With all the criticism levelled towards his government over Adscam, Toronto Tory notices that Paul Martin has his defenders, too.
If you read this article, you’ll see that he [John Bragg] said..
1) “Mr. Martin could still rise above the issue”
2) “This would not be seen as a national scandal but as a fallout from Quebec’s distinct political scene”
…and a direct quote:
3)”I don’t see how [the testimony] is an election issue … It’s an issue of the former administration.”
Of course you don’t think it’s an election issue, John. After all, the government’s been good to you. So good, in fact, that the government paid you $1,600,000 in 2003 through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency .
The purpose of ACOA, of course, is to provide funding to companies in Atlantic Canada that need funding to engage in research and create jobs. Oxford Frozen Foods was one of those needy companies. So needy, in fact, that they could afford to make significant donations to Paul Martin’s leadership campaign in the same year that they received massive ACOA funding. This article includes them in the “$50,000 club”, but I seem to remember them donating more. Unfortunately, the list of donors seems to have vanished.
The emerging pattern of vanishing government data was discussed here a few days ago. It all rather reminiscent of the way that the Elections Canada contribution search tool was “reconfigured” after bloggers started to publicize the charities and municipalities donating to the Liberals. (Bound By Gravity has an unofficial version available, made possible by the dedicated work of a number of private individuals.)
One can still dig up some of Paul Martin’s leadership campaign discslosures through Google caches and web archivers, and Mr. Bragg’s name shows up here.
Capturing some of this stuff before it’s scrubbed for good sounds like a project for someone who has free time this coming weekend. (Not me, I’m on my way out of town.) To be on the safe side, we should probably grab this data before it goes *poof*, too.
Biased headline of the day award: Globe Online Breaking News
UPDATED AT 7:22 PM EDT Tuesday, June 7, 2005
“Tory tape trick fell flat, poll shows”
The NY Daily News or Post might be proud. Such alliteration: all that might improve it would be to end “poll proves”.
And this, one must say, tabloidism, from “Canada’s National Newspaper”?
Norman–think about this sort of journalism for your Globe column.
There is no evidence of any tape tampering on the great part of the tapes which in fact do show Dosanjh and Murphy in a very bad light indeed.
Other than journalistic sensationalism (tapes! altered! Nixon! Rosemary Woods! dirty tricks! conservatives!) why is not what the Liberals said and did, and their refusal to explain it (Duceppe was marvelous in QP today and the Liberals were lame), the focus of reporting?
Just, suspiciously, wondering.
To add to the point above: the Globe headline is “Tory tape trick fell flat, poll shows”. Yet the sub-head reads “Respondents slightly more inclined to believe Liberal explanation of affair than version offered by Tory MP Gurmant Grewal”.
So “slightly” equates with “fell flat”?
Fell flat is, from the vertical, 90 degrees. Slightly is, at most, 15 degrees.
Disgraceful journalism.
Mark
Ottawa
This whole Gurmant affair has really bitten the CPC in the ass. Clearly, something needs to change in the inner circle. Sadly i think Harper’s days are numbered.
Disclosure examines how the Martin family has survived and succeeded in the tough and often ruthlessly competitive trade conducted out of sight on the high seas � a world full of tax havens, shell companies and flags of convenience.
http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/030401_csl/introduction.html
Martn, CSL, and more.
To understand how the world of international shipping works, we went to the other side of the world, to a little known South Pacific paradise called Vanuatu.
Vanuatu
Vanuatu is a little known South Pacific paradise.
If you came to Vanuatu by boat from Canada, it would take fifteen days. It is a country with an economy built on coconuts – but now it�s an up and coming player in offshore shipping.
What kind of advantages does Vanuatu have to offer an international shipping company like Canada Steamship Lines?
Vanuatu is known as �flag of convenience� country. That means if you register your ships here and fly the Vanuatu flag, you get all kinds of perks you wouldn�t get in Canada. Corporate taxes are non-existent and you don�t have to hire Canadians if you don�t want to.
[See: Flags of Convenience]
In the international shipping business, the flag you fly determines the wages you pay and the minimum standards you follow. In places like Vanuatu, they�re a lot lower than they are in Canada.
Thomas Bayer
Thomas Bayer owns the private bank that runs Vanuatu�s shipping registry.
Thomas Bayer owns the private bank that runs Vanuatu�s shipping registry. �U.S. or Canadians are going to be paid four times as much as a Filipino or a Portuguese,� says Bayer. �I mean the wage difference is pretty dramatic.�
And so are the savings for the ship owners. Three years ago, Paul Martin�s company, Canada Steamship Lines, bought a half interest in six ships that flew the Vanuatu flag.
The funny thing is, Paul Martin, or his executives don�t even have to come to Vanuatu. Neither do his ships. Talk about convenience: if you complete the proper paperwork Vanuatu will send you a flag in the mail.
CBC Disclosure.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The corrupt Paul Martin at work: The CSL pirate.
Sink Paul Martin and his crew of pirates.
A flag in the mail; not a Canadian flag. Not.
Screwing Canadians: port, aft, and starboard.
Just looking at Pauly’s contributors while saving it to my hard drive, and I noticed Woodward’s Limited donated 1,000.
Didn’t they go out of business, um, 20 years ago or so?
Mark, if you’re talking about the Decima poll, it’s worse than you think. From the story, it seems that this was the question:
“The Liberals say that Mr. Grewal approached them and asked for an appointment. Mr. Grewal says it was the other way around.”
“Whom do you believe more?”
So, the pollsters rather bizarrely focused on the issue of first approach, and not the more glaring issues of who broke the law, or who is more corrupt.
Just because a poll respondent believes Grewal approached first (to spring a trap or otherwise) it does not follow that they’re ”siding with the Liberals.”
I for one believe Grewal approached first, but I sure as hell know it was Dosanjh and Murphy who broke the law.
The poll was conducted by imbeciles and then reported by a media without an atom of critical thinking ability.
Why were there no headlines on this: two IndoCanadians from Vancouver said that the Liberal go-between Kallia was bragging to them at an event on April 30th that Dosanjj had asked him to “bring him Grewal”.
There were 23 or more phone calls FROM Kallia to Grewal. I think what part of NO don’t you understand would be Grewal to the Liberals.
Then Inky Mark said he was being bribed and the media and Liberals made mincemeat out of him. They screamed for proof and called him a liar.
Then the week before the vote Volpe added extortion to the mix by filing bogus charges with the Ethics commish and calling the RCMP to investigate Grewal and one other CPC MP.
I see it that by then Grewal was being pressured on all sides and saw what happened to Inky. He decided to tape the calls and play along to see how far they would go.
He used a mini voice activated cassette recorder and then transfered the recordings to larger cassettes.
When he announced he was being bribed Paul Martin called him a liar and so did the media. So he said he had proof and played about 8 minutes of the English tapes.
I firmly believe he just taped this to prove he was not lying and that would be it. Regain crediblity for Inky as well.
Then the Bloc wanted the RCMP investigation, the media and Paul Martin demanded all the tapes and the NDP wanted Shapiro to look into it.
In my opinion at that point maybe Grewal should have just told them no, I’ve given you enough proof they tried to bribe me and left it at that. But noone would let up on him.
Then, the same week the media called Deep Throat a hero they ripped Grewal to shreds like a pack of hungry wolves.
The message – if you have evidence on the Liberals wrong doing we’re going to shoot the messenger. And they have.
A little street dealer, G, had an escape idea for a Mega Million dealer M.
G recorded the long conversation, not being sure of Mega dealer M.
G did not talk directly to M, but he did with officers of M.
M officers did not agree with demands made by D. D was annoyed and went to the authorities with his recoded evidence of dealing.
Amazingly, the Powers are trying to crucify little Mr. D for clicks on the recording tape, while showing no interest in four hours of evidence pertaining to Mega Millions Mister M.
Life is a true mystery.
73s TonyGuitar
I appreciate you linking to this from your site and The Shotgun. I have posted more on my site today, and I plan to keep it coming.
http://TorontoTory.Blogspot.com