Grewal is a fascinating specimen, indeed. His recent stress leave and the mystery package at the airport just adds more technicolor. I'm wondering if it's not so much a voluntary stress leave as Harper and the party brass feeling a little stressed out over Grewal's antics. If the reform/alliance/tory mish mash is finding Grewal a little too out there, the guy has gotta be a real space cadet.

Ah, only a Politician from BC could be as entertaining as this joker.

I really enjoyed reading this piece. Great stuff Don & Tyee.

Although I do not know Grewal personally I do have friends who work with his extended family and they all supported his oppostion in the last federal election. It's bad when you can't even get your family to support you. That must say something about his character.

Don Hauka: much as I detest Gurman Grewal's tactics, you really got up my nose with your effete little sneer at "Gordon and Judi" ... I'll have to kick a few kittens to get that out of my system.

Jeez, could reporters stop with the "weird and wonderful" attitude toward B.C. politics?

Mary: Hell no! BC politics are wierd and wonderful... to the point we should advertise them on travel brochures.

grewal's a slimebag. good thing his true colours are being exposed. if things had gone differently he may have been a federal cabinet minister and his wife may have had a senate position until 75. ouch.

http://bucketsofgrewal.blogspot.com/ for anyone who really enjoys car wrecks. Whoever this is he/she's good.

GG "It's all about me, and what I can get going forward."
TM "Uh huh"
UD "Look at me' and what I've done"
GG "Is there anyother way we could possible disrespect the voter and still be re-elected?"
TM "Um Hmph"
UD "Just pretent the voter has no memory and give lots of money to the media"

clobofrome; where abouts is that quote you posted?

I find it fascinating that everything you read about this individual has to do with him and his wife, what's in it for them. What percentage of his time would you think he spends on his ridings concerns?
GG "It's importent for me to pretend I care about stuff....."
TM "ftzzthph"
UD "Pass me another diet coke paid for by worthless voting dogs..."
GG "This is the best meeting I've been too ever...."

its a sweet deal when you get stress leave without seeing a doctor. we should all be so lucky.

BP from DU?

Anywho, yeah I wish I had that option as well.

Doesn't Harper have a PhD? ;-)

Survial of the fittest, and Grewal shows signs of weakness....will not win the next election I predict.

Can you believe that Harper is supporting this guy? It's time for the Conservatives to dump Harper as leader. He just makes one bad decision after another. I shudder to think that this man has a slim chance of being the PM one day. Scarrrrrry!

Dump him?! I say keep him for that exact reason

BC Mary, where did you pick up that stress therapy technique?

Ujjal Dosanjh makes good Googling these days. Remember when he was accused of winning the leadership of the NDP by means of 'tainted' votes (people who didn't know they were members)? The New Democrats were ready to sue the bastard.

Remember when his assistant, David Schreck, advised the new B.C. Premier Dosanjh to call an election quickly, to validate his position? But he didn't.

Dosanjh kept hanging on, so Schreck quit because he thought Mr D. was wanting to impress The Liberals so as to get a Senate seat ... even then ... 5 years ago!

The Liberals couldn't have minded all that much when Mr D. announced that he was giving up, a week before voting day 2001, allowing Gordo the Magnificent to scoop 77 of the 79 seats in the B.C. Legislature.

Then Ujjie pops up on 1 April 2004 jumping into bed with Paul Martin's Liberals, helping to bamboozle any British Columbians who wanted to concntrate on Justice Dohm unsealing the Basi and Virk search warrants.

Is anybody surprised that it was Ujjal who was called upon to help Paul Martin's chief of staff negotiate with Gurmie to barter those 2 parliamentary votes?

As Anne Cameron said in another context, everything fits.

In the election, it was Randy White. Now post election it's Gurmant Grewal. And you know who's been eerily silent on this entire thing... Peter MacKay. I think Peter smells blood in the water, is prepared to basically sewer the next Federal election and lynch Harper.

I honestly think that that was Peter's plan all along. You might also find out that all's not "splitsville" with Belinda and Peter. It's a ways out there, I know, but I can see where the 2 of them are conspiring to get rid of Harper and his wacko neo cons within the Conservatives, and take the tories back to their traditional base.

One other thing no one on this thread has mentioned, is why Nina Grewal is not being called upon to step down, alongside her newly admitted to the nuthouse husband. She's mentioned numerous times in the tapes as being part of a package deal. Every time I see Gurmant Grewal, I have the sudden urge to run and take an hour long shower, he's that slimy.

I think the stress leave thing is a weak pathetic attempt on the part of Grewal to try and salvage what little is left of his political career. No one either, has mentioned his little $50,000 prommisory note scheme he had on the go, the one which he was and is being investigated for.

Grewal is a slippery one, that's for sure.

Two words: Rachel Marsden. He lied about hiring her and and then he lied about re-hiring her. Even when she was caught using an alias.

The man has absolutely no cred with me.

Gurmant is all about Gurmant and nothing else. He calculates (poorly, as it turns out) everything in terms of how he thinks people see him. It's about his stature and status. Nothing else.

As for Nina, she does precisely what's she's told. For the Grewals, it's basically one MP, two salaries.

You really think Grewall is taking stress leave of his own volition?

Not a chance.

Harpie ripped him a new one and told him to get the hell out of dodge or be forever relegated to the doghouse. Or both.

Damage control is on big-time.

Such fun watching troglodytes scrambling for cover.

Ujjal and Gurmant doing backdoor scheming as elected Canadian officials. What a country!

All hail Gurm the Worm!

Scr*w space, BC really is the "final frontier."

"Gurm the Worm." I like it.

This little kerfuffle is most illuminating for how it exposes Harper's conservative Alliance party for it's sheer ineptitude. If Harper wasn't directing the whole episode from the beginning, why wasn't he? According to Gurmant Grewal he had been told about the meetings and the tape at the time they were happening.

Either Harper was heavily involved from the beginning (as he should have been given the circumstances), or he wasn't (a shocking lack of leadership and direction on his part as leader of the opposition party in a minority government show-down).

Either way, this makes the conservative Alliance look very bad. (Grewal is just the jester provoking the situation.)

Then there's Peter McKay who just yesterday said he has never even listened to the tapes. The deputy party leader, and he's never listened to the tapes???

Is this how they'd run the country IF they EVER got elected? Not only are their barely hidden policies scary, they are horribly inept to boot.

I'm wondering why we aren't hearing calls for Harper to resign. He can't seem to manage his way out of a wet paper bag (thank God).

Sunny

I came across this item from the Standing Committee on Citizenship & Immigration, October 14,2004. Mrs. Grewals' version of their coming to Canada:
[QUMrs. Nina Grewal (Fleetwood—Port Kells, CPC): Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also would like to congratulate you for being the chair, and the vice-chairs.

My name is Nina Grewal, and I was born in Japan. My father was a businessman. He stayed in Hong Kong, then he went to Japan, and then to west Africa, to a country called Liberia. When he was in Liberia, I studied in a boarding school in India. After that, I got my degree in English literature and history, and I married Gurmant in 1982. After being married to Gurmant, I headed to Africa as well, and there we had our own business. Both my boys were born in Liberia. Now they're 21 and 19.

In 1990 there was a civil war in Liberia, so we left Liberia in 1990. We left everything, whatever we had. We stayed in the U.K. for some time, and then in the United States, and then we immigrated to Canada in 1991. So here I am. Gurmant got involved in politics in 1997, and even I got involved in politics, and here I am, to make this country a better place and to make a difference.

Thank you.
OTE]
Interestingly they left Liberia about the time that the dictator Samuel Doe was assassinated. She indicates they left behind everything they had, why do I think the 'green revolution' had something to do with 'greenbacks' and not environmental issues.
These folks have a lot of unanswered questions hanging about them. Sorry to say Mrs. Grewal is the MP supposedly representing my riding. Fortunately, I can take comfort in knowing that I didn't vote for her.

I love Grewal, he's the only guy I know that united everyone on this site, even if it was just against him. He's like a 21st century Mulroney.

Academy Award stuff.

Gurmant, like a certain Ujjal, just another Liberal mole. ;-)

Help!!!!!!!
We've lived in Fleetwood-Port Kells for 15 years and we have yet to have a decent representative MP. Let's see, we have gone from:
Margaret Bridgeman - Reform
Gurmant Grewal-Reform,Alliance,Conservative
Nina Grewal-Conservative
I will take sympathy notes.

Rachel Marsden? Canada's Ann Coulter was a consultant for Grewal - I thought at first you were kidding Cleammachine That explains why you can hear Dr. Don's Montovani playing under Ujjal. Did no one in Harper's office see this guy coming?

It's still liberal behaviour that really pisses me off about this. Liberals get in trouble and might face an election because of the Gomery Inquiry into influence peddling. A sombre PM takes to the airwaves and apologizes for not being especially vigilent - and despite owning the party - not noticing the corruption. A little like Louie in Casablanca, and ultimately because he seems likable you want to believe him. Then he wings off a cabinet seat to Belinda, kytes a couple billion off, and allows his chief of staff to flirt with a grifter. I'm begining to wonder if our PM is taking any of this in...

Interesting story on The National last night in which Grewal associates allege Grewal used a $50,000 paper transaction for worthless shares in a failing carpet company to gain status in Canada as an investor immigrant. Yet despite this and all the rest of Grewal's history, it's the tale of the tape that has done real damage to the Liberals. The finer points of what was said and not said on tape generally fall somewhat in the Liberals' favour, but much of the public couldn't tell you that. Clearly, the Liberals would have been wise to look at Grewal's bona fides and run to the press saying "We won't deal with such a man." That's the real Liberal scandal in my view -- that they were prepared to have Grewal on their team on any terms. But that's not the story that's being played most prominently in the media.

Thanks to Banquos Ghost for the blog entry on Mr. Grewal.

Redacted Transcripts can be found here

These redactions seemed quite extensive and if it happened on Harper's shift then shouldn't this be a much bigger story?

I'll call the National Toast right now, they'll get right on it after completing their ongoing Conrad hagiography featruing the umpteenth article outlining the passion of Lord Black of Cross Harbour, free market captain of industry.

Of course, we have to trust the redaction data. But then again, who can you trust!?

Harper, Grewal et Cie., can this rogue's gallery be any more self-righteously incompetent?

With the contributions of Messrs./Mesdames Germonts and Mr. White, what other BC torpedoes are in store for the Bumbling Bloc Albertans lead by the hapless Harper.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of right wingnuts :-)

Perhaps Grewal will soon turn up as a radio host. I used to think it was a shameful American phenomenon, where the publicly humiliated, discredited, or jailed, are able to start new lives as popular radio phone in hosts (G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North)!
But Grewal's friend Rachel Marsden has proved it can now be done in Canada too.
Don't be surprised to hear Gurmant on 'NW any day now.

Eh Gads - I just watched John Reynolds on Question Period with Don Newman - that guy is so slimy he will try to twist and spin anything to his advantage. He reminds me of G Bush's spinner Karen Hughes (only he's not as talentedas she is) I saw her in action when John Kerry's wife was being interviewed and she answered a question quite innocently about Laura Bush and part of he answer said she didn't think Laura has worked a real job ( she did work as a librarian) but she wasn't aware of that and really didn't mean anything by it but I saw Karen Hughes turn on a dime and immediately accuse her of hating mothers who stay home to raise their family. She did it so fluidly and convincingly that I was amazed and it was very revealing as to the dirty business of politics.

Back to Reynolds, the were talking about Grewel's secret tapes and now he is going to the Law Society to get their opinion on the ethics of Dosange and Murphy because they are both lawyers. He thinks everybody is picking on poor Gurmant Grewel. AARGH!

The CBC interviewed three businessmen from Grewels community yesterday that pretty well proved Grewel initiated the contact with the Liberals and did the phoney 50,000 dollar deal in 1994 with the carpet co.

That $50,000 carpet co. ruse, if true, means Grewal cheated his way to Cdn. citizenship by committing what looks like fraud.
I wonder what potential penalties could come out of gaining citizenship through false pretenses?
In the case of Nazi war criminals in Canada, it is possible to strip them of citizenship and deport them if they lie about their past in applying to become citizens. This happened, I believe, with Michael Seifer, who lived in Hope, B.C. but ended up deported to face trial for Nazi murders. Grewal isn't facing war crimes prosecution, but couldn't the same priciple apply?

I suppose Chuck Cadman is wiping his brow over this one. Come on home, Chuck!

Samuel Doe was to Liberia as Mobutu was to Zaire. He ended up being paraded around town in a jeep, his penis cut off, bleeding to death. Nobody mourned his death or protested his treatment. Why would Grewal figure such an association to be something about which to brag?

I saw a bit of Giovanni Renaldo with Newman too. He was enervated, alright. They really have to be enbarrased about this cock up. Newman had a good instinct on this story from the outset. Renaldo and his crew lack spidey sense... very odd.

That new Decima poll shows the Conservatives have fallen to 23% nationally, just 2 ahead of the NDP.

In Ontario the Libs are 26 points ahead of the Conservatives who also trail the NDP.

GrewalGate

http://bucketsofgrewal.blogspot.com/

No doubt poor Grewal was the architect of his own demise. The presentation of the transcript, and the actual parts that Grewal doctored are damning all around. No escaping culpability here, no matter how "stressed out" you are.

So this is how democracy dies is it?

http://www.winwithwhittle.blogspot.com/

"That new Decima poll shows the Conservatives have fallen to 23% nationally, just 2 ahead of the NDP."

No matter what they say, I'd really like to see The Tyee poll-free.

With a complicit media, polls have become more a tool to manipulate than to research. This may be a shocking revelation to some, but poll results (like some election results) have even
been found to lie.

I understand the point of view skeptikool but it won't happen. Polls are useful.

I guess I've read more than I can stomach of people slagging someone they have never met. Why do you thing GG managed to get re elected?
The reality is that he does work very hard for his constituents. Just so you know...I am personally a little to the left of Marx and I would never vote for anyone in the various CCRAP variants, BUT Mr. Grewal is actually a decent representative for his riding and is a decent human being. How many immigrants do you know of that managed to become MP's within 10 years of landing here?

sleepswithangels:

None that have tried legally, as Canada's imigration policy is hard at work letting all sorts of riff raff into Canada, while denying others more worthy -- but less wealthy -- to wait for years and years in limbo.

Grewal may be a constituency man, but if he arrived here under false pretenses, it would be very wrong to treat him any differently than any other person who is willing to lie to get into Canada.

markalanwhittle.blogspot.com

To: Sleepwithangels

Obviously, you do not live in either his or his wife's riding, I do. As much as I hate to say it they were elected solely due to the large Indo-Canadian community in both areas. You should read up on how they finagled getting their nominations.

to: StanM

I will research that, but before I do I have to say that political parties need to change their constitutions in order to eliminate the "instant member" follies. It would be a simple matter to mandate that members voting at a nominating convention have to be members for at least one year. In my view it appears that the respective party executives are too hooked on the membership fees to make a meaningful change. The Grewals were just playing the game that is there for all to play.

to: StanH and sleepswithangels

Riding nominations get hijacked all the time, sometimes it is a worthy candidate, and other times it is not.

For instance Javid Mirza, of Islam fame, was to be the annointed Liberal Candidate for the riding of Hamilton Mountain to replace a complacent and wobbly Beth Phinney, secretary to Paul Martin for a time.

I can now understand why she is tossing in the towel for a mere $80K a year indexed pension, when she could continue to wallow for so much more.

Then, out of the blue comes "Wild Bill" Kelly of Hamilton Alderman fame, all fluffy and cute in his role as talking head for the local television station.

Poof, Javid goes downtown to the stronhold Hamilton Centre, where he takes on NDP Titan David Christopherson, head to head, AKA Sheila Copps.

A bigger Liberal slap can't be had once the local riding association figured out that Javid had the support of all the members of the local Mosques, from one end of Hamilton to the other -- a diabolical political "Greenbelt" strategy -- Dalton McGuinty would be proud of, residing in the constituency.

Like most safety minded citizens, Moslems would rather live on the mountain, in relative safety, than reside in a crime infested downtown centre constituency of gritty steel factories and nickle and dime street opperators plying their trade.

Hardly what you would call an "open" nomination process to those in the know.

Help! Need new party! Where is a fiscal conservative, liberal minded person to go now?

Liberals - corrupt and sleazy. Conservatives - sleazy and corrupt. NDP - pipe dreams.

Anyways, I think Grewal should move to Quebec and become a Liberal fundraiser. Any takers?

dangrice, I'm biased but I'll take "pipe dreams" over "corrupt and sleazy" anytime.

Just as an aside, do we even know anymore what "fiscal conservative" means in regards to the Canadian political sphere?

I mean c'mon, Mulroney said he was a fiscal conservative (as did Reagan in the US).

People used to think that BC politics was wild and wacky. We've got nothing on Ottawa now. Gurmant Grewal is a bloody joke. And as for the poor guy who sent an SOS from Fleetwood - Port Kells, my advice is simple... SELL and move somewhere sane. The latest on Gurmant is that he arrived at YVR this afternoon and spent a good portion of the time ducking the media at every turn, involving the RCMP and the Commissionaires. Probably the most excitement they've seen since somebody slipped some Geritol into their prune juice out there.

I hope the RCMP find that it was Gurmant who instigated this entire thing, and charge him criminally. And I still want to know why his wife hasn't either stepped down or taken a leave of absence until her role in this sordid, sick, tainted twisted affair is verified.

As for the conservative numbers dropping like a rock, no big surprise. Between BelindaGate, GurmantGate, and Harper's mad lust for power, (he comes off a bit like Seed of Chucky whenever he's on TV). I also heard that the Conservatives don't have any notes from doctor's saying that "little Gurmant is suffering from vast amounts of stress and needs some time away from the sandbox." And if the Liberals give a one off trade for Gurmant, that would be foolish. After all the crap he's done to parliament (not just to the Liberals but the institution, to reward his faking it to collect his pay without having to do any work, is disgraceful.

Super G is my stressed out MP. I would just like to say that it's unfair to blame him entirely for his actions. He must have wandered down the street to the "Spies Like Us" store that's located less than 2 blocks from his headquarters. Imagine the temptation that he had to struggle with when he saw all the toys he could use to give him the notoriety that he so clearly believes he deserves. C'mon people, give the boy a break. Who could resist the temptation? It's like a boyhood dream come true. We don't call him "Super Agent Grewal" for nothing.

It's too bad our ethics commissioner, Shapiro, is such a timid man not up to the job he's taken on.
The latest evidence of this is his refusal to investigate Tim Murphy's role in this, and his likely refusal to look into Martin connections to any deal offers.
Apparently, he has the power to investigate anyone in the public sphere employed more than 15 hours/week,including Murphy, not just MPs.
It looks like timid Shapiro fears embarrassing the PM too much, preferring to skirt issues instead of doing his job as a watchdog on behalf of the Canadian public. He's more of a lap poodle.

Bobb999: Perhaps Shapiro should also make time to investigate the sundry characters involved in Gordon Wilson's leap from PDA nowhere to a cabinet post in Glen Clark's government?

Frank, my biggest acclaim to fiscal conservatism is I think we got to get rid of the debt and stop wasting money on fell good pork barrel programs.

I don't care too much about tax cuts, but I'm young and I hate seeing a bunch of old farts saddle me with debt to build a legacy for themselves.

About the wooing of Gordon Wilson by Glen Clark:
Definitely there was a deal prior to his bailing out of the PDA. Wilson even agreed to make the PDA defunct, to kill it, as part of the deal. A lot of PDAers felt very betrayed.
I don't recall the deal offering aspect of it (and possible illegality of it) even being an issue of the time. Instead, we saw lots of criticism of Wilson similar to that of Stronach: that he was an opportunist advancing his own ambition, rather than upholding any particular values.
Where was a BC Ethics Commissioner then (or the RCMP)? Did we even have one?
The amusing part is, fate exacted its "just desserts" on Wilson. Clark's NDP imploded,taking Wilson down with it. If Wilson had kept his PDA, it could have filled up the gap left, and taken power in an election. Wilson squandered his best chance to become premier. Instead, we got (twice)the other Gordo.

I suspect somebody was trying to use Grewal but the whole thing backfired.

Grewal. Isn't that the crap they try to get you to eat and think it tastes good?? This guy's line is pretty hard to swallow - actually makes me want to hurl.

I guess ol' germy wormy must have fallen for his own tory trash propoganda about our country being run by a bunch of self serving miscreants who would sell out thier own mothers for another buck.

"Playing the game that is there for all to play." That's what this is about? What an outstanding member of society you are! At what point in time did you miss the part on right and wrong. You and all the selfless rats feeding off others are the downfall of modern society. Sadly, you are not alone. Keep elbowing your neighbors and fellow citizens out of the way while you get yours. The loss of personal responsibility will take it's toll and everyone will feel the pain.

clubofrome is so self righteous but when he is called oout on his own shortcomings, of which there are many, he turns violent and incoherent ( study "Canada's Stupid Party" thread). One wonders where he plagiarizes all his coherent rants from..Rush Limbaugh, no doubt.

You bastar*! I was looking for a link, when I scrolled down to see this! I thought we were making progress!

I will assume responsibility for my behavior and I will retract my statement in full. I took your comment out of context, I apologize.

Sharpened Sherwood..... good one.