The following are the words of the Dishonourable Rona Ambrose, Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Spruce Grove and Minister of Public Works and Government Services, spoken in the Parliament of Canada on the subject of the recent Auditor-General’s report indicating that the government lied to Parliament and the nation about the
Continue readingTag: Democracy and Politics
The Sixth Estate: Auditor-General Stops, Backs Up, Changes Doors
Well, well. I bet the Prime Minister’s Office is currently looking up what Cabinet order is required in order to sack an Auditor-General — and my apologies also to said Auditor-General for what I said last time. “I can’t speak to individuals who knew it, but it was information that
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: As of May 2, 2012, Canada Elections Act is a Dead Letter
UBC’s Andrew Irvine has published a useful column in Postmedia explaining why “quick fixes” like electronic voting or proportional representation aren’t likely to improve the sorry state of Canadian democracy. Instead, this man who is paid to teach and write says what we need is more teaching and writing about
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Don’t Expect Much From Mayrand’s Testimony
There’s been a great hullabaloo recently about the fact that the Conservatives have scheduled Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand’s testimony for a period when most journalists in Ottawa, we are repeatedly told by the news media, will be in lock-up receiving a special confidential briefing on the budget. This self-serving
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: How Many Pierre Poutines Were There?
The noose continues to tighten around Pierre Poutine. We have a second alias, and multiple fake addresses. Conservatives have openly leaked that they know who he is, and even stated that it was Michael Sona (apparently falsely). Last week they gave secret briefings to journalists on what they claimed was
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: The Week in Sum: Conservatives had Monopoly on Racknine Services, Fed False Data to Press on Robocalls
Well, well. The plot thickens. I suppose I’ll start by asking why the new story has been leaked on a Friday afternoon, as the NDP convention gets underway. From what little I can gain from a few cryptic anonymous sources, most of the details were known earlier this week —
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: What are the Grounds for Dismissal of a Cabinet Minister?
This is the only question worth asking. Tomorrow I’ll be back to the robocalls, but for the moment, let me just repeat that I am disappointed, angered, but not surprised at the Prime Minister’s position that he doesn’t particularly care if Christian Paradis does special favours for their mutual friends
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Dishon. Christian Paradis Guilty of Lying, Patronage, and Cronyism
Revenge is such sweet sorrow. One week ago, the Dishon. Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry in the Harper regime, commenced court proceedings intended to silence and punish critics of a government decision to move an Employment Insurance processing facility from an NDP riding into his riding, and not only that,
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: How To Rig an Election
I want to share what I think happened. As you can see from the Sixth Estate master list, now at 100 ridings and counting, there was quite a variety of different covert ops last May. In some cases, calls came direct from Conservative Party numbers (the Conservatives say the bogus
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Pro-Conservative Election Contractor Defends Vote Suppression
Well, sort of. Stephen Skyvington says he only supports vote suppression when it’s done legally (because as we all know, if it’s not illegal, it’s not wrong). And in the column that’s been making the rounds of Ontario community papers over the past few days, he doesn’t actually say he
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Why Do The Conservatives Have Evidence of Vote Fraud? (And What Are They Doing With It?)
When vote records proving election fraud were leaked to pro-Conservative journalist John Ivison at the National Post on Friday, I speculated that the leak probably came from the Conservative Party itself — given that his story was backed up by all sorts of anonymous Conservative insider sources. Well, it’s worth
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Conservative Insiders Admit Their Database Used for Election Fraud
The National Post has received a politically convenient leak of “Pierre Poutine’s” telephone records, presumably from a Conservative sounce given that John Ivison’s story on the subject is backed up by a bunch of anonymous Conservative insiders who are yet again trying to claim that a rogue operative in Guelph
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Inside the Conservative Voter Information Database (CIMS)
CIMS rocks. You can’t win without it. — Prescient Conservative campaigner in 2004 The centrepiece of whatever group perpetrated the robocall hoaxes, and is so far known to the public only by their alias “Pierre Poutine,” must be a voter information database. In Canada, these are called Liberalist (the Liberal
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Inquiry Politics: Reasons Not to Call an Inquiry
As the scandal deepens and the Liberals are implicated in illegal calls of their own, there are growing calls to ban political robocalls. I’m not sure why people think that is a useful thing to talk about. These calls were already illegal. Passing more laws isn’t going to sweep them
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Timeline of Conservative Election Chicanery
1995 The year Vic Toews entered the legislature representing the Manitoba PCs, the party covertly funded left-wing independents in order to split the opposition NDP’s vote. Although there was a judicial inquiry, nobody was ever charged, the premier was not held responsible, and the wife of the man who was
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Canadians Are Owed Answers from Globe & Mail
One of the most surprising elements of the corporate media’s coverage of the robocall affair is the strange shifts that have occurred. Sun, as expected, backed the government. The Toronto Star didn’t. But the Postmedia chain has played the most important role in calling for a public inquiry. That I
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Christian Minister Turned Conservative MP Says Lying is Okay
That, at least, seems tobe the only possible logical conclusion of this story, in which Maurice Vellacott extends the new Conservative excuse that I’ve identified recently: that Elections Canada is to blame for the robocall scandal, because they sent out inaccurate voter lists to the Conservative Party, which faithfully handed
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Government Buries Other Scandals While Robocall Controversy Rages
I’m having a hectic weekend and will have some new work to put on the Vote Fraud List hopefully this evening. In the meantime, I really hesitated to publish this post because I don’t want to distract from the election fraud scheme. However, as there seems to be a temporary
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: New Conservative Spin: Blame Elections Canada
I’ve heard it from enough sources over the last few days that I’m beginning to suspect this will be the message du jour by next week: okay, maybe some people were sent to the wrong election station, but hey, it was accidental. We were just trying to help. It’s really
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Dean Del Mastro and Pierre Poilievre Must Resign for Lying to the House of Commons
The Conservative Party moved to an entirely unexpected (at least by me) and exceptionally dangerous tack on Thursday by announcing that their internal investigation had revealed the Liberals sent harassing phone calls to their own supporters via their contractor Prime Contact of North Dakota: “Joe Volpe paid over $25,000 to
Continue reading