In Harper and CON universe, bullies rule.

Two recent news items regarding the regard PMSHithead has for certain types of people.

First: Shirish Chotalia.

[Public Service Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion] called Chotalia's behaviour "totally unacceptable" and said that in his nearly 2½ years on the job, he's never come across a worse case of behaviour towards employees that shows a "total lack of respect."

He said Chotalia created a "poisoned atmosphere" in the workplace, and that her manner towards not just her staff but to appointed members of the tribunal was often "belittling and humiliating."

Some of Chotalia's behaviour, described in the report, bordered on the bizarre.

Chotalia ordered an employee to wear a set of keys around [their] neck despite complaints it was too heavy. During an earthquake in Ottawa in June 2010, which shook buildings, she refused to allow employees to leave their offices, despite the fact that many buildings in downtown Ottawa were evacuated. "Ms. Chotalia instead proceeded with her own swearing-in ceremony that she had organized that afternoon despite the safety requirements and staff concerns," the report said.

Chotalia's abusive behaviour was not limited to actions against her employees, but also tactically targeted individuals that her boss directed her to malign.

Then, Bruno Saccomani. 

Canada's new ambassador to Jordan comes to this patronage appointment with mixed reviews.  One can only speculate that he knows where *Pierre Poutine* is actually buried.

Given the Harper CPC operating mode, in the House of Commons, in government and internationally, is to bully, is it any surprise that such individuals are praised and promoted?

UPDATE: Chotalia's partisan quasi-legal bullying has been thrown out by the Federal Court, with regard to the case cited above.

In a much-anticipated ruling Wednesday morning, the court has rejected the federal government's attempts to prevent First Nations groups from arguing for better funding for child welfare on reserves.

The ruling means First Nations and the federal government will have a full-blown hearing about whether Ottawa is treating native children unfairly.

"It's a real victory for all the children who have waited so long for this," said Cindy Blackstock, who heads the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and spearheaded the legal challenge.

First Nations groups say Ottawa is discriminating against native kids because the support the feds provide for child welfare on reserves is much lower than what kids off reserves get from provincial governments – even though the need is greater.[...]

[The Harper government] tried to block the case on technicalities, saying it was not fair to compare federal services to provincial services.

Also, un grand merci to BloozGuy who tipped me off to the Bruno Saccomani news items.

Emma the Embryo: the early years

Earlier this week we launched a new Emma the Embryo strip, as penned by Alison at Creekside and voiced by pro-choice activists - every one, once an embryo - I might add.

Alison created Emma a few years ago and she's been going strong since then.

Watch for her!

She has a LOT to say to Womb Wacko MP Woodworth and to his anti-choice colleagues in Parliament.

The used

I was reading this essay by Arundhati Roy (h/t Yves Smith). It's a (typically for Roy) very long, but quite interesting read. I don't agree with all of it, but this bit stood out for me:

Mischievously, when the government or sections of the Corporate Press want to run a smear campaign against a genuine people’s movement, like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, or the protest against the Koodankulam nuclear reactor, they accuse these movements of being NGOs receiving “foreign funding”. They know very well that the mandate of most NGOs, in particular the well-funded ones, is to further the project of corporate globalisation, not thwart it.

The rise of this talking point in Canada is sort of telling. Canadians need to realize that while they are very, very much better off than the average Indian, being primarily extractors of goods for the benefit of others (and not even establishing a decent-sized sovereign wealth fund or charging nearly enough royalties...) puts them firmly in the category of the used, not the users, in our dog-eat-dog global economy, which is not a good place to be.

The *Hidden Agenda* decloaks.

One wonders if Stephen Woodworth has been given explicit or implicit permission by the Contempt Party and Stevie's "strong stable mandate" to use an official government media room for his February 6 event.

More about those fetus fetishizing *Hidden Agenda* balloons that Con MPs have been testing out.

Grand merci to @goddamitkitty's tweet.

UPDATE: Kady O'Malley covered Woodworth's "happening" which was competing with the Harper government's ballyhoo for The Queen's Jubilee™©.

Privatising Thatcher's Funeral - a fitting tribute to her legacy.

This is brilliant. From here:

The Iron Lady herself would surely agree that poor taxpayers should not be further burdened in these times of austerity. [...] It can be a fitting tribute to her ideological legacy.Let me be clear: it's isn't nice to wish death on most people, and I'm not doing that here for Thatcher. She deserves a degree of respect like other people, in my view, despite what she did as prime minister.

Surely the serious point behind this petition is to ask how far ideologues are willing go. Wouldn't Thatcher prefer the first privatised funeral instead of a state one? After all, why go out on a state subsidy?

Private industries and businesses secured MASSIVE profits and benefits for their shareholders when Thatcher privatized most of the public services in Britain. They should show their pockets-deep gratitude when the time comes.

Hell-O kitty!

Go read Creekside: Outsource This! Boeing and Lockheed Martin war bling 'full of fake Chinese parts'.

*La bouche en cul de poule*

"Chicken butt mouth" is the loose translation for a term which means, en français, the grimace made by someone pinching their lips. This explains the hideous face depicted above.

Stevie Spiteful wears it well, don't you think?

Wow! There's (some) sanity at BTs!

Wow. They are NOT all retards at Blogging Tories. Rightchik gets it -- at least on this subject.

What is it with Conservatives? Why are so many of them obsessed with the sex lives of others?

She details the ReformaTories' idiocies on gay marriage, abortion, contraception, sex ed, and prostitution.

On contraception, she says:

Remember the third world maternal health program? Remember when it was first announced that contraception would not be included? Remember the reaction?

Stephen Harper looked like a schmuck and Conservatives looked like ignorant, self righteous prigs.

She concludes:

Conservatives need to have more sex.

Ewwww, much as that thought leaves icky streaks in my brain, she's probably right. It might improve their outlook.

Go leave her an encouraging comment. I did.

In a nutshell, Stevie's maternal health initiative.

One of our great readers provided a link to this graphic; the moment to display it has arrived. The text says

"Abortions cost Canada millions per year. The Conservatives will do it for less!

Our women's maternal health policies ensure murderous mothers get abortions the way God intended: in back alleys and garages by car mechanics, veterinarians and other beasts of the underworld.

In African conflicts, rape is an effective weapon for genocide, so long as we don't fund abortions.

A woman's life is second to an unborn child. Let God solve complications, not medical professionals.

What choice do you need? a message from the [Harper] government of Canada."

My Letter to the Hon. Frank Iacobucci

Dear Sir,
I am writing to you as one private citizen of Canada to another.

As a former Supreme Court Justice and upholder of the Constitution, you must recognize that the government's move to employ you to examine the documents relevant to the Afghan detainee ruckus is, at least, not very popular among some knowledgeable commenters.

To many, me included, it is a mockery of the concept of Parliamentary supremacy.

It is, further, merely the latest in a long series of anti-democratic initiatives by this Conservative government.

No one questions your ability or your reputation.

The issue is whether Parliament is to be allowed to do its job.

Please. Reject the assignment.

Yours truly,
fern hill

_______________________________

Write, phone, fax The Hon. Frank Iacobucci, from here.

Phone: (direct) 416.865.8217
Fax: 416.865.7380

Email: fiacobucci (at) torys.com

Mail:
79 Wellington Street West, Suite 3000
Box 270, TD Centre
Toronto, Ontario, M5K 1N2 Canada



h/t Elizabeth Pickett at Facebook

Short Learning Curve

Last week DAMMIT JANET! raised a number of questions about Stevie Spiteful's "low-key" performance at the UN Copenhagen climate change conference.

We learn from C. C. - About that whole "fascist" label ... how his bullies handled the spoof government website, after a prank press release highlighted the do-nothing, say-nothing strategy on climate change adopted by the ReformaTories.

Does it come as a surprise to anyone that this Conservative government has taken to emulating the authoritarianism of its new Chinese overlords so smoothly? What's next?

Harper in Copenhagen: a feat of MASSIVE diversion?

A war of words has erupted between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premier of Quebec, with Jean Charest tearing a strip off Ottawa's environmental performance.

In 25 years in politics, Charest says, he's never seen a federal government rely so heavily on the White House before taking a position on an issue, with Ottawa now saying it will model its climate policy on Washington's.

Exactly what did Harper do in Copenhagen? Didn't in fact Stevie Passive refuse to participate actively in the discussions and negotiations, and thus tacitly supported China's strategy at the climate change conference?

China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. [...] China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait.

[Mark Lynas] saw Obama fighting desperately to salvage a deal, and the Chinese delegate saying "no", over and over again. [...] the Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping, who denounced the Copenhagen accord as "a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries". Sudan behaves at the talks as a puppet of China; one of a number of countries that relieves the Chinese delegation of having to fight its battles in open sessions. It was a perfect stitch-up. China gutted the deal behind the scenes, and then left its proxies to savage it in public.

Here's what actually went on late last Friday night, as heads of state from two dozen countries met behind closed doors. Obama was at the table for several hours, sitting between Gordon Brown and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. The Danish prime minister chaired, and on his right sat Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the UN. Probably only about 50 or 60 people, including the heads of state, were in the room. [...]

The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country's foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world's most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his "superiors".

To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China's representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. "Why can't we even mention our own targets?" demanded a furious Angela Merkel. Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was annoyed enough to bang his microphone. Brazil's representative too pointed out the illogicality of China's position. Why should rich countries not announce even this unilateral cut? The Chinese delegate said no, and [...] Merkel threw up her hands in despair and conceded the point.

Now we know why – because China bet, correctly, that Obama would get the blame for the Copenhagen accord's lack of ambition. China, backed at times by India, then proceeded to take out all the numbers that mattered. A 2020 peaking year in global emissions, essential to restrain temperatures to 2C, was removed and replaced by woolly language suggesting that emissions should peak "as soon as possible". The long-term target, of global 50% cuts by 2050, was also excised.

So, back to Stevie Spiteful's shameful performance in Copenhagen. Remember where Stevie traveled before he went to Denmark?

A capitalist country that's perfected a secular model of authoritarian government? A country that holds $800 billion of the U.S. debt? A country Stevie once disdained but now embraces.

Could it be that Stevie and his Harpocrites are kowtowing to their new economic overlords? And, contrary to the overt declaration from the Harper Government, Canada has now become one of China's puppets, with regard to climate change?

Take no questions, give no answers.

That is the essence of Harper's "communication strategy".

It's been that way from the moment Spiteful Stevie took control of the PMO. Feeding his MASSIVE ego and his MAMMOTH need to micro-manage all aspects of PR is becoming an expensive self-indulgence:

... an extra $1.7-million this fiscal year to help bolster Stephen Harper's communications support services – just as the Prime Minister's Office begins distributing government videos of Harper to the news media. Supplementary estimates tabled last month by the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister's bureaucratic back office, boosted internal operational spending by almost $7.3-million for 2009-10. That's on top of existing budgets. ...

The Harper PMO prefers tightly scripted, immaculately staged public events that include limited or zero interplay between the prime minister and reporters.

From here.

Canada is facing a serious deficit while Harper fiddles and tweaks the medium of his message.

Dennis Gruending provides excellent analysis about how a strategic approach to budget re-engineering will pay for Stevie's media Con job.

KAIROS acts on behalf of 13 of Canada’s major churches or church-based organizations, and it includes under its umbrella the Anglican, Catholic, Christian Reformed, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United Churches, as well as the Mennonite Central Committee, the Quakers and others. KAIROS, or its predecessor groups, have received money from CIDA for 35 years to support partners working in regions experiencing some of the world’s most serious human rights violations. ...

KAIROS worked with its global partners to develop a program for years 2009-2013, focussing upon human rights and ecological justice. The budget was for $9.2 million over four years, with CIDA contributing just over $7 million of that amount. The proposal was submitted to CIDA in March 2009, where it moved through various levels of approval before arriving on Bev Oda’s desk in July 2009. There seemed to be little cause for concern. KAIROS had received a positive audit report for its 2006-2009 work and a good evaluation. When, in September 2009, the agreement had still not been signed, KAIROS was granted a two-month extension on a previous contribution agreement. Sources say it was then that people at KAIROS began to worry. They were hearing that there was “trouble at the top”, which meant the minister’s’ office, or more likely with this government, the prime minister’s office.

On November 30, KAIROS was told that it had been cut off. The organization says in a new release: “We asked for an explanation and were informed that our program did not fit the government of Canada’s priorities. This was the last day of an extension to our current proposal. No written explanation has been provided.” In one telephone call, the Canadian government appears to have terminated a long-standing relationship between CIDA and KAIROS or its predecessor organizations. KAIROS says the decision, if not reversed, “would cut funds to 21 ecumenical and citizen’s organizations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and cut educational work that helps Canadians across the country to develop skills and knowledge in the exercise of their global citizenship.”

Helping Canadians develop skills and knowledge in the responsible exercise of their global citizenship? Encourage them to engage in democracy? Provide them with information different than the scripted messages force-fed to news-gathering organizations?

From Harper's perspective, that is unacceptable. If Canadians want democracy in this country or abroad, they will have to pay for it out of their own pockets. Because taxes - now and in the future - will be dedicated to fuelling the reformaTory propaganda machine.

Missing gold worth $15.3 million not stolen says RCMP.

Somehow and somewhere between April and October 2008 more than half a ton of gold physically stockpiled by the Royal Canadian Mint could not be located.

The RCMP has now concluded that gold was not stolen.

Tory minister Rob Merrifield trumpeted in the House of Commons that gold was not stolen.

Since it has not been found by the RCMP however, one may surmise that it is still missing.

This happened while the Harper New™ Government managed the country, including Crown Corporations such as the Mint.

Last June, Merrifield, the junior Transport minister responsible for the Crown corporation, told the Commons that preliminary results of an independent audit failed to determine what happened to the gold. "I've instructed the mint to bring in the RCMP to examine this matter in a fulsome way," he said at that time.

The mint made a written request for a criminal investigation later that day. Merrifield's remarks in June followed a series of Citizen articles detailing how officials at the mint had been quietly hunting for the gold since October 2008, when a routine inventory count could not reconcile tabulations made six months earlier with the physical stockpile.

On June 29, three weeks after the mint called on police, detailed findings of the four-month Deloitte audit ruled out bad bookkeeping and other inventory control errors for 17,514 troy ounces of missing gold and other precious metals. The news generated international headlines and fuelled speculation about what would be Canada's biggest gold heist.

The same day, Merrifield and Transport Minister John Baird issued a joint statement calling the loss "inexcusable" and promising the mint will be "held accountable."

They added: "We have ordered the Mint to call in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. ... The RCMP investigation is ongoing." Not so. The RCMP had only been investigating whether to investigate. There was no formal case.

Ah. Merrifield and Baird asked the RCMP to investigate whether to investigate. That sounds very butch.

Lest we forget ...

LuLu at Canadian Cynic blogs about Stevie Harpocrite -  Canadian Cynic: Hypocrisy ...

Bald-faced lying is the trademark and standard operating procedure of Stevie's New™ Government.

Will the usual ReformaTories and Con sycophants rail against the never-ending obfuscations?

Or better still, will the haters direct their vitriolic rage against this individual who is suing the government for complicity in his torture as they did against Suaad Hagi Mohamud, spewing xenophobic fear-mongering and racist loathing by the bucketful?

I suspect not.

Liars, Liars, Pants on Fire.

Radio-Canada is reporting that Harper government officials determined that Suaad Hagi Mohamud was an impostor and threw her to the Kenyan authorities as early as May 28. This is contrary to the story they previously stated to the media.

The 280 pages of documents the journalist obtained shows in e-mails that consular staff in Nairobi wondered if the burden of proving that she was the individual to whom the government had issued the passport was hers. Then a decision was made to give the passport to the Kenyans, tell them she was an impostor, and let them deal with her.

In fact, one of the consular staff speculated that Mohamud would have to challenge the Kenyan government and if she tried to sue Canada for "négligence, préjudices, etc. Mais la cour kenyane n'a aucune autorité sur nos frontière". In other words, the consular staff and other Harper government officials were counting on Kenya to charge her with identify theft and to keep her in prison.

Previous posts and background regarding how Suaad Hagi Mohamud was treated by officials of her country - Canada.

Body Bags Sent to Manitoba Reserves as Prep for H1N1

This is beyond horrifying. Mere months after federal officials dithered about what public health resources and material support should be provided to Aboriginal Reserves in Manitoba, this happens.

Aboriginal leaders in Manitoba are horrified that some of the reserves hardest hit by swine flu in the spring have received dozens of body bags from Health Canada.

The body bags — which were sent to the remote northern reserves of Wasagamack, St. Theresa Point and Garden Hill — came in a shipment of hand sanitizers and face masks.

Chief Jerry Knott of Wasagamack First Nation said his community's nursing station received about 30 body bags.

"This disturbed our community members and continues to be a major concern. We had asked for funding so we can get organized and to ensure medicines, hand sanitizers and other preventative kits were in place but, instead, we are shocked to receive the body bags," he said. "To me, this is unacceptable and I am demanding an answer.

Stephen Harper's New Conservative Government: incompetent, callous, or both?

Always Look On The (b)Right Side of Life!

Inside the Queensway's Kady O'Malley liveblogs the H1N1 hearing: (Flu) shots all round!

ToeDancer who frequently comments at DAMMIT JANET! and who is a veritable source of wisdom and knowledge spotted this observation from Conservative MP Cathy McLeod cited by O'Malley:

Hey, did you know we were “really lucky to have SARS”? Because we were, according to the Conservative MP up now ... — it allowed us to prepare for *this*. Why, going on that logic, aren’t we lucky to be facing a possible H1N1 outbreak, since you never know when the bubonic plague might make a return appearance?

Oh my. I guess that McLeod felt prodded to speak up, given that MP Carolyn Bennett expressed strong concern about the fact that much of the preparation work was being done via conference call, and asked how well the government is measuring and testing capacity to revise “the plan”, while MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis suggested that the government was putting a “rosy face” on its readiness, but witnesses delegated by native communities were presenting a completely different version of reality, including the startling revelation that some Manitoba communities are being forced to hold fundraising drives for flu kits.

The hearing was concluded by a rousing chorus of "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" by the members of Stephen Harper's Conservative Government.

Kidding.

More to the point, alcohol-based "sanitizers" may promote infection.

Crazy Bitches R Us have been writing about the outbreak of H1N1 on reserves in Manitoba since the possibility emerged in the community of St. Theresa Point First Nation, on June 2nd.

Yesterday A Creative Revolution covered the hand-wringing idiocy around sending alcohol-based sanitizers to the aboriginal communities affected by the outbreak of H1N1.

It turns out though that there may be legitimate concerns regarding alcohol-based sanitizers, the danger they present and the harm they cause, besides the fact they are not as efficient as washing the hands thoroughly with soap and warm water.

Many, many non-Aboriginal children have been rushed to hospitals and treated for alcohol poisoning because they ingested small amounts of sanitizer when they licked their hands.

As well, non-alcoholic sanitizers may be safer, less toxic and more effective. The active ingredient is benzalkonium chloride.

This in no way leaves federal health officials off the hook for the racist assumptions of staff members. Instead of procrastinating and spinning their wheels, why didn't they share their concerns with the Aboriginal and First Nations community leaders?

F*ck the Debate!: Part Umpty-One

A small sample of reactions to Rod Bruinooge's idiotic gambit to re-open the so-called debate on abortion.

From the Winnipeg Sun: 'bad idea'.

From the The Star:

To reopen this debate would demonstrate an all-time low in the Harper government's misogynist agenda. They have already set back women's rights by 30 years.

And from the Winnipeg Free Press:

According to a Winnipeg Free Press online poll, as of late Monday afternoon 78 per cent of respondents said the federal government should not reopen the abortion debate, while 21 per cent believed it should. More than 2,600 people took part in the non-scientific poll.

And a selection of emails sent to the Free Press, including this one:

I don't think this qualifies as an issue that MPs get to decide for Canadians. This should have been made clear at election time. I wouldn't have voted for Rod had he mentioned his stand on the issue. This will help me in future elections. I will question the candidate more thoroughly and I will advocate for making MPs accountable on these types of ideological issues. Very disappointed. Rod is out of touch!

Bad idea, all-time low, out of touch. Yup.

h/t for the last link to Beijing York in the comments at UOP