This Day In Snookland...Who You Gonna Believe...The Paper Or The Premier?

There'sNoWordLike
TheWrittenWordVille


First, from the invitation/contract of Sept 27, 2007 from RCI, signed, as shown above, by Ms. Christy Clark:

"...Upon accepting our invitation to join the board of PGEI as founding Chair, you will be appointed on an annual basis with an annual director and chairmanship fee renumeration totaling CAD $12,000 to be paid in installments of $4,000 every 4 months, with the first payment being paid within 120 days following your initial appointment..."


Second, what Ms. Clark 'said', without any documentary back-up whatsover, at the British Columbia Legislature, as recorded by the VSun's Rob Shaw, about her 'non-involvement' in the RCI subsidiary, the Pacific Gateway Education Inc. (PGEI):

...“I never did any work for the company, I wasn’t paid by the company, I never attending any meetings at the request of the company, and as far as I know the company never really got off the ground...”

****

So...

If the company 'never got off the ground', how to explain the letter that was sent from RCI to the University of New Brunswick on April 2nd, 2008, some 185 days AFTER Ms. Clark signed the above described invitiation/contract, that included the following written words:

"...PGEI whose founding chair is former B.C. deputy premier and education minister Christy Clark, has developed an innovative and turn-key business model designed to undertake large-scale recruitment of international students in partnership with a Canadian public university..."

Now...

Given all that...

And given Ms. Clark's penchant both for 'saying anything' and for running paperless investigations while in government, is it not incumbent upon her to actually produce some paper now?

Specifically, paper saying that the 'invitation/contract' was dissolved before April 2, 2008.

Otherwise, given the written wording in said invitation/contract (i.e. first payment within '120 days') and the fact that the letter from the parent company was written more than 180 days later claiming that Ms. Clark is the founding chair....

Well?


_______
Invitation/Contract from the Twittmachine feed of the fellow who broke the story...Matthew Millar.
This notion of paper v. meaningless mutterings came up on the comment threads to a previous post courtesy Paul Willcocks (who is back in Lotusland!)...
That third man thing is still coming, promise (think 'conflicty')...


.

This Afternoon In Snookland...Sometimes A Walk In The Park Is Not What It Seems.

ThatWasThen
ThisIs NowVille



Walking in the park in the dead of the winter:

...RCI CEO John Park was asked on Jan. 21 if Clark was involved with RCI, in addition to her then-husband, lobbyist Mark Marissen.

"With RCI? No never," Park told The Tyee. "We hired Mark because of his work with then federal Liberal leader [Stephane] Dion. He was, from what I've been told, the strategic campaign manager for Mr. Dion. So just out of his competence in that area is the reason we hired Mark for a file. Nothing to do with then Christy Clark, as you say, was just doing talk radio. In fact, I've never met Christy Clark before then."...

Walking in the park in the clear, clean light of spring:

...(Mr.) Park did not respond to Tyee interview requests on April 10, but was quoted in other media reports claiming Clark was not paid and didn't do any work, despite corporate registry records showing she remained a director of RCI Pacific Gateway Education Inc. until it was dissolved on May 16, 2011 -- two months into her premiership -- for failure to file...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...An April 2, 2008 RCI letter to University of New Brunswick Saint John associate vice-president Mohamed Kabir was copied to "RCI PGEI chairman" Clark. That letter proposed a $52 million program to recruit 1,050 foreign students over three years. It does not appear to have succeeded.

"PGEI whose founding chair is former B.C. deputy premier and education minister Christy Clark, has developed an innovative and turn-key business model designed to undertake large-scale recruitment of international students in partnership with a Canadian public university," the letter said...



This moment in fresh air and exercise has been brought to you by the irrepressible Mr. Bob Mackin.



.

Want To Help Save Democracy?....Follow Ted Musson.

EveryJourneyStartsWithTheFirst
OneMillionStepsVille


Mr. Musson's Twittmachine feed is here.

Alison explains why you should follow him (and/or friend him, and or help drive him)....here.

Do it.


.

This Day In Snookland...Why No Snark From Marky Mark?

BonfireOfThePhilanthropies
CronyVille


First it was snarking up the guy who broke the Enbridge connection.

And that snarkification continued, unabated, even in the wake of the Translink 'not-lobbying' thingy.

But now, in the wake of the RCI story, the heart of which is this...

...In the fall of 2007, Ms. Clark entered into a two-year agreement as chairwoman and board member of RCI Capital Group’s RCI Pacific Gateway Education Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the investment firm.

RCI Capital Group has strong federal Conservative and B.C. Liberal ties – listing former federal Conservative cabinet ministers Stockwell Day as lead director and John Reynolds as non-executive chairman.

RCI boasts more than “$7-billion in transactions, primarily in natural resources” and also facilitated the arrival of wealthy immigrant investors to Canada under the now defunct federal Immigrant Investor Program.

Since becoming Premier, Ms. Clark has actively promoted RCI on official trade missions to Asia — recently signing a memorandum of understanding on behalf of the B.C. government in securing $1-billion in overseas investment in the B.C. forestry industry, for the export of wood products to fuel China’s energy demands. RCI was credited in facilitating the deal...


Well...

There has been complete silence (at least so far a of 7:00am Friday, 36 hrs after the fact) on the slagging of the writer of said stories, Matthew Millar, from the good Mr. Marissen on the Twittmachine:

Gosh.

I wonder why?


_______
SubHeader?....It's a follow-on of a great 140 character one-liner from Jeremy Nuttall who is demonstrating that he clearly does not want to be a member of the herd...(thanks to reader S.H. for the tip)...
The real story here?....None of this....And I mean none of it is coming from the Lotuslandian proMedia (i.e. Mr. Millar is based in Ottawa)...Which has me wondering if any of the puffed-up punditry 'round here were offered the story and turned it down...
Looks like things might be heating up soon on the 'Third Man' connection that I've been going on about...More later....

.

The Dean's Report On Farnworth v. Horgan....The Inevitability Factor.

AllTheInferencesThatFit
NotBloggingVille


The money shot from Mr. Palmer's latest:

...Suddenly (upon Horgan's return) Farnworth, second-place finisher in that earlier campaign, no longer looked all that inevitable. As if rubbing it in Friday, the Horgan for leader campaign staged a high-profile announcement in the tri-city region, one of the three cities being Farnworth’s Port Coquitlam bailiwick.

Endorsing outsider Horgan over local stalwart Farnworth was a quartet of politicians from the region — MLA Selina Robinson, MP Fin Donnelly, former MLA Joe Trasolini and ex-MLA/MP Dawn Black.

That one must have hurt, Farnworth having worked on more than one campaign for some of them. But he’d also realized, from many a non-committal conversation with people whose support he needed, that “it just wasn’t there for me.” Perhaps his heart was never 100 per cent in the race in the first place...


So.

No direct mention of a Provincial Vision thing that is, if not Top(p), is at least sideways on a few folks mind in the wake of Mike Harcourt's rant last week.

Except....

Here's something to consider (at least for a moment or two).

Those folks who melted way from Mr. Farnworth 'non-committally?

We're any of them, by chance, members of the flackhackery that might have had a role in the original Rising of the Gregor?



______
As the subheader suggests, there was a lot in Mr. P's column that is the type of stuff that is used to brand bloggers as being irresponsible and/or 'cultish' all the time (not that there is, apparently according to Mr. Palmer himself, anything 'wrong with that')...Regardless, the thing at the very end, wherein the Dean wondered if there was any development project anywhere that Mr. Horgan has not/will not endorse unequivocally, really bugged me.....Why?....Because, first, Mr. Palmer has pulled this poop before....And,  to the best of my knowledge that kind of thing was never, ever put to the candidate who is now our 'Say Anything' Premier, even on all matters Enbridge.


.

The Voter Suppression Projection.

HelpingPeopleVoteIsNotTheSameThingAsStoppingThemFrom
VotingVille


Exasperated, the fastest thumbs on parliament hill punched out the following last
weekend:

Which resulted in a certain member of a certain highly venerated flack-hackery triumvirate to respond thusly:

And thusly.

And thusly.

Now.

Firstly, we all remember which pol. Mr. Boessenkool last worked for before he was let go in the wake of a 'paperless' investigation.

But some may have forgotten what the good Mr. B. did before that.

Here is a quick summary which I have taken directly from the website of that highly venerated flack-hackery triumvirate mentioned above:

...Mr. Boessenkool has played senior roles in three national election campaigns for the Harper Conservatives...


OK.

So.

With that in mind, let's go back to where we first met a fine fellow named Michael Sona who was a low level Harper Conservative operative in the pre-Poutine run-up to the 2011 election:

Mr. Michael Sona is the communications director for the campaign of Conservative Coalition candidate Marty Burke in Guelph Ontario.

He was also, according to a number of eyewitnesses, present during the controversial confrontation on the University of Guelph campus last week.

The following is a report on that confrontation in the Guelph Mercury published yesterday April 16, 2010:

....Several students and a Liberal scrutineer present at the polling station allege Marty Burke’s director of communication, Michael Sona, attempted Wednesday to grab a ballot box in an effort to stop voting at the U of G polling station.

Sona and the Burke campaign team directed all requests for media comment about this episode to the Conservative Party of Canada national campaign.

In a news release issued Friday morning, the party “vehemently denies that any of its workers or volunteers interfered” at the polling station.

“In particular, the Marty Burke campaign denies that any of its workers or volunteers touched a ballot box or ballot,” read the release. “The outlandish and unfounded claims being spread on the internet are the product of desperation, and are most regrettable.”

Students Brenna Anstett and Claire Whalen both said Sona tried to grab the ballot box. Anstett was “100 per cent” sure it was Sona after she identified him in a group photo provided by the Guelph Mercury.

Sona is a former University of Guelph student and former member of the Guelph Campus Conservatives. He also founded the group’s Facebook page.

Conservative party spokesperson Ryan Sparrow, the official responding to media queries about the case, wouldn’t say if Sona had been on campus in connection with the episode....

And do you remember the Harper Conservatives' furious pushback, not against the actions of operatives such as Mr. Sona, but, instead,  against such voter enhancement initiatives, even those voter enhancement inititatives publicly supported by University presidents, because they are, apparently, terrible, awful, no-good things.

Now go up and have a quick re-read of Mr. Boessenkool's rapid fire tweets in response to Ms. O'Malley's exasperation.

Gosh.

Do you think it's possible for a political operative, even a 'senior' one, to rationalize just about any action as a justification for something they perceive to be a grave previous injustice?

Even if it is not?

A grave previous injustice, I mean.


.

For The Record....John Horgan's Actual Press Release...

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, April 8, 2014

B.C. NDP MLAs UNITE BEHIND JOHN HORGAN’S REAL LEADERSHIP FOR ALL OF BC

VICTORIA—Today, leadership hopeful John Horgan welcomed the support of Mike Farnworth and additional members of the B.C. NDP caucus in his bid to lead New Democrats to victory against Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals in 2017.

“Mike Farnworth is a great MLA. He has done so much for our party and our province,” said Horgan. “I am grateful for his support, and the support of so many members of our caucus, as we build a team that will earn the votes of British Columbians in 2017 and make life better for all B.C. families.”

“John and I share a commitment to ensuring that our party is focused on providing a progressive alternative to the B.C. Liberals that can gain the confidence of voters. There’s too much at stake for us to be distracted and I’m proud to stand with John to ensure that the B.C. NDP is united and ready to win in 2017,” said Farnworth.

Since launching his campaign 21 days ago, Horgan has visited New Democrats in B.C.’s interior, in northern Vancouver Island, and in Vancouver and Victoria's suburbs.

“Everywhere I go I hear from New Democrats that they want us to be united, strong and proud of who we are and what we represent,” said Horgan. “And most importantly, they want us to build a team that can and will win in 2017. Today is a major step forward in that effort.”

Horgan said that he was taking nothing for granted, and that he would continue his campaign to bring real leadership for all of BC, with stops in Vancouver, Merritt, Kamloops, Nanaimo, the Okanagan and the Kootenays in the weeks ahead.

“Winning in 2017 starts with building a strong and energized party in every corner of our province,” said Horgan. “And that’s what I plan to do.”

-30-

.

Breaking.....Farnworth Out...

AllTheDippersThat
(Don'tQuite?)FitVille


Yup.

That's right.

The buzz is that Farnworth has stepped down and that Horgan will be acclaimed.

The CBC's Lisa Cordasco has the (very short) story so far:

MLA John Horgan is set to become the next leader of the B.C. NDP opposition, after the only other candidate in the race, MLA Mike Farnworth confirmed rumours he was bowing out, on Tuesday afternoon in Victoria...


More later.


.

The Robo-Real Call Pythagorean Theory.

Don'tMentionThe
HypotenuseVille


So.

If Ms. Adams was one short arm of the right angled triangle...

And if Mr. Soudas was another short arm...

Who was the long arm?

Hmmmmmmm...

Could it, at least in the mind of those who most concerned with connections and triangulations and all that, perhaps have been young Mr. Sona because of, say, this?

...Immediately after the Sun News report (that named Mr. Sona as being 'under investigation' by the CPC for making misleading robocalls to voters), he offered his resignation to his boss, MP Eve Adams. He was new to her office, having just started as communications and parliamentary affairs manager two weeks earlier...


Now.

Pretty much from the beginning we have viewed Mr. Sona, despite his previous flirtation with Segrettiness that originally brought him to our attention, as a scapegoat.

Thing is, even goats can be stretched out to make connections on the long side of a triangle.

And while we're on to this, how come the CPC machine knew exactly who did what, or could have, with their database this time but did not/could not/would not three years ago?


______
This triangulation theory is not actually my idea....It originally came up on the comment threads over at Alison's place...And if you are not reading her stuff regularly you are not keeping up on this sordid saga.
Interestingly, that wee bit of pre-election Segrettiness came up, at least tangentially, in a Twittmachine incident recently that involved the fastest thumbs on Parliament Hill and one of the boys from that flack-hackery trumvirate we've been watching lately...More on that later...


.

This Day In Snookland...The Triple McGuinty.

TheFluidityOfTheBigRed
MachineVille


As Bob Mackin notes, it's more than just Ms. Miller:

...Miller was paid $154,000 for two months work in the Ontario government last year, then came west and joined Premier Christy Clark’s BC Liberal campaign last winter. She was named the party’s executive director last fall. Read more about it here.

Clark told B.C. reporters that Miller has “utmost integrity,” but it was up to Miller whether to speak to OPP detectives. Ontario NDP critic Peter Tabuns, a member of the committee investigating the gas plant scandal, wrote to Clark, asking for Miller to be freed up so she can testify again, because new evidence came to the fore.

Miller testified last August, the same month as Don Guy, who was a key strategist on the BC Liberal campaign. Ben Chin, another import from the Ontario Liberals, testified via closed-circuit TV last fall...


Again...

It is not Ms. Miller's (or Mr. Guy's or Mr Chin's) integrity that is at stake here.

But rather Ms. Clark's.


_______
Interestingly, another member of that flack-hacking triumvirate that the good Mr. Guy is part of popped-up on our radar screen recently...More on that later.


.

Late Winter Jukebox, Song #10....Light Enough To Travel.

There'sNothingLikeCoveringA
ReallyGreatTuneVille



'Light Enough To Travel' is one of our favourite original Be Good Tanyas tunes.

For all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it was actually written by the fantastic Geoff Berner.

And, as you might expect, as a Buskateering number at least, it's another one that's pretty much ruled by E.

For good reason.

.

Another Elections Canada Advisory Board Member Speaks Out...Will He Too Be Smeared?

WhenTheGoingGetsToughAllGoodSoldiersFollow
OrdersVille


Of course not.

Joan Bryden of the CP has the story. Here's her lede:

OTTAWA - Sheila Fraser's damning assessment of the Harper government's proposed overhaul of election rules is not shared by all members of the Elections Canada advisory board she co-chairs.

Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal, one of 13 members of the board, said Friday that the highly respected former auditor general was not speaking for him when she called the sweeping reforms an attack on democracy.

"She's entitled to her views and I have a high regard for her and I'm sure her concern is both sincere and awash in integrity, as is always the case," Segal told The Canadian Press.

"But I did not agree with her and she was not certainly speaking for me or, to the best of my knowledge, for anybody else who is on that advisory committee. We all have our own views."

But while Segal respectfully begged to differ, other Conservatives directly questioned Fraser's integrity. Party supporters on Twitter suggested she's nothing but a paid shill for Elections Canada, which pays her a per diem of $1,750, up to a maximum of $65,000 over three years, for co-chairing the advisory board...


Now.

While the flying surrender monkeys continue to fling their rancid poop into every spinning wurlitzer they can find, perhaps now is the time when we should ask ourselves why anybody should give a rat's patootie about anything the good Mr. Segal has to say on this matter:

Segal believes the criticism has been over the top.

"No bill is perfect. But I think the opposition to the bill is far more intense than the content of the bill justifies," he said.

"I don't think it's a bad bill. Quite the contrary."..


Quite the contrary, indeed.

Sheesh.


______
Sooey has more...And, in the end, her conclusion matches as our sub-header.



.

This Day In Snookland...In Which Mr. Mason Goes Full-Court Blogger.

SometimesEvenRonObviousCanTakeABiteOutOf
ChichesterCathedralVille


From Mr. Mason's latest column in The Globe (AndNoLongerEmpire) Mail:

A growing political scandal in Ontario has now breached the Rockies and become a problem for Premier Christy Clark.

Both the Ontario Provincial Police and a committee of the Ontario legislature want to talk to the executive director of the B.C. Liberal Party, Laura Miller, in connection with a billion-dollar gas-plant scandal that has ensnared the Ontario government. Major allegations have been levelled at two men with whom Ms. Miller has enjoyed exceptionally close relationships: her boyfriend, Peter Faist, and her former boss, David Livingston...

{snippety doodle dandy}...

Ms. Miller hired a lawyer who has advised her against talking to police unless investigators guarantee her that nothing she says will be used against her in a court of law. Police have refused to make this deal. She has the right to remain silent and the legal advice she was given is not uncommon. That said, it looks terrible...

{snippety doodle dandiest}

...For her part, (B.C. Premier Christy) Clark has offered Ms. Miller her full support, saying it’s up to her executive director if she wants to talk to police or not. The Premier added that Ms. Miller is an upstanding citizen who has done outstanding work on behalf of the Liberal Party of B.C. All of which is fine and likely true – but also completely immaterial...



Gosh.

We're so glad that Mr. Mason is finally catching up.

And as we, thanks in part to wee bit of prodding from Paul Willcocks, have said once before already (almost a week ago), the real issue here is not Ms. Miller's integrity but rather Ms. Clark's.

OK?


_______
Of course, this is not the first time Mr. Mason has relevantized himself by briefly splitting off from the Lotuslandian proMedia herd...Here is  a particularly memorable example from days gone by when he briefly threw in his lot with all the 'cultists'...
Subheader?.....This.
And finally....I still find it most interesting that the local herd is not talking about the particular 'guy' (who is but one member of a particular flack-hackery triumverate that played both sides against middle in the last provincial election) who gave the nod that got the Snooklandians to bring the good Ms. Millar out west in the first place...Then again, it would appear that writing about the string-pullers who are most likely to feed them their next story is not something said herd members are particularly fond of doing...


.

Will Elections Canada Report On Robo-Real Calls Before The Next Election?

....And if they don't, will they use the Unfair Elections Act as an excuse.

What am I going on about this time?

Well, it all started when Alison alerted us to the endnote to a McMaher postMedia story we talked about a few days ago.

That endnote went this:

...A national investigation into allegations of dirty political calls has been under way for more than a year. Elections Canada had planned to wrap up that investigation by March 31. On Thursday, spokeswoman Diane Benson declined to say whether it is ongoing.

That report has been postponed until after the 2015 election because of the introduction of the Conservatives’ election bill.

The agency would not say when if ever it will report on the national robocalls investigation...


But.

Here's the thing, seems that the story has since changed, both in the diverging Maher and McGregor updates to the story and a Tweet from Mr. Maher himself.

Gosh.

Is somebody, somebody, perhaps, who hates what Sheila Fraser has to say, messing with our democracy?



_____
Go have a look at Alison's entire post, it is just one more example of her most excellent, and thorough, illumination of what is really going down.


.

Stopping A Smear Dead...The Akining.

ThoseWhoSpeakUpMustBe
DestroyedVille


You may have read, heard or seen how Con-World has set about smearing Sheila Fraser.

Simon has the gory details but, essentially, we are expected to kick her to the curb, disregard her opinions and villify her forever because she has agreed to work with Elections Canada in an effort to overhaul our election system to make it (gasp!) better.

All of which led to fully expected, wild-eyed knock-on effects like this:

Which led to the following most definitive pushback, directly from the source:

Which, of course, means that the smear is dead, right?

Maybe, maybe not.

It all depends if ConWorld decides that this one should be reborn as one of their infamous 'News Zombies'.

I reckon we'll know their true intentions by Monday.


.