According to Susan Riley Harper's big caucus meeting was not about planning strategy, but reminding them that they must do as they're told, and no matter how stupid his government's decisions are, they must try to sell them.
According to media reports from their summer caucus meeting, Conservative MPs were back in town this week to "plot the fall agenda." No they weren't.
They were here to socialize at 24 Sussex with their spouses, get their marching orders and their talking points -- and to be reminded, should they need reminding, to shut the **** up, when asked about disquieting polls, the census, rising rates of "unreported crime", the prime minister's personality, or anything, really, outside of the perfidy of their rivals and the marvels of the Economic Action Plan.
Guy Lauzon got the message but kind of screwed it up. After going door to door begging for his job, he reports that 1/3 of Cornwall residents do not want an election.
He does understand that 1/3 is not a majority, right?
He then goes on to suggest the same thing that the delusional Harper is suggesting, that the economy is too fragile to handle an election.
And yet they won't talk about the horrendous decisions to build more prisons for imaginary prisoners and new fighter jets to stave off imaginary enemies.
What were they serving at that "shut the %$%# up" party and will it land them in imaginary prison?
The people of Cornwall were somewhat surprised that Reformer Guy Lauzon did not extend Canada Day wishes.
Can't say I blame him. It's not like his government has given us reason to celebrate. Still it would have been nice if he had at least put in an effort.
"I’ve sent Mr. Lauzon three emails. An initial one, a follow up reminder, and today stating that it’d be nice if he’d join our MPP Mr. Brownell, and Mayor (along with our distinguished City Council) in greeting the more than 20,000 viewers of our fine Newspaper and Radio station a fine Canada Day. Perhaps he’s busy."
"Yeah, he’s busy spending more of our money to send out his propaganda newsletter again… I predict at least 8 pages or more.. probably going to tell us how productive the G20 was (not). But yeah, its disgraceful that he cannot join in, even for the birthday of our country."
"Or maybe he had to fill out one of those “MER” forms or whatever they were, so that he can be allowed by the PMO to greet us with a Happy Canada Day message, since we know he cannot speak for himself…"
I just learned that Jamie Gilcig of the Cornwall Free News will be running against Lauzon for the Green Party, next election. They are very lucky to have this young man. He has created a great newspaper and stays on top of things in his community.
Guy Lauzon is the Reform Conservative MP for the Cornwall area, whose biggest claim to fame is being used as an example of how to disrupt committees and disrespect Parliament, in his party's manual on how to make a mockery of democracy.
In the spring of 2007, he was ousted from his position as the Official Languages Committee chair in a non-confidence vote (by all three opposition parties) for cancelling a scheduled meeting moments before witnesses were to testify. The hearing was being held to examine the cancellation of a Court Challenges Program, to which the government cut funding.
The Conservative government then, following procedures from what the media has dubbed the “obstruction manual", decided not to nominate a new chair, shutting down the committee’s work.
He uses the same running away tactic as member of parliament, so I have no idea why he keeps getting elected. Hopefully, this will be his last crack at wasting our money and time.
I'm doing something a little different with my blog, trying to organize archives, etc. so I'm using this page to link my stories on Guy Lauzon.
Feel free to use anything.
We've got to start preparing ourselves for the next election, by reminding Canadians that Stephen Harper is not the only problem this party has. They are the wrong fit for Canada and really must be put out to pasture, before they completely destroy this country.
There have been so many complaints with the way the Reformers have been handling passport applications. Stephen Harper himself was accused of using the info to compile Jewish mailing lists. Cheryl Gallant read those of her constituents in Renfrew, Guy Lauzon has been accused of gauging the people of Cornwall on photos, and now Diane Finley, has lost those she collected.
So if you're planning a trip out of the country, it's worth the drive to Ottawa to apply for a passport.
MP leaves couple in dark on ID theft Diane Finley offers to help arrange passports, but when info goes missing she doesn't tell them Richard J. Brennan OTTAWA BUREAU December 4, 2009
OTTAWA–Seventy-two-year-old Bill Godlouski and his long-time partner, Donna Dearden, were naturally excited about getting their first passports. The Simcoe, Ont., couple like to shop occasionally in the United States and travel to Las Vegas, and these days that means carrying a Canadian passport or enhanced identification card.
But excitement turned to dread when they discovered that not only had their applications been stolen from a postal terminal but their local Conservative MP, Diane Finley, had known of the theft for weeks and didn't say a word.
"We're worried about identity theft. Anybody can do it nowadays. You got guys out there, my gosh, that can change pepper to salt," Godlouski said Thursday, adding the theft wasn't general knowledge until he went public this week.
Finley, who is the federal human resources minister and MP for Haldimand-Norfolk, organized passport clinics in Simcoe, south of Hamilton, and nearby Dunnville in August.
Godlouski and Dearden, who is also 72, marched right down to the Simcoe public library and signed up. And Finley's office gathered up the passport applications from the two clinics and mailed them off.
Days turned into weeks, weeks into months and not a word came from Passport Canada or Finley's constituency office.
When the retired factory worker could not stand the suspense any longer, he went to Finley's office and discovered their applications were missing.
About 75 passports applications were found in a Canada Post bag along with 85 credit cards and other mail, allegedly stolen by a 28-year-old postal employee from the Gatineau postal terminal. The unnamed man was arrested Nov. 6 and released.
"A couple of weeks ago, I went to Finley's office and said `we haven't got our passports, haven't heard nothing about it.' A gentleman there ... called back the next day and said `You are one of the (applications) that was stolen,'" Godlouski told the Star.
The news floored Godlouski and Dearden, whose immediate concern was identity theft. The couple had turned over personal information, including original birth certificates and a credit card number to pay the passport fee.
"I said `What the heck is going on?' but (Finley's staff) wouldn't tell me nothing. I wasn't getting any damn answers at all," Godlouski said.
A spokesperson for Finley said the minister has known about the missing applications for several weeks. But her office made little or no effort to inform applicants of the situation, save for a sign posted in the small town of Dunnville.
"The minister was aware there was a possibility that some of them (applications) may be missing and she would have found out the same time as the constituency office. ... Mid-October is when the constituency office first heard anything about possible missing passport applications," Ryan Sparrow said.
It was up to applicants to contact Finley's riding office.
"Obviously, this is an issue that was with Canada Post. The documents were in Canada Post's possession and the constituency office has done their best in order to try and get the information out to anyone that may be missing an application," he said.
Sparrow declined to say why Finley and her office sat on the information so long without making a greater effort to inform the people involved.
Canada Post spokesperson John Caines said identification documents such as birth certificates stolen along with the applications have all been recovered and are being held as evidence in the case.
Canada Post has offered the passport applicants $100 each to defray the cost of reapplying and obtaining new documents. It will also pay the cost of registering with an agency that helps prevent credit tampering and identity theft.
"To date, we have had contact with 36 customers and are in the process of reaching out to the remaining 39," Caines said.
"Even though there has been no evidence that we or the police have to suggest that any information was compromised, we're are going to offer the opportunity for these people to register for Equifax Credit Watch, and we will pick up the tab on that as well," he said.
Caines said most of the applications were from the Simcoe area.
Bob Speller, Liberal candidate for Haldimand-Norfolk and former federal agriculture minister, has been pushing Finley to say what she knew when.
Cornwall MP Guy Lauzon has tried to distance himself from the controversy of armed border guards, but an internal report suggests that he should have made this a priority. Unfortunately his only priority appears to be getting re-elected and 'no comment' is simply not good enough.
CORNWALL, Ont. - An internal report warned the Canadian Border Services Agency of potential violence resulting from plans to arm border guards with handguns at a controversial crossing on Mohawk land outside the eastern Ontario community of Cornwall.
The document also cautioned that giving guards guns could further damage the border agency's relationship with local Akwesasne Mohawks, and recommended the agency look "aggressively" at relocating the border office.
The report on the arming initiative, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, was written by the border agency in October 2008, more than six months before the controversial post was closed over the arming dispute.
The Akwesasne Mohawk First Nation covers Cornwall Island, which straddles the Ontario-Quebec-New York state borders. The border crossing was closed in May after guards left their posts following reported threats of violence. Officers stationed at the post were scheduled to be armed with 9-mm handguns the following day.
The crossing has since been temporarily relocated to the Seaway International Bridge, which links the island to mainland Cornwall.
A briefing note, which summarized the heavily censored report, recommended the agency "look aggressively at long-term solutions to the Akwesasne issue including relocation of the CBSA office."
The report outlined some potentially dangerous results from putting guns into the guards' hands.
"Arming officers will not be accepted lightly by some community members, particularly its hardliners, and will serve to aggravate difficulties between the community and the CBSA," the report said.
"Whether the difficulties escalate into outright violence (versus intimidation) and whether they are long term or short term in duration" was considered subject to debate.
The report went on to warn that delaying or cancelling the Cornwall arming could hurt relations between management and staff at the crossing.
Ron Moran, national president of the Customs and Immigration Union, has said events leading to the closing mean officers "can never work at the current location again, armed or unarmed."
The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne has long opposed arming border officers at the crossing, saying it would violate their sovereignty and could lead to violent incidents.
It's unclear whether the government took steps to move the border office before it was shut down.
Christopher McCluskey, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, said in an email Thursday that the federal government decided three years ago to arm border officers at all land crossings.
"The arming of border services officers ensures the safety and security of the community, travelling public and CBSA personnel," McCluskey said.
"As an operational responsibility of the CBSA, they are responsible for the implementation of that decision. Almost all travellers entering Canada at land crossings now do so at ports of entry with armed officers."
McCluskey said arming the officers matches the longstanding practice of the American Customs and Border Patrol.
"This is seen by both countries as an important measure to keep our shared border safe and secure."
Border agency spokeswoman Panayiota Karaiskos said only that the agency is committed to ongoing discussions about the future of the crossing. "The CBSA continues to explore options for a viable long-term solution" to the dispute, she added.
Van Loan has said arming border guards at all posts fulfils a 2006 Conservative Party campaign promise, and that no exception will be made for the Cornwall Island crossing.
Akwesasne Grand Chief Mike Mitchell said he wasn't surprised the agency armed its guards despite being warned of the consequences.
"It leads me to believe this has been the objective and the goal of customs, to find some way to legitimately give (the border guards) leave," he said in an interview. "They've finally achieved their objective to leave here and find some excuse, (so) they wouldn't have to come back."
Mitchell said the Akwesasne people are law abiding but nearing the end of their patience over how the government has handled the dispute. "Nobody here likes where this is being directed to go," he said. "If it's going to have a violent ending it's because they're pushing (us) towards that direction."
Mark Holland, the Liberal public safety critic, said the government "knowingly created a volatile situation" in Akwesasne which could have been avoided had the public safety minister heeded the warnings of his department.
There was a rather interesting story out of Cornwall recently, involving Conservative MP Guy Lauzon.
He has been promoting the fact that the town would be getting a government call centre that would provide 177 much needed jobs to the community.
However, the local media has reported that there is a glitch. Many of the jobs will be given to existing civil servants and for the rest, you have to be bi-lingual.
This isn't really a unique story and the call centre itself will no doubt help to stimulate the local economy, but what I found upsetting was Mr. Lauzon's response to the local media.
When questioned on the bi-lingual qualification he stated that "...Anglos would get their chance to apply for a handful of those 177 jobs, but he didn't know when."
Anglos? Will that be a stipulation? Not Francos, Indos, etc.? Even if the reference was to uni-lingual English speaking, then why not uni-lingual French speaking?
This is not simply a case of being politically incorrect, but speaks to a broader sentiment within this party. From it's earliest inception these Reformers (later Alliance and then Conservative) clearly promoted an Anglo dominated country.
Harper's inspiration when he was cutting his political teeth, was Peter Brimelow, who calls himself a 'white nationalist', but most of the founding members of Reform shared those views. Look at the people who surrounded Stephen Harper in the Northern Foundation, a group formed in part to protest the end of Apartheid in South Africa. Several members were from APEC, (Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada), a pro-active French hate group. These roots run deep.
As Globe and Mail columnist, Lawrence Martin, wrote: "The truculent Mr. Toews is responsible for language policy in the federal public service. He blew his anglophone gasket - Quebeckers will not be overjoyed - in a committee hearing on the Official Languages Act when Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez had the audacity to ask whether, given his duties, the minister should be bilingual."
I know that Mr. Lauzon is bi-lingual, but the insinuation that there will be jobs down the road for Anglos is an insult, and speaks to a broader problem. Canada is a multi-cultural country, and these guys have to accept that, because their attitudes could be breeding racism.
Maybe a little sensitivity training is in order, but don't expect that to happen. Old habits die hard.
Despite all the blather about accountability, the Harper government clearly intends that the rules only apply to the opposition parties, while themselves are guilty of cronyism and nepotism in almost every department, and with almost every MP.
Guy Lauzon engineered a spot for his buddy, Dick Aubry. "August 1, 2008 - The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced the appointment of Mr. Richard Aubry to the board of directors of the National Capital Commission (NCC) for a term of four years."
Dick Aubry was the publisher of the Seaway News, that printed so many photo-ops of the Cornwall MP that some people are now calling the paper the 'Guy Lauzon rag'.
Jim Flaherty gave an untendered contract to a former Mike Harris speech writer and Jim Prentice replaced seasoned land treaty agents with his friends, including his former law partner, when he was minister of Indian Affairs. Tom Lukiwsdki got his buddy with the Saskatchewan Party, Elwin Hermanson, the top job at the Canadian Grain Commission. The list goes on.
However, when the Parliamentary crisis was in full swing and the government shut down, John Baird hastily appointed a few friends that were yet to cash in, adding new positions to the Toronto Port Authority to accommodate them.
This is a story that slipped through with out much notice but on December 22nd two new board members were announced:
Jeremy Adams - a director of government relations for a tobacco company and a past-president of his university's alumni association, appointed January, 2009 by Transport Minister John Baird. He is a long-time Conservative Party member, having worked for Ontario minister Elizabeth Witmer, former Ontario premier Mike Harris and former provincial and current (as of 2009) federal finance minister Jim Flaherty.
Sean L. Morley - A partner in the Business Law section of the Fasken Martineau law firm, appointed December 23, 2008 by Transport Minister Baird. He is a long-time Conservative Party member, and has worked in the past for former provincial and current (as of 2009) federal finance minister Jim Flaherty.
The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure John Baird announced Monday the appointment of a former Conservative party Campaign Manager to the Toronto Port Authority’s board of Directors.
The Port Authority which seems to serve as a continued shelter for Conservative Party insiders was quietly expanded last month without the consultation of the municipal or provincial partners.
Olivia Chow, Critic for Greater Toronto Area issues wrote the minister last December to protest the undemocratic expansion.
“Today it became abundantly clear the expansion was solely intended to accommodate the political agenda of the Conservative Party of Canada and not to serve the interests of all stakeholders close to the issue” said, Olivia Chow. “The Toronto Port Authority is supposed to be governed by a tripartite agreement which Minister Baird unilaterally ignored with this appointment.”
December 5, 2008
Dear Minister Baird,
Today your government locked up the House of Commons and prevented all elected Members of Parliament from tackling the economic crisis ahead of us. I was astounded to learn that on this same day you are proceeding by regulation to change the Toronto Port Authority’s Letter of Patent in order to add two extra members.This is being done without consulting your municipal and provincial partners, even though the Toronto Port Authority is governed by a tripartite agreement.
By unilaterally appointing two extra members, you have seized control of the Board of Directors in a most undemocratic fashion.
According to Susan Riley Harper's big caucus meeting was not about planning strategy, but reminding them that they must do as they're told, and no matter how stupid his government's decisions are, they must try to sell them.
