Campaign 2015: New Twist on "No Country for Old White Men"

It's almost over, folks. The longest, and dare I say, dirtiest election campaign in Canadian history will soon be toast.

I'm not going to speculate on the outcome -- I'm barely hanging on to my sanity as it is -- but I thought I should provide a round-up of the campaigns from a prochoice perspective.

We all know that Harper is the worst prime minister ever but he's been particularly awful for women of all sorts, and of course even worse for Muslim, Indigenous, and other minority women. Here's Shit Harper Did's look at his record, titled: "Shush baby! Just look pretty. 17 ways the Conservative government has controlled you like a terrible boyfriend."

The 2011 campaign had its bozo eruptions on the misogynist front, but Harper managed to maintain his tight-lipped "my government will not reopen the abortion debate" mantra.

And the stenographers we laughingly call the mainstream media mostly reported just that.

This time, though, there has been a little more attention paid to the most basic of women's rights, abortion. (Call me old school feminist, but if we don't have control of our reproductive lives, all the pay equity in the world means squat.)

Press Progress published a totally predictable list of 86 CON anti-choice candidates.

All the usual suspects are there with a couple of wee twists.

Blogger Robert Jago has been digging into the online lives of CON candidates and found some interesting stuff. We reported on one of his finds, religious nutbar, antichoice homophobe Toyin Dada.

He also found Saskatchewan's Michael Kram in a literal cover-up of his extremist views, which the CBC ran with.

No MSM was interested in Toyin, though.

Another minor bozo eruption occurred when old comments by Manitoba candidate "Professor Popsicle", Gordon Geisbrecht, made the news. Supposedly a scientist, he equated the number of abortions to "a 9/11 every day."

None of this is surprising, really.

What's new this time, is the explicit statement by Justin Trudeau that the "Liberal" party would no longer tolerate antichoice voting by its old white farts. This caused a stir among the fetus freaks who responded with gore and hyperbole in its No 2 Trudeau mission.

What was more interesting to us was the double-plus good rating given by Campaign Lie to London-Fanshawe Liberal Khalil Ramal from his time as an Ontario MPP.

He apparently promised never to act on his misogynist and homophobic beliefs and that made it A-OK with the "Liberals."

Another poser, though, came from the chest-beatingly prochoice NDP who are also running a anti-abortion, anti-same-sex-marriage candidate, K.M. Shanthikumar.

He too said: "Hahahahaha. Only blowing dog whistles for my peeps" and that made it peachy-keen with the NDP brain trust.

Among the grassroots, in addition to the gore-fest of No 2 Trudeau, the underground gas line marker gang got on their bus for what they styled Life Tour.

These efforts resulted in a couple of local news stories in antediluvian Saskatchewan, here and here.

But overall, abortion has not played much of a role in this election.

WHICH IS AS IT SHOULD BE in a country with a long-established and proud record of upholding women's rights to bodily autonomy.

And while we're pleased that an organization with a bit more reach than the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada or bloggers like us found some time to publish a list of avowed misogynists, we're rather concerned that both PROCHOICE parties, the NDP and the Liberals, are allowing antichoice homophobes to run.

Both candidates, we note, are from visible minority groups and presumably are expected to have some extra clout in those communities.

So, the take-away: the prochoice parties are saying quietly: we don't really expect (targetted) minority groups to assimilate to the law of the land when it comes to women's rights.

Because, as everyfuckingbody on the planet knows -- women's rights are always negotiable.

Or, as we said before, Canada may be "no country for old(stock) white men," but it seems it's fine for New Stock Men.

CON Vetting Gone Wrong: Meet Hater Toyin Dada

Oh dear, it seems the CONs didn't do a very good job of vetting Etobicoke North candidate Toyin Dada.

Conservative Party candidate for Etobicoke-North, Toyin Dada, appears to have hidden or not disclosed two important parts of her past: (1) her participation with a homophobic Christian group in their protest at Toronto’s Gay Pride parade; & (2) her history of anti-abortion militancy, including protesting at abortion clinics.

She's involved with a gang called Christ's Forgiveness Ministries, that, according to CRA, gets government money.

And look! DJ! gets a link for finding her fetus fetish/slut-shaming connection to Back to Life.

Here she is as one of the "walkers."

The 25 women who walked from Montreal to Ottawa are the face of courage.  Each one has a different reason they walked but most walked because of a very personal experience they had with abortion.  Read a brief description of their reasons below.

The walkers are from different cultures in Canada, different ages, backgrounds and regions of the nation.

Odd, though, innit? that "Her Reason For Walking" is "coming soon." When, exactly, since the walk took place in the spring of 2013?

Here's her campaign website that mentions none of this devotion to hating in the Lard's name.

Well, maybe it did, but much of Dada's online life has been/is being scrubbed.

Video of Toyin wasn’t available. Like the video of her protesting at Pride, like the Google + post, it’s also been deleted. Though the ghost of it still shows up in search results like this.

Gee, I wonder what will happen when CPC overlords get a load of Dada's activities and remarks. Will they drop her like the "outspoken" Gilles Guibord?

Guibord’s exit as a Tory candidate follows the publication Thursday of screenshots of comments attributed to him regarding women, aboriginal people and religion.

And who might be ready to step into her place in Etobicoke North?

Hey! Here's a high-profile nutter candidate.

Asked where he would run, [Doug] Ford said Etobicoke North, where he did not believe the Conservatives had nominated a candidate. The Liberal incumbent, Kirsty Duncan, “outside of being a Liberal, is a good person,” he said. “She does a good job, she works hard.”

The Conservatives, however, say they already have a candidate nominated to challenge Duncan. The riding association has chosen Toyin Dada, a young non-profit executive director and singer.

And more machinations! Ford fans have launched a website urging him to run for CPC leadership.

Run Doug Run was started by a Milton farmer.

The SUN is reporting on the new website. There's a poll there. I voted "yes" to "Should Doug run for leadership of CPC?"

Stay tuned.

Small Mercies: Fetus Freaks NOT Running in 2015

Boo-hoo-hoo. Today, on what is the last sitting day of the 42nd Canadian Parliament, about 50 MPs who have declared they are not running in the next election are making farewell speeches.

Some, no doubt, are good people who represented their constituents honourably and responsibly. Maybe even stuck up for Canadian values and fought, however vainly, against the wholesale havoc Herr Harper has been wreaking nationally and internationally.

About 30 -- and counting -- of them are, however, Conservatives.

The list from Wiki (at the moment):

Diane Ablonczy, Calgary—Nose Hill, Alberta
Mike Allen, Tobique—Mactaquac, New Brunswick
Rob Anders, Calgary West, Alberta
Leon Benoit, Vegreville—Wainwright, Alberta
Ray Boughen, Palliser, Saskatchewan
Garry Breitkreuz, Yorkton—Melville, Saskatchewan
Rod Bruinooge, Winnipeg South, Manitoba
Patricia Davidson, Sarnia—Lambton, Ontario
Barry Devolin, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, Ontario
Shelly Glover, Saint Boniface, Manitoba
Peter Goldring, Edmonton East, Alberta
Dick Harris, Cariboo—Prince George, British Columbia
Laurie Hawn, Edmonton Centre, Alberta
Russ Hiebert, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, British Columbia
Randy Kamp, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, British Columbia
Gerald Keddy, South Shore—St. Margaret's, Nova Scotia
Greg Kerr, West Nova, Nova Scotia
Ed Komarnicki, Souris—Moose Mountain, Saskatchewan
Peter MacKay, Central Nova, Nova Scotia
Colin Mayes, Okanagan—Shuswap, British Columbia
Rick Norlock, Northumberland—Quinte West, Ontario
Gordon O'Connor, Carleton—Mississippi Mills, Ontario
Christian Paradis, Mégantic—L'Érable, Quebec
LaVar Payne, Medicine Hat, Alberta
Joe Preston, Elgin—Middlesex—London, Ontario
James Rajotte, Edmonton—Leduc, Alberta
Gary Schellenberger, Perth—Wellington, Ontario
Joy Smith, Kildonan—St. Paul, Manitoba
Brian Storseth, Westlock—St. Paul, Alberta
Maurice Vellacott, Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, Saskatchewan

I note that this list does not include fraudster and notorious weeper, Dean Del Mastro, already resigned in disgrace. Also missing is Patrick Brown, now leader of the permanently doomed Ontario Conservative Party.

Not one of them will be missed and the absence of all will be celebrated for various reasons.

Not least because just about every last one of them is at least a fellow-traveller fetus fetishist, if not a full-blown abortion- and woman-hating promoter of 1950s values.

Compare that list to anti-choice MPs here.

A few, like Benoit and Vellacott, are particularly odious in their misogyny.

Regular readers will recall that DJ! named its prestigious anti-feminist award after Maurice Vellacott for his long-standing mission to denigrate and demean women.

While we have no doubt that there are legions more zygote zealots frothing in the wannabe CON wings, for now at least, we're taking solace in the departure of so many loathsome dinosaurs.

Ya take yer jollies where ya can find them in HarperLand.

Conservative Does Not Think Conservatives Deserve Majority (Wait til you find out who)

Putting this here for people who do not do the Twitter thing or who may have missed it.

Connie Fournier (yes, that Connie Fournier) writes:

Canadian conservatives don't deserve to have a majority government.

There. I said it. I haven't given up on conservatism. Actually, quite the opposite. I have just come to the conclusion that it is not in the interest of conservatism (or liberty or democracy, for that matter) for the Conservative Party to remain in power.

She goes on to excoriate -- very capably but from a conservative's point of view -- this government's abuse of privacy, freedom, and democracy focussing on the Jihadis Under Every Bed Bill, aka Bill C51.

Fourth-last paragraph:

It is obvious that we, as a political movement, do not have the maturity at this time to handle the unlimited power of a majority government. When we, as citizens, are left depending on the NDP and the Green Party to try to stop the Conservatives from stripping us of our rights, it is very, very wrong.

Go read the whole thing.

So, Connie, I guess we can expect to see you at upcoming anti-C51 rallies, eh?

Help Stop (or at least embarrass) CPC Cheaters

Remember the 2010 Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament movement? Then, before Twitter was as omnipresent as it is now, the CAPP Facebook group built more than 200,000 followers.

Now that the CONs have their majority and have had 4+ years to fuck the country -- and doing an excellent job at it -- we have a chance next year to get rid of the bastards.

But. They're going to do everything they can to stop us.

Including of course cheating. In each of the past three elections, CONservatives have been caught cheating.

With the absolute minimum cost or penalty.

You think they won't do it again? What or who can stop them?

Us.

Here's the petition.

It was started on December 5. When I signed about 5 p.m. yesterday (Sunday, Dec. 7), it had about 660 signatures. By 11 p.m., it had over 800.

This morning it has over 900.

These things are maddeningly slow at the beginning. But they soon start to snowball.

Let's get this Big Canadian Snowball rolling.

It's a delicious win-win for us. If it gets a respectable number of signatures, questions will be asked and the issue of election fraud(s) gets re-aired.

If it gets an impressive number of signatures, it will make CONs squirm as more questions are lobbed at them.

If it goes, as they say, viral, it will make international news. Mockery and finger-pointing will ensue. More squirming by CONs.

And Harper wins too! He gets to add to his Enemies List. :)

Well, 'tis the season. You wanna be on a List, don't you?

A Modest Proposal: Subvert (Harper's) Democracy

I think it's fair to say that PMSHithead has hit some stormy seas lately. The details hardly matter; what matters is that the pundit class seems to have woken up to the little matter of Canadians' widespread loathing for the man, his lies, and his puppets. Even some of his puppets are tiring of his hand up their butts.

Here's Chantal Hébert:

That Harper is more isolated and less in control today than a year ago is not in doubt. Consistently mediocre poll results; heightened caucus unrest; public cabinet squabbles; a poorly handled Senate scandal and what has turned out to be a bad hire for the top party job indicate as much.

A more interesting question is whether, after a decade at the helm, the Conservative leader is inexorably becoming detached/distracted from the business of running the party and the country.

Evidence that the government is adrift is accumulating and the responsibility for that can be traced right back to the top.

More often than not over the past eighteen months the messes that the prime minister has had to mop up have been of his own making. The Soudas episode is just one case in point.

Here's Lawrence Martin, writing under the title, "Harper machine in is in disarry":

Few expected this. The bet would have been that the Prime Minister would have gone to the wall to protect Dimitri Soudas, as he has many other loyalists after acts of folly.

But just four months after having been appointed, the Conservative Party’s executive director is out the door. He joins a lengthening list. In recent months, Stephen Harper has also lost his chief of staff, his finance minister and a Supreme Court nominee, plus several senators as a result of the expenses scandal.

Here's Susan Delacourt from last July on Harper's enemies:

“Creepy” was one of the words used this week to describe the existence of those enemy lists inserted into the briefing binders of new ministers in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

Here’s something potentially creepier, however. What if the government kept its list of friends and enemies on a huge, computer database, with names, addresses and personal information about millions of Canadians? And what if you had no right at all to see how you were listed?

Such a database exists. Up to now, it’s been called the Constituent Information Management System, CIMS for short, though the Conservative party is reportedly in the midst of building a better machine, called C-Vote.

And yes, CIMS does organize the political universe into friendly and not-so-friendly people. If you’ve been a friend to the Conservative cause over the years, volunteering, donating or even writing nice things about Conservatives in letters to the newspaper, a yellow, smiley face appears beside your name in the database.

If, however, you have put up lawn signs for rival parties, slammed the door or hung up the phone on the Conservatives, your name appears in CIMS with a frowning red face.

Friend: smiley face. Enemy: frowning face. It’s as simple as that.

And here is my hero and as far as I and many other are concerned, the only one who truly gets what a sick basturd the PM is. Meet Michael Harris:

Someone described Stephen Harper as a Sphinx without a riddle.
...
In Calgary, I ran into Bill Phipps, the former moderator of the United Church. Phipps, a lawyer, churchman and social activist, ran against Harper in 2002 as the NDP’s candidate in the riding of Calgary Southwest. Harper refused to debate Phipps and won in a landslide.

“I went over to congratulate him at his headquarters and he wouldn’t shake my hand. He told me he despised me! I couldn’t figure out how he could despise me, since he didn’t know me.”
...
The Fair Elections Act is almost like one of the dark novels of Evelyn Waugh. How absurd is it that the party that cheated in the In-and-Out scandal is now redesigning the voting process? What are they trying to fix — the system or the next election?
...
Have you noticed how everything to do with government in Canada these days is either secret, under investigation, or in court?

As Bob Rae put it, “Harper can be nasty, cynical, and has a deep authoritarian streak. If there is something these guys don’t like, they must pass a law to stop it. He destroys the freedom people should have to express themselves.”

Be advised. That will soon include elections.

(Read every word he writes. His work can be found at iPolitics and The Tyee and you can follow him at @HarrisAuthor.)

Given all this, it's not surprising to see this yesterday.

Fascinating: Harper says he's running #2015, but today CPC is calling Cdns to ask; "Wd you vote for *Harper?" Note NOT CPC! Harper #cdnpoli

— Red Mitten (@2010redmittens) April 2, 2014

The CONs are polling to see how viable their fading, out-of-touch psychopath leader is for the next election.

Here's what I propose. Whether you are friend or foe, more especially if you are foe, voice your solid, unqualified support for Harper.

In polls. Phone polls, online polls, whenever you are asked by professionals your opinion of Harper, show him some love.

In other words, lie your ass off. (As a point of pride, I always lie to pollsters anyway.)

He wants to suppress our democracy. Let's subvert his.

Let's fuck up his beloved CIMS database.

And the beauty of this is that even if his operatives get wind of the effort, they won't believe it. They will believe their own poll numbers if they are moving in the direction they believe they should. They will not believe that a few determined Canadians would or could subvert the process.

Further beauty: It may panic the FUCKING USELESS OPPOSITION®. "Whoa", they may think, "Maybe we'd better rethink our age-old game of slamming other Opposition Parties rather than cooperating to preserve what little of Canada is left."

(To this end, I have a new Twitter policy. I am unfollowing all Opposition members, professional or amateur, who prefer to denigrate other Opposition parties over rallying to defeat the vandals currently in office.)

Of course, this won't work with über-partisans. And it may confuse your less political friends and relations.

You'll have to explain that you are engaged in a campaign of disinformation, feeding bullshit to the bad guys, in order to encourage them to continue in -- indeed double down on -- their blithe democracy- and environment-destroying ways only to wake up on election morning with a Kim-Campbell result.

I can't think of anything else for ordinary Canadians to do. Petitions, letter-writing, rallies, demonstrations, fah! They don't give a shit.

What we can deliver is false confidence.

Then, when they least expect it, a totally gratifying knee to the nads.

I leave the last word to co-blogger deBeauxOs, speaking of Harper.

@SusanFelucifer @fernhilldammit His violence is ideological, not personal. He will eliminate his enemies if we are a threat to his projects.

— deBeauxOs (@deBeauxOs1) April 1, 2014

We will not appear to threaten his projects; we will subvert his most important one -- getting reelected.

Buh-bye Shelly, don't cry...

Juxtapose.

Harper government Cabinet Minister Shelly Glover is rightfully under scrutiny with regard to $1200 *donated* at a fundraising organized for the CPC, held at a private residence in her riding.

Groups from the Manitoba arts and culture community, who lobby Ottawa for money, were invited to a fundraiser last week on MP Shelly Glover’s behalf.
Federal rules say cabinet ministers can’t solicit money from anyone who may have lobbied or may lobby them in the future.
Glover and event organizers said the gathering was strictly to raise money for the party’s local riding association, but CTV News obtained information which suggests otherwise.[...]
"The majority of these people were actually people who were friends of mine or board members or people that have been involved with the Conservative Party,” Glover said.
But the invitation to the fundraiser obtained by CTV News paints a different picture.
"Invitees are primarily members of the cultural community in Winnipeg,” it said. "Shelly is interested in meeting with you and hearing your views."
CTV has confirmed representatives from the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Manitoba Opera and Winnipeg Art Gallery attended.[...]
The federal ethics commissioner is reviewing a request to look at the event. Opposition parties in Ottawa have filed complaints.
Glover wrote a letter to the ethics commissioner, letting that office know about the event and what steps she has taken to deal with the matter, including ordering the $1,200 be returned to donors.
Glover’s office said the minister did not know people from the arts and culture community would be at the party until she arrived.

Then, there's Harper's Israel junket, an over-the-top display of pandering and fundraising for which Stephen Lautens suggested the twitter hashtag "200schnorrers" - a term that means sponger, freeloader.

The crass, greedy opportunism came to its logical peak with this spectacle from CPC MP Mark Adler, and then this cringe-worthy performance from PMSHithead.

As Harper and his government crank up the chutzpah, malevolently destroying scientific libraries and arrogantly engaging in corrupt activities, one wonders where, if any, might the tipping point be?

Who will be sacrificed as an venal offering to the deities of the CPC fake accountability-and-transparence scam?

My bet is that when push comes to shove, Glover will go the way of Helena Guergis and Bev Oda because that's how the Harper's boys' club rolls. 

$1200 versus the millions the CPC hope to raise for their 2015 election campaign war funds.

Beyond Adler's mendacity, there were also stomach-churning photos of CPC dauphin Jason Kenney and his gynophobic buddies reveling in the testosterone-charged enclave of Jerusalem's West Wall.

A personal anecdote about Shelly Glover.  Last summer I traveled to Montreal on Via Rail. In the business class car sat the freshly appointed Heritage minister and a small entourage of husky men, two of whom looked and behaved like bodyguards.

Not a single person in that group used an electronic device during the whole trip. No cell phone, no tablet, no Blackberry, no laptop. Nothing.

It made me wonder what they knew, and that we now know...

The Winter of Our Dys-CONS Tent

Ah, the five dimensional chess game of our uber-logistician Prime Minister. It's all clear to me now. His geeeeenius plan to destroy the Senate of Canada was cunning as a weasel tied to the underbelly of the diving chickenhawk taunting the eagle as it startled the bear out of the tree. Sabotage the sober second thought lounge by handpicking loyalists to populate its greenery, convince them they could do no wrong, (pay no attention to the little man behind the heavy velvet curtains muttering darkly about legality) and lead them down the Hill Garden Path where His PMinence would leave them to hang, monkeys on sticks, swinging in the mighty wind He could use to change Parliament ever more to his whimsical liking.

But then came the near-Ides of June Flood and the triumphal Conservative march through the Olympic Arch at the mouth of the Calgary School was stalled, unable to cross the RoBowCalln. Not even a Very Concerned speech upon the Hills above, enrobed in Imperial Flight Jacket, caused the waters to recede, and the throne of CONut was dragged ashore to await a drier season. Some things even He could not turn back with a command.

And so comes that delayed season of the wolf.  Over Samhain, when the veils between the worlds thin and those that should be dead walk among the living.  Cold, unwarmed by hurried passage of PMperial laws and the smothered breath of Canadians that would question laws laid in place to authorize the placing of a favorite among the senior jurists of Democracy, He and His descend upon this place, promising a bump in merchants' depleted coffers and solace to the urban councilors that would support them had the hoi polloi but been better solicited.

But what are these? Are there men (and women) with swords upon which they have not loyally fallen yet? Shall they not join the others who leave crimson the street under the wheels of His bus? Will their tongues prove sharper than blades? Is Cicero finally at the Gates, damning speeches in hand, louder than Hannibal's elephants?

Nah, likely not, as it doesn't matter how low my expectations get, the Conservatives under Harper limbo beneath them, but the Circus is definitely in town, replete with horse...talk. I expect Sophisticated (look it up, it's not a compliment) rhetorical flourishes on Black is White Jobs Lawn Order Flags War of 1812 God Save Us All Competition Free Enterprise Foreign Investment Enemies of Liberty Assimilate and likely entertaining intermissions of throwing scientists and their heretical Facts to the young PMO hyenas in civilian drag on a gazebo-shaped stage.

I leave the final imperial word to "This Hour Has 22 Minutes". This is how you do satire. Close to the bone. Close to painful, painful bone.  We need more of it.

Lorde Parody "Tories"

Poifect!

The latest so-called householder touting the CONtempt Party's supposed efforts to help Canadians with disabilities get jobs has a message in Braille on it.

Yabbut, the message is printed, not embossed as it must be for blind peeps to read it.

Isn't that the most perfect example of CON compassion and comprehension?

All bullshit. No substance. No understanding.

One of These Things Is NOT Like the Others

Let's get something straight. 'Robocalls' is NOT a generic term for electioneering or marketing techniques that piss us off.

A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized system to call targetted numbers and deliver a recorded message.

It is not unlike a flyer in your mailbox or an ad on your telly.

In Canada, robocalls are legally used for political purposes and are subject to regulation by the CRTC.

Sometimes, operatives misuse them -- knowingly or not -- and, when the system works, they get caught and fined by the CRTC.

As was reported last week.

Robocalls are the tie that binds politicos of all stripes — in trouble, that is, to the tune of $369,900 in fines for leaving voters in the dark on who was making the telephone sales pitches.

Running afoul of federal rules on the controversial calls is clipping the finances of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party, Montreal Liberal MP Marc Garneau, the federal NDP and Conservatives, Alberta’s Wildrose Alliance Political Association, Alberta Tory MP Blake Richards and Edmonton telemarketer RackNine Inc.

Scripts for their automated, pre-recorded telephone messages did not say which political party or candidate was behind the calls, nor did they leave a phone number, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Tuesday.

Some of these may indeed have had fraudulent intent or effect, but this 'robocalls' matter is a wholly different kettle of fish from the ELECTION FRAUD case.

The Federal Court has found in no uncertain terms that widespread election fraud took place during the 2011 federal election. The ruling clearly states that "there was an orchestrated effort to suppress votes during the 2011 election campaign by a person with access to the [Conservative Party's] CIMS database."

"This Federal Court decision is a major indictment of the Conservative Party of Canada," says Garry Neil, Executive Director of the Council of Canadians. "Either senior leaders of the Conservative Party were directly involved in election fraud or they were astoundingly negligent in securing access to their voter database. Illegal or incompetent -- just like in the Senate scandal."

Or as Andrew Coyne put it:

Someone is trying to frame the Conservative Party of Canada. Either that, or the party is the victim of a theft, possibly by its own supporters.

Someone, at any rate, hacked into the party’s closely guarded voter database in the closing hours of the 2011 election, using it to call thousands of voters across the country whom the party had previously identified as non-Conservatives, telling them, falsely, that their polling station had been moved. Someone, that is, committed massive electoral fraud, in a way that could only benefit the Conservative party and making use of proprietary party information. But they did it without the party’s knowledge or participation.

The means may have been automated dialling, but the resource was the Conservative Party of Canada's 'closely guarded voter database'.

And the beneficiaries were solely the Conservative Party of Canada.

And yet, said Conservative Party of Canada seems strangely sanguine about it.

Asked about the database breach, Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said: “We take security very seriously.”

So. The Cons' only plausible defence is that the database was hacked, yet that's not what they're claiming.

If anything, they are celebrating.

We are pleased that this baseless case by the activist Council of Canadians was dismissed by the court.

— Fred DeLorey (@FredDeLorey) May 24, 2013

And yes, they fight all investigations tooth and nail. And yes, they are trying to conflate ELECTION FRAUD with the CRTC's robocall probes, which they are pleased to note nabbed actors from several parties. And yes, they are deflecting as hard as they can onto the Duffster's greed and vainglory -- who is leaking all those damning emails to the media, by the way?

But they seem quite unconcerned about their precious database.

Susan Delacourt is almost alone among the media wondering why.

Or as a famous detective wondered, why aren't the dogs barking?

I'll leave you with this because we are knee-deep at the moment and it's going to get waaaaay deeper.

The Issue Is ELECTION FRAUD

Dan Gardner has an excellent question:

Somebody using the ruling party's database tried to subvert an election. Why isn't the country on fire about this? huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/28/rob…

— Dan Gardner (@dgardner) May 30, 2013

Let's turn our tiny, distractible minds away from the Senate train-wreck and the escalating Ford fuck-up.

The Contempt Party of Canada cheated to win its 'strong, stable majority'.

And doesn't seem the least bit concerned that their own database was used to commit fraud.

Asked about the database breach, Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said: “We take security very seriously.”

He refused, however, to elaborate on the CIMS’ safeguards. Sources have told HuffPost, however, that the CIMS’ safeguards include passwords for need-to-know access and tracking of individual accounts.

Chris Selley:

The Federal Court refused to overturn any election results from 2011 because the onus of proof was on the plaintiffs to prove that an actual outcome was altered. And the plaintiffs, quite honestly, did a sorry job of this. But the court did affirm that election fraud had taken place, fraud almost certainly perpetrated by someone having access to the Conservative CIMS (Constituent Information Management System) database. Moreover, Justice Richard Mosley castigated the Conservative MPs defending the suit for attempting to “block these proceedings by any means” and making “transparent attempts to derail this case.” He actually used the phrase “trench warfare” to characterize their attitude.

The Tories don’t seem too worried that CIMS has been compromised, which would be their single worst election-readiness nightmare not involving an alien attack or dirty bombs. They are not even pretending to tell us how they intend to guarantee that this sort of election fraud will never happen again. The general attitude of their defenders outside caucus seems to be, “Ha ha, we introduced a horrifying dirty-tricks virus into Canadian politics and got away with it.” But, sure: ain’t that Senate terrible?

Yo! Fucking Useless Opposition®! THIS is the issue.

And FFS, stop calling it Robocall.

A Smoking Gun?!?! Could it be?

So close, yet still no cigar.

Old-school investigative journalism techniques have been most effectively demonstrated for the young'uns by Curtis and Maher in this recent piece.

Several people listed as donors to a Conservative riding association in Montreal say they did not make the donations attributed to them by the party.

The donations – in the amounts of $333.33, $666.66 and $733.33– appear on the 2009 Elections Canada filing of the Conservative riding association of Laurier-Sainte-Marie, a downtown Montreal district [where] Conservative candidate Charles K. Langford, a businessman and professor, came fifth in the riding in 2008 and fourth in 2011.

From 2006 to 2009, the Conservative riding association collected $583,318.96 from 931 donations, many from people connected with engineering companies and law firms. It also distributed $376,739.36 – mostly to other ridings around Quebec. The Megantic-Lerable riding of Industry Minister Christian Paradis, for instance, received $41,841 in 2009.

[...]The Conservatives collected many donations at a big fundraising dinner held at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth hotel on May 20, 2009, according to the riding’s financial officer, Benoit Larocque.

[...]Senator Leo Housakos, who was then Harper’s key organizer in Quebec, organized the event. Housakos, a close friend of Harper’s then-director of communications, Dimitri Soudas, did not respond to queries about his role in fundraising for the riding association.

Soudas was recently mentioned in disclosures offered by witnesses in the Charbonneau Commission inquiry into corruption in construction contracts awarded in Quebec.

More DJ! posts with regard to alleged CPC corruption, dodgy fundraising, voter suppression and illegal election undertakings can be found here, here, here, here and here.

Stephen Maher and his other colleague Glen McGregor deserve Jubilee Medals ... perhaps the Order of Canada for their steadfast investigations and reporting into the nefarious and possibly felonious activities of the CON party.

How CONvenient!

The trial for Harper adviser Bruce Carson was set to resume in late October.  Following the RCMP investigation into Carson's actions while he worked in the PMO,  he was charged with fraud on the government, also known as influence peddling.

Is anybody in the Canadian media shocked to hear that it's been delayed to July 2013?  StunTV?  Anyone?

APTN is certainly not surprised by this delaying tactic.  Their investigative journalists have been on this most news-worthy story like velcro since the first stench of unethical dealings and insider contacts emerged from Carson's dealings. 

One hopes this trial clearly exposes PMSHithead and his Con Politburo's ongoing cosy connections with corporate lobbyists, with crooks and possibly, with organized crime.  

Grand merci to Dred Tory for the update. The picture of Bruce Carson was found here.

Where's the E.Coli?

Last night at dinner, we were talking about the MASSIVE beef recall. One of us mentioned hearing that the tainted steaks had been 'tenderized' with needles. Another one said: 'I heard that too, then nothing more about it.'

I went looking.

On September 26, the Edmonton Sun reported:

A “tenderizing” steak process could be to blame after four people contracted E. coli earlier this month after eating steak from a north east Edmonton Costco store, says the province’s health super-board.

Top health officials say they’re unsure if the bacteria was already on the fresh steaks when they were shipped from XL Foods Processing Plant, or if a meat tenderizing machine employed in all Costco locations is to blame.

E.coli is more common in ground beef, which is why consumers are advised to cook it thoroughly.

E.coli can be found on the outsides of 'intact' cuts, but is killed by cooking.

Normally. Because it is on the outside, not driven into the centre by potentially e.coli-contaminated needles.

Costco was cleaning the machine daily, he said, but health officials have ordered managers at Costco stores throughout the province to stop this particular tenderizing process, added Predy.
No other grocery stores in the province were found to employ similar techniques.

So, why didn't those Alberta BBQ-ers cook the literal shit out of their steaks?

Because treated meat is NOT labelled.

These steaks, as reported last week by CBC News, may have been mechanically tenderized meat – non-intact product that has been punctured with needles or blades to make the meat more tender. FIC [Food Integrity Campaign] has reported before the concerns of tenderized meat when labels don't make it clear to consumers the risks involved.

. . .
Currently, no labeling requirements exist that distinguish tenderized meat from intact steaks, leaving U.S. consumers in the dark. Fortunately, the USDA is expected to propose new labeling rules in the next few months. Processors of mechanically tenderized meat will have to indicate on the label the temperature to which their products must be cooked to eliminate pathogens. Canadian processors should do the same.

Ya think?

This is what no-holds-barred, self-regulated capitalism plus government-small-enough-to-fit-in-our-uteruses gets us.

Shit in our food.

In Ontario, we remember well when such CON deregulation led to shit in Walkerton's water.

This will be Harper's Walkerton. Without, it is to be hoped, any deaths or serious illnesses.

Harper government: it's all about the dog-and-pony show.

According to DND documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, the final cost of a military pomp & circumstance display on Parliament Hill was more than double the original estimate.

The Privy Council Office instructed the Canadian Forces on Oct. 2 to begin preparations for the victory celebration, well before the end of the Libyan conflict, according to the records. The PCO outlined exactly what it wanted and the military complied with a Parliament Hill celebration that included a flypast of aircraft and a parade of Canadian Forces personnel. PCO also asked for and received “special inclusion and recognition of LGen. Charles Bouchard,” the Canadian commander of the mission.

The request, which was also seen as coming from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office, sent senior military planners scrambling and within days they came up with various scenarios, including recognition of the mission at both the local level and at the national level with a Parliament Hill parade.

No doubt Harper CONservatives rolled tape during the photo opportunity which cost taxpayers $850,000. It's all window dressing for their 2015 election campaign, where they'll accuse their opponents of "hating the troops" although every CPC MP voted against a motion in the House of Commons that would have saved Veterans Affairs from budget cuts.

The motion was defeated by a margin of 147 to 122. All opposition MPs voted in support of the motion, while the Conservatives voted unanimously against it.

"There's so many guys that have died in the last conflict for this government, and the government has more or less spit in the veterans' faces," veterans advocate Dan Slack said following the vote.

"It's bullshit." Dozens of veterans representing every major conflict Canada has participated in since the Second World War packed the House of Commons galleries Tuesday night to watch the vote. Some were very aged, some came in wheelchairs or on crutches, but all proudly displayed their medals.

So. Close to a million dollars to make CONservative politicians look *victorious*.

And ZERO from the CONs for our veterans of peacekeeping forces, military interventions and wars: WWII, Korean, Gulf, Yugoslav, Afghanistan and Libyan.

Creekside: How CONveeeenient?

Imagine that said in a classic reformaTory, Preston-Manning-like wheeze.

Creekside: RoboConfetti : WWMD?

It's pretty bad when even a Watergate thug observes that they didn't attempt election fraud or voter suppression.

What was that quote PMSHithead used, here?

Ah yes:

"You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube." H. R. Haldeman

Funny, Stevie Harper should say that.

Hosni Mubarak was able to maintain power as a dictator for as long as he did by rigging the votes in Egypt.

Lawless Government

I can't run video at my place, so I've been reading about this for a week without being able to see it.

It's excellent and I love the music.

Conservative Backlash!

Good news. Another NDP MP will vote to keep the long-gun registry.

But what really gladdened this despairing old heart was this line:

A Conservative backlash is driving more New Democrats MPs into the pro-gun registry camp, the Toronto Star has learned.

Conservative backlash. Doesn't that sound lovely? Wouldn't you love to see it on every newspaper and blog in the land? On the lips of every commentator and pundit?

Conservative backlash = enough people are finally finally f*cking sick to death of these goons.

Stoopid on Governance

Remember this? It was yesterday.

"We don't govern on the basis of statistics," Nicholson said. "We govern on the basis of what we hear from the public and what law enforcement agencies tell us. That has not changed in the four and a half years we've been in government."

This is today.

A newly released government poll suggests most Canadians don't see crime as a big issue -- even as the Conservatives press on with their get-tough agenda.

When asked in January which issue the government should focus on most, only one per cent of people answered crime.

So that's the public heard from.

As for listening to law enforcement agencies, have a look at this website devoted to supporting the long-gun registry that the ReformaTories are so hot to kill.

Here are the first three organizations listed:

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
The Canadian Police Association
The Canadian Association of Police Boards

Not paying any attention to the people, the experts, or the facts. That's our Conservativacy of Dunces.

(Psst, sister and fellow bloggers: You think the Opposition War Rooms are keeping tabs on us? They bloody well should be, we're doing all their research for them.)

Hmmmm

Long-gun registry. Long-form census.

Could it be that the loathsome ReformaTories are intimidated by anything long?

What's next? Long division? DJ! is accepting suggestions.