The WAR on Science: Thursday, November 21, 2013, 7:00 pm Room 1900, SFU Harbour Ctr

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an honest politician: Phil upmymouth withfarts

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How Does Money Corrupt Our Government? US-based - but very, very similar here...

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http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/04/21/Duffy-Dirt/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=210415

Parliament No Place to Shovel Duffy Dirt, Speaker Implies

'The issue of taxpayer's money is government business,' retorts NDP's Angus.

By Jeremy J. Nuttall, Today, TheTyee.ca

Questions about the ongoing Mike Duffy trial were deflected by the Speaker of the House in Parliament on Monday.

Questions about information coming out of the trial of suspended senator Mike Duffy are not related to government business, implied Canada's Speaker of the House Andrew Scheer during question period on Monday.

On the first day that Parliament has sat since the Duffy trial began, Scheer repeatedly told opposition MPs to ensure their questions "touch on the administrative areas of government," in an apparent attempt to curb those based on the trial.

The speaker, an MP elected by secret ballot by members, is tasked with guiding debate in the House of Commons in a nonpartisan way.*

Duffy has plead not guilty to all charges, including 30 counts of fraud and breach of trust, and one charge of bribery, relating to his time as a senator. He was appointed as a Conservative to the senate in 2008, but quit the party in 2013 amid controversy over his expenses.

Evidence entered at his trial, including his diary, has provided a glimpse into the world of federal politics.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus -- who pointed out the diary mentions more than 600 dinners and only twice talks about senate business -- said his questions about how much work Duffy did for the constituents of his senate seat were perfectly legitimate.

"The issue of taxpayer's money is government business," Angus said after question period. "I know this is certainly a touchy time right now, but I'm surprised that suddenly these are questions that are not allowed to be asked."

Another question about taxpayers footing the bill for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's makeup at a G8 Summit came from Liberal MP Wayne Easter, who also demanded an investigation into the matter.

'Bafflegab ridiculous answer'

Parliamentary secretary to the prime minister and Conservative MP Paul Calandra didn't answer the questions posed by opposition members, reasoning that they are part of an ongoing court case. Instead, Calandra tried to turn the debate around on past scandals involving the Liberals or the NDP.

Angus pointed out that Speaker Scheer didn't stop Calandra's deflections.

"We had some bafflegab ridiculous answer from Mr. Calandra that seemed to be perfectly okay (to the speaker), and we follow up trying to get more answers, and we're shut down," he said.

Pausing for a split second when asked by The Tyee why he didn't answer the questions on Monday afternoon, Calandra opted to head up the stairs, away from the media.

It's not the first time that Scheer and Calandra have provoked the opposition.

In September, Calandra tearfully apologized to the House of Commons for not giving appropriate answers about Canada's role in Iraq, instead talking about the NDP's stance on Israel.

During the debate leading to that apology, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair questioned Scheer's neutrality.

*Story corrected April 21 at 8 a.m.
 
http://www.pressprogress.ca/en/post/7-times-joe-olivers-budget-speech-departs-reality

April 21, 2015 by PressProgress

7 Times Joe Oliver's Budget Speech Departs from Reality

Hyperbole alert!

Finance Minister Joe Oliver delivered his budget on Tuesday. Here's seven problems with what Oliver had to say about the state of Canada's fiscal affairs:

1. But is the world an ocean of chaos? And is Canada an island of stability?

Joe Oliver says:

"Around the world, many nations -- including some of our friends and allies -- remain mired in a struggle for fiscal security ... Still the news for Canada is, by and large, good. Amid the tumult, our country remains a beacon of economic stability and security built on a foundation of sound financial management."

Reality check:

According to Oliver's own budget, the recent drop in oil prices is going to mean chaos for Canada.

"As a producer and net exporter of crude oil," the budget says Canada will see "a significant downward revision to the outlook for economy-wide prices and therefore, nominal GDP." And what of the rest of the world? Low oil prices "will be generally positive for global growth," says the budget -- particularly for countries that import oil.

But although it projects "weaker investment and hiring within the energy sector," the government says low oil prices could (eventually) lead to "positive impacts" for other sectors of the economy. Just probably not in the near future.

2. Is Canadian economic growth, in fact, "solid"?

Joe Oliver says:

"Mr. Speaker, our economy is now substantially larger than it was pre-recession, a performance that remains the envy of the G-7. International observers expect Canada's growth -- already ahead of our peers during the recovery -- to continue to be solid..."

Reality check:

According to the Department of Finance, private sector economists say "economic data to date for early 2015 suggest the real GDP growth in the first quarter is likely to be weaker than expected, or even flat." Economists now say real GDP growth will fall to 1.2% in the first quarter of 2015, while projections for nominal GDP growth over the year have been reduced from 4.3% to 1.6%.

What else? Economists predict oil prices won't rise above $65 this year, and predict a gradual climb to $80 by 2019 (in other words, even after four years, oil isn't expected to return to recent highs).

But since he seems to think the economy is so "solid," maybe that explains why the budget doesn't really include anything to stabilize Alberta's economy?

3. If Canada is the story of "opportunity," is this the chapter where "opportunity" takes a nap?

Joe Oliver says:

"The story of Canada is -- has always been -- the story of opportunity. Opportunity is what has drawn people here from around the world, generation after generation ... Opportunity for themselves and for their families, the opportunity to work hard, dream big, and achieve those dreams."

Reality check:

How's the Canadian dream doing?

"Lower employment in the energy sector will have some negative effects on household income," the budget says. And "lower equity prices in the energy sector will have an impact on household wealth, which could mostly reduce consumer spending."

So, the story of Canada is the story of fewer jobs, lower incomes and less money in the bank?

4. Is reducing revenues to historic lows something worth bragging about?

Joe Oliver says:

"We have cut taxes to their lowest level in more than half a century."

Reality check:

While the Conservatives can correctly take credit for reducing revenues to historic lows, it's not clear that's something worth taking credit for -- that's the reason Canada didn't have a balanced budget in the first place.

And you don't really think average families are the ones who've benefitted from all these tax cuts, do you?
•Income splitting: A $2 billion tax cut that mainly benefits the wealthiest families in Canada.
•Tax Free Savings Accounts: The Conservatives will double the TFSA contribution limit to $10,000 per year, amounting to a $300 million loss in revenue over five years. However, as explained in a recent Broadbent Institute report authored by TFSA architect Jonathan Rhys Kesselman, "a doubled TFSA would be heavily tilted toward high-income earners and wealth holders" since they are more likely to have an extra $5,000 lying around to put in a TFSA.
•Corporate tax cuts: The Conservatives' reductions to the corporate tax rate have led to an estimated annual loss of $12 billion in revenue. Corporate Canada currently sits on a $600 billion hoard of unused 'dead money.'
•Boutique tax credits: And while many of the Conservatives' boutique tax credits aimed at children and families sound good in theory, many of them amount to "meaningless" savings for typical families. In fact, both by the way they're structured and how they're used, these tax credits more often than not skew to benefit wealthy Canadians.


5. Why are Conservatives taking credit for paying down the debt if they didn't do anything?

Joe Oliver says:

"When our government first came to power, we worked hard to reduce Canada's substantial federal debt. We did it in short order, by more than $37 billion."

Reality check:

Earlier this week, former senior Finance Canada policy experts Scott Clark and Peter Devries described Oliver's history of Canadian finances as pure "fantasy economics."


Here's what Clark and Devries has to say about the Conservatives' fiscal record:

"How does this compare to the Harper government’s fiscal record? In 2006-07, the Conservatives inherited a surplus of $13.8 billion — which they turned into a deficit of $5.8 billion within two years.


Since then, they have been in deficit each and every year. In 2009-10, the deficit reached its peak of 3.5 per cent of GDP. They are desperate now to show a surplus in 2015-16 — one surplus in nine years. Since Harper was elected, the federal debt has increased by over $150 billion."

6. Can you borrow your way to prosperity or can't you?

Joe Oliver says:

"We cannot borrow our way to prosperity -- no matter what our opponents might say."

Reality check:

But a short time later, Oliver says "in times of crisis, a deficit may be the appropriate action."

So can you or can't you? Both these statements can't be true.

7. Joe Oliver, how dumb do you think Canadians are, really?

Joe Oliver says:

"We are the only government in our nation's history to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions -- proof that emissions can decline even as economic growth increases."

Reality check:

Really? The same government led by Stephen Harper, who only a few short months ago called the idea of reducing carbon emissions a "crazy economic policy"?
 

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cse-w...f-canadian-metadata-might-be-viewed-1.3040816

CSE worried about how its use of Canadian metadata might be viewed

Questions over spy agency's definition of 'tracking Canadians'

By Amber Hildebrandt, CBC News Posted: Apr 22, 2015 5:00 AM ET| Last Updated: Apr 22, 2015 8:50 AM ET

A top-secret document revealed last January that CSE tracked people travelling through a major Canadian airport for days after they'd left the airport. It was an experiment to figure out ways to track people through publicly available Wi-Fi. (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)

Canada's electronic spy agency fretted over how its collection of cellphone and email metadata might be perceived even before CBC published a story on the agency using Wi-Fi data to track airport passengers, new documents obtained by CBC reveal.

A Communications Security Establishment employee warned in an email several days before the CBC story aired that public knowledge of the top-secret experiment, which followed passengers at a major Canadian international airport using their electronic footprints, "would be damaging" to the agency by "putting into question" its collection of the metadata belonging to Canadians.
■CBC News Investigates: More stories, photos, videos

"There was some internal squirming by CSE around the fact that they had used Canadian metadata to build the analytical model, and had done so over a protracted period," says national security expert and University of Ottawa professor Wesley Wark.

The electronic surveillance agency came under increased scrutiny in the weeks following the Jan. 30, 2014 airing and publication of the CBC story, which was based on a document obtained by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden and analyzed in collaboration with the U.S. news site The Intercept.
■CSE used airport Wi-Fi to track Canadian travellers
■Wi-Fi snooping experiment prompts calls for review
■Canada's Snowden files: More stories

Now, new documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, provide insight into how the spy agency prepped for Senate committee hearings and media scrums, as questions rained down about their use of the metadata collected about passengers at the Canadian international airport.

Care must be taken, said an email dated Feb. 3, 2014 — the day CSE chief John Forster spoke at a Senate committee — not only to make sure the agency didn't mislead, but also to make sure "we don't limit the scope of any future activities."

From an intelligence perspective, that second concern is understandable given how metadata has become the "absolute core way" intelligence agencies now monitor communications and individuals, says Chris Parsons, a post-doctoral fellow at University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, a research lab specializing in technology and human rights.

"If all of a sudden they were more limited in their ability to analyze, collect or parse Canadian metadata, then it could put their intrusion detection systems and ... signals intelligence operation in some kind of jeopardy."
■How Canada's spy agency hunts extremists through file-sharing sites
■CSE's cyberwarfare toolbox revealed

Metadata is often described as the information that appears on an envelope, or data about data. For email, it would include such elements as the name, time stamp, subject line and destination, but not the message itself. For cellphones, it could include such things as the location, telephone numbers and duration of calls.

Some civil libertarians and privacy advocates argue metadata can be more revealing and powerful than the content of a private communication, especially when analyzed en masse.

'Historical metadata'

Information collected about passengers at a Canadian international airport was based on a "snapshot of historical metadata collected from the global internet," the documents said.

The information was "completely minimized and at no time contains any user attributable information, nor can it be reverse-engineered to reveal it.

"The data was only used to paint a picture of the pattern of network use in certain types of facilities with public internet access. This is what you see in the presentation, patterns of dots," one email says.

One of the reasons the agency likely opted for a historical sample is to be "absolutely certain" the metadata was "cleaned to the point that it could in no way be traced back to one person or communication," says Christian Leuprecht, a fellow at Queen's University's Centre for International and Defence Policy and a professor at the Royal Military College.

"The historical snapshot allowed them to ensure compliance throughout the experimentation ahead of time, without having to worry about demonstrating compliance after the fact."

'Deeply flawed' definition

The access-to-information documents also provided some new insights into how the spy agency views whether or not it's directing its spying at Canadians.

"If CSE were to track anyone… we would need to know who they are; we would need to actively locate and find the individual; and we would need to monitor their movements in real time," a briefing note for CSE's chief said.

Internal CSE briefings & emails

Document
On mobile? Click here to read the CSE documents

CSE is barred by statute from targeting or tracking Canadians under its foreign signals mandate, but it says it is allowed under the current interpretation of the rules to incidentally collect metadata and emails. The agency is obligated to delete private communications unless they are deemed essential to foreign intelligence, but not metadata.

Tamir Israel, a lawyer with University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, says CSE's definition of when it is targeting Canadian is "deeply flawed" and contradicts privacy laws.

In cases involving third-party online tracking, typically used for advertising, the federal privacy commissioner has found that extensive tracking of metadata, even when the companies don't know the name of an individual, constitutes a violation, says Israel. The extensive monitoring creates a detailed profile, making identifying the individual too easy.

Part of the problem, he says, is that the CSE is "in this isolated sort of internal bubble where they get to determine the legal interpretation of everything they do."

More questions

In the days following the CBC report, the spy agency's watchdog was quick to defend the agency.​

'The CSE Commissioner may have rushed into the fray a little precipitously.'

- Wesley Wark

CSE Commissioner Jean-Pierre Plouffe said his office examined the top-secret, airport Wi-Fi presentation and concluded that the experiment did not involve "mass surveillance" and was done to understand the global internet, thus rendering it legal.

But two months later, Plouffe's office called on the CSE, asking for more clarity on the airport experiment, according to the new documents obtained by CBC.

The office wanted a "better understanding" of the signals intelligence metadata analysis used in the airport Wi-Fi case and asked for a demonstration on how the experiment was done.

"The CSE Commissioner may have rushed into the fray a little precipitously," says Wark.

The review likely also served as part of an ongoing review of CSE's use of metadata, which began in June 2013 following some of the initial Snowden revelations.

CBC is working with U.S. news site The Intercept to shed light on Canada-related files in the cache of documents obtained by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The CBC News team — Dave Seglins (Email, PGP key) and Amber Hildebrandt (Email, PGP key) — is collaborating with The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher to analyze the documents.

For a complete list of the past stories done by CBC on the Snowden revelations, see our topics page.
 
http://www.thecanadianpress.com/awards_and_coverage_highlights.aspx?id=6316

2013 National Newspaper Awards Finalist

Politics - Jennifer Ditchburn

May 16, 2013 - Conservative senator Duffy claimed expenses while campaigning in 2011 election

October 9, 2013 - Mystery binder: Documents held by PM's former aide raise new Duffy questions

October 28, 2013 - Things left unsaid: government's answers on Senate scandal still a moving target

Conservative senator Duffy claimed expenses while campaigning in 2011 election

Duffy claimed expenses while campaigning in 2011 election

(Senator Mike Duffy leaves Parliament Hill following a meeting of the Senate Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration committee on Parliament Hill on May 9, 2013 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

OTTAWA - Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy submitted expense claims while Parliament was dissolved during the last federal election, reporting he was on Senate business on days he appeared to be campaigning for the party.

The full extent of Duffy's Senate expenses during the writ period remains a mystery - the Conservative government is refusing to reveal the full breakdown of the senator's claims and his repayment of $90,172.24.

But independent auditors at the firm Deloitte listed Duffy as being in Ottawa on Senate business and claiming a daily expense for seven days in April 2011, a month that was dominated by campaigning for the May 2 vote.

He was also listed as being on Senate business at an "other location" on another six days. Using cellphone records, Deloitte managed to catch one inappropriate "other location" claim from 2012 while Duffy was in Florida.

But the auditors said they remained in the dark about whether taxpayers paid his expenses on many other days, since Duffy failed to fully disclose his activities and records.

Social media and newspaper reports offer a glimpse of how Duffy's busy campaign schedule overlapped with the Senate business he reported to auditors:

- On April 5, Duffy spoke to the Kootenay-Columbia Conservative association in British Columbia. His travel claims indicated he was on Senate business.
- On April 8, candidate Sandy Lee tweeted that she was meeting Duffy in Norman Wells, N.W.T. Lee's campaign paid Duffy $209.01 in expenses. His travel claims indicated he was on Senate business.
- On April 21, Duffy was reportedly campaigning with candidate Scott Armstrong in Nova Scotia. Armstrong's campaign paid Duffy $409.91 in expenses.
- On April 27 and 28, Duffy appeared to have busy days in the Toronto area. CBC News reported Thursday that eight candidates split a bill of $1355 in expenses for Duffy, including current Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver. His travel claims indicated he was on Senate business.
- On April 29, former cabinet minister Lawrence Cannon tweeted a picture of Duffy at an event outside of Ottawa that same day. The Deloitte audit listed Duffy as being in Ottawa on Senate business and claiming a per diem.

If Duffy collected daily Senate expenses while on the Conservative campaign trail, taxpayers may have paid twice: Conservative candidates who paid for Duffy's hotel stays would have received federal rebate money for those expenses.

Duffy's campaign events did not end there. On at least five other occasions documented in media reports, Duffy campaigned with Conservative candidates. He did not tell Deloitte about his campaign calendar, forcing Deloitte to list his activities as "undocumented."

Meanwhile, the public Senate attendance register does not cover April or May 2011, the period that Parliament was dissolved.

"We are not on a leave of absence - Parliament was dissolved - we are still senators. However, all party work we are doing is paid for by the party," Duffy told Postmedia News during the campaign.

"MPs continue to be paid. So do we."

Duffy did not respond to a phone call or an email message requesting comment.

Liberal Sen. David Smith, who has acted as the party's campaign chairman several times, said he's never heard of a senator claiming a per diem during a writ period.

"During campaigns, you'd never put in per diems because Parliament wouldn't be sitting," Smith said.

"I can't say no one ever did that, but I certainly never did."

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office revealed that Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff, had given Duffy a gift of $90,000 in order to allow him to pay back his disallowed housing expenses.

CTV News reported Wednesday that it had received an email from Duffy the day before in which the senator contradicted the PMO, claiming he took out a loan from the Royal Bank and that "Nigel played no role."

The NDP said Thursday it has asked the Senate ethics officer to investigate Wright's gift. Under the Senate ethics code, senators are prohibited from receiving gifts. Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has said she is reviewing the matter.

Once Duffy repaid the expenses, Deloitte said, Duffy ended his participation in the audit, stopping short of providing financial records, credit card statements and information about his calendar. He also did not meet with the auditors.

"Based on the information provided in the travel claims, it is not clear from the claims where Sen. Duffy was located on days he claimed per diem amounts," Deloitte wrote.

Sen. Mac Harb - formerly a Liberal who is now independent and contesting a Senate demand he repay $51,482 in housing-related expenses - is also listed as having been in Ottawa on Senate business on four days during the federal election period, but reported no Senate business outside of Ottawa.

Sen. Patrick Brazeau, also now independent after having been kicked out of the Conservative caucus in February, only listed one day of Senate business in Ottawa during the writ period.

He is also fighting the Senate's demand that he repay $48,744 in housing expenses, and is asking for a public meeting with the committee that's making the demand.

"The committee met behind closed doors and didn't offer myself an opportunity to respond to what was going to come out of the report," Brazeau said Thursday in an interview on CBC's Power and Politics.

"At the end of the day, if I don't know what happened, Canadians don't know what happened, so I think it's important to have a public meeting so they can explain how they came to their conclusions."

Deloitte also highlighted six expense claims when Harb said he was in Ottawa on "Senate business" without being able to prove what he was doing, and two for Brazeau. In both cases, Harb and Brazeau provided Deloitte with more documents than Duffy, and met with the auditors in person.
 
Mystery binder: Documents held by PM's former aide raise new Duffy questions

Documents held by PM's former aide raise new Duffy questions

(Nigel Wright, chief of staff for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is shown appearing as a witness at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Nov. 2, 2010. RCMP officials say Nigel Wright, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, won't face criminal charges in connection with the ongoing Senate expenses scandal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

OTTAWA - Stephen Harper's former chief of staff had a binder full of details on Sen. Mike Duffy's official and personal activities, but appears not to have provided it to auditors reviewing Duffy's expenses nor to police when they first opened an investigation.

The existence of a binder of calendars, chronicling Duffy's life over four years, was revealed in RCMP documents filed in court his week.

It raises a host of new questions about how much the prime minister's office knew about Duffy's movements, at a time when the former Tory senator's expenses were under the microscope.

"The calendar is quite detailed and contains notes of Sen. Duffy's travel, meetings, teleconferences, social events, holidays, noteworthy current events, speeches, and political interactions," Cpl. Greg Horton wrote in a court filing.

In early February, the Senate asked independent auditors to look into Duffy's expenses following allegations he was improperly claiming a home in P.E.I. as his main residence. Some time that month, Duffy couriered the binder of calendars to Nigel Wright, who was then Harper's right-hand man.

"Mary and I copied and redacted my four years of diaries; added a summary of my days in P.E.I, and pics of the cottage under construction etc. and sent it to Nigel by Purolator," Duffy wrote in a Feb. 20 email obtained by police.

Duffy never gave those calendars to the Deloitte auditors and they finished their report in May pointing out the many questions they still had about Duffy's whereabouts and expense claims. Still, the Conservative Senate leadership did not demand more detail and backed a report that contained no criticism of Duffy.

The news broke shortly afterward that Wright had given Duffy a $90,000 cheque in March to repay questionable expenses.

A Senate committee started scrutinizing Duffy's expenses again, this time connecting more dots with the help of detailed information from Senate finance officials. The matter was forwarded to the RCMP.

By mid-June, the RCMP were talking to Wright's lawyers about the controversy. But Wright's legal counsel did not send the binder of calendars to the police until more than two months later.

The Canadian Press put questions to Wright about the documents through his lawyers. Peter Mantas responded Wednesday that they "could not comment on the matter."

The prime minister's office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new information.

Duffy has said he will not comment.

The RCMP have outlined four areas of investigation as they file production orders for documents:

- The $90,000 transaction between Duffy and Wright.

- Duffy's housing expense claims.

- Duffy's travel expense claims.

- $65,000 worth of Senate-paid contracts Duffy provided to a friend over three years.
 
Things left unsaid: government's answers on Senate scandal still a moving target

Things left unsaid

(Former prime minister Brian Mulroney listens to a question from Lead Commission Counsel Richard Wolson at the Oliphant Commission in Ottawa, Tuesday May 19, 2009. "We would have a cup of coffee, I think, once or twice," Mulroney told a 1996 deposition of his relationship with German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

OTTAWA - "We would have a cup of coffee, I think, once or twice," former prime minister Brian Mulroney told a 1996 deposition of his relationship with German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman," U.S. President Bill Clinton famously told reporters in 1998 about his dalliance with a White House intern.

Neither answer was necessary false, but both left out key information - Clinton had other kinds of intimate relations with Monica Lewinsky, and Mulroney received cash-stuffed envelopes in a business arrangement with Schreiber during those casual meetings.

Similarly, the Senate expenses scandal has become a study in carefully chosen words and information left unsaid. The government has disclosed precious little detail about the $90,000 payment made to Sen. Mike Duffy by Nigel Wright, the prime minister's former chief of staff.

Monday offered a fresh example: after insisting for months that his chief of staff resigned in May over the controversy, Stephen Harper himself told radio station News 95.7 Halifax that Wright was "dismissed" for writing the cheque.

"I had a chief of staff who made an inappropriate payment to Mr. Duffy - he was dismissed," Harper said in the interview.

Here are some other key questions that have been posed in a variety of ways since May, and how the answers have evolved.

The Documents

Thanks to RCMP court filings, Canadians know now that Duffy sent Wright a binder of emails and documents on Feb. 19. There was also a Feb. 20 email, copied to another one of Harper's aides, in which Duffy allegedly describes the conversation he had with Wright the night before about repaying his expenses.

Rewind back to the spring, however, and the government appeared to know nothing about any documents.

The opposition has asked in every possible way about the existence of documents inside the Prime Minister's Office related to an agreement. Access to Information requests have turned up nothing.

"What precisely was the secret deal that the Prime Minister's Office made with Sen. Duffy? Show us the documents," Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said on May 21.

"Our understanding is there is no document," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird responded.

In the case of the documents, the word "legal" became popular.

"Can the Conservatives say definitively that there were no documents in the Prime Minister's Office that related to the Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright scandal? To be clear: no emails, no memos, no notes. Yes or no?" NDP House leader Nathan Cullen asked on May 22.

Said Baird: "In fact, no one in the government knows about any legal agreement with respect to this payment."

Another MP, the NDP's Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, called them out on the word "legal."

"Is there a non-legal document regarding the $90,000 payment that Nigel Wright made to Mike Duffy?" she asked, to no avail.

"We are not changing the subject; we are talking about accountability and responsibility when it comes to taxpayers' money," responded then-heritage minister James Moore.

Finally, on May 29, Harper acknowledged that something other than a strictly legal document did exist.

"This is an email, I understand, of Mr. Duffy, a former Conservative senator," Harper said.

"As we know well, the activities of Mr. Duffy are being looked into by the appropriate authorities. Of course, any and all information we have will be shared with those authorities."

Last week, Harper confirmed that his office had actually provided information to the police. "We have given all information to those authorities that are looking into this matter," he said.

None of the documents in question have been made public, either by Harper's office, Wright or Duffy.

Who knew what

From Day 1, the Prime Minister's Office portrayed Wright's decision to give Duffy $90,000 as a completely personal one, insisting he "acted alone."

But early media reports named PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin as having been involved. RCMP documents filed in court later named two other staffers, and the head of the Conservative Fund of Canada, Sen. Irving Gerstein. According to Wright's lawyers, the party was prepared to foot the bill for about $30,000 of Duffy's expenses.

Last week, Duffy said even more people were involved - another unnamed lawyer at the PMO and one at the party headquarters. Duffy alleged the $90,000 repayment came with numerous strings, including a threat that if he didn't play ball he would be expelled from the Senate.

Back in May, when the opposition was asking who else was involved, the government was less than forthcoming.

"Nobody, including the prime minister, has come clean about what happened in the Prime Minister's Office, so who else in the Prime Minister's Office knew about this deal...?" asked NDP MP Charlie Angus on May 22.

Baird would only emphasize that Harper didn't know: "It was very clear that he was not consulted about this payment. He did not know about this payment in advance."

It was far from the only example of the government refusing to directly answer the question.

"Let us keep this one simple. Were any lawyers in the PMO aware of what Nigel Wright and Sen. Duffy were cooking up?" asked NDP MP David Christopherson.

"We are not aware of any legal agreement between Mr. Wright and Mr. Duffy," Moore said in response.

Blanchette-Lamothe had this very precise question the next day: "Who else knew about the dealings between Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright?"

Said Moore: "Nigel Wright was the only one involved. That is what he said in his statement and that is why he resigned."

On June 5, Harper said definitively that no one else in his office was told what Wright was up to.

"As I have said repeatedly, it was Mr. Wright who made the decision to take his personal funds and give those to Mr. Duffy so that Mr. Duffy could reimburse the taxpayers," Harper said.

"Those were his decisions. They were not communicated to me or to members of my office."

When the Commons returned to question period on Oct. 17, with RCMP documents now in the public domain, the message shifted, subtly but significantly. The phrase "sole responsibility" was applied to Wright, rather than suggesting he acted alone.

"Now that he has been contradicted by the police, does the prime minister wish to amend his evidence?" Deputy Liberal Leader Ralph Goodale challenged Harper last week.

"I already answered this question several months ago. I answered based on the information I had at that time," Harper said. "Of course, the reality is that these actions were the responsibility of Mr. Wright."

The meeting with Duffy

Harper's critics suggest that Wright must have been given marching orders to fix the Duffy expenses mess to keep it from becoming a bigger political problem.

When Duffy told the Senate last week that he had a private meeting with Wright and Harper on Feb. 13 following a caucus meeting, the opposition seized on that as proof Wright wasn't operating in a vacuum.

But the fact that the meeting even occurred took some time to come out, and Wright's presence was never mentioned even when specific questions were asked over the months.

It was Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, a parliamentary secretary at the time and a veteran question period defenceman, who on May 31 first made reference to the February conversation.

"The prime minister has always said that all inappropriate expenses would have to be repaid," said Poilievre. "He said that to Mr. Duffy directly in February, and he has been saying it openly and publicly throughout Canada for a long time."

"Was Nigel Wright present at the meeting between the prime minister and Mike Duffy or not?" NDP Leader Tom Mulcair asked the next day.

Harper replied: "I already said that I made my view known to the entire caucus and all my employees."

Last week, now armed - thanks to Duffy's explosive speech in the Senate - with the knowledge that Wright was part of the conversation between Harper and Duffy, Mulcair returned to the issue.

"Was Nigel Wright present when the prime minister instructed Mike Duffy to repay his expenses, end of discussion?" asked Mulcair.

For the first time, Harper acknowledged Wright was in the room.

"Once again, I have indicated that I made these statements in a caucus room," said Harper. "I made them to an entire caucus and senior staff, not just to Mr. Duffy and to Mr. Wright but to many others who were present and who heard them.”
 
http://www.pressprogress.ca/en/post/5-problems-we-need-wait-stephen-harpers-granddaughter-solve

Problems We Need To Wait For Stephen Harper's Granddaughter To Solve

Carpe diem!

We knew Bay Street types can only see one quarter at a time -- but does Finance Minister Joe Oliver even care about the future?

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When asked by CBC's Amanda Lang Tuesday night if his budget was saddling future governments without revenues to solve future problems by doubling the contribution limit of Tax-Free Savings Accounts, Oliver said "why don't we leave that to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's granddaughter to solve":

Oliver was responding to a problem raised by two separate reports recently published by the Broadbent Institute and the Parliamentary Budget Office.

Both concluded that the doubling of TFSA contribution limits -- a key plank in this week's federal budget -- would shift billions from tax revenues into the pockets of the well-off. Already, the existing TFSA program with the lower limit is projected to cost the federal government up to $15.5 billion annually when it matures by 2050.

So what other problems do we need to wait for Stephen Harper's as-of-yet unborn granddaughter to fix?

1. The Revenue Problem

Canada doesn't actually have a spending problem -- it has a massive revenue problem.

In Tuesday's budget speech, Oliver bragged how the Conservatives have "cut taxes to their lowest level in more than half a century." Oliver seems convinced spending billions on tax giveways (that have mainly benefitted the wealthy) is a good thing, but in reality it renders Canada powerless to solve (or even control) many of the nation's most important social and economic problems:

2. The Climate Change Problem

What will the climate be like for Stephen Harper's granddaughter?

Sea level rise? Rapid declines in sea ice? Extreme weather? Economic risks? That's what the government of Canada's own report says.

Yet Harper's Conservatives have "the worst climate change record in the industrialized world" and has called the idea of curbing greenhouse gas emissions a "crazy economic policy." Hope his granddaughter learns how to snorkle.

3. The Inequality Problem

A recent TD Bank report said "Canada has experienced a significant rise in inequality over the past several decades" and now poses a "threat to economic growth and long-term prosperity."

Thankfully, Oliver's new budget nips inequality in the bud after all those years boosting inequality, right? Well, no. The 2015 budget will see billions flow to the wealthiest Canadians while the majority of Canadians see little to no benefit at all -- making the problem worse.

4. The Health Care Problem

We know Canada is facing a crisis with its aging population -- and four out of five baby boomers are worried about the quality of health care as they reach old age.

To address this problem, the Harper government unilaterally changed the way provinces receive funding for health care (giving them $36 billion less between 2017 to 2027). Under Harper, the federal government's share of health spending will nosedive from 20% to below 12% in the next few decades.

5. The Pension Problem

Thankfully, Stephen Harper's granddaughter will have two extra years to solve all these problems -- the Conservatives raised the retirement age from 65 to 67 for everybody's grandkids (as well as for everyone who was younger than 54 in 2012).

While his granddaughter could do much to solve Canada's looming pension crisis by expanding the Canada Pension Plan, the Conservatives seem much happier to "pit Canadians against each other by promoting target benefit plans as the solution to all our retirement woes."

Photo: Used under Creative Commons Licenses.
 
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