More Harper Government Secrecy. Welcome to the Purple File

It would appear that Rhona Ambrose's announcement of her own government calling in the RCMP to investigate the suppression of information, was a smokescreen for what was to come.

In fact the RCMP was called in on the recommendation of the information commissioner. And we have learned that the Conservative party use something called a "purple file" to bury information they don't want released to the media.

The launch of an RCMP investigation into a Tory staffer for political interference in access to information has again exposed the secretive practice of flagging sensitive requests for scrutiny by ministerial aides. A report this week by Suzanne Legault, Canada's information commissioner, was highly critical of a so-called "purple file" process at Public Works.

An access request in 2009 from The Canadian Press was tagged sensitive, put into a purple-coloured folder, labelled "media," then handed over to Sebastien Togneri, a political aide to then-minister Christian Paradis. In face-to-face meetings with compliant bureaucrats, and in terse emails, Togneri ordered the release package withheld, then heavily censored, even though he had no legal authority to do so.

We have always suspected such a file, but this exposes the practice.

The commissioner's report laid part of the blame on a "drift" in the "purple file" process, which was set up under the Tories to alert the ministers to potentially embarrassing requests made under the Access to Information Act. At Public Works, that alert function had morphed into a political vetting machine ...

This story is coming on the heels of learning that this government is planning to hike the rates for access to information, again speaking to their secrecy.

What are they hiding?

Rhona Ambrose to Appear on Yuks Yuks. Glad She's Got a Fallback Career

If you missed her performance, or lack thereof, when she was the 'minister of spending money to take our minds of their lack of environmental policies', you can make up for it with Ambrose's new comedy act.

Her best punchline: "our government’s commitment to openness, transparency and accountability.” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ....

She cracks me up.

Yep. With all the bluster she could muster, she's called in the RCMP. Not to investigate forged receipts to get money her party wasn't entitled to, or the 50 alleged frauds that the former, half million dollar richer, ethics czar swept under the rug.

No. It's to investigate a former staffer for secrecy.

In other words for doing his job, because we know that anyone in the 'Harper' government who speaks, is sent to the gallows.

Keep 'em comin' Rhona. I need a good laugh.

But maybe you could explain why your open and transparent government is raising the fee for access to information requests from $ 5.00 to $ 25.00, simply because too many people were unravelling your secrets.

What a farce. Why would any newspaper print this drivel?

Rhona Ambrose: Just One of the Boys

Well she's back. Miss 'book banning', 'climate change denying' 'American corporation loving', Rhona Ambrose, has now been put in charge of denying women's rights.

Bev Oda removed 'equality' from the Status for Women, with an eraser provided by Stevie. Helena Guergis made me want to get a sex change operation, with no desire to share that ditz's gender, so they bring in the big guns.

Rhona herself. The woman who dismissed Ken Dryden's childcare plan, by suggesting that women didn't want to hear about how to raise their children from "some old white guy".

Quite rich considering that Ambrose grew up wealthy, so has no idea what working women need, and she has no children! (Unless you count Pierre Poilievre and John Baird).

The Religious Right must be tickled pink. They loved her before:

Dryden, as social develop­ment minister, was negotiating his national child care plans with the provinces at the time. Her comment received criti­cal acclaim for chutzpah on at least two significant grounds.

The first was that Ambrose used statistics from a Vanier Institute of the Family survey to argue that most young cou­ples would like to have at least one parent stay at home with the children during their first few years, or at least make their own child care arrangements outside the home, rather than put their children in state-run institutions. She likely knew that a Vanier survey was a good arrow to use in pierc­ing Dryden's armour, because he himself was on the institute's board of directors.

... her argument was patently conser­vative — arguing for the traditional family. It struck a blow against the sometimes conventional wisdom that to be "with it" one had to be a Liberal and antitraditional. Particularly galling to many conservatives is the kind of state-run day­care system that would replace parental influence with state indoctrination as a tool for child development. That idea conjures up the Cold War—era, anticommunist imagery of Marxist-dominated state nurseries that allegedly prevailed in the Soviet Union, maintained so that mothers would be "free" to sweep Moscow sidewalks or clean the public latrines all under threat of exile to Siberia and permanent separation from their progeny.

Of course most couples would like to have one parent at home, but the fact of the matter is, they don't make the kind of salary we pay Rhona, so can't afford to. But wow! Right to Marxism and the Liberals supporting only non-traditional families.

Well now Rhona, who is the biggest cheerleader for Canada becoming a corporate run state, next to Stevie himself; claims that women care more about crime prevention than any silly old notion of equality. Pack a Colt in your bra and make the boys a sandwich. That's her plan.

Don't know about Marxism, but can't help thinking Gestapo in this new Conservative gender war.

The fight has escalated with news of cuts to long-standing feminist organizations in Canada in recent days and a Conservative senator’s friendly advice to aid advocates in Ottawa this week that they should “shut the f--- up” or risk further backlash from the Harper government. The Liberals have now counted more than 20 groups that have endured probably fatal funding cuts from the Harper government, most of them devoted to women’s equality or advocacy.

Clearly Ambrose needs to find a new babysitter for her 'kids', because little Johnny Baird had a tantrum and screamed out "Let Freedom Reign". Can't imagine Martin Luther King condoning anything this government does.

I hate to admit it, but I'm actually missing Helena Guergis. At least with her we never expected much, and she didn't disappoint.

Sources:

1. The Pilgramage of Stephen Harper, By: Lloyd Mackey, ECW Press, 2005, ISBN: 10-1-55022-713-0, Pg. 180

Stephen Harper and the Battle of Kyoto

In 2002, Stephen Harper sent out a fundraising letter to the Alliance party members, asking them to contribute, so that he could fight against the Kyoto Accord.

Dear Friend,
We’re on a roll, folks!

But we can’t just relax and declare victory. We’re gearing up for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership. I’m talking about the “battle of Kyoto” — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto Accord.

It would take more than one letter to explain what’s wrong with Kyoto, but here are a few facts about this so-called “Accord”: — It’s based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends.

— It focuses on carbon dioxide, which is essential to life, rather than upon pollutants.

— Canada is the only country in the world required to make significant cuts in emissions. Third World countries are exempt, the Europeans get credit for shutting down inefficient Soviet-era industries, and no country in the Western hemisphere except Canada is signing.

— Implementing Kyoto will cripple the oil and gas industry, which is essential to the economies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

— As the effects trickle through other industries, workers and consumers everywhere in Canada will lose. THERE ARE NO CANADIAN WINNERS UNDER THE KYOTO ACCORD.

— The only winners will be countries such as Russia, India, and China, from which Canada will have to buy “emissions credits.” Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.

— On top of all this, Kyoto will not even reduce greenhouse gases. By encouraging transfer of industrial production to Third World countries where emissions standards are more relaxed, it will almost certainly increase emissions on a global scale. For a long time, the Canadian Alliance stood virtually alone in opposing the Kyoto Accord, as Bob Mills, our senior environment critic, waged a valiant battle against it. Now, however, allies are stepping forward

— eight of 10 provincial governments, and a broad coalition of businesses across Canada

— to help us fight the ``battle of Kyoto.” Jean Chrétien says he will introduce a resolution to ratify Kyoto into Parliament and get it passed before Christmas. We will do everything we can to stop him there, but he might get it passed with the help of the socialists in the NDP and the separatists in the BQ. But the “battle of Kyoto” is just beginning. Ratification is merely symbolic; Kyoto will not take effect unless and until it is implemented by legislation. We will go to the wall to stop that legislation and at that point we will be on much stronger procedural ground than in trying to block a mere resolution.

The Reform Party defeated the Charlottetown Accord in an epic struggle in the fall of 1992. Now the Canadian Alliance is leading the battle against the Kyoto Accord! But we can’t do it alone. It will take an army of Canadians to beat Kyoto, just as it did to beat Charlottetown.

We can’t stop Kyoto just in Parliament. We need your help at all levels. We need you to inform yourself about Kyoto, to discuss it with your friends and neighbours, and to write protest letters to newspapers and the government. And, yes, we need your gifts of money. The “battle of Kyoto” is going to lead directly into the next election. We need your contribution of $500, or $250, or $100, or whatever you can afford, to help us drive the Liberals from power.

Yours truly,
Stephen Harper, MP Leader of the Opposition

PS: The “battle of Kyoto” shows why the Canadian Alliance is so important to you and to Canada. All the other federal parties are supporting Kyoto (Liberals, NDP, BQ) or speaking out of both sides of their mouth (Tories). Only the Canadian Alliance is strong and fearless enough to block dangerous and destructive schemes like the Charlottetown Accord and the Kyoto Accord.

The "Battle of Kyoto". How odd. And I don't know where he got his facts, though it's pretty obvious that he simply made most of it up, rehashing the same arguments to fight against the carbon tax.

But who would have thought that he would find an ally in his "Battle of Kyoto" when he teamed up with the "socialists" to destroy this important treaty. I lost a lot of respect for Jack Layton when I heard this.

Then in October of 2006, Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski filibustered by speaking for almost 2 hours, to prevent the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, from studying a private member's bill to implement the Kyoto Accord.

The following month, then Environment minister Rhona Ambrose, attended an international conference in Nairobi, where she embarrassed herself and us by blaming the whole thing on the Liberals. Despite the fact that the Harperites admitted to fighting hard against any action on climate change. In fact, Stephen Harper had suggested that the whole thing was a hoax. An attempt to squeeze money from developed nations.

The Vancouver Sun gave Ambrose the "Underachiever of the Year" award.

So, when Canada goes to Nairobi to set the world right, we miss the high jump standard of a measly two feet, set by our pledge to meet Kyoto carbon emissions targets. Giving a major address at the UN conference on climate change, Conservative Environment Minister Rona Ambrose eschews stateswomanship and blames those darned Liberals, as if the world cared about Ottawa's parliamentary squabbles.

Ambrose will ensure her government does better than the Grits, by lowering that two-foot-high bar to two inches. Can't miss. Here we go. A thumpa, thumpa, thumpa, and jump! Ahhh shucks. We stumble and fall. Here we are, rated by European environmental watch agencies as 51st in the world out of 56 in the high jump to save the world from globally destructive climate change. And who does our team end up in muck with as we miss the bar? Geez, we barely beat number 52 -- Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan?!

And here we are five years later, and millions and millions of dollars poorer, and we still have no environmental policy. None. Zip, Zilch, Nada!