It is frightening these days in Ontario to keep up a blog with integrity.
The Conservative Party bigwigs have been here to visit - I've seen them come and read the items.Garth Turner continues to stick up for the Canadian in his open webblog where I often post.
I've called my MP's office and got the brush off - but I will be calling her again TODAY and explaining why I am afraid, very afrad.
Garth Turner has big friends and money and HE's afraid and has moved into hiding. I am a sitting target having posted there. I know it is so too.
Please read all this thoroughly and try to digest it. This is the state of Canada today. Totally fascistic and the Conservative Party bully boys are still handling all "national security" issue. You are basically taking your own life in your hands if you criticise them, imho.
Sad to say, but posting publically on this blog is no longer an option until such time as the Liberals have these crooks arrested and EXPOSED.
The party in New Orleans against the SPP, I hope, was a good one when Harper went to pay his respects to the grand scheme of the Neocons.
Until I definitely know that someone is watching my back here in Canada, I am not posting anymore and to me that is a crying shame.
To the Conservatives who come by here and the security agencies, I say shame on you.
This is not the way to spend taxpayer dollars and your children will be ashamed of you. Whoever in Thornhill that drops by using an anonymous ISP to threaten me, I say, you will be sorry in the end when there is no one left to defend YOU and YOUR CHILDREN.
Virginia
posted by Garth Turner on 04.20.08 @ 8:41 am |
Canadian Politics
As this is a current affairs blog, written and moderated by a politician, you have to expect people will be frank and forceful in what they say. Some will be mindlessly critical and blindly political.
Because I am a politician who was re-elected as a Conservative, was kicked out of his lifelong party by the prime minister of Canada, sat for months as an Indie, who 14 months ago joined the Liberal caucus, and so far has survived all attempts on his political life, well, expect a crap storm.
And I do. Regular readers see posted in the long, daily comments sections a variety of opinions, many of them passionately held and sharply critical of me and my colleagues. What you do not see, however, is what I do not post.
I’ve made every attempt possible not to censor what Canadians want to say, but that task grows increasingly difficult. Since I am the only MP who runs a daily blog with a wide-open comment section, the temptation is great for political foes to show up, don a blanket of anonymity and then spew. Most of that, I allow. When it becomes a mere ad hominen dump, shredding me for just being lovable me, and not advancing the argument, the comment is not posted. When it tells me what to do with the various orifices in my body, no post. When it talks about my house, wife, dog, car, there is no post.
But I do aggregate blocked comments and store them by date and IP address. I checked this morning, and currently have 320 pages’ worth which have been set aside in just a few months. Some are massively disturbing, and they’ve been provided to the RCMP and the Halton Regional Police Force. I did so with reluctance and sadness. But when increasingly violent words are used against me by identifiable individuals, well, screw it. Those who abuse digital democracy and turn it into digital bullying need a serious whack.
I might add that after photos of my home in Campbellville were published several times on a Halton-based anti-Garth web site run by local Conservatives, accompanied by email threats to my dog, Cheka, I moved. My current address in the riding is a secret, even from Esther. It’s just a regrettable reality such an action was necessary.
Well, all this is just to alert you that if you send in a comment calling me a dickhead, it will not appear, unless you give a reason why I am a dickhead. And I’d naturally prefer “Honourable Dickhead.” Thanks.
posted by Garth Turner on 04.20.08 @ 8:41 am |
Canada Post seeks bigger subsidy to compensate for free MP mailouts
OTTAWA — Canada Post launched a project last year that tracked the burgeoning number of free mailouts enjoyed by members of Parliament to help bolster the corporation's claims for a bigger government subsidy.
Newly released documents show the project, dubbed Six Sigma, was designed to demonstrate that the post office is losing millions of dollars as MPs and political parties crank up the controversial mailouts.
Canada Post "is now in a position to more accurately quantify the volumes and foregone revenue associated with government free mail," says an internal discussion paper, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
But precise figures on rising post-office volumes and the mounting losses have been carefully removed from the documents, to protect "commercial confidentiality."
Opposition MPs have recently accused the Conservatives of abusing the privileges - and bending the rules - to carpet-bomb ridings with party messages, all on the taxpayer's dime. But the Liberals also acknowledge their own members are not entirely blameless.
Since 1986, Canada Post has received an annual subsidy to compensate the corporation for stamp-free mail sent to or from the Governor General, senators, MPs and officers of Parliament. The subsidy also covers free mailing of materials for the blind.
The initial $14-million annual subsidy was fixed until 2000, when repeated complaints from the post office about an $8.7-million annual shortfall prompted Treasury Board to boost the level to $22.2 million a year.
Cost-conscious postal officials are back again, saying they have proof of more large shortfalls that have grown over the last eight years.
The corporation carefully tracked the number of items MPs sent out to Canadian households through the House of Commons post office over the period January to July 2007.
The project did not try to capture all free mail, such as letters sent by constituents directly to MPs' riding offices. But the results nevertheless demonstrated a dramatic and costly rise in no-charge mailouts from parties and MPs.
A spokesman for Canada Post declined to provide any information about mail volumes, about the Six Sigma project, or about the negotiations with government for a fatter subsidy.
"Volume figures of our customers are proprietary information," said John Caines. "Any discussions we have with our customers, including the government, would be confidential."
But Caines did confirm the post office is pressing for compensation.
"We will be reviewing our findings with the government to establish the actual amount of foregone revenue and come to a resolution as how to deal with that."
Relief will not arrive soon: Transport Canada, which oversees the post office, has budgeted another flat $22.2-million subsidy for 2008-2009.
The internal documents show that the initial $14 million subsidy in the late 1980s was split, with $3 million for materials for the blind and $11 million for so-called government free-mail.
Caines declined to say how the current $22.2-million subsidy is split but if the 1980s ratio held, more than $16 million would be currently earmarked for government free-mail.
The documents also reveal a rise in mail volumes processed by the House of Commons mailroom, from 48 million pieces in 1997 to almost 75 million in 2005.
"Volumes have been increasing steadily year over year," says an internal analysis. "(It) fluctuates depending on number of days Parliament is in session, and whether an election is held in the year."
The House of Commons postal service does not make its annual reports public, and a spokeswoman referred questions about volumes to Canada Post, which has declined to release them.
The secretive Commons panel that polices mail-room rules plans to examine the free-mail policy.
"I absolutely would defend to the death a member of Parliament's right to talk to, communicate with and get feedback from their own constituents," said Liberal MP Karen Redman, a member of the Board of Internal Economy which is reviewing the practice.
"But you don't blanket a postal walk. It's a shotgun approach that I think is being abused."
Tory House Leader Peter Van Loan notes that his party normally uses bulk mail - "unaddressed admail," in post office parlance - that costs less than a penny an item to send. The other parties have confirmed they tend to use addressed "franked" mail, using mailing lists, which costs 54 cents for each piece.
"You do the math on which party is the most cost effective in its external mailings," Van Loan said.
The released post-office records show that in 2004-2005, an estimated 65 million pieces of cheap bulk mail moved through the House of Commons mailroom, compared with 9.4 million pieces of addressed regular mail in the same period.
Liberal MP Garth Turner has claimed the Tories posted between 30 million and 50 million pieces of bulk free-mail in the first three months of this year. Conservative spokesmen say the numbers are inflated and that, in any case, all the rules have been respected.
The name Six Sigma was borrowed from a standard business methodology that reviews customer relations and other factors to boost profits.
Canada Post seeks bigger subsidy to compensate for free MP mailouts
OTTAWA — Canada Post launched a project last year that tracked the burgeoning number of free mailouts enjoyed by members of Parliament to help bolster the corporation's claims for a bigger government subsidy.
Newly released documents show the project, dubbed Six Sigma, was designed to demonstrate that the post office is losing millions of dollars as MPs and political parties crank up the controversial mailouts.
Canada Post "is now in a position to more accurately quantify the volumes and foregone revenue associated with government free mail," says an internal discussion paper, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
But precise figures on rising post-office volumes and the mounting losses have been carefully removed from the documents, to protect "commercial confidentiality."
Opposition MPs have recently accused the Conservatives of abusing the privileges - and bending the rules - to carpet-bomb ridings with party messages, all on the taxpayer's dime. But the Liberals also acknowledge their own members are not entirely blameless.
Since 1986, Canada Post has received an annual subsidy to compensate the corporation for stamp-free mail sent to or from the Governor General, senators, MPs and officers of Parliament. The subsidy also covers free mailing of materials for the blind.
The initial $14-million annual subsidy was fixed until 2000, when repeated complaints from the post office about an $8.7-million annual shortfall prompted Treasury Board to boost the level to $22.2 million a year.
Cost-conscious postal officials are back again, saying they have proof of more large shortfalls that have grown over the last eight years.
The corporation carefully tracked the number of items MPs sent out to Canadian households through the House of Commons post office over the period January to July 2007.
The project did not try to capture all free mail, such as letters sent by constituents directly to MPs' riding offices. But the results nevertheless demonstrated a dramatic and costly rise in no-charge mailouts from parties and MPs.
A spokesman for Canada Post declined to provide any information about mail volumes, about the Six Sigma project, or about the negotiations with government for a fatter subsidy.
"Volume figures of our customers are proprietary information," said John Caines. "Any discussions we have with our customers, including the government, would be confidential."
But Caines did confirm the post office is pressing for compensation.
"We will be reviewing our findings with the government to establish the actual amount of foregone revenue and come to a resolution as how to deal with that."
Relief will not arrive soon: Transport Canada, which oversees the post office, has budgeted another flat $22.2-million subsidy for 2008-2009.
The internal documents show that the initial $14 million subsidy in the late 1980s was split, with $3 million for materials for the blind and $11 million for so-called government free-mail.
Caines declined to say how the current $22.2-million subsidy is split but if the 1980s ratio held, more than $16 million would be currently earmarked for government free-mail.
The documents also reveal a rise in mail volumes processed by the House of Commons mailroom, from 48 million pieces in 1997 to almost 75 million in 2005.
"Volumes have been increasing steadily year over year," says an internal analysis. "(It) fluctuates depending on number of days Parliament is in session, and whether an election is held in the year."
The House of Commons postal service does not make its annual reports public, and a spokeswoman referred questions about volumes to Canada Post, which has declined to release them.
The secretive Commons panel that polices mail-room rules plans to examine the free-mail policy.
"I absolutely would defend to the death a member of Parliament's right to talk to, communicate with and get feedback from their own constituents," said Liberal MP Karen Redman, a member of the Board of Internal Economy which is reviewing the practice.
"But you don't blanket a postal walk. It's a shotgun approach that I think is being abused."
Tory House Leader Peter Van Loan notes that his party normally uses bulk mail - "unaddressed admail," in post office parlance - that costs less than a penny an item to send. The other parties have confirmed they tend to use addressed "franked" mail, using mailing lists, which costs 54 cents for each piece.
"You do the math on which party is the most cost effective in its external mailings," Van Loan said.
The released post-office records show that in 2004-2005, an estimated 65 million pieces of cheap bulk mail moved through the House of Commons mailroom, compared with 9.4 million pieces of addressed regular mail in the same period.
Liberal MP Garth Turner has claimed the Tories posted between 30 million and 50 million pieces of bulk free-mail in the first three months of this year. Conservative spokesmen say the numbers are inflated and that, in any case, all the rules have been respected.
The name Six Sigma was borrowed from a standard business methodology that reviews customer relations and other factors to boost profits.
And here’s the story…
On Sunday afternoon at 3 pm I told you that Conservatives would be meeting quietly with selected media later in the day to spin their side of the RCMP raid and (I was told) spill some of the contents of the 700-page Elections Canada search warrant. My sources were correct, and a handful of reporters did in fact speak with party brass, the most notable official being Doug Finley, the director of political operations and Stephen Harper’s right-hand guy when it comes to spin, control and campaign. (He is also the husband of Immigration Minister Diane Finley.)
Below are some of the stories which resulted. Conservatives have tried to soften the blow of Monday’s headlines, which report that Elections Canada is indeed alleging the party broke the country’s electoral law in the narrowly-won 2006 election. Tories overspent by more than a million dollars, the regulator says, and sought to bury national money in local campaigns, yielding 67 riding associations larger taxpayer-funded reimbursements than would otherwise have been the case.
Senior Conservatives are not disputing the investigation, the allegations or the scandal itself. Instead, they are attacking the law.
Just what you’d expect from the law-and-order party. One rule for us, another for them.
Tories on defensive over Elections Canada raid
Conservatives held secret meetings with select reporters Sunday to reveal details about why Elections Canada officers raided their Ottawa headquarters — and to give their side of the story before court documents are released this week. The party showed CTV News the court application for a search warrant, which confirmed that Elections Canada officials and RCMP were looking for evidence of an “alleged scheme” by Tories to spend more than allowed on election advertising.
The document alleges the Conservatives violated the Elections Act “by incurring election expenses that exceeded the election expense spending limit” by $1.1 million. It also alleges that 67 Tory candidates “improperly” sought taxpayer-funded rebates on expenses they did not incur.
An Ontario judge ordered the application to be unsealed last Friday, but court officials had said they would be unable to make the document public until Monday at the earliest. Conservatives obtained their own copy of the application and contacted a limited number of journalists to discuss the search warrant Sunday.
They scheduled briefings at an Ottawa hotel, but when word of the meetings leaked out to other media organizations, the party moved the briefings to another hotel next to their party headquarters. Party officials then spoke about the search warrant for roughly 45 minutes, saying the party did nothing wrong and that they had followed all regulations in election spending, before showing reporters the court document.
RCMP conducted the search on Tory headquarters last week, seizing a long list of financial and correspondence records that included invoices, receipts and emails. Conservatives insisted Sunday that other parties had acted in a similar way during federal elections and they followed all regulations in election spending.
The party has alleged the raid was a reaction to a civil lawsuit against Elections Canada, and that it was possibly timed to delay Conservative lawyers from questioning Elections Canada officials. Elections Canada has refused to reimburse the Tories for more than $1 million in advertising spending during the last election. The agency contends that the Tories surpassed their national advertising allowance and refused to accept the Tory claims that local ads were not national in scope.
CanWest story (David Aitkin) is here.
Toronto Star: Tories violated elections law
CBC: Conservative briefing turns into media circus
Globe: RCMP targeted Tory spending scheme
Blog Links:
Peace Order & Good Government
Impolitical
Damage control
Looks like the Harper party is about to attempt some damage control this sunny Sunday.
Selected media folks were summoned to a closed-door session with Conservative poohbahs to discuss the RCMP raid, the elections financing fiasco and the contents of the 700-page search warrant due to be officially released to the world tomorrow. The location: Ottawa’s Lord Elgin hotel, just a few steps south of the Langevin Block, home of the PMO. The time: 4:30 pm.
Speculation has it that the party will be leaking the guts of the warrant, putting the best spin on it, and trying to mute the wall-to-wall coverage that this thing will get when all reporters secure a copy. It’s an old news trick - easing the negative media blow by giving the worst news to the most supportive journalists.
But, it may backfire. Earlier this afternoon, word of the clandestine briefing leaked out as key reporters like CBC’s Keith Boag and CTV’s Mike Duffy suddenly became aware they’d be on the wrong side of a locked door. That’s when the Conservative switchboard lit up, and the last I heard, the Tories were mousing around frantically for a new secret location.
Just another day of your open, accessible and accountable government at work.
My letter to Garth tonight. And no I am not kidding.
Garth, you can take this comment off if you like, but I am asking you for some kind of immediate attention. Due to posting here I have Conservative Party hacks crawling all over my blog. I see them come and go on my sitemeter.
I want to be able to post my comments openly with the intent of making Canada a better place, but now I am truly scared to death. I called my MP’s office, Carolyn Baker, and asked for an appointment and got no return call, but due to my circumstances in coming to Canada in the first instance and the subsequent things that have happened, I really need FEDERAL level support when I get into trouble. I am disabled and don’t have funds to move. I am being prevented from moving.
I am asking that you help me, seriously.
The people in power are total beasts as I have said so many times.
I am hoping for some true HONESTY to emerge on Monday, but who knows how long that will take with a press that swiftboats Stephane Dion?
I have a phone number but would really Party who is going to care. Believe it or not, I am internationally known for telling the TRUTH.
I was orginally given protection by Doug Peters, but now I have no one. I really have suffered enough indignity to last a life time. And I NEED HELP not apathy as I face this perilous chapter of my life.
Thanks,
Virgina
and yes, I have a phone number but no job and can’t move away. As of today, I have taken my blog down entirely - so much for free speech in Canada. The minority fascists in residence in Ottawa must be fought tooth and nail. They are a menace to all of mankind.
See that these guys get marched off to jail.
Their police state apparatus must NOT be set up in Canada.
I’d post your last columns to OpEd News, but my computer strangely went on the blitz this weekend and posting anything in North America about Canada or the US has been impossible on certain websites for me. I could not post comment on the NYT either! First time THAT has happened. I do not wonder why that has happened. I happen to KNOW about GENEVA and have called WAR CRIMINALS by their true name many many times.
Please remember, I have stood up internationally for Stephen Dion in publications outside Canada; I am known for such. It is frightening to see just how things have been maniopulated that the freedom of North America rests on this one man, Stephane Dion and those who support him; but there you go, it is so.
I pray for him and you daily. Please do not let all of us “little people” down.
I truly hope The Harper annd Bush got a nice warm greeting in NOLA. Who’s to know? Ya can’t trust the press.
I fear martial law may be declared tomorrow with the TTC strike being calle, I am that paranoid and have Blackwater guys all over my back for the past two weeks.
Seriously, I am begging to hear from you.
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