Even Le Devoir, the Quebec newspaper with sovereignist sympathies, highlighted this morning the bizarre choice of Daniel Paille as the investigator into the polling activity of the Chretien government.
The first sentence reads (translation mine; read the original): “The Conservatives in Ottawa have retained the services of a battle hardened souvereignist to hunt down the federal Liberals” The article goes on to ask all the obvious questions about conflict of interest that you would see in the anglophone press, the obvious questions that the Conservatives did not think through. An anonymous conservative is quoted as saying: “Let’s just say that it (the announcement) didn’t come out the way we had thought it would.”
The article is quite damning and ends with a reminder for those who forgot who Daniel Paille is: “Daniel Paille is a person who got a lot of attention during his short political career in Quebec. Notably, he let the mayor of Montreal, Pierre Bourque, know that he (Paille) was opposed to the opening of a daycare across the street from his residence and he did this in a letter written on official stationary from the ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology which was his department at the time. Later, he was forced to apologize to the national assembly. […] He was also the father of the controversial Paille plan to assist the start of new businesses. Due to the bankruptcy of more than a quarter of the businesses that benefitted from the plan, the Quebec treasury lost 116.5 million dollars.”
Michael Fortier is in good company. Paille certainly sounds like an Alberta Conservative. ;)
I have a great deal of respect for many "separatist" politicians. There is nothing wrong with a sovereignist serving in the government or heading public inquiries. Quebec would collapse otherwise. But then again, I don’t think anyone in their right mind is suggesting that sovereignists should be excluded from public office. The context of the investigation into the polling practices of the federal government during the period that includes the referendum is however altogether a different thing. The character and history of the candidate who leads the investigation, which in any event is unnecessary because the Auditor General has already investigated the matter, should not allow the perception of bias.
If Michael Fortier is selling it, don't buy it. Vendu tel quel.
Bravo Le Devoir!
Now let's get back to something that really matters like health care.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Stop!
"Money and the ethnic vote," said Jacques Parizeau
Here we go all over again.
Take the person who dislikes you the most, your rival at work, the nagging relative that never thought much of you, the disapproving neighbor, the person at school who is always making negative remarks about you and have them review your work and publicize their findings. Regardless of what you did, they will make it sound bad. The minor error will become the catastrophic flaw and evidence of loose morals. The complex decisions will be reduced to simplistic and factually inaccurate condemnations.
That is what Michael Fortier, the Conservative muck-raker in Quebec and backroom boy, has announced today. A separatist, Daniel Paillle, from the old Parizeau cabinet will be investigating the polling practices of the federal government within a very limited time frame that almost exclusively targets the Chretien years. The Parizeau government undertook extensive public consultations at the taxpayers expense. They polled. The separatists even used public funds, stashed away for such an occasion, to prop up the Canadian dollar during the referendum. And don’t get me started about the greatest fraud in a democracy, the votes from “ethnic” ridings that were tossed in the garbage on referendum night.
Let’s be clear. There is no impartiality in this investigation. It is not about improving government. It is an attempt to revive the ancient grudge once again. And it will cost $750,000 if not more to indulge in this nakedly partisan manuever. Harper can then commission a poll to see if this "strategy" was effective.
The federal government polled Quebeckers extensively about the clarity act during this period, the courageous legislation that formalizes how to deal with the eventuality of a sovereignist victory in a referendum. The separatists will have a field day attacking Canada with this. The Conservatives really do not know what they are doing if they think that the criticism will be contained to the Liberals. The separatists want to separate from Canada (including english Conservatives from Alberta).
The fiercely emotional allegations…the pettiness…the half-truths…
Here we go all over again.
Stop!
Stop with the tricks and do something real about the environment or health care.
Here we go all over again.
Take the person who dislikes you the most, your rival at work, the nagging relative that never thought much of you, the disapproving neighbor, the person at school who is always making negative remarks about you and have them review your work and publicize their findings. Regardless of what you did, they will make it sound bad. The minor error will become the catastrophic flaw and evidence of loose morals. The complex decisions will be reduced to simplistic and factually inaccurate condemnations.
That is what Michael Fortier, the Conservative muck-raker in Quebec and backroom boy, has announced today. A separatist, Daniel Paillle, from the old Parizeau cabinet will be investigating the polling practices of the federal government within a very limited time frame that almost exclusively targets the Chretien years. The Parizeau government undertook extensive public consultations at the taxpayers expense. They polled. The separatists even used public funds, stashed away for such an occasion, to prop up the Canadian dollar during the referendum. And don’t get me started about the greatest fraud in a democracy, the votes from “ethnic” ridings that were tossed in the garbage on referendum night.
Let’s be clear. There is no impartiality in this investigation. It is not about improving government. It is an attempt to revive the ancient grudge once again. And it will cost $750,000 if not more to indulge in this nakedly partisan manuever. Harper can then commission a poll to see if this "strategy" was effective.
The federal government polled Quebeckers extensively about the clarity act during this period, the courageous legislation that formalizes how to deal with the eventuality of a sovereignist victory in a referendum. The separatists will have a field day attacking Canada with this. The Conservatives really do not know what they are doing if they think that the criticism will be contained to the Liberals. The separatists want to separate from Canada (including english Conservatives from Alberta).
The fiercely emotional allegations…the pettiness…the half-truths…
Here we go all over again.
Stop!
Stop with the tricks and do something real about the environment or health care.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Eastertide Reveries, part Two
A more appropriate title perhaps would be: Bogged Down in Palestine.
On the previous post, Reveries part One, I argued that, for good or ill, religious institutions are able to, maybe even prone to, protect and structure nascent political movements especially in the face of oppressive regimes. I think that this applies to the Middle East in ways that I am not ready to defend.
Yesterday, when I reread what I had written for this second post in the series, I felt that it was at once too simplistic and too heavy. Other serial posts that appeared on this blog were easier to construct. Though I am tempted to post what I wrote with revisions and just let it all hang out so to speak, I would only be adding to the noise. It’s a consolation to think that far better people than I have been bogged down in Palestine.
The Eastertide reveries were a way into a number of topics that have been troubling me lately. On the way I did come across interesting material I was not aware of before, notably by Scott Atran
Posts on religion in the Middle East will appear in the future, but at the moment I will only venture to say that I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel, if not necessarily the policies of all of its elected political parties. And, I suspect that resolving numerous problems in the region would be facilitated by paying close attention to how religion organizes the lives of its adherents, or to put it the other way around, how religion is structured as a response to the environmental challenges of its members and to the human mind.
The parts of the Eastertide reveries dealing with Afghanistan and Canadian politics will be posted separately later.
Which in the mean time leaves only… to pray for peace in Jerusalem.
On the previous post, Reveries part One, I argued that, for good or ill, religious institutions are able to, maybe even prone to, protect and structure nascent political movements especially in the face of oppressive regimes. I think that this applies to the Middle East in ways that I am not ready to defend.
Yesterday, when I reread what I had written for this second post in the series, I felt that it was at once too simplistic and too heavy. Other serial posts that appeared on this blog were easier to construct. Though I am tempted to post what I wrote with revisions and just let it all hang out so to speak, I would only be adding to the noise. It’s a consolation to think that far better people than I have been bogged down in Palestine.
The Eastertide reveries were a way into a number of topics that have been troubling me lately. On the way I did come across interesting material I was not aware of before, notably by Scott Atran
Posts on religion in the Middle East will appear in the future, but at the moment I will only venture to say that I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel, if not necessarily the policies of all of its elected political parties. And, I suspect that resolving numerous problems in the region would be facilitated by paying close attention to how religion organizes the lives of its adherents, or to put it the other way around, how religion is structured as a response to the environmental challenges of its members and to the human mind.
The parts of the Eastertide reveries dealing with Afghanistan and Canadian politics will be posted separately later.
Which in the mean time leaves only… to pray for peace in Jerusalem.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Eastertide Reveries, part One
I am sitting outside in the sun without a coat. The air is cool, but relieving relative to what came before. Whatever else this time of year may be, it is not winter.
For those of us who identify Christian, it is Eastertide, roughly, which corresponds roughly to what no one can deny is spring: more comfortable temperatures, new leaves and grass, the beginning of a new cycle. I am glad to be comfortable outdoors again, comfortable and in a frame of mind to think loosely about the future but without the neurotic compulsion of putting unreasonable demands on it.
I am having a spring reverie on a theme that comes out of Africa blows through the middle east and Afghanistan then returns home to Canada and to Quebec and Montreal. It is about democracy and alternatives and the beginnings of new cycles, mundane and not so mundane.
Africa
What comes before the beginning of my reverie is not so pleasant. In Zimbabwe, the leader of the political opposition, was detained recently by the police and beaten. He has opposed the corrupt government of President Robert Mugabe whose policies have led the country to economic ruin. The issues causing unrest are common ones: corruption, distribution of food and wealth, education etc.
While the opposition leader is beaten and should probably be fearing an imminent assassination, the Roman Catholic Arch-Bishop, Pius Ncube, has been permitted to criticize the government, even going so far as to promote a revolution to remove Mugabe, with impunity.
A similar situation many will remember existed in South Africa where the Anglican Arch-Bishop, Desmond Tutu, criticized his government’s policy of Apartheid both within the country and effectively around the world while the future president of post-apartheid South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was rotting in jail.
The juxtaposition of reactions to secular or religious opposition is not cut and dry and I am not trying to suggest that it is. History provides innumerable accounts of violent and bureaucratic suppression of religious opposition to power. All I am trying to point to is that some individuals have been able to parlay their spiritual authority into a limited form of free speech. You may kill a priest, but you should think twice about the consequences of killing a “holy” person.
Historically, religion has often played a role in creating space for opposition, harbouring alternatives to the current status quo which may lead to reforms or revolutions. The full implications of any specific instantiation of religious opposition can be viewed as good or bad. The spectrum of political impulses protected by the church in different places at different times and by different religious sects, mocks the attempt to classify them universally as simply right or left wing. Religion can also be turned to amplify the contemporary power structure though it always retains the potential to transform into a vehicle for change –independently about how you or I may feel about those changes. Religious institutions are far less immutable than they may frequently pretend and people are, I believe, generally promiscuous about who delivers solutions to worldly challenges such poverty, education, or access to medical treatment.
I am religious, but don’t ask me to defend all religious views. I am generally in agreement with the opposition of arch-bishops Desmond Tutu and Pius Ncube to the their respective governments, although this may mask other opinions these men may hold that may be unacceptable to me as a Western moderate, such as misogyny, homophobia or virulent anti-Semitism. The overriding issue of providing an alternative to the status quo in their respective countries in a sense temporarily hides these other issues. A case where I personally disagree with specific aspects of religious opposition to the status quo is in the Middle East. Variants of the Muslim faith, turned to the task of opposing the political status quo, harbour political impulses that I do not support at all. I will talk about that in my next post: Eastertide Reveries, part Two. It will build on the point that I have tried to make here that, for good or ill, religious institutions are able to, maybe even prone to, protect and structure nascent political movements especially in the face of oppressive regimes.
For those of us who identify Christian, it is Eastertide, roughly, which corresponds roughly to what no one can deny is spring: more comfortable temperatures, new leaves and grass, the beginning of a new cycle. I am glad to be comfortable outdoors again, comfortable and in a frame of mind to think loosely about the future but without the neurotic compulsion of putting unreasonable demands on it.
I am having a spring reverie on a theme that comes out of Africa blows through the middle east and Afghanistan then returns home to Canada and to Quebec and Montreal. It is about democracy and alternatives and the beginnings of new cycles, mundane and not so mundane.
Africa
What comes before the beginning of my reverie is not so pleasant. In Zimbabwe, the leader of the political opposition, was detained recently by the police and beaten. He has opposed the corrupt government of President Robert Mugabe whose policies have led the country to economic ruin. The issues causing unrest are common ones: corruption, distribution of food and wealth, education etc.
While the opposition leader is beaten and should probably be fearing an imminent assassination, the Roman Catholic Arch-Bishop, Pius Ncube, has been permitted to criticize the government, even going so far as to promote a revolution to remove Mugabe, with impunity.
A similar situation many will remember existed in South Africa where the Anglican Arch-Bishop, Desmond Tutu, criticized his government’s policy of Apartheid both within the country and effectively around the world while the future president of post-apartheid South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was rotting in jail.
The juxtaposition of reactions to secular or religious opposition is not cut and dry and I am not trying to suggest that it is. History provides innumerable accounts of violent and bureaucratic suppression of religious opposition to power. All I am trying to point to is that some individuals have been able to parlay their spiritual authority into a limited form of free speech. You may kill a priest, but you should think twice about the consequences of killing a “holy” person.
Historically, religion has often played a role in creating space for opposition, harbouring alternatives to the current status quo which may lead to reforms or revolutions. The full implications of any specific instantiation of religious opposition can be viewed as good or bad. The spectrum of political impulses protected by the church in different places at different times and by different religious sects, mocks the attempt to classify them universally as simply right or left wing. Religion can also be turned to amplify the contemporary power structure though it always retains the potential to transform into a vehicle for change –independently about how you or I may feel about those changes. Religious institutions are far less immutable than they may frequently pretend and people are, I believe, generally promiscuous about who delivers solutions to worldly challenges such poverty, education, or access to medical treatment.
I am religious, but don’t ask me to defend all religious views. I am generally in agreement with the opposition of arch-bishops Desmond Tutu and Pius Ncube to the their respective governments, although this may mask other opinions these men may hold that may be unacceptable to me as a Western moderate, such as misogyny, homophobia or virulent anti-Semitism. The overriding issue of providing an alternative to the status quo in their respective countries in a sense temporarily hides these other issues. A case where I personally disagree with specific aspects of religious opposition to the status quo is in the Middle East. Variants of the Muslim faith, turned to the task of opposing the political status quo, harbour political impulses that I do not support at all. I will talk about that in my next post: Eastertide Reveries, part Two. It will build on the point that I have tried to make here that, for good or ill, religious institutions are able to, maybe even prone to, protect and structure nascent political movements especially in the face of oppressive regimes.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Flux in the RCMP and Stockwell Day
Questions of serious abuse of power have been swirling around the leadership of the RCMP during the last year. The direction of the federal election last winter was decisively affected by the unorthodox intrusion of the RCMP into the campaign. The RCMP announced by way of a fax to a member of the NDP that there was an investigation into potential misconduct on the part of then Finance Minister Ralph Goodale. The investigation later cleared him of any wrong doing, but only well after the campaign had delivered a Conservative victory. The relation between the announcement and the change in favour toward the Conservatives in the polls was clear. Later this past year, the head of the RCMP was forced to resign in light of misrepresentation he had made to the House of Commons with regard to the disgraceful Maher Arar case. The misrepresentation left the definite impression that the RCMP was trying to cover-up the mishandling of information that led to the deportation of Maher Arar to Syria where he was tortured. And this week shocking allegations were made in front of a House of Commons committee that nepotism and fraud may have been comitted in the administration of the RCMP retirement plan. Those who spoke out against the abuse of power were silenced and punished by the RCMP leadership in a further story of institutional corruption and cover-up.
Clearly, the perception of the RCMP needs to be redeemed in the eyes of the public as well as the rank and file members of this organization which is intimately tied to Canadian history and identity. An investigation must be launched to root out the wrong-doers and more importantly re-examine the structure of our national police force. Good things may come from this investigation.
BUT the minister charged with overseeing the RCMP, Stockwell Day, is currently under the cloud of his own scandal. New evidence has surfaced that he may have criminally misused public funds. The RCMP are currently deliberating whether to proceed with an criminal investigation (see the documents)
I previously suggested that the only honourable thing to do on Stockwell Day's part would be to step aside so that there would not be the perception that he somehow influenced the course of this examination of his potiential misconduct. I even suggested that he resign last Monday which with the media attention focused on the Quebec provincial election would have allowed him to make this move quietly. He did not do the honourable thing.
As the situation now stands, the RCMP is looking at investigating him while he is determining how to investigate the RCMP. The conflict of interest is patent and reflects poorly on both parties. Stockwell Day must resign his minsterial position overseeing the RCMP for his own reputation and for the reputation of the RCMP.
Clearly, the perception of the RCMP needs to be redeemed in the eyes of the public as well as the rank and file members of this organization which is intimately tied to Canadian history and identity. An investigation must be launched to root out the wrong-doers and more importantly re-examine the structure of our national police force. Good things may come from this investigation.
BUT the minister charged with overseeing the RCMP, Stockwell Day, is currently under the cloud of his own scandal. New evidence has surfaced that he may have criminally misused public funds. The RCMP are currently deliberating whether to proceed with an criminal investigation (see the documents)
I previously suggested that the only honourable thing to do on Stockwell Day's part would be to step aside so that there would not be the perception that he somehow influenced the course of this examination of his potiential misconduct. I even suggested that he resign last Monday which with the media attention focused on the Quebec provincial election would have allowed him to make this move quietly. He did not do the honourable thing.
As the situation now stands, the RCMP is looking at investigating him while he is determining how to investigate the RCMP. The conflict of interest is patent and reflects poorly on both parties. Stockwell Day must resign his minsterial position overseeing the RCMP for his own reputation and for the reputation of the RCMP.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Why I voted
Faced with the ballot my knee jerk reaction kicked in and I voted for the PLQ this morning. All the best to Jean Charest, I hope that he delivers this time. Given reports of low voter turn-out, I suspect that the PLQ will do rather well tonight because, for whatever reason, Quebec Liberals get out and vote.
Charest had to confront an interesting problem during the election with Mario Dumont’s vague concept of autonomy. It appealed to me as it does I suspect for many people because it represents popularly and in the short term "none of the above"with regard to separation. The real challenges for Quebec, health care access, competitivity, educational funding, an overwhelming national debt to name a few, have been masked by an old and bitter language (religious/class) dispute. Separation… another exhausting referendum… vote for us just to avoid another referendum… good Quebeckers only vote for us… traitor… faux frere… I am tired of it all. Of course the hard core federalist says: eventually autonomy will take a concrete form and you don’t know what you are getting into. Well, I respond: that is not what it means today. It means, to me at least, a rejection of the never ending talk about the constitution, language rights, the manifest destiny of the nation.
And then I voted Liberal… sigh.
Now as for how this will help Harper. I suspect it won’t or least far less than the great manipulator might think. The vote buying was a cheap trick and I don’t think many are grateful for receiving what Stephen Harper has convinced most Quebeckers is, in any event, owed to them. In addition, Harper's comments about how he would only negociate with a federalist provincial government made it apparent that Harper is not adept in Quebec politics.
Pssst… Steve Harper if you are listening. Is it alright if I call you Steve like your friend George Bush does. Steve, you will deal with whoever we decide to elect as our government. Period.
Stephen Harper’s overtly nationalist Bloc imitation attack ads certainly did not help the Liberals in this election and may have much to do with my feeling of being drawn back into the federalist/separatist vortex. As a Quebec federalist, the ads gave me the creeps for reasons which the creators of the ads could probably better explain.
Charest had to confront an interesting problem during the election with Mario Dumont’s vague concept of autonomy. It appealed to me as it does I suspect for many people because it represents popularly and in the short term "none of the above"
And then I voted Liberal… sigh.
Now as for how this will help Harper. I suspect it won’t or least far less than the great manipulator might think. The vote buying was a cheap trick and I don’t think many are grateful for receiving what Stephen Harper has convinced most Quebeckers is, in any event, owed to them. In addition, Harper's comments about how he would only negociate with a federalist provincial government made it apparent that Harper is not adept in Quebec politics.
Pssst… Steve Harper if you are listening. Is it alright if I call you Steve like your friend George Bush does. Steve, you will deal with whoever we decide to elect as our government. Period.
Stephen Harper’s overtly nationalist Bloc imitation attack ads certainly did not help the Liberals in this election and may have much to do with my feeling of being drawn back into the federalist/separatist vortex. As a Quebec federalist, the ads gave me the creeps for reasons which the creators of the ads could probably better explain.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Stockwell Day
http://www.liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?type=news&id=12598
This is an important isssue. The current Minister of Public Security, Stockwell Day, is responsible for the oversight of the RCMP. In light of new evidence that Stockwell Day may have broken the law and misused public funds, the RCMP must investigate. The only honourable option within the Canadian tradition of responsible government available to the Minister overseeing the RCMP is to step aside from his post while the investigation is undertaken. Anything less than the Minister removing himself from this conflict of interest, as overseer of the RCMP and under investigation by the RCMP at the same time, will in perception and in fact be wrong.
The minister needs to step aside. If he has done nothing wrong which is hopefully the case, he will not be charged.
The minister must step aside by Monday, March 26th.
Otherwise, questions need to be asked about his influence on the investigation into his potential crimes.
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