Putting Harper In Perspective

Steve Harper used the Chretien-era "sponsorship scandal" as a springboard to power.   Even though Paul Martin was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Gomery Commission, Harper didn't hesitate to smear Martin anyway.   It's also helpful to recall the actual scope of misappropriation calculated by Gomery.

In the end the Commission concluded that $2 million was awarded in contracts without a proper bidding process, $250,000 was added to one contract price for no additional work, and $1.5 million was awarded for work that was never done, of which $1 million had to be repaid. 

Three culprits were tracked down and sent to prison, Chuck Guite,  Jean Breault, and Jean Lafleur.  While AdScam was peddled by Harper as a theft of $200 million, it was actually $3.25 million, that's all.   And for that, Martin paid with his job even though he was cleared of any involvement.  Layton and Harper smelled blood and went for it.  That's politics.

So, how does that stack up with Tory perfidy since Harper took power in January, 2006?   Now AdScam really begins to look like chump change.   Let's begin with the G8 spending scandal and the $50-million bucks Tony Clement slathered all over his riding.   Recall Auditor General Sheila Fraser's findings that the Harper government lied to Parliament and much of the gravy Clement poured into his riding had very little, if anything, to do with the G8 summit.

There's the "in and out" scandal involving illegal transfers of donations from the federal Tory office to individual ridings to circumvent election spending laws.

And the ETS scandal in which a Harper public works minister, Michael Fortier, a $400-million dollar contract to a Montreal company which which he'd had previous dealings.   When a competitor complained about conflict of interest and flaws in the bidding process, a newly appointed Crown Attorney who had been a failed Conservative candidate brought charges of bid-rigging against the whistle blower.

And, of course, the scandal about torture of captives in Afghanistan which sent Harper & Co. scurrying for cover in contempt of Parliament.   Don't forget Harper's despicable attempts to smear diplomat Richard Colvin for telling the truth.

Sprinkle a dollop of the Cadman Affair and Maxime Bernier's romance with a woman linked to organized crime and the Hell's Angels.

Gently fold in a heaping scoop of instances in which Harper & Co. used government funding for partisan political purposes.

Lisa Raitt and the "sexy" isotope fiasco scandal.

Harper's (lack of) integrity commissioner who received more than 200-complaints from whistleblowers and upheld exactly - zero.  Of course she resigned in disgrace with a handsome severance package.

Odious Bev Oda's doctoring of documents can't be overlooked.  Nor can Harper's decision to install disbarred lawyer and veteran criminal Bruce Carson in the PMO.

And, of course, there's this:



That's right, 26-million bucks advertising a programme that was already finished, blatant misappropriation of government revenues for sheer partisan advantage.   Theft?  That's your call.  But, remember, it is TEN times the amount lost in AdScam.

And, who can finish without mentioning what may be Harper's most devious, undemocratic and authoritarian scandal of them all, gagging the Armed Forces and the public service and transforming them into political agencies of the PMO which obstructs all contact between them and the Canadian people.   You have to have the moral turpitude and instincts of Joseph Stalin to do that to your own people.

Torture? Not My Job.

Whatever disgrace, if any, befalls the Canadian Forces as a result of the torture meted out to Afghans we detained and handed over to their nation's security service, lies not with the troops but exclusively with their supposed commanders. It's not the privates and corporals and sergeants but the majors, colonels and generals who need to be held to account and, not surprisingly, they're doing everything they can to dodge this one.

Today we heard from the remarkably outspoken backpeddler, Lt.-Col. Douglas Boot. The Colonel's position was clear - it wasn't his job to investigate whether the detainees we handed over to Afghan security types were being tortured. Were they being tortured, possibly - okay sure, but that wasn't any business of the Canadians.

Colonel Boot told the Canadian Military Police Complaints Commission that he had it really rough as Provost Marshal at the Canadian Expeditionary Force headquarters. He wasn't goofing off like those other slackers out drawing sniper fire or trolling for IEDs. No siree, he was fighting the war from his desk and - war is hell. Why at times his paper load got so bad it was "unrelenting" and "psychotic." Yes, those were his words to describe the torturous conditions at his office at headquarters.

The sniveling dipshit finished his testimony by suggesting that maybe the situation wasn't as bad "as some people would hope to think." I'm sorry. I really hate this word but Colonel Boot is an unmitigated asshole.

A Shot Across Iacabucci's Bow?

Ottawa University law professor Amir Attaran may have thrown a wrench into the gears of Harper's determined, perhaps desperate efforts to conceal documents pertaining to torture of detainees captured by Canadian forces and handed over to Afghan captors.

Professor Attaran claims he's seen the documents and they're unequivocal. He maintains they show detainees were handed to the Afghans for what Michael Ignatieff politely refers to as 'enhanced interrogation' in order to extract intelligence from them.

There are some fascinating dimensions to Attaran's gambit. He says the documents exist. He says they show a deliberate policy of torture. In other words, Professor Attaran is telling the public that retired Justice Frank Iacabucci will be receiving unredacted documents that plainly show we had a policy of using Afghan government thugs to torture detainees to extract intelligence.

But wait, there's more!

What's also implicit in Attaran's statement is that we did this, we duly recorded the fact and that information was conveyed through channels to Ottawa. People in Ottawa knew and that means they'll be accountable for their actions once they knew. Who would that be? Almost certainly it would include senior officers at the Defence Department and, unless they're willing to throw themselves on their swords, the knowledge trail would likely skip right over the Laurier Bridge to Parliament Hill.

But wait, there's even more!

How did a law professor come to see these unredacted documents when the Harper regime has them so securely under lock and key? The most likely explanation is that someone inside thought they needed to be leaked and was willing to risk the consequences to prevent them from being buried. Who, what, when? I would expect professor Attaran has already had his first sit down with the RCMP. We know that Harper doesn't like upstarts telling the public the truth he doesn't want them to hear.

And, you guessed it - even more.

Now most of you kids are probably too wet behind the ears to recall a guy named Daniel Ellsberg and what became known as the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg was a Pentagon analyst who leaked rafts of documents showing that the Pentagon knew Vietnam was unwinnable. That was quite the scandal. The American newspapers had a field day with that. The point is, once this sort of stuff is leaked, the genie is forever out of the bottle.

I'm guessing that Attaran was shown these documents by someone of conscience unwilling to let them be buried. That suggests the documents Harper is struggling so fiercely to bury have already fled the coop and may be circulating in public.

My bet is that Amir Attaran has fired a shot across Justice Iacabucci's bow. He's just told Frank Iacabucci and Stephen Harper and all those safely-retired generals that they've lost control of these documents and, if they don't release them, someone else just might. And, if Attaran's accounts of what's in these documents is right, that kids may be game, set and match.

If Frank Iacabucci was supposed to be Stephen Harper's beard, he just got trimmed.