On Tuesday, the RCMP announced that it had arrested ten young Montrealers who were off to join the jihadist hordes in the Middle East. And, almost immediately, Stephen Harper flew to Quebec to remind nous autres that his government was tough on jihadists. Interestingly enough, almost as soon as the Mounties arrested the youngsters, they let the kids go.
Which raises the question, is there a political alliance between the RCMP and the Conservative government? Tom Walkom asks his readers to consider some recent history:
In 1999, the Mounties, accompanied by a television crew, raided the home of then British Columbia’s NDP premier Glen Clark. Clark was charged with breach of trust and accepting a benefit. His political career was destroyed. The New Democrats were trounced in the next election.
Three years later, Clark was acquitted of all charges.A month before the 2006 federal election, the RCMP announced they were undertaking a criminal investigation of then federal finance minister Ralph Goodale over the leak of confidential tax information about so-called income trusts.That scandal eventually turned out to be less than it seemed. Goodale and his aides were eventually vindicated, although a senior bureaucrat was charged and convicted.But the income-trust affair did help sink Paul Martin’s Liberal government, allowing Harper to become prime minister.An independent investigation into the Mounties’ handling of the affair found that the force had broken no rules because there were none to break.No party is completely spared the fallout from RCMP investigations. The force’s decision to charge former Conservative senator Mike Duffy for allegedly accepting a bribe from former Harper top aide Nigel Wright has done the prime minister no good.
But the puzzling decision not to charge Wright for offering that alleged bribe promises to mitigate any political damage to the Conservatives.
Mere coincidences? I'm not so sure.
26 comments:
The RCMP continues to be a political police during the Duffy saga .
The dog that wasn't bought forms one of the indictments and is a clear example of overreach. The corporal who hears a who is just following orders but the crown is not pleased with the weakness of the case.
When Paulson gets his spot; senate? supreme court? he'll show us whose in charge.
The Crown is having a hard time with the Duffy case, rumley. It will be interesting to see how much -- if any -- of the case survives judicial scrutiny.
I'd suggest you changed "politicized" to "corrupt". Walkom's remarks barely scratch the surface. Zaccardelli skirted all accountability for the Ralph Goodale drive-by. He simply refused to answer any questions to anyone, including Parliament itself. The independent enquiry was flummoxed, stymied. It should have refused to issue any report citing the obstructionism of the commissioner but it chose, instead, to go limp.
The next commish, of course, was veteran Tory backroomer, Bill "Mr. Anger Management" Elliott. No possibility of a political influence from that.
That Paulson is just as rancid as his predecessors was apparent right at the outset of the Duffy-Wright scandal. It became manifest when someone leaked Paulson's email to his senior commanders absolutely prohibiting them from having any contact, professional or social, with any opposition MPs or senators lest they say anything unpleasing to Harper.
The "Immaculate Bribery" charge was only the icing on the cake.
As an aside, there's an email from Harper's PMO counsel, Ben Perrin, discussing the possibility that Duffy might fight criminal charges. In it, Perrin is said to have written that they can put on a spectacle that would bury him, even bankrupt the Cavendish cottager. Problem solved. And so we find this accused facing no fewer than 31-charges while a non-political prosecution would have gone after the main offences and ditched the rest. 31-charges, Owen. Defending that would bankrupt you and me together.
The number of charges is truly mind boggling, Mound. I suspect that Donald Bayne will have a field day with Perrin on the stand.
Every Fascist needs a police state to control the masses. The RCMP are just a piece in Harper's puzzle.
It's beginning to look like that may be the case, Anon.
Check out this article:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Mulgrew+Bomb+plot+couple+needed+addiction+counselling+terror+prosecution/10875320/story.html
I'm with MoS on this one Owen, and that is a very painful admission for me, because I have strong family ties historically to the RCMP. However it has become obvious to me that over the last decade and some that the leadership if nothing else was clearly more and more playing political games, including trying to impact an election result (they clearly wanted the Libs gone), which even if there might have been good reason to feel that way runs counter to the inherent apolitical mandate the RCMP is required to practice. What I have seen since Harper came to power has horrified me, disgusted me, and made me glad that my closest relative growing up who had given decades to the RCMP was dead before this became obvious, because the pain it would have caused this person would be harder for me to take watching than what watching the Harper government has been for me, I love this person that much.
It is a part of the fact that I come from families of public service going back to Confederation that so much of my anger comes from, as well as why I understand the importance of process matters. If my health had not sold me out in my early 20s I too would have gone on to such professionally (at least that had been the plan), which is another reason why I've always paid attention to the political worlds as much as I have, it was almost bred into me and definitely inculcated by family teachers on all sides of the spectrum.
These days I do not believe we have any arms length Crown authorities anymore aside from some of the Officers of Parliament, and even there Harper has done all he can to shackle their ability/power. Things like the RCMP and Revenue Canada have clearly come under full political control and are being used to serve not the Government of Canada interests but the Harper Party aka CPC partisan political interests, and that is something unheard of in our history. What shocks me is how nakedly blatant this has become and it is still not getting anywhere near the attention it deserves, but then it is clear that for the most part the national media owners are fine with Harper's "leadership". No doubt their Ad buys have not exactly hurt the media companies bottom lines, and given the propensity for propaganda this government has shown so long as they stay in power those media companies will have a reliable revenue source, which I think has a lot to do with the silence we have seen on so many of these issues from the national press.
I warned of abuse of power scandals and theft of rights scandals would be the form of corruption we would see happen under a Harper regime, and this is yet more evidence of that. Gods I'm tired of living the Cassandra Curse!!!
I too wonder what will happen when Bayne moves for dismissal. Costs are rarely awarded in such a case , but not unheard of. Perrin's little bit of con nastiness may get Duffy some recompense in the end.
It's a cliche, Scotian, but it's nonetheless true: There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Canadians who don't see these days are those who refuse to see.
They sound a lot like Michael Zehaf Bibeau, Hugh. Deeply troubled, yes, -- and dangerous because of their instability -- but less than the propaganda machine claims they are.
Grant MacCwan's book [old now] history of the RCMP tells a different tale than the renegades that inhabit the 'force' now.
Um when Sitting Bull, a Sioux, was born in 1831 in North Dakota was escorted to Canada by an American Cavalry unit they met the RCMP at the forty ninth parallel. There was one RCMP officer and the Americans cavalry were stunned They asked "Where is the rest of your troop?" Oh those two are back at camp making breakfast.Three guys to welcome the Sioux when the Americans over loaded their force? But then again they were embarrassed by Custer's loss at the little big horn...
We never had such crap in Canada back then but oh okay it started...
Where does it end?
Mogs
The RCMP has a storied history, Mogs. But what's been happening lately is the wrong kind of story.
All of which proves, rumley, that the guy hyped as the smartest guy in the room isn't so smart after all.
Walkom veers into history and reveals a pattern.
The Horsemen provide security for the big-jobs.
But the big-jobs can move the horsemen to really shabby stables. Or they can pay them bonuses to ensure they stay quiet about what goes on in the barn.
The fact is - they should be at arms-length from the government.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/federal-government-to-invoke-terrorism-clause-to-keep-harper-family-secrets-private
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/annual-cost-for-harpers-rcmp-security-detail-has-doubled-to-19-6-million-since-he-became-pm-in-2006
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/04/19/rcmp_bodyguard_for_stephen_harper_to_be_ambassador_to_jordan.html
Thanks for the links, Anon. Obviously, the length of the arm is getting shorter.
"...the puzzling decision not to charge Wright..."
I am not a lawyer - this is my understanding of how the process works provincially here:
In BC the investigations are done by the police who then forward the information to the Crown. It is the local prosecutor who decides whether a charge goes forward.
How does the process work at the FEDERAL level in Ontario?
It's true that the Crown lays charges, Anon. What's strange is that several of the charges laid against Duffy seem to be falling apart, while there has been no charge against Wright.
Any charge must have evidence to support it. Which leads to the question, What kind of evidence did the Mounties uncover?
And could that evidence be aimed at Duffy, when some of it should have been aimed at Wright?
I made a picture which tells the story.
Everyone is afraid of the RCMP it seems, in a democracy why?
As they say, Steve, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Steve,
I like your picture it seems like the PMO and the PM are on the wait for it the 'Musical Ride' the RCMP were actually a Cavalry unit but Ottawa was afraid to call them that. Why because they did not have the guts to announce to their Southern neighbors they now have a Cavalry of their own. They are really part of the Armed Forces of Canada history. So he who controls the military also controls the country...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LjwhZ9Y5pU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS-lbinFQNg
If you don't get it now you will never ever get it. [not you Owen or Steve just the rest of the crowd]The RCMP is a military cavalry that turned to squad cars instead of horses. We have been in a military dictatorship for a long while. You think they are flags the RCMP are holding? No medieval lances ladies and gentlemen:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=medieval+times&biw=1440&bih=772&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=DkxiVcSFM8booAS9koLQBw&ved=0CC0QsAQ
Look at G-20:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=medieval+times&biw=1440&bih=772&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=DkxiVcSFM8booAS9koLQBw&ved=0CC0QsAQ#tbm=isch&q=G-20+Toronto
Nice eh? They Harper and his church has turned the Canadian Cavalry against us. They were supposed to protect us. One last link:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=medieval+times&biw=1440&bih=772&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=DkxiVcSFM8booAS9koLQBw&ved=0CC0QsAQ#tbm=isch&q=rape+of+rcmp+women+by+male+officers
Time people woke up Owen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_lKF0S0CvA
So there you go eh? I think I've proved my point with that last clip from England. How could I be wrong when you match the videos? Only I am not the average sucker I see things differently.
Mogs+
Whatever their equipment, their allegiance is supposed to be to the country, not to the prime minister, Mogs.
Harper sees things differently.
Perhaps the right way to get Wright is through a private prosecution.
Done right it would give Harper nowhere left to turn.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Rocco Galati -- who challenged Marc Nadon's appointment to the Supreme Court -- did just that, Anon.
I think the Government should propose a new bill justifying all senate expenses retroactively, except of course Duffy's. I mean, come on, the man clearly broke the law and must be held accountable.
Sounds plausible, Anon. But the bill would have to be buried in the budget.
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