The RCMP Pension Scandal: Chain Of Command?

Radioactive 50 Comments

Steve Janke’s lengthy investigation of Abotech may have hit pay dirt – and it leads to the highest levels of the Liberal Party;

So the RCMP creates a sweetheart deal for Morneau Sobeco. Missed portions of the contract, oversights that earned specific criticism from the Auditor General, were handed over to Abotech to deliver to Morneau Sobeco. Abotech was run by David Smith, who would later become an MP. The nomination for Pontiac was a gift given to David Smith by by Paul Martin:

Although prepared to run in the 2004 federal election, [Robert “Bob” Bertrand] lost the Liberal party candidate nomination to an unknown at the time, David Smith. This was due to new party nomination rules put in place by Paul Martin that changed the long standing policy of selecting the incumbent by acclamation. Many rural party members (who traditionally supported Mr. Bertrand) felt disenfranchised by this defeat because of the new party nomination rules which called for 3 polling locations spread out across the riding (Fort-Coulonge[Rural], Wakefield[Rural] and Maniwaki[Urban]) instead of the traditional 1 polling site for both candidates, considered neutral territory. They believed this favoured the urban party members (most of whom supported Mr. Smith) because of the greater concentration in their numbers in conjunction with their polling location.

So just how was Abotech qualified to manage the $25,000,000 contract the RCMP had PWGSC give to Morneau Sobeco? As it turned out, no qualifications were necessary.
[…]
So the RCMP write the requirements to give the work to Morneau Sobeco. That contract goes to Scott Brison’s PWGSC, where Consulting and Audit Canada created a cover contract aimed squarely at David Smith’s Abotech, a contract to manage a contract. It worked because David Smith’s cousin Frank Brazeau was working in CAC, arranging for the work to go to Abotech…

Read it all.

50 Replies to “The RCMP Pension Scandal: Chain Of Command?”

  1. …fish start to rot first from the head down.
    Sadly Canada is doing the same.
    I do hope there is enough of an upheaval to jail those responsible for tarnishing Canada’s beacon of truth, justice and fairness, the RCMP.
    Otherwise, welcome to Canuckistan.

  2. Tomax7
    Sad to say too true…this has the potential to go big.
    Its up to the public to push for all it is worth for the simple reason that this was and is wrong.
    I imagine Canadians have only seen the tip of the iceberg of Liberal coruption…its time to peel back a few more scales on that rotten fish.
    I’m also happy to hear that David Smith is working diligently in the opposition leader’s offices…at least he won’t be hard to find when the Inquiry comes looking for him.

  3. All this is interesting, but the Conservatives have figured out a way to ensure that none of this will be generally believed even if the currently proposed investigation ends up strengthening Janke’s suppositions. The majority is not going to give credence to some non-judicial investigator (probably with ties to the Harper government) tapped to perform what is, in effect, an internal investigation without the power to force sworn testimony. If the facts are such as Janke claims, it will take a report from a judicial enquiry to get them publicly accepted except by true blue believers.
    Real dumb politics unless, of course, someone close to the Harper government has something to hide.

  4. One thing for certain, the Liberal Party has provided more scandals to investigate over the past decade than any time in our history.
    Guess we can brace ourselves for another one.
    It’s good for the Country in weird way, it will give us good government led by Harper and his Conservatives for some time to come.
    If something can be distasteful and delicious at the same time, this is it.

  5. One thing for certain, the Liberal Party has provided more scandals to investigate over the past decade than any time in our history.
    Guess we can brace ourselves for another one.
    It’s good for the Country in weird way, it will give us good government led by Harper and his Conservatives for some time to come.
    If something can be distasteful and delicious at the same time, this is it.

  6. i know people who would vote liberal even if the party was removing the furniture from their own house.

  7. This is what blogging is all about in my opinion. Folks like Steve doing the digging, and big sites like this doing the announcing/connecting more dots.
    Great work all around.
    I wonder if the press is going to keep letting you all do their jobs, while they sit around and wait for stories off the wires.

  8. For your comments!! How could he resurrect? This from Bourque News!
    CHRETIEN: THE COMEBACK KID ?
    With the Liberal Party trailing the governing Conservative Party by a wide margin in recent polls, rumours of fact and facts of rumour have been percolating to the extent that disgruntled Liberal insiders, both pro-Dion and supporters of his leadership opponents, have been exchanging knowing glances, innuendo’s emails, and philandering phone calls, all to the effect that time has come to seek out a strong consensus-building Liberal with the kind of hands-on leadership qualities that can handle the challenge that befits a man who has won three successive majority elections: Jean Chretien. The man is said to be ready and waiting for the call. His longtime praetorian guard, pollsters, and spin-masters are all girding for battle. “Pierre, the scenario is simple”, confided a Toronto-based politico well-known to late-afternoon TV watchers, “one way or another, the odds are stacked against Stephane. He’ll go down in the election and the call will immediately go out for Chretien to be drafted into service.” Developing.

  9. Greenleaf,I was thinking the headline should have read..Chretien,the ‘coverup kid’.This party of corruption must be crapping their drawers right about now!I just hope,that the digging goes further,into everything Libs had their sticky fingers into all these yrs.Dig into wheat board,cbc(likely lots of nepotism etc there,military,EI..and the list goes on.If the Cons dig long enough,maybe they will finally bury the Libs for a long,long time.The stench coming off this party is getting stronger every day.

  10. Am I the only one who gets desparately depressed at seeing this malfeasance uncovered and none of the players doing serious jail time?
    When you see criminality at the top go unpunished what faith can you retain in the justice system when it appears to have 2 tiers.

  11. “disgruntled Liberal insiders, both pro-Dion and supporters of his leadership opponents, have been exchanging knowing glances, innuendo’s emails, and philandering phone calls, all to the effect that time has come to seek out a strong consensus-building Liberal with the kind of hands-on leadership qualities that can handle the challenge that befits a man who has won three successive majority elections: Jean Chretien”
    ROTFLMAO now this is like watching two warring cime families in the sydicate liiking for a new boss and hoping to spring Gotti from a jail cell.
    At this point in time the real debate between Libranos is whether Cretien is a legal liability as a civilian to a party (political crime syndicate) under investigation for a decade of criminal malfeasance…maybe they figure if he’s opposition leader he can’t be called to give testimony…lol đŸ™‚

  12. Stephen Harper could get his majority government in the NEXT election- that all depends on how many people from the previous government find themselves behind bars, (and how many millions of stolen taxpayer dollars are recovered).
    Way to go, Steve Janke!

  13. APRIL FOOLS!!!!
    If it were true I would salivate at the thought of Mr. Chretien re-entering politics.
    Ben Mulroney facing of against Justin Trudeau would also be fun to watch.

  16. Great post Steve
    “…As we wait for an inquiry to begin into the RCMP pension scandal, there are few specific details into just how the RCMP mismanaged the pension. On one specific aspect of the Auditor General’s report, I happen to have quite a bit of information, all stemming from my investigation of Abotech, the firm run by former Liberal MP David Smith…”
    The RCMP pension scandal has dropped into Mr Harper’s lap with sublime timing – the fruit falls when its ripe. The investigation – 8 or so weeks doing it Stockwell’s way – and then Harper releases the results – calls for a vote of confidence giving the gov’t back its power to compel witnesses – the gov’t falls or, if it doesn’t, Mr H goes to the G-G and says “Canadians want an investigation to restore confidence in the RCMP – I can’t do that withou a majority and the proper tools and powers” – either way the Country goes into an election and the ISSUE … is, once more, Liberal corruption – the RCMP and the Chretienites – the RCMP Quebec slush fund (Gomery) that whole slew of RCMP INVESTIGATIONS in which no Liberal has done jail time.
    RCMP-Liberal corruption has the legs to push the environment, the buget, and everything else that the Opposition has been spinning since Jan 23-06 right out of sight.
    And an election fought over this issue will give Mr Harper a SWEEP. The Liberal backrooms are going to be very, very scary places these next 2 weeks.
    God Bless Canada
    gmm
    Toronto

  17. Just a question. Is it not this week auditor-general Fraser is to release the report on the money stashed in “foundations” by the Liberal’s?

  18. jdill…you spout that same kind of spin that the Libs keep spitting out…it is getting really tired.
    The only drawback to this all being revealed are the numbed masses:
    …”one more scandal?,,so what!…let’s watch Canadian Idol”

  19. Anyone expecting for any serious MSM investigation into the Abotech – RCMP or other Liberal Government corruption issue is delusional.
    More than ten years of corruption was taking place under Liberal administration and where were the MSM journalists on that front.
    Aligning themselves for Liberal patronage appointments and jobs?
    Whither Susan Murray, Maria McClintock, Munson and those perhaps still waiting in the wings for a Liberal resurrection?
    Willful blindness or enabling?
    Don’t expect too much from MSM folks.

  20. Cripes , who needs coffee when the first thing you see in the morning is thas Bourque headline …

  22. Pierre Bourque has pulled off some good April Fool’s jokes.
    That aside…good work, Steve Janke!
    It will be very interesting to see how the fingers spread out from this.

  23. Let us not forget, this corruption of our national police force started under Brian Mulroney, when he appointed “Yes” man Norman Inkster to the top job in the Force.
    The RCMP are beholden to the Laws of Canada, the Prime Minister is not their boss. Mulroney was the first PM to forget this. They are supposed to be in a position to arrest even the PM, if necessary. Mulroney broke that tradition, and Chretien and Martin were glad to carry on with the new era, where the RCMP acted as the personal police force of the Dictator in Ottawa.
    There was an excellent book about this by Paul Palango, written back in the early 90’s, before Chretien got his hands on the reins. Palango traces political corruption way back, to Liberal governments in the 1950’s, and reports some very suspicious activity by, among many others, Hamilton mayor Vic Copps, whose daughter we all know and love.
    Canada is a small country,population and influence wise, and her terminally naive citizens have always had, IMO, too much faith in the “Powers that Be”.
    Now, our last icon of forthrightness and virtue is about to be sullied by the truth. Hope the current government has the cojones to stay the course, and root out corruption, even if it leads all the way to the Royal Family, Paul Demerais.

  24. Watching CTV Question Period now…Oliver is spinning this scandal away from the Liberal government (which precipitated it) to an internal RCMP problem….his CTV partner in partisan spin Jane Taber is “grilling” Stock Day as if this scandal happened on his watch…NO WHERE in the entire CTV segment was it mentioned that Zacc was Chretien’s brass monkey boy overseeing political ops in the RCMO or that it was the Liberals who started the process of putting their cronies in all administrative areas of the RCMP ( which was what precipitated the mismanagement of force funds).
    Gott say I am now convinced CTV is a wing of the Librano crime syndicate.

  25. *****more fun: Maggie Trudeau vs. Mila Mulroney*****
    I think maggie has a crotch…ahhh, leg up on Mila

  27. Hey, there is one person who will not vote for the Conservatives, his name is DANNY WILLIAMS, BLOWBAG EXTRODINAIRE. He’s running around the country, taking out ads against Harper.
    He can go ahead, he and his province are the big losers. Provinces who take from equalization in the worst of times and refuse to give in the good times, as the program dictates, do not deserve respect.
    Danny boy can trot off whistling “I’s the Buy”, he’s a legend in his own mind but, he can’t have his cod cakes and eat them too.
    Every now and then there’s a fool such as Danny.

  28. CPAC is now showing the Public Accounts Committee meeting featuring the RCMP issue…

  30. I’ve only got a minute, but let me throw out a couple of things, and maybe I can get back to it later.
    Now that Vito is on ice the tectonic plates in Canadian organized crime are shifting.
    Vito was a very moderating influence. Not long ago a lot of people could be held in check simply by Vito wandering down the aisle in the Pharma Plus and exchanging a word for a moment.
    Now those days are over, and so if a guy wants to get his f**cking money, Vito is not there to tell him, “Give it a pass.”
    Pension funds may be the most traditional racketeering operation that the Mafia enjoys. Just think of the US Teamsters Union pension fund. Hell, in Milwaukee made mafiosi ran the place.
    Corrupting law enforcement is the first thing that the mob reaches out to do. When you have them in your pocket the door is open.
    You can’t think of the Bonannos just in terms of Alphonso and Vito. You have to realize that there are dozens of capos, possibly hundreds of made soldiers, each with his own crew that could be extremely large.
    The big guys never have to see each other face to face. A messenger is dispatched, and whatever exchanges are needed take place outside the light of public scrutiny.
    When Alphonso was installed to be the management end of the Liberals’ racketeering enterprise, because of his offices Canada is now involved in construction projects and labor kickbacks in other countries besides Canada. These are legal contracts that have the weight of Canadian law behind them, that are commitments to these projects in other countries.
    The FBI is making real headway in the fight against the Mafia in the US. However, Canada is an open opportunity for these guys, and they are now so intertwined with the power structure that it will take a huge effort to reduce their influence.
    Remember, the Bonannos are a very large organization in Canada with lots of secret influence, and contacts with virtually every other criminal organization in Canada. And the pension fuds are where they get their money to launch huge commercial projects from which they profit in a host of ways. That’s how they built Las Vegas.
    I apologize.. this is very inadequate, but I’m up against the clock.

  33. JMorrison
    I hate to agree with your statement, but it couldn’t be more true. I don’t know what it will take for people to stop voting Liberal. I just don’t understand……

  35. Janke has a much larger brainstem than I do but the upshot seems to be that there is some evidence the Libranos may have been stealing mountie’s pension money. Via their usual modus operandi of setting up shell companies that submit fake invoices for doing non-existent work.
    And that the alleged kingpin, David Smith, after losing his seat in last election, endorsed M.Dion and susequently took a patronage job with M. Dion.
    And know the lid on this fetid can of worms may be blowing off.
    Harper’s mind must be swimming.
    (P.S. Buffalo Bean, thanks for the heads up that the Chretien redux thing is a Bourque April fools joke. I don’t have to fill that prescription now.)

  36. Looks like Scott Brison is already trying to throw the bloodhounds off the scent regarding any involvement with Abotech while he was Minister of Public Works and Government Services. Like a four year old trying to divert attention to someone else.
    “Harper’s a bully, charges Brison
    That’s not all MP says he’s meanspirited and picks on poor”
    poor Scott
    http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/568097.html

  37. Wonder how Steffie’s visit down on the farm in Sask.went??Any updates?Did any of you good Sask.pipples attend?

  38. So Brisons involved in someway,directly or indirectly,but certainly in some form of cover-up once again? Oh joy,I can’t wait to hear him say “misappropriate’instead of “STEAL” as he justifys liberal corruption once again.The beauty of it all is he was such a suckass for Martin & now is Dions boy toy.

  39. One could feel some sympathy for the porkwads getting their togas in a twist about their own members dipping into their pension fund, (after they have retired from the ‘FARCE’- of course).
    But I do not expect any of these flakes to comment on the 111 people who have DIED in Police custody over the past ten years. (And, when the time comes to recruit the GESTAPO, you know where they will come from!)

  40. “i know people who would vote liberal even if the party was removing the furniture from their own house.”
    I know people who vote Conservative (or Sask party – it’s the same thing) even after the Devine government.

  41. I suspect the Liberals will want to prevent a full review of other aspects that could be related such as procurement practises of the RCMP in recent years. It was strange to see the RCMP engage in what appeared to be a sole-source procurement of an Italian Piaggio Avanti P-180 executive aircraft in 2003 – the rest of their fleet is very utilitarian, this aircraft is not. It would be interesting to find out if it was directed by Alphonso, Zacc, or both….

  43. exile,
    “I know people who vote Conservative (or Sask party – it’s the same thing) even after the Devine government”. The Devine governemnt lost 17 years ago you moron. Pathetic loser socialist grasping at straws.

  44. “exile,
    “I know people who vote Conservative (or Sask party – it’s the same thing) even after the Devine government”.”
    Albertaman: “The Devine governemnt lost 17 years ago you moron.”
    I am aware of that. My point stands. I have personally met and talked to people who worked for the Conservative government under Devine and work for the Saskatchewan party now.
    “Pathetic loser socialist grasping at straws.”
    Well, yes, I am a socialist and, by your lights, I am doubtless a loser. I am not, however, a moron, nor do I use that term of anyone. Neither am I “grasping at straws”. “Grasping at straws” in aid of what? Did you think I was defending the Liberal party? No socialist would do that!
    However, you don’t argue. You don’t debate. You hurl childish and offensive insults. And you call us stupid!

  45. exile,
    Debate what? Socialist like you have nothing to contribute to society other than be a dead weight for progress and prosperity. If I am need of a boat anchor I will let you know.

  46. Socialists cannot exist in any society without capitalists to create the jobs and the wealth. Then socialists complain that those who work harder or smarter are “unfair” so should support their ideologies of poor me – give me my share and a share of yours and yours and yours so we can all be “equal”.
    That is why doctors and other professionals would rather sweep streets in Cuba. They all get paid the same. Rewards laziness and discourages ambition.

  47. …umm, thought this posting was about the RCMP scandal.
    Greg Weston has a report on it also:
    The good news is the Mounties were not directly taking Canadian taxpayers for a musical ride.
    The bad news is these high-ranking leaders of Canada’s national law-enforcement agency were paying for their luxury golf retreat by sucking funds from the pension savings of the 26,000 dedicated men and women under their command.
    Worse, most were connected to the RCMP board specifically entrusted with ensuring the Mounties’ pensions funds are protected and prudently administered.
    http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Weston_Greg/2007/04/01/3887644-sun.html

  48. Re: Socialists
    Abe Linclon said:
    That labor is prior to and independant of captial. Capital is only the friut of labour, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
    That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprize.
    Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work deligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own will be safe from violence when built
    You can not strengthen the weak by weaking the strong.
    That is why socialism is a fraud

  49. Here’s a story about Paul Martin’s CSL ship that was caught with close to 200lbs of Cocaine on it and yet the RCMP did nothing and defending the Martin’s by insisting the drugs were planted on the Cargo Ship.
    Good luck trying that scam at Niagara Falls when 2 lbs of weed is foound in your car, juts make sure you have the same lawyer a Paul Martin’s
    CSL company and have connections to RCMP’s
    Zacarrdeli.
    *Authorities in Cape Breton said Thursday that organized criminals apparently tried to smuggle a big shipment of cocaine on a cargo ship named after the prime minister’s wife and operated by his sons.
    Officials at the Port of Sydney found the drugs during a routine examination of the Sheila Ann early Wednesday.
    The 83 kilograms of cocaine were in two duffle bags bolted to the outside of the Canada Steamship Lines vessel, close to the rudder.
    Prime Minister Paul Martin owned the company but transferred control to his three sons last year.
    * Full CBC article here, time for an inquiry into the Liberals control of the RCMP, CSIS,Military,and SCOC judges. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/07/01/smuggle_040701.html

  50. Thanks for that S. Hope exile sees that he/she/it is a dead thing to be cut off from the living and vibrant.

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