The Sixth Estate Open Government project tracks, among other things, the extent to which Parliamentary committee meetings occur in camera, meaning in secret. I began tracking this after there was substantial media criticism of the Conservatives for increasing the number of meetings held in camera, followed by a politically useful
Continue readingTag: Democracy and Politics
The Sixth Estate: Was There an Organized Poll Suppression Operation in Spring 2011?
After weeks of Conservative pundits telling us that Ted Opitz should keep his seat because there was no evidence of vote fraud in Etobicoke Centre, CBC has shown the value of a competitive media sector by releasing details of two Elections Canada investigation reports into what appears to have been
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Agriculture Minister Complains that His Staff Don’t Expense As Much to Taxpayers as He Does
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is hopping mad. He put a civil servant in Guelph, one Bill Teeter, in charge of a spending review in Ottawa, had him travel back and forth for a year, and in the process let him rack up $100,000 in expenses that were then charged to
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: On Brian Larue and Andrew Prescott
A month or so ago I reported on independent journalist Brian Michel LaRue’s claim that Guelph Conservative activist Andrew Prescott, whose blog can be found here, was actually “Pierre Poutine.” I also noted that Prescott denied being Poutine. I said that Prescott might of course be lying, but on the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: English Canadian Conservatives Becoming Quebec Separatists?
It is not only plausible, but inevitable, that any future Quebec referendum will generate a national debate on whether the province should be allowed to stay. A nationwide referendum on the Question would be the obvious way to settle it. English-Canadian griping about the “distinct society” privileges of Quebec isn’t
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: CP Bobbled Figures in Story on Parliamentary Committee Secrecy
Last weekend the entire national media abandoned fact-checking and printed a bogus story claiming that the Martin majority government allowed committees to meet in secret for 116 minutes a day, whereas Harper’s majority has only featured 57 minutes a day of in camera meetings. The Sun chain promptly published a
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Incompetence, Delays at Elections Canada Compromise Investigation into Pierre Poutine
The latest Postmedia revelations, which appear to be consecutive teasers drawn from a single court record (why give us the whole story when you can drag it out over multiple issues?) appears to provide proof positive that Elections Canada’s decision to delay investigating massive vote fraud from May (when it
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Gerry Nicholls: Real Conservatives Run Attack Ads
In the wake of the Progressive Conservatives’ unprecedented surprise re-election in Alberta last month — and by unprecedented surprise, I actually mean their twelfth consecutive victory, which somehow threw our highly paid punditry for a loop — there were a wave of transparently silly post-mortems from columnists seeking excuses for
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Harper Regime Dismantles the Tory State
For a while now a number of progressive bloggers have been fighting a losing war with the media to stop referring to the Harper regime as “Tory,” on the grounds that the “Tories” were the Progressive Conservative Party and the current Conservative Party of Canada is anything but PC. I’ve
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: How Far Does the Rot Spread?
Two important revelations can be found in the latest batch of robocall corut filings to make the news in connection with the Election 2011 fraud scheme, about which Sixth Estate still has the most complete online list of affected ridings. The news, for those who haven’t read it, can be
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: In April, Parliamentary Committees Spent 24% of Their Time Hiding from the People
Since winning its majority, the Harper régime has forced most Parliamentary committees behind a veil of secrecy. They meet in camera and, despite being our elected representatives, sitting in our building, they refuse to share their discussions with us. A special report by iPolitics last month reported that during the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Conservatives Could Have Been Hoisted on Own Petard in Etobicoke Election Case
This week former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj is in court arguing that his defeat by Conservative candidate Ted Opitz last year should be overturned because the number of ballots which were cast illegally is greater than the number of votes by which Opitz won the election — just 26. Opitz
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Another Conservative Comes Out as a Quebec Separatist
Given how agitated the Harperites got whenever there was even a whiff of “collusion” between the Bloc and the other Opposition parties, it’s always amusing to see how many former separatists are in the Conservative government’s ranks, and even in Harper’s own Cabinet. But this one, I have to say,
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: The Politics of Geometry and the Incompetence of the Prattling Classes
You wouldn’t think the victory of a Progressive Conservative government in Alberta, of all places, would be able to send the media into such a tizzy. A few months from now, most people in the prattling classes will have forgotten this incident ever happened, but it’s still worth marking the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Signs of Life and Hope in Democratic Canada
Six months ago, I would have said the future of Canada was looking pretty grim. Universal healthcare is a dead letter: the federal government has openly declared that the provinces should feel free to violate the Canada Health Act with impunity, and sooner or later one of them will. We
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate Opens Competition for New Name for BC Liberal Party
British Columbia is in the process of setting one record, and in the next few months it may set another. I can’t think of another occasion in Canadian history when a sitting majority government was openly deciding whether it should oust a leader before she even gets a chance to
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Conservative Sources Admit Concealing Identity of “Pierre Poutine” Fraudster?
I take a week off from blogging, and things stay interesting in my absence anyways. The National Post reports that the Elections Canada investigation into the Guelph robocalls has spread to Conservative Party headquarters, where, I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know, anonymous gremlins have been hard at work deleting
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Guelph Cons Claim They Were Targeted by Election Fraud, Too
The Guelph Conservative campaign currently under investigation for sending fraudulent calls to suspected opponents has now filed a complaint of its own, alleging that their supporters were targeted by someone using Responsive Marketing Group (RMG) telephone numbers, identifynig themselves as the “elections office” and directing people to the wrong polling
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Independent Journalist Claims to Know the Identity of Pierre Poutine
As the professional media dithers about the future of Rights & Democracy and whether or not lying to Parliament about the cost of the F-35 jet fighter actually counts as lying and not just as a difference in opinion about accounting rules, others continue the search for Pierre Poutine —
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Two Julian Fantino Campaign Backers Exceeded Donation Limits by 60,000%
Since the election fraud story appears to be dying an entirely undeserved death at the hands of the perennially moronic professional media, I thought I’d stir the pot a little with this post. As you may be aware, our country has strict limits on election financing. You can donate up
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