From Northwestern University Press: Paul Martin & Companies;
Using Paul Martin’s business dealings as an example, Alain Deneault presents the Martin case as a symptom of a world-wide crisis of public ethics; demonstrates that it is part of a lawless global culture that increasingly allows the world’s largest financial transactions to escape all forms of control, regulation, and contribution to the wealth of nations; and spells out what this means for all of us.
Speaking of which…
(click for larger version)
| Oh, what the heck! For old times’ sake this one too… |
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Those Bush/Cheney neo-cons only wish they had it so good.
RE: global culture for the big boys
As the old saying goes:
– Fish start to rot from the head…
“a symptom of a world-wide crisis of public ethics; demonstrates that is is part of a lawless global culture.
You left out another important descripitive word…
“godless”
cheers
tom
“…lawless global culture…” This is about the best summation I have read on what has been going on under the guise of “globalization”. Money/Influence has been un moored and is floating free from control. National governments are going to have to take responsibility for the actions of their citizens in venues other than the national. Of course, since they are members of national elites they do tend to be protected.
To quote Ned Franks,professor emeritus at Queens University,
“This is where the flying excrement intersects with a rotating propeller”
Got to hand it to those PHD’ers
Kate, as an average uninformed citizen, I must express my gratitude for you and people like you (even the Noam Chomsky-types). The “blogoshpere” has forever changed politics. MSM no longer has control.
It occured to me commenting elsewhere on the booing thing in Vancouver that since the Jays where in the World Series Canada seems to becoming more and more isolated.
Weather it’s CRTC interferance or Sheila Copps flags or just plain calling the Americans bad has really just isolated us.
This is not a phenominum that I attribute to just the Liberals. The old PC’s seem to be in on the act too.
For instance how many PM’s have been from Quebec.
Or how about this both Joe Clark and John Crosby being anti Stephen Harper and what would appear to be pro Liberal.
Could it be that with realations back in 91-92 being so good between Canada and the US it began to worry this special club that seems to include both old tyme Conservatives and Liberal present back to Trueduea. Whatever his name was?
With the relations so good back then could they have been worried that maybe the Canadian public might begin to like the idea of a Republic.
After all think of the accountability in a Republic compared to this joke of a parlimentary thingy we got going here.
Three branches of Government two of whom are elected the third although appointed would have to go through a vetting process. Imagine if you will a Canada where all appointments would have to be vetted. Imagine if you will a senate that has elected senators or imagine if you will a triple E senate.
All that last part is set to Imagine that Lennon guy wrote.
What about proportional representation in parliment.
Do you think this stuff might put some krimps in that special club that seems to include both Consevatives and Liberals.
Maybe all the panic and sweating we are seeing is because for the first time in my life time and I’m almost 50 is Harper who dosn’t appear to be part of the special club might get elected.
Just how many skeletons do you suppose are in the closet.
I’ve had a feeling for along time that this has always been more complex than simply Conservative Liberal rivalry thing. That something far more sinister was going on.
Maybe they got to greedy or to cocky or something because maybe we might elect a PM who is not part of the special Quebec cabal.
Or am I just too out there on this?
Stick a fork in Paulie I think he’s done.
Pop the Champagne corks, lets celebrate.
This brings to mind Six Degrees of Separation. Only in this case anything that truely reeks of corruption and entitlement amounts to about two degrees of separation from Maurice Strong.
I sure hope those aliens the U.N. are looking to contact are shrewd little buggers or else once Maurice and the boys are done with them their gonna be looking for one of Saddam’s buried scuds just to get back home.
Syncro
BC Bud & AdScam Martin’s former aide, Mark Bornman, aka Spiderman. >>>
Spiderman in a Web of Intrigue
The Basi-Virk-BC Rail probe may yield BC�s biggest scandal yet. If so, meet the Crown�s mysterious star witness: �Spiderman� Erik Bornman.
By Bill Tieleman
Published: May 10, 2005
TheTyee.ca
Erik Bornman�s nickname is Spiderman but the former top Paul Martin aide is now stuck in a sticky web of intrigue that includes the tainted $1 billion BC Rail privatization deal, drug trafficking, influence peddling and the impending high-profile trial of accused ex-BC Liberal ministerial aides David Basi and Bob Virk.
How did Bornman, a well-connected BC and federal Liberal operative, become the crown�s key witness against his former friends Basi and Virk in the trial arising from the dramatic police raid on the BC Legislature in December 2003?
Why are most media outlets all but ignoring Bornman and his extensive links to both the federal and provincial Liberal governments?
And why has one of BC�s top Supreme Court justices refused to release information about two mysterious search warrants connected to the case before the May 17 provincial election?
These unanswered questions are just part of one of the most fascinating scandals in BC political history and it�s far from over.
The whole story will not likely come out until Bornman testifies against Basi and Virk sometime in 2006, when their trial on allegations of bribery, influence peddling and breach of trust is scheduled to occur.
But in the meantime, much is known about Bornman and his pivotal role in the scandal that has rocked two governments.
Dirty tricks resume
Bornman, 28, is a controversial figure even within the BC and federal Liberal parties, with a chequered past that includes some dubious political activities.
Bornman earned his nickname Spiderman after he entered a locked federal Liberal Party office � which contained the BC membership list during the time of the leadership battle between Paul Martin and Jean Chretien � through the ceiling.
In 1999, Bornman helped organize a federal Young Liberal convention in Victoria�s Traveller’s Inn that turned into a drunken hotel-trashing. The party was sued for $10,000 in damages by owner John Asfar but he settled out of court. >>>
http://www.bcpolitics.ca/left_spiderman.htm
more:
Martin’s Spiderman turned Crown witness>>>
Trials connected to legislature raid about to start
Jeff Rud and Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist
Published: Thursday, January 05, 2006
A high-profile drug investigation that began in 2002, dubbed by police as “Project Everywhichway,” is finally winding its way to the trial stage.
……
A trial date for those charges is expected to be set Friday in Vancouver. >>
http://www.rapp.org/url/?GZZWTUFE
victoriatimescolonist
via primetimecrime.com
very crowded on the righthand side of the chart which is the intersection of Bay St and Sussex Drive. Mulroney was run out on a rail after his corporate connections were made as obvious.
Foreign investors wary of `Wild West’
Dec. 30, 2005
…”There’s a great comment that you wouldn’t worry what people think of you if you knew how rarely people think of you,” he quipped.
But that changes in an instant when a stock market scandal erupts. In 1997, the collapse of junior mining company Bre-X Minerals Ltd. put Canada on the map in the worst way.
“At that point, I remember talking to fairly senior corporate executives. They said, `You don’t even have a securities commission in Canada. It’s like it’s the wild north,'” said Caldwell, chair of Caldwell Asset Management Inc…
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1135896621604&call_pageid=968350072197
“Bush/Cheney neo-cons only with they had it so good”
Huh? I suppose we could pretend that Bush & Cheney never ever worked for Haliburton the US’s largest contracter in Iraq. Oh but wait – that’s liberal left wing mis-information, even if it were public record.
As I’ve said before – let’s not allow partisan politics blind us from the truth.
Heard this morning about ANOTHER new liberal scandal involving Toronto waterfront??? (CTV newsnet)
Anyone else hear that?
Hmmm right Bear, I can�t understand why Bush didn�t use Schlumberger and Total Petroleum and BNP Paribas instead of Halliburton. Then Koffi/Chirac/Desmarais/Saddam could have kept the Oil for Food fiasco going eh?
Spin is spin – right, left or center & apparently love is blind.
BTW, I’m just curious, where does ATCO Frontec fit into this – or do they?
Colin:
Yep, i heard it too. something about 7 (im not sure if its million or billion) in untendered contracts.
“a symptom of a world-wide crisis of public ethics; demonstrates that it is part of a lawless global culture that increasingly allows the world’s largest financial transactions to escape all forms of control, regulation, and contribution to the wealth of nations”
And they say there is no “world order” being scripted by globalist monopolists and insider profiteers. The Bilberburg meetings are struck to do just this….bring the globe’s financial and political elites together to strike backroom deals for mutual profitability and maximum exploitability of global/national politically scripted events. Martin has attended 3 of these Bilderbig meetings. Each resulted in another tariff or tax barrier falling.
I was listening to a US political talk show yesterday where the libertraian presidential candidate was being interviewed. I expected the standard well known links to the Bush family business and the Saudi royals to come up first…but I was surprised he started off talking about Canada! He stated that it was an “outrage” that our nation ( Canada) be run by a multi billionaire shipping mogul who registers his business off shore and holds political power to do favors for the corporate magante that made him a rich man.
I was shocked! This is the best kept secret in Canada but I see it glibly discussed by the off-mainstrean US media as if it was common knowledge there.
Canada’s corrupt leadership is becomming a global embarassment when it becomes this obvious to our trading partners.
Now that the rants are in and charts posted the BIG question remains:
If elected to a majority (I’m sure he will be) what exactly and precisely is Stephen Harper going to do about all this?
There’s not a mop and pail big enough besides the modern CEO MO is huge profits at any price. Attitudes and egos of the really big players won’t easily be changed especially since these have gone global now.
The one thing I’ve noticed about posters here is they’re big on analysis but non-existent as to solutions. A new face to government is great but what will/can they do where the rubber meets the road?
It’s always interesting when people talk about the contracts Halliburton receives for reconstruction in war zones, etc.m because they don’t tend to name other corporations who could compete for the job – because in many cases, there aren’t any.
Canada’s big business/political community is a bloody incestuous cesspool. Unfortunately, charts like these are so mind-blowingly unbelievable, it makes us on the right look like a bunch of conspiracy kooks to those who just want to watch CSI:Pocatello and go to sleep.
Kate…That was George and Dick’s answer all along…No other contractor is big enough…Well if another contractor isn’t given any opportunities how will they ever get big enough to compete…It’s monopoly protection in it’s simplest form.
Remember W. bankrupted 2 companies before he caught on.
What’s Harper going to do about this? Well for starters he has said he will turn the Auditor General loose on the books. And even if he only has a minority, I don’t see how any of the other parties could oppose that.
There’s some common ground for the three parties to work together on.
Here is a definite Liberal scandal (and no wonder Bombardier is so desperate to sell something to the Air Force).
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/060105/b0105115.html
‘Federal lending bank will repossess 42 Bombardier regional jets
17:32:28 EST Jan 5, 2006
MONTREAL (CP) – The federal export lending agency is having to repossess 42 Bombardier regional jets from two bankrupt U.S. airlines.
A spokesman for Export Development Canada said Thursday that 27 of the 50-seat CRJ-200s are coming back from FLYi Inc.’s Independence Air, which was ceasing operations on Thursday. The EDC has already received 14 jets back from Independence, while another 13 are to be returned over the coming weeks.
Northwest Airlines is returning 15 regional jets, which it previously announced under its bankruptcy protection that it would be rejecting.
“We haven’t taken possession of those yet but that will be imminent,” said spokesman Phil Taylor.
Taylor said EDC will have to assume parking and maintenance costs while it seeks new buyers.
EDC will transfer its financing to the new owners, and Taylor said EDC expects no difficulty in finding buyers for the 42 units.
“We’re very confident that we’ll be able to move them,” Taylor said.
The value of the credit for Independence Air, formerly known as Atlantic Coast Airlines, is about $340 million.
EDC loaned more than $500 million to the two airlines to help them buy the aircraft from the Montreal-based manufacturer.’
Mark
Ottawa
Virgil… That’s all well and good the AG being turned loose on the books but will Chretien or any of his buddies ever be looking at bars from inside the Crowbar Motel? Will all the money be recovered?
Toronto Waterfront contracts $70 million I believe, untendered which is against govt policy(anything over $25000.00)must be tendered,given to Liberal friendly,s with money coming back by way of Liberal party donations.
Paulies ship(s)are sinking and Dicaprio and Celine Dion arent Graceing the Bow.
…ANOTHER new liberal scandal involving Toronto waterfront…
Not surprising when you see who the players are involved in it’s development:
Audit uncovers waterfront spending slips
10 contracts signed with no tendering
Executives took trips without prior approval
http://tinyurl.com/8nerr
China’s Canadian cousins
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover102205m.htm
Is University for Peace Maurice Strong’s Costa Rican rain forest?
http://canadafreepress.com/2005/cover121305.htm
Kate are you familiar with ATCO Frontec’s operations? I’m somewhat surprised they’re NOT in the chart.
BTW, you should NEVER hire someone you used to work for with an untendered contract if you’re in government – it just smells like something bad. How can we keep picking at the liberal’s for doing the exact same thing – we can’t just pass if off by saying – ‘well that’s different’. Attacking this ac tivity on the one hand and then supporting on the other hand attacks our own credibility.
“will Chretien or any of his buddies ever be looking at bars from inside the Crowbar Motel? Will all the money be recovered?”
Posted by Ron
Come on Ron. Such blatant patisanship is very revealing. Martin promised months ago that all of the money stolen by the Liberal Party from the people of Canada would be paid back.
And I’m sure it has been or Mansbridge, The Fifth Estate, The Passionate Eye, The Toronto Star etc would have informed us.
The question of what will Harper do to clean up this mess also haunts me. Always voted conservative except once when I voted Green. Came to a point I believed Canada was like the Ukraine in the dirty 30’s. The west screamed at Stalin that an election with only one communist candidtate in each riding wasnt legit so he put two communist candidates in each riding. They only differed on some unimportant issue. I’ve reluctantly decided to vote for Harper, however I have to wonder if its too late to run for PM without some evil corp backing you with their agenda. I believe Preston was legit and only got so far because his popularity rose so quickly it surprised evil corp. Maybe Harper is of the same mould. I pray that he is but remain skeptical, why isnt the MSM trashing him, we know whos pocket they sit in and is it true Harpers father was on the board of directors of some oil company ? Anybody know, I get asked this all the time.
The comment about a Toronto Scandal involves the ‘Waterfront Commission” and some $97 million in untendered contracts. It’s deeper than that though. I just don’t have the information. CBC was airing it on the 6:00 a.m. (PST) news, but I was in traffic and didn’t catch all of it.
Thanks Terry, I can rest easy now that I know my vote for the Liberals on the 23rd will be a vote for the high road.
I agree Jeff. I think the Libs and old Tories (Joe Clark, et al) have had their fingers in the pie for a long time, and they all know it, so they have the goods on each other. Now along comes Harper, and they’re running scared because he’s relatively clean.
As for Halliburton, they’ve been winning big government contracts even under the Clinton, but there was no political mileage in finger pointing at the time.
Good for you Ron. Join me in voting Liberal on January 24th.
Ron, re Halliburton contracts in Iraq. There are about 3 or 4 companies in the world large enough to tackle it (one of which is partially owned by Halliburton anyway). It’s quite possible that the other two declined to bid as they didn’t want a bodycount. Last I heard Halliburton was hovering around the 100 mark.
Because Halliburton wants to keep the contracts from the gov’t on the mainland, they are between a rock & a hard place. They are losing staff left, right & centre. I doubt very much that they see Iraq as a “plum” contract, but somebody’s got to do it.
I don’t work for them, I just happen to have knowledge of the industry.
Terry Gain says-
“Come on Ron. Such blatant patisanship is very revealing. Martin promised months ago that all of the money stolen by the Liberal Party from the people of Canada would be paid back.
And I’m sure it has been or Mansbridge, The Fifth Estate, The Passionate Eye, The Toronto Star etc would have informed us.”
Funny!!!
Perkunas, re Harper’s father on the board of an oil company – I had only heard that he was in the oil industry (as are about 75% of people in Calgary). Harper was raised middle class, not upper class, so I’d be surprised if it was on the board of one of the biggies (there are a gazillion small oil companies in Calgary; sitting on one of those boards would not automatically make you real wealthy).
Well wouldn’t this make just the most fascinating and information election roundtable discussion material?
You know, the more I look at the “follow the money” flowchart the more I think of this is a flow chart of stuff hitting the fan.
The fan being the blue Sponsorship button and the uh, stuff, being the PMO’s staff in the orange box.
The question we need to ask is who will clean up this mess? The CPC? I think if they don’t get a huge majority, they won’t want to rock the boat, or to be more blunt, they will become like the Liberals to do almost anything to keep their seats in Parliment.
cheers
tom
Great post Kate: The Power Corp Desmarais thing goes much much deeper in Canada than even the graphic suggests. If a person starts to look at the sharing of Board Members between major Eastern Corps, like Magna and Power. Corp., it seems like the same people simply make the rounds, and many are former political leaders. Belinda for instance was just an extention of that group. As well, Power Corp. is always represented on the Trudeau Foundation, which in turn has sitting members from the UN, and CBC, and many major Univeristies; all Eastern boards of culture and business are dominated in similar ways by Liberals and the elite. Eastern Canada is one mighty small circle of influence when it comes to political power.
By the way, a Saskatoon company has a major contract in Iraq… it supplies all of the large shelters… so does that make them somehow involved in the G W Bush political machine? Quick quick, run out and start protesting Canada’s involvement in Iraq. (eye roll)
Honest people will find that the level of control over Canadian politics by Corporate elites through the Liberal party and former PC’s is almost unmatched anywhere on earth. Halliburton/Bush/Cheney is a joke compared to how deep the control goes in Canada. Those Canadians who fingerpoint at Bush/Halliburton should be ashamed. What a bunch of smug hypocrits.
It seems Harper isn’t beholden to ‘power corporation’. That’s why he’s being painted as scary. Scary to Martin, Chretien and the Mob. What will he do? I hope he shuts down Barbados as a tax haven, creates a retroactive tax evasion law to go after CSL (the CRA is good at that), opens the file on the cocaine found on Martin’s ship, and prosecutes the bastard to the full extent of the law. Same for Chretien and the rest. What we need is to see these thugs die in prison.
“Those Canadians who fingerpoint at Bush/Halliburton should be ashamed. What a bunch of smug hypocrits.”
Uh no, it’s called OPTICS! Next you’ll be taggin’ me as some sort of liberal or something for pointing out the optics.
Right on Shaken.
This deserves to see the light at the CBC roundtable.
Judging by Glyn and Marcie’s website they might even add something to the debate.
You know,…. besides “Judas Priest is better than the Eagles”, and “Sorry Kate”.
Tomax7, if Harper is legit he could start changing things even with a minority. Hold off on economic or social policies for awhile. Introduce sweeping measures to clean up Parliament. For the NDP or Bloc to vote against an ethics package would be suicide for them.
Candace,
How dare you inject reason and logic into any discussion of Halliburton!
Do a search sometime into the boards of directors of multinational corporations in the areas of pharmaceuticals, transportation, world banks, energy, defence. You will see many of the same names cropping up. Then do some digging into these people and you will find that many can be tied to the same wealthy world families, either directly, by marriage or appointment.
As Peter Newman once wrote (paraphrasing here) the head of one of these families, Paul Desmarais Sr., collects politicians like some people collect art. These people “own” the Liberal Party of Canada in my opinion. Makes one wonder about their affiliation with the mob and organized crime.
These are the people who pull the levers that turn the world. One World Government, globalization, and, oh yes, reducing world population to about 800 million are their objectives. Maurice Strong has been quoted as mentioning the 800 million goal this several times. That means they would not mind in the least seeing about 90% of the world population die. That’s you and me folks.
Terry….You’re on fire today, careful you don’t crash and burn!
Perkunas, that we don’t know anything about Stephen Harper’s father says something in itself, wouldn’t you say? Unlike, say, how we know a whole bunch about Paul Martin’s dad. The Harpers appear to be an ordinary middle class Canadian family, without any of that central Canada elitist background of private school/wealth/who daddy knows/what daddy owns. If you read Stephen Harper’s bio
http://www.mapleleafweb.com/election/bio/harper.html
you’ll see he’s an economist, and a man who thinks about what’s right, not what’s in it for him. When he was president of the NCC, he took the federal government to court — and won — on the issue of election gag laws. It was a point of principle, and that’s a theme you will see running thoughout his life so far. He is a well educated, principled man, and, dare I say it, a patriot. And one that very obviously doesn’t enjoy the game of politics for its own sake. I hope he has the strength of character to stay the way he is, after a few more years in the cesspool of federal politics.
S
Perkunas: “For the NDP or Bloc to vote against an ethics package would be suicide for them.”
Silly question: Where has the NDP been all this time and who did they side with on the previous NCV (non-conf. vote).
The Bloc on the other hand, who cares, they want out. Well not really, they want the CPC out so they can continue to get money from the Liberals to “stay in Canada”.
If they really wanted to leave, they would, neverendum or not.
They like the Atlantic welfare states are becoming more and more dependant on Liberal, err Ottawa handouts.
Especially now with Bombadier jets all coming home to roost. Something about a loan…
cheers
tom
Re: Haliburton — The Pentagon made the decision not VP Cheney. Should the company be disqualified from consideration merely because the VP had worked for them in the past? There were a number of other American companies that received contracts for various aspects of reconstruction such as Bechtel, DynCorp (now owned by Computer Sciences Corp), Stevedoring Services of America, Abt Associates Inc, Sky Link Air & Logistics, Research Triangle Institute, and Creative Associates International.
Amazing how not a word was mentioned in the press when Al Gore’s oil company received the Elk Island Naval oil reserves. And there is evidence that Gore *was* directly involved in that decision.
Interestingly, Peter Newman wrote a serious of books in the 1970s called “The Canadian Establishment” where various Power Corps links were made. However, soon after the books were released, it seems that Power Corp reorganized their holdings in order to mask what had been revealed. How long before that happens again?
The Bloc on the other hand, who cares, they want out. Well not really, they want the CPC out so they can continue to get money from the Liberals to “stay in Canada”.
..squeek..squeek.. More grease please!