Sandra Finley

2012-06-15 Former Liberal MP welcomes rare July sitting for high court on election case

 Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud  No Responses »
Jun 172012
 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/former-liberal-mp-welcomes-rare-july-sitting-for-high-court-on-election-case-159219885.html

By: The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The Liberal who lost a squeaker of an election last year and then had the result overturned in court says he’s pleased the Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal in the matter next month.

The court says it will hear the Etobicoke Centre case in an unusual summer sitting on July 10.

Last month, a lower court judge threw out the election result because of voting irregularities..

Conservative MP Ted Opitz, who won the seat by 26 votes, appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, but had nothing to say today about the July hearing date.

Former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who filed the original court case, says its good for democracy that the case will be heard quickly.

He says voters in the Toronto riding don’t know who they elected.

“Technically, it appears we don’t know who was elected in the last election, yet we have someone that continues to vote in the House of Commons,” Wrzesnewskyj said.

“It’s a very difficult situation and I am sure the electorate would want clarity.”

Wrzesnewskyj said he has no idea how long it will take the court to produce a decision, but said it’s a vital issue.

“This is about our democratic process, so it’s clearly one of the most important issues that the Supreme Court is going to be looking at.”

The Liberals have called for Opitz to step down,but he has vowed to continue doing his job as MP until the top court rules on the matter.

The Liberals call the appeal a stalling tactic, designed to allow Opitz to unfairly use his parliamentary resources to campaign for an eventual byelection.

Opitz originally argued that his lawyers needed more time to get ready.

“His legal team required two months to prepare documents, and then another month to respond to documents, so they needed three months,” Wrzesnewskyj said.

“We are still trying to figure out on what basis, points of law or points of fact, that they were appealing — and we still don’t know.”

Only five other election results have been nullified by the courts since 1949. None of those rulings was appealed and byelections were quickly called in each riding.

Opitz said he appealed as a matter of principle:

“It is in the public interest that election results be respected and that voters not be disenfranchised,” he said in a statement issued when he announced his appeal.

In a ruling last month, Judge Thomas Lederer of the Ontario Superior Court found that Elections Canada officials made clerical errors at the polls. He threw out 79 votes and overturned the final result.

The votes were cancelled because of improperly filled-out paperwork for voters left off the list of electors or who needed someone to vouch for their identity.

In his ruling, Lederer specifically stressed the irregularities were the result of clerical errors by well-meaning Elections Canada officials, not the product of fraud or intentional wrongdoing.

 

2012-06-16 Employees linked to cousin’s company each gave $1,000 to Del Mastro campaign

 Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud  No Responses »
Jun 172012
 

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Employees+linked+cousin+company+each+gave+Mastro+campaign/6790645/story.html#ixzz1y4RVzvhl

By GLEN MCGREGOR and STEPHEN MAHER, The Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia News

Deltro Electric: owner David Del Mastro denies he reimbursed anyone who donated  to his cousin’s election campaign.

OTTAWA — The prime minister’s embattled parliamentary secretary, Dean Del  Mastro, received a series of $1,000 contributions to his 2008 election campaign  from donors with ties to a small Mississauga electrical company owned by his  cousin.

David Del Mastro, owner of Deltro Electric Ltd., denies any wrongdoing and  says he fundraised on behalf of his cousin by asking employees and friends to  contribute voluntarily. Four other people affiliated with the company and  contacted by the Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News also support this denial.

But three donors to Del Mastro’s campaign or riding association, who spoke on  the condition of anonymity, say they were asked to make $1,000 donations and  were reimbursed by Deltro for the full amount plus a $50 bonus.

“It was put, ‘We need to find some people to make $1,000 donations,’” said  one former Deltro employee.

Numerous sections of the Elections Act forbid donors from exceeding the  individual limit on donations by concealing their donations and forbid others  from helping to conceal the real source of a donation.

In a statutory declaration produced at the request of the Citizen and  Postmedia, the former employee said David Del Mastro approached the  then-employee and said he wanted him to make a large monetary donation to his  cousin’s campaign.

The former employee signed the declaration before an Ontario Commissioner of  Oaths.

The former employee was asked to make a donation of $1,000 of personal funds  and was assured the company would provide reimbursement for the same amount with  a “$50 bonus,” the declaration says. The donors could also claim the donation as  a deduction on their tax returns.

Employees were also asked to enlist friends or family to make similar  donations, the former employee said.

There is no evidence that Dean Del Mastro had knowledge of any alleged scheme  to hide the source of donations to his campaign.

The former employee’s declaration identifies a spouse and six friends who  participated. Their names correspond with a list of $1,000 donors to Del  Mastro’s campaign or riding associations during the election, as reported to  Elections Canada.

“I believe that all of us were reimbursed in full by Deltro for the sum of  $1,000 each, plus the $50 bonus each,” the declaration says.

“I also believe that none of us had any connection to the MP other than that  his cousin, my employer, had asked me to obtain these various donations to MP’s  election campaign.”

The former employee said another 12 names on Elections Canada’s lists of Del  Mastro campaign and riding contributors were recognizable as current or past  Deltro employees, or were friends or family members — though there is no  indication any of these people were reimbursed for contributing.

Two other donors who gave $1,000 have links through social media websites to  a Deltro staff member.

Reached on his cellphone Tuesday, David Del Mastro emphatically denied that  he paid anyone to donate to his cousin’s election bid in Peterborough. “That’s a  false accusation. I never paid them a dime. That’s false,” he said.

He confirmed that several people on the list of donors to the campaign have  worked for Deltro, but said he simply asked people to contribute to help his  cousin.

“I fundraised for him. I asked friends and family and everybody I knew if  they would like to donate to his campaign,” he said.

“I went around to everybody and said, ‘Hey, can you all contribute to my  cousin’s campaign? I would really appreciate it.’”

He said it was reasonable to believe that his employees volunteered to each  give $1,000 to a candidate running for election in a riding three hours  away.

“Why wouldn’t they?” he asked.

He said the allegation he funded the donations was likely advanced by a  disgruntled former employee.

Del Mastro said he thought he had personally donated $1,000 to his cousin’s  campaign, although the Citizen could find no record of this donation in  Elections Canada’s database. He also said he went down to Peterborough to help  with the campaign.

David Del Mastro refused to comment when contacted again on Friday.

Another person who contributed to Del Mastro’s campaign described being  approached by a friend from Deltro and asked to make donation to the campaign in  exchange for reimbursement of $1,050.

“I was pretty well just asked to do a favour and I got some money back,” the  person said.

“It’s not costing me anything. I just put my signature on something and I get  something back. I guess now it’s too good to be true.”

Another past employee described the same experience — making a donation to  Del Mastro’s campaign and receiving a cheque from Deltro.

“I can’t remember who exactly who would have called me from the office,  whether it was David or [another employee] and said we need you to write a  cheque for this amount to this person and you’ll get this much — it will be  covered with this much” — $1,050.

Under the Conservative government’s centrepiece ethics legislation, the  Federal Accountability Act, the limit on political donations was lowered to  $1,100.

The Elections Act prohibits donors colluding with others to “circumvent” the  prohibition against an individual donor giving more than that amount to a  candidate in an election.

Elections Canada records show that the Peterborough Conservative Electoral  District Association received 12 donations in the amount of $1,000 each, dated  Sept. 19, 2008, from people with links to the company, as described in the  former employee’s statement.

Then, on Sept. 26, Del Mastro’s campaign received another seven donations of  $1,000, also from people who were friends of Deltro employees, or friends or  family, according to the former employee. Another friend of a Deltro employee  donated $1,000 on Sept. 25.

Most of these donors are listed with addresses in Brampton or Toronto — nowhere near Dean Del Mastro’s Eastern Ontario riding of Peterborough.

There is no evidence that alleged reimbursements were paid to anyone other  than friends of the former employee who swore the statement.

Four other Del Mastro donors with ties to Deltro, including two current  employees, all denied they had taken any money from the company in exchange for  the donations.

Reached at the company’s office in Mississauga, Deltro employee David Vogel  said he gave to the campaign only because he believed Del Mastro was a good  candidate.

“He’s a great guy. Why not? Why wouldn’t I?” Vogel said. “Somebody is a good  person, would you want to hold back from them?”

Company controller Tori-Lynn Manchulenko also denied anyone was reimbursed  and said she and others gave because the owner had asked them to.

“We’re a small company and it’s almost like a family and we did this because  he asked.”

Larry Saunders also denied there was any compensation when his wife Maria,  daughter-in-law Rachel and son Jeff, a Deltro general foreman, each gave  $1,000.

Saunders said he donated because he had known Dean Del Mastro since he was a  child and was also a friend of David Del Mastro.

Gary Teneycke, a friend of David Del Mastro, said he gave to the campaign  because the Conservative candidate in his Etobicoke riding was up against  then-Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff and had no hope of winning.

He said David Del Mastro never approached him about donating and he denied  getting any reimbursement.

“It was my own idea,” Teneycke said. “You want me to swear on a Bible? I  donated $1,000 to the Conservative Party I’ve supported all my life.”

Del Mastro did not reply to several emails asking about it this week, but  party spokesman Fred DeLorey said in an email on Tuesday that the story is not  true.

“We don’t comment on hearsay and something we know just isn’t true,” he  said.

Del Mastro is the parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  He also serves as the government’s lead spokesman defending allegations about  the robocalls scandal and sits on the House of Commons ethics committee, and is  currently under investigation by Elections Canada for alleged overspending in  the same 2008 campaign.

He insists his campaign spending was entirely legal and has promised to  produce documentary evidence to back up this claim.

On Wednesday, his lawyer, Jeffrey Ayotte, complained that Elections Canada  investigators have declined to meet with Del Mastro unless the MP “is prepared  to give a cautioned statement,” a legal phrase referring to a statement made  after someone has been legally cautioned, as when police read a suspect their  rights.

© Copyright  (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Insight: Can Occupy Wall Street survive?

 Occupy Movement  No Responses »
Jun 172012
 

I am writing a rebuttal to this article which has been published in newspapers in Canada, the U.S., Australia, the U.K.  There are several problems with the article.

June 6 Reuters (USA and Canada), published in my local newspaper on June 17, page A4.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/07/us-usa-occupywallstreet-idUSBRE85606J20120607

By Chris Francescani

Thu Jun 7, 2012 6:39pm EDT

(Reuters) – More than eight months after Occupy Wall Street burst onto the global stage, decrying income inequality and coining the phrase “We are the 99 percent,” the movement’s survival and continued relevance is far from assured.

Donations to the flagship New York chapter have slowed to a trickle. Polls show that public support is rapidly waning. Media attention has dropped precipitously.

Bursts of violence, threats of municipal chaos and two alleged domestic terror plots have put Occupy on a recurring collision course with law enforcement.

Even its social media popularity, a key indicator of the strength of a youthful movement, has fizzled since its zenith last fall.

National electoral successes – the legacy of the Tea Party, the other major American grassroots movement created in recent years – are not even on the agenda of the famously leaderless organization.

While the movement’s signature triumph has been to draw worldwide attention to income inequality in America and elsewhere, some who are sympathetic say it has nevertheless failed a crucial test of social movements: the ability to adapt and grow through changing tactics.

“Most of the social scientists who are at all like me – unsentimental leftists – … think this movement is over,” said Harvard University professor Theda Skocpol, a liberal academic who wrote a book on the Tea Party.

She and others wonder whether Occupy will ever really thrive without solid footing in the mainstream of American political discourse.

Bill Dobbs of Occupy New York’s press team takes a different view. He compares the OWS struggle to that of America’s civil rights movement – long and uphill, with broad goals to radically alter American society. The first step, he said, has been to re-animate America’s long-dormant spirit of social activism.

“We in America have allowed ourselves to be put into a political coma,” Dobbs told Reuters. “Occupy Wall Street has shaken the country out of that coma.”

But are sporadic protests enough to change the nation?

BOMB PLOT

Skocpol identified what she said are several key differences between the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. She said Tea Party activists are generally 45 and older, with many in their 60s; they moved swiftly from organizing rallies to participating in local and national electoral politics, and established local chapters, each with its own leader.

By contrast, the Occupy movement is populated by mostly younger activists who eschew traditional politics and have resisted top-down organization. Instead, she said, they focused on encampments, which left them vulnerable to dissolution after they were evicted from their tent cities.

Headlines about a plot to blow up a bridge in Cleveland during last month’s May Day demonstrations and another to attack President Barack Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters with Molotov cocktails during the recent NATO summit drew crucial media oxygen away from the peaceful activities of the movement’s large majority.

“Eight months in, the Tea Party were beginning to impact primary elections, and by the second year were having a tremendous impact,” Skocpol said. “They were, if not electing, then at least changing the kind of candidates that were being elected.

“But Occupy got bogged down in tent cities. In social movement literature we’d argue that there was a failure to engage in tactical innovation at a crucial time.” Certainly the movement shows few signs of creating a summer of discontent in American cities this year.

Its next big gathering is scheduled for Philadelphia, the week of July 4. Organizers say the group will camp out for four days in the “streets and parks of Philadelphia … as a collective exercise of our free speech” and conduct workshops and panels.

Last month, following credible but unremarkable attendance at national May Day rallies and NATO protests in Chicago, about 200 Occupiers gathered in New York’s Union Square to plan a fall re-emergence: a “Yes We Camp” rally on September 17 to underscore the right of activists to occupy public space, like parks and sidewalks.

AN ALLIANCE FORGONE

Last October, lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park hummed with energy, a loose collective of aggrieved Americans united by shared outrage at a spectrum of economic injustices. The spectacle of “horizontal democracy,” drum circles, and a revitalized American counterculture captured everyone’s attention.

More than 12,000 newspaper stories a month referenced the movement, according to two university sociologists, Patrick Rafail and Jackie Smith. The two most popular Twitter hash tags, #occupy and #OWS, hit cyberspace at an average rate of 20 to 60 times a minute, according to SocialFlow, which analyzed OWS Twitter trends for Reuters. The frenzy peaked after police arrested hundreds of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1. That night, more than 1,500 of just those two tags went pinballing through the Twittersphere every minute.

A Time Magazine poll in October found 54 percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of Occupy Wall Street, while 86 percent believed Wall Street itself and lobbyists had too much influence in Washington. By November 2, OWS New York raised more than $500,000 in donations, and by year-end, nearly three quarters of a million dollars.

Public support for OWS spiked briefly following a November 15, pre-dawn New York City Police Department raid that cleared Zuccotti Park and three days later when images of University of California campus police pepper-spraying seated protesters went viral.

But the New York eviction robbed the landmark camp of a central location, and most protesters simply returned to their lives. The core of the movement disappeared from public consciousness.

A seemingly natural alliance with the nation’s politically active labors unions has been hindered by Occupy’s general lack of interest in electoral politics, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, author of several books on labor union organizing.

“A FLOATING ABSTRACTION”

Public support soured through the quiet winter months of early 2012.

When protesters returned to Zuccotti Park on March 17 for the movement’s six-month anniversary and threatened to re-occupy the park, police moved in swiftly, arresting dozens more.

In April, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 71 percent of respondents said they did not support OWS. News story citations have dropped below 1,000 a month as of May, according to Smith and Rafail.

Related Twitter traffic has slowed to about five tweets a minute, according to SocialFlow. In significant numbers, #Occupy and #ows are being co-opted by an Oregon wildlife campaign and Connect the Left, a liberal umbrella group.

OWS New York’s general fund is down to $31,000 and its bail fund to about $50,000, said Christine Crowther of the OWS NY finance committee.

Almost all of the 300 or more camps that sprung up around the nation have been disbanded, according to Arun Gupta, co-founder of The Occupied Wall Street Journal, the movement’s newspaper of occasional record.

“In many cities, most prominently New York, the general assemblies have disintegrated, because the democratic practice becomes a floating abstraction without the space to anchor it,” he wrote recently on Aljazeera.com.

While the movement has splintered into small, self-sustaining cells that focus on individual issues at the local level and coordinate where necessary with the other “working groups,” a national structure is in place. Different Occupy chapters connect through group conference calls and constant online activity.

Washington political analysts say they have no serious Occupy-backed or -inspired candidates on their radar for this fall’s elections, and many Occupy activists say traditional politics are not a priority.

“As a community that works with consensus with a 90 percent threshold, we’d never be able to build consensus around a single candidate – ever,” said Justin Stone, a New York activist who still participates weekly in “sleepful protests” in New York – essentially camping on the sidewalk.

OFF THE RADAR

Few can argue that Occupy hasn’t had a lasting impression by igniting a global debate about income inequality.

“If you look at their agenda as crystallizing this issue, I think the movement was a great success,” said Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center, which has tracked public opinions about the movement.

A recently released analysis of 2,233 newspapers by two Pennsylvania researchers found that newspaper articles mentioning “income inequality” rose sharply after the launch of Occupy, and that even by March 2012, articles alluding to “economic inequality” remained twice as common as they were prior to the movement’s inception.

OWS’s Dobbs argues that the movement’s aims are far broader than those of the Tea Party.

“The goal of ‘chop the government down’ is significantly different than economic justice – making sure that there is hope and prospects and safety nets for everyone,” Dobbs said.

“This is not a struggle that comes gift-wrapped … The only thing most people in this country think you can do is stay at home, or go vote,” he said. OWS “has brought people another way to take action – get out on the street and protest.”

“WE FELT LIKE OUTCASTS”

Out in the street is exactly where many of New York’s diehard Occupiers are these days.

Desiree DeLoach, 28, who moved from Florida to join Occupy, said she was drawn by the promise of an education on economic issues and community building.

“I know for a lot of Occupy people, a lot of our lives we’ve felt like outcasts in some way,” she said. “Here we have a community where people actually care about us.

“The biggest thing now for us is to be out reaching to the people. A lot of people in my generation are unaware. We’re not paying attention to the news,” she said.

DeLoach, who also participates in the sleepful protests, concedes that the Occupy life has its drawbacks.

“It’s not an easy lifestyle. There are definitely times when I’ve thought about reintroducing myself into society.”

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Martin Howell and Prudence Crowther)

2012-06-16 (Economic indicators) Romanow says medicare needs vision from federal government, Star Phoenix

 Economic Indicators, Health, Sustainability  No Responses »
Jun 172012
 

“The preoccupation with the GDP, which has become the all-encompassing surrogate  for everything with respect to well-being, is wrong,” he  (Romanow) said.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/Romanow+says+medicare+needs+vision+from+federal+government/6792491/story.html

By Betty Ann Adam

The unifying force medicare has played in Canada is being eroded by Ottawa’s  decision to make health care transfer payments to the provinces without overall  national goals attached, former premier Roy Romanow says.

“The federal government is out of the picture and this opens the door to huge  disparities. I don’t think that’s the way you build a modern day health care  plan and for sure it’s not a way to build a more unified, progressive and strong  Canada,” Romanow said after speaking to a public policy conference at the  University of Saskatchewan on the future of medicare.

Canada needs a national vision for health care to prevent provinces with  greater wealth benefiting from enhanced care while poorer provinces receive  less, Romanow said.

“This not only makes a disparate national program, but it raises the prospect  of a dis-unifying dimension to Canadian unity, which is always a very important  aspect of Canada’s life,” he said.

A country as spread out and diverse as Canada won’t have identical care  everywhere, but it should have programs to ensure “roughly similar principles  and quality of outcomes as a right of citizenship,” he said.

“I would like to see our premiers generally, take the position of standing up  to (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper and saying, ‘Look, we want a  federal-provincial conference. We want to talk about these costsdriver factors.  We want to see what the new programs are, which can ease the cost and improve  our health care, and we want a public debate about it.’ ”

With the federal government “unwilling to take a role for itself ” in shaping  medicare, premiers are left “scurrying to innovate,” Romanow said.

“You have 10 premiers, 10 different economies, local circumstances, varying  ideologies, how are you going to bring this all together – since the flood of  technology and drugs keep coming on stream – in a cohesive, coherent  fashion?”

Medicare began 50 years ago with the federal government transferring 50 per  cent of health budgets to provinces with conditions that they all agree to  similar objectives as to what that funding will achieve.

“Medicare is so central to our national narrative that how we reform it will  determine the future nature of our country,” Romanow said.

Ottawa’s decision represents “a very serious loss of direction,” by the  federal government, Romanow said.

The federal government’s plan to link health transfers to the GDP places too  much weight on the production of goods and services, while ignoring other  indicators of quality of life, he said.

The GDP does nothing to measure things like whether the quality of education  meets current requirements, whether the environment matters or whether people  are so busy they can’t spend time with their families, he said.

“The preoccupation with the GDP, which has become the all-encompassing  surrogate for everything with respect to well-being, is wrong,” he said.

The conference was organized by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives,  the college of medicine, the department of community health and epidemiology,  the Saskatchewan Health Coalition and the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses.

badam  AT  thestarphoenix.com

© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

2012-06-14 Riding Reboot (Saskatchewan electoral boundaries) (robocalls)

 Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud  No Responses »
Jun 142012
 

Planet S Magazine

Riding Reboot

Katherine Norton
Skewed election results suggest changes needed

Once a decade, following the census(these days, I guess we should call it the “sorta-census”…), committees are appointed in every province to redraw federal electoral boundaries to reflect demographic changes.

Lately, Saskatchewan’s unusual blended urban-rural ridings and non-representative election results have become a hot topic. In a CBC interview, University of Victoria political scientist Denis Pilon argued that these anomalies have allowed the Conservatives to maximize their representation in Saskatchewan. He acknowledged the party’s strong presence in the province, but said “their ability to turn their votes into seats is way out of line.”

In the 2011 federal election, for instance, the Conservatives won 13 of 14 provincial seats with only 56.3 per cent of the popular vote. The NDP, with 32.3 per cent of the vote, failed to secure a single seat.

“By attaching the urban areas to rural areas, [the Conservatives] basically allowed their rural dominance to overwhelm their urban opponents,” Pilon said.

These concerns have been put forward by more than a few people in the past as well, including in Planet S.U of S political studies professor David McGrane, for example, has been talking about this issue for some time.

The commission overseeing the 2012 Saskatchewan boundary review is headed by Justice Ron Mills, and co-chaired by David Marit, president of Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and John Courtney from Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.

In setting electoral boundaries, the commission is instructed to protect “communities of interest.” In a submission made to the commission this spring, a group of University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina political science professors (a group which includes McGrane, by the way) argued that the current boundaries did not respect the diverse interests of urban and rural residents in the province, and thus was “detrimental to the well functioning of Canadian democracy.”

“The thing that’s striking here is that in Canada, we typically don’t have ridings like that,” says the U of R’s Dr. Lee Ward, a joint author of the submission. “I live in Palliser, and Palliser is a piece of southwestern Regina that is carved off from the rest of the city and connected to Moose Jaw and the surrounding area almost to Swift Current. It just looks odd, like the kind of thing you would see where someone was trying to construct a majority.”

The same thing, of course, is exceedingly familiar to the Saskatoon residents of Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar.

To avoid the possibility of gerrymandering, Ward and his colleagues proposed that two exclusively urban ridings be created in both Regina and Saskatoon with another two seats remaining hybrid ridings. The changes, they argued, would ensure “improved democratic representation for the province’s urban and rural residents.”

In an interview following his appointment, commissioner John Courtney was quoted as saying that “partisan interests have never been a factor” in how electoral boundaries are set. Except that doesn’t appear to be the case.

In their initial 2002 report (the last time this process was done), Justice George Bayton and his fellow commissioners recommended Saskatchewan be divided into six urban and eight rural electoral districts. Three seats would be assigned to Saskatoon, while Regina would have two urban and one hybrid urban-rural riding.

After what the commission described as “sparsely attended” public hearings, however, the decision was reversed. In its final report, the commission admitted its recommendations had not been well-received by those who did present. Instead, the argument was made that the blended urban-rural ridings were an accurate reflection of the family, economic and other ties that exist between Saskatchewan’s urban and rural populations.

That’s undoubtedly a noble sentiment. But in light of the skewed results in the four subsequent elections, Pilon questions whether the panel was subjected to outside influence by, as he put it, “Conservatives who recognized that this unusual drawing of the boundaries was working in their favour.”

Once the 2012 commission publishes its proposed electoral map, a series of public hearings will be held across Saskatchewan. No firm timeline has yet been set, but according to the commission secretary the map will likely be published in the Canada Gazette in mid-August.

feedback@planetsmag.com

2012-06-14 U of S VP Finance, Richard Florizone, seconded to World Bank Group, Star Phoenix. PPP’s.

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Nuclear, Take back the University  No Responses »
Jun 142012
 

(PPP’s = Public Private Partnerships)

Richard Florizone was Vice-President of Finance at the University of Saskatchewan during a period of unprecedented over-spending.

2012-05-07 Letter to U of S, Board of Governors.  Who is responsible for Debt situation?

EXCERPT:  The finances, roughly:

  • $95 million debt
  • Borrowing capacity maxed out
  • A $10 million shortfall in the current operating budget, upgraded to $12 million
  • $15.5 million deficit for 2012-13
  • a potential shortfall of $20 million to $40 million annually by 2016.  Upgraded two weeks later to $44.5 million.
  • $600 million needed for repair and maintenance of the existing buildings
  • No money to finish the interior of some of the new buildings

Prior to looking at how Florizone is rewarded, also consider this excerpt from the posting  2009-10-10 Corporations at the Universities. Selling Out. Richard Florizone and UDP. Nuclear at the University.

Excerpt from item #4:

I observed the loss of integrity again, repeatedly, through the Uranium Partnership Development (UDP or “NUKE”) Panel struck by the Government of Saskatchewan and chaired by Richard Florizone, Vice-President of Finance of the University of Saskatchewan.

More than 2,000 citizens heard the lie from Florizone that the acid rain problem in Canada has been solved.

The public meetings were about nuclear reactors.  Why was Florizone even mentioning acid rain?

Understand the relationship between the tar sands (acid rain production) and “small” nuclear reactors which are to be developed under the “Uranium Development Partnership”.  (Actually, the “small” reactors have already been developed in the U.S., in Japan and elsewhere.  Whatever is done in Saskatchewan will build on that. The University is a vehicle through which to get the “small” reactors up and running.)

Huge amounts of electricity are needed for the large electrical diodes that will heat the far underground to get the tar to the point where it will flow.  It is projected to take more than 3 years of 24-hour heating just to get the first tar on the Saskatchewan side of the border flowing.

Imagine the vast quantities of electricity (heat) needed by the tar sands producers.

The increase in acid rain from tar sands processing continues , and will continue, unabated.  Since it was first identified that some areas  of northern Saskatchewan (downwind) are already past critical load limits (CCME Report, 2005) there has only been EXPANSION of the tar sands.  The Government is sitting on the updates on how bad the acid rain problem now is.

It is very convenient for the industry to have the Vice-President of the University tell us all that the acid rain problem in Canada is no longer a problem because we are so smart we fixed it.  It’s about the use of lies (propaganda)to remove obstacles. to tar sands expansion.

Further, Florizone led the public to believe that we were being consulted about the whole uranium/nuclear question, including whether or not there would be a nuclear studies centre of excellence at the U of S.

While he was doing that, he had to know that the Canadian Centre of Nuclear Studies at the University was already  established.  In the “On Campus News”, July 17, 2009 the Vice-President of Research, Karen Chad was interviewed.  She said that the Centre has been in operation for more than a year.  (Link no longer valid http://www.usask.ca/communications/ocn/09-july-17/2.php.)  The decision had been made and implemented.

The mandate of the Canadian Centre of Nuclear Studies at the U of S includes research into “power production” and radioactive waste disposal (“safe storage” as she calls it).

Call a spade a spade.  Richard Florizone is not the kind of role model acceptable at the University.  We pay his salary so that our children have a centre of learning, where people search for truth.  They should not be taught that lies and deception are just part of the way we do business.

– – – – – –

A brief bio of Florizone is at  2011-04  The University:  Are We Living in a Brave New Academy?   The Conditioning Centre. See  item 10.  NOTICE OF MEETING CONTAINS BIOGRAPHY OF FLORIZONE

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

Richard Florizone rewarded?

The StarPhoenix June 14, 2012

University of Saskatchewan vice-president Richard Florizone will be seconded to World Bank Group’s International Finance Corp. for six months, beginning July 1.

The agreement was signed between IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the university.

“Creating this unprecedented partnership with this leading global institution advances our growing prominence as a globally engaged university and enhances our capacity in public policy areas – finding new ways to finance infrastructure development – areas of critical importance to both Saskatchewan and developing countries,” university president Peter MacKinnon said in a news release Wednesday.

Florizone, the VP of finance and resources at the university, will act as a senior adviser to IFC Advisory Services in Public-Private Partnerships in Washington, D.C.

The prestigious secondment is the first undertaken by the World Bank Group with a Canadian university.

The World Bank Group is an international organization of 188 member nations that fights poverty by offering developmental assistance to middle-income and low-income countries.

Florizone’s work will focus on a study of past public-private partnership transactions, as well as providing support for several IFC projects in developing countries.

“With a growing need for infrastructure construction and renewal around the world, effective ways of financing these critical public works is increasingly important,” Florizone said.

© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

2012-06-06 and 07 Elections Canada says in a court document it has reasonable grounds to believe offences were committed by Dean Del Mastro, who serves as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s parliamentary secretary, and by his campaign’s official agent

 Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud  No Responses »
Jun 142012
 
Two articles,  June 6 and June 7.  Scroll down to the second one:

1.  June 7

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro came under fire during  Question Period Thursday after Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen reported  that he is being investigated for allegedly exceeding both his spending limit  and contribution limit in relation to a $21,000 personal cheque he used to pay  for services from Holinshed Research Group..

Records from a court case appear to contradict Conservative MP Dean Del  Mastro’s claim that he paid a research company only a small amount during the  2008 election, muddying the waters as he resists calls to step down during an  Elections Canada investigation for alleged campaign spending violations.

On Wednesday, Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen reported that Del Mastro  is being investigated for allegedly exceeding both his spending limit and  contribution limit in relation to a $21,000 personal cheque he used to pay for  services from Holinshed Research Group.

The revelation led NDP and Liberal critics Thursday to request Del Mastro  step aside as the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary until the  investigation is resolved, but Del Mastro brushed aside the demands, stating  that he serves “with integrity and conviction.”

In a CBC TV appearance Wednesday night, Del Mastro said his audited campaign  expenses — which showed a payment of only $1,575 to Holinshed — were accurate  and complete, and said the rest of the money was for other work.

“They undertook a small amount of work during the campaign, during the actual  campaign writ,” he said. “That’s reflected in that campaign expenditure. They  did also undertake some work at various times for my association. They would be  on separate statements.”

But documents filed as part of a small-claims lawsuit launched by Holinshed  appear to show that Del Mastro’s campaign manager, John McNutt, hired Holinshed  for election work on Sept. 14, 2008, a week after the campaign began.

According to one of those documents, a quote on Holinshed letterhead, the  company was to perform 630 hours of voter-identification calls and  get-out-the-vote calls on election day and on advance poll days for $21,000.

The small claims court file also contains a cheque from Del Mastro’s personal  account for the same amount dated Aug. 18, 2008, and an invoice for the  completed work.

In a statement of defence filed by Del Mastro’s lawyer in the legal dispute  between Holinshed and the Peterborough MP, the lawyer writes that Holinshed “had  done work for the Peterborough Conservative election campaign for the general  election.”

After the election, when Del Mastro’s official agent filed the campaign’s  return, it included a payment to Holinshed of $1,575 and one mysterious line  item worth $75,238.39. In the supplier name it said only  “Advertising/Brochures/Signs.”

Elections Canada’s auditors seem to have demanded more detail, because when  the audited return was posted online, the single line item was gone and 100  smaller line items were added, including a $10,000 payment to Holinshed, under  the header “amounts not included in election expenses.”

The expense statement showed the campaign spent $91,770.80, just $795.99  under the limit.

The Peterborough Conservative association’s annual return for 2008 shows  $9,548.32 for polling, although the supplier isn’t listed.

In a court order filed in the Ottawa courthouse, Elections Canada says it  suspects that Del Mastro violated the Elections Act in two ways, by exceeding  the amount he is allowed to spend on his own campaign, and by exceeding the  spending limit for the riding.

His campaign’s official agent, Richard McCarthy, is suspected of improperly  accepting the $21,000 alleged personal donation from Del Mastro, failing to  include all the expenses in documents filed with Elections Canada and knowingly  filing a false claim.

Under the Elections Act, each charge is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000  and up to five years in prison.

Del Mastro and McCarthy have both asserted that all such charges are  groundless, and the statements filed were accurate and complete.

In October 2009, after their business relationship had eroded into acrimony,  Holinshed wrote to McCarthy, asserting that the campaign’s return did not  include all of the work the firm did during the campaign.

“Holinshed charged $20,000 plus GST to your campaign,” wrote company  president Frank Hall. He included copies of the contract and invoice, and asked  that the campaign rectify the “reporting error.”

In the small claims court documents, Holinshed says the firm became aware of  Del Mastro’s financial report when another Conservative candidate for whom the  firm worked asked why Del Mastro paid so little for election work.

In question period on Wednesday, MPs for the Liberals and the New Democrats  called on Del Mastro to step down as parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister  Stephen Harper, in which he has acted as the government’s main defender in the  “robocalls” affair.

After question period, Liberal leader Bob Rae said Del Mastro will not be an  effective spokesman on Elections Canada issues since he’s under investigation by  that body.

“It’s not up to us to find him guilty or not guilty,” he said. “It’s up to us  to decide is this now going to be a credible spokesman for the government when  it comes to issues dealing with ethics and dealing with Elections Canada.”

NDP MP Charlie Angus also said Del Mastro should step aside.

“While an investigation is under way, where Mr. Del Mastro is compromised in  his ability to defend the government and also in his ability to attack Elections  Canada, if that’s the government’s position, then he should step aside.”

In an email Thursday, Del Mastro declined to clear up questions about the  cheque.

“I have never been contacted by Elections Canada on the matter and stand by  the accuracy of my financial records,” he wrote.

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre told CBC TV Thursday that Del Mastro will  not be stepping down.

“He’s not stepping aside,” he said. “There’s no evidence of any wrongdoing  here.”

In an interview on CTV TV Thursday, Del Mastro said he would come forward  soon with documents showing that everything in his campaign was on the  up-and-up.

Postmedia News and Ottawa Citizen

smaher  AT  postmedia.com

gmcgregor  AT  ottawacitizen.com

© Copyright  (c) Postmedia News
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

2.  June 6

The MP leading the Conservative government’s defence in the robocalls scandal  is himself under investigation by Elections Canada for alleged election-law  violations related to voter-contact calls made by his campaign in 2008.

Elections Canada says in a court document it has  reasonable grounds to believe offences were committed by Dean Del Mastro, who  serves as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s parliamentary secretary, and by his  campaign’s official agent.

The MP leading the Conservative government’s defence in the robocalls scandal  is himself under investigation by Elections Canada for alleged election-law  violations related to voter-contact calls made by his campaign in 2008.
Elections Canada says in a court document that it has reasonable grounds to  believe offences were committed by Dean Del Mastro, who serves as Prime Minister  Stephen Harper’s parliamentary secretary, and by his campaign’s official  agent.
In a surprise television appearance Wednesday evening, Del Mastro emotionally  denied any wrongdoing. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The allegations of Elections Act violations are listed in the court order  compelling Frank Hall, owner of Holinshed Research Group, to produce emails,  invoices and other documents related to work he did for Del Mastro.
An invoice submitted in a small-claims court dispute brought by Holinshed  against Del Mastro purports to show that Holinshed performed voter  identification work as well as get-out-the-vote calls on election day for Del  Mastro’s 2008 campaign. The company, once based in Ottawa, now no longer appears  operational.
The production order, issued in response to an investigator’s sworn  statement, says Del Mastro is suspected of incurring costs that breached his  campaign’s spending limit by more than $17,000.
He is also suspected of paying $21,000 for election expenses with a cheque  drawn on his personal bank account – which, if proven to be a personal  contribution, would dramatically exceed the $2,100 contribution limit for  candidates.
Those violations are each punishable by a fine of $5,000 or imprisonment for  as long as five years.
The production order also names Del Mastro’s official agent Richard McCarthy,  who was responsible for ensuring expense reports filed with Elections Canada  were accurate. He is suspected of improperly accepting the $21,000 alleged  personal donation from Del Mastro, failing to include all the expenses in  documents filed with Elections Canada and knowingly filing a false claim.
No charges against Del Mastro or McCarthy have been laid and none of the  allegations cited in the production order have been proven in court. The court  order was obtained by Thomas Ritchie, an investigator retained on contract by  Elections Canada last year.
Del Mastro said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he was not aware of  the investigation.
“I have no knowledge of what you’re talking about,” he said.
Later, when Postmedia reporter Stephen Maher was discussing the story on the  CBC television show Power and Politics, Del Mastro made an unscheduled  appearance to defend himself. He complained that Elections Canada has not  informed him about the investigation, which was putting him in the  spotlight.
“The reason why I’m here is things like this eat you up inside,” he said.  “I’ve got a family back in Peterborough. I’ve got a lot of friends there. I’ve  got a family in business. And it has my name on the sign.”
Del Mastro said he was in the process of reviewing records and couldn’t say  what exactly the $21,000 cheque paid for.
“They (Holinshed) undertook a small amount of work during the campaign,” he  said.
“That’s reflected in the campaign expenditure (report). They did also  undertake some work at various times for the association. Those would be on  separate statements.”
Neither the Del Mastro campaign-expense disclosures nor the annual report for  the Conservative electoral district show a payment of $21,000 to Holinshed.
Reached by the Ottawa Citizen at his home in Peterborough on Wednesday,  McCarthy said he was not under investigation, to his knowledge.
“I don’t know anything about this,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re  talking about.”
He recalled some dealings with Holinshed but said they had nothing to do with  the election.
“There was an inappropriate disbursement made to him for something that  didn’t have anything to do with the election period and then he paid it back,”  he said.
“I don’t want to talk to you about this. There is no issue.” He then hung  up.
For the past three months, Del Mastro has been the Conservative party’s  spokesman on Elections Canada’s investigation of misleading calls in the 2011  election. He answers most questions about the issue in the House of Commons and  has represented the party on TV panel discussions about robocalls.
There is no sign the Prime Minister’s Office knew Del Mastro was under  investigation until asked for comment by Postmedia News on Wednesday.
The office has yet to respond to the request.
The production order issued March 29 gave Hall until the end of May to hand  over his correspondence with Del Mastro or his campaign, the scripts used for  the voter contact calls, company payroll records and bank statements and related  invoices.
Ritchie appears to be working from some documents that were also introduced  in a small-claims lawsuit filed by Holinshed against Del Mastro in 2010 over  other work the company says it did for him after the election.
In the small-claims lawsuit the company sued Del Mastro, alleging it had not  been paid for providing a voter-tracking system called GeoVote – work it says  the MP requested Holinshed perform after the campaign.
None of the allegations in this case has been proven either.
Hall mentioned in court documents that Del Mastro had also hired the company  at the beginning of the election campaign to do $21,000 worth of voter ID and  get-out-the-vote work and had been happy with the work. That election work  allegedly included 630 hours of telephone calling and live calls on election  day, an invoice submitted in the court file purports to show. Del Mastro won the  election by a wide margin.
Holinshed was paid, Hall said in the court file, with two cheques from the  Peterborough riding association, one for $10,000 and another for $11,000. The  cheque for $11,000 was cancelled, and Hall says he received a $21,000 personal  cheque drawn on a joint account Del Mastro held with his wife – an overpayment  of $10,000 that Hall says he refunded.
The small claims court file includes a copy of a cheque, dated Aug. 18, 2008  – about three weeks before the election. The court file also includes a  Holinshed invoice for $21,000 sent to the Del Mastro campaign on Sept. 14, 2008.  It appears to have been signed by campaign manager John McNutt.
After the election, Hall claimed, Del Mastro asked him to do $1,500 of  additional work using some of the election data and to backdate the invoice to  the election period.
Hall later checked Elections Canada filings and found that the Del Mastro  campaign had declared only the $1,500 payment for the extra Holinshed work – a  payment Hall said he never received – and not the $21,000 of work he performed  during the election.
The filings show Del Mastro’s campaign was just $796 below its spending limit  of $92,567. Any substantial additional expenses that count toward the spending  limit would have breached the cap, in violation of the Election Act.
A letter in the court file shows Hall wrote to Del Mastro’s official agent,  McCarthy, to alert him to a “possible mistake” in the Elections Canada filings.  McCarthy wrote back to say the first cheque for $10,000 was issued in error and  the other for $11,000 had a stop-payment placed on it. McCarthy explained that  he shouldn’t have paid for “annual expenses” from the campaign and instead  should have pro-rated the amount for the election period.
In court documents, Del Mastro denied Holinshed’s claims and said the company  completed no work for him that was satisfactory. He further alleged that any  invoices for the work were “erroneous, false and were prepared prior to any  services being completed.”
The small claims action appears to have gone dormant.
Hall could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Elections Canada has a track record of investigating MPs who try to secretly  use their own money to exceed election spending limits, although it doesn’t  typically impose tough sentences.
In 2008, former MP Wajid Khan – who was elected as a Liberal, then crossed  the floor to the Conservatives – pleaded guilty to exceeding election expenses  in the 2004 election in the Mississauga-Streetsville riding of Ontario, and was  fined $500. Khan ran unsuccessfully as a Conservative in 2008.
In the same year, Elections Canada entered into a “compliance agreement” with  Blair Wilson, who was elected in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky  Country as a Liberal in 2006. In the agreement, Wilson acknowledged paying for  $9,000 in undeclared advertising expenses.
Wilson resigned from the Liberal caucus when allegations about election  irregularities were made public in 2007, and was refused readmittance in 2008.  He then joined the Green party, although Parliament was dissolved before he  could sit as the party’s first Green MP. He ran unsuccessfully for that party in  the 2008 election.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Tory+robocalls+defender+under+investigation+election+violations/6740276/story.html#ixzz1xoIeIao6

© Copyright  (c) Postmedia News
Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News

2004-06-11 Great Sand Hills (GSH) and Water: Be very clear on the dynamics.

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Culture and Ethics, Energy, Sustainability, Water  No Responses »
Jun 142012
 

(The arguments and information remain valuable, in spite of the date.)

FROM:  Sandra Finley

(contact info)

June  11, 2004

TO: DEPT OF ENVIRONMENT

(1)       MINISTER  David Forbes,    Email: dforbes  AT  serm.gov.sk.ca

(2)      DEPUTY MINISTER   Lily Stonehouse,   Email:  lstonehouse  AT  serm.gov.sk.ca

CC:  MLA”s  Pat Atkinson and Peter Prebble

 

Dear David and Lily,

Re:  GREAT SAND HILLS

The Department of Environment, and therefore you two, have power of veto in the attempted re-zonings of lands in the Great Sand Hills.

What support do you require in order to exercise your veto?

 

I.    REGARDING WATER SUPPLY

Regarding water supply and your responsibility for the SASKATCHEWAN WATERSHED AUTHORITY  (SWA issues the permits to use water;  each new well uses water;  permits are required.)

Question:

(1)  What is the amount of water allocated for each new well and how is the amount that is withdrawn actually monitored? I pose the question because the graph for the monitoring well in the GSH from the Saskatchewan Research Council, data from 1965 to 2002 shows a dramatic decrease in the water table.  This is a very serious issue that should be resolved PRIOR to further water allocations.    The graph is at:   http://www.econet.sk.ca/pages/issues/gshhydrograph.html

The graph raises two further questions:

(2)  What is the reason for the decline in the water level?

(3)  If you don’t know the answer,  will you find out the answer before allowing more gas well development in the GSH?

In this regard I note that the National Water Research Institute (NWRI) of Canada has two locations, one of which is right here in Saskatchewan.  The NWRI employs 300 water scientists, which is most of the water scientists in Canada.  It is their job to conduct research and provide input to Provincial Governments so that we may have well-informed, effective water policies.  Which leads to another question:

(4)  Have you sought input from the NWRI regarding the water situation in the GSH?  If so, what input have they supplied?

 

II.    REGARDING SUPPORT IN CABINET AND THE PUBLIC

My understanding is that Peter Prebble and Pat Atkinson are likely supporters of the need to establish intractable protection for the existing Environmentally Sensitive #1 lands in the GSH.

So you, Minister and Deputy Minister of Environment,  are not alone.  If you choose to exercise your veto, there is support.  And there will be respect from a very large public.

You may recall a book that was popular about 3 years ago:  “Sex in the Snow” by Michael Adams,  President of Environics Research Group.  On page 193:

“The Canadian emphasis on egalitarian values goes beyond the equality of human beings – whatever their sex, age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation – to the consideration of non-human species and the natural environment.  I expect this principle will be codified in the preamble the next time we amend the Canadian constitution.  Canada’s global village is a global garden.”

That there are so many people willing to fight for the protection of what remains of the natural environment is consistent with Michael Adams observations, which are based on years of research into the attitudes of Canadians.  The many communications the Government of Saskatchewan has received from citizens in support of protection for the GSH is further evidence.

You have all the support you require to bring an end to the “death by a thousand cuts” being experienced by the Great Sand Hills.

 

III. THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

The oil and gas industry has access to all the ES2 lands in the GSH, but not to ES1 lands.

They seem not to be satisfied unless they will have it ALL, which, through re-zoning they will have.  That is not right.  There is a balance to be achieved.

The CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF PETROLEUM PRODUCERS (CAPP)  is on record as saying there are natural areas that should be protected, from which oil and gas activity should be excluded.  The Petroleum industry participated in the task force 1994-98 that established the protected areas in the Great Sand Hills.   They AGREED that ES1 lands should be ES1.

What has happened since then?  Why now do companies like Anadarko want on ES1 lands?  …  Since the earlier agreements, there has been a large sell-off of Canadian oil and gas companies to American interests.  (Anadarko bought up Norcen, for example.)  So we have more demanding companies now.   What that means is that we have to be stronger, to stand up for our own interests.

(Contact in Calgary for CAPP:  Roger Shanaman 403 267 1104.)

The Petroleum Industry has applied in the past for drilling permits in the National Wildlife Areas (NWA)’s in the Great Sand Hills.  NWA’s are on Federally-held Crown lands.  The applications have been turned down because of the endangered species (in spite of the fact that the Dept would have liked the revenues).    The Federal Government has set a precedent, which you can follow.

 

IV.      SELLING US OUT

When the gas is gone, what will remain?  … rusted and twisted pipes.  For certain there will be no money in the bank. … The Sand Hills are sand.  When disturbed, sand blows.  Need I tell you about the power of the winds in Saskatchewan?  So there will be a desecrated landscape, a desert of blowing sand with no trace of the creatures and the beauty. (Remember that some of the wildlife is ALREADY endangered.)  The accessible gas reserves will have been depleted by our greed and lack of consideration for the future.

We will do this for what?

94% of our natural gas extraction goes to the United States.  Simultaneously there is every likelihood that Canadians will actually need this resource in the future.  . . .   Let me use analogy to put this in focus:

There are stories of native peoples who were bribed, duped or coerced by invaders to essentially give away portions of prime reserve lands in return for shiny baubles.   The deed would be done by a few “leaders” who profited themselves.  The invaders profited, too, of course.  The native peoples became impoverished without the resource of good and valuable land.

Think of the food supply that was exhausted so that animal pelts could be shipped in massive numbers to decorate the wealthy class in Europe.  It was not only the food supply, it was the source of clothing, warmth, protection, tools, etc..

Gone, sold-off, vanished.  Gone for the unsuspecting, for those who did not have information, the powerless, the weak.

We, local Canadians, are now the “native people”.

Some of “our leaders” are in the process of selling us out.    What is to be done in this case?   . . .  The response is to become leaders ourselves.  Stand up and speak out for, indeed DEMAND “what is right”, which is for the good of the community and its future.

WHO are the profiteers?

I have provided the documentation for Ron Clark, President of crown corporations SaskEnergy and Trans Gas Pipelines,  fraudulent press conference with Clayton Woitas, millionaire American and owner of Profico.  Dwayne Lingenfelter, former Deputy Premier now with Nexen Oil and Gas.  Doug Anguish, former Cabinet Minister now working for the pipeline companies.   Larry Kratt, former Dept of Environment employee now working for Nexen.  Nexen, number one client of Trans Gas.  Trans Gas builds a pipeline into the GSH.  … There are obviously more would-be profiteers in Government or what is happening would not be happening.

(Do you know what gets me, in addition to everything else?  The salt in the wound? . . . The sell-off is done at bargain basement prices.  Resource companies today in Saskatchewan receive “royalty holidays”!   The profiteers are indeed generous with what is not theirs to give away.   EXACTLY what happened to the resource base of the Native peoples in Canada . . sold off for a pittance.  History repeats itself.  Only this time WE are the doomed people, unless we see and will fight.)

 

V.   ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE

The environmental significance of the GSH is well recognized and documented through such vehicles as:

  • the International Biological Program.
  • Parks Canada (one of five Natural Sites of Canadian Significance in Saskatchewan)
  • the Provincial Parks System Plan in 1990 as a candidate Natural Environment Park
  • the province identified it in 1992 as a candidate Ecological Reserve
  • 9 quarter-section National Wildlife Areas (NWA’s) established by the Federal Govt
  • an Important Bird Area (IBA) (Bigstick Lake Plain) of “Global” significance.

At a public meeting in Saskatoon Dr. Howard Nixon, member of the Order of Canada, expressed his frustration:  more than a decade  ago he had participated in public meetings on this very issue of the Great Sand Hills.  The Government was supposed to have done cumulative environmental impact assessments as a consequence of the process.    Nothing has been done in all the intervening years.   The Government approves rezoning in complete ignorance of the consequences because there has been no effective cumulative assessment.  Just empty words about what “should be” or “will be” done.

 

VI.     SPECIES

The Great Sand Hills are home to a large number of plant and animal species, including over 20 species considered internationally to be rare, threatened or endangered. Some of these include: Sprague’s Pipit, Long Billed Curlew, Ferruginous Hawk, Burrowing Owl, Great Plains Toad, Lotus Milk Vetch, Prickly Milk Vetch, and Burr Sage.

Short-eared owl and Ord’s Kangaroo Rats are in the Sand Hills, and are rated “of  special concern“.

Antelope, sand hill cranes, partridges, prairie chicken, sharp-tailed grouse, whitetail deer, burrowing owls, and kangaroo rat all make the region their home. Dotted throughout the area are aspen, birch, and willow trees, as well as rose and chokecherry bushes and sagebrush.

VII.     PHILOSOPHICAL BASE

When making irreversible decisions,  it is important to know and to acknowledge the philosophical grounds upon which the decision is made.

  • “The real problems facing all living things on this planet are not economic or technical, they are philosophical.  The prevailing western philosophy at the end of the 20th century is swamping the whole world, resulting in the destruction of our natural heritage and our human heritage.” writes Robert Bateman.
  • J. Stan Rowe,  in “Saskatchewan’s Endangered Spaces”  writes of “Species Self-Centeredness” and a “faulty world-view that can be changed.”   “How curious that every right-thinking person condemns selfishness and egoism in the individual, and sometimes even in the ethnic group or nation, but never in the species as a whole.  We recognize and condemn imperialism as enslavement and exploitation directed at other people, but our entrepreneurial species directs the same imperialism against nature to the sound of loud applause. …”  “No wonder species are disappearing as if the end of the world were here.  Like mechanical cowbirds we are laying our industrial eggs in every possible niche and nest, crowding out and displacing all creatures that do not directly serve us.  On the playing field that we have levelled, moose cannot compete with bulldozers nor frogs with spraying machines.  In the words of Kenneth Boulding we have to be worried about this planet when there are more species of nuts and bolts than there are of birds.”

VIII. IN CONCLUSION

Mary Gilliland from Saskatoon said it as well as it can be stated:  “The Great Sand Hills are one of those places which deserve to exist simply because they are irreplaceable to a large number of other species, plant and animal, which depend on their ecosystem.  … We are intelligent, not only in how we choose to make change, but also in terms of knowing when to stop, regardless of the dollars which might come through more development.”

It is my request that through the power you have as Minister and Deputy Minister of Environment,  with support inside Cabinet, and wide support outside Cabinet, that you put an immediate end to the re-zoning of Environmentally Sensitive #1 lands, and that permanent irreversible protection be legislated for these areas.

Thank-you for your consideration.

 

Yours truly,  . . .

2012-06-11 CPPIB investment in Lockheed Martin increased by 14 times, 2010 to 2011.

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Culture and Ethics, Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Jun 112012
 

The figures from Richard Sanders below on Canada Pension Plan Investments in Lockheed Martin are pretty staggering.  I believe he is a credible researcher.

Many people lobby the CPPIB (CPP Investment Board), I do not know that it is reported anywhere.  I used to lobby them on what they are investing in and the conflicts-of-interest on their board.  Haven’t done it for some time – it became more difficult to find info on their website and the efforts didn’t appear to bear fruit.

CPPIB hired a couple of people 7 or 8 years ago,  positions responsible for their “Socially responsible” investing.  I recently received an email:  “(Name) lost the job at cppib, soon after we started asking questions, a lot of questions. (Name) tried to be helpful.”

 

APPENDED:  postings from our network regarding the CPPIB.

 

From #11,  2012-04-23 From Tootsie Rolls to tobacco: What’s in your CPP fund?  CBC News,

a senior executive from the CPPIB (Don Raymond, formerly from Goldman Sachs – see bottom of this posting) said  “the fund has a strict “investment only” mandate and, by law, cannot take political or moral considerations into account when choosing investments”.

The statement contradicts CPPIB policy on “socially responsible investing”?

Last week I called the CPPIB (“socially responsible” section) to question re the increase in investment in Lockheed Martin.  I was told 2 or 3 times about the statement on the CPPIB website re socially-responsible investing; I haven’t looked at it yet (in the past I found it to be advertising or rhetoric or propaganda – not the real goods).

Between two of the postings, you will see (Don Raymond, the Senior VP responsible):

CPPIB went on “a buying spree”, (“$2-billion to $5-billion of debt”, March 2009), they then lost $24 billion in that same year, and paid the executives $7 million in bonuses. 

” . . . In 2009, during the global financial crisis, the fund, like many, took a big hit, plummeting 18.6 per cent and losing $24 billion.  This sparked a backlash from some critics who complained the top executives of the board received $7 million in bonuses despite the losses. …”     . . .  Nothing mentioned about the “buying spree” – –

“Don Raymond, senior vice-president of public market investments at CPPIB, said the fund would issue $2-billion to $5-billion of debt over the next year to provide “additional flexibility” . . .” 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

From: Richard

Sent: June-08-12

Subject: Re: Need info – war industry funding of Canadian universities

 

Hi Sandra

In the past few days, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) released its data regarding CPP investments for 2012. (This new data which reflects CPP holdings as of March 31, 2012, updates the previously available information for March 31, 2011.)

The CPPIB also recently released the times and places of its nine public meetings.  These June 11 mtgs are an hour-and-a-half-long opportunity (once every two years) for Canadians to make comments and ask questions about the CPP and its investment practices.  The Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade is rallying folks to attend these meetings in person or to pose questions online via a CPPIB webcast on Monday, June 11.   http://coat.ncf.ca/research/cppib-meetings.htm

The new data shows that the CPPIB almost doubled its investments in the world’s Top 100 war industries during Fiscal Year (FY) 2011.

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin (LM) ranks as number one on the list of international war industries.

The CPP has long invested in LM. The CPP currently includes $78 million worth of shares in LM, up from $5 million in 2011.  That is a more than 14-fold increase.

In 2011, the CPP held 62 shares in LM.  Now, as of March 31, 2012, the CPP holds 872 shares in LM.  (INSERT: these numbers are likely in units of a thousand)

The CPP isn’t the only large Cdn pension fund investing in LM.  The CP and three other large funds (among the top six Cdn pension funds) own a total of $ 101,598,000 worth of shares in LM.  (The three other funds are OMERS, OTPP and PSPI.)

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the F-35 warplane.

The CPP and the other five top Cdn pension funds are investing in many militar contractors that are building the F-35s.

See this COAT research to show the 2012 data:  http://coat.ncf.ca/research/Pensions-F35.htm 

The total value of the CPP’s stake in the top 100 international war industries (as ranked by “Defense News,” using 2011 company data on military revenues) went from $387 million in 2011 to $674 million in 2012.

The CPP Investment Board seems to have deliberately chosen to increase its investments in the world’s largest war industries.

During Fiscal Year 2011, it added 15 new companies to its portfolio from the Top 100 list.

So, instead of investing in only three of the world’s Top 10 war industries, as it did in 2011, the CPP increased that to 9 of the Top 10.

And, instead of owning shares in only 7 of the world’s Top 20 war industries, as it did in 2011, the CPP now holds shares in 18 of the Top 20.

Cheers

Richard Sanders

coordinator, COAT

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APPENDED:    POSTINGS RE CPPIB & ETHICAL INVESTING

(Note:  click on the link and then scroll down past the top headings to read the article.)

1.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5709   2006-01-01   Norway’s Central Bank hires Doctor of Philosophy (Henrik Syse) re Implementation of moral behavior in investment decisions (money from offshore oil)   (Der Spiegel).

2.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5707   2006-06-06  Norway dumps Walmart stock because of its unethical behaviour.

3.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5712   2006-07-29  Wal-Mart pulls out of Germany at cost of $1bn U.S. (The Times of London)

4.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5715   2006-08-02  CPP investments – our money, our responsibility.  Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

5.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5718   2006-08-02  Letter to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Divestment needs to be part of the CPPIB socially responsible investing policy

6.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5785   2006-11-28  Water is the new oil, says CIBC.  I called CEO Brain Shaw.  You, too?.  CPPIB launched bid for British water utility.  P3’s.

7.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5705   2007-02-22  Norway withdraws support from World Bank Fund, Water privatization

8.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5777   2007-02-28  Weyerhaeuser, Letter to major pension plans. Grassy Narrows. CPPIB.

9.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4897   2007-06-06  How to find out how much of your money (CPP) is invested where.  VIDEO: Help “Get the Shell Out” of the Sacred headwaters.

10.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5771   2007-12-13  Violent Evictions at El Estor, Guatemala.  Eviction Notice sent by a Canadian company, Skye Resources. Acadians. CPPIB.

11.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5767   2008-03-22  BASF Clearfield Wheat. CPPIB Board Director in conflict-of-interest.

12.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=2367   2008-05-26  Lockheed Martin Census: Are Canadians Contravening the Global Ban on Anti-Personnel Landmines? CPPIB

13.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=188    2008-12-08 Canada signs international treaty to ban cluster bombs. The treaty conditions and moral authority require us to dis-invest from Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of cluster munitions. CPPIB

14.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5848   2009-03-26  CPPIB going on a buying spree, Financial Post, Karen Mazurkewich

NOTE:  They went on a buying spree, (“$2-billion to $5-billion of debt”), they lost $24 billion in that same year, and paid the executives $7 million in bonuses.

The article, “CPPIB going on a buying spree”, was written in March 2009.

By the end of 2009, excerpt from 2012-04-23 From Tootsie Rolls to tobacco: What’s in your CPP fund? CBC News ” . . . In 2009, during the global financial crisis, the fund, like many, took a big hit, plummeting 18.6 per cent and losing $24 billion.  This sparked a backlash from some critics who complained the top executives of the board received $7 million in bonuses despite the losses. …”

15.   http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=258   2010-02-25  Understanding why we flounder, help from John Ralston Saul “On Equilibrium”

16.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5740   2012-04-23  From Tootsie Rolls to tobacco: What’s in your CPP fund?  (CPPIB)  CBC News

17.  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=5746    2012-06-08  CPP Investment Board, Public Meetings   (June 11 in Regina)

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FROM THE CPPIB WEBSITE:   DONALD M. RAYMOND,  SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT

Donald M. Raymond

Senior Vice-President and Chief Investment Strategist

Don is responsible for overall fund level investment strategy. He chairs the Investment Planning Committee, which approves all new investment programs and oversees all portfolio risks, including passive, active, credit and liquidity risk. Prior to this role, Don built and led the Public Market Investments department transition from external passive equity investing to the development of a wide variety of sophisticated internal active capabilities across all asset classes.

Prior to joining the CPPIB in 2001, Don worked for Goldman Sachs for seven years. He joined their Toronto office as a fixed-income strategist before moving to the Quantitative Strategies group in New York with responsibility for global equity and fixed-income portfolios. He began his investment career as a research analyst in the fixed-income derivatives department of Burns Fry, a predecessor of BMO Capital Markets.

Prior to developing an interest in finance, Don worked for Schlumberger in China and trained as a pilot in the Canadian military. He holds a PhD in engineering from Queen’s University and a CFA charter. Don is currently Chair of the International Centre for Pension Management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and a Trustee of Queen’s University.

2012-06-10 When NATO does this in Tampa, WE do this in our community.

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Economy / Political Economy, Empowerment, Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials), Solidarity with the Warriors  No Responses »
Jun 102012
 

I offer PROBLEM and REMEDY in this posting.

When NATO does this in Tampa  /  WE do this in our community.

I am sorry you may find it lengthy.   I feel I have to make a water-tight case.

ON “THE REMEDY” SIDE:

Do not fall for the propaganda that what is happening in Quebec is “violent” or just a bunch of spoiled children.  The documentation below shows it is neither.  And it is spreading.  There is video footage of similar mass protests (“casseroles” —  banging on pots and pans) in Toronto and Vancouver.  The movement is growing.

Remember Montebello (Item #13 below).  It is well documented that violence is sometimes a deliberate tactic of the police to discredit and discourage protest.

Rally all the support we can for the “casseroles” (banging of pots and pans, citizens taking to the streets).  Please take the time to understand the situation (“the problem”).

ON “THE PROBLEM” SIDE:

The factual documentation below shows that we are (democracy is) in a precarious situation.

– Jim (from the U.S.) writes:

“June 8, 2012 – Special Forces from 96 countries focused on ‘Building the Global SOF (Special Operations Forces) Partnership’ at a conference in Tampa, Florida.  The multinational cooperation of NATO SOF serves as  good example of (INSERT: proof of) such a global Special Forces network.”

The one thing that could be most effective globally would be true and enforceable INTERNATIONAL LAW & ORDER – but no one cares about this fact. None of this military bullshit (INSERT: NATO exercises in Tampa, Florida) would be needed if there were any real LAWS against corruption, fraud, mass murder (war – drone attacks), crimes against humanity and the like – this crap is a physical stopgap that only exists to keep all people prisoners of the (INSERT: I would say “corporate globalization”) one-world “government” that is in reality not a government at all – but is simply organized CRIMINALITY ON A GLOBAL SCALE. (INSERT: it is happening in many areas, privatization of water, utter destruction of the environment and graphically – the drone attacks, the President’s “kill list” – more below.)

BACK TO THE “REMEDY” SIDE:

1. (From Item #11 below, Vancouver “Casseroles” (street protest):

There is a beauty that emerges when we learn and inspire each other, just as Quebec has done for the rest of Canada. When we speak to each other instead of through governments or the mainstream media. Here in Vancouver, we discovered what it means to make music together in the streets, in the rain, and you can see it on our faces. It is magic.

2. (From Item #13 below, A talk given by Chris Hedges to the graduating class at Wilfrid Laurier University):

If the street protests in Quebec, the most important resistance movement in the industrialized world, spread to all of Canada and reach the United States, there remains the possibility of hope.

INSTRUCTION:  After clicking on links to my blog, scroll down past the top headings to the actual posting.

 

3. (From Slavoj Žižek, Interview, “Democracy Now”, with Amy Goodman and Julian Assange):

“.. . . this idea that there are out there quite ordinary guys, nothing special, but who all of a sudden, as if in a miracle, do something wonderful. That’s almost, I would say, our only hope today.”

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To:   All of us and our neighbours

I propose:

PROBLEM:    WHEN NATO DOES THIS IN TAMPA
(see video, 6 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CvfJCzYtA3Y

(NOTE: the video is identified as “NATOchannel.tv”.)

 

REMEDY: WE DO THIS IN OUR COMMUNITIES: 

1.   Think about the “chilling” effect of the military, and the “normalizing” of their presence in communities.

Jim (Canadian) writes:

One has to have a sinking feeling watching all the public taking photos rather than protesting that foreign troops are on American soil:  NATO Special Op Forces Assault Tampa, Florida – YouTube

2.  Add a smithereen of history: The Nazis were a democratically-elected Government, as incomprehensible as that may seem. The people who COULD, did not stand up and say “NO” when they saw the threat, until it was too late to salvage democracy. And so there was a war.

3.  Understand the importance of the Rule of Law in a democracy.  Be clear – – Harper has blatant disregard for it.  One example:  It doesn’t matter what you think of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) – the issue is that Harper did exactly what the Law said he could not do.

4. If you want to know what’s coming down the pipes in Canada, look at what’s happening in the U.S. (and in Canada, already).

  • The NATO “Special Operations Force” in Tampa.

5.  Review the role of propaganda in the build-up of a militaristic state, be able to identify it.  The NATO video is propaganda.  Cleverly done, and subtle, normalizing what is UNacceptable. A “NATO TV channel” running this kind of propaganda, “conditioning” the populace – – not good news.

Only for the REAL keen people!:

6. Know the GOOD NEWS!  The military-industrial people might be building the propaganda, BUT! Sometimes the truth gets aired on mainstream media – NBC (who would have thought?) !!

6 minutes

Very important televised debate: Jeremy Scahill (“The Nation”) says Obama drone strikes constitute murder, and he says it on NBC.  The U.S. “kill list”.

7. Refresh our memory:

Last week a friend saw the Saskatoon Police Force’s “cougar” on the street.  That is the first I’ve heard to confirm that it was actually purchased and delivered.

8.  Make sure everyone knows that if Bill C-38 gets passed, American police (on top of the American military) will be allowed to operate in Canada with American laws.

9. Then watch this (new posting), if you need a reality check:

10.  Add “Kettling” to our vocabulary (new posting).

2012-06-10    Kettling, a tactic of police, now counter-used by crowds to “kettle” the police.

11.  Think:  Does lobbying the Government work in Canada?  If not, what will?

12.  Get comfortable with banging our pots and pans.  And if you aren’t, do not denigrate those who are.

I added the following 3 updates to  All over the World, people coming to life in the streets – – even in Canada! (in solidarity with Quebec)

Shot & edited by Ian MacKenzie, ianmack.com

Inspired by Jeremie Battaglia’s gorgeous Montreal film, Vancouver answers the Quebec student movement with a pots and pans revolt of our own. There is a beauty that emerges when we learn and inspire each other, just as Quebec has done for the rest of Canada. When we speak to each other instead of through governments or  the mainstream media. Here in Vancouver, we discovered what it means to make  music together in the streets, in the rain, and you can see it on our faces. It  is magic.

13.   DO NOT FORGET MONTEBELLO:

EXCERPT:

. . .  EVENT: SPP meetings in Montebello, Quebec.  Peaceful protest.

DATE: 2007

The only protesters who were masked were POLICE OFFICERS. They were trained and assigned the role of turning the protest violent.

It is all on video, along with the later statement by the head of Quebec Police (Surete) that yes, the “protesters” were actually police officers. . . .

14.  READ THIS, VERY IMPORTANT, NEW POSTING:  2012-06-03  If the street protests in Quebec, the most important resistance movement in the industrialized world, spread to all of Canada and reach the United States, there remains the possibility of hope. “Northern Light”, column by American Chris Hedges.

If the street protests in Quebec, the most important resistance movement in the industrialized world, spread to all of Canada and reach the United States, there remains the possibility of hope.

The preceding is similar to:

(From Slavoj Žižek, Interview, Democracy Now, with Amy Goodman and Julian Assange):

“ . . . this idea that there are out there quite ordinary guys, nothing special, but who all of a sudden, as if in a miracle, do something wonderful. That’s almost, I would say, our only hope today.”

15.  KNOW THIS  (the purpose of the preceding factual information):  What’s coming down the tubes is not pretty.  This is no time to be timid.  Talk with your friends, spread the word, support the pot-bangers.  Be a pot-banger.

The only power on Earth that can stop and reverse the taking down of democracy is ours.

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RELATED:

2008-02-14 Canada-U.S. Troop Exchange Agreement.  “Civil Assistance Plan”.  In context of privatization of prisons, military functions, access to information.

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