The background to this weeks comments is that Foreign Aid Minister Bev Oda* decided to kill government funding to an NGO called KAIROS run by moderate church organizations. Harper's people would hate them for being moderate instead of fundamentalist and for speaking out against human rights abuses regardless of who commits them. No names mentioned but it starts with an "I".
Oda's bureaucrats defended the agency very strongly in a written document to her. She doctored the document to say the opposite and presented it to the House as reason for her decision to unfund KAIROs. She was called on it and denied doctoring the report. She was called on that and finally admitted it. Harper refuses to fire her, nor should he as she was, like everyone else in his government, acting on HIS orders. He is the one we need to get rid of.
So here is this week's update. At least our justice system can operate independently of politics when it needs to. Now if the Liberals could just find a living breathing LEADER.
Stephen Harper must think Canadians don’t care all that much about ethics and integrity. Nothing else explains his blanket defence of foreign aid minister, Bev Oda.
Under universal criticism for attacking a church organization like KAIROS, misrepresenting the assessment of that organization done by government officials, tampering with documents, and not telling the truth to Parliament – Ms. Oda’s credibility is gone.
But such behavior is not an isolated incident in this government. They’ve been ethically-challenged from the start. Remember the swirl of unsavory stuff that tarnished their coming into office in the first place back in 2006.
That Conservative campaign was founded upon two fundamental falsehoods.
First they promised to fix Canada’s Equalization Formula in such a way that Saskatchewan would gain $850 million every year in extra payments from the federal government. But that promise quickly turned into a lie.
Their only explanation afterward was to say it was obviously such a ridiculous promise that no one should have believed it. Strike One against Conservative integrity!
Secondly, they promised never to tax Income Trusts. That, too, turned into a lie. Tax them they did, obliterating $25 billion from the savings accounts of two million Canadians. Strike Two!
And now, there’s news about dubious Conservative election financing in 2006.
The Party has been under investigation for four years in connection with a system to divert some of their national campaign spending down to certain local ridings, thus circumventing national spending limits and cashing in on local election rebates.
Over a year ago, the RCMP and Elections-Canada raided Conservative Party Headquarters to seize evidence related to this scheme. It’s been in court ever since.
Last week, new charges were laid in this matter against the Conservative Party and four senior Party officials – including two current Conservative Senators.
The sorry saga continues!
*cool name for a Foreign Aid Minister. The acronym for Official Development Agency is ODA. Likely the only qualification she had?
I'm sure the "sorry saga" has continued as long as there have been societies.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the rethuglicons of the U.S. only they are getting worse. They think they can make up the rules as they go along. May they all rot in hell!
ReplyDeleteWhat I didn't point out to Mr Goodale in his phony outrage about broken promises was that the Liberals had been elected a decade earlier on the promise of eliminating Mulroney's hated GST (VAT). They didn't of course and all right thinking Canadians were glad because going back to a hidden manufacturers tax was a very bad idea.
ReplyDeleteSaskatchewan doesn't need extra transfer payments as we are now a HAVE province, economically. Income trusts should have been taxed from the beginning and no one doubted that they wouldn't be taxed eventually. So broken promises equals good governance sometimes.
Of course, conservatives don't have ethics. If they did, they wouldn't be Conservatives
ReplyDeleteDUH!!