Sandra Finley

2013-05-23 Pressure increases on Conservatives to stay or leave F-35 program

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
May 232013
 

When reading “Pressure increases . . ” below, remember:

  • the F-35’s are to be used for carrying nuclear bombs

2013-04-21  B61 nuclear bombs would be given new tail fins that would turn them into guided weapons delivered by stealth F35 fighter-bombers.   (Obama accused of nuclear U-turn as guided weapons plan emerges).

AND

 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Pressure increases on Conservatives to stay or leave F-35 program

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/pressure-increases-on-conservatives-to-stay-or-leave-f-35-program-208555071.html

By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The Harper government may have “hit the reset button” on the purchase of F-35s, but planning for the stealth fighter continues — and Canada is facing a series of deadlines that will increase pressure to stick with the program.

Eight Canadian military officers continue to work on the multinational program in the U.S., at both the Pentagon and at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where they fill a variety of technical and planning roles.

An additional 16 military officers and civilians also work on the possible acquisition in Canada, according to a statement from the public works secretariat, which is overseeing the replacement of the air force’s current fleet of CF-18s.

They will remain on the project until the government makes a decision whether to continue with the F-35 purchase, or buy some other fighter jet, the secretariat said.

But the complex multinational ties run deep, and the country is facing is a series of deadlines and important program milestones, all of which increase the pressure on the Conservatives to either stay, or leave the project behind.

“As a signatory to the (Production Sustainment and Follow-on Development memorandum of understanding),

As part of the existing deal, “Canada is expected to contribute its share of personnel in support of the effort to co-operatively produce, sustain and upgrade the F-35 (joint strike fighter) over its life,” said an August 2011 memo from the F-35 project office at National Defence.

The document is part of more than 1,120 pages of reports on the stealth fighter released to The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. The briefings and slide presentations capture the crucial year of 2011, when the air force was ramping its participation before a scathing auditor general’s report forced the government to reconsider its stalwart support of the program.

Retired air force colonel Paul Maillet, a critic of the program, said the question of what has happened to all of the project’s moving parts since the government reset is crucial.

“If the reset button has been pushed, and we’re going to look at this, maybe the program should be at full stop, and we should either withdraw or limit the activities of program staff down there” in the U.S., Maillet said.

The country signed on to help develop the F-35 in 1997, contributing $332 million to date, including a recent $36 million cheque cut by the Harper government.

The documents paint a detailed portrait of how deeply entwined all nations, particularly Canada, have become in the development and success of the plane.

The country is so involved that Canadians are due to take over chairmanship of a key multinational board at the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter project office in the spring of 2014.

Since the government stepped back late last year and “hit the reset button,” a market evaluation of potential rivals to the Lockheed Martin-built fighter was started. The results are not expected until the fall at the earliest, and that punts the government’s decision down the road, possibly into 2014 and within proximity of the next federal election in fall 2015.

Important decisions on creating the jet’s supply system, software development and weapons all hang in the balance while the Harper government considers its options.

“Canada’s participation in development of the Global Sustainment Solution is essential to ensure that DND’s weapons support requirements are adequately addressed in the development of the F-35 release to service and in-service support processes,” the documents say.

“Failure would leave Canada without a voice at the table at a very important time. Any resultant deficiencies/differences will have to be addressed separately, and at additional costs.”

The air force and the government are working on a tight deadline to replace the CF-18s, which are due to retire in 2020. The original plan, before a scathing auditor general’s report last year forced the government to put the procurement on hold, was to buy a handful of F-35s starting in 2016.

They were to be eased into service as the manufacturer continued to work out the kinks.

Documents show the lead time between ordering a jet and its delivery is four years.

And in order to keep the program on track, ” the first aircraft in 2016, must have procurement expenditure authority to formalize (Joint Strike Fighter) Program Partner Procurement Request by (no later than) Fall 2012,” warned a Aug. 19, 2011 slide deck written by the project management office.

2013-05-21 ACTION ALERT: Stop Corporate Control Over Our Seeds. Deadline Thur May 23

 Food, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Genetically Modified, Health  8 Responses »
May 212013
 

If the Americans can do it, so can Canadians! (2013-05-20 Monsanto Protection Act May Soon be Repealed Thanks to Activism)

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is about to make significant regulatory changes to Seed Variety Registration in Canada.   There will be MORE corporate control of seeds.

 

Take a minute to help out.  It is REALLY IMPORTANT!  Deadline is May 23rd. 

See  CBAN:   http://www.cban.ca/Resources/Topics/GE-Crops-and-Foods-Not-on-the-Market/Alfalfa  (text below). 

(The text is from farmer point-of-view.   But GMO food is everyone’s concern.)

 

FOR MY PART: 

  • I left a phone message for Mr. Scheffel (613-773-7142).
  • Easy:  you can send a well-crafted message from the CBAN website, just add your name and address.

Do not use my words (following)!  I grow impatient:

Mr. Scheffel,

On May 25th I am going to be marching in the streets of Saskatoon, joining others around the Globe in the March Against Monsanto.

My contribution is to draw attention to the role of the Universities in the development of GMO foods.  And to the corrupting ways of the chem-biotech corporations.

The proposed amendments to the Seed Regulations are obscene.  They draw the fury to the role of the bureaucrats.

Yours truly,

Sandra Finley

= = = = = = = = = = = = = == = =

Stop Corporate Control Over Our Seeds

Urgent Action Alert – Deadline Thursday May 23, 2013

Click here to send your letter instantly

The National Farmers Union asks you to submit your letter to stop the significant regulatory changes to Seed Variety Registration in Canada. These changes will:

                        

  • Permit companies to take seed varieties off the market whenever they like, which will increasingly force farmers to use only varieties subject to royalties under the Plant Breeders Rights Act or varieties with gene patents.
  • Empower companies to introduce new varieties of soybeans and forage crops – including alfalfa – that have not been field-tested for merit and which therefore may not provide any benefit to farmers.
  • Allow seed companies to transfer to farmers’ shoulders all risks of poor seed/crop performance when planting varieties that have not been field-tested by independent third parties.
  • Transfer decision-making about which new varieties are introduced, and when, from a transparent,  publicly accountable process based on expert advice offered by Recommending Committees to a behind-closed-door process controlled by private seed companies.
  • Letting companies de-register varieties will permit companies to unilaterally stop farmers from accessing and using perfectly good varieties developed through long-term collaboration among farmers, public plant breeders and international seed collections.

For more information view the action alert from the National Farmers Union.

Deadline for submissions is May 23, 2013
All submissions must:
1.      cite the Canada Gazette, Part I,and
2.      the date of publication of the notice (March 9,2013), and
3.      be addressed to:
Michael Scheffel, National Manager, Seed Section, Canadian Food Inspection Agency,
59 Camelot Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0Y9
tel.: 613-773-7142
fax:613-773-7144

2013-05-21 How much GMO food are we eating?

 Food, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Genetically Modified  No Responses »
May 212013
 

Joe asked:

what is the status of GMO in Canada?   in crops and in product labelling?

My reply, in general, is below.   How much GMO food are we eating?

But it’s about to become a WHOLE LOT MORE.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is trying to make significant regulatory changes to Seed Variety Registration in Canada. 

See  2013-05-21  ACTION ALERT:  Stop Corporate Control Over Our Seeds.  Deadline Thur May 23

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MY REPLY TO JOE’S QUESTION IS GENERAL:

–          LABELLING:  There is no labelling of GMO content in food in Canada (or in the U.S.)

There was an early and huge battle to obtain labelling of GMO’s.   In the end the decision was going to turn on the input from the Consumers Assoc of Canada.  The industry got to them with lots of money and guess who the Consumers Assoc supported?

We lost the battle to require labelling of GMO content.

The food supply in Canada is as laced with GMO’s as is the American  (“harmonization” is focused on conformity with the corporate interest in “North America”).

 

–          CROPS:    (GM plants spread;  visually you can’t tell the difference between a not-GM kernel or seed and one that is GM’d.  The seed has to be tested in a lab.  Also, the industry tells a distorted story.  The focus may be on “virus resistance” (squash),  or “delayed ripening” (tomatoes), or “improved nutrition” (rice).  They don’t tell you that the majority of the crops are genetically modified so they can withstand chemical applications, that “super weeds” and “super bugs” are Nature’s response (within a very short time) and the situation is that MORE chemicals are required and MORE POTENT chemicals (poisons).  This is now built right into our food supply.

CANOLA  (the first and the biggest in Canada) –  GM canola has taken over; it’s not possible to get canola that isn’t GM.  Any product that contains canola oil has GMO content.  The industry has done a thorough job of convincing people that canola is a superior and healthy food.

CORN –  Corn is one of the largest GMO’d crops in the U.S.  Not much is grown in Saskatchewan, I don’t know how much you have in Ontario.  The Mexicans tried to protect their corn (original maize) by passing a law against GMO corn.  But their corn is now contaminated with GM corn.

Who knows how much GM corn we are eating in various foods?  Think of just one ingredient, corn meal – tacos, corn chips, . . . lots of different foods.

GM WHEAT AND ALFALFA –  two crops that the industry is fighting hard to get.   The battle has been raging for a few years to stop them.

GM FLAX – another battle (about 15 years for some people) that seemed to have been won, but then these pernicious interests come back and infiltrate in another way.  After reading the last Flax Growers Newsletter, I am afraid that GM (called by another name) flax is on its way.

–          Regulation of GMO’s in Canada is “harmonized” with the U.S.  (done through the CFIA (Cdn Food Inspection Agency)).  The U.S. side of the regulation is effectively run by Monsanto.  I am encouraged, the outrage is mounting – citizen demand for a congressional hearing into Monsanto’s skulduggery and the recent   Monsanto Protection Act May Soon be Repealed, Thanks to Activism  

–          Canadian tax-payers generally foot at least half the bill for development of GMO food through Government matching of research dollars spent by the corporation.

–          In addition,  UNIVERSITIES are used to develop the “science” around GMOs.  And to produce the agricultural reps who become the bureaucrats in the CFIA and PMRA and provincial departments of agriculture.   In Saskatchewan the Government recently gave directed funding to the University for the “Global Institute for Food Security”.  It’s a centre to serve the “research needs” of the chem-biotech industry.

–          It doesn’t end there.  The NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (NRC) is heavily into GMOs.  (My nephew had a summer job there a few years back.)  Yesterday I talked with a scientist from the NRC.  He said that they are feeling the effects of the Feds withdrawing money from science.  “The NRC will do anything for money and it doesn’t matter who it’s coming from, or for what, whether it’s Monsanto or BASF or Bayer Crop Science.”

That’s a bit of a run-down Joe,  I hope it answers your questions.

Keep up the good fight!

Sandra

 

2013-05-20 Monsanto Protection Act (USA) May Soon be Repealed, Thanks to Activism

 Food, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Genetically Modified  1 Response »
May 202013
 

In follow-up to:  2013-04-29  Outrage over “Monsanto Protection Act” (USA)    (Note:  I added a video of Jon Stewart’s political satire on the Monsanto Protection Act – treat yourself to a laugh!)

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Now we have great news:

Monsanto Protection Act May Soon be Repealed Thanks to Activism

http://www.nationofchange.org/monsanto-protection-act-may-soon-be-repealed-thanks-activism-1369061405

By Anthony Gucciardi

 

The so-called Monsanto Protection Act signed into law earlier this year caused such an outrage that people around the world are planning to protest the biotech company later this month. Now a United States Senator is expected to try and repeal that law after mounting pressure.

The notorious ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ rider stuffed into the non-related Senate spending bill may soon be repealed thanks to the massive amounts of activism and outrage that have now amounted into a legislative charge towards action. Action that has turned into legislation progress through Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who has announced an amendment that would remove Section 735 (the Monsanto Protection Act as its known) from the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 Senate spending bill.

The rider, which almost managed to slip incognito and pass by the alarm system of the alternative media, grants GMO juggernaut Monsanto full immunity from federal courts in the event that one of its genetically modified creations is found to be causing damage to health or the environment. Essentially, it grants Monsanto power over the United States federal government. Thankfully, I was able to get on the subject through news tips and covered the Monsanto Protection Act all the way up until the bill containing it was signed into law by Obama.

Ultimately, as the Monsanto Protection Act became more a hot issue, we had an increasing amount of publicity — but the Senate vote came just too quickly for the attention to put a halt on the rider. But even after its passing, sources like Russia Today, NaturalNews, Infowars, and myself here at NaturalSociety were sounding the alarm big time. Enough so that it even led to an apology from the top Senator who actually ended up approving the bill containing the rider.

Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland actually went and released a statement apologizing for allowing the Monsanto Protection Act through and vowing to fight against GMOs and Monsanto. Ultimately, multiple Senators had entered damage control after the jig was up. That is besides Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri, who actually worked with Monsanto (as in he let them write it while he received funding) on the Monsanto Protection Act rider. A rider he says is perfectly reasonable. After all, why not give Monsanto full immunity from the legal system the rest of us are subject to?

Even Obama was getting blasted on his Facebook page following the approval of the Monsanto Protection Act, with the majority of comments coming into his page criticizing his signature on the bill that contained the rider.

Thanks to this activism, it looks like the Monsanto Protection Act may soon be repealed after this new bill hits Washington. This time, we will have plenty of time to let the Senators know that they are voting against the public if they choose to side with Monsanto. And with such a specific agenda for this bill, I see it doing well in the Senate.

 

Liberating Structures, Including and unleashing everyone

 Empowerment, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category)  No Responses »
May 202013
 

Finding ways to de-construct and re-construct the new.  Another example of the exciting work being done.

RELATED:

 

Liberating Structures, Including and unleashing everyone

(Question:  what is the difference between “liberation” and “empowerment”?  I always use the latter.)

http://www.liberatingstructures.com/

(At 5:25 in the video)

“. . . Natural ecosystem power is totally distributed all over the place.  .. They function very well because of that.  …  So what is it that you can do that could create the same conditions in a human organization …?

“Do the opposite they exclude.  . . . conventional structures were not designed to include everybody… was not possible (technology).  . . . Traditional old structures have been there for a very long time … designed to control, to direct . . ‘one to many’ kind of communication and instructions. What we are talking about . . . ‘many to many’ to communicate, for everybody to be connected in the same way as in natural systems where everything is connected in one way or the other.”

TEXT OF THE HOME PAGE:

When you feel included and engaged, do you do a better job?  Do you think teams in which people work well together produce much better results?  Have you noticed the best ideas often come from unexpected sources?  Do you want to work at the top of your intelligence in a group of people and give the same opportunity to others?

If YES, we have found this is the kind of organization and community that people want to be part of. AND, Liberating Structures help make it happen.

So why is it that so many organizations of all stripes are filled with disengaged workers, dysfunctional groups and wasted ideas?

While there will always be some justification for blaming leaders (or professors and administrators in education), the more compelling and useful explanation is not that people involved are bad, stupid or incompetent, but rather that the practices they have all learned are neither adapted to today’s realities nor designed to achieve the ideals listed above.

Unwittingly, the conventional structures used to organize how people routinely work together stifle inclusion and engagement.

(Video)

Conventional structures are either too inhibiting (presentations, status reports and managed discussions) or too loose and disorganized (open discussions and brainstorms) to creatively engage people in shaping their own future. They frequently generate feelings of frustration and/or exclusion and fail to provide space for good ideas to emerge and germinate. This means that huge amounts of time and money are spent working the wrong way. More time and money are then spent trying to fix the unintended consequences.

This website offers an alternative way to approach and design how people work together. It provides a menu of thirty-three Liberating Structures to replace or complement conventional practices.

Liberating Structures used routinely make it possible to build the kind of organization that everybody wants. They are designed to include and unleash everyone in shaping the future.

This alternative approach is both practical and feasible because Liberating Structures are quite simple and easy to learn. They can be used by everyone at every level, from the executive suite to the grassroots. No lengthy training courses or special talents are required. Mastery is simply a matter of practice. LS routinely unleash a vast reserve of contributions and latent innovations waiting to be discovered.

Every person interested in leading change—in schools, hospitals, foundations, agencies, and businesses—can use Liberating Structures.

Liberating Structures are easy-to-learn microstructures that enhance relational coordination. They quickly foster lively participation in groups of any size, making it possible to truly include and unleash everyone. Liberating Structures are a disruptive innovation that can replace more controlling or constraining approaches.

Liberating Structures spark inventiveness by minimally structuring the way we interact while liberating content or subject matter. Very simple constraints unleash creative adaptability, generating better than expected resutls. Individual brilliance and collective wisdom are unbridled. Such a dramatic shift cannot be THAT simple, engaging, and powerful but it is.

By design, Liberating Structures distribute control so that participants can shape direction themselves as the action unfolds.

 

2013-05 (posted) Who is smarter – a group of people or one smart person? The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

 Empowerment, Knowledge Base, Sustainability  No Responses »
May 202013
 

Who is smarter – a group of people or one smart person?

Surowiecki uses a collection of research papers to show that a group of people is smarter 

BUT! there are conditions under which that is true.

The posting  2013-03-19  10th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq raised the question of how it was that a group of intelligent people could make such a bad decision as to drop bombs on Iraq.

Two lines stuck out:

–        lack of diversity and independence of thought in decision-making, and

–        “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”

Those statements reminded me of  The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (2004).  Surowiecki’s work reinforces important principles of democracy learned through the ages, but which are now being forgotten (except by us, and we won’t let it happen!).

RELATED:

EXCERPTS from The Wisdom of Crowds:

“ . . . cognitive diversity is essential to good decision-making.  The positive case for diversity is that it expands a group’s set of possible solutions and allows the group to conceptualize problems in novel ways.

. . .  Homogenous groups, particularly small ones, are often victims of what the psychologist Irving Janis called “groupthink”.  After a detailed study of a series of American foreign-policy fiascos, including the Bay of Pigs invasion and the failure to anticipate Pearl Harbour, Janis argued that when the decision makers are too much alike – in worldview and mindset – they easily fall prey to groupthink.  Homogenous groups become cohesive more easily than diverse groups, and as they become more cohesive they also become more dependent on the group, more insulated from outside opinions, and therefore more convinced that the group’s judgment on important issues must be right.  These kinds of groups, Janis suggested, share an illusion of invulnerability, a willingness to rationalize away possible counterarguments to the group’s position, and a conviction that dissent is not useful.

“. . . Deliberation in a groupthink setting has the disturbing effect not of opening people’s minds but of closing them.  In that sense, Janis’ work suggests that the odds of a homogenous group of people reaching a good decision are slim at best.

 

“. . . Ultimately, diversity contributes not just by adding different perspectives to the group but also by making it easier for individuals to say what they really think.

(p 36 – 39)

 

“. . .  Instead of fostering the free exchange of conflicting views, consensus-driven groups – – especially when the members are familiar with each other –  tend to trade in the familiar and squelch provocative debate.  (p. 203)

 

(this last excerpt is related to bubbles in the financial markets, but is an elaboration of the point:

“. . . there were no differing attitudes.  Everyone thought the same because the group of people who were making decisions was too small and too prone to imitate each other.  It didn’t matter how individually intelligent the experts were.  By the end, they were too much alike to be smart.”

2013-05-11 Amazing mobilizations! The Whole World against Monsanto (GMO’s).

 AVAAZ, Empowerment, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Genetically Modified  No Responses »
May 192013
 

Please let everyone know:

Saturday, May 25th 

around the World demonstrations against Monsanto (GMO’s) !

 

It’s shaping up to be a big event in my community, Saskatoon.  How about yours?  . . .    Click here if you don’t know.)

 

SELECT ONE SIMPLE ACTION that works for you

Join in the fun!:

 

 

Nation of Change

Thursday 9 May 2013

Clearly, an investigation of large-scale government corruption by this singularly destructive corporation is long overdue.   http://www.nationofchange.org/monsanto-has-taken-over-usda-1368111215

David Swanson, News Analysis:   The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been taken over by an outside organization. RootsAction has launched a campaign demanding a Congressional investigation. The organization is called Monsanto. Monsanto is, of course, the world’s largest biotech corporation. These are the people who brought us Roundup weed killer and the resulting superweeds and superbugs, along with growth hormones for cows, genetically engineered and patented seeds, PCBs, and Agent Orange — which Monsanto now wants us to use as herbicide on genetically engineered corn and soybeans.

  • KNOW the name.  I posted a very good article on Percy Schmeiser.  It includes a link to Amy Goodman’s interview of Percy on Democracy Now when he and his wife Louise received the Right Livelihood Award in 1997 for fighting to defend the rights of farmers and the future of seeds.   (Monsanto took Percy to court.  He’s 82 years old now, and still travelling the world to empower others to join in the fight.)

 

  • AND!  You’re lucky if you live in Saskatoon:   come on out,  Percy Schmeiser IN PERSON!, Wed, May 22nd, 6:30 pm Frances Morrison Library (downtown) 311-23rd Street East.   (If you’re on Facebook,  https://www.facebook.com/events/620811587948273/)

You’ll be delighted and inspired by Percy, and become informed – all at the same time!

 

·       It’s Time to March Against MONSANTO  

https://secure.nationofchange.org/monsanto-march

Last year, you joined us as we occupied biotech giant Monsanto headquarters across the country and in St. Louis at Monsanto’s home base. Later in the year, you helped us launch a public ad campaign also in St. Louis denouncing the company and its destructive and deadly practices. In August we funded a national television ad campaign on GMOs and Monsanto and in September we helped to make the GMO Free Midwest Occupy Monsanto Conference possible.

This month, we are taking the fight against this corporate killer to the next level.

NationofChange is raising $20,000 for a high-profile billboard ad campaign in Los Angeles, California to expose the crimes of MONSANTO and educate the public on how corporate greed is putting their families in danger.

Issues the campaign will focus on:

The recently-passed Monsanto Protection Act placing Monsanto beyond the reach of the Federal Government [1].

Monsanto’s multi-million dollar efforts to squash GMO labelling in California

The real science surrounding the negative health impact of GMO products

The catastrophic environmental effects Monsanto’s Roundup has wrought upon ecosystems

If you feel that Monsanto’s corruption, exploitation, and destruction have gone far enough, stand with us now . . .

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Saskatoon:  Saturday May 25, 12 noon, meet at Kinsmen Park (across from the Mendel Art Gallery).  The March will go across the Bridge to the University and return.

F/B: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreManySaskatoon#!/events/455489177862149/?fref=ts  

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Regina:   Saturday May 25, 1:00 pm.   Meet at the Leg Building.  F/B: https://www.facebook.com/events/583443078335565/

 

You may be interested in:

 

 

For Newcomers – To generate a list of “thumbnail sketches” of earlier work on GMO’s click on  Genetically Modified.    (To see a whole individual posting and to activate any links, you have to click on the thumbnail.)

2013-05-19 Prime Minister’s chief of staff resigns

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category)  3 Responses »
May 192013
 

Uh, Canadians – – listen up.  No small thing.

 

Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife discusses the resignation of Prime Minister Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright.  (Sorry, there’s an ad to wait thru.)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1288213  

 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

RELATED, and also offensive to democracy:

 

Former CRTC commissioner hired at Sun News, May 17

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/former-crtc-commissioner-hired-at-sun-news-1.1287087 

 

A commissioner at the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has left his post after five years to join Sun News, as the broadcaster seeks “must carry” status.

 

Marc Patrone’s contract with the CRTC ended on March 18. He is now the Sun News Network’s director of news operations for Western Canada.

 

The Chronicle Herald reported Patrone’s new job Friday, and CTV confirmed the move.

 

Sun News vice-president Kory Teneycke sent an email to CTV News showing that the federal conflict of interest commissioner approved Patrone’s hiring.

 

In a letter, the commissioner’s office noted that Patrone’s dealings with Quebecor Media took place more than one year before his last day his last day at the CRTC and were not related to Sun News Network’s licencing interests. As a result, he was not violating his post-employment obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act, the letter said.

 

Sun Media is asking the CRTC to grant its news channel “mandatory carriage.” If approved, cable and satellite customers across Canada will be paying to have its news channel as part of their TV packages.

 

On Thursday, a well-placed source told CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife that Sen. Mike Duffy approached a Conservative insider with connections to the CRTC three weeks ago to discuss Sun Media.

 

“You know people at the CRTC,” the insider quoted Duffy as saying. “This is an important decision on Sun Media. They have to play with the team and support Sun Media’s request.”

 

 

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