Sandra Finley

2012-03-07 Privatization of water. Bless and help those whose work will stop it. (Update on the World Water Forum)

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Water  No Responses »
Mar 072012
 

International Oil companies “own” the oil;  international water corporations want to “own” the water.

The World Water Council = World Water Forum = privatization of water.

We are truly blessed.  We have these people who are tireless in their dedication.  Maude Barlow, the Council of Canadians, working with others.  The privatization will be stopped eventually.  It will be stopped sooner if we all help by creating awareness.

/Sandra

P.S.  Awesome!  a Chapter of the Council of Cdns is being re-established in Saskatoon.  Watch for notice of the start-up meeting.

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Dear friends,

The statement below was drafted over the past few months by many friends from the global water justice movement. It is a message we intend to deliver to governments in Marseille calling on them to join us in denouncing the corporate forum and supporting a democratic, participatory forum on the human right to water.

We would like to attach the names of as many organizations from as many countries as possible.  Please let me know if you’re able to sign on by Friday March 9 at 5 pm EST and please distribute within your networks.

In solidarity,  Meera Karunananthan, Council of Canadians

– – – – – –

Global water justice movement call to action for governments on the implementation of the human right to water
Marseille, March 2012

As members of the water justice movement gathered in Marseille, France to mobilize against the 6th World Water Forum, we issue this statement which also carries the voices of many from around the world who have not come to Marseille. We are in Marseille to give voice to the positive  agenda of global water justice movements. We are here to oppose the corporate driven World Water Forum, which poses as a multi-stakeholder platform on water policy.

The context of Marseille

The choice of Marseille as a host city for the 6th World Water Forum is significant.  Marseille is home to the World Water Council, the corporate think tank and lobby group that convenes the World Water Forum. Among its founders are the multinational water corporations, Suez and Veolia, as well as the World Bank.  Marseille has long been a financial supporter of the Council itself and France is considered by many to be the birthplace of water privatization.

As they convene in Marseille, Veolia, Suez and SAUR, three of the world’s biggest water corporations are under investigation by the European Union’s anti-trust regulator for working as a cartel to fix the price of water and wastewater services in France. Together the three multinationals control 69 per cent of the France’s water distribution systems and 55 per cent of the water treatment systems.

It is as a result of such scandals that many French municipalities from Grenoble to Paris have joined communities around the world to remunicipalize their water and wastewater systems.

1.    Who we are

We are social justice organizations, indigenous peoples, trade unions, environmental groups, farmers, writers, academics, human rights advocates, community activists and networks which share a vision of water as a fundamental human right and a commons, not a commodity. We have led struggles throughout the world in defense of water and territory to protect the commons.

Our principles

We reaffirm and strengthen all the principles and commitments expressed in the 2006 Mexico City and 2009 Istanbul alternative forum declarations: we recognise water as being essential for all life on the planet. We uphold the fundamental and inalienable human right to water and sanitation; we insist on solidarity between present and future generations ; we reject all forms of privatization and declare that the management and control of water must be public or community-owned, social, cooperative, participatory, equitable, and not for profit; we call for the democratic and sustainable management of ecosystems and the preservation of the integrity of the water cycle and waterways’ rights to flow through the protection and proper management of human use of watersheds and environment. We oppose the dominant economic model that prescribes the privatization, commercialization and corporatization of public and community-owned water and sanitation services.

Some of our achievements include: reclaiming public utilities that had been privatized; fostering and implementing public – public partnerships and community partnerships; forcing the bottled water industry into a loss of revenue; and coming together in collective simultaneous activities during Blue Octoberi.

While many challenges lie ahead in implementing this right, we celebrate the United Nations recognition of the human right to water and sanitation as well as the adoption of this right in several national constitutions and laws.

Our demands

A forum on the human right to water and sanitation in October 2014

Five World Water Forums over the span of 15 years have not brought us closer to a solution. Led by the World Water Council, the Forum has promoted strategies for corporations seeking greater profits from the global water crisis.

The recognition of water and sanitation as a human right within the United Nations General Assembly (resolution 64/292) and subsequent UN Human Rights Council resolutions are moving the stakes back to where they belong, with governments.  It is now time for the United Nations and its member states to take the lead in ensuring a progressive implementation of this right.

We call on the UN General Assembly to organize a global forum on water in October 2014ii.

As the legitimate global convener of multilateral forums, we call on the United Nations and its member states to formally commit to hosting a forum on water that is accountable to the global community and that is linked to state obligations under the human right to water and sanitation. This forum must enable meaningful and open discussions with impacted communities, workers, indigenous peoples and civil society.

We demand member states comply with United Nations resolutions and reform domestic laws to recognize that all people have the right to water and sanitation.  Governments must commit to producing national action plans outlining how they will meet their obligations to respect, fulfil and protect this right.

We call upon all organizations and governments at this 6th World Water Forum, to withdraw their support from the corporate-controlled water forum.

6th World Water Forum Ministerial Statement

The World Water Forum’s draft ministerial statement is not a legally binding document and the Forum is not a legitimate space for water policy discussions. As such, the statement is both inadequate in comparison to the commitments needed for countries to progressively realize the human right to water, and harmful in that it can inappropriately shape and bleed into binding commitments made in other forums.

In terms of content, the statement has several key weaknesses. The draft declaration ignores the failure of privatization to guarantee access to water for all. The statement promotes the investment in water resources as natural capital, a model that has led to schemes that have stripped communities of their rights to water and land. Water is a commons and we reject any attempt to financialize our collective water resources, and thereby take water governance out of peoples’ hands and into corporate boardrooms

International financial institutions, including the World Bank Group, are exacerbating public sector weaknesses through direct support for the private sector and promotion of increased government delegation of key responsibilities and capacities.

We call on Ministers to draft and adopt a counter declaration challenging the authority and legitimacy of the World Water Forum as a space for developing good water governance/policymaking, and affirming the importance of democratic water
governance.

The ecological crisis and the Earth Summit

We represent movements on water, land, food and climate working to counter the financialization and commodification of nature being promoted under the banner of the so-called “green economy” which is to form the basis of the Rio+20 Earth Summit discussion in June 2012.

As water justice activists, we are concerned that water is being promoted in Marseille as the engine of the green economy. Within this context, the 6th World Water Forum and the corporate agenda of the Rio + 20 Summit are set to pave the way for greater privatization of water services in the name of green innovation and private sector efficiency; the promotion of large infrastructure projects and agribusiness in the name of green energy that will prevent communities from protecting their water resources and; market-based models of water allocation and governance including water markets and payments for ecological services, which will result in the loss of local control and enable multinational corporations greater resource rights. This will only exacerbate the historic North-South inequities by allowing Northern corporations greater access to natural resources in the Global South.

The basic connection between water and climate change – the impacts of which are felt most profoundly by marginalized communities throughout the planet – is recognized by the scientific community and is underlined also by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Therefore, we must not accept false solutions to the environmental crisis being promoted under the rubric of the “green economy” such as dams, nuclear power plants, and agro-fuel plantations that jeopardize the quantity and quality of water.

Dams have displaced an estimated 40-80 million people, impoverished millions more, and turned fresh water into the ecosystem most affected by biodiversity loss. Big, centralized hydropower projects have typically favoured the demands of extractive industries and urban centres over the basic needs of the poor.

The dam industry, the World Bank, the G20 and other actors are currently promoting an expansion of big hydropower projects.  The dam industry tries to greenwash its projects through the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, a voluntary scorecard that is controlled by industry and does not include any social and environmental minimum requirements for hydropower projects.

We call on governments and financiers to prioritize the water and energy needs of the poor over the demands of the global market. We ask that all needs and options are assessed in a balanced, participatory process before new water and energy projects are approved. We call on all actors to strictly follow the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams in case such a process identifies a dam as the most appropriate option.

We call on governments and other actors not to endorse the voluntary approach of the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment
Protocol.

Further, the dominant model of mono-crop intensive industrial agriculture contaminates and destroys water resources, introduces non-native species to ecosystems, monopolizes biodiversity, and adversely affects the food sovereignty and food security of indigenous and local communities who continue to feed 70% of the world’s population. It impoverishes not only indigenous and rural communities but agricultural soils and ecosystems, contributes to global warming. It displaces indigenous and local communities and has an enormous impact on the lives and
public health of billions of people.

In order to ensure economic and environmental justice for all, we need new models of governanceiii that are based on protecting water as a commons along with systems of restoration and compensation to restore the integrity of water, land and ecosystems, which have been destroyed by decades of abuse.

The corporate-driven, market-based green economy is not a solution to the global water crisis and we take this opportunity to say to all leaders negotiating at the Rio+20 Summit that our water is not for sale, our world is not for sale!

We demand that governments join us in saying no to the green economy as currently defined.

Indigenous rights

We are indigenous and non-indigenous peoples standing in solidarity against the large-scale destruction and pollution of indigenous waters and territories through foreign and colonial laws and practices such as globalization and so-called free market mechanisms, that continue to usurp and displace Indigenous Peoples from ancestral and traditional lands, territories and natural resources.

For Indigenous Peoples water is life and water is Sacred. Water nourishes not only our bodies but our spirits and is fundamental to our spiritual lives and cultural practices. Water provides for our traditional means of subsistence, food sovereignty and food security and cannot be privatized. We demand respect for indigenous rights and sovereignty. We demand recognition of indigenous knowledge, traditional, spiritual and cultural practices, and institutions of governance.

Financing the human right to water and sanitation in times of economic crisis

The economic crisis must be urgently addressed in a just and equitable manner. We are among the many who have taken to the streets around the world to declare that the public should not be forced to absorb the costs of the failure of an economic system driven by corporate interests, which has perpetuated inequalities and environmental collapse.

The human right to water requires adequate public financing. In the context of economic austerity in the global North and structural adjustment in the global South, governments have slashed spending for vital water and sanitation services and allowed private corporations greater access to these sectors.

In her 2011 report to the General Assembly on financing, the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation emphasized that a narrow focus on economic growth has prevented States from fulfilling the human right to water and sanitation.

We call on States to make the financing of public and community-owned water and sanitation systems through progressive taxation a priority. Furthermore, we call for public resources to be allocated to public-public partnerships ensuring that public sector best practices are shared among those requiring capacity building and training. We also support the call for domestic and international transaction taxes that would increase the revenues and capacity of governments to direct funding to
public services.

We call on International Financial Institutions to support democratic governance and control of water by directing support through legitimate governments and in a way that facilitates democratic decision-making.

We demand that all employers, public or private recognise worker rights as defined by ILO conventions.

We celebrate our achievements and we look forward for our continued collaboration across countries and continents!

i Blue October is a month commemorated by the global water justice movement to promote water as a human right and a commons
ii October is proposed in honour of Blue October.
iii By participatory governance models, we refer to democratic models of governance that entrench the rights and duties of communities with regards to the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of participatory public policies which include all actors (social, governmental, academic and labour) in the basic decisions that define life within a territory.,

2012-03-07 Information re computerized data bases used by political parties

 Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud  No Responses »
Mar 072012
 

The article below from the Hill Times talks about the  computerized data bases used by political parties.

It sounds as though there is something suspect  —
–  A second Conservative MP has confirmed the Conservative Party  provided his campaign with detailed voter identification lists . .

There may not be anything NECESSARILY suspect here.   It depends on a few factors.  If the age of the voter, for example, was provided – where did that information come from?  (Discussed in a later posting – voters were targeted by age.  And this statement,   “Mitch Wexler, a Conservative voter-data expert, said political parties can supplement voter registration lists with CENSUS information…” From later postings, it is also the case that the Conservatives have the money to hire a company to do their “voter identification”.

To the extent they can afford, all political parties use computerized data bases.  Individual campaigns may not have the resources to create their own comprehensive voters list; it’s reasonable that it might come from a National Office.

You need the ability to MERGE the Elections Canada Voters List (street address + name)  with Canada411 (phone number) with the Party record (supporter, donor, lawn sign, not a supporter, etc.) This might be legitimate.

What is NOT acceptable is robo-calling used fraudulently and data bases that breach privacy rights.

(Disclosure: I am a Green. I might be envious that we don’t have the resources to create such data bases for our candidates.  (Except that I am uneasy when I see how these merges of data can be done.)  It doesn’t mean that THIS ONE ASPECT (Kramp, a Conservative MP, was supplied with a ‘phenomenal’ tool) should be used for condemnation. There are PLENTY of other important grounds for condemnation!  WHAT INFORMATION was provided, how much,  from where was the information sourced?)

March 7

PARLIAMENT HILL—A second Conservative MP has confirmed  the Conservative Party provided his campaign with detailed voter identification
lists for his electoral district, including telephone numbers, and information  from Elections Canada voter lists, as voting day approached in the federal  election last year. More at

http://www.hilltimes.com/news/politics/2012/03/07/tories-cims-database-phenonmenal-asset-but-conservative-mp-kramp-says-his/29967?page_requested=1

2012-03-03 Robo-calls: Tory MPs used top U.S. Republican firm during May election

 Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud  No Responses »
Mar 052012
 

http://www.thestar.com/iphone/news/canada/politics/article/1140344–conservative-mps-used-top-republican-firm-during-may-election?bn=1

March 3, 2012 00:03:00
Linda Diebel  National Affairs Writer

Fourteen Conservative MPs signed on with a well-connected Republican company during last year’s election campaign, contrary to the party’s claims, the Star has learned.

On its website, Front Porch Strategies, a “voter contact and constituency outreach” firm based in Columbus, Ohio, boasts: “In May’s federal elections, Front Porch Strategies won all 14 of their races.”

Among their clients was Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro who, on Thursday, led the charge in the Commons over the voter dirty tricks scandal, accusing Liberals and notably Eglinton—Lawrence MP Joe Volpe of paying over $25,000 to a calling company with offices in North Dakota.

Added Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “We’ve done some checking. We’ve only found that, in fact, it was the Liberal party that did source its phone calls from the United States.”

In an interview with the Star, Del Mastro backed down on the North Dakota allegation — for which he apologized to reporters — and said: “Nobody is saying there’s anything wrong with the use of U.S. firms.”

After a raucous week in Parliament, Elections Canada confirmed Friday morning that it has received 31,000 complaints from Canadians about misleading and harassing calls since Monday.

Del Mastro praised Front Porch and said the company was very effective in running teleforums — Internet or phone-powered focus groups — in his riding.

But one of his Front Porch events got messy. On March 23, 2011, the day after the budget, a teleforum involving over 5,000 households, turned nasty when several supposedly screened callers launched a “smear campaign” against then Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, according to Liberal candidate Betsy McGregor.

“It was billed as a forum to discuss the budget but it seemed to me like an exercise in voter identification — and that’s not right,” she said from Peterborough. “He would have been 100 per cent certain Harper was going to call the election in three days so it was for electioneering purposes.”

McGregor recalled one caller falsely claimed Ignatieff wasn’t even Canadian and accused former Liberal governments of sending Canadians into battle in Afghanistan without flak jackets.

“I would just ask why not use a Canadian company? I think the people of Peterborough would be really astonished to know how our MP had to import U.S. services to win our election.” she said.

It’s not clear whether Front Porch stuck to teleforum work or handled other types of voter outreach — such as robo-calling — for its 14 Conservative clients. According to Elections Canada expense returns, they also included: Northumberland MP Rick Norlock, Rick Dykstra from St. Catharines, Brant’s Phil McColeman, Dean Allison from Niagara West—Glanbrook and Parm Gill from Brampton-Springdale.

The company’s website notes it has worked for the Conservative caucus as well as MPs.

PJ Wenzel, a partner in the firm, didn’t return Star phone calls. There’s an excerpt on his voicemail from former U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s “tear down this wall speech,” from the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall in 1988. He urged then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “open this gate.”

Veteran political operative Jim Ross, a former Dykstra staffer hired as a consultant for Canadian operations by Front Porch, said the company doesn’t release information on clients or the type of work done. Over the past year, Front Porch also hired Erin Wall, a former communications adviser to Treasury Board President Tony Clement, as an associate.

Front Porch has worked for the top echelons of the Republican Party, including George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, Mitt Romney during his bid for the 2008 nomination and the Republican National Committee. The firm has been especially active in trying to overturn the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that ensures a woman’s right to abortion.

In an interview, Duff Conacher, on the board of Democracy Watch, said American companies shouldn’t be involved in Canadian elections. “It’s legal to engage the services of anyone you want during an election campaign but it’s very disturbing to see the Conservative Party using companies with these kinds of partisan (Republican) ties.”

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, whose St. Paul riding saw tires slashed, brake lines cut and lawn signs taken down in the last two federal elections, told the Star she opposes the idea of using foreign companies because “if there were to be transgression, we don’t have the same resources to go after them as we do with Canadian firms.

“It bugs me. It just doesn’t seem right. It’s our country, our voters and our election.”

The Conservatives have outstripped other parties over the past decade in fundraising and honing its political machine. The party effectively uses the resources of the powerful Conservative global organization, the International Democratic Union (IDU), a coalition of member parties including the U.S. Republicans, the Canadian and U.K. Conservative parties and, in the Australia, the centre-right Liberals.

The Harper team has been adept at learning from election technology seminars from other countries using IDU — called “off-shoring” — and keeping its people in prominent positions within the organization. In a legendary example, strategist Patrick Muttart adopted voter identification techniques from Howard in Australia that included breaking voters into tight little groups to target them on campaign drives.

Currently, Senator Doug Finley, Harper’s former campaign director is a deputy chair at IDU. Charges under the Elections Canada Act against Finley and Senator Irving Gerstein were dropped last year, but the party was found guilty and fined $52,000 for overspending in the “in-and-out” scandal, in which riding funds were funnelled into national advertising.

Fred DeLorey, the party’s director of communications who on Thursday accused Liberals of hiring U.S. firms, called the ruling: “a big victory for the Conservative Party of Canada.”

A Liberal analyst who spoke on background said that nobody should think the Liberals are virtuous. Rather, he said: “There has been a global revolution that has transformed every aspect of politics in the last five years. The Conservatives know how to take technologies from other parties in other countries — ‘offshoring’ — and they do it better than anybody else. The problem is I don’t think Elections Canada can keep up.”

Ron Shaiko, a senior fellow at the Rockefeller Centre at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College, tracks get-out-vote techniques as well as “voter suppression” in the U.S.

“In the U.S. the people who work to suppress voter turnout are the Republicans for a simple reason,’ he said. “Historically, the lower the turnout, the better it is for Republicans. High turnout means Democratic wins.”

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2012-03-05 Robocalls, history in Canada. Call it what it is. What to do?

 Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud  1 Response »
Mar 052012
 

This is a sampling of what our fellow citizens are saying and DOING.

Scroll through.  Many thanks to many of you, from all of us, for the input!

Item #1, Elizabeth May,  a critical piece of context that I haven’t seen in the mainstream media.

Item #6, CALL IT WHAT IT IS by Jim Harris.  The words used to frame an issue are critical in forming public understanding – – the line between propaganda and truth.

I apologize for that which I have missed!   There is another important point I wanted to make, but I can’t remember what it is!

/Sandra

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  1. ROBOCALL ELECTION FRAUD DID NOT START WITH THE 2011 ELECTION;  it had its beginning in Canada at least by the 2008 Election.

Click on  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8X_XESpKQA Elizabeth May,   Robocall Pilot Project: Elections Canada Drops the Ball
in BC 2008

Elizabeth clarifies the current situation, and provides information on the 2008 Election robocalls.

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2. CONNECTIONS TO THE U.S.

(Skimmed different articles.  I don’t think there is doubt that, at the very LEAST,  some Conservatives and some Liberals are using American capabilities.)

(published in the Globe & Mail – I was quite surprised that they printed the excerpt below.)

Exactly how dangerous is Stephen Harper?

gerald caplan

Globe and Mail Update  Published Friday, Mar. 02, 2012 4:39PM EST;  Last updated Monday, Mar. 05, 2012 5:11PM EST

EXCERPT from:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/gerald-caplan/exactly-how-dangerous-is-stephen-harper/article2357089/

In fact, I’m informed by a former Conservative operative familiar with both the party and technology that there’s far more to be revealed in this saga. This is said specifically to involve close ties between the Harperites and American Republicans who have been constructing a terrifying, full-blown voter suppression machine, as The Nation magazine, among others, has well documented and CBC Radio’s The Current has noted. I have no idea if this will be found to be true, but based on the record, it is surely not implausible.

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3. WHAT TO DO? . . .   I’D SAY   “ DO BOTH!”

There is good information on two options in the article  Tories go on offensive over robocalls.

Click on:  http://www.canada.com/news/Tories+offensive+over+robocalls/6234917/story.html#ixzz1oGozj67E

–          Public Inquiry  (many Canadians calling for)

–         Individual Canadians have the legal right to take action against electoral fraud (Council of Canadians organizing this action).  It seems to me to be a good tactic.  If you live in a riding where electoral fraud took place, join with others, use the Courts to obtain a by-election to right the wrong.   There will be more to report as things unfold.

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4. PROTESTS?     – –  YES!   LOTS HAPPENING!

–   Hundreds rallied in Vancouver Saturday to protest the growing robocalls scandal.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/03/03/bc-robocall-rally.html

–    OTTAWA—The controversy over harassing and phoney election calls drew a small crowd on Parliament Hill today as demonstrators braved bitter cold to denounce the robo-calls affair.  The Ottawa rally followed a demonstration last weekend in Vancouver that attracted a few hundred people. More protests are planned (this) week in Toronto and Calgary.   http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1141176–robo-calls-protesters-take-to-parliament-hill-over-misleading-phone-call-controversy

–         NATIONAL  DAY OF PROTEST:  Sunday, March 11.

Look for one in your area.

In Saskatoon, people are meeting in front of City Hall at 1:00 pm Sunday.   I don’t know who is organizing it.   Just show up!

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5.  PETITIONS? Talked about earlier,  see  2012-02-27  Robocall Election Fraud — Amazing response

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6. CALL IT WHAT IT IS

The robocall scandal isn’t about “dirty tricks”.  It isn’t about over-zealous people who “just want to win”.

It’s about election fraud and violating Constitutional rights.

It is not different from beating people up to prevent them from voting; it is only more technologically sophisticated.  This is banana republic stuff.

There’s A VERY GOOD ARTICLE BY JIM HARRIS, a Huffington Post blog.  Jim writes:

I published a blog titled: Let’s Call it What it is: ELection Fraud — which the HuffPo editors re-titled Harper Conquers Canada, One Robocall at a
Time

I would very much enjoy your feedback on it — it’s at http://huff.to/yW1YgR

I think this is a critical issue that isn’t being given the proper treatment.

The blog seems to have hit a chord as it was the top post for HuffPo with more than 1,500 likes, shares, tweets and comments — and it continues to trend — it’s already broken 2,000 by 6 am this morning.

Anything you could do to draw attention to it — post it on Facebook, tweet it out, etc would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to your feedback.

Jim Harris

Former Leader, Green Party of Canada
Tel: 416 467 6006;  jimh  AT  jimharris.com;  Twitter: @JimHarris;   http://ca.linkedin.com/in/jimharrisprofile
Web: www.jimharris.com

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7.  MISLEADING B.C. ELECTION CALL TRACED TO CONSERVATIVE PARTY, CBC NEWS

There is a whole lot of spin-doctoring going on. Hold a few examples in mind,  come back to them when you need bed-rock.   In the earlier
email there is a link to the recording on an answering machine of the cleverly-done robocall, purportedly from Elections Canada, saying that the
polling station is re-located.   There is no doubt about the Guelph robo-calls.   Now add this one from B.C.:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/03/01/bc-suspicious-election-calls-dimond.html

Woman got repeated calls for donations then was told of polling place change

CBC News
Posted: Mar 1, 2012 5:59 PM PT    Last Updated: Mar 1, 2012 11:55 PM PT

A Mission, B.C., woman says she was given misleading information by the Conservative Party a few days before the May 2011 federal election.

Astrid Dimond said she had been called six times for Conservative donations during the last election. After a seventh call, she said she did an
internet search on the caller’s phone number, which had shown up on her call display.

“It came up as the Conservative Party in Victoria,” Dimond said.

The next time she received a call from the same number, she told the caller she was supporting the NDP in the election in the hopes the calls would stop.

Two days before the election, Dimond said she got another call from the same number.

“[The caller] just said, ‘Did you know the polling station had changed,’ and basically, I said, ‘No it hasn’t,’ and that was the end of the conversation. I wouldn’t let her continue because I knew it was a falsehood.”

Dimond said some of her neighbours were getting similar calls and they all knew the information was wrong.

Complained to Elections Canada

Dimond said she sent a complaint to Elections Canada about the aggressive and ultimately misleading calling.

– – – -SNIP – – – –

“Your complaint will also be considered in context with a broader inquiry ongoing with regard to irritating calls that have been occurred during this general election campaign,” Elections Canada said.

The riding in which Dimond lives — Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission — has been held by Conservative Randy Kamp since 2004.

CBC News has been told about suspicious calls in nine B.C. ridings:

  • Burnaby-Douglas.
  • Burnaby-New Westminster.
  • New Westminster-Coquitlam.
  • North Vancouver.
  • Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission.
  • Prince George-Peace River.
  • Saanich-Gulf Islands.
  • Vancouver Quadra.
  • Vancouver South.

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8. WE STAND ON GUARD FOR THEE – PART I http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2373#2373

BY Jim Harding  For publishing in R-Town News  Mar. 2, 2012

This is the first in a Series of four articles looking at how the Harper government is undermining democracy, justice and sustainability and what Canadians can do to prevent his political agenda from balkanizing Canada.

We need to protect the political freedoms we have in order to make Canada a more equal and sustainable society. Without robust political freedoms
the Harper government will continue to drive wedges between us for the benefit of a few, without regard for what climate change will do to our children.

We see historical examples of elected regimes centralizing power and aggressively attacking their opponents to gain dictatorial-like powers. Our
soldiers fought against fascist regimes to prevent this. Canada is not immune to this threat. Our democracy is presently being challenged perhaps more than at any other time. Reductions in voter turn-out and widespread cynicism about crass power plays and the lack of authenticity in politics have already weakened our democracy. There are growing signs that the present federal government intends to use its power to weaken democracy further.

1. CONTEMPT FOR PARLIAMENT

Let’s look at the Harper record so far. While still a minority, Harper led the first Commonwealth government to ever be found in contempt of
Parliament. Those cynical about politics may not consider this anything special, but it is. The withholding of information, or misinforming Parliament, fundamentally undermines its ability to keep government transparent and accountable to the people. It is the first big step away from democracy.

Harper’s Ministers appeal to the “supremacy of parliament” as though having a majority of seats justifies dominating Parliament. This ploy was used when Harper dismantled the farmer-elected Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) without following the rule of law. But the supremacy of Parliament does not mean that majority governments can do an end-run on Parliament or existing legislation.  A government that acts like a one-party state is not working within the framework of parliamentary democracy.

For Harper it’s all about centralizing control. He has broken his promise to democratize the Senate by appointing a rash of Conservative cronies and defeated candidates to rubber-stamp his legislation. There will be no sober second thoughts in a Harper-dominated Senate. He’s even appointed an unelected person to his Cabinet. Contempt for our democracy was shown with Harper twice shutting down (proroguing of) Parliament to side-step democratic accountability.

2. MANIPULATING ELECTIONS

Elections enable the voice of the people, popular sovereignty, to be expressed. Some politicians see elections as simply a means to obtain power, a means to manipulate voter behavior to squeeze out enough first-past-the-post votes to become government. Harper cleverly uses wedge issues to divide Canadians. His propaganda attack ads on opposition leaders not only manipulate half or non-truths, but his excessive spending in the 2006 campaign contravened the Elections Act. Using the “end justifies the means” mentality, the Conservatives concocted an “in and out” funding scheme that violated spending limits. Laws were broken by senior Conservative officials including partisan-appointed Senators. In accepting a plea bargain whereby the Conservative Party pleaded guilty and individual charges were dropped, the judge said that the breaches were “significant to the democratic process.”

The Harper government first came to power through electoral fraud, then used the inner control of state resources to work towards majority
government. Now we find that during the 2011 election last May, which had Harper squeezing out a majority with less than 3 out of 10 eligible voters, more electoral violations occurred. Misinformation about changes in the location of polling stations was systematically sent to thousands of Liberal supporters in 37 constituencies, many with tight races. These “robocalls” have been traced to an Edmonton firm, Racknine, linked directly to the Harper Conservatives. This scam directly benefitted the Conservatives and we will have to wait and see if Elections Canada finds a smoking gun. A rash of by-elections may be on the way.

3. CURTAILING FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

To allow informed consent among voters, a democracy requires the free-flow of reliable information. Harper is fundamentally undermining this
process.  He rigidly controls contact between his Minister’s and the media and scripts the political lines used for public consumption. When the head of the regulatory body, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), called for a shut-down of the Chalk River nuclear reactor due to inadequate safety back-up, she was fired. When the Chief Statistician went head-to-head with the government over the need to maintain the long-form census to provide quality information for better needs assessment of Canadians, he was squeezed out.   (INSERT:  I disagree with Jim on this one.)  The Canadian Association of Science Journalists is now raising the alarm that government-employed scientists, paid from taxpayer’s funds, are being “muzzled” by Harper.  Harper has even abolished an Access to Information data base (CAIRS). His plan to abolish the per-vote subsidy for political parties would leave him and his powerful corporate funders even more able to monopolize political discourse with expensive attack-ad propaganda.

4. BREACHING INTERNATIONAL LAW

Harper’s contempt for the domestic rule of law is also shown internationally. He has systematically undermined international attempts to negotiate a treaty to avert atmospheric temperatures rising to an irreversible level. He turned his back on Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Accord, which Parliament endorsed. In total disregard for the ruling of the Supreme Court, Harper is the only government which did not repatriate its citizens from the U.S.’s Guantanamo base. His government was among a handful that opposed the UN’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which affirms the “duty to consult” prior to any resource extraction or toxic dumping on indigenous land.

Harper refused to sign the UN Declaration designating safe water as a human right and refused funding for First Nations communities facing a desperate lack of safe water. His government has just been singled out for condemnation by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Harper is starting to give Canada a reputation as a “rogue state”.

5. POLITICAL SURVEILLANCE

His government is prepared to be even more draconian. Harper tried and failed several to pass legislation allowing his government to monitor
internet activities. Now with a majority, his Minister Toews has introduced Bill C-30 compelling internet providers to give police new surveillance powers without requiring a warrant. This act was brought forward with the deceptive moralistic title – the “Protecting Children from Internet Predator’s Act”, yet it would enable a massive internet sweep of political opponents. The attempt to send a chill among Canadians, with Toews claiming “either stand with us or the child pornographers”, has somewhat backfired; even some libertarian Conservatives have rallied for privacy protections and free speech on the internet.

This legislation needs to be placed aside Harper’s new counter-terrorist strategy which speaks of “violence by domestic issue-based groups…revolving around the promotion of various causes”. It then groups together dangerous neo-fascist white supremacy groups with “animal rights, environmental and anti-capitalist groups”.

Legitimate reform and opposition organizations are already coming under attack. Look at Harper’s Minister Oliver’s preemptive attack on Aboriginal and environmental groups opposing the Northern Gateway Pipeline, calling them “anti-Canadian radicals”; or the detention of 1,100 protesters at the G20 meeting in Toronto in 2010 without cause or arrest.

Harper seems intent on criminalizing those who are standing up for democracy, justice and sustainability. His attempt to militarize Canadian
culture is a most cynical ploy. We celebrate our military for fighting against fascism in order to protect the very rights and freedoms that Harper so
disregards. His law and order agenda to build-up police powers and prisons and to have government-prescribed sentences, further reduces the separation of power that is fundamental to a democracy.

This should all be a wake-up call for Canadians.

Next week I’ll look at the injustices that will result from Harper’s changes to social policy.

MORE at: http://jimharding.brinskter.net and  www.crowsnestecology.wordpress.com

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9    2009:  The Prime Minister is now in such command that he can get away with pretty much anything

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/democracy-canadian-style-how-do-you-like-it-so-far/article1403148/

by Lawrence Martin   Published on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009 6:15PM EST Last updated on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2009 2:23AM EST

When you think about it, the way to make governing easy is to dispense as much as is possible with the demands of democracy. The d-word is a drag. It gets in the way of the exercise of power. Ways need be found to circumvent it.

There are a variety of such ways. One is to limit the voice of the bureaucracy, the public service, making it more submissive and partisan. Ditto the foreign service. As well, you want to dispense with agency or commission heads who don’t follow your thinking. If some agencies get particularly
meddlesome, such as Elections Canada, take them to court.

There’s an old-fashioned idea, once a Reform Party thing, that regular people – those grassroots folks – should have a sniff of the action. As nice as it sounds, don’t go there. You need to amass unparalleled executive power so everything is top down and put through the filter of politics. For your own caucus, you enforce such tight discipline that no one dare cast an independent vote. You issue your members a secret handbook on how to disrupt parliamentary committees. For Question Period, you instruct your members to answer most queries with a putdown of the previous government’s record. . . . .. .

MORE:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/democracy-canadian-style-how-do-you-like-it-so-far/article1403148/

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10. VIEW FROM THE REICHSTAG

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/01/26/View-from-the-Reichstag/

In Berlin, I was told German history offers a lesson for Canadian democracy.

By Michael Byers, 26 January 2012, TheTyee.ca

EXCERPT: “The real surprise,” I explained, “is that Harper does not appear satisfied with the extensive powers that are normally available to a majority government.”

I tell my German colleague about the government’s practice of invoking closure, with a frequency never before seen in Canada, to prevent elected MPs from debating major legislation such as the omnibus crime bill and a bill that will add dozens of new seats to the Commons.

About how, increasingly, the government moves the business of parliamentary committees behind closed doors, so that it can conceal embarrassing documents and reject witnesses proposed by opposition parties without fear of public censure.

Warning, with a smile

Finally, I explain how the Federal Court ruled in Dec. 2011 that a bill to abolish the Canadian Wheat Board was illegal because it violated a statutory requirement to poll wheat farmers first. No matter: the government adopted the bill anyway.

This led Peter Russell, the doyen of Canadian constitutional law, to warn: “Canadians should understand that at stake here is not just a technical point of law, but the integrity of parliamentary government.”

At this point, a wry smile crosses the German professor’s face.

“Professor Russell is right,” he says. “It’s all about understanding. Here in Germany, we sometimes learn our lessons too late.”

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia and serves on the board of the Salt Spring Forum.

5. Ballantyne

 X Ballantyne  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

2012-02-27  Laliberte:  Statement of Facts submitted to Law Society of Saskatchewan (re Defamation Vellacott)

 

George LALIBERTE

211 Avenue R South

Saskatoon, SK

S7M 2Y9

Ph: (306) 249  0397

———————————————————————————————————————

February 27, 2012

STATEMENT OF FACTS

REGARDING THE GUILTY VERDICT AND $5000 AWARD

FOR DEFAMATION OF MAURICE VELLACOTT

 

On February 15, 2012 I received a phone call from Saskatoon Star-Phoenix requesting comment/reaction regarding the guilty verdict against me for defamation to Maurice Vellacott, Conservative MP of Saskatoon Wanuskewin riding. Apparently, there was a trial that found me guilty, to which I had no knowledge of until I received the phone call from the Star-Phoenix.

 

The charge of defamation is related to my volunteer work for the Campaign to elect Liberal candidate Chris Axworthy in the 2006 Federal Election, Wanuskewin riding.   Marie-Therese Verma was and still is the President of the Wanuskewin Riding Association.  She was the campaign manager to elect Liberal Chris Axworthy at that time. The alleged incident of willful defamation on my part occurred during a televised live (Shaw cable) debate of federal candidates on January 17, 2006.

 

For the record, I have been a supporter of the Liberal Party all my life.  My parents and extended family members have always been Liberal supporters. Further, I have known Chris Axworthy for many years as he has assisted me on many occasions in Aboriginal community development projects and functions. Chris Axworthy personally made commitments to attend many of our community Aboriginal functions. Therefore, in his bid for a Federal Liberal seat for Wanuskewin riding, Mr. Axworthy personally asked me if I was interested in volunteering in his election campaign in 2006 Federal elections. I enthusiastically accepted his invitation as I felt indebted to him for past contributions made to the Aboriginal community development projects. During the campaign, I volunteered wherever I felt I was needed. As one of his foot soldiers I handed out pamphlets, requested potential supporters to display Liberal posters on their property, and made phone calls to relatives within the Aboriginal community.

 

I am 63 years old, I am a recognized traditional ceremonial elder within my Aboriginal community. I have conducted ceremonies, provided workshops and presentations on Aboriginal value systems of healing, and provided individual counseling and group therapy (traditional healing circles). At the same time, I have been involved in many Aboriginal organizations in terms of assisting and directing their developmental process, as a consultant in Aboriginal value systems of healing. I have sat in many boards and committee’s as an advisor on our common vision of Aboriginal healing. Because of my experience and knowledge gained through many years working in the field of Aboriginal healing, I have been sought by Government organizations to do presentations and prayer, such as the Ministry of Health of Saskatchewan Government.

 

My personal circumstances that resulted in the current defamation that found me guilty as a result of 2006 Federal Election.

 

On Monday, January 17, 2006 as part of our volunteer activities and avid supporters of that campaign, I took some friends with me, including Ernie Poundmaker, (403-269-7729) to the Liberal Campaign headquarters, to assist and listen to the televised Federal candidate debate. Marie-Therese Verma, campaign manager of Chris Axworthy, approached me and asked if I could do a favor for her by making a phone call to the televised debate.  She explained that she had to observe the debate in another room and she was unable to make the phone call at the same time;  as a volunteer, I agreed to make the call. She gave me a paper with the phone number and three questions to ask Mr. Vellacott.  She told me to wait and would signal me when to make the phone call. The three questions to ask Mr. Vellacott that were written on the paper as best as I can recall them were:

 

1.       “Did you ever run for the Liberal Party?”

2.       “Were you ever a pastor at North Park Church?”

3.       “Were you ever charged with sexual assault of your secretary?”

 

Upon receiving the go ahead to make the phone call from Marie-Therese Verma, I dialed the number and asked the questions as I was directed. After asking the last question the TV station hung up on me, At that time I thought nothing of it, I got up to get a coffee and a donut.  When I returned Kim Olfert (306-341-1782), who had been using the phone before me asked where the phone disappeared to, I told her I had left it on the table and I didn’t know where it went, apparently someone unplugged the phone and moved it. After that I left with my friends, Ernest Poundmaker and Kim. While driving home we had a discussion on the events of the debate, it was at this time my friend Ernest Pound maker told me that Marie-Therese Verma had approached him first to make the phone call.  He declined because he was too shy and doesn’t like talking in public.

 

It wasn’t until the next morning I began to realize the seriousness of the situation, as I started getting phone calls from the media from all over Canada (Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, etc.)  In one hour there were about an average of ten calls coming at me. I tried answering the media questions to the best of my ability but for the most part I didn’t know what to say, it was very frustrating trying to answer the inquiries as I didn’t really understand the issue.  I started hanging up and didn’t bother answering my phone altogether. It was at this time I called Chris Axworthy at home and asked him what was going on and if I did something wrong. I expressed to him that I felt that I was unjustly targeted by the media as I felt I didn’t do anything wrong. He told me not to worry about anything and that the party will take care of everything, at the same time Mr. Axworthy confirmed that I did nothing wrong, he informed me that one of their lawyers (Liberal) would contact me and that they would take care of the situation. Since then it has been my position to just leave the conflict to the Liberal Party and their Lawyers, to which I regret to this day.

 

Not long after my phone conversation with Chris Axworthy, a lawyer contacted me.  At no time during this controversy did I ask or seek a lawyer but rather was assigned to me by the Liberal Party, the first lawyer that contacted me was from Saskatoon McKercher Law Firm, to which I cannot recall the lawyers name.  He is not the same lawyer as who apparently represented me recently in Court decision that found me guilty, the recent lawyer name is Tim Froese, also from the McKercher Law Firm.

 

A couple of months after the incident, (can’t recall the exact date) I was invited by the Mckercher lawyer who had set up a meeting with Maurice Vellacott, to which apparently was a Court Mediation, at that time I didin’t know that’s what it was. By this time my health was starting to deteriorate as a result of the incredible stress that I was going through. I attended this meeting as requested by the Mckercher lawyer. I felt at that meeting Mr. Vellacott was okay.  Initially, he wanted from me compensation in the amount of $200,000.00 I apologized to him for the anguish that I have caused him, I acknowledged to him that it was me that made that call and tried to explain how I got involved the whole fiasco.  I told him didn’t know anything about him before or during the elections and that I had no issues against him. I informed him that I was unemployed and I didn’t have any money. Then he lowered his compensation down to $50,000 and eventually came down to $500.00 towards the end when Mr. Vellacott knew that I was not willing to accept his offer, he threatened that he was going to take me to court and get my entire pension. Right after the mediation, I called Chris Axworthy a few more times, eventually he stopped answering my phone calls altogether.

 

Since the incident I became very depressed and had to leave Saskatoon for a few months at a time to escape the controversy. As a result of the incredible stress that I was experiencing I began taking sleeping pills to the point that they eventually did not even work for me. In April of that year, I had a minor heart attack and the following October 16, 2006 of that year I suffered a major heart attack that required a heart surgery the following October 26, 2006, to which has caused me to become mostly unemployable since then.

 

The mediation in 2006 was the last time I was personally involved with this case, after the mediation I hadn’t heard anything about the case. It was my assumption that Mr. Vellacott had decided to drop the case against the Liberals and myself.  It wasn’t until I received the phone call from Saskatoon Star Phoenix that I learned that I was found guilty of defamation and that I had to pay $5,000.00. During this trial against me, I never received a summons to appear in Court, I never received a phone call or letter in my mailbox stating that there was a trial against me. I was surprised and caught off guard when I received the phone call from the Star Phoenix after the fact, I told them I had no idea what they were talking about. About half hour later after the call from Star Phoenix, I received a phone call from Tim Froese of the Mckercher Law Firm, who apparently was representing me throughout this trial against me. Up to that point, I never met Mr. Froese nor did I not know who he was. He explained to me of the Court decision and what had occurred, he suggested that the $5,000.00 SHOULD be taken care of by the Liberal Party, however he suggested that I might have to launch a lawsuit to recover those costs. At this point I was very upset, I told Mr. Froese that If I take the Liberal Party to Court then I would be asking more than $5,000.00 for all the turmoil they have caused me as result of my loyalty to the party and Chris Axworthy. His response was, “in that case I would have to back out of this.” I questioned Mr. Froese on why he did not try to contact me during this trial against me, when in fact I have not change my address since 2006. He informed me that he tried to contact me several times, however I informed him that I am mostly at home and I have never received correspondence or a visit to my residence during my trial that I did not know about.  Mr. Froese apologised over and over for not being able to contact me.

 

I feel a grave injustice has been brought upon me, I feel that I have been abandoned by the Party that I have been loyal to all of my life.  I was told not to worry about anything and that the lawyers that were assigned to me in 2006 would take care of everything. Since then up to 2011, I have been in a very negative state financially and health wise. In the last year I have recuperated significantly and felt my spirit coming back to normal. This latest court decision has brought me back to a place that I hoped was all behind me. Be as it may, I have decided to gather my resources and do what I have to do, to regain my dignity and salvage my reputation. This experience has caused me great anguish, not to mention denied me future opportunities in my career choice. I was willing to let go and move on, however this recent case has given me no choice but to seek a remedy for the injustice that I have gone through.

 

Yours truly,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

________________________

George Laliberte

2012-02-27 Robocall Election Fraud — Amazing response

 Economy / Political Economy, Green Party, Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 
Postmedia reporters Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor broke this story on Feb 23.  If you want to know how “Racknine” and robo calls work, their article from the Vancouver Sun is posted at: http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4483
You can hear Stephen Maher in the CBC interview on the programme, The House:  http://www.cbc.ca/thehouse/ (go to the second listening link).  There is also an interview with Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the former chief electoral officer (starts around the 26-minute mark).
I understand the drive for swift action by citizens.   From past experience,  “communications specialists” go into action and soon bury very serious breaches of what is acceptable and not acceptable.
The LeadNow initiative  is at:  http://www.leadnow.ca/robocall-fraud
It’s simple and important.  Let’s give them a hand!
CONTENTS BELOW INCLUDE:
  • Message from Elizabeth May
  • An action item by the Council of Canadians
  • Links to Globe and Mail articles
THE MESSAGE FROM ELIZABETH MAY
Subject: RE: We need answers and real consequences for Robo-Call  election fraud
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:17:55 -0500
From: parl.gc.ca>
Thank you for your email expressing concerns about the recent Elections Canada report.  This report, describing the use of illegal “robo-calls”
during last federal election, has traced these calls back to a company that worked for the Conservative Party.
This extremely worrisome development is an attack upon our cherished democratic institutions and demands an immediate response.  There must be a complete investigation to determine those who are responsible.  Individuals or organizations who have conducted such egregious actions need to face jail time.  Additionally, financial rebates for those specific elections must be cancelled and returned to Elections Canada.  (Political parties who obtain a certain percentage of the vote in a riding can receive up to 60% of their expenses refunded via Elections Canada, and 50% nationally.
Combined, this amounts to tens of millions of dollars for the Conservative Party.)  Only through such strong measures will we create a meaningful
deterrent to these actions.
The Conservative government has made continuous efforts to target MPs and opposition parties with unscrupulous tactics as a strategy to gain more voter support.  Like you, I believe this is a disturbing trend that is driving Canadians away from the political process, and have condemned this in the House of Commons on November 22nd:
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/parliament/points-of-order/2011/11/22/telephone-calls-to-mount-royal-constituents
For more information on my experience and thoughts on this issue, I urge you to read my book Losing Confidence: Power, Politics, and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy.  In this book, I focus on the changes occurring in Canadian democracy such as the use of attack ads and muzzling of  scientists.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me.  You are exercising your democratic rights, and I am thankful that you’re doing so.  Please do not
hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions or concerns, and I would encourage you to consult my MP website and peruse Vision Green, available online at http://elizabethmaymp.ca/vision-green.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada
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COUNCIL OF CANADIANS’ ACTION ALERT:
Demand a public inquiry into the ‘robocall election fraud’
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 9:01 PM
Subject: ACTION ALERT: Demand a public inquiry into the ‘robocall election fraud’
It has been alleged that at least 34 ridings received illegal voter-suppression calls – advising them that their voting station had changed – during the
last federal election. The total number is expected to grow on Monday. NDP MP Pat Martin says at least 34 ridings received the calls, while Liberal leader Bob Rae says he knows of 27 ridings. Originally it had been thought that 14 ridings had been affected.
The Harper Conservatives hold 166 seats in the House of Commons, 11 seats above the 155-seat requirement to form a majority government. Rabble.ca has pointed out that, “6,201 is the combined margin of victory across the 14 most closely contested Conservative ridings in Canada, with 6,215 being the number needed by the nearest parties in the race to have won these seats by one vote.”
The National Post reports, “Liberal supporters say the repeated calls usually came during dinner, late at night or early in the morning from people claiming to represent the local Liberal candidate. Calls also were placed to voters with Jewish-sounding names during the Saturday Sabbath and in one riding with a South Asian candidate, voters received phone calls from someone imitating a Pakistani accent.”
“Under the Elections Act, it is illegal to tell voters to go to a wrong or non-existent polling station. …NDP leader Nycole Turmel (has) urged for
a thorough investigation by the RCMP and Elections Canada. …Rae says the (Liberal) party is considering calling for a number of byelections or even pursing legal action. …On Friday, Rae sent a letter to House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer, asking him to allow an emergency debate on the matter when Parliament resumes Monday.”
To send a message to Bob Paulson, Commissioner of the RCMP; William H. Corbett, Commissioner of Elections Canada; and the party leaders, you can go to http://www.leadnow.ca/robocall-fraud.  The message you can send says, “I demand a full and independent public inquiry, backed by Elections Canada and the RCMP, to expose the facts about the robocall scandal and ensure that the penalty for this election fraud matches the consequences of the crime – including possible by-elections in the affected ridings.”
At this hour (Sunday night, 9:52 pm ET), 14,679 messages have been sent with this demand.
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Tories want answers on voter suppression too
tim powers Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 9:27AM EST
In the opposition’s hysteria around the robo-call controversy you’d think every MP, staffer, member of the party, supporter and Conservative voter has a cultural predisposition to win elections at any cost and through any means. You’d also assume that before Elections Canada has even  included its investigation, never mind charged anyone, the Conservative Party itself is guilty of the most serious infractions possible and has perverted our democratic system beyond compare.
More related to this story Tory staffer leaves MP’s office in wake of voter-suppression probe
Harper denies knowledge of ‘black ops’ phone calls during 2011 election
Elections Canada on misleading Tory call: ‘Inaccuracies can occur’

2012-02-23 Caller pretending to be Elections Canada told voters their polling stations had been moved

 Economy / Political Economy, Green Party, Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

‘Robocalls’ tried to discourage voters

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Robocalls+tried+discourage+voters/6196549/story.html

By Stephen Maher And Glen McGregor, Postmedia News February 23, 2012 6:08 AM

Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country.

Also, the Conservatives are conducting an internal probe. A party lawyer is interviewing campaign workers to find who was behind the deceptive “robocalls.”

Elections Canada launched its investigation after it was inundated with complaints about election day calls in Guelph, Ont., one of 18 ridings across the country where voters were targeted by harassing or deceptive phone messages in an apparent effort to discourage Liberal supporters from voting.

In Guelph, a riding the Conservatives hoped to take from the Liberals, voters received recorded calls pretending to be from Elections Canada, telling them their polling stations had been moved. The calls led to a chaotic scene at one polling station, and likely led some voters to give up on voting.

CALLS TRACED

Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen have found that Elections Canada traced the calls to Racknine Inc., a small Edmonton call centre that worked for the party’s national campaign and those of at least nine Conservative candidates, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s campaign in Calgary Southwest. There is no evidence that Harper’s campaign or any of the other candidates were involved in the calls.

Racknine says it was unaware its servers were being used for the fake calls.

Fred DeLorey, a spokesman for the Conservative Party, declined to say how much business the party did with Racknine during the campaign. He said the party does not know who was behind the calls, and he did not respond to a question about its internal investigation.

Elections Canada came to Racknine after an elaborate digital chase that began with a single telephone number that showed up on call displays.  Investigators traced it to a disposable cellphone registered in area code 450, in the city of Joliette, northeast of Montreal. Using telephone billing records and Racknine server logs, Elections Canada investigators identified the Racknine account holder who sent out the calls.

Matt Meier, owner of Rack-nine, said he was unaware one of his customers was involved in the calls until contacted by Elections Canada in  November.  “We couldn’t possibly have known that it was Racknine that was the initiator of the fake calls,” he said. “I had no idea what the content of the calls were.”

The company does not monitor outgoing calls made by customers through its auto-mated service, Meier said. He estimates 10 million or more  phone calls from about 200 accounts went out during the campaign.

COOPERATING WITH PROBE

Meier and his company are cooperating fully with the probe, he said.

He said he knows whose account was used for the calls, but could not reveal the owner, because of client confidentiality and concerns about interfering with the investigation. He said it was someone “down East” – meaning Ontario or Quebec.

The robocalls received in Guelph were recorded in female voices in both French and English. They told voters their polling stations had moved to a shopping mall in the city’s downtown, where parking was scarce.

A Citizen-Postmedia investigation has found calls misdirecting voters were also reported in ridings across the country: Kitchener-Waterloo, Kitchener-Conestaga, London-West, Parkdale-High Park, Winnipeg South Centre and Sydney-Victoria. It is possible that they were caused by robo-dialling errors.

Liberal supporters in a dozen ridings, mostly in Ontario, reported mysterious harassing calls, often late in the evening or early in the morning, where rude callers from a phone bank pretended to be working for the Liberals.  The calls seem to have been an attempt to alienate Liberal voters in ridings where the Liberals and Conservatives seemed to be in close contests.

“What I provided to Elections Canada was comprehensive,” Meier said in an interview this week. “They know everything. They have every single message recorded by the individuals who did this. That’s something I hope will assist them greatly in determining who made these calls.”

He realized his firm was linked to the deceptive calls only when Election Canada investigator Al Mathews showed up unannounced at his company’s office in Edmonton in November, armed with an order to produce records.

Mathews has travelled to Guelph to interview people who received the calls on election day, including United Church minister Sue Campbell, who was the wife of Green Party candidate John Lawson.

Campbell had just returned home after voting on the morning of election day when a call came in saying her polling station had been moved to a mall in downtown Guelph.

“At first, I thought. ‘Oh, that’s strange,'” Campbell recalls.  “Upon reflection, I thought, ‘This can’t be right. Why on Earth would it change on the day election?'”

She wrote down the digits on the caller ID – the number in Quebec – and called Elections Canada to complain.

Internal Elections Canada emails obtained under Access to Information legislation show officials were rattled by the calls.  At 11: 06 a.m., election officer Anita Hawdur sent an email to to legal counsel Karen McNeil with the header: “URGENT Conservative campaign office communications with electors.” Hawdur reported that returning officers were calling to ask about the calls.

McNeil responded by asking Hawdur to alert Rennie Molnar, the deputy chief electoral officer. He later emailed Michel Roussel, a senior director: “This one is far more serious. They have actually disrupted the voting process.”

Around the same time, Guelph Liberal MP Frank Val-eriote got a call at his home, telling him his campaign staff was hearing from Liberal sup-porters about the same kind of bogus Elections Canada calls.

What they first thought were a few nuisance calls, the Vale-riote campaign recognized was an orchestrated campaign to discourage his supporters from voting.

Voters who ended up in the wrong place and were turned away were unlikely to persist and go to another polling station. A campaign worker was quickly dispatched to the mall, armed with a binder of polling maps, so he could redirect sup-porters back to the right place. Within an hour, more than 100 voters had turned up at the mall.

Despite the dirty tricks phone calls, Valeriote won the election in Guelph.

If Mathews and the Commissioner of Canada Elections find evidence of wrongdoing over the bogus calls, the case could be referred to Director of Public Prosecutions Brian Saunders, who would decide whether to lay charges.

HOW RACKNINE’S CALLS WORK

1. The customer sends identification and credit card information to the company for approval. Once approved, the customer is given an account name and password.

2. Through the company’s web interface, the customer uploads an electronic list of telephone numbers to call.

3. The customer uploads a file with the prerecorded message or calls in to a toll-free number to record the call. The customer can set the caller ID to any number.

4. The service automatically “robocalls” numbers on the call list, charging the customer between 1.9 and 3.5 cents per minute for the calls.

FOLLOWING THE TRAIL

1. An investigator interviewed recipients of the calls in Guelph. They provided the incoming caller ID that displayed.

2. The investigator found that the caller ID belonged to a disposable cellphone with a number in Joliette, Que.

3. The investigator issues a subpoena for the outgoing calls from the phone.  One call is to the Racknine toll-free number.

4. Elections Canada files subpoenas for billing records that trace the inbound calls to recipients in Guelph through data carriers used by Racknine.

5. The investigator obtains a production order that requires Racknine to hand over records that identify which account made the calls and the records associated with the account.

©  Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

2012-02-27 YouTube: Arithmetic, Population and Energy (over-population)

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Energy, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Propaganda, Sustainability, Take back the University, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

More than 4 million people have watched this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SP6A1FD147A45EF50D

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

See also:  2012-02-28  Over-population, a graphic presentation

2012-02-27 Lockheed Martin, Wikileaks. “Global intelligence” company Stratfor. Hyper-linked index to the leaked files (emails).

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

Hi Sandra,

Just came across this link, I found the ties to Lockheed Martin interesting – –  via wikileaks:

http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1666377_fbi-more-on-body-.html 

(Excerpt):

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered  “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July  2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company  that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential  intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow  Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government  agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US  Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show  Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

All the best,

Gayle

= = = = = = = = = = =

Note to myself:  Stratfor

 

 

2012-02-22 Powerful: Oil executive son’s testimony at Prince Rupert Northern Gateway pipeline joint review panel

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Culture and Ethics, Energy  No Responses »
Feb 222012
 

From Janet:  Folks, this is a big WOW item.

Sandra:  I agree!  It’s a short good read – – and if you go to the link, there’s a YouTube of Lee Brain’s presentation.  Our young people move my heart.

Oil executive son’s testimony at Prince Rupert Northern Gateway pipeline joint review panel

Carrie Saxifrage Posted: Feb 20th, 2012

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/2012/02/20/oil-executive-sons-testimony-prince-rupert-northern-gateway-pipeline

The most moving moment of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel hearings in Prince Rupert which wrapped up Saturday were spoken by Lee Brian, the 26-year-old son of an oil executive.

Here is an excerpt of his speech:

My oral evidence today comes in the form of a story, an experience I had three years ago which directly reflects the impacts this project will have
on me, and my community.

The story begins after a lifetime of debating with my father -he thought it was high time for me to finally experience first-hand the magnitude and
power of the oil industry.

So in the summer of 2009, I had the opportunity to spend one full month on one of the world’s largest oil refineries, producing 800,000 barrels of
oil per day. At the time, it was under an expansion project to produce up to an astonishing 1.2 million barrels per day and for confidentiality reasons, the company and details of the project will remain unnamed.

The catch was that this refinery was in a very rural area in a northern province of India – right on the coast of the Arabian Sea, and bordering
Pakistan.

So here I am, 23 years old traveling to India, and needless to say, tensions were high upon arrival. Coming through the airport, between the H1N1 virus outbreak and the one year anniversary of the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks of 2008, the military presence was simply overwhelming.

I landed in Mumbai, or Bombay to the locals, and spent a day travelling to the northern province of Gujarat, Ghandi’s home province. Situated outside the small village of Jamnagar, I stayed in a secured complex surrounded by high walls, meant for expatriates – in literally the middle of nowhere.  The land in the region was primarily used for agricultural production, but due to the strategic location on the Arabian Sea, naturally there was large military and industrial presence in the area as well.

Each day I would wake up at 6 a.m., and travel roughly an hour to the refinery. Guarded with AK47s, I remember the first day of my arrival I had
the whole place in a stir, wondering why I was there. And to tell you the truth, I was thinking the exact same thing. It’s not easy being in a foreign country, being the only young Caucasian male in sight, amongst 50,000 workers constantly staring at me. But my fears quickly subsided as I spent more time there each day, and learned about the gracious, kind and humbled culture of the East – regardless of the portrayals the media would
have you believe.

I spent each day with 2-3 different managers from each department, and was able to learn a large portion of each faculty of discipline during my time there. I was very fortunate to have received such an in-depth, bird’s eye view of the entire project — and not even the most  ualified engineering
intern would have had this opportunity. The experience itself changed who I am, fundamentally, forever.

I learned about the entire EPCM – that is, the production process from engineering, procurement, construction, and management – I spent many
hours and days with managers from piping, documentation control, distributed control systems, civil, biological, chemical and environmental
engineering instrumentation, quality control, marine operations, water management -electrical and on-site power production – from construction
management, procurement and materials, product creation and commercial supply, safety and security, and loading and unloading via rail, truck,
VLCC (very-large crude carriers) and ULCC (ultra-large crude carriers).

I am not exactly sure if the average person could fully appreciate the sheer magnitude of the operation, and the intricate interrelationship dynamics
between workers, departments, managers and corporate headquarters. It is nothing Discovery Channel would ever be able to portray.

The experience made me question many of the fundamental assumptions I had been making regarding the industry itself. I was realizing just how tricky of a situation we are in globally. My naïveness of the reality and immensity of this substance was not fully actualized until I had this experience. I can say right now, that I fully respect the power of oil.

One such day on the refinery stood out in particular. It was a hot, sunny and humid day, after monsoon rainfall my entire time there – I think it
was most likely the Prince Rupert weather following me overseas – and on that day a hand full of managers thought it would be fun to take me out to the Jetty, where they loaded and unloaded the super tankers. Situated a lengthy route away from the refinery itself, we drove down to towards the
coastline.

On our way there, we drove past many different villages. Each one looking extremely impoverished. I learned later that this was not always the case.
There was a time in this region where fishing, farming and the local economy truly flourished. But once the refinery project was approved, among other projects in the region, they built a pipeline directly through nine different villages. Over a period of time, there was pipeline breakage
which contaminated an underground aquifer, and spoiled the wells and water supply of the majority of the surrounding villages. As industry  expanded, and land bought and sold, men were forced into cheap labour at the refineries, after lifetimes of sustainable farming and fishing – now dependent on one or two companies for employment. Women, children and elders went starving after losing access to fresh water, with no accountability for cleanup – just left to fend for themselves. I ask, what would be the case here in our region? Do you see any potential similarities?

Converging onto a thin strip of man-made road spanning about two miles in length, we arrived at the Jetty, greeted by military personnel. After a
lengthy process of clearing me for entry, we walked onto couple massive docking stations. To my right, men were conducting repairs on a rather standard sized vessel, no larger than the ones you would see here in our Harbour. In the distance, an ULCC fresh from the Middle East was
rolling in from the horizon. The size of the vessel stopped me in my tracks. After 10 minutes, the ship stopped and made a slow bank horizontally out at sea.

I asked one of the managers — Jitesh was his name — why the ship stopped so far out. He told me that because of the size of the ship, they had a floating unloading station, and through another piping system they unload and load way out there, and that connects to the main routing station
at the Jetty, to be piped a few miles back to the refinery.

I asked him why, and he said ‘even though we have docking stations here, it is for the smaller vessels that are used for domestic purposes. But these
larger vessels that come from the Middle East can run aground easily.’   This, in open seas, I thought.

So we all stood there, suspended in what felt like an eternal moment -the heat waves rising above the calmed Arabian Sea, and the ship danced in the horizon as I stood dumbfounded by its sheer mass. One man comments: “I always forget just how large those vessels are.”

A few moments passed as we all stood, just watching.

Out of the silence, Jitesh says to me “Do you see what we are doing here Mr. Lee?”

I asked “What’s that, Jitesh?”

He replied, with an unexpected, sobering tone: “We are destroying future generations for now, and forever.”

And in this kind of slow motion life moment, I felt this kind of tingling feeling on the top of my head– and with sweat dripping down from the
inside of my hard hat onto my face, the sun beaming into my eyes – I squint over at six men slowing nodding their heads in silent agreement.

It was such a profound statement, and in that moment, there was silence.

On the way back, I had a lengthy discussion with Jitesh about the ‘whys’ of it all – about life, the human condition, and the challenges we face in
the 21st century. Although I will not cover that conversation due to procedural constraints, I will say that I learned some extremely valuable lessons that day.

I learned that it is not because every man and woman who participate in industry are all evil, bad people – being in India, on this refinery, there was this certain kind of ‘rush’ I felt. I felt a kind of new power within myself –being in a productive, hard working, problem solving environment where there is grit, and dirt, and sweat, and mud and building and pumping and drilling and hammering and huge turbines at massive pressures doing crazy stuff. There is this feeling you get when you’re working with other professionals in a high stake environment — and on some very obscure and messed up level, I can understand how those who work in industry can get excited about growth and yet subsequently, can turn
their eyes off towards any adverse impacts they are creating as a result.

Like I said, on a very obscure and messed up level.

And I just have to be fully honest and mention this, the feeling is addictive – you can literally feel it in your veins. And this coming from just one month of experience, with a totally different ideological perspective.

The major thing I witnessed in my time on the refinery that I feel constitutes as evidence was my observations of the relationship dynamics
between corporate headquarters and the managers on the refinery. What I witnessed time and time again, was the technical experts knowing
the damage, risk and adverse effects of the project, versus what corporate would portray to the general public after reading their materials.

There was a clear and present dual world operating simultaneously – completely undeniable if you are on site. So what I saw, first hand, was this dynamic between ‘what is really happening’ and what the corporate headquarters will have people believe is happening. And as we have seen in
our planet, this situation is not an isolated event.

Based on my experience, what I learned was that the global system of infinite growth attracts men and woman of a certain… level of understanding, a certain type of person who will be attracted to the ideals of the current economic measurement that coordinates the global psychology of things, and a type of person who externalizes themselves and detaches from connection, and so whole-heartedly believes in their reality, their perception of things, that they project their fears out onto everyone else — and their ego becomes the driver, blindly leading them down a path of self-destruction. And they are people of high intellectual prowess, but unfortunately have yet to develop the deep wisdom that we all possess within us as human beings.

And we call these people CEO, and Prime Minister.

The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is simply just one of thousands of projects across the globe that are bi-products of a severely flawed
global system. Even if this pipeline does not go through, there will be another proposal of the same magnitude appear somewhere else – and this will go on and on, until we either address the fundamental root of the issue – or face the slow decline of our civilization.

We are psychologically stuck. We are good at what we know, but are too scared to try anything else. If we could directly transfer the mobilization power of oil into a new energy economy, into a new economic measurement, into a new level of coordination and cooperation -where the true cost of development is clearly laid out -we may have a chance.  Because you simply cannot infinitely grow, within a finite system of resources – period.

So I do not sit here today, in anger, or in blame, or in judgement. And on behalf of my generation, I forgive these men and women for their lack of
awareness, heart and understanding.  They too were born into an established system, conditioned into a certain way of thinking, and as far as they know, they did and are doing their best. But now, it is time to let go of the 20th Century, and enter into a new global direction towards a path of healing and new design.

In closing, it’s time now for a full scale, mass mobilized transition process off the fossil fuel economy. We need to use all of our resources we have left wisely to create a whole new system of operation that is global in scale. This process needs to have the mobilization power comparable to the proportions of the Manhattan project, and then some. It’s time for us to journey into a new dream, a new way, with new design and new
fundamental principles. It’s time for us to end a millennia of pain, suffering, shame and unconsciousness. It’s time to create resilient, sustainable and flourishing communities, that have the adaptive capacity to respond to any challenges they may face in their external environment –  and be able to effectively respond specifically to the coming age of peak oil, climate change and rampant global economic instability.

It’s time for us to dismantle the institutions that are beginning to imprison us. It’s time for us to un-learn, to remove the power structures, and to decentralize the grid so that individual communities can produce their own food, energy and own internal means of production for hundreds to thousands of years to come.

And ultimately, it’s time for us to become the true masters we are meant to become – true, planetary mastery — in balance with the emotional,
cultural, spiritual and psychological wellbeing of every inhabitant. It’s time for us to embrace the new consciousness that is emerging at this
time, where by busting open the hearts and minds of our people, we will propel ourselves forward into a new golden age of humanity that is imminently upon us.

We are those people.

So, if on one hand, you had an unpredictable path, that leads into a new dream, a new way of life for all of mankind and on the other hand, you had a predictable path that leads to the slow, inevitable decline of a civilization.

Which path would you choose?

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