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Draft auditor General's G8/G20 report alleges government illegality
April 11, 2011 - 3:19pm
A gift from the gods! Just in time for the debates. Another nail in the Conservative coffin.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-ag-report.html
The auditor general says the Harper government allegedly misinformed Parliament to win approval for a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money on dubious projects in a Conservative riding.
And she suggests in a draft report the process may have been illegal.
Now that there's evidence that the law has been broken, the RCMP might have to open a criminal investigation during the election and even lay charges against some Conservative Members of Parliament.
The Canadian Press were on the job. We'll see what Postmedia, the Sun chain, Globe/CTV, and the CBC do with it.
The auditor-general so spooked Paul Martin with the sponsorship material that he scuttled his own ship. Harper will not rise to the bait in the same way, unfortunatley.
That said, this is the real deal. Straight illegal patronage. Mike Harris style polticos feathering their nests.
What is the best way of making something out of this? I like the RCMP angle JKR.
This IS the Liberal Sponsorship Scandal!
Looking at this issue from Harper's perspective, he may want to release the report before the dabates instead of being hammered on hiding the report during the debates.
If the report is as bleak as it seems, Harper's probably caught between a rock and a hard place.
I feel like Oscar the Grouch, loving the stench coming off the latest collection of conservative garbage.
No wonder there is so much walking across the floor between these two parties - lib/con same old story!
Hilarious.
LeakWatch: So, why can't Sheila Fraser just release the final version of the G8 report ...http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/04/leakwatch-s...
And it's just the tip of the G8 fiasco iceberg. The allegations of how fifty million dollars was spent in one rural Conservative riding will only raise questions about how more than one billion was spent in urban Toronto. The implication will undercut their entire claim to being good fiscal managers AND remind Torontonians of the G8 headache all in one go. To add icing to the cake, the whole story will be framed in a context of possible criminal behavior and further disrespect for Parliament.
Right on the eve of the debates!
I wonder if this could be to the 2011 election what the RCMP investigation of Goodale was to 2006?
In any case its all good - corruption and scandals on the part of the Tories being a hot issue is a godsend to the NDP since the Liberals have no credibility at all on this issue.
This article is great.
Tories left scrambling after leak of G8 report, call for release of final draftThe Conservative election campaign is in full damage-control mode following a bombshell report from the auditor general that's critical of government spending during last June's G8 meeting.
An early draft of the report, a chapter of which has been seen by The Canadian Press, accuses the government of misinforming Parliament to win approval of a $50-million fund for spending in Industry Minister Tony Clement's riding.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/federal-election/leaders-cut-ap...
[display of feline vindictiveness]
And who is the middle of this shit storm? Tony Clement! -- and bagkitty dances his happy dance of schadenfreude.
[/display of feline vindictiveness]
Baird just gave a press conference and said the revised Report contains no reference to illegalities whatsoever. The G-G said she will not release the Report before Parliament meets again after the election.
How does baird know what the "revised" report says?? Cabinet ministers are not supposed to see the report until its tabled. For all we know he's just lying about what's in the revised report to try to stall until after the election.
Particularly as Toronto, unlike Huntsville, has absolutely nothing to show for it all - except a few vicious toys for the blackshirt boys to use on us in the future.
Oh what a happy day this is.
Whaddaya mean "feel like"?
Damn you, smug Calgarian! But not as much as I damn Tonyyyyyy who I've hated since the Harris years. And I'm doing a bigcitygal happy dance myself.
You're talking about the sound and water cannons aren't you? There's an expense worth the money. *eyeroll*
I think you're forgetting the spy cameras that were mounted at key downtown intersections and never taken down. Fuckers.
But Maysie don't you feel much safer while walking downtown?
I never felt unsafe.
Except when armed state-paid thugs took over my city.
If you can misspend $1.2 billion on masturbatory police-state exhibitionism, I'd like to know how.
Damn.
This happy thread has taken a turn. And it's Catchfire's fault. Again.
The Cons are claiming that the report will not actually suggest any illegality or misleading of Parliament, and they leaked a draft to Robert Fife of CTV which he read out a little while ago. Still, even the particular draft that the Cons are relying on is damaging, so hopefully this will FINALLY drop Harper down into minority territory and Canadians will start paying attention to the corruption.
Sheila Fraser:Tories misquoted me on Summit costs
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-election-weston-ag-fraser.html
And the AG is saying that the Dear Leader and his party are lying
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-elec...
The opposition parties need to build a narrative that shows all the corruption and lies Harper has been involved in. It's ludicrous that he still has big leads in the polls. Why aren't Canadians waking up?
Don't they care that Harper hired Bruce Carson, a convicted criminal, to work for him? It's time all this stuff was tied together to expose who Harper truly is.
Separate issue:
Tories used praise for Liberals to defend summit costs: Fraser
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/11/cv-elec...
By my count, that is three posters linking to the same article in the space of 20 minutes. Now, the first two have the same time stamp, so I am going to assume a "simul-post", but the third time?
[school teacher voice]
We must pay a little attention to what other people say [post].
[/school teacher voice]
When I looked at several more polls today showing Harper with huge leads, it really struck me how disgusting this situation is. Here we have a man who does everything from hiring a known criminal to be his adviser to being found in contempt of Parliament, and Canadians don't seem to care. They continue to reward him with huge numbers, so no wonder he feels emboldened to do whatever he wants. Canadians appear to condone everything Harper does. If Harper doesn't take a sharp drop in the polls this week after the latest G8 scandal, I think it will be safe to say that Canadians have no intention of punishing him.
A lot of evidence of corruption among the Liberals started to surface as early as 2000 (remember the auberge in Shawinigan and the beginnings of the sposnorship scandal went all the way back to there) - it took about four years before it started to actually have an impact on Liberal polling numbers.
On P&P Scott Reid suggested this (A-G's Report) could be Harper's "Waterloo" moment.
Lens Solution, you took the words out of my mouth. I have a theory that the Cons like it when the Canadian public is turned off by politics and disengaged, and even encourage it.
I doubt it. I'm not getting my hopes up. Harper seems to be able to lie his way out of anything.
I think the best we can hope for is that it drops him out of majority territory.