NotTheRiverVille
Gary Mason of the Globe and Mail's Lotuslandian division wrote a column about Ms. Clark's secret big money meet-up problems on the weekend.
The lede went like this:
Did B.C. Premier Christy Clark cross an ethical and legal line when she attended a private, $10,000-a-plate fundraising dinner for 10 people, one of many she is scheduled to be sitting down for in the coming months?
That is the question that New Democratic MLA David Eby wants the province’s conflict-of-interest commissioner, Paul Fraser, to investigate. In a letter to Mr. Fraser provided to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Eby says there are strong grounds for the commissioner to probe revelations made in the paper this week about the Premier’s attendance at exclusive fundraising events...
Hmmmmm....
The good Mr. Fraser again.
Gosh.
Didn't he have to recuse himself previously from having a look at the goings on of our fine Premier once before for conflicty reasons?
Why yes he did.
Below is what we wrote about this back in ancient times (i.e. two years ago) in the wake of Matthew Millar's revelations that Ms. Clark had an association with a certain lobby group prior to her becoming premier that did business with a group or groups that may, or may not, have had business before the government after she became premier.
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Back in April of 2014...
...(Ms. Clark) said she’d be happy to forward the matter to B.C.’s Conflict of Interest Commissioner for review... (link)
{snip}
...Please recall that the Conflict of Interest Commissioner that Ms. Clark was referring to is a very fine public servant by the name of Mr. Paul Fraser who was originally appointed by Ms. Clark's former boss, then Premier Gordon Campbell.
And please also recall that Mr. Fraser was forced to recuse himself from John van Dongen's recent complaint that revolved around Ms. Clark's actions in the run-up up to the sale/not sale (i.e. 990 year lease) of BC Rail by Mr. Gordon Campbell and friends, one of whom Ms. Clark likes to give bundles of our cash so that she can fly on private jets to exotic and hard to reach (by commercial airline route) locales like Edmonton and Regina.
And with that we finally arrive at a number of matters that get to the real heart of the matter here....
First, this, from Matt Millar's original VanObserver piece about how Ms. Clark once worked for Burrard Communications in her pre-Premier days just before the fine folks from BurrardComm went to work flack-hacking for Enbridge:
But...
Just who is this John (Paul) Fraser fellow named in the federal lobbying documents (shown above) anyway?
And why does J.P. have a monicker that is so similar to that very fine conflict commissioner that we discussed above, but only because Ms. Clark herself indicated that he should make a ruling on the appropriateness of her not having disclosed her association with Burrard, Translink and a subsidiary of RCI, which itself has a business relationship with BurrardComm.
Well, as you may have already surmised, Mr. J.P. Fraser is the son of Mr. P. Fraser who is the above-mentioned conflictyness commissioner.
And what, you may be wondering, is Mr. Fraser the younger up to these days?
Well...
Kai Nagata filled us in on that one in his recent Mark Marissen-approved piece on the Dogwood Initiative's website:
...Where is John Paul Fraser now, the former Enbridge lobbyist? He’s an assistant deputy minister, appointed to lead the government’s strategic planning team after helping Clark win her leadership campaign...
Put another way, the former Enbridge lobbyist, MMarissen business associate, and son of the current conflict commissioner is now a full-fledged member of the Clarklandian flack-hackery that is paid, not by them, but instead, by you and me.
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All of which is interesting, on it's own, don't you think?
And it will be even more interesting to see how Mr. Fraser, the elder, responds to the letter from the Opposition's Mr. Eby.
But what, exactly, did Mr. Mason bury deep below his lede of his Globe story mentioned at the top of the post?
Well, this:
...Sources told The Globe that Ms. Clark has attended small fundraisers where the ticket price is $20,000 or more. These reports have not been disputed by the party...
Small potatoes, otherwise known as 'business as usual', that can be ignored if the Lotuslandian proMedia (unlike their compatriots in Ontario) don't dig up any further details?
Personally, I think not.
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So, does Mr. Fraser, the younger, still work for the government of Christy Clark?....Well, according to the gov't directory at least, the answer is....Yes, as a Deputy Minister in Advanced Education.....Hmmmm...Would Simon Fraser University be doing any business with that Ministry I wonder...Because, well....You know (that $10K a plate deal for 10 people and all that).
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4 comments:
It's worth noting that Mr. Mason also has a son employed in the Government and paid by taxpayers. He's an Executive Assistant in the office of the Minister of Advanced Education.
It's nice to see Liberals giving a leg-up to the disadvantaged. Not all sons get the opportunity to shine while they stand in the shadows of their eminent fathers.
Norm--
Advanced education you say?
Gosh.
Interesting that that is the same Ministry where the good Mr. JP Fraser is currently working as an OIC-appointed Deputy Minister.
Perhaps someone at the Globe and (no longer Empire) Mail could submit an FOIR with particular surnamey searchish-terms looking for any and all correspondence pertaining to fundraising...
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Is there some reason that a former hard working now barely scraping by schmuck like myself is incapable of comprehending why these wild wild west lawless activities are not being dealt with by some regulatory organization like the police for instance?
ron--
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Except maybe history reaching back to ol' Flyin' Phil and beyond.
Put another way, we are still a lot like a company town, I reckon (only bigger).
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