Recently, someone in Canada made a freedom of information request about U of Ottawa profs Amir Attaran and Errol Mendez. The identity of the person making the FOI request is unknown, and will remain so under Ontario law, but that didn’t stop The Star’s Susan Delacourt and Bruce Campion-Smith from floating, in what was apparently promoted in all caps as a front-page “Star Exclusive”, Attaran and Mendez’s suggestion that the federal Conservatives are guilty of political intimidation:
“It seems like an intimidation tactic,” said Attaran, a frequent critic on the government, notably on the issue of the military’s handling of Afghan detainees.
“The information makes me think it’s somebody who is essentially trying to amass a file on critics of the government,” he said in an interview.
“I have a feeling it’s political.”
Professor Mendes:
“I started thinking, my God, this is a McCarthy-like attempt to politically intimidate both of us.”
The report, titled “Tories accused of digging up dirt on ‘Liberal’ profs”, contains not one shred of evidence that the Conservatives are behind the FOI request – it doesn’t even hint that there is any such evidence – yet the word “Conservative” is used in each of the first three sentences, and nine times in the article; “Harper” appears twice, along with “McCarthy-like,” and “the Prime Minister’s Office.”
There’s been no shortage of anti-conservative smears being published/aired in recent years, but it’s still remarkable that an entirely groundless accusation based entirely on the *feelings* of one of Ignatieff’s Harvard buddies is promoted as front-page “news.”
(h/t Alberta Aardvark)
The toronto star…the real faux news.
This is beautiful, a story with no factual basis leading in a Liberal National Newspaper the Star and on the internet blogs about two crybaby Liberal Professors trying to smear the Conservatives over their Liberal bias and after the Liberals went looney over the prospect of false news reporting and Heather Mallickmyballs had a Fox news North meltdown in same Liberal National paper, and then the Liberals wanted to change the Canadian National Anthem so it was secular, gender neutral and Bilingual
You can’t make this stuff up, it is pure Liberal lunacy
The Liberals are out of control! again
Well who else could it be? /sarc
I’m willing to bet that the number of FOI requests directed anywhere but at the government itself, and it’s various levels, is pretty small.
But federal FOI regulations apply to many organizations across Canada, here is the list from gov.gc.ca, http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/atip-aiprp/apps/coords/index-eng.asp
And most provinces have their own, here is just the list of colleges that are subject to the Ontario act, http://www.mgs.gov.on.ca/en/infoaccessandprivacy/STDU_109242.html?openNav=directory_of_institutions
I dealt with lots of these in the military, mainly from disgruntled subordinates seeking their performance notes/documents from the previous years, heck they could ask for and receive down to the note pad, or in these days electronic notes kept in personal organizers.
Tempest in a tea cup.
“Tories accused of digging up dirt on ‘Liberal’ profs” – but they repeat themselves.
The self same media outlet that smears Sun media, oh we’re getting use to their fabricated news articles sadly they seem to get away with their blatant fabrications. To report that story with absolutely no proof of the Conservatives being involved crossed a professional line, now some Liberal Non-Partisan Media Expert’s feelings are facts are they?
Digging up dirt on these goofs shouldn’t involve much in the way of investigative spadework. Reading their published works ought to provide more than enough dirt for any purpose fair or foul.
Still, I expect the Ontario government bureaucracy won’t keep us in suspense about the identity of the eeeeevile FOI requestee, they’ll surely leak it just as soon as the Red Star has worked up a good head of outrage steam.
Is it possible that Canadians will find that the Liberal party has been delivering brown paper bags to these two academics for services rendered on behalf of the Liberals?
Just asking and not making any unfounded accusations like some political pundits, but since it has happened before with the Liberal party rewarding their operatives with taxpayers money as in Adscam, maybe it is happening again – after all the Liberal operatives that were involved in Adscam and Martin threw out of the party have been invited back into the party – maybe for this sort of work given their experience. That is not above credulity is it?
Hmmm….you can only be digging for dirt if you are
1) Looking in places not normally looked in….ie garbage cans
Or
2)Somewhere there really is dirt.
So what these guys are saying is they dont like having questions asked about them even though they work in an institution that has these FOI rules applied to it.
Boo hooo….if he really wanted to be transaparent he would release the data full stop.
Of course emails done on University equipment that pertains to non university matters is one issue. The fact that he is likely co-ordinatibg with his good buddy Michael Ignatieff is another, and lord knows what he has in there about work on Baby Khadr. Mid you he did act as his lawyer so likely covered under attorney client…..or did he just intervene as an interested oxygen user?
This is right up there with the CBC using ‘some speculate’ and ‘many wonder’ as sources.
Sue the bastards for slander!
Charlie Angus ( NDP-Wherever) has just asked the CRTC to enforce their mandate and control media that broadcasts “false news”.
Perhaps they should start with The Red Star.
Susan Delacourt … who cares?
“contains not one shred of evidence ”
Duh !! They are journalists for gawd sake!! What do you expect them to do, report facts?
Although critics disparage his tactics, none have refuted his central accusation ie. the US State Department was filled with card carrying members of the Communist Party taking marching orders from the Kremlin. Mainly because the NKVD and KBG archives confirm McCarthy’s allegation.
Furthermore, the US Senate censured McCarthy for (wait for it!!) encouraging a federal civil servent to breach his oath of confidentiality (ie become a whistleblower).
Furthermore, who was legal consel to the Senate UnAmerican Activities Committee? Why young Bobby Kennedy (Roy Coen was part of lil Bobby’s staff).
A couple of useless liberal tools who must have a lot to hide, but then again it really is not news. It does not matter who made the legal request, since they were within their rights to do so. Such a pathetic attempt to manufacture news; it is no wonder that they continue to lose readership.
Jonathon Kays thoughts on the drive-by:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/02/11/from-the-toronto-star-possibly-the-lamest-front-page-exclusive-in-the-history-of-canadian-journalism/
(via NNW)
I also noticed a name I saw from an article brought up by Warren Kinsella a few weeks ago: heather macivor.
Here’s the article:
http://www.thestar.com/iphone/news/insight/article/922225–fear-and-loathing-in-ottawa
Sounds like a vast left-wing university elite conspiracy to me. Brought to you by the toronto star – your official left-wing conspiracy sponsor.
I did link to Jonathan Kay’s article in my post, Gord, but it certainly deserves another mention. I also recommend that SDA readers check out some of The Alberta Aardvark’s recent posts – this one, for example – about what passes for journalism at the Star and CTV and other putative “hard news” outlets.
As Norm has mentioned, McCarthy was right.
The Venona Cables prove much of it.
This is the same guy from the Law dept at UofO that supplied some of the witnesses that help Maher Arar win his Financial-Jihad lawfare case and got $10.4 milion Tax-free.
Now this guys Law dept. just happens to get money from the Arar’s via a Human Rights scholarship to fight for just and Human Rights in canada.
Oddly though, when CAIR’s Dr.Sheema Khan gave evidence at the Arar Enquiry about the rampant Islamophobia in Canada she had not told the Judge that CAIR had ties to funding hamas via the Holy Land Charity. She also didn’t tell the Judge that she crusaded for Shariah Law in canada with Dr.Elmasry from the CIC.
What are the odds that the same person that supplies witnesses in a $400’000’000.00 lawfare case ends up receiving some of the settlement money for the same law Dept. they work at.
Now the Lawyers and CAIR are waiting for Omar Khadr to come home and launch another Tax-fruad jihad scheme to extort money from taxpayers and it’s Tax-free.
%10’000’000.00 buys a whole lot of Jihad training camps in B.C. .
Remember the Squamish-5 terrorism in Toronto via a Truck-Bomb , they had a Training camp in B.C., the Sikh Terrorist for the mass slaughter of 240 canadians executed in from B.C. .
Hmmmmmmm, the islamists must love canada because the Police fear arresting Muslims for jihad , and now Barbara Hall has embraced the Creeping Shariah Law in schools and the workplace.
BTW
Ottawa was the city where CAIR was at a Conference to discuss the Muslim Shared-Nationality with islam and Canada. The idea was to give Muslims a special status as Citizens of Islam and then Canada.
One Liberal M.P. was there to endorse it and yet had denied during his Election victory in Mississauga that it was a victiory for Islam .
CAIR-canada was also at the Muslimfest in Miss. and had a workshop to tech youth about Jihad for allah to make canada a caliphate under Shariah Law.
Dr.Khan has now tried to run from her ties to hamas and the HLF Charity case by the FBI that expose canadian funds diverted to Nihad Awads CAIR-USA to funnel to the HLF.
The only reason i can guess for why the Goverment and CRA don’t go after Maher Arar and CAIR’s Sheema khan is because Arar was a double-agent used to collect Jihad information while in Syria.
Arar was denied entry to the USA and only Jordan would take him in from Tunisia’s flight by himself to JFK aiport. It was in Jordan that Bounty hunters nabbed Arar to be sent back to his homeland of Syria for a Military trial as a draft-Dodger. He was NOT grabbed in the USA from the streets and sent to Syria to be tortured.
We were victims of a tax-fruad scam or Arar was a double agent and his $10 million was the pay-off.
“………This hyperpartisan chill descended on the federal bureaucracy years ago —………”
With Justice Canada, Solicitor General and Attorney general’s offices continuing to spout Brady Foundation junk science and Environment continuing to spout Suzuki/IPCC non-sense…..I didn’t really notice.
Did anyone else????
Over at the Star I did love reading this from Macky Avelli in the comments though:
So what does the Elections Canada Data Base have on these two profs ?
Here’s some of what you’ll find:
2007, Amir Attaran contributed $400 to the LPC
2008, Amir Attaran contributed $200 to Michael Ignatieff leadership contestant
2007, Errol P. Mendes contributed $962.56 to the LPC
2008, Errol Mendes contributed $1,064.28 to the LPC
Amir Attaran is also an immunologist and is on the Board of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Even at the CMAJ, many of the editorials he writes are reflexively anti-conservative.
This one on the Listeriosis outbreak prompted the head of the Canadian Medical Association to distance himself from the editorial.
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/179/8/739?ijkey=d6211e50756716a586d500b0838a910ccefaf7b6&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Also, Errol Mendes is not that popular a professor as seen on “Rate my Professor”. One student wrote “Condescending, pompous, arrogant arse. Name drops and thinks he wrote the Charter single-handedly. Is about as open to questions as the Spanish Inquisition. He’s a teach-yourself kind of prof.”
I find it ironic that people accessing the freedom of information act can remain anonymous.
I’m also troubled by the large number of middle eastern professors in Canadian institutions. Not only are students bombarded with left-wing idiology, they also get a dose of pro-islamic misinformation. We just can’t win.
Self-promoting academics who are unable to get attention otherwise – like say, by publishing some ground-breaking research. Sad reflection on the so-called intelligensia nowadays. Attaran’s monomania concerning the afghan detainee issue would border on the psychologically unstable if it weren’t so pathetic and juvenile. Ever notice that you don’t hear politically motivated drivel from academics in the useful disciplines, like engineering, science, accounting, informatics, etc… only from those in areas which don’t do anything to advance the human condition (and in some cases actually degrade it – I’ll let you guess which ones those are). The lack of self-awareness displayed by Mssrs Attaran and Mendez is breathtaking for supposedly learned doctors.
You expected something different from Allen Rock’s University of Zero?
Valencia, CMAJ has been that way a really long time. Just another quasi-governmental money vampire that needs a stake through it.
Not a shock to see this Attaran dork is on the board.
Its like I said, if its dirt you’re after you need look no farther than their own published thoughts. Plenty dirt there. It would be nice, if they run true to Liberal form with the brown bags, that this FOI request uncovers it. That would be sweet indeed. Caught with hands in cookie jar to the shoulder.
“Recently, someone in Canada made a freedom of information request”
Maybe it was a confidant of the professors that made the FOI, so they could then feed the story to the media.
It is an election year after all.
Heather Mallickmyballs!!!
Now that is funny!!!
….and she is ugly!
Anybody else wonder how these bozo’s found out about the requests?.. Strange.
BREAKING NEWS
Michael Ignatieff kills litle boys dog!!!
My son was out walking his dog when it was struck by a car. I didn’t see it happen but I have a feeling it had to be Michael Ignatieff. My son was very clear that it was a car that hit his dog and Ignatieff owns a car so I don’t see how it could have been anyone else.
I forgot rock ran the U of O.
If you think Attaran and Mended dont know who has mad the requests already you fooling yourself. For sure Rock has passed on the name, despite the rules.
Attaran knows who it is, and the requests likely come from someone connected to the con party. But so what. You take public money, you are subject to the rules of transaparency. Imagine the horror Attaran would react with if the givernment started evaluating FOI requests saying, well I can answer the first one because I think the motives are noble but I cannot answer the second one because the motives of the requestor arent nice.
Professor of law……bwa ha ha, he doesnt even live up to his own ethics.
I have this “feeling” that a popular right-wing lady speaker with the initials A.C. was told to curb what she had to say by a mucky-muck high up in U of O f O, because of her political leanings, and I have this “feeling” that intimidation and violence were used to shut down her speech . . .
. . . wait a minute . . .
“I don’t need to research a story if I feel its about something bad”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF3hbPtCttc
Perhaps it’s time for thousands of Canadians to file FOI requests for that exact same information, just to annoy and “intimidate” these profs a little more? Perhaps to remind them that they work at our pleasure, not theirs.
More on Ardent Amir here–he’s been out to get the gov’t for quite some time.
Mark
Ottawa
Susan Delacourt has never gotten over sacrificing any shred of credibility or dignity as she lay in an all you can eat salad bar for Paul Martin Jr. and his pathetic “board”. Finally, she had arrived, she was going to be the scribe of record for the “juggernaut”, and the transformation of Canada. As it turned out, he was a jug of f*ck all, and quickly relegated to Joe Clark status in the pantheon of Canadian PM’s, i.e. the bottom of the barrel. Even worse for the Delablob, Keith Boag was further up their arses than she in any case, so she had failed in a doomed mission.
That kind of humilitation, coupled with the realization that you have the foresight of dryer lint can be a little hard on one’s self image.
Well if these two were in government it is what they would be doing… But not part of something like a FOI but more a clandestine state communication intercepts, full investigation.