Uh, Canadians – – listen up. No small thing.
Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife discusses the resignation of Prime Minister Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright. (Sorry, there’s an ad to wait thru.)
http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1288213
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RELATED, and also offensive to democracy:
Former CRTC commissioner hired at Sun News, May 17
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/former-crtc-commissioner-hired-at-sun-news-1.1287087
A commissioner at the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has left his post after five years to join Sun News, as the broadcaster seeks “must carry” status.
Marc Patrone’s contract with the CRTC ended on March 18. He is now the Sun News Network’s director of news operations for Western Canada.
The Chronicle Herald reported Patrone’s new job Friday, and CTV confirmed the move.
Sun News vice-president Kory Teneycke sent an email to CTV News showing that the federal conflict of interest commissioner approved Patrone’s hiring.
In a letter, the commissioner’s office noted that Patrone’s dealings with Quebecor Media took place more than one year before his last day his last day at the CRTC and were not related to Sun News Network’s licencing interests. As a result, he was not violating his post-employment obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act, the letter said.
Sun Media is asking the CRTC to grant its news channel “mandatory carriage.” If approved, cable and satellite customers across Canada will be paying to have its news channel as part of their TV packages.
On Thursday, a well-placed source told CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife that Sen. Mike Duffy approached a Conservative insider with connections to the CRTC three weeks ago to discuss Sun Media.
“You know people at the CRTC,” the insider quoted Duffy as saying. “This is an important decision on Sun Media. They have to play with the team and support Sun Media’s request.”
Thanks for your input:
“Liberal MP Bob Rae said someone needs to take a “hard look” at whether more than just ethics rules were broken when Wright wrote a personal cheque to cover Duffy’s expenses.
“There are provisions, not only in the Senate ethical code, but there are also provisions in the Criminal Code of Canada. People can’t accept payments if you’re a public office holder which have the effect of changing the activities of government.”
Rae said the $90,000 payment had a “direct impact on the conduct of an audit into the activities of Senator Duffy and other senators.”
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PM in ‘full-fledged damage control,’ NDP says
“We know that Senator Duffy’s audit was shortened, was changed, because of the fact that he made this $90,000 payment and that he made this payment because Mr. Wright gave him the money to make the payment,” he told CBC News.
NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus also pressed for more answers on Sunday and said the Conservatives “are now in full-out political panic” over the payment.
“I think what the resignation tells us is that the prime minister is now in full-fledged damage control. They pushed Pamela Wallin off the ship on Friday, Mike Duffy went for the high jump the day before, now Nigel Wright’s gone, the prime minister’s taking off for Peru,” he said.
“Nigel Wright needs to come clean on the details of the deal he negotiated to cover up for Senator Duffy’s expense claims and whitewash the Senate committee report,” Angus said, adding it’s important to have an independent investigation to determine exactly what happened.” ”
CBC web-site
Playing Fast and Loose does not always work . . .
And thanks to Gary, interview with Michelle Rempel, Con MP for Calgary Centre North.
It was done BEFORE Wright resigned.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/conservative-mp-michelle-rempel-says-wright-wanted-to-ensure-no-taxpayer-money-on-the-hook-1.1288146
(Note that Rempel is 33 years old with celebrity status as a rising star.)
From the Facebook group “Fire the Liars”. I wonder if the Police will apply the law?
Section 16 (1) of the Parliament of Canada Act states that “no member of the Senate shall receive or agree to receive any compensation, directly or indirectly, for services rendered … in relation to any bill, proceeding, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation, arrest or other matter before the Senate or the House of Commons or a committee of either House.” Moreover, Section 16 (3) makes “every person who gives, offers or promises to any member of the Senate” such compensation liable to imprisonment for up to one year.
Section 121 (1) of the Criminal Code states that anyone who “gives, offers or agrees to give or offer” to an official or “being an official, demands, accepts or offers or agrees to accept” any “loan, reward, advantage or benefit of any kind” in return for “co-operation, assistance, exercise of influence or an act or omission” in connection with “any matter of business relating to the government,” is guilty of an offence punishable by up to five years in jail.