Oops;
From the moment Liberal turncoat David Emerson was lured to the Conservatives with the jingle of ministerial limo keys, angry voters and otherwise disgusted Canadian folk have been writing to the ethics commish, imploring him to investigate.
Just over 200 of those submissions, apparently, were made to Shapiro by e-mail. Citizen to government. In confidence. Or so they thought.
[…]
With the release of the Emerson ruling Monday, the commissioner’s staff dutifully e-mailed a little thank-you note to all those who had written, drawing their attention to the internet address where they could read the full text of his decision.
It ended: “We thank you for your interest on this matter and in the ethics commissioner’s mandate.”
Unfortunately, each message was prefaced by the e-mail addresses of all 202 complainants.
Dozens of the addresses identify the senders by their first and last names. Every one of them represents a violation of personal privacy.
(If nothing else, the list of addresses from Internet providers across the country also dispels claims by Emerson and his new Tory brethren that the public outcry over his floor-crossing was limited to a bunch of partisan malcontents in his Vancouver riding.)
That’s right – for all the hours of media commentary and outrage over the Emerson floor crossing, the volume of actual email complaints sent to the Ethics Commissioner was in the same general range as a lively comments thread at SDA.
(That distant pop you hear is the sound of Charles Adler’s ego).
Via DMB.
A grand total of 202 complaints? Somehow I thought the lefties would have been better organized on this issue.
Wasn’t just the lefties.I wrote a complaint abour Shapiro being an amoral, partisan dolt and got the same email
Only 202 complaints? That’s irrelevant. And the fact that they are from servers all over the country doesn’t mean anything; ten individual in the Vancouver riding could have asked ten friends..and so on.
What IS unethical, is the breach of privacy by Shapiro’s office. Unbelievable – that these people don’t even know how to set up an address file.
Incompetence in the Ethics Commisioners office?!…..
…..Now where have I heard this story before?
I’ll listen to the blowhard Adler in the afternoon sometimes as I work. I was getting so tired of his rants about Emmerson, I switched the radio off. You give some of these guys a soapbox to stand on, you might as well hand them a rope as well.
I suspect that PMSH knew that there would be much whining and crying when he invited Emmerson to join the cabinet. It has been a good distraction for the MSM for the first couple of months of the mandate and has kept the spotlight off of all the “newbie” ministers who are going to be prone to rookie mistakes, like taking the baited questions of the seasoned jounalists? who would love nothing better than to trip them up and once again begin making news, instead of reporting on it.
In the end it seems that PMSH has come out looking more Prime Ministerial than ever, after standing his ground on his cabinet appointments and taking a hard line with the Ethics commish.
Not bad for the first couple of months on the job.
Gormley said on the radio the other morning “Stephen Harper…I think this guy was born to be Prime Minister” I agree.
Daniel
I don’t think emails and names are considered private information. I have been through privacy training (some time ago though) and I just checked the federal legislation. Though, sending out this email may be a violation because it implies some action but the individuals, I think that’s a bit of a stretch. While, I think it was a bad idea, I don’t think it was technically a privacy violation.
Adler is a pompous jerk and a mediocre writer to boot. I tried reading some of his columns but he’s just too into himself to waste time on.
And Shapiro’s staff are beyond incompetent if they don’t know the difference between cc and bcc when addressing an email.
Gee to bad about Adler’s ego. the few times I have listened to the loud-mouth hyper ventalating jerk go on and on about a debate on troop in Afghanistan and can’t wait for his bubble to pop on that one.
The “legacy” of AdScam Chretien/Martin & the Librano$: Compare & contrast these stories.
Fear on the farms of Canada;
Champagne & kudos for Copps, Sheila Copps, erstwhile heritage minister. Some heritage: welfare.
The Liberal Party of Canada is now the Liberal/Socialist Party of Toronto.
The natural end result of socialism: Welfare, kulaks, and gulags. +
Farmers live in fear
No more cash in ‘cash crops,’ they say at rally
By IAN ROBERTSON, TORONTO SUN
Two grown-up members of a fourth-generation Ontario farm family fear a “Black Friday” will come this spring, ending a 79-year tradition.
Deep in a debt, Ed Haass didn’t want to disclose how much, and watching crop prices sag even more, the current patriarch predicted yesterday “I may have to go on welfare.” +
via cnews
A party for Sheila
The lady of honour went by many names last night +
via cnews
…can you say “ooops”?
Still amazes me people don’t know what BCC is. They probably think it’s emails going to BC and CC is a wiskey.
Shapiro will obviously take the hit in this case, on yet another case of pure stupidity in the bureaucracy. Whoever wrote these emails and whoever approved them, should be ultimately getting their pink slips as well. I doubt it very much if Shapiro personally approved this. He may have instructed his staff to make sure it was done. Ultimately the big boss has to take the responsibility for it, but it must get a tiring to always have to take the “hit” for a bunch of incompetent bottom feeders who work in these departments. I am not defending Shapiro, he is just another in a long line of senior bureaucrats who end up taking the heat for the half wits that work below them.
I am tired of the bumbling idiotic and plain stupidity that ozzes out of the public service on basically a daily basis.I really question if some of these people could find their ass with both hands. Maybe if a few heads were to roll each time one of these events happened, there would be a new motivation to do their jobs the right way. In the old days people had a reason to try to do their jobs as good as possible and as efficiently as possible. It was simply because you either worked … or got fired. I am not suggesting that mistakes can not happen, but there would be fewer mistakes like this if ones performance has something to do with their job security. These clowns obviously can’t even proof read!
It is also unfortunate that the good civil servants, often get painted with the same brush as many of the dead wood who occupy a place at a desk each day, counting the days until they can retire on a cushy pension. I know of many in this position, and it makes my skin crawl to have to deal with them. What really annoys me, is the fact that many of these people are true leeches on our society. They get paid good dollars and accomplish very little. They live better than many hard working stand alone Canadians, who live or die by their actions on a day to day basis. The really stupid part is that it usually is the leeches that develop the insane policy rules that the ordinary Joe Canadians out there have to live by. You see these people are too busy trying to run their businesses and feed their families to have any time to do these things.
It is my hope that the new Harper government, who campaigned on the need for smaller government, will follow through with this and make government smaller at all levels. I predict that 15 to 20 % of the civil service could be cut and within two weeks they would not be missed. This really is a stupid mess.
I’m not sure about illegal but isn’t it unethical? Someone should register a complaint with Shapiro! 😉
I thought we would have a ruling on Stronach/Martin by now, wonder what the hold up is?
OT sort of: Our government agencies at work in mysterious ways….
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=04387093-814b-44b7-9568-b193320c02bf
“Valley farmers defy police in chicken-and-egg standoff
Birds die, officer shoved by front-end loader
An eight-hour standoff between a farming group and the Ontario Provincial Police over confiscated chickens and eggs, ended with the farmers pushing their way through police barricades and taking back the goods….
The two agencies allege that Shawn Carmichael, owner… had been selling eggs that were either not graded or improperly graded, and that he lacked proper registration for his farm.
The situation turned into a standoff between the OPP and members of the Lanark Landowners Association, a civil disobedience group based in the Ottawa Valley….
…Hundreds of chickens were also injured and killed in the incident, after they spent hours jammed into cages while the two sides argued.
The eventful day began at 9 a.m., when several vehicles rolled onto the Carmichael farm. Officials from the Egg Producers and the CFIA presented Mr. Carmichael with a warrant and ordered him not to leave the property. They were accompanied by OPP officers.
Mr. Carmichael said the officials stormed through his home, entering his children’s bedrooms and pulling apart drawers and filing cabinets looking for documentation, such as client lists and tax returns, in their search for evidence about his egg farm.
According to Mr. Carmichael, the more than 30 people from the two organizations then raided his chicken coop, taking thousands of the birds and jamming them into tiny cages on wheels like “sardines.”
When he asked for a lawyer, Mr. Carmichael said police put him in touch with a Legal Aid counsellor who informed him that due to the warrants the organizations had obtained, there was nothing he could do.
Mr. Carmichael then phoned some of his friends from the Lanark Landowners Association. Mr. Carmichael said an official with the CFIA overheard his call to the farming group and ordered others to pack the trucks and vacate the farm quickly.
“They were scattering like flies,” said Mr. Carmichael. “I said, ‘there is no way I am letting you leave here.'”
He drove his tractor down to the end of his driveway, blocking the entrance. When asked by an OPP officer to move the tractor, Mr. Carmichael refused, saying, “go ahead and arrest me.”
He was not arrested.
Farmers soon began to arrive on the scene, converging at the end of Mr. Carmichael’s driveway in trucks, tractors and motor homes. They were carrying placards with a bright red message: “Back off government. This is our land.”
When asked if the OPP failed to do its duty and enforce the court-ordered warrants yesterday, Insp. Hill said he was satisfied with the outcome of yesterday’s events, adding that the Egg Producers got the evidence they needed to move forward.
****”We are just here to keep the peace,” he said.*****
~~~~
Yup, keeping the peace alright.
Isn’t this Landover Land Group the same one that stopped the seizure, for deportation, of the family from Russia or Poland(?) around Christmas time?
… the same family that had worked for this farm-family for years.
As a youth been caught shop-lifting, which was the reason for deporting them.
The country wanted him back after these many years…for shoplifting…Tidying up the paperwork, I guess.
But something is stirring those folks up and government regulation and red tape seems to be the first place to look.
Or perhaps he should have sent his wife to be a stripper; they get to stay.
Hey Buffalo: some of the stripclubs in Toronto now advertise in the newspapers that they have their own immigration lawyers !?!
Why would anyone bother e-mailing Shapiro about the Emerson thing? It was Harper who decided that democracy didn’t matter in Vancouver-Kingsway. I am still waiting for a reply from my ex-party on that matter.
Hi Lew: Maybe you can remind me of how Emerson cam to represent the Vancouver Kingsway riding for the Liberals. I’ll help you. He was parachuted into the riding by Paul Martin, so he didn’t have to go through the messy process of winning the nomination. Please Lew explain to me how that the people of Vancouver Kingsway were served democratically in this instance.
This non story is about a handful of polical partisans with lots of help from their freinds in the media.
Just a comment regarding Prime Minister Harper. I agree that I think he was born to be PM. Every time he does a speech, I watch, then pinch myself. We have a PM that says the same thing in English as he does in french. This is a man that is going to gain popularity the longer he governs. I think that it is just going to take a while for some people to realize that we have not had a good PM in a very long time. So far his addresses to the public have been very impressive.
adler sounds like a frustrated , whining pissy-pants little kid who didn’t get as nice of a bike as the kid next door . he’s been whining and bitching about harper since the election started . i think he’s pissed off because harper didn’t take his advice about how to run the election.he sounds like a liberal in disguise.
maybe he oughta run for liberal leader .
ward: Trying to vindicate Harper by comparing him to a corrupt Liberal party is indeed sweet irony.
Lew:
Good Grief!!!!
The horse is dead.
Quit beating it.
Lee: As is democracy in Canada. Let the horse rest in peace.
198 of those 202 protesters are the unemployed NDP Lackys with nothing else to do, who were phoned up by Jack Late. staff to go out and spit on Emerson for the NDP cause. TG
I am with Tony Guitar… I wouldn’t trust Jack Layton any more than I do Chretien or Martin.
Sleaze bags who will say anything for political gain. They can all go soak their heads. Sheila Copps can go with them.
And this little episode about the e-mails just points up the fact that this was a ‘ginned’ up made in lib/ndp scandal factory. Hoping it stuck somewhere. Looks like it got all over Adler from the remarks when it exploded in all their faces.
Wonder if Jackie Layton has a wet wipe??
Lew: Nowhere in my response to you did I try to vindicate Harper or Emerson What I illustrated was that if you or the Citizens of Vancouver Kingsway were truly interested or concerned with breaches of democratic process we should have heard from you the first time it was breached in the riding – when Martin parachuting Emerson in forgoing the democratic nomination process. The fact that we did’nt hear anything demonstrates rather clearly that democratic breaches only count if they can in some way sully Harper or the Conservatives which makes it a leftist promoted partisan issue.
I was one of the lucky 202 and can assure TG that I am not a dipper waster. I wrote to Shapiro to ask for an investigation of several Liberal shills, himself included. I was told to sod off; complaints have to come from MPs. Curious how Shapiro himself mentioned public outrage as a reaon for investigating Emmerson. Also he had nothing to say about Valeri, And……oh what’s the use. Sack the shit.
ward: The voters of Vancouver-Kingsway passed judgement on Emerson by voting for him as a Liberal. If this issue is just a leftist tempest in a teapot, why don’t Emerson and Harper have the balls to let the voters pass judgement on Emerson as a Conservative?
We were told the voters of Vancouver-Kingsway (and elsewhere) were voting for “the devil they knew”. Well, they got what they paid for.
Heh.
kate: Who told you that?
Hmmm. Could the Privacy Commissioner be asked to investigate the workings of the Ethics Commissioner???? Egads, there goes another few millions of our tax dollars. 🙂
Thanks to Mr. Shapiro’s email thanking me for my interest I have been receiving numerous emails from people I don’t know and some I don’t care to know. Surely this was not the right thing to do and shows the lack of professionalism in Mr. Shapiro’s office.
Kelj: The voters will get that chance during the next election cycle, which if the bombast coming out of Liberal interim leader Bill Grahams mouth is any indication, will be sooner rather than later. There was no special election held to validate Emerson when he was parachuted into the riding to suit Martins needs, as such there should be no special by-election held as a result of his crossing.
In both cases voters will get/got the chance to have their say. My guess is that if we see another election in the next 18 months, Emerson and the Conservatives will have a solid track record to stand on and as such Emerson will be re-elected as a Conservative, which is why the Libs and NDP are so desperate to try to force a byelection now.
Let’s see, 202 people, out of ………..36 million Canadians, wrote letters of complaint to the ethics commissioner.
I just ran it on Excel, and without moving the decimal over, it comes to a whopping 0.0% of Canadians.
That’s quite the widespread outcry I’d say.
hollinm,
“Thanks to Mr. Shapiro’s email thanking me for my interest I have been receiving numerous emails from people I don’t know and some I don’t care to know. Surely this was not the right thing to do and shows the lack of professionalism in Mr. Shapiro’s office.”
True it doesn’t reflect a great deal of professionalism … I also hope the not so well trained clerk, without the tools to do the job, doesn’t end up as the scapegoat.
Perhaps an email back to Shapiro’s outlining the problem might be in order.
BTW: FYI hollinm … in less than 5 minutes, using only the info in your post, I know:
1) your name
2) your wife’s name
3) your previous occupation
4) where you live (down to the house)
5) your phone number
If you don’t want to be on any lists, you can’t make it easy for them. Reminds me of what a friend once told me about Birth Announcements – “they exist so even the stupid insurance salesman can find you”
“Kelj: The voters will get that chance during the next election cycle”
And Mr. Emerson, just what was wrong with the last election?
just a simple question . which would you rather have ? an mp. in the cabinet of the government ? or an opposition critic ?
I agree with Tony Guitar, a few messages ago: the whole campaign against Emerson in Vancouver-Kingsway smells like a set-up by the Liberals and the NDP: student protesters, MY FOOT.
And, Lew, I’d like to know how come the voters in Vancouver-Kingsway didn’t object to David Emerson’s being parachuted into their riding, an old and frequent (need I say undemocratic) trick of the Liberals across the country (e.g., Ignatieff). What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. And what goes around comes around. And how about you get what you deserve. Anyway you put it, V-K voters should shut up and get a life. I feel no sympathy for them…or their 202 supporters (ha, ha) who wrote to the Ethics Commissioner (sic).
Snowbunnie. Nice to be supported. Thanx. Hope this saves an ID and credit standing for many.
This info, and speaking to someone in the Credit industry brings sad news.
You are advised to no longer use your card on line. I know I will miss the convenience.
The Visa and Mastercharge people must be taking huge losses, but they dare not tell you and I the truth.
The MSM are quiet, but to get off the hook, they may have a tiny item about it buried in the bowels of the paper.
This is much worse than the [4] million accounts compromised on the errant Arizona server.
========
MetaFisher Trojan steals bank details
Run by hackers as smart as your IT department
Jaikumar Vijayan
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5627&Page=1&pagePos=12&inkc=0
http://tinyurl.com/gfh8c
Hackers have been using a Trojan – whose sophistication would put professional IT departments to shame – to quietly steal bank-account details on hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.
For weeks, customers of large banks in the UK, Spain and Germany have been duped by phishing emails into installing the MetaFisher Trojan and putting their machines under the control of one of the most sophisticated *botnets* known so far.
*This is one of those big, under-the-radar threats that we’ve been concerned about,* said Ken Dunham, director of the rapid response team at VeriSign’s iDefense unit. *There has been a trend away from big-bang attacks to very targeted and sophisticated attacks that take place right under your nose. This is one of them.* 10words TG
ward: There was no special election held to validate Emerson when he was parachuted into the riding because he was validated in a general election. The voters made their choice and were duped and betrayed by Harper and Emerson in a particularly sleazy way. No matter how partisan rightwing apologists try to slice it, it’s still baloney.
A better guess would be Harper and Emerson won’t acquire the appropriate testicular fortitude to face the electorate of Van-Kingsway in ANY election.