Rick Mercer, in his latest rant, said what a large and growing majority of Canadians believe - Harper is lying through his teeth about the PMO scandal and he was personally in on it all along. Mercer drove home his point by noting that, while Nigel Wright was supposedly dismissed by an indignant prime minister, two other PMO staffers, Chris Woodcock and Ray Novak, who were also in on it wound up being promoted.
CBC News has come up with another bit of information that reinforces Mercer's supposition - what befell the one Tory staffer who resisted the Wright-Duffy-Harper scheme, former LeBreton aide, Christopher Montgomery.
Why is it that the one person who raised a red flag is no longer working in government?
Christopher Montgomery served as director of parliamentary affairs in the office of Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton when she was government leader in the Senate. Montgomery’s name comes up time and again in the RCMP paper trail. Unlike others, though, the image that emerges is overwhelmingly positive.
When staffers from the Prime Minister’s Office were pressing a Senate committee to amend its report into Senator Mike Duffy’s expenses to go easy on him, the RCMP documents show Montgomery resisting.
On one page, police outline how “he (Montgomery) advised the PMO, specifically Patrick Rogers and Chris Woodcock, that they should not be involved in the Senate audit and reports regarding Senator Duffy.”
“During his seven years in the Senate,” the report continues, “he (Montgomery) cannot recall other times when representatives from the PMO actually attended meetings and insisted on wording of a Senate report.”
As negotiations reached their heated conclusion, Rogers sent an email to Woodcock and Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, to complain. "This is epic. Montgomery is the problem."
Montgomery eventually did find work just not anywhere near Ottawa where he'd become persona non grata in Conservative ranks. He had to relocate to Calgary to get it but he did find another job.
That's crime and punishment in Harperland. The crime was standing up to power, resisting outright wrongdoing. The punishment for doing the right thing - banishment from the realm.
Hey Mound,
ReplyDeleteJust getting to part 2 of the answer to your question (in fact there may even be a part 3). Sorry it's taken so long, I had to divert attention due to the revelations about G20.
Thanks, Richard. I'll check it out.
ReplyDeleteHere ya go http://canadiantrends.blogspot.ca/2013/11/oil-and-economy-shale-oil-revo-illusion.html :)
ReplyDeleteIf anything, Montgomery got the biggest promotion of all. He got transferred to corporate HQ into a higher paying position.
ReplyDeleteAnd his new posting is with Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Does this ring any bells, disaffected Lib?
ReplyDeleteAs in, a place where he'll be making so much money he'll be guaranteed to shut up.
Calls to Montgomery were met, this week, with "mo comment."
Yes it does, Anon. Isn't that where Bruce Carson wound up when he was caught out and banished from the PMO?
ReplyDeleteStill and all, getting turfed from The Hill is pretty injurious to those who live in the political milieu. A lot of these people spurn higher-paying options in the private sector specifically because they want to be in the midst of the grind in politics.
"A lot of these people spurn higher-paying options in the private sector specifically because they want to be in the midst of the grind in politics."
ReplyDeleteThe private sector in the form of CAPP is running the defacto government of this country. And being in Calgary, working for CAPP, puts one exactly at the epicentre of the grind of current Reform neoconservative politics.
You had better give your a head a shake MoS.
It's astounding. They have their fingers into everything. And those fingers corrupt everything they touch.
ReplyDeleteThat they do, Owen. Steve Harper has methodically corrupted everything he could since coming to office.
ReplyDeleteIt began with his greatest anti-democratic coup when he severed the public's direct access to their public service and armed forces. Once the public access to their government institutions was blocked, Harper transformed them into his personal, partisan, political agencies, eliciting barely a whimper from our corporate media scribes.
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that others have recognized the "punishment" for Montgomery is not what the mainstream is saying.
ReplyDeleteIf Montgomery was such a "white knight" why isn't he talking to Canadians now?
It looks like he's just been paid off with a high paying job at the Reform/Con branch plant - Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. An association with a budget 5X larger that the entire Canadian budget.
Who holds the power here? It's not the Canadian voter that's for sure.