Contempt Party candidate (and former senator) Larry Smith recently stated that the survival of francophones in Quebec - and perhaps in the rest of Canada? - is no longer important. His declaration in Le Devoir:
"[C]e qui est important, c'est le monde, pas la protection des francophones au Québec. Ça, c'est du passé."
Aligning himself with the views of his caucus conspirator Maxime Bernier, Smith proclaimed that Law 101 is irrelevant.
This aggressive attack upon language rights could be a MASSIVE diversion intended to draw attention away from the pungent financial connections the Cons have cultivated in Quebec.
Rue Frontenac investigated the convergence of ReformaTory & ADQ interests here, and more recently the presence of Giulio Maturi in Agop Evereklian's campaign organization. For those who don't speak or read French - Google translations available here and here.
It’s all about the money, of course. Follow that trail; the rest is all dirty tricks, Rovian tactics and political agitprop.
Information worth noting:
- Businessman Tony Accurso is connected to the vast fundraising network developed by Senator Leo Housakos in support of conservative politicians campaigning at the municipal, provincial and federal level.
- On Friday March 18, 2011, then-senator Smith announced that the Harper Government©™ was providing $228 million to the agency that maintains and operates Montreal's two main bridges - Jacques-Cartier and Champlain.
- Senator Housakos was vice-president at an engineering company which received, in 2009, a $1.4M contract to study the repair and restoration requirements of Champlain Bridge.
- *Over-zealous* Dimitri Soudas and Housakos' actions came under the scrutiny of the Ethics Commissioner in 2008 for allegations of influence-peddling with regard to contracts allocated by Public Works.
- Giulio Maturi was a top official in the campaign of former Montreal mayoral candidate Benoît Labonté who dropped out of the 2009 race under a cloud of corruption allegations. Labonté claimed Mr. Maturi wanted him to use four campaign organizers paid for by a private company as a donation in kind. He also claimed that he was encouraged to hire Maturi by Accurso and Housakos.
But never fear! The Contempt Party's odorous diversion - the declaration that anglophone and *ethnic* groups will no longer be "oppressed" by French language rights - will surely obnubilate the messy optics of cozy fundraising schemes, for the scaremongered residents of West Island and of other ridings in the province of Quebec.
Also, voters should be edified by the catastrophic revenue loss that Con candidate Smith is willing to suffer should they elect him to be their humble public servant MP.
A question: who is that out-of-focus figure in both pix - Agop Evereklian?
NatPost not impressed by the two candidates either.
Update about Agop Evereklian's *credentials*, here.
A Conservative candidate once punished for financial wrongdoing hosted a rally with Prime Minister Stephen Harper one week after the party dumped another candidate over past financial woes.
Agop Evereklian, the Tory candidate in a Montreal-area riding, was castigated by a Quebec judge for writing bad cheques while his business was going bankrupt and was ordered to pay back $29,632 in 2005.
Evereklian has run for the Tories in two straight campaigns even though the party's vetting procedure asks candidates for any past financial and legal problems.What was it Contempt leader Harper said about the uprising in Egypt? Oh yes, a quote from H. R. Haldeman: "You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube."
