Glenda at Just Between Us Girls fills in the gaps re: the taxi drivers who have been protesting at Pearson International. CTV;

Frustrations ran high Monday afternoon, as approximately 100 drivers staged their first day of pickets on highways around the airport. Some would-be travellers were so frustrated by the 90-minute delays, they abandoned cars to lug their bags to the terminal on foot.
The drivers are angry about the way the Greater Toronto Airports Authority grants new limousine licences.
The drivers don’t want independent drivers to be excluded from applying for the licences needed to take passengers from Pearson. They say the new licences should be awarded on the basis of driver seniority.
Taxi drivers with a regular Toronto-area licence can take customers to the airport, but risk a $100 fine if they take fares back to the city.

MPP Bob Runciman (in the Ontario Legislature);

This seems to be a very unfortunate trademark of this government, because, as I pointed out in debate in this House last week, this government did exactly the same sort of thing with respect to transportation legislation. The limousine drivers based in Mississauga, under legislation brought in by the Minister of Transportation, are now the only people who have the right to pick up passengers at Pearson airport. If a taxicab driver in the city of Toronto drops someone off, he can no longer pick up anybody at Pearson, but a limousine coming into Toronto can pick up people in Toronto. So why did they do that? Right in the middle of that legislation, the limousine drivers had a fundraiser for the Liberal Party of Ontario and gave them a $200,000 cheque.

Angry extracts some numbers from the Sgro Report;

Buried on page 19 of the Sgro Report is a description of how Temporary Residency Permits were used to buy votes during the election campaign.
The bottom line:

128 permits issued during the 5 weeks of the 2004 federal campaign

43, or 33%, were issued in the final week of the campaign

76, or 59%, of the TRPs were supported by an MP

of these 76 TRPs , 24, or 31%, were supported by Judy Sgro herself

19, or 80%, of Judy Sgro’s TRPs were issued in the last 24 hours of the campaign

another 50, or 66%, of the MP-supported TRPs issued during the election went to Liberal MPs

only 2, or 3%, of the MP-supported TRPs issued during the election went to Conservative MPs

This post has a bonus quiz!

(If your answer was “dig”, you were wrong)

Why did the Greater Toronto Airports Authority donate $1000 to Paul Martin’s Liberal leadership campaign?

Breaking from continuing coverage of Stephen Harper is scary and needs to be replaced by a proper Liberal!! we take you to this item courtesy of China e-Lobby (See the original post for active links);

Canada is beginning to recognize the depth of Communist China’s espionage in the Great White North. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) mostly rehashed the accounts of Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun regarding Communist overseas spy networks, but added that Hao “says Canada has more spies operating in it than any other country.” Jillian Ye, a resident of Scarborough, Ontario, certainly believes that, after seeing one of the documents Hao smuggled out with him “detailed Ye’s plans to start a communications company” (Epoch Times). No fewer than four members of the opposition Conservative Party, including foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day, deputy leader Peter MacKay (Hansard) Jason Kenney (Hansard) and Helena Guergis (Hansard), pressed the governing Liberals on this issue in Parliament. Meanwhile, the editors of the British Columbian Asian-Pacific Post demanded to know why the Canadian firm Nortel is helping the cadres’ crackdown on cyberdissidents.

From Hansard (via Newsbeat 1)

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan–Coquihalla, CPC): Mr. Speaker, a few months ago, when we raised the possibility of Chinese espionage in Canada, the government did not seem concerned in the least. Now a second Chinese defector is claiming that there is an operational network on Canadian soil.
Has the government called on Chinese officials here in Canada to get a full explanation, yes or no?
Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we are always in touch with Chinese officials in the capital. We discuss a number of issues relating to the respect for human rights and the right of Canadian citizens to express themselves in the way they want. This is a free country. We will always insist that people are free to do so in this country. This is what we have been expressing to the Chinese officials. [emphasis mine]
Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan–Coquihalla, CPC): There was no answer there, Mr. Speaker.

Well, actually – yes, there was. You just have to listen more closely, Stock.
UPDATE
Some amazing things turn up on the net….

National Post

Gomery is annoyed that the Martin government had a secret exchange of letters with Chretien’s lawyers acknowledging that even as the former prime minister dropped his court case alleging Gomery’s bias against him, he could make the same accusations later after the release of the judge’s findings.
Gomery didn’t know about the letter. He read about it in the papers. And he’s furious. The Martin government professes to support him, but it looks as if it was undermining him.
The May 30 letter was signed by federal government lawyer Brian Saunders, but as far as the Gomery Commission is concerned, it was approved by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Alex Himelfarb. Mere government lawyers, acting on their own, don’t make deals on behalf of one prime minister with another.
By coincidence, or not, May 30 was the same day Chretien’s lawyers withdrew his case, removing a very inconvenient obstacle from the Martin government’s path to political recovery.
“Secret deal between Martin and Chretien” went the banner headline in La Presse on Monday, as it broke the story that has dominated Question Period all week. “The newspaper added a telling overline: “Ex Prime Minister has the green light to re-attack Judge Gomery’s credibility.”

The Libranos are busy behind the scenes ridding themselves of pesky Information CommissionerJohn Reid to ensure that unfortunate events like the uncovering of Adscam are never repeated.
Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Regina–Lumsden–Lake Centre, CPC), June 14, 2005;

We on the access to information committee recognize that. When I say “we”, I mean all opposition members on the committee voted in favour of extending the appointment of Mr. Reid for another year. The only members of the committee who opposed the motion to extend Mr. Reid’s appointment were the members of the Liberal Party of Canada.
It is fascinating to me, when a former Liberal cabinet minister, someone who served for six consecutive elections and for close to 20 years in this place with great distinction, that members of his own party would be the only ones on the access to information committee to oppose his extension for one year.
We all have to ask ourselves why the Liberal members of the committee oppose such an extension. It cannot be because of his qualifications. He has served this Parliament well for seven years. It cannot be because of lack of experience. He probably has more experience as a parliamentary officer than anyone else. In addition, he has extensive experience in the field of access to information. His lack of experience just does not hold true. It has to be something else.
The only thing I can think of is that Mr. Reid has categorically stated that what he would like to see in new access to information legislation would be the increased level of information that would be available to all Canadians upon request.
Mr. Reid has stated that if his vision of a new act comes into being, we could probably safely say that incidents, such as the sponsorship scandal, would not have happened in the first place. Individuals, whether they be members of this place, members of the media or individual Canadians, would have the ability to receive information from government departments that would have triggered the fact that the sponsorship scandal was in full bloom.

Via Newsbeat 1, where there’s a lengthier exerpt and link to Hansard.

A curious item in Business Executive from an address by mafia expert Antonio Nicaso to the Canadian Club in Hamilton;

Nicaso said there is no political commitment to fight organized crime in Canada.
“When I arrived in Canada, it was like arriving in a candy store, because they were all here,” said Nicaso, who has written several books on the subject and is best known for publishing for the first time the ‘Mafia’s Code.’
Nicaso said Canadians are too concerned with avoiding the cost of a long trial. So the criminals plead guilty and spend three, four or five years in jail. Meanwhile, they’re plotting their next crime.
“Even if we spend $1 million, it’s better to put traffickers away for 40 years,” he said.
“In 1991 there was no currency law here. It was harder to import cheese than cash. It was a country that attracted criminals.”
[…]
And Nicaso said Sam Bronfman was one of the major competitors to Canada’s most notorious bootlegger, Rocco Perri, who supplied booze to Joseph Kennedy. […] Just after the Temperance Act was passed, Perri, who was a construction worker and very poor, became a multi-millionaire. […] Nicaso said Perri created an empire with the help of police officers, lawyers, judges and government officials.
“They all wanted to have a portion of the profits,” he said.
“It’s the same with the sponsorship scandal,” he continued. “Nothing has changed.”
In 1939 Perri was charged with corruption and RCMP officers were ready to testify against him, but Nicaso said Perri hired a brilliant lawyer, Paul Martin, father of the current Prime Minister, and was acquitted.

Via Bourque.

Check out the latest scandal brewing in Oztario. Does it, um, seem familiar?

TORONTO — An angry Premier Dalton McGuinty lashed out against the tactics of his political rivals Monday after a Conservative staffer took surreptitious photographs of a Liberal cabinet minister in an attempt to catch him in a conflict of interest.

The Opposition Conservatives captured Transport Minister Harinder Takhar on film visiting a company he owned but had placed in a blind trust, an apparent violation of the legislature’s conflict-of-interest rules.

McGuinty accused Conservative Leader John Tory of “stalking” Takhar.

“He has members of his staff go out with telephoto lenses (and) lie in wait for my ministers to take pictures of them and their activities,” the premier complained in the legislature.

He compared the photograph to the recent scandal in Ottawa involving secret tape recordings of conversations between federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh, Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal and Tim Murphy, Prime Minister Paul Martin’s chief of staff.

“I’d ask (Tory) as well to inform us whether or not he’s recording any conversations.”

Newsflash: Jean Lapierre says that the Liberals plan to hose down Quebec with even more of your money. Say, wasn’t this what got them in trouble last time?

As you read this, your government representatives are busily trying to push through debt relief for poorer nations at the G8 conference. In the meantime, retailers like Sears Canada continue to nail the poorer members of our nation with 23.15% (and higher) interest rates on their borrowing.

That’s kind of a double insult. You’re so heavily taxed that you have to put that new refrigerator on your credit card, and in the meantime your taxes are being given away to someone in another country. Oh, and the monster Annual Percentage Rates on your credit cards are just icing on the cake.

Whatever happened to charity beginning at home?

(Not that I want the government to start regulating credit card rates, it’s just hard not to notice how little the Libs care for the plight of the poor they have helped create in their own country.)

Buy it if you can, deport it if you can’t:

OTTAWA (AFP) – Three weeks after implicating Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin’s chief of staff and a senior member of his cabinet in an alleged vote-buying scandal, an opposition lawmaker is now facing possible deportation.

Immigration officials refused to divulge Friday whether they are investigating Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal for allegedly faking a business transaction to fulfill his obligations as an investor immigrant when he moved to Canada from Liberia in Western Africa in 1991.

But spokesperson Greg Scott said: “If there is evidence that somebody obtained their citizenship through fraudulent grounds, false representation, knowingly concealing material circumstances, it is something the department takes very seriously.” — Yahoo News

No further comment necessary.

Look like Question Period might be wrapping up…until 2006!

This is for MikeP who asked for a post on the latest status of the Grewal tapes. This CPC press release oughta take some wind out of the Libranos’ sails:

Jason Kenney, MP
Opposition Deputy House Leader
Calgary Southeast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 9, 2005

News Release

Original Murphy/Dosanjh recordings clean and unaltered: expert

OTTAWA � Conservative Deputy House Leader Jason Kenney today released a letter to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper from Randy Dash, Senior Editor and Manager of Operations of dMAX Media in Ottawa. The letter summarizes Mr. Dash�s analysis of copies of original recordings supplied by Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal.

“Mr. Dash’s analysis of the recordings shows that they are clean and unaltered,” Kenney said. “These recordings speak for themselves. Now, it’s time for Paul Martin, Ujjal Dosanjh and Tim Murphy to begin answering the questions about their involvement in offering rewards to members of parliament in exchange for their votes. To this day, there has been no information produced by any of these individuals to dispute the facts on these recordings.”

Kenney pointed out that Mr. Dash, a professional audio engineer specializing in post-production work, is the only expert thus far to have examined copies of the original recordings, and invited others to do the same. “There has been a lot of conjecture about the authenticity of the recordings,” Kenney said. “None of this speculation is based upon fact, and would indicate that those speculating have not taken the time to listen to or examine the entire recordings, which are publicly available.”

Discussion?

Me: I’m sick of living in a country where being a thief is socially acceptable. Maybe the Saudis are onto something when they lop the hands off the bastards.

Father-in-law: That would never fly here.

Me: Oh? Why not?

Father-in-law: Think about it. There wouldn’t be a single Liberal left who could shake hands with his constituents.

Me: SPLORRRF!! [shooting tea out my nose]

“The not-so-generic ‘Libranos meeting an advertising agency executive in an Italian restaurant somewhere in Montreal’ post” (from SDA’s ‘biting Goldstein’s style’ conceptual series)
Ad executive: “Excuse me fellas, but I’m pinching here. Time for a trip to the little boy’s room!”
(Leaves phat envelope stuffed with unmarked $100 bills on the table.)
First Librano:
Second Librano (with Al Capone pinky ring):
First Librano:
Second Librano (with Al Capone pinky ring):
Third Librano:
Second Librano (with Al Capone pinky ring):
First Librano:
Third Librano:
Second Librano (playing with his Al Capone pinky ring): “…uh, someone’s gotta pick that up before he gets back, y’know.”

Angry in the Great White North watches as the same-sex marriage legislation is now being side-tracked, after promises to get the legislation through quickly before the summer break.
He notes that Irwin Cotler doesn’t seem to have the Prime Minister’s ear, or as Angry puts it:

Perhaps Irwin Cotler should spend more time listening to the echoes reverberating from his boss. Clearly Cotler’s opinions are not “resonating”.

Ouch!

On June 3, there was a motion put forward in the House of Commons by Mr. Richard Marceau, Bloc MP for Haute-Saint-Charles:

That the House denounce the recent remarks made by Mr. Justice Michel Robert stating that it is acceptable to discriminate on the basis of political opinion when appointing candidates to the federal judiciary and that it call on the Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to create a special subcommittee with the mandate to examine the process for appointments to the federal judiciary and make recommendations for reform, with the primary goal of eliminating political partisanship from the process, by October 31, 2005.

Mr. Marceau went on to quote the data printed in the Montreal Gazette (and first revealed in this blog over a week earlier) that 60% of Quebec judicial appointments went to key Liberal supporters.
He suggests reducing the number of members of the selection committee appointed by the minister of justice be reduced from three out of the seven members, and that the ability of the minister to select an appointee who is not on the “highly recommended” list be constrained. But that’s just his recommendation — the motion calls for a subcommittee to study the problem.
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler then delivered a speech defending the current process, and I urge you to go and read it. It’s a good speech, but I think there is a blind spot here, in which the government refuses to acknowledge that the process has resulted in politicized appointments, something that Justice Michel Robert thinks is just fine. Mr. Cotler will not be voting in support of the motion:

Accordingly, because of this I will be voting against this motion, which I regard, taken as a whole, as being inappropriate, uninformed, unconstitutional and prejudicial to the independence of the judiciary and the responsibility of Parliament. Indeed, I am very concerned about the trafficking in innuendo in relation to the judiciary over the past few months.

The vote happened yesterday, and true to form, the Liberals voted against it, and the Bloc, the NDP, and the Conservatives vote for it, for a final vote of 157 to 124 in favour of the motion.
Of course, the motion is not binding, but as the fellow who first discovered the disturbing trend in judicial appointments, it’s nice to know that I’ve made some sort of impact. Now if we could actually make the government responsive to the wishes of the elected representatives, then the impact would actually matter.
[Cross posted to Angry in the Great White North]

With all the criticism levelled towards his government over Adscam, Toronto Tory notices that Paul Martin has his defenders, too.

If you read this article, you’ll see that he [John Bragg] said..
1) “Mr. Martin could still rise above the issue”
2) “This would not be seen as a national scandal but as a fallout from Quebec’s distinct political scene”
…and a direct quote:
3)”I don’t see how [the testimony] is an election issue … It’s an issue of the former administration.”
Of course you don’t think it’s an election issue, John. After all, the government’s been good to you. So good, in fact, that the government paid you $1,600,000 in 2003 through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency .
The purpose of ACOA, of course, is to provide funding to companies in Atlantic Canada that need funding to engage in research and create jobs. Oxford Frozen Foods was one of those needy companies. So needy, in fact, that they could afford to make significant donations to Paul Martin’s leadership campaign in the same year that they received massive ACOA funding. This article includes them in the “$50,000 club”, but I seem to remember them donating more. Unfortunately, the list of donors seems to have vanished.

The emerging pattern of vanishing government data was discussed here a few days ago. It all rather reminiscent of the way that the Elections Canada contribution search tool was “reconfigured” after bloggers started to publicize the charities and municipalities donating to the Liberals. (Bound By Gravity has an unofficial version available, made possible by the dedicated work of a number of private individuals.)
One can still dig up some of Paul Martin’s leadership campaign discslosures through Google caches and web archivers, and Mr. Bragg’s name shows up here.
Capturing some of this stuff before it’s scrubbed for good sounds like a project for someone who has free time this coming weekend. (Not me, I’m on my way out of town.) To be on the safe side, we should probably grab this data before it goes *poof*, too.

“The truth is not what you say, the truth is what you do,”

Well, finally – an honest Liberal.
Which means he had no choice but to leave the party.

Don Boudria isn’t content with throwing out faxes from critics – he wants them charged.

�Over the last 29 hours, my office has received no fewer than 828 faxes here on Parliament Hill. I have them here. I am willing to table them for the consideration of the Speaker if Mr. Speaker feels that this will help guide him in determining whether or not this is an abuse of what should legitimately be going on. […] In the case of my office, whereby we normally receive 40 to 50 faxes from constituents in a day, we have been able to receive a grand total of five over the last two days. The rest of the time the equipment is completely blocked. A group calling itself Focus on the Family, which has the website www.marriagematters.ca, is making it such that our telephone systems have been rendered inoperative this way.

He also wants parliament to control registration of domain names.
And change his diapers, no doubt.