More Hands Found in Harper's Deep Pockets

In 2007, knowing that they couldn't ride Adscam forever, the Harper government put our tax dollars to good use, by hiring a private investigator to dig into the Liberal's polling expenses.

However, the firm he hired did not uncover the results he was hoping for.

An independent investigator hired by the Harper government to look into past Liberal polling practices has wound up shining an unfavourable light on the Tories' penchant for polling. Daniel Paille notes that the Conservative government has commissioned more than two polls per business day, a figure he calls "quite astounding."

His report shows that the government spent $31.2 million on opinion research in the last year - more than any previous year and almost twice the $18 million spent on average during the Liberal years. Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Paille, a former Parti Quebecois cabinet minister, last April to conduct a probe of federal contracts for public opinion research between 1990 and 2003.  The objective was to determine whether a judicial inquiry into the previous Liberal government's polling practices was warranted.

Since it cost taxpayers $610,000 for the report, should there not have been a judicial inquiry into the Harper government's polling practices? Of course there should have been, but the whole thing got swept under their lumpy rug.

To avoid such dangerous transparency dinging them again, the conservatives limited their polling and instead hired a rash of "consultants" who do everything from monitoring the internet to "advising" elected officials.

And to keep them all employed, they create offices with lavish titles, making it appear that they are doing wonderful things on behalf of Canadians.  Unfortunately, many are not working at all.  Like the Appointments Commission:

Canadian taxpayers have shelled out more than $1 million for a federal appointments commission that has no commissioners and hasn't overseen a single appointment in four years. In fact, it isn't even supposed to exist.  Stephen Harper created the commission in 2006, and promptly scrapped it in a huff.  Yet the spending continues, and indeed the commission lives on, despite serving no apparent use.

In 2010 they were actually asking for a budget increase, despite being a phantom commission.

Harper's longtime friend Bruce Carson, was awarded $5 million to study something or other, though his studies appear to stop at escorts. 
 
The ethics czar had 50 pending ethics violations waiting to be investigated when she was paid $500,000 to just go away.

Recently another bogus office was uncovered by Greg Weston. 

A federal agency created by the Harper government with great political fanfare in 2008 is costing millions of dollars to achieve pretty much nothing.  The Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board has just about everything a budding government agency could want.  So far, it has spent over $3.3 million for new offices, computers and furniture, well-paid executives and staff, travel budgets, expense accounts, board meetings, and lots of pricey consultants.  All that's missing is a reason for it to exist at all.

The Harper government had already spent through the almost $9 billion surplus of EI funds, so there is nothing left to invest. That hasn't stopped the bogus board (run by Tradex) from demanding bigger offices. Guess where the surpluses went?

The conservative base allows this man to get away with anything.  Had the Liberals done this, they would have been all over it.
 
A columnist for a Western paper once wrote a piece praising Harper for not appointing staff based on patronage.  I promptly reminded him that the Harper government had just set a new record for patronage appointments, even beating out Brian Mulroney.  He demanded to see my sources.  After providing them, he never contacted me again.
 
Maybe it does just come down to the size of their brains.

Conservative John Duncan Decries Corruption on Reserves -- I mean Duncan Involved in Corruption on Reserves

Murray Dobbin has an excellent piece on Rabble: John Duncan: Another Conservative hypocrite

In it he reminds us that in 1995, then a Reformer, Duncan raised holy hell because of an incident on a Metis reserve, he claimed was supported by the Liberals, despite the fact that they had already dealt with four years prior.

Duncan denounced the Metis group as "a haven for patronage, cronyism and grossly irresponsible spending."

Now Duncan is front and centre in the Bruce Carson scandal, that involves "patronage, cronyism and grossly irresponsible spending". Do as we say not as we do.

Harper refused to discuss Carson during the debates, and I can see why.

Why are the RCMP so Good at Routing Out Michael Ignatieff's Facebook Friends, But Can't Spot a Criminal at 50 Feet?

During the Maxime Bernier scandal, when he left sensitive documents in the apartment of his girlfriend, an ex-biker chic, the media focused on the sex angle.

What they should have focused on was her criminal past and why she was granted access to our foreign minister. Harper allowed the RCMP to take the blame, but given his control, it's rather doubtful that he didn't know who she was.

Now in the words of Yogi Berra, "It's Deja Vu all over again".

Bruce Carson was granted unprecedented access to Stephen Harper, despite a criminal past that included ties to money laundering.

Convicted fraudster Bruce Carson’s past should have raised red flags that he was a security risk to government, even if he may not have been a likely target for blackmail, some former CSIS experts suggest. “Any investigator in my 33-years’ experience, nobody would have recommended to keep that guy. Nobody,” former CSIS intelligence officer Michael Juneau-Katsuya said about Carson being green-lighted for a secret-level security clearance.

A secret clearance is given to many federal employees and is the second-lowest security clearance level. Carson, a former senior aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, obtained a secret clearance despite having been convicted of five fraud charges in the early 1980s and 1990s.

And Harper is not explaining how Carson was given the contract to sell us on the tar sands. Millions of taxpayer dollars.

And worse still why he became the point man on the Afghan file, a place where screening is of the utmost importance.

Stephen Harper now says he never would have hired Carson had he known all the details of his criminal past. But starting in 2007, Carson was a regular participant in daily telephone briefings on Afghanistan involving senior officials from departments such as foreign affairs, defence, RCMP, justice and corrections.

“It was evident to all the departments that he was the main player, Harper’s point man on the file,” said one source familiar with the briefings. “He was given the most sensitive file to work on . . . it’s not like he was working in the mailroom.”

The media has also been focusing a lot on the sex angle, but this is a very serious breech, that could be a threat to national security.

We could ask Harper but we know what he'll say. Absolutely nothing. Or at least not anything that isn't a lie.

Remember May 2. Our last best chance.

Another Questionable Character Penetrates Fortress Harper

Despite screening out "undesirables" at neocon rallies, it would appear that if you are charged with fraud, or convicted of fraud, you will be welcomed with open arms.

A Toronto businessman and self-described campaign volunteer who circulates in Conservative circles is facing a criminal charge for allegedly fraudulent credit and debit card withdrawals — a background that did not prevent him from sitting right behind the Harper family at a rally last week. Snover Dhillon met with Tory MP Patrick Brown, of Barrie, Ont., at an event in the Punjab region of India in January and attended a Tory convention in Halifax a month later, appearing to violate bail conditions set in December that barred him from leaving Ontario.

Where's the RCMP in all this? Did they not check out Carson before he entered the prime minister's office?

Or Dhillon before they allowed him to sit with Harper's children?

Of course not. They're too focused on who might have had their photo taken with Michael Ignatieff.

This is how you it's done:

Stephen Harper is Obviously Lying About Being Unaware of Carson's Criminal Past

Harper's tight control over every single thing in his government, makes it difficult for him to suggest that he didn't know that Carson had a criminal past.

And Carson himself says that Harper's office was well aware of his past and were OK with it.

Bruce Carson was convicted on five counts of fraud three more than previously known, and received court-ordered psychiatric treatment before becoming one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's closest advisers. And his lawyer told The Canadian Press that Mr. Carson disclosed his entire criminal record during a security check that was required to become a senior staffer in the Prime Minister's Office.

Jack Layton says he doesn't buy Harper's line, but the best quote goes to Gilles Duceppe who tweeted that "Harper should have invited Carson to a #CPC rally - then he would have been screened."

I love Gilles Duceppe. He's just spot on all the time.

The Bruce Carson Story Reveals Far More Than Sex

In George Ignatieff's Memoirs, I was struck by a story he told of an altercation between himself and then leader of the NDP, Ed Broadbent.

This is no slight to Mr. Broadbent. He is still one of my all-time favourite Canadian politicians, a list that includes Tommy Douglas, David Lewis, John Diefenbaker and Pierre Trudeau.

Apparently Broadbent was displeased with Canada's failure to help a small nation that would become targeted for genocide. But the NDP leader was looking for a simple solution to a complex issue (how neighboring communities would react, other major powers, etc.) And the way that Ignatieff explained the situation was quite an eye opener.

He asked Mr. Broadbent how we would react as a nation, if foreign visitors showed up at our borders to rescue our Aboriginal people, many of whom live much like those in third world countries.

A similar situation took place in the United States following Katrina. The nation and the rest of the world, caught a glimpse of how many Americans live. Movies and television programs suggest affluence, but these "victims" were "victims" long before the levies broke.

Victoria Salvas writes for This Magazine: Three real reasons the “Carson Affair” is scandalous (none of which involve escorting)

The first thing she mentions is the "shockingly bad state of water quality in First Nations and on reserves".

The Aboriginal population has 1.5 times higher risk of heart disease, a 3 to 5 times higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, and at a 8 to 10 times higher risk for Tuberculosis infection

So what Carson and his girlfriend were doing, was exploiting the poor water conditions for financial gain. I believe that members of the First Nations should have been handling this and reaping any rewards.

She then brings up the horrendous "Indian Act"

Enacted in 1868, as part of the Constitution, the Indian Act gives the federal government exclusive authority to “Indians and lands reserved for Indians.” It also defines who qualifies as an “Indian.” Reports of the Carson scandal note that Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo was about to go into talks to negotiate the termination of the Act when Carson contacted him about the water deal. The day after this, Atleo announced that he would work to abolish the act within five years time. In exchange for help in getting rid of the Indian Act, Carson wanted Atleo’s support in promoting H20 Global Group. The abolishment of the Act was used by Carson as a pawn in getting his deal to go through with the Assembly of First Nations.

Further exploitation.

And of course the third thing to focus on is "influence pedalling", that is currently under investigation by the RCMP. I'm sure had there not been an election on the horizon, Stephen Harper would have handled this scandal in the same way he handles all political scandals that his party are engaged in. With a broom and a rug.

When Harper made his apology to the First Nations for the residential schools, many felt that it was not enough.

Indigenous people seek remedies to a long list of injustices that go far beyond the residential schools' direct and collateral victims addressed in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology this week. The closing of the residential- school door leads down a hallway lined with other doors most Indians know about. The partnership now involves walking down that hallway together.

We can't possibly preach about human rights abuses to anyone else until we deal with them at home.

Why Can't the Conservatives Quit Bruce Carson?

From Calgary School employee to Harper advisor, Bruce Carson gets passed around more than a hooker during shore leave.

Compelling evidence that he was attending climate summits with Jim Prentice.

The minority Conservative government downplayed new revelations Wednesday that a former adviser to the prime minister facing allegations of influence-peddling continued to be called upon by federal cabinet ministers even after he had supposedly left Stephen Harper's office to work for an academic think tank and an oilpatch industry lobby group.

Liberal environment critic Gerard Kennedy said that Bruce Carson's participation as the only non-government official at an April 28, 2009 Washington meeting between former environment minister Jim Prentice and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu was one of several assignments the former Conservative staffer received after supposedly leaving government. Carson was later among four delegates chosen to represent Harper himself at another international climate change summit, five months later, Kennedy said in the House of Commons.

And he was hard up for cash before he went to work for Harper, who turned on the money taps. Literally.

I guess this would be 101.

Harper's Watergate: The Bruce Carson Story

This sounds a lot like the Max Bernier story, when his girlfriend was given lucrative contracts and her mother a patronage appointment.

Will Scandals and Contempt Bring Down Stephen Harper or Jack Layton?

It's promising to be an exciting week with mounting scandals, contempt of Parliament charges and a budget that will try to win favour with Canadians while "victimizing" the poor Conservatives if they go down in defeat.

Look what they wanted to give us but the bad opposition are just in it for themselves, hoping we'll forget:

That they refuse to divulge cost of crime bills, while expecting our elected officials to endorse them.

The mounting scandals from the "in and out" financing scheme and forged receipts, to Bev Oda and Bruce Carson.

The $billion they spent this week to buy our votes. It's enough already.

What puzzles me though is why Jack Layton is still pondering supporting the government. Has he learned nothing? Bob Hepburn says that Layton needs to listen to his elders.

They would tell him they consider the Conservative government under Stephen Harper to be the most right-wing, mean-spirited and dictatorial regime in Ottawa in living memory.

They would also tell Layton the Tories now running Ottawa have damaged Canada’s reputation abroad and at home and are nothing more than “oafs” who are more aligned with the Tea Party in the U.S. than they are with mainstream Canadians.

And they would likely tell the NDP leader that it’s time to stop siding with Harper, as he did in 2009, and vote against the budget with the Liberals and Bloc Québécois, trigger an election as early as May, and campaign hard to defeat the Conservatives.

This government's defeat may be the end of Stephen Harper's political career, but if Jack Layton keeps this government alive, it will surely be the end of his.

Why Does Stephen Harper Only Call in the RCMP When He Gets Caught?

I love Bruce Carson's bio at the University of Calgary.

He comes to the position after more than two decades in politics. Carson served as director of policy and research for the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper when he was leader of the Opposition. In his most recent role as Senior Policy adviser to Prime Minister Harper, Carson has spent the last three years working on policy in both the Energy and Environment portfolios as well as other federal government initiatives.

No mention of the fact that he was working deals for a 22-year-old 'escort'.

Or that he had a criminal past:

The people who hired Bruce Carson knew he had a criminal record before tapping him to serve as the executive director of the Canada School of Energy and Environment.

Stephen Harper had no problem with his criminal past, until the media exposed it. Now he's all muster and bluster.

The disadvantage of Harper's tight control is that he can't deny knowing what is happening under his nose. That nose knows everything, and knew that he was dealing with a crook. In fact he often called Carson his friend.

I just wonder how many other Carsons are lurking about, that we don't know of ... yet.