork fat, at long last?




Does the following help you to make sense out of how the news is reported in Canada ... and why? Perhaps I have misunderstood, but ... to make really big money, a mainstream media company needs a compliant politician and a compliant CRTC ... or they could try freedom ... you know, that stuff that Lib/leftists hate because it loosens the controls they have had. Go Bev Oda. Tear down that wall. Unleash those chains!

CTV to air shows on Internet , Barbara Shecter, Financial Post, November 23, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=
f82781c3-7673-4763-95c6-15a79dc965ad


Broadcaster CTV has negotiated a deal with Warner Bros. to stream prime-time shows Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The O.C. on the Internet.

The on-demand shows will be available at the network's website after the programs air on television. Canadian broadcasters have begun streaming domestic shows on the Internet and have been in negotiations for the Internet rights to popular U.S. programs for several months -- ever since U.S. studios began to experiment with alternate ways to broadcast their shows. Technology is used to block Canadians from receiving shows that are streamed in the U.S.

... Global television network ...

Industry sources say the recent deals between U.S. studios and Canadian TV networks have them sharing revenue generated by advertising surrounding the streamed shows on the Internet. [....]





Mr. Corcoran, meet Mr. Orwell , Mark Jaccard, Financial Post, November 25, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=
1f38f40d-0f8c-4c62-940f-552d9b3ef3d3&p=2

Terry Corcoran has claimed that carbon taxes (a.k.a Pigovian taxes) are a conspiracy to impose "communist-like central planning" and that advocates such as myself are "neo-socialists." [....]

... first-year economics textbook ....The text notes that unfettered markets can fail to advance society's welfare when activities by firms or households cause damages to a common property resource that are not reflected in market prices. This market failure is called negative externality. The atmosphere is a common property resource whose value to us is placed at risk by acid emissions and perhaps carbon dioxide emissions.

Terry Corcoran has claimed that carbon taxes (a.k.a Pigovian taxes) are a conspiracy to impose "communist-like central planning" and that advocates such as myself are "neo-socialists." [....]


We should assess the costs of reducing a risk, in this case the cost of reducing carbon emissions, against the benefits of doing so, in this case a reduced risk of climate change damages. [....]




Libertarians, read the article and then write a rebuttal for me, please.

Already, consideration of price has modified my choices in the gas / oil marketplace. I simply plan better and drive less ... or say to heck with it and do without. As for the market and big business versus a controlling bunch of guys who make choices for us--aka the government--the more controlling and regulating, the more leftist/Liberal in effect.

I prefer personal choices because I do care about their impact, whether supporting Canadian business or buying the cheapest ... but I know so little about economics that I realize it is simply a personal choice. The "great minds" amongst my acquaintances tell me that the rains--or is it a torrential downpour of economic choices if the market is allowed free play--will raise all boats. Knowing nothing about markets but loving liberty, I prefer to choose for myself. Don't regulate us to death nor confiscate from those who make what they consider to be sensible choices so as to prop up those who don't.

Give us freedom from your choices. I'm fine with that.




Authoritarian regimes have their charms

Chinese porn site founder jailed for life

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=
32565bc2-d36d-4161-a08d-7b7f67e4b220


[....] Police said it was difficult to know how much money Chen made from the sites, since most of it was spent or hidden in foreign bank accounts. He evaded closure by regularly changing the domain name and server.


Any servers in Vanuatu or some cozy, corruptible, little island? Did that cash go through the gambling dens of Macau? Would the China-Canada Business Council or Asia-Pacific equivalent council recommend chastising China for using "cruel and unusual" or "draconian" punishments ... or are the really negative terms reserved for use only on PM Harper when he takes a principled stand against the Red Dragon? ... Ah, why bring it up? Remember, a rising tide lifts all boats ... and we'll make money, eh?




Ottawa first to benefit from cell-number portability -- Retailers join cyber bandwagon -- Buying habits changing , Peter Morton, Financial Post, November 23, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=
c6b263a3-4687-4bab-91f0-11a33a93da97


[....] "Convenience will always be a factor with online shopping," Mr. Silverman says from his Washington office. "And not only that, online retailers are increasingly offering free shipping and no condition returns."

[....] Mr. Babb says Circuit City is also trying something else -- allowing consumers to buy online and pick up the product within 24 hours at their local store.
"These days," he says, "people want instant gratification."


All the comforts of home ... instant gratification ... as you buy your way into bankruptcy


Wearing a niqab is not a big deal ...

Well, the niqab is a big deal to this Western woman and I don't want you to wear what amounts to a disguise in my country, nor do I want your abysmal treatment of women ... nor sharia. You came to our country; I would never go to one of yours ... not ever, now. Clean up your own Muslim countries; don't come to mine and try to change it. Is that clear? ... Aggrieved at my bluntness? So sue me. It will be a frosty Friday before it would be worth your while ... even if you won.

There that feels better ... after the appeasement I've noted. Listen to the politically correct leftist crowd and you'll know what I mean ... if you have been so closeted from reality as to be bewildered by the comments.


www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=ffc204fb-d53d-41ee-9002-fe832a5b19db

November 24, 2006

Nov. 24, 2006: Governor General in Africa & More

Governor-General a hit in Mali , Alexander Panetta, CP / Globe and Mail, Nov. 24, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20061124.wjeanmali1124/BNStory/International/home



BAMAKO, MALI — [....] Governor-General Michaëlle Jean's speech to the Malian parliament [....]

“There is no governance without equality between men and women,” was the cover headline of L'Independant, quoting Ms. Jean. [....]




The response?

Malian MPs hear G-G pitch women's rights, CP / Globe and Mail, Nov. 24, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
LAC.20061124.WORLDREPORT24-2/TPStory/International



Bamako, Mali -- ... uncomfortable grumbles and glances in Mali's parliament yesterday when Michaëlle Jean urged the African country to extend unprecedented rights to its women.

The handful of elected females beamed and cheered .... [some] male colleagues joined in the applause, while droves of others remained silent, exchanged stares or chattered among themselves for a moment. [....]




How long ago was this trip planned? By whom? For what government purpose? It seems to align more with the former government's priorities in (Liberal DFAIT) and with CIDA's goals in Africa than with what has been emanating from the current government.

Would what the GG says fall into the realm of political speech? At whose behest?

End Muslim stereotypes, Governor-General urges , Nov. 23, 06, Globe and Mail / CP

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/LAC.20061123.WORLD23-2/TPStory/TPInternational/Africa/



Algiers -- Westerners should get rid of their stereotypes of Muslim women as meek and powerless, Governor-General Michaëlle Jean said yesterday as she lauded women in Islamic countries as "builders and doers." [....]


I believe Micaelle Jean should learn more before she speaks out, especially in Algeria or Mali. It seems as if Muslim women are no more liberated than they were a few years ago. At least some who have been in Algeria paint a different picture of the lives of women.



Jean begins 'dream' visit to Africa, Nov. 20, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
LAC.20061120.JEAN20/TPStory/International

Jean speaks of Africa's bitter legacy of colonialism , CP / Globe and Mail, Nov. 20, 06
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20061120.wjean1120/BNStory/International



Algiers, Algeria — Governor-General Michaëlle Jean has drawn attention to the bitter legacy of European colonialism in Africa.


I'm a little tired of those who like to see themselves as among the "victimized", harkening back to other centuries, whether blacks or natives or other groups who have found it in some way satisfactory to maintain their images of victimhood. Haiti was the first island to eliminate slavery in the Caribbean, only to descend rapidly into a black dictatorship and it is, from what I can tell, just about a world basket case.

Michaelle Jean is very fortunate to have been able to flee somehow to Canada with her parents. As for the harm done by European colonial powers, is most of Africa better off today under the rule of Africa's own thuggish military dictators, powerful tribal chiefs, often leaders helped by outside money and arms? The citizen and the traveller were safer under colonial rule than they are today, in many cases. Think of South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda ... and others.


All European, Western and African powers have grown in some way, some in realizing the wrongs of slavery and choosing to end it; others have chosen the sword, the machete or the gun and to fight neighbours and other tribes (e.g. Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Sudan). Then there is South Africa where the arsenal of weapons includes car-jackings and AIDS afflicted ignorant thugs raping children for "the cure". Incidentally, people are always enslaved by something or someone, in my opinion. It may be less evident or less brutal but slavery to the system is part of living, it appears.

Let's set the record straight; African slave traders and Arab slave traders played a large part in slavery within Africa and without, selling slaves to any slaver or shipper with money to buy slaves for the New World and its plantations. Those involved included white, black, dusky and every shade in between. Mali and Mauritania still have slaves. Mali did state last year that they were going to end slavery. Has it happened? Did the GG mention that?

Algeria enslaves people. Certainly women are not liberated almost anywhere except where there has been enough money in the family to afford an education in Europe or America. Does Ms. Jean really think the legacy will be any better when the businessmen salivating to get African minerals and whatever else is of interest to foreign powers succeed? (Think of China's designs, for example, or the businessmen / charitable foundations / rich individuals setting up businesses and cell phone services to "help" the poor.) Frankly, Michaelle, you wouldn't want to live under them, either.




In a speech at a luncheon given by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Ms. Jean spoke of her deeply personal attachment to Africa as a black, Haitian-born woman.

“My ancestors were torn from their lives,” she told a diplomatic audience.


Dear Michaelle, very dramatic you sound, as befits a CBC-trained performer who has learned to wrench the emotion from a scene, a speech, or an anecdote. You have not really suffered enough for what you say, and the reality of slavery for you is only in your imagination. Those of us with ancestors who were closer to the gutter than to the GG's mansion may know of a similar story but fail to be able to wring victimhood out of it. Our ancestors, most of them, landed on these shores after being enslaved by upper class landowners or some other lowly circumstance ... for example, from a potato patch, peat bog, or a mean hut or crofter's cottage. If our ancestors had been thriving, we would still be living on the auld sod ... but they left for greener pastures.

People like me, lucky enough to live in the West, do not pine for an ancestral language nor a heritage culture. That is the kind of thing people who are after taxpayers' money moan about ... in an attempt to induce guilt in the rest of us, I think ... all the better to get on the taxpayer teat. In fact when we do look back, we see mostly the brutal face of our ancestors and the people around them. We have moved on, in the current argot, and you should too. The victimhood whinge ill becomes such a fashion plate travelling at taxpayer expense and luxury. You won't be stopped at a border crossing by a man pretending to be a policeman or a man trying to get you in to visit his "family" for ... whatever.

I cannot wallow in sentiment for a period when ancestral immigrants--even dirty white ones--and dogs were unwanted, or for that time when they were practically indentured servants to farmers on remote acreage after they had survived the perils of the passage. Everyone worked brutally long days hacking out a living and eventually, a rude home, working for many more hours than we do today, whatever we do. They were rough as cobs, mostly ignorant, unschooled, close to brutes in their lives and relationships with their partners. It was the way it was. Nevertheless, their progeny did better, learned a bit more, strove for better lives and begat more and more with higher and higher aspirations. You, Ms. Jean, have been fortunate in your brains, beauty, education, your work with the CBC--well paid by taxpayers--your Liberal political ties, your currently needed colouring as a symbol of ... whatever, your speaking the only language that matters currently in Canada and for the last 30+ years ... You have lucked in far more than the descendants of, for example, the peat bog where they learned the art of the lower end work in making scotch whisky or pounded metal at the forge and the women grew old while still young in years; such were the burdens of being working women, working just to keep everything together in the home and with children.

I fail to see how you can take the sufferings of distant ancestors so much to heart when your own life has been so fortunate -- education, travel and more. Really. Stop blaming people who lived long ago, and lived by the code of the era, including plantations and slavery. They or their descendants learned eventually, then ended it, mostly because of a Judeo Christian faith which taught the equality of man.

Many descendants of a later slavery than Haiti's have done very well. They are too busy living their lives to make speeches full of what must be faux emotion about a place of ancestors from a couple of hundred years ago, a place Jean had no reason to see, really. Is that a failure of empathy on my part? Undoubtedly ... and for what seem to me to be sensible reasons. I don't see Condi Rice emoting about slavery all over the place. She is too busy being a VIP with brains, beauty, talent, an important job and the sense to know faux emotion to play the race/slavery card doesn't really play well, except to rubes ... when you have her assets. Michaelle, you do have assets and tremendous good fortune ... the right friend in the PMO at the right time. Count your blessings.



“(They were) stripped of themselves, of their language, their name, their memory, their history, of their basic dignity as women and men, and were reduced to slavery and deported to the Americas.”

[....] Earlier in the day, Ms. Jean laid a wreath at a martyr's sanctuary in honour of Algerians killed in the lengthy struggle to overthrow French colonial rule.


What is a martyr in the context of that war? Details, details, details missing. I believe the evil perpetrated on both sides would make Abu Ghraib look like a kindergarten class. Why, if the Algerians were treated so badly, do so so many of them head to France ... Quebec? Canada, even Judeo-Christian Canada? ... Well, what little there is left of religion after the social engineering to render Judeo-Christianity the only belief system(s) that may be mocked with impunity.



She was given a tour of the nearby Moudjahid museum. Its halls were filled with pictures of slaughtered Algerians from the anti-French uprising and with artifacts from the revolution that resulted in Algeria's independence in 1962.


Is all that a little abasement from the West ... for the good of the businesses to follow?

It sounds like a trip designed to point out the evil of whites, white slavers and white colonists. See above. Get over it. Stop wringing the subject for some advantage ... whatever it may turn out to be. Don't act out what amounts to apologies about past actions for this white and a number of others like me. We had nothing to do with it.




[....] Ms. Jean listed ways that Canada is helping the country rebuild. They include constructing power plants and water systems, and helping to build a Grand Mosque in Algiers. [....]



Why are Canadian taxpayers helping to build a Grand Mosque in Algiers? Is that through CIDA? Are the power plants and water systems a business venture ... maybe SNC Lavalin? Was the GG's visit a Liberal-scripted one? See below.



Comments


www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20061120.wjean1120/Comment
Story/International#comment481550


If the GG wishes to discover her roots she should pay her own...

The Governor-General needs to be told that her role is purely...

27. [s**** a****] from Welland, Ontario, Canada writes: The Governor-General needs to be told that her role is purely ceremonial and that she is not to indulge in political commentary on behalf of the Canadian people. Only parliament and elected officials can deliver 'sermons' about foreign policy or domestic affairs. Either Jean is ignorant of her place in the political landscape, or she deliberately choses to usurp powers and privileges that are not that of the G-G. ....



Given the negative press about decisions and the CRTC, obviously not to the liking of the BCE / Globe and Mail news nor to the CanWest / National Post news sources, see if the GG and the mainstream media seem to be on the same page.

The Governor General could have been politicking for the left / Liberal / UNESCO Cultural Diversity Protocol -- signed Nov. 2005 by Paul Martin. Scroll down this for more information on the many implications and global network pushing for ratification of this.


First, the mainstream media news, then a little Memory Lane

Cable sector slams network fee idea , Grant Robertson, Globe and Mail, Nov. 23, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20061123.wcablee1123/BNStory/Technology


A proposal by Canada's major broadcasters to begin charging for their signal “would be devastating” to the television industry, the country's cable and satellite companies argue.

With the TV sector next week heading into its first federal policy review since the 1990s, cable and satellite carriers are trying to stop the proposal, led by Global Television and supported by CTV and CITY-TV.

Global parent CanWest Global Communications Corp. is expected to argue next week at hearings held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that fees for carriage, as they are known, should be extended to the major networks.

Only specialty cable channels — those higher up on the dial such as Showcase, MuchMusic and HGTV — are allowed to charge carriers for their signals. [....]


Search: Rogers , a tax on television by the networks



Memory Lane

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Jan. 29, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_01_29_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

I ran out of time but these are a few items I spied that have current relevance.

Note: International Fund for Cultural Diversity , protect , preserve cultural expressions , France , China , US , CRTC , digital radio , must [repeatedly] , control , Departments of Industry and Canadian Heritage , French language , "Aboriginal, Chinese, German, Italian and South Asian communities" , CRTC approves four new Toronto radio stations , relationship created with Le Réseau Francophone de l'Amerique (RFA). , VOIP , disruptive technology , The Internet has always been a model of freedom. , tollgates, express lanes, and traffic tie-ups

No Indoctrination 4: Francophone Countries Gain
WTO alliances and groups in Hong Kong

No Indoctrination 5: Summit's Outcome Important for Islamic Countries
How to get around the WTO's "most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment" would allow exclusion of Israel ... (possibly the US?), I should think.

Focus on 10-Year Action Plan
empowerment of women was on top
How very interesting that the Canadian Ministry of Heritage and responsible for the Status of Women would have been supporting a liason with this group's view of women's place........ all through a UNESCO protocol.

February 1, 2006
Another Gift that Keeps on Giving -- CRTC & Lib. Big Brother, Daycare Myths, Tsunami $$$ -&- GG's Royal Taste
CRTC: subscription radio services -- heavily into control ... control ... not the freedom of the individual to choose
CIDA & the UN
$425-million was to have been administered by CIDA

failed Francoscenie production of L'echo d'un peuple
Liberal payments to the arts, including taxpayers' money for travel abroad
The Department of Foreign Affairs budgeted for international touring;
Chavez dreams of a continental shift
a socialist revolution sweeping through Latin America
January 30, 2006
No Indoctrination -&- Six Features of Socialism
No Indoctrination: One
according to CBC's (Evan Solomon and Carol MacNeil, Jan. 26, 06) program, the comedy programs are going to go after the Conservatives, and it sounds as though it will be merciless
The CRTC's willing stooges
a classic cartel
, hiding behind a trade barrier
No Indoctrination: Two
Why would Elections Canada allow the use official ballots? [student indoctrination?]


The UNESCO protocol on Cultural Diversity is adhered to by mainstream media, artists and artists' unions, some, if not all telephone companies (quebectel) and many more. They have a vested interest in seeing that a Liberal government be returned to power, in order that this be used to maintain their pre-eminent positions. This is one reason why it is worth checking further.


No Indoctrination: Three
Quebec citizenship
Aboriginal nation rights

No Indoctrination: Four

November 23, 2006

Nov. 23, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn

Code Blue at CBC--The Conservatives have pulled a hat trick

The political and media opposition to Harper and his bright boys has been hilarious. A cluster bomb of new announcements have landed on the LPO* / aka CBC. First, the Harper government has released a statement in Parliament, saying, "We support a Quebec nation within a united Canada." This took the wind out of the BQ's sails. They wanted to propose a Quebec nation within Canada--full stop. While such a Conservative motion would increase Iggy's chances of being elected Liberal leader, it would weaken Bob Rae's chances. Polls now show that Rae is the worst threat to the Conservatives. The next day, Harper was standing next to Toronto's mayor, Miller, and Premier McGuinty announcing a much needed gun law, designed to take the gun-wielding thugs off the city streets. Try to block that ye opposition members. Finally, he came out with an income tax splitting initiative, which would save some families $3,930 on a partner's / husband's salary of $80,000, if the wife were a stay-at-home mom. A winner for the homemaker and the stressed out female worker bee, who wants to be one.

Fallout? This is such a trifecta for the Conservatives that the liberal media is beside itself. Internal memos are being sent to all departments--How can we poison this coup from these neo-cons? CBC's Jenny Lee, the economic or market news girl, is on the case and reports that, "Yes, in the short run it is good news for Canadians; however, should the economy take a down-turn, it would be a bad thing." Don Newman muses that "this might open the door for a separatist resurrection in Quebec". All Harper would have to do now to satisfy me is to announce that his government would give MRIs to every hospital and that the CBC would be sold off to the highest bidder -- with the proviso that "Coronation Street" , "Intelligence" and "Hockey Night in Canada" would be retained. That would satisfy 70% of CBC watchers, so long as there aren't the endless "Encores" of said programs.

© Bud Talkinghorn

* LPO = Liberal Propaganda Organization

Nov. 23, 2006: The system kicks in

This is too long but I am trying to investigate, to learn for myself more about why there was so much negative response, even outrage, that Minister Toews would dare to tinker with "THE SYSTEM", concerning the courts, justices and having more people make input. There is a point to this, and while it is too long, if you just skim down, see what is in bold or colour, you will see what happens when the journalists in the mainstream media "choose" not to investigate further ... or are discouraged from pursuing news of which citizens should be cognizant. At least that is how I see what has happened. This arose out of my personal shock at the negative reaction to Justice Minister Toews' plan to include a single member from law enforcement as one more component in the group serving as advisors on appointing justices to the courts in Canada. There had to be more to it ... so I started checking.


Corruption , justice , media and availability / longevity of news concerning sensitive cases ... in fact a paucity of news


Search: justice , immigration , China , immigration , refugee , ports , security , ... and more

Reminder: I posted about this Nov. 19 and 21 (Update) and Nov. 22, 06 -- concerning the apoplectic response of those who have received benefits within the system ... as it is ... and want NO CHANGES.





"Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin is among those expressing displeasure with Justice Minister Vic Toews for hatching a plan to arbitrarily change the way judges are chosen. ....

Beverley McLachlin, Canada's Chief Justice, along with a powerful council [The Canadian Judicial Council: see below] of the country's top judges issued an unprecedented rebuke yesterday to Justice Minister Vic Toews for hatching a plan to arbitrarily change the way judges are chosen.



Related: Frost Hits the Rhubarb April 23-29, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_04_23_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

There was Diane Serre / Diane Serré of the Immigration system.

[Watch the accents. They disappear for some reason or other.]

I believe the justice has since been found guilty. Yves Bourbonnais ["the judge"], a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board Appeal Division chargedSue Montgomery, The Gazette, April 21, 2006

www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=
d9678cfb-e395-4c32-ace7-06fcaa07cf2a&k=75705









Immigration & Security

Tailor, 73, jailed 22 months in desperate-refugee scam -- Pleaded guilty in 2005 to 11 counts each of influence peddling and conspiracy

[Franco] Macaluso pleaded guilty in September 2005 to 11 counts each of influence peddling and conspiracy to defraud the government in a well-orchestrated scheme that ended with 11 Montrealers being charged in 2004 - including Yves Bourbonnais ["the judge"], a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board Appeal Division.

Bourbonnais has been suspended from his post and is to go to trial Sept. 12 on 97 charges, including breach of trust, defrauding the government and obstruction of justice. [. . . . ]




See also: Immigration: What happens to history in the internet era?

Search: Diane Serre [also Diane Serré]

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Oct. 29 - Nov. 4, 2006 -- or scroll to Nov. 2, 06: Immigration fraud: What happened with this case?

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_10_29_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/11
/nov-2-2006-various-1.html








News Junkie Canada Dec. 2004

Immigration fraud - re: Diane Serre

newsjunkiecanada.blogspot.com/2004/12/
sinclair-stephens-wins-immigration.html

Diane Serre [also Diane Serré], 34, is charged with 13 counts of fraud upon the government, eight counts of breach of trust by a public officer, and one count of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and possession of property obtained by crime.

Also facing various charges are Issam Dakik, 44, Vivian Badaan-Dakik, 33, Roger Harper, 38, and Ali Naser, 43, all of Ottawa. [....]




Memory Lane:

Search: judge , justice , Supreme Court , SCOC , China , immigration , media , propaganda, income trusts, drugs , banking


Frost Hits the Rhubarb Feb. 19-25, 2006 -- scroll to -- Not Politicized: Justice, IRB, China-CRTC-Rogers TV, Cuba, Ports, Cartoons, Etc, posted Feb. 24, 2006 -- There is an item from Lifesite.net: "in the two-year period that former Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, were in power, the following individuals were given judicial appointments:"

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_02_19_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/02
/not-politicized-justice-irb-china-crtc.html

www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06022302.html

[Former Liberal Justice Minister Cotler]





- Michael Brown, Mr. Cotler's executive assistant and policy advisor;
- Yves de Montigny, Mr. Cotler's Chief of Staff;
- Randall Echlin, the Legal Counsel to the Ontario Liberal Party;
- Rosalie Abella, (appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada), wife of Mr. Cotler's close friend, Irving Abella;
- Marsha Erb, Alberta Liberal fundraiser, a close personal friend of Cotler's former Cabinet colleague, Anne McLellan;
- John J. Gill, Co-chair of the 2004 Alberta federal Liberal campaign;
- Vital Ouellette, an unsuccessful Alberta provincial Liberal candidate in 1997 and 2000 elections;
- Bryan Mahoney, federal Liberal candidate who lost twice to federal Conservative MP Myron Thompson;
- Edmond Blanchard, former Liberal New Brunswick Minister of Finance [. . . . ]


Re media: CRTC

During the same week, Bud Talkinghorn wrote: Bud: Hello, Comrades ... , Dubai, Daycare. "the CRTC seems to have no problem accrediting nine Communist Chinese propaganda channels" ... "allowing undiluted Communist propaganda to reach our Chinese immigrants" ... "Trojan Horse tactic ... this CRTC/Rogers decision"







The Chinese see this diversion of attention and push their propaganda outreach. They have studied our porous "diversity" edicts and have used them to gain admittance. They have also not missed the move to the left in Latin America. That is another fertile battleground for their influence and propaganda.



There is information on the judicial system, along with other items currently in the news.

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Feb. 19-25, 2006
China e-Lobby: News of the Day (February 24)

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_02_19_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Xinhua News Agency, dubbed "the World's Biggest Propaganda Agency

How Western companies are selling their souls for a piece of the massive Chinese market
-- Yes, Master , Steve Maich, February 20, 2006







.... Several Canadian companies, including Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, Acres International, Hydro-Québec and Dominion Bridge Inc., have been involved in various aspects of the Three Gorges endeavour, many of them backed by taxpayer money through Export Development Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency. But, as the project steamed ahead in the mid-1990s, and "Team Canada" trade missions ... the forced evacuation of roughly two million people living in low-lying areas to be flooded by the dam.

Stop 9 Chinese TVs from broadcasting propaganda in Canada , Joan Quain and M.Makina, Between Heaven and Earth

Related Links:

How China's Propaganda Machine Works
www.newsmax.com/archives/
articles/2003/7/3/134334.shtml

China Controls the People by Keeping Them Ignorant
www.newsmax.com/archives/
articles/2003/7/7/133353.shtml

How China's Propaganda Machine Tries to Fool the World

www.newsmax.com/archives/
articles/2003/7/8/133729.shtml

Communist Spy TV: Phoenix television rises -- Liu Changle--one of China's biggest tycoons , Tony Wong, February 19, 2006

Many people in Chinese communities claim that Liu Changle's real identity is a spy from the Chinese military. It wouldn't be surprising as four Phoenix TV employees were charged with stealing military secrets in the US last year.


Of course, Canadian justice is NOT POLITICIZED!


Just as the Immigration & Refugee Board is NOT POLITICIZED!


Refugee Board stacked with Liberals. How can you tell?

#1133 - Thu Sep 02 2004

Making Canada a terrorist haven -- Sri lankan gangster gets to stay -- Judge fears 'hardship' for son of man caught with AK-47 , Stewart Bell, National Post, September 02, 2004

Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) member Egya Sangmuah
UAE Ports Deal;
Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co
Dubai Ports World is merely buying the P&O
Mr. Kevin G. Lynch, Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Ph.D., Economics, McMaster University

Oil for Food Scandal -- the Canadian Connection old but interesting because of weapons of mass destruction.


[Justice and Judges]

Quick Notes: Ports, Security, Banking, Memory Lanes, Etc.

... News Junkie Canada, Sept. 14, 03

The Supreme Court
Judicial Impartiality as Practiced in Canada
[Note what happened to the link.]

Bad Link: Gremlin spotted. Funny how this happens
" target=_blankJUDGES PARTY WITH HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS

If you right click / copy shortcut, you will get a link with something added. Remove the part at the end with "br" in it so the link is as follows:

Correct link:
www.realwomenca.com/newsletter/
2003_july_aug/article_4.html



If there is anyone left in Canada who still believes that our judges are fair and impartial on the homosexual issue, they should know about an event that took place during Gay Pride Week in Toronto. [....]


It Helps to Travel in the Right Circles: Paul Martin


"Official Languages and Immigration: Obstacles and Opportunities for Immigrants and Communities" (2002) and "French on the Internet: Key to the Canadian Identity and the Knowledge Economy" (2002). [Nov. 30, 06. "of" removed -- It shouldn't have been there.]

Aboriginal Languages

Update: Adrienne’s Junket

[ Peter Adams of the Makivik Corp. in Kuujjuaq and Fibbie Tatti, the Languages Commissioner of the Northwest Territories , strategies for preserving Aboriginal languages and the development of Aboriginal language curricula in other jurisdictions in Canada ]

This experience led to her participation in a tour of Russia in 1990 ....



US Ports
Dubai Ports World (DPW)


More on ports: Hong Kong tycoon, ports, control of shipping, Panama, et cetera

Search:

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HKSB)
Cheung Kong (or Choong Kong)

There is more in the above post.


Memory Lane: This post has some related items of tangential or more pressing interest: Frost Hits the Rhubarb, week of July 10, 05



frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2005_07_10_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html


Subheadings and some items that may be worth checking:
[The list will save time for anyone interested.]

More Memory Lane:

From Liberal kickbacks to a Virtual GRIT? By David Hawkins, January 7, 2006
[....] Virtual GRIT ('Global Racketeering Income Trust'),
Lansdowne Technologies
CAI Private Equity Group
"Virtual Floating Matrix"
income trusts

Chavez
BofA nears settlement on money-laundering probe , The Business Journal, Feb. 20, 06
Beacon Hill Services Corp.,

February 21, 2006
Potpourri
Probe into alleged income-trust leak may widen circle of those in the know Dean Beeby, Feb. 19, 06
alleged leak of confidential income-trust policy


Refugees 'bought' way into country, court told -- Immigration scam -- Woon Lam (Bill) Wong, Liu Wai Keung, Yves Bourbonnais, an Immigration and Refugee Board judge, $10,000


[....] New details of the bribery scandal that led to the laying of 278 charges against 11 Montrealers in 2001 -- including Yves Bourbonnais, an Immigration and Refugee Board judge [....]


Copps? Arbour? LeBlanc? Ignatieff? Liberals casting about for a leader [Domenic LeBlanc son of former GG LeBlanc]

Boat builders in China want to partner with B.C. engineers,
China hunts abroad for academic talent Feb 18, 2006, Pallavi Aiyar
[....] UNBSJ's Beijing Concord Project at the Concord College of Sino Canada in Beijing China (BCCSC)?

The Taliban's bloody foothold in Pakistan , Syed Saleem Shahzad, Feb. 8, 06

Afghan opium: License to kill , Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, Feb. 1, 06
Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy is a geographer and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique research fellow, and produces www.geopium.org

[....] There was a meeting of the World Bank in London during the first week of Feb. to tackle development issues for Afghanistan, particularly, "how to deal with Afghanistan's opium fields, which last year produced about 4,200 tonnes of raw opium." What was the outcome?


"Twelve-year-old Amar Ahmed joined the protest, carrying a sign reading, "O Allah, give me courage to kill the blasphemer." ", 2/19/2006
[cartoon controversy]

Taiwan hunts drug ring pals of BC English tutor , February 09 2006

‘Crooked’ bankers stash loot in Richmond and Vancouver , February 09 2006, By Mata Press Service

[....] Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

[....] develop a virtual casino, called DrHo.com.
DrHo.com is based in Antigua with technology designed by Vancouver-based Eyeball.com Network Inc.



Courts, Louise Arbour Suggested as Liberal Leader [Note her appointments ]
Liberal insiders want UN's top human rights fighter to clean up the party. David Beers, Feb. 17, 06

[....] an activist judge ....
Remember the Kinston pen 4 women?

More on Louise Arbour here: Joining the Supremes -- Pro-family Canadians brace themselves as liberal jurist LOUISE ARBOUR ascends to the nation's highest court, Tim Bloedow, The Interim, August, 1999
[....] Arbour is a strong proponent of the UN's latest experiment in expanding its judicial power: the 1998 development of an agreement to establish a International Criminal Court. [. . . . ]
Search:
Kingston Penitentiary for women
feminist outrage at the way Kingston Penintentiary guards treated female prisoners following a riot in the prison.
Arbour's blatant disregard for Canada's Constitution
in accepting the appointment
Allan Rock had to pass three orders-in-council
Senator Anne Cools
reputation for being openly political
openly lobbied in favour of the International Criminal Court [which is important for the timing]

Larry Taman, an NDP appointee
equal treatment for married couples and common-law partners

This article is worth reading if you want to review the plans that, IMHO, have been in the works for years and how justices and members of Liberal governments have been gerrymandering to realize their globalization plans.


Lenient to a fault -- Should criminals do no time at all? In a speech last week, Judge John Reilly pitched the idea of sending only the worst offenders, such as Karla Homolka, to jail while reforming other criminals by educating them about the damage they've done.
Legal challenge to pipeline review returns to court as hearing reveal aboriginals split -- legal efforts to derail the whole process , Bob Weber, CP, Feb. 19, 2006 [re: pipeline , Dene Tha , aboriginal lands]


Communist Party's propaganda czars

Book Review: Peter Tertzakian, a Calgary-based economist: A Thousand Barrels a Second
"Free-market forces are not strong enough to catalyze rapid change in energy because it takes so much capital." .... China's experience with social engineering

Hussein Tapes Reveal Effort to Conceal WMD Information From International Inspectors , NTI, Feb. 16

Ezra Levant: Irwin Cotler still picking our judges , Feb. 18. 06

Min. Day, the RCMP & the Useless Gun Registry: Surprises Coming
Captain's Quarters: Liberating The RCMP -- Captain Ed Feb. 17, 06
A government that wanted to avoid having the RCMP looking into its actions
The Gun Registry & Miramichi MLA


Bureaucrat charged in $100-million fraud , Glen McGregor, CanWest, Jan. 31, 2006
[....] Paul Champagne, a former DND contracts manager .... Peter Mellon .... Ignatius (Cholo) Manso .... Turks and Caicos

Halifax newspapers are reporting that the total cost to make the HMCS Chicoutimi, notable for killing Lieut. Chris Saunders, seaworthy again will top $100 MILLION!

Michael Grabarek .... Operation Dr. Wu .... marijuana, Colombian cocaine and methamphetamine
Brigitte Gabriel: Islam’s March Against the West (Excerpted from Brigitte Gabriel’s speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC, Saturday February 18, 2006.)
Arab Christians living in Lebanon

steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal

Peter Svensson: Skype use may make eavesdropping passe , AP Technology Writer, Feb. 17, 06
[....] Skype's 256-bit keys would take trillions of times longer to crack than 128-bit keys
Rewritable Atomic Holographic Optical Disk Drive Storage









Blackberry , Rim , Olivia Chow , CBC , Frank McKenna , Justice Eleanor Dawson

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Feb. 5-11, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2005_02_06_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Wake up on terror, Cellucci warns Canada , Anne Dawson and Robert Fife, CanWest, Feb. 7, 05

Canada is short about 3500 RCMP and CSIS officers -- Cellucci: Spend more on spies, JTF2 special forces, strategic airlift for a rapid-reaction force -- "U.S. Envoy's Parting Advice: Beef Up the Military"
.... lower ranks

Justice Eleanor Dawson -- Toronto man with alleged links to al-Qaeda to stay in Canada over fears he'll be tortured in Egypt

Whose rights are paramount in Canada? Mohamed Mahjoub's or Canadians'? No contest. His!

" target=_blankJudge refuses to deport terror suspect -- Toronto man with alleged links to al-Qaeda to stay in Canada over fears he'll be tortured in Egypt Andrew Duffy, with files from Shannon Kari and James Gordon, Ottawa Citizen

Link had been corrupted with a hard return

Correct link:
www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=
21ed0a8d-8476-4107-a7f0-aa1002eae208




Creating Counterweights to Big Media --& -- Patrick Watson Wants a CBC / Government Newspaper?
Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications
# 9 ....






[Re the public broadcaster, CBC] There is a pretense through three (or more) person discussion panels for example--one NDP, one Liberal, one supposedly neutral or even conservative--until you check further.

(An example: There is a prevalence of leftists and left thinking, featured. Check how many times and for how long NDP leader Jack Layton is featured, compared to CPC leader Stephen Harper. An NDP also-ran, Olivia Chow, Layton's wife--both actually lived in Toronto public housing--was one of five Blackberry owners in a large segment of a CBC program on RIM's Blackberry .... RIM has been or is pursuing some new "business partnership" in China ....)

[....] CanWest ... Frank McKenna on their boards of directors.
Journalism's 'Ethical Vertigo'
media's in the thrall of the rich and powerful , not to mention their corporate masters







converged journalism offers owners an opportunity to get rid of reporters and use the same story twice or more. That means greater profits for shareholders and less information for citizens.

[....] A government newspaper is coming if ....

Are the Media Independent? -- graph



What was Promised for 'Israeli Apartheid Week' and a Link to What was Delivered
After the "Israeli Apartheid Week" I posted U of T Hatefest--Using the Freedom of Speech and our Canadian Values to Incite to Hatred and Racism . [University of Toronto]

[. . . . ] The students set up a mock Palestinian refugee camp on campus [See Louise Arbour , Palestinian]

The National Interest, Fall, 1993, "A Mandate for Israel", Douglas J. Feith -- a twentieth century history of the Arab/Israeli conflict via via www.looksmart.com -- or -- www.findarticles.com

www.findarticles.com/p/articles/
mi_m2751/is_n33/ai_14538698/print

"23 reasons" -- You may download this as a .pdf or ZIP format file to read. [Israel]
www.israpundit.com/archives/
2004/02/23_reasons.php



This is where curiosity led me on only one case of corruption and the justice system. Instructive.

Corruption , justice , media and availability of news concerning sensitive cases

Are the mainstream media complicit in keeping a lid on any instances of corruption within the system, not directly, but in a more indirect, insidious manner? In whose interests would it be that this story concerning a member of the Canadian judiciary, an appointed and corrupt judge, not be discussed at least as endlessly as others ... doggygate ... or PM Harper's girth ... or any number of the mindless topics of minimal import that receive much media attention? Drek sells, of course.

I knew I had posted something about this but when I tried a search to retrieve all the information available, at least listed in Google; there was not much in the mainstream media, though there was more in smaller news outlets and concerned bodies. Considering its importance in the current debate over the judicial system and who would be appropriate as part of that body advising, not selecting, the judges for our courts, the Canadian Judicial Council, it seems amazing how little there is. Is there not more journalistic investigation? Is the fact that this story concerns a Liberal appointee not a subject people want to pursue ... at least as much as the above-mentioned items? (Those items are drek, in my opinion, the first because, if it walks like a duck ... , the second because, my dear, I don't give a ... That is not important in a PM.)

Search: Justice Stymiest , hospital , appoint , McKenna , Ambassador

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Feb. 6, 2006
NB Justice Drew Stymiest found guilty
, posted February 9, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2005_02_06_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/02/
nb-justice-drew-stymiest-found-guilty.html






[....] The other defendants, hospital CEO John Tucker, vice-president of finance Ian Jamieson and hospital accountant Darrell Doucette"

Frank McKenna


Frank McKenna, former Premier of NB, then Ambassador to the US, currently on several boards including a bank board, TD, I think. Was Justice Stymiest appointed by McKenna when he was Premier? It was Frank McKenna who decided to set up regional health boards. Stymiest was appointed the first chair of the Region 7 Hospital Corporation.






he gave about $50,000 in cash to two unnamed men from Toronto and Montreal without getting a receipt.
CEO John Tucker $120,000 in bonuses
forensic accountant testified
the RENT account
appointed the first chair of the Region 7 Hospital Corporation




The National Post: I select, copy, paste links so I checked my files. It looks as though the original link had a space -- rendering the link useless. Whether with or without the space, the story has disappeared.

www.canada.com/national/story. html?id=
7d173ac9-8379-4c36-92ae-0f82050215ce

[Note the space above.]

www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=
7d173ac9-8379-4c36-92ae-0f82050215ce

The Star: link still good

Judge's fraud trial study in contrasts -- N.B. jurist aided toddlers, elderly -- But it's alleged he defrauded hospital Kelly Toughill, Dec. 19, 2005

www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=
thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=
1134946212002&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467






According to those Halifax prosecutors, Stymiest, 56, is also a crook. They allege he set up shell corporations to defraud the hospital, that he took kickbacks, that he double-billed his expenses, that he faked invoices. In short, that he regularly pocketed money meant to help heal the sick and comfort the dying in the river towns of Miramichi [NB].

Stymiest and three hospital employees have been charged with 40 counts of fraud and breach of trust. Stymiest alone faces 20 criminal counts.

The other defendants, hospital CEO John Tucker, vice-president of finance Ian Jamieson and hospital accountant Darrell Doucette, have also been accused of pocketing bonuses that were supposed to lure badly needed new doctors to the region, and keeping rebates on hospital equipment. [....]



Search: New Brunswick Judge Drew Stymiest fraud trial

Globe and Mail: Some news is viewable by all but not this story. It is behind a firewall. One of the problems with news is that any media outlet has to balance making money with the citizens' right to know. [How is the citizen who does not subscribe supposed to know what is going on?]

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/LAC.20060208.NATS08-2/TPStory/National


Result of a Google search:

CBC:
Cabinet accepts guilty judge's resignation
www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb_judgequits20060209.html
That news is local. Apparently, it was not a national story.

If news is fairly successfully downplayed or hidden behind a firewall nationally, then the citizenry will continue to believe in the "Independence of the court" and have "respect for justice" -- which leaves the citizens open to other crooked member(s) of the system, assuming, of course, that there are any.

CBC News, last updated, Feb. 9, 2006
Note that the justice was not fired; he resigned, that the paperwork was still not ready after three years.






The New Brunswick government will accept the resignation ... preparing the paperwork to cut off his $151,000 salary and benefits.

Judge Drew Stymiest, who served more than 20 years on the bench, was convicted Tuesday of 20 counts of fraud and breach of trust in a scheme that swindled nearly $1 million from the Miramichi Regional Health Authority. [....]

* From March 20, 2003: Accused judge will stay on provincial payroll [Did he ever have to pay it back?]

Stymiest took sick leave in October 2001 when Miramichi City Police began investigating allegations of financial misdealings at the health authority, of which the judge was chairman of the board. In January 2002, he returned to the bench but was not assigned any cases. He was suspended with pay in June 2003. He has been collecting his salary all along.

Justice Department spokesman Gary Toft says the government is investigating options to recoup some of the losses connected with the crime – including Stymiest's salary and benefits while the investigation and trial was ongoing. It is unclear what will happen to the judge's pension fund. [....]


How did that play out? No further investigation by the MSM? If there was, it certainly doesn't jump out in a search. Or did the system kick in to protect one of its own?






Saint John lawyer John Barry says...

"The province's judges are extremely concerned about the impression it gives – that a member of the bench would become involved in most serious charges. Independence of the court and respect for justice is one of the paramount aspects of our Canadian system of democracy....."


.... the longest fraud trial in the history of New Brunswick.

The men, including former health authority CEO John Tucker, former finance vice-president Ian Jamieson, and former vice-president of supply and services Darrell Doucette, are being held in police custody awaiting sentencing at the end of March.

Mayor John McKay ... Rotary club ... raised more than a million dollars to buy equipment for the hospital – that the hospital couldn't afford to buy. Now we know, perhaps, why ...

McKay says the City of Miramichi spent tens of thousands of dollars on the initial police investigation, money that he is trying to recoup. "The city has paid huge amounts from this investigation. We're still getting bills, and I mean many, many tens of thousands of dollars, and I don't think it's proper that the taxpayers of the City of Miramichi should be on the hook to finance an investigation into a conspiracy to defraud the people of the Miramichi and to defraud the hospital."

At trial, the Crown said the men wrote and cashed illegal cheques between 1994 and 2000.


[....] Authority spokesperson Sonya Green Haché ... working hard to improve accountability...

... strengthened our financial controls. We have also re-organized our senior management team since 2000, and our board was reinstated in 2001."



A documentary on "CBC Maritimes Programs Maritime Magazine 2006 Archives"

Captain Dan's Final Investigation , June 11, 2006
www.cbc.ca/maritimemagazine
/archives/2006_jun_w2.html







Captain Dan Allen solved his final case after his retirement as chief of the Chatham, N.B. police force. He had been elected to the council of the newly amalgamated city of Miramichi and then ask to join the board of the Miramichi Regional Hospital as the city's representative. It took most of a decade but his probes eventually resulted in three hospital executives and a provincial court judge being sent to prison for fraud. [....]



Other sources:

NRM: NB hospital execs jailed for fraud
www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com
/issue/2006/04_15/3_policy_politics04_7.html


e-Corporate Compliance News... fraud in connection with his position as chairman of a hospital authority in New Brunswick. Provincial Judge Drew Stymiest and three administrators were ...
www.corporatecompliance.org/CCN/ccn_vIII7.htm

Former New Brunswick judge Drew Stymiest leaves his fraud sentencing hearing ... diverted hospital funds into their private accounts, their trial was told. ...
groups.msn.com/CanadaToday3/professional.msnw

Canadian Healthcare Technology - News 330
Former judge gets 5 years for hospital fraud. A former New Brunswick judge, ... of fraud and breach of trust, former judge Drew Stymiest (pictured) was ...
www.canhealth.com/News330.html


When the system breaks down, it seems as if the mainstream media mostly duck ... seeming to try to avoid causing offence to ... those in the system. Minister Toews, keep on truckin'. Change the system that has worked so well for those who profited from it.




Nov. 23, 2006: Various 1

Updated -- a couple of items and more information.

Canadian Leopard Tanks, Kandahar, Afghanistan , Added November 08, 2006. From Protonotairaire
www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=15862

Hot Air from the UN , by Joseph Klein, FrontPageMagazine.com , Nov. 20, 06

frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=25574




In a last-minute bid to create a positive spin for his legacy, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is promoting the United Nations’ role in saving the world from an imminent global warming catastrophe. Here is how he so modestly put it in a speech at this month’s International Climate Change Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya:

[....] The Nairobi climate change gabfest is yet another in a long series of UN sponsored global environmental conferences that promulgate biased studies, produce alarmist statements that exaggerate the magnitude of the problem, devise wrong-headed solutions and end up ritually blaming the United States. Rather than try constructively to amass the world’s leading scientific talent, with sufficient funding and dedicated commitment for the purpose of researching and developing alternative renewable sources of energy and fuel efficient technologies at competitive prices, millions of dollars continue to be wasted on existing UN programs and conferences. [....]





ADQ would favour ban on burkas , Kevin Dougherty, CanWest News Service; Montreal Gazette, November 20, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=
3a19e073-7293-4bbf-923a-ded72d197364&k=93979




[....] The ADQ also passed a resolution saying that Quebec should stop taking equalization payments from the federal government by Jan. 1, 2015.

... Quebec now gets $5.2 billion a year in equalization from Ottawa ....

The resolution did not explain how Quebec would become a ''have'' province, like Ontario and Alberta, paying out rather than receiving equalization.

The ADQ is strong in rural areas, where large-scale pig farming creates pollution problems.

Delegates adopted a proposition calling for converting pig manure into electricity.

They also revived a plan from the Robert Bourassa era, proposing a $5,000 baby bonus for families with a third, fourth or more children. ....






N.L. minister implicated in spending scandal breaks half-year silence -- This actually crosses party lines ... but you would have to read the whole article to know -- re: Tory Ed Byrne, former Liberal cabinet minister Jim Walsh, current Liberal Wally Andersen and New Democrat Randy Collins , Tara Brautigam, November 16, 2006

www.cfrb.com/news/14/national-news/439153/nl-minister-impli
cated-in-spending-scandal-breaks-half-year-silence




[Ed] Byrne submitted his resignation June 21 after auditor general John Noseworthy alleged the Tory member of the legislature spent nearly $327,000 from his constituency allowance during the 2003 and 2004 fiscal years - more than 10 times the approved limit.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is now investigating after Noseworthy found $3.9 million in questionable government spending by four politicians, including Byrne.

The auditor general concluded that Byrne, former Liberal cabinet minister Jim Walsh, current Liberal Wally Andersen and New Democrat Randy Collins overspent their constituency allowances by $1.1 million.

Noseworthy also issued a report saying that $2.7 million in public funds may have been misappropriated to buy a variety of keepsakes, including customized gold rings, fridge magnets and key chains.

The report said Newfoundland's legislature was plagued by "basically non-existent" financial controls and there was no way to determine if the province actually received all of the items it paid for. [....]



Media

Jennifer Ditchburn: Clueless about partisanship
Future Liberal senator Jennifer Ditchburn laments the bureaucratic cuts imposed by the Conservatives in this "news" story...
, 10/02/06 by ferret

www.conservativelife.com/blog/index.php/canada/
2006/10/02/jennifer_ditchburn_clueless_about_partis




Tory cuts show new attitude for shaping public policy

The Canadian Policy Research Networks, which is described by Jennifer [Ditchburn] as a "non-partisan think tank", was among the bureaucratic agencies whose budget was cut.

The president of the CPPN is Sharon Manson Singer. Mrs. Singer has a Ph.D in "welfare economics" from UBC, a master's of Social Work from UBC, and a bachelor's in Social Work from UVic. She was a board member for the Canadian Council on Social Development before she was Deputy Minister of Human Resources for the New Democratic Party of British Columbia. Now she heads up an organization described by Jennifer Ditchburn as "non-partisan". I'll give you a chance to stop laughing before I continue... [....]





Harper’s opaque communications strategy stymies reporters at APEC summit , Jennifer Ditchburn, NatPost / CP, Nov. 19, 06

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=
6032c5f2-ff3e-4052-ad6b-a9f7b0408214&k=19796



HANOI, Vietnam -- Canadians first learned one of their senior diplomats had been dispatched to the hermit kingdom of North Korea courtesy of the South Korean government.

The diplomat had been in North Korea for three days.

When officials travelling with Prime Minister Stephen Harper provided skimpy details of his first contentious meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chinese officials were happy to fill the information void. [....]


How would Ditchburn know whether it was a contentious meeting ... or simply reported that way later? A mole? Guessing? Telling people what to think?

Vancouver Olympics

I just found this again. Worth reading.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN THE VANCOUVER-WHISTLER 2010 BID CORP: PART 4, 2003-02-17. Source: NO GAMES 2010 COALITION

creativeresistance.ca/index.html

creativeresistance.ca/awareness01/2003-feb17-conflicts-
of-interest-in-the-vancouver-whistler-2010-bid-
corp-part4-nogames-coalition.htm




Andrew Coyne: Who is Bob Rae? , NatPost, Nov. 18, 06

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=0386952d-1637-4d83-9122-b72b18901d28



Is it unfair to hold Bob Rae's record against him? Is there a statute of limitations on bankrupting a province?

[....] the likeable Mr. Rae has long since disavowed his NDP past as a youthful indiscretion. You don't like my record? I don't like it either!

Except he hasn't disavowed it. Not really. What he's disavowed is responsibility for it. [....]

And what, precisely, has Mr. Rae learned from this experience? We know that he now thinks that deficits are to be avoided -- as a matter of preference. But as a rule? What if compassion came calling again? To this day, Mr. Rae boasts of his decision to bail out Algoma Steel and De Havilland, seemingly oblivious of the opportunity costs of these decisions -- the jobs that were destroyed in unseen ways across the economy to save the jobs that were right in front of his nose. This is what worries me: not that Mr. Rae is an unreconstructed socialist, but his pragmatism. I don't have the first clue what he would do in a given situation, and I suspect neither does he.

Mr. Rae has a favourite rhetorical trick [....]




Whistle-blower 'correct' , Alan Cairns, TorSun, Nov. 21, 06, via newsbeat1

Scroll down for: A LIST OF ALLEGATIONS BY WHISTLE-BLOWERS
See link for this on the website: 'Brass ... buried it'




A second Toronto cop who was on a corruption task force now makes public assertions that a list of serious issues have been either ignored or overlooked by police brass.

Retired only a few months after three years on an RCMP-led task force probe into allegedly rogue Toronto Police drug squad cops, former Sgt. Neal Ward told the Toronto Sun that self-professed "whistle-blower" Sgt. Jim Cassells is "mostly ... quite correct." [....]



Rae the real Tory bogeyman, Segal believes , Joan Bryden, CP, Nov. 14, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20061114.wlibz1114/BNStory/National/




OTTAWA — Veteran Tory strategist Hugh Segal fears his party is underestimating the political damage Bob Rae could inflict if he becomes the next Liberal leader.

Many Conservatives, including national campaign chief Doug Finley, contend that Mr. Rae would flop in Ontario, where he served a single, turbulent term as NDP premier from 1990 to 1995. [....]
Mr. Segal said young voters and new citizens won't remember Mr. Rae's tenure as premier, when taxes and deficits soared during the worst recession since the Dirty Thirties.

He predicted the Tories won't be able to use his record against him as effectively as they think. “It's interesting but it's about as relevant as the Vietnam war.” [....]

Would a Canadian education help young peoples' memory? ....... I jest.



Parachute arts magazine to cease publication

Globe and Mail, R2, Nov. 22, 06
Parachute, a contemporary arts magazine based in Montreal, will cease publication with its January 2007 issue.



Half of Parachute's budget came from grants. This included $80,000 a year from the Canada Council, $80,000 from the Quebec government, $22,000 or so from Montreal, and an additional $20,000 scraped up from other sources. The magazine was told that the main Canada Council grant would fall to $40,000 which [editor Chantal] Pontbriand made publication untenable.


I am sure this will be a crushing blow to the 450 Canadian subscribers.



My comments on government funding

There is always a political component when "free" money floats ... taxpayer money.

Multiply the above by thousands ... and we would find that taxpayers have been supporting numerous activities which, if they could choose, perhaps they would not.


Let the market decide ... not some politician who wants votes from the "arts community" ... and is willing to buy them with taxpayers' money. As for the arts community, produce something which people will want to support or buy. Oh, yes, and the arts community might also want to reconsider the travel stipends which, I believe, were in the planning stage ... EI, as well ... any other perquisites in the minds of sleazy pols courting power and votes ... or is that votes, then power ... and business?



Globalization and Arctic

Arctic voyage ends with deportation , Donna Casey, Ottawa Sun, Nov. 21, 06

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/
2006/11/21/2432952-sun.html




A 32-year-old Romanian man who weathered a 1,000-km Arctic Ocean trek in a fibreglass boat to reach Canadian soil will soon be booted out of the country.

... 7 1/2 months in jail ... Greenland to an Inuit village in Nunavut in September.

[Florin] Fodor, who was arrested by RCMP officers under the Immigration Act in Gris Fiord, has been in custody since his arrest on Sept. 18 ... Canadian border officials, who will put the illegal immigrant on the next flight back to Romania.

[....] Fodor was deported from Canada in 2000 for a series of criminal convictions and had also been kicked out of the U.S., said Kealey.


Canadians, he has family here. Make a prediction. Or has he already been kicked out?



Why do so many Globe headers start with a negative for the Conservative government of Canada? Let's see, parent company, BCE, income trusts ... anything there?

Climate Action Network in headlines -- negative
The key is the last three paragraphs
, by Scott Deveau, Nov. 20, 2006, entitled Liberals accuse PM of being a “laughingstock”

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20061120.wharper1120/BNStory/National/




[...] Canada also received two “fossil of the day” awards at the conference. The awards are distributed by the environmental group Climate Action Network to countries deemed to have contributed the least to progress in the climate talks.

Mr. Kenney also rejected the criticism of Ms. Ambrose and the government's stance on the environment.

“We are honest when speaking to the world and Liberals were dishonest,” Mr. Kenney said. “When they said they intended to reduce green house gas emissions, they increased them by 30 per cent and this government, the current government, is honest when we say that the Liberal's environmental policy was a disaster and we are trying to improve our environment.”



PM, McGuinty, Miller united over bail system plan

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=1189&mforum=elwoodpdowd



Whistleblowers -- Nova Scotia / NS

It reminds me of the statute of limitations Jean Chretien's government set in place concerning the findings of the Gomery Inquiry. CYA is alive and well ... and a new wrinkle comes out of the East.

Does this mean the government may ruin a whistleblower ... legally ... using regulations the government wrote ... keep the corruption in-house ... or else?

Whistle-blowers told complaints stay in-house

primetimecrime.com/Recent/Investigative/
whistleblowers.htm
[You might have to link to PrimeTimeCrime.com first; then input the above url.]


HALIFAX - Nova Scotia government employees who want to blow the whistle on wrongdoing or corruption now have new rules to follow. Cabinet minicsters have approved a new set of regulations, which require workers to take their complaints up the bureaucratic chain of command. The whistle-blower is not allowed to make the complaint public or enlist help outside the bureaucracy. (CBC) [....]




Memory Lane: Poisons such as digitalis

It may be time for a review of this post:

News Junkie Canada July 3, 2004 -- Compilation -- from the Society of Creative Anachronism -- www.sca.org/

newsjunkiecanada.blogspot.com/
2004/07/compilation_03.html

Link to Florilegium flyer PDF

www.florilegium.org/files/
INFO/Florilegium-flyer.pdf

www.florilegium.org/files
/UNCAT/poisons-msg.text [text file]

Search:
the smell of "bitter almonds
Medieval poisons
Foxglove (Digitalus purpura) produces digitalis
various cyanides from things like peach pits
"Ergot contains the alkoloids ergonovine and ergotomine, both of which are composed of lysergic acid, the precursor of LSD" ...
sold as ornamentals
castor plants (from whence comes castor oil and ricinine, a powerful poison)

Do you remember reading of ricin connected with alleged Al Qaeda cells in the UK?




Memory Lane -- CRTC and more

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Jan. 29-Feb. 3, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_01_29_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Search: You will learn to love Big Brother's Choices