Вестник ПМГ

[Uncle Dudley]

Despite goal of restraint, Harper’s top bureaucrats rack up travel costs

Stephen Harper’s senior bureaucrats have been racking up some hefty airfares at a time of government restraint and controversy over travel.

Travel expenses recently posted for the final quarter of 2011 show executives at the Privy Council Office, the prime minister’s own department, paid costly fares last year on some of the most competitive routes to Europe and elsewhere.

Return airfare to Great Britain cost taxpayers $6,855 for Rennie Marcoux, assistant secretary to cabinet, to attend a week-long “cyber” conference in London last October.

The clerk of the Privy Council, Wayne Wouters, paid almost as much for a round-trip flight to London – $6,625 – for a public-service summit in November.

William Pentney, deputy secretary to cabinet, spent $3,566 on airfare to attend another international summit in London last June.

Paris, another popular European destination with plenty of airline competition, was also a favoured spot for Privy Council bureaucrats, who paid sky-high prices to get there.

Yvan Roy, legal counsel to Mr. Wouters, billed taxpayers $4,607 for a round-trip flight to Paris last October. The posted expense report does not explain the purpose of the trip or provide related costs, but a spokesman said it was for a conference hosted by the French government.

Another senior public servant in Mr. Harper’s department – Joseph Wild, assistant secretary to cabinet – spent $4,367 on airfare to an OECD conference in Paris.

The Irish capital of Dublin was also the destination for another hefty fare – $5,117, paid by Kristina Namiesniowski, assistant secretary to the cabinet. She was there to learn about “e-government.”

The jetsetters at Privy Council Office racked up other pricey airfares for several multi-stop trips overseas, making it difficult to compare prices directly.

Ward Elcock billed a whopping $15,278 to fly to four cities in Australia and New Zealand last October for two weeks of “meetings.” Elcock was travelling as the prime minister’s special adviser on human smuggling.

Mr. Harper’s national security adviser, Stephen Rigby, was a frequent flyer last year – a five-day visit to Singapore in June set taxpayers back $10,719 in airfare alone.

And Mr. Rigby’s week-long visit to Munich and London cost the treasury $6,733 in airline tickets.

All these travellers were public servants flying commercial, rather than the political staff who work inside the Prime Minister’s Office, which is part of the Privy Council Office.

The Harper government was embroiled in several travel-related controversies in 2011. CTV News reported in September that the chief of defence staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, spent almost $1.5-million since 2008 flying on government-owned Challenger aircraft, once to a Caribbean holiday.

And late last year, it was revealed Defence Minister Peter MacKay called in a military search-and-rescue chopper to take him from a vacation at a Newfoundland fishing camp to a nearby airport, from which he flew to a government announcement in Ontario.

[Uncle Dudley]

Conservatives are accusing anyone who opposes their bill to give police new powers to monitor the Internet

The bill will require Internet service providers to store and to make available to the government and police forces information on the Internet activity of their customers.

Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s privacy watchdog, is fiercely opposed to the legislation, which she calls “surveillance by design.” Federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart and other provincial privacy commissioners have also raised concerns.

... Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia attacked the Conservatives for “preparing to read Canadians' emails and track their movements through cellphone signals”

[Uncle Dudley]

Is Stephen Harper displaying fascist-like tendencies?

The stepped-up authoritarian, anti-democratic manner Stephen Harper conducts himself since obtaining his Parliamentary majority nine months ago raises serious concerns about how far right he is planning to push the country in his effort to forever change the face of Canada.

[Uncle Dudley]

Are We Already Planting the Seeds of the Next Financial Crisis?

Today’s biggest bubble in safe assets, however, is the one in Treasury bonds, which is a direct consequence of the Fed’s policy of holding interest rates down at abnormally low levels. Bond prices move in the opposite direction of interest rates, so when the Fed holds rates down, it is propping prices up. And when the Fed eventually does allow rates to rise to more normal levels – even if that really isn’t until 2014 – bond prices will fall significantly.

[Проф. Преображенский]

Move to Abolish Long-Gun Registry

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/lo ... nd-debates

Молодец Харпер!

ЗЫ: никогда ПМГ не будет облегчать вооружение своих граждан! Зря стараешься, дядя. Не там ПМГ ищешь.

[Uncle Dudley]

http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/ ... 86425a.jpg

[Uncle Dudley]

Vancouver cops accused of surfing porn at work

Fifteen Vancouver police members are under investigation for viewing pornography and other inappropriate images on the job.
The employees — one civilian employee and 14 officers, all male — were caught surfing websites and sending emails containing inappropriate, offensive, or pornographic images, said Supt. Jeff Sim on Thursday.
The images include both photos and videos and range from racy photos found in mainstream media to pornography, said Sim. None are illegal.

The members range in rank from constable to at least one high-ranking inspector.

[Uncle Dudley]

Vikileaks Twitter account traced to House of Commons

An IP address connected to what is known as the Vikileaks30 Twitter account — which has been burning up the Twittersphere with claims about Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ personal life — originates within the House of Commons.

In a bid to determine the origin of the account, which posted a string of tweets online offering alleged details relating to Toews’s divorce proceedings, the Ottawa Citizen undertook an investigation on Thursday.

Another hashtag (used on Twitter to classify subjects) #TellVicEverything became the focal point for a mass popular protest. Thousands of Canadians flooded Toews with routine, often inane, updates on their lives, which is the kind of information many fear police could access if the Internet surveillance bill passes.

[Uncle Dudley]

Online surveillance bill opens door for Big Brother

Section 34 gives Orwellian powers to government-appointed 'inspectors'


"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time." - George Orwell, 1984.

It's often forgotten that, for Orwell, 1984 was far in the future — a distant and imaginary hell. Published 35 years earlier, in 1949, his book conjured up a surveillance state filled with chilling new concepts: "Big Brother," "Thought Police" and "Newspeak."

Today, 1984 has come and gone but Big Brother is real and present in ways Orwell never imagined.

[Uncle Dudley]

Elections Canada investigating 'robocalls' that misled voters

Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country.

While the agency investigates, aided by the RCMP, the Conservatives are conducting an internal probe. A party lawyer is interviewing campaign workers to find who was behind the deceptive "robocalls."

Elections Canada launched its investigation after it was inundated with complaints about election day calls in Guelph, Ont., one of 18 ridings across the country where voters were targeted by harassing or deceptive phone messages in an apparent effort to discourage Liberal supporters from voting.

[Uncle Dudley]

Man shocked by arrest after daughter draws picture of gun at school

A Kitchener father is upset that police arrested him at his children’s’ school Wednesday, hauled him down to the station and strip-searched him, all because his four-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun at school.

[Uncle Dudley]

Fagundo claims that after Toronto drug squad officers arrested her and her two associates in Scarborough, they beat her with a telephone book, cut up her citizenship card, stole $10,000 from her purse and snatched her $20,000 diamond earrings. One of them fondled her breasts, she said.

Steve Correia, 44; John Schertzer, 54; Ned Maodus, 48; Raymond Pollard, 47; and Joseph Miched, 53 — former Toronto Central Field Command drug squad officers — face various charges, including attempting to obstruct justice, perjury, assault and extortion.
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/artic ... trade?bn=1

[Uncle Dudley]

Canada entering a ‘Nixonian moment’ after alleged voter suppression: Rae

Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, who is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary, issued a statement Saturday saying his supporters were targeted by deceitful callers in the lead-up to the May election.

“My own campaign in Peterborough was the victim of dirty tricks, with Conservative supporters harassed by late-night abusive calls, and our party condemns these acts,” Mr. Del Mastro, who trounced his opponents by nearly 15,000 votes, said in a brief statement.

Both interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel and interim Liberal leader Bob Rae raised the controversy while campaigning in the upcoming by-election in the riding of Toronto-Danforth. They vowed to keep the heat on the governing Conservatives.

Ms. Turmel said the scandal has eroded Canadians' faith in the electoral process and a thorough RCMP probe is necessary to restore credibility in the system.

[Uncle Dudley]

Harper personally approved $22,000 hospitality tab for visiting European bureaucrats

Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally approved a $21,865 hospitality tab for visiting European bureaucrats last fall even as the government was preaching fiscal restraint.

Newly disclosed documents show the three-day meeting featured a welcome reception at the National Gallery of Canada, two lunches, and a formal dinner at Rideau Hall – all of them featuring free wine.

The final tab for the Oct. 18-20 event was almost $112,000, including travel, hotels, musical entertainment and $2,250 in gifts for delegates.

Visitors included a six-person delegation from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development secretariat in Paris, who joined Mr. Harper and Canadian public servants to discuss how to manage major government cuts in spending.

[Uncle Dudley]

Ron Paul says U.S. is turning into a 'fascist system' dominated by government and businesses

Ron Paul has warned the U.S. is 'slipping into a fascist system' dominated by government and businesses.
The Republican presidential candidate made the bold claim as he held a rally on Saturday - upstaging other nearby Republican Party banquets.
'We've slipped away from a true Republic,' Paul said. 'Now we're slipping into a fascist system where it's a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.'