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News Hounds Sleep
While questions linger over 'Airbus affair.'
Bags of money?
The media can be biased in two ways, by what they publish and what they don't publish. What you will read and hear on a regular basis demonstrates how the Canadian media would feel quite at home in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Our media is not only reluctant to examine any government in Ottawa, they get frozen keyboards even when it comes to previous leaders. Like Brian Mulroney, for example.
Back in the '90s there was a fuss about what became known as the "Airbus affair," which included allegations of secret commissions paid to members of the government of Canada, during the term of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, in exchange for then-crown corporation Air Canada's purchase of a large order of Airbus jets.
In 1995, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police wished to determine what role, if any, Brian Mulroney, former Newfoundland premier Frank Moores and Karl-Heinz Schreiber, a professional go-between accused in the matter, played in the purchase. To complete their investigations, they felt it necessary to check in Switzerland banks for evidence. In order to do that, the Mounties set forth in a letter that they had "reasonable grounds to believe etc…" (It should be noted that Schreiber's name had previously been connected to Mulroney after Schreiber had earlier raised money for Mulroney's successful bid to win the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.)
Not only did Mulroney deny the charges, he sued the RCMP on the letter, claiming that it libelled him.
Lots of questions
Some people might have thought that an innocent Mulroney would have welcomed such a search and would have accepted the RCMP letter as a necessary preliminary to getting to the bottom of things. Instead, in 1995, Mulroney sued for libel demanding $50 million based on this seemingly routine RCMP letter. In what had to be the fastest legal genuflection of all time, the government paid him $2 million, one for himself and one for his lawyer. Considering the glacier-like pace Ottawa customarily displays this was not only a very interesting settlement, but also one achieved with incredible haste.
This raises the question: why? It is a question that the government refused to answer. What was it about this matter that made it worth, immediately, $2 million? Has an RCMP letter of this sort ever been held libellous in the past?
Why didn't the self-proclaimed Canada's national newspaper, the Toronto Globe and Mail, or the National Post, ask these questions and stay with the matter until a satisfactory explanation was given?
Did the Liberal government of the day have some skeletons in the closet that they wanted kept there? While there hasn't been a soupcon of evidence to support that notion, one still must wonder why a Liberal government would behave so generously with Brian Mulroney. In all events, 14 years later there is no answer to an uncomplicated question: why did the government pay Brian Mulroney $2 million?
But the plot thickens.
Mulroney, high-priced pasta expert
The Canadian television newsmagazine The Fifth Estate reported on Feb. 8, 2006, that a $300,000 payment came through a Swiss bank account code-named "BRITAN" from another named "Frankfurt," linked with the Airbus affair. Indeed the $300,000 was given to Mulroney by Karl-Heinz Schreiber, apparently in three lots of $100,000, in bills in shopping bags!
Schreiber, in an interview with the CBC program, said that the money came at the request of a Mulroney aide who told Schreiber the former prime minister was short of funds. Schreiber mocked Mulroney's claim that the money was a consulting fee for help given in a pasta business Schreiber had invested in. Indeed it would seem that Mr. Schreiber once asked Mulroney where to get a decent pizza in town and Mulroney sent him a brochure!
But this story wasn't a new one. In 2003, Edward Greenspon, the editor of the Toronto Globe and Mail, in his weekly page 2 editorial, told of this amazing transfer of all that loot to Mulroney. The only question was how much ($300,000 now seems accepted) and how it was delivered. We know it was in a shopping bag but now the evidence seems to be three occasions of $100,000 in three shopping bags.
One need hardly mention that lawyers don't usually get their fees in bags of small bills, 100 grand at a time. Assuming this is indeed true, wouldn't a prudent Mr. Mulroney assume that this was probably "tainted" money? And how did Mulroney use this money? Banks are limited in the amount of cash they can deal with before being required by law to investigate.
Indeed these two questions jump out at one: how the hell do you get $300,000 in bills? You can't just sashay to your bank and withdraw such a sum. And, once you have it, how the hell do you spend it?
Latest twist
But, it went further. Mulroney, upon hearing that the story was to be printed, begged Greenspon not to publish it and in exchange, he offered Greenspon an ever better story! One can only wonder what the better story could have been. At any rate, it didn't seem to pique Mr. Greenspon's curiosity. Instead of investigating the hell out this incredible nest of unanswered questions, Greenspon simply dropped the matter.
On the front page of the Jan. 24, 2007 edition of The Globe and Mail is a story by Greg McArthur saying that the government had sought evidence that might permit them to overturn that $2 million dollar settlement on the grounds that, contrary to Quebec law (the deal was done in Quebec) it was fraudulently obtained. When William Kaplan, a well known Canadian journalist, originally a defender of Mulroney and his government, heard of the $300,000 in the shopping bag, he was outraged but for some strange reason the media weren't interested and the story had no "legs."
This, then, is your vigilant national media at work.
Let's roll back a few years to 1991 when it was reported that then-premier Vander Zalm of B.C. had accepted $20,000 in a bag, originating from a source to whom he was trying to sell his theme park. There was no suggestion that Vander Zalm was accepting a bribe but that in his dealings, he had been in a conflict of interest position.
Here we have a former prime minister, known to have close relations with the Airbus deal fixer, Karl-Heinz Schreiber, first getting $2 million for a libel, then getting $300,000 in cash in shopping bags from Mr. Schreiber. The national media across the board breathed on their Orders of Canada, gave them a polish, then went about dealing with matters less embarrassing to their political friends.
Placid poodle
None of this is to assert, of course, that Brian Mulroney is guilty of any crime. Merely that his dealings merit much closer journalistic scrutiny than they have been given.
Unlike the national media, or any other I'm acquainted with, I have consistently raised these issues for almost a decade. I've been accused many times of being unfair to the national media whether it was over Meech Lake, the Charlottetown "Accord," Kemano II, Atlantic salmon fish farming in B.C., or just about the absence of decent reporting on B.C. news. I now rest my case. Those who accept the national media's version of events or, more often, their refusal to deal with them, no doubt are also looking for a bridge to buy.
This tawdry business doesn't just involve the Mulroneys and Schreibers. It is the entire Canadian establishment, the system if you will, that sees, hears and speaks no evil.
Is the national media the Canadian establishment's poodle?
What other conclusion can any intelligent Canadian come to?
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48
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gaulois
5 years ago
Media watch group
Good story. The Mulroney Airbus affair is one amongst many that the national medias will not dare touch. There should be a better way to keep track of those stories and make the national medias more accountable.
What else Greenspoon&Co have not properly covered and how can we get back to them other than by boycotting these newspapers (that I already do)? How can we spread the boycot so that less biased medias such as The tyee can grow?
rockyvoids
5 years ago
hounds sleep and sheep are sheared
Another good one, Rafe. This cherry will always be on the top the Mulroney sundae that is out there to ravage.
Take this quote from Pericles:
We consider a man who takes no interest in the state not as harmless; but as useless; and although only a few may originate policy, we are all able to judge it.
Then substitute "the state" with "the national media."
Like our cousins to the south we are gouverned by two right wing political ideologies; and like a bird with two right wings we can only fly in an ever diminishing downward spiral.
Grumpy
5 years ago
One has not to go to far for scandal
Canada's media is a sham, a farce. The hounded Clark out of office, but nary a thing is said about our DUI Premier. Where was he going? Who was he seeing? The arrest reports do not coincide with his story, but alas, except for the wee 'Republic', none of our major papers report.
SkyTrain has always been a taboos subject for the Asper press and the RAV scandal only confirms that the media is soft on Liberal doings!
The Sun & Province are a joke and OMG, Bill (ever waiting of an Order of Canada) Boring on brand-X is an insult to ones intelligence.
The public are just ill served to the point of being an international laughing stock.
BC Mary
5 years ago
Protection comes at a fearful price
Good analysis, Rafe. Many thanks.
Now I wish you'd look at who decides on "protection" ... the handful of people who not only hold those powers but are cronies of people like Mulroney.
The blame lies with the owners and publishers. They set the tone, they play the tune, and the journalists dance accordingly.
And convergence allows it to happen.
We see it happening all the time in British Columbia ... and we pay a fearful price for what is not printed, not published ... important news, too, which slips by us largely unnoticed.
G West
5 years ago
Lots of questions
I'd also like to see some investigative journalism focus attention on the 'connections' between Rakesh Saxena and John Reynolds. This is another story with international as well as local connections that hasn't been covered with anything like due diligence.
Mr. Reynolds’ continuing influence at the highest level of the national government (not to say in Victoria as well) makes this every bit as significant a question as the way Brian Mulroney behaved relative to Airbus. Perhaps even more significant.
The News Hounds are very sleepy on a whole range of issues.
Fiat lux
5 years ago
Rafe is getting better all
Rafe is getting better all the time......
On the other hand, the strings of overpaid directorships these two bit jerks are rewarded with, the minute they leave politics, and the huge amounts the corporations are bribing political parties with, to stay "business friendly" and sell off their peoples, are evidence enough of what is going on.
Not even behind the scenes, but openly and everybody's supposed to swoon with joy, how great our "leaders" have been and are. I've read somewhere that Brian is now getting some 15 times of his salary as PM ??????
I think nice, fat directorships are also waiting for some of our provincial "leaders" at CN, ALCAN, Accenture, Canfor, etc. Probably included in the secret contracts, carefully kept from the public, the owners of the stolen goodies.
Ed Deak.
BC Mary
5 years ago
How the Washington Post censors the U.S. news
How the Washington Post Censors the News
http://members.mint.net/troberts/julian/WashPostLetter.html
Truman Green
5 years ago
Why? Big media families and mediacorp.
Okay, so now we know it. Our media is controlled by families and giant mediacorp doing the news in their own and that of their friends, wielding lists of untouchable subjects.
Thank god for a few journalists like Rafe Mair.
Truman Green
5 years ago
error
should be: in their own interest.
southdeltawalker
5 years ago
"...doth protest too much, methinks."
Thanks Rafe for bringing this back to the public arena. I for one have always been very unhappy with the handling of the Airbus affair and the payout to Mulroney.
His lawsuit was a case of "...doth protest too much, methinks." His defence was to go on the offence by using the legal system.
I was expecting an outcry in the media after the Feb 8/06 broadcast of "The Fifth Estate" and demands for a re-opening of the investigation especially the $300,000 in paper bags and the two million payout to Mulroney but nope..all quieted down after a few reports in the media.
To allow the $300,000 in paper bags for mailing a pizza brochure as Schreiber mockingly explained to continue to go unchallenged exposes the mainstream media and really insults the intelligence of us all.
We have really important issues in this country that as citizens we need to participate in. Obviously we cannot trust the major media to report on them in any kind of an ethical manner.
Thank goodness for "The Tyee" and all the other sources that I and others have come to rely on.
Gee maybe the "major media" will not become so "major" and just might become irrevelent.....
skeptikool
5 years ago
For those harboring suspicions...
For those harboring suspicions as to who "owns" the media, I believe that one of those prominent among the owners is the gambling industry. This belief was further confirmed, to me, following recent investigations of certain Canadian lotteries and media response.
Following a Fifth Estate program citing questionable monitoring of Ontario's lotteries, and an article on lotteries and gambling in the Georgia Strait that questioned, also, what was considered excessive remuneration to certain B.C. Lotto Corp's executives, the Vancouver Sun front-paged the issue of the need to "probe" the corporation.
One would have expected a deluge of readers' letters.
Published response? Nil.
I wonder how many responses, along with my own, found refuge in the round file.
Oh yes, there was one response more an article than a letter, since it was highlighted in the Sound Off box in the editorial pages. It was a self-serving piece by the CEO of the Corporation - the same Corporation, that my letter pointed out, monitoring not only lotteries but all legalized gambling in the province.
murdock
5 years ago
Answer
asks Rafe.
How about this for a conclusion:
Canada is broken, therefore time to either 'fix it'; which I argue cannot be done or;
GET OUT of confederation, sooner is better - a clean break with really nasty penalties for anyone bringing in Ottawa's minions or messages into the either provincial or regional governance that replaces the shunned Ottawa.
The 'western' alienation?
Forgotten now that the CONformers have a shot at the brass ring, but realize that to get it they must pay-off the establishment.
Think about whatever Ottawa has ever meant to you, your family and whatever your business is...have 'they' (the mandarins without number and their supposed political masters) ever done anything that has really improved your situation? Your neighbors?
Vote independant and get to know your candidates...lest the next 'parachute' behave like either Stronach or Emerson.
Kam Lee
5 years ago
Media / politicians / the great unwashed
Quote:
"Canada's media is a sham, a farce. The hounded Clark out of office, but nary a thing is said about our DUI Premier. Where was he going? Who was he seeing? The arrest reports do not coincide with his story, but alas, except for the wee 'Republic', none of our major papers report.
SkyTrain has always been a taboos subject for the Asper press and the RAV scandal only confirms that the media is soft on Liberal doings!
The Sun & Province are a joke and OMG, Bill (ever waiting of an Order of Canada) Boring on brand-X is an insult to ones intelligence.
The public are just ill served to the point of being an international laughing stock."
Thank you Grumpy. An excellent reply. It speaks volumes on how our media continually vilifies the left and stands arm–in–arm with the right.
Many questions…
Mulroney – Helicopters, Airbus, military spending
Cretien - Missing money, in the Billions, unaccounted for.
Campbell - Telling fibs, DWI, Virk, Basi, Virk (Collins, Clark, Marisson, Campbell), Doug Walls, Alcan, selling off our Hydro, BC Gas, BC Ferries, Mining rights, etc
They all seem to escape the courts. They all have an excuse. They seem to cover their asses fairly easily. Takes money, that’s all.
When will we find out about the BVV gang? Taking an unusual amount of time. Remember this, gordo micro-manages everything in his world. If we think he doesn’t have any ideas about the VBV situation, give your head a shake. This world has been run by right wingies for a long time, and we are in rough shape now. Maybe its time to try the left. Only a thought.
DPL
5 years ago
Anyone ever read"The
Anyone ever read"The Mulroney Years. Greed , corruption , and I can't remember the other heading. The neat part of the story was that nobody sued the writer. The Airbus guy was in that book along with some present wealers and dealers. and for God sakes Lyin Brian is back as a senior advisor to Steve
daniel2
5 years ago
As a conservative leaning
As a conservative leaning person I supported lying Brian….on my bookshelf rests a book “On the Take” , it remains there not finished because of the anger it causes.
MyBrainIsOnFire
5 years ago
CBC Host blows Mulroney a kiss
CBC Newsworld Mon 2:42 pm "Politics" with Don Newman
Question back to Calgary School / Conservative guy...you want to talk about the past, how about Brian Mulroney.
Host: Mulroney...Greenest PM ever, blah blah blah
and that's all folks, are you ready for the green spin room where all the inequities of the past are now sold to us as shiny new green policies....
MyBrainIsOnFire
5 years ago
they were talking about new
they were talking about new con ads
MyBrainIsOnFire
5 years ago
and 2:52 dammit! do I even
and 2:52 dammit! do I even have eyes?
Lefty
5 years ago
Lyin' Brian, Steve Harper's right-hand man.
Right on Rafe! these are indeed questions which do need to be answered.
daniel2, I agree with you it took me the longest time to finish "On the Take" because of the anger it engendered. Another of Stevie Cameron's books "Blue Trust" is definitely worth the read.
Jack's
5 years ago
Anybody else confused?
Ok this is where I get lost in this story.
Did the mounties error in the wording of their letter? They certainly cannot initiate an investigation without Bureaucratic authorization i.e. Auditor General.
The RCMP has since had an Insp. Clouseau image with possible screw-ups of the Air India investigation and presently with the Arar case.
However, I do agree that, with the possible exception of the CBC, our Canadian media is basically an Israeli influenced propaganda mill which cannot be trusted to report international news in an unbiased way.
Truman Green
5 years ago
It's a civil rights issue.
Democracies can't survive without a functioning news media.
The right to a fair, unbiased press is a civil rights issue, and there is no giantcorp that is more vulnerable to protest than big media. A few hundred thousand people in the streets protesting against CanWest, the gluttonous monopolizer should do the trick.
These media monopolies are ruining this country, and there's no reason for it, except an apathetic population.
Grumpy
5 years ago
How to stop reporters, reporting.
When the RAV subway was changed to bored tunnel, to cut-and cover construction, there was a major report, then silence. Despite the fact that cut-and-cover construction has pr oven disastrous for businesses beside it, the Sun & Province have almost a hands off approach. The odd letter is printed that say the business owners are greedy, etc.
InTransit BC, sponsored a glitzy ad campaign urging people to shop on Cambie, well almost most of it was for Oakridge, whose ownership can be traced to one of the partners in the shabby little P-3. Certainly the large advertising budget was welcomed by the Asper Press and CORUS Radio and in a wink, wink, nudge, nudge gesture, the above mentioned media kept the reporters of the story.
Recently the owner of Hazel & Co. has a letter printed in the Asper media, telling it like it is. Why, except for the Georgia Straight, the Asper media has said little about the trials and tribulations of the cut-and-cover subway.
It seems Intransit BC's $500 thousand in advertising is wearing thin and the media and now the threat of lawsuit (and I am lead to believe have good success in civil court) the papers are beginning to cave. Imagine the Asper Press and CORUS radio type in court trying to explain the lack of news involvement vis a vis the amount of advertising dollars spent.
On success in civil court will will bring a deluge in like cases and drive up the cost of RAV, meaning the taxpayer will get screwed again. Lastly it will certainly teach those in charge why cut-and-cover construction is used for only a last resort.
Cynic
5 years ago
quote: ...one still must
quote: ...one still must wonder why a Liberal government would behave so generously with Brian Mulroney. In all events, 14 years later there is no answer to an uncomplicated question: why did the government pay Brian Mulroney $2 million?
Rafe, it's not hard to understand because there is essentially no difference between the two. The government is the elite. Mulroney is a very wealthy man today exactly because he did the elite's bidding, selling out his own country and his own people in service to the elite continentalist vision. The Mulroneys were not moneyed people. My lawyer went to school with him at FX and he says that Mulroney was helped along, he wasn't a star pupil. But you know, he's a good ol' boy. He likes to party and everybody likes him. It was easy to sell him the vision and put him on the take.
So look at him now. Besides Schreiber, how much money did he make on Barrick stock options with the insider knowledge help of his buddy, Peter Munk? How much money is he making on "investing" in coal-fired power plants in China? And on and on. The elite take care of their own. Money is no object. Fleecing the people via banking takes care of that.
Kam Lee says: This world has been run by right wingies for a long time, and we are in rough shape now. Maybe its time to try the left.
Kam, left/right means nothing, it's a diversion. The problem is vertical. We the people must recognise elite rule and stop floundering around, wondering what's going on. Once we acknowledge this bitter reality and put an end to it, then we can move forward to achieve what we all want, like peace, love, prosperity, a clean environment. The elite are not interested in these things, they only want to maintain their dominance. Until we stop them, things will get rougher.
alive
5 years ago
Let us not forget how the
Let us not forget how the media tiptoed around "junior Bennet" and his telephone calls to "discuss horses"!
Seems a lot of people are in public life because the want power and money, at any cost!
I still think it is more criminal how Mulroney and friends have sold out Canada to the multinationals.
DPL
5 years ago
daniel2 Says As a
daniel2 Says As a conservative leaning person I supported lying Brian….on my bookshelf rests a book “On the Take” , it remains there not finished because of the anger it causes.
I encourage you to finish it and see what a sleezy gang he had around him. Some are still hanging around and none work for cheap. If the woman who wrote the book had made errors, it's interesting that Brian who loves to sue people, simply didn't dare to do so. Un bid contracts and kick backs were the name of the game. The Liberal PR scandel in quebec was small change compared to brians pals in operation.
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
This isn't funny....
It might be prudent to point out that the country's legal system has cleared Mulroney, so unless The Tyee now has judicial status, I'm uncertain why the doubt exists.
I thought journalists were supposed to stick to the facts.
G West
5 years ago
darcy.mcgee
The judicial system did NOT clear Mulroney.
You need to do a little more digging into the actual facts surrounding this case. Mulroney used a slap suit against the RCMP and Alan Rock.
That action has nothing to do with the process of justice. Whether or not Mulroney accepted payola is an open question.
Those are the facts.
IAMC
5 years ago
The timing of this article
The timing of this article by Mr. Fish Farm is an obvious attempt to paint the New Government of Canada with the sins of past decades of the then Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
Come on, need I mention The Sponsorship Scandal or The HRDC Scandal.
If you have real guts Mr Mair, lets see you dig up some dirt on the CPC now, in present time that comes anything close to those past sins of The Liberal Party of Canada.
I don't think I want that bunch of crooks around anymore, trying to seize power in Canada. Stephan is already courting some of these banned crooks to help his gang of organized criminals. Won't they ever learn?
G West
5 years ago
Now you're spelling Harper's first name Stephan are you Ron?
The new leader of the Liberal Party is STEPHANE Dion.
Mulroney is STEPHEN Harper's trusted advisor, along with JOHN Reynolds.
Need one say more?
IAMC
5 years ago
He runs the show
The PM is the true captain of the ship. It's his brain that's running all strategies and initiatives. He is the man running everything.
I admire his hard work and dedication. He will out fox his foes. It won't even be a contest.
My apologies to Mr. Stephane Dion for spelling his first name wrong. Remember I was pushing for Mr. Dion to win the nomination. So I know his character is solid.
If he ends up as PM, I won't be afraid. But I would be disappointed, obviously.
Canadian politics has rushed to the center, to avoid oblivion.
The NDP are obviously out of step, but the CPC-LIB-GREEN are wide open. They will do anything in order to please the electorate.
It's all good for us, unless they make us pay for Quebec's over generous social programs.
siamdave
5 years ago
doing what they've been doing for years...
The question, of course, is what exactly is the media supposed to be doing? Are they the propaganda arm of the ruling elite, whose single purpose is to convince the people to go along with a program decided on by the elite - or are they a democratic media whose purpose is to inform the people of what their government is up to, in order that they (the people) can keep an intelligent eye on what they (the gov) are up to, and be prepared to get them back in line with what the people actually want, if necessary. It is quite obvious that inside the box people believe the latter, but outside the box we see quite clearly the real purpose is the former.
- and more from outside the Box on Green Island - http://www.rudemacedon.ca/lgi/ogi-home.html
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Quote:I don't think I want
These are your words Ron.
Also these:
I don't believe you have any idea what you actually do think.
In fact, I'm sure you listen to Charles Adler and Rush Limbaugh before you decide what you believe Ron.
How come?
Cynic
5 years ago
quote: The PM is the true
quote: The PM is the true captain of the ship. It's his brain that's running all strategies and initiatives. He is the man running everything.
Yessiree. When Steve went to Versailles in 2003 and met with Rockefeller, Kissinger, Black, et al, he sure told them. The image of these elite elders sitting at the feet of Steve brings tears to my eyes. The adoration of the magi. Not to mention Canada's permanent government, the senior "civil servants" who no doubt worship his every word.
Of course you're joking, iamc, good one.
IAMC
5 years ago
character of Mr. Dion
Alci; It's obviously stupid to try and win you over to my side. I can only try to point out to you that Mr, Dion is a man of character. That doesn't mean I am endorsing him.
I am saying that he is associated with the old Liberal Quebec gang that would be a disaster for us to go with again.
He was selected by PM Creighton's wife.
That may be a good thing. You be the judge.
Umslopogaas
5 years ago
Professional Wrestlers
The Liberals and the Conservatives are like the professional wrestlers who used to tour small town B.C. a few years ago. They would work the crowd into a frenzy, pretend to hurt each other and then leave town together on the same bus. They were all the best of friends, taking lots of the sucker's money while pretending to hurt, maim and mutilate each other in the ring.
The banks donate equal support to both the Liberals and the Conservatives in each and every election - in essence providing the bus that they both travel on in such comfort.
Politicians have sensed a feeding frenzy to be had in the environment issue and can hardly wait to milk the crowd for what it will gladly pay to be decieved yet again. Watch for lots of full nelsons, forearm smashes and airplane spins while the rubes throw money.
We will all be told to line up, to consume less and pay more taxes then the big, laugh-filled bus will continue to take the professionals from one gullible crowd of hicks to the next.
Keep it coming Mair. You are the only reporter left that still asks the hard questions.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Win you over?
The minute you start agreeing with me is the exact same moment I know I've lost my mind.
Having you on the other side of whatever issue is a failsafe litmus test that I'm on the right side of the equation Ron.
You're like an early warning system for threats to rationality and the end of good government.
What you provide here is comic relief - nothing more, nothing less.
Keep it up!
rebel
5 years ago
News Hounds Sleep
Thanks Rafe for a really good article and for keeping this story alive - you are so right by saying the media can be biased in two ways, what the publish and what they do NOT publish. I might add as an after thought where they bury news they hope you won't notice like on the bottom left hand page way back in the paper you might find something unflattering about Harper or Israel.
However, aside from the "airbus affair" I think there is a huge story being ignored about the circumstances around the resignation of the RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardeli. There are a lot of suspicions that the last election may have been tampered with. What could be more important than that? Say goodby to Democracy if its true and I can think of all kinds of dots to connect towards this being true - so far only two reporters have had the balls to mention it. Don Martin from the National Post who wrote a book about Belinda Stronach and Rick Salutin of the Globe and Mail. You can find it by googling "Our Own Hanging Chads" and fishing around that site or www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=55282
Fiat lux
5 years ago
I like Ron's reference to
I like Ron's reference to the "New" Government.. a well worn and obvious mind bender gimmick, already explained 40 years ago by Vance Packard in his series on public deception.
When corporations want to sell something to the suckers, especially women, they call it "new".
Watch Harpo and his gang constantly using it every time they are interviewed, or get a chance.
Ed Deak.
G West
5 years ago
Thanks for that rebel
Usually read Salutin, but I'd missed that column. Excellent point.
Jack's
5 years ago
Quote:daniel2 Says As a
Agree with you about "On the Take". And some of the sleezy gang are in the Senate.
Fiat lux
5 years ago
The best memory I have of
The best memory I have of Brian was when an old lady confronted him and called him a liar, in front of TV cameras, when he wanted to eliminate the indexing of pensions.
I never forget his face, perhaps the only time he's shown any human expression.
Of course, indexing is still a joke, as it is nowhere near the real inflation, but Brain backed off in a hurry, and at least it is still something.
Cost of living went up 300 to 500 % since his FTA, but our pensions certainly didn't.
Ed Deak.
eight
5 years ago
Globe and Mail
This is part of Globe editor Ed Greenspon's response to me in January 2005 (spelling errors his)when I wrote him to complain about the treatment of Stevie Cameron, and the lack of coverage on the $300K payment to Mulroney.
I guess they haven't discovered more.......
aorangi
5 years ago
Lyin' Brian
I remember that following Mulroney's successful suit against the RCMP and the government, he announced that he'd donate the money to charity. So I wonder which charity was the recipient of what was left after the lawyers got their slice? Why, the Mulroney charity of course! The same one Schrieber donated to.
"Oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way across the floor"....who said that?
thomas49
5 years ago
Quote:How can we spread the
The Tyee IS as biased as any other media out there.
You don't know about the tyee's biases ,because they block anyone who has views that don't align with their limited vision.
LOOK for my brother/haraldkann's latest views on the TYEE and you will see that they don't exist anymore.
He insulted their collective intelligence and was blocked.
WOW...WHAT A RADICAL SITE !!!
ESPECIALLY ,WHEN PROFFERING A TIRED WRITER LIKE THAT HACK RAFE MAIR WITH A BONE TO PICK WITH MULRONEY!!!
FISH FARMS AND MULRONEY !
WOW!!!
anne cameron
5 years ago
it spreads, like cow cack on a hayfield....
Ah, Rafe, things have come to a pretty pass when a tired old Socred hack like you and a worn-out leftie like me actually wind up agreeing on things. Your stalwart stewardship of the fish stocks and your unflinching look at the net pen feed lot industry have caused me to re-visit my opinion of you and your talents, and now this...well, at the time the two mil was paid the Libs hadn't yet had the sponsorship scandal explode in their faces and my take on it is Lyin' Brian threatened to blow the whistle on some of that so was quickly appeased with munny lovely munny.
It ties in with basi-virk-basi and the potential link between organized crime and federal politicians, probably of both if not all parties...it ties in with the police investigating complaints against the police and no chance of unbiased civilian review boards and it ties in with the courts in B.C. having nothing more to occupy their precious time than to send two grandmothers off to the slammer for refusing to apologize for blockading a totally unnecessary road which will wreck a unique ecology.
On all sides the Phillistines are in control. Stephen Truscott is still trying to get justice, two cops are charged with involvement in kiddie porn and here in Tahsis there are american registered boats which haven't left our area in a couple of years even though the regulations say they have to go back across the border or be registered in Canada..and the Mounties claim they can do nothing about it and Fisheries says it's for Customs to do something about it and Customs ain't sayin' nothin' and we have one, maybe two, Fisheries guys to patrol the whole west coast of the Island and they can't be everywhere at once. We can't get anyone to send a diver down to determine if it is true that a local establishment is just flushing the toilet into the chuck and anyway we're told it's actually registered as a vessel so municipal by-laws don't apply.... and soon enough Trudeau's spoiled kid and Mulroney's spoiled kid will square off as the Young Blood hopes of the entire nation and I think you and I might just as well go tell it to our gumboots because it really would be funny if it wasn't so grievously tragic.
Hang in there old man! Just keep spittin' in their eyes, ya do it so well.
rebel
5 years ago
Amen.
Amen.
rebel
5 years ago
schreiber
Speak of the devil ... Schreiber is back in the news today, fighting extradition charges to send him back to Germany on a variety of charges including tax evasion.
G West
5 years ago
Good ole Karl-Heinz
Maybe he should talk to John Reynolds. He's been quite helpful assisting another person who's been trying to stay out of the clutches of justice in Thailand and hang on here in the promised land of Canada.
I think Saxena's actually accused of fraud and a few other charges as well. But then John's too busy slamming Jamie Elmhirst and the Liberals these days isn't he. Still, maybe they could do a conference call.