A reader wrote a few days ago asking what this passage alludes to. On Tape 1 about half way through the 2d conversation between Grewal and Kalia (Monday morning), we find this exchange:

Kalia – You (GG) review, this is their need, why would they (PM and UD) deceive.
GG – Ok I will call you and tell you (my decision) later on,ok.
SK – I don’t think they will, he told me again and again. He (PM) promised Dr. (Gulzar) Cheema (consulate in Chandigarh, India) and he’ll meet that commitment after the legal problems are resolved. Cheema also told me that he can not discuss this more than this, he (Cheema) says every thing is OK with him.

I’ve uploaded a jpg file of a longer exerpt that places this portion in context in the extended entry.
There is this news item from the Tribune (India) on an upcoming appointment of former Liberal provincial MLA and federal candidate Cheema to Consul-General of the Canadian Consulate in Chandigarh. I wonder what he knows about this.
Phantom Observer wonders, too.

Continue reading →

I’ve been out of the house most of today, with my only news source Rawlco radio (generally worse than useless), so the one bona fide development I caught upon arriving back comes by way of Angry. The Ethics Commissioner has launched an official investigation into the Grewal tapes. Maybe there is hope that his own discomfort at being used as a bargaining chip in the very tapes he’s investigating will provide an incentive to break from his pattern in acting as an official Liberal party rubber stamp of approval.
A number of people have talked about “tipping points” for the Liberals. Well, I think that’s a pipe dream. You don’t “tip” a leech. But there may be a tipping point for Paul Martin, the final push by those intent on cutting loose the head so the body can slither away to survive.
This is a party that never got a chance to bury their dead from the Chretien-Martin wars. The wounds hadn’t begun to heal before the heavens opened up to pour Adscam on them. And while there may be glee and hope in some quarters that the accusations of tape tampering will save them to fight another day – these people aren’t idiots. They know as well as the rest of us what is on those tapes, and that the Prime Minister has been caught in a public lie. There are now signs of breaks in the ranks.
At a personal level, extended contraversy and dissent is hard enough on a leader – for a micro-manager like Paul Martin, having matters spiraling out of control on a weekly basis has got to be excrutiating and exhausting. He certainly appears out of sorts at times. Then, there’s a longtime habit of deflecting questions (“Did you have lunch with that man?”) directed at him in Question Period to other ministers.
This sometimes works at a tactical level, but as a general strategy, it’s a loser. At some point, a general understands the importance of rallying his troops and leading by example – of stepping into the fray and facing down the enemy come hell or high water, of taking his share of hits like a man.
Instead, Paul Martin uses his ministers as cannon fodder. They have to be tiring of it.
There seems to be more at work than mere lack of moral fibre or personal stubborness – I think there’s genuine fear. I don’t think it’s fear of the opposition, or fear of the media or the public. It’s the fear of a man who hears the unsheathing of a knives – at his rear. The dithering has always been coupled with stammering, and a strong tendency to avoid eye contact when pressed to answer questions. These days the stammering seems more pronounced, the eyes evade a little more wildly. To me – admittedly just a lowly Canadian who sees the PM only in brief television clips – Paul Martin sometimes looks downright spooked.
Then, there’s this Chantal H�bert Star piece on “whispers of rebellion” and a curious passage buried further down the page;

Never in the modern history of the province has a Quebec government been as unpopular as Premier Jean Charest’s; never in living memory have the federal Liberals enjoyed so little support.
Those are the kind of numbers that have government insiders and Parliament Hill observers alike cringing at the notion that Martin’s mettle could one day soon be tested in a real-life crisis involving the future of the country.
Those concerns were compounded by the performance of the Prime Minister in front of senior managers of the civil service earlier this week. Martin’s speech moved part of the audience but its emotional undertones left others uneasily wondering about his frailty

Emphasis mine.
Maybe it’s not my imagination.

This handy primer courtesy of the Blue Maple Leaf;

When Gurmant Grewal first notified the public that he had been offered a cabinet post, the liberal party, including the Prime Minister, denied that anyone had ever talked to Gurmant.
When Gurmant said that he had been recorded his conversations with liberal party members, the Prime Minister changed his story and said that liberal party members were negotiating with Gurmant, but that Gurmant initiated the negotiations. Paul Martin added that at no time did he ever agree to meet with the Conservative MP.
However, the audio tapes clearly show that the chief of staff for Prime Minister Paul Martin said, “The Prime Minister is prepared to talk to you directly both by phone and in person.”
During question period in the House of Commons Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper asked the Prime Minister why he said he was unwilling to meet with the Conservative MP when clearly he was.
Paul Martin answered by repeating his previous lie, that Gurmant initiated discussions with the liberal party. The Prime Minister also said that he gave specific instructions to senior party members that no offer could be given to entice a defection and at no time was the Prime Minister prepared to meet with the Conservative MP. Then Paul Martin ended his answer by saying, “obviously anyone would meet with somebody that was interested in crossing the floor.”
[…]
Paul Martin again changed his story by saying that he would not be willing to meet with the Conservative MP unless he joined the liberal party with no preconditions or offers from the liberals.

Now, go back to the beginning and review the first sentence;

When Gurmant Grewal first notified the public that he had been offered a cabinet post, the liberal party, including the Prime Minister, denied that anyone had ever talked to Gurmant.

There’s a problem that arises when you parse your words carefully to avoid saying what you’re saying…

“You have to be able to say that I did not make a deal. That’s very important. That’s why these kinds of deals are not made in that fashion.” – Ujjal Dosanjh

… you often end up saying it anyway.

A spirited debate in the comments of the “Wells post” from earlier today. Good points made on all sides, with Mr. Wells serving up a little fact-checking on the Sponsorship shutdown timeline at the expense of readers, in response to criticisms of media sloppiness in reporting. Fair enough.
The discussion reminded me of something I read elsewhere, though – a post at Conservative Life from last Friday, in response to Ralph Goodale’s testimony;

One week after Groupaction had it’s sponsorship program contracts frozen by the PWGS; and after the company had been referred to the RCMP for fraud investigation; Mr. Goodale’s department awarded Groupaction more than a million dollars in contracts to do recruitment ads for the Department of Defence.
And they say there isn’t an open competition. Why exclude a company from Department of Defence advertising dollars just because it was featured in the Auditor General’s Report, centered out in Question Period, and under investigation by the RCMP for fraud in sponsorship contracts?

Now, refresh my memory, people. Can any of you recall the scrum with reporters cornering Goodale on this? Were there blaring headlines across the front page of the Globe and Mail? Mike Duffy pontificating on how a government could justify awarding contracts to companies under police investigation?
Me, either. But they listened in rapture to his tale of refusing Chretien’s paltry little request.

I needed a p-word. Get over it. Via Dust My Broom; this quote from NDP aboriginal critic, Pat Martin from the Globe and Mail;

“I’ve gotten a very clear message from first nations leadership and from Liberal cabinet ministers that the money that was intended to be announced May 31 has been redirected to form part of the NDP budget. The government intends to pay for its commitments to the NDP with money that they had already committed to first nations,” he said. “If that’s the case, it’s even sleazier than I had ever imagined.”

I don’t know which is the bigger story here – the daily machinations of the Librano $pending $pree or Pat Martin’s undiagnosed attention deficit disorder.