After winning the hearts of women everywhere by taking aim at her ex-boss, Myriam Bedard follows up at a Commons Committee investigating the Groupaction political sponsorship scandal with other allegations that would make Baron Munchausen blush.
Category Archive: 2004
Jan 01
“Liberals win minority in a… mudslide(?)”
Reeling from Liberal scandals, Canadians still believe that the devil you know is safer than the new guy who is likely backed by the same pack of devils behind closed doors. Let’s just call it Parolement Hill for a while
Jan 01
“You get what you pay for. You pay for what you don’t (work for)”
In a western hemisphere marked by a relative absence of catastrophe and terror (American election results notwithstanding), underutilized grief councilors everywhere converge on Canada to console it’s populace, or more realistically it’s athletes, their support infrastructure and sports columnists after another catastrophic Olympic Medal count (defined as not winning/buying more medals at a point in time – once every 4 years – than other countries, most of whom score significantly lower than Canada in all other “day to day” events). Where does a country of 32 million get off with such grandiose Olympic expectations (our athletes’ medal count exceeded expectations when extrapolated against our percentage of global population and far outstripped even the USA when based upon our relative percentages of Global GNP). If money were the answer to all of our (imagined) athletic woes, why doesn’t the world roll over when our hockey teams comprised of so many multi-millionaires hit the ice? Over the past 4 years, according to the United Nations Human Development Index, Canada has slipped from being ranked the best country in the world to the 4th best country, whereas our Olympic medal count has remained pretty much the same (if not marginally better) over the same period. As you are asking yourself where your tax dollars should be spent over the next four years also ask yourself what all those Olympic runners who outdistanced our runners are running from. Come on Canada – get over it, but if you can’t, don’t point the finger of blame at a world class hurdler who misses one hurdle in one race.
Jan 01
“That’s why they call us patients”
Millions of Canadians are left wondering which is longer: Waiting for their operation or waiting for their politicians to agree on how to shorten hospital waiting-lists.
Jan 01
“High price of gas takes its toll on American workforce”
Americans are spending $4 billion and the lives of 111 soldiers (plus 16 additional “contractors”) per month to maintain a presence in Iraq, home of the 2nd largest oil reserve in the world.
Jan 01
“High price of gas takes toll on democracy”
Meanwhile, down in Venezuela (the 3rd largest oil producer in the world), we receive reports of civil unrest. President Hugo Chavez, who won a landslide victory in his country’s 1998 general election, is being pressured to step down by his Ambassador to “WASHINGTON” and one of his ex-generals in “WASHINGTON.” Pulling out all the stops in their effort to oust Chavez, they introduced a Recall (as American as Apple Pie and Arnold) funded by American dollars which came complete with 860,000 disputed ballots (which, at the risk of beating around the Bush, might also be considered an all too American twist).
Flashback: Chavez, the people’s (but apparently not Big Oil’s) choice was briefly deposed in an April 2002 coup (although every newspaper in the U.S. ran the story that “Chavez resigned his presidency”). The BBC and CBC reported that the President of Venezuela had been kidnapped at gunpoint and bundled off by helicopter from the presidential palace. According to the New York Times, Chavez recognized that he was unpopular, his time was up: “With yesterday’s resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator.” His more democratically palatable replacement quickly dissolved Congress, fired the Supreme Court judges, the Attorney General, the human rights ombudsman, and the national electoral council. Shortly thereafter, the Venezuelan people rose up, the new democratically palatable dictator was tossed and Chavez was returned to office and the rest was, well … [flash forward to 2004] don’t you Haiti when history repeats (but what do you expect when you vote for the father’s son)?
Jan 01
“When domestic and foreign policy collide”
Despite supporting the above-mentioned ouster in Venezuela and, more recently, taking an active (lead) role in the actual ouster cum kidnapping of Haitian President Aristide (March 1, 2004), the Bush Administration and “their” newspapers play down the significance of a mass anti-Bush demonstration in Chicago numbering by CBC and BBC estimates at between 120,000 to 400,000 people. Lest we forget, the CIA was authorized to orchestrate the 2002 Venezuelan coup based a reported anti-Chavez demonstration by roughly 10,000 Venezuelans. Note: In fairness to Bush, it should be noted that the Fox News network estimated only about 10,000 persons took part in the Chicago march (but then they were one of the U.S. networks that neglected to report that just across town from the anti-Chavez march more than 100,000 Venezuelans were taking part in pro-Chavez rallies – and wasn’t it Fox News that declared Bush won the U.S. Presidency before the final votes were counted in Florida? That’s right and Baby Bush’s cousin John Ellis was one of the executives in charge at Fox News wasn’t he.)
Jan 01
“Fledgling Ukrainian state shows western democracies how it is done”
In the face of obvious election tampering, international meddling and attempted character assassination (with something lost in its translation), Ukrainians stand up for their democratic rights and freedom and win a new election. Nor does it go unnoticed that their Supreme Court, not encumbered by more pressing issues like whether strange bedfellows should constitute a legal marriage, played a pivotal role in making it happen. In a related story, Western electoral specialists were falling over each other to volunteer to “assist” Ukrainians with their next election.
Jan 01
“Asia cooks up a low tech response to American shock and awe tactic”
Move over American air supremacy and flying bombs. The world is now worried about new weapons of mass destruction from the Orient dubbed “frying bombs” – a.k.a. infected chickens.
Jan 01
“With enemies like that, who needs friends?”
Almost three years to the day of the great 9-11 terrorist attack on America, another band of terrorists provide another government struggling to regain control of its masses with “just cause” for tightening the thumbscrews. This time the terrorists take school children hostage and in the ensuing rescue effort 100s die. In the aftermath, Russia’s budding civil rights and democratic elections are suspended. One month later, terrorists in Baghdad kill 40 (34 of them children) on the eve of 1st American presidential debate where Bush is fighting for his political life. Same day, Israeli leader Sharon bolsters his sagging popularity by unleashing the army on a Palestinian refugee camp in retaliation for a rocket fired from that vicinity that killed (you guessed it) children. How stupid are those factions (who had been enjoying growing world public opinion) and how lucky were Bush, Sharon and Putin (who up until then were watching their own popularity plummet)?