When the Harper government elected not to discipline ranking MPs Dean Del Mastro or Peter Penashue or Peter Van Loan when serious allegations about financial improprieties were raised with respect to their campaigns, critics yet again asked the question: “What does it take for a male Cabinet minister to be fired by Harper?” This was […]
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The Sixth Estate: Inside Elections Canada’s Whitewash Report on Election Fraud: Armwaving, Cynicism, Red Herrings
The more cynical readers of this blog will doubtless be unsurprised, but I think that the recent shambles of a “public consultation” embarked upon by Elections Canada is strong evidence that the organizations is conceding its investigation into the 2011 election robocalls, does not intend ever to charge someone with vote suppression (least of all […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Newspaper Paywalls and the Absurd Overreach of Conservative Copyright Reform
I’ve been thinking through how to write this post for a while. I hope I don’t regret it. But recently a commenter forced the issue, and I had to censor her (his?) comment, and since I don’t like doing that without explanation, I suppose that’s what I’ll do today. Today is a three-part story about […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Spending Like Drunken Cons, Part 5: Conservatives Commit to Spending $165 Billion They Don’t Have
As I pointed out in my last post, the fact that the Conservatives have admitted they will miss their budget projections next year isn’t news. There hasn’t been a single annual budget yet that actually reached the projected balance it was supposed to, and, as a result, the date at which the Conservatives promise we’ll […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Spending Like Drunken Cons, Part 3: Conservatives Miss Budget Projections. Again.
Last week, the media delivered its resounding judgement on the Conservatives’ fall budget update. Jim Flaherty, they say, has unfortunately allowed the projections to slip. The deficit has grown. Canada may not balance its budget on time. Curiously, this fact does nothing to change the obvious cognitive dissonance now in play in the right-wing media. […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Globe & Mail Displays Disturbing Scientific Illiteracy
Here’s a thought for would-be editors of a national paper of record: any time your headline editorial starts with the phrase “in spite of the evidence,” it’s probably a good time to reconsider what you’re writing. On what basis are you going to argue, then, if not evidence? Gut feelings? Dreams? Divine revelation? Ever since […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Chinese Opposition to Sale of Canadian Company Creates Bizarre Standoff
Try this one on for size. The Canadian media, which for the most part hasn’t met a Canadian corporation they think shouldn’t be sold to foreign interests, has latched on to what they claim is evidence of Chinese “hard-ball” with respect to the purchase of our Nexen oil company by the government of China. The […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: CBC Stands for Conservative Biased Commentary
For those of you who don’t know, retired Harper Cabinet minister Stockwell Day now has two jobs: political “counseling” and journalism. Mr. Day has taken a position as occasional contributing columnist to CBC. This is presumably yet more evidence of the far-left agenda in our national media. Today, Mr. Day has published a half-baked column […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Which Newspaper Has The World’s Most Pointless Public Editor?
There are any number of things that a newspaper’s ombudsman/public editor/fancy-symbolic-spokeswoman might want to write about as the public’s representative at the paper. For instance, they might want to write about why repeated instances of plagiarism by a senior columnist are swept under the carpet. On the other hand, they could ponder some really truly […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Wente: Promiscuous College Women Bad. Promiscuous Bureaucrats Good.
I know I shouldn’t let her bait me like this, but I can’t help myself. The two-facedness of it is among the worst I’ve yet seen in the Canadian press. Last weekend, Canada’s favourite plagiarist, Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente, published an extraordinary broadside against young women, complaining that they weren’t charging enough for […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Wente Checkup: Men Not Paying Enough for Sex Anymore
I thought it might be nice to have a check-up and see how Canada’s favourite plagiarist is getting on with her career. Regular readers will remember that after Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente was caught plagiarizing other journalists by an Ottawa blogger, Media Culpa. Sixth Estate has also published evidence of Wente plagiarism. Some […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: B.C. Government Goes Paperless… Not in a Good Way
When Christy Clark became premier of the B.C. “Liberal” Party a couple years ago — a term which probably makes her one of the longest-serving unelected heads of state in post-Confederation history — a gaggle of Harperites was despatched to help her organize her new office. These included Ken Boessenkool, a former senior Conservative advisor […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Harper Minister Accused of Election Shenanigans Promises “Explanation”… Next Week
After yet more evidence of electoral shenanigans in Labrador last year, Harper regime intergovernmental affairs minister Peter Penashue issued a bizarrely mealy-mouthed statement today that seems to imply that an explanation will be forthcoming… maybe… somewhere… eventually: I’m under pressure. There’s lots going on and I want to speak with my constituents and explain what […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Investigation Into Robocall Scheme Must Be Reopened
The robocall scandal, which Sixth Estate helped document during the spring, resurfaced in several weird ways over the past week. Documents have been filed in the ongoing Council of Canadians litigation over alleged robocalls in several ridings. More interestingly, though, Guelph Conservative insider Michael Sona — once fingered as a
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Conservative Party Sends Team to Labrador to “Investigate” Its Own Election Misconduct
There were two major developments in the ongoing, CBC-led investigation of election misconduct by Harper regime governmental affairs minister Peter Penashue in Labrador. First, it was alleged by the Liberals and by the CBC that Penashue’s campaign appears to have taken a $5500 donation from a corporation. This is illegal
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: New Conservative Bill Seeks New Criminal Penalties for “Mischief,” Not Just Vandalism, Near War Memorials
If only there was a way for the news media to search through this country’s voluminous laws before writing a story. Oh wait, there is. This week Conservative MP David Tilson’s private members’ bill gets to third reading. You can read about it in a local paper and, better yet,
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Conservative MPs: Climate Change Not Relevant to Environment Canada’s Mandate
An extraordinary exchange took place in the House of Commons environment committee a few days ago. It was so extraordinary that it made the news, but only just. A little more exposure, and the 26-year-old yahoos who run the Prime Minister’s Office would have been wishing they’d ordered the whole
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Queen Charlottes Earthquake Highlights Weaknesses of Neoliberal-Style Government
This weekend’s warm-up natural disaster, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake west of the Queen Charlotte Islands, should but won’t serve as a vital wake-up call to the federal and provincial governments: British Columbia is in an extremely hazardous position geologically, and it is only a matter of time — on geological timescales,
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Hollowing Out, Part 2: Who Buys Canadian Companies?
Last time, in my new Hollowing Out series, I began taking a look at the Globe & Mail’s list of Canada’s largest 1000 companies back in 1996. (This list is not freely available online to my knowledge, so I cannot link to it.) I found that around 30% of the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Harper’s Deputy Opens New Conservative Attack on Political Dissidents, Freedom of Speech
The following is the official opinion of the Conservative government, as stated by Stephen Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary Dean Del Mastro, who by all indications is a man with a deep and abiding respect for the law: This morning I read comments on a news story posted on an electronic news
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