MaxedOutMama
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Adscam, Eh
The flaming scandal that is erupting in Mounty territory over Adscam is not going to die down any time soon. True, financial corruption, kickbacks and cover-ups are hardly unknown to the citizens of any country. However, what appears to be inflaming Canadians is that there is a publication ban about testimony implicating the government in a current Adscam trial. The reason for the ban is supposed to be to ensure a fair trial for one of those accused in the caper. All well and good, but the trial is open to the public, so it is only the wider public which can't learn about it, while the press and the politicians have all the information they want. Given that Paul Martin's government is implicated, this smells a bit like piles of overripe cod steaming in the (blessedly short, in such a case) Nova Scotian summer.
Captain's Quarters began to cover the story from a source of his in Canada. A Canadian blog linked to him. The blogging Canadian world erupted with links and coverage, and then authorities countered with threats to prosecute any Canadian bloggers who linked to such US blogs. You can imagine the response, and if you can't you really, really need to be reading some Canadian blogs. Because you don't mess around with Slim and you don't want to irritate the ur-Canadians, who (before the modern era), had a habit of heading off to whup tyrannical ass in higher proportions to their population than almost any other nation. There is a lot of land in Canada and not many people, and so in certain regions there is a high percentage of independent-minded people. Some of those are now blogging, and they have decided to tell their government to stuff it.
Now it is the liberal government which appears to be implicated, but of course this is because these people have been unchallenged and in control for a long, long time. One of the best arguments for keeping two viable parties is that you need to swap them out before they get too corrupt. This axiom is now proving itself once again in our neighbor to the north.
Dust My Broom will give you lots of Canadian links on their perspective; here is his ongoing Scandals index. Neale News, according to Darcey, is the Canadian Drudge Report. Captain's Quarters continues to have excellent coverage at the continuously updated Canadian topic. The testimony seems to involve many figures in Martin's government as well as Chretien's:
Captain's Quarters began to cover the story from a source of his in Canada. A Canadian blog linked to him. The blogging Canadian world erupted with links and coverage, and then authorities countered with threats to prosecute any Canadian bloggers who linked to such US blogs. You can imagine the response, and if you can't you really, really need to be reading some Canadian blogs. Because you don't mess around with Slim and you don't want to irritate the ur-Canadians, who (before the modern era), had a habit of heading off to whup tyrannical ass in higher proportions to their population than almost any other nation. There is a lot of land in Canada and not many people, and so in certain regions there is a high percentage of independent-minded people. Some of those are now blogging, and they have decided to tell their government to stuff it.
Now it is the liberal government which appears to be implicated, but of course this is because these people have been unchallenged and in control for a long, long time. One of the best arguments for keeping two viable parties is that you need to swap them out before they get too corrupt. This axiom is now proving itself once again in our neighbor to the north.
Dust My Broom will give you lots of Canadian links on their perspective; here is his ongoing Scandals index. Neale News, according to Darcey, is the Canadian Drudge Report. Captain's Quarters continues to have excellent coverage at the continuously updated Canadian topic. The testimony seems to involve many figures in Martin's government as well as Chretien's:
So far, Jean Brault has testified that in addition to the roughly $250,000 (US) his company legitimately gave to the Liberal Party, they made almost $250,000 in under the table contributions (cash donations, or donations funneled through employees or other companies), and put party workers on the payroll for an in-kind contribution value of about $200,000. Most of Brault’s testimony seems to implicate the circles around Jean Chrétien and Alfonso Gagliano – who are all persona non grata in the “new” Liberal administration of Paul Martin - but there seem to be few direct links to the new regime.and:
So links have emerged in Brault’s testimony to many of the people that Martin kept on as ministers or Parliamentary secretaries – even though Martin assured Canadians that he had thoroughly questioned all of his ministers and ensured that none of them had any involvement in the Adscam controversy.This could eventually have tremendous political implications in Canada, possibly on the scope of Watergate in the US during the Nixon era. There is something in the human soul that does not like this combination of official priggishness combined with corruption. Here is a sample editorial:
If Brault’s testimony holds up, the reputations of Chrétien, Gagliano, and their teams will be shredded. But it looks like the reputations of Paul Martin’s Ministers, MPs, and organizers are going to be pretty tattered by the end of this as well.
Like millions of other Canadians, we spent much of this past weekend surfing U.S. Web sites for information about last week's reportedly explosive testimony before Justice John Gomery's Adscam inquiry. We cannot reproduce that information: The testimony in question originates with one of three men under criminal indictment for their alleged role in the $100-million scandal; and along with every other Canadian media outlet, we are consequently subject to a publication ban that prevents us from reporting what he said in order to protect the fair trials of the accused in Quebec. But suffice it to say that if even half of the tantalizing disclosures supposedly revealed to Judge Gomery are shown to be true, the governing Liberals will be dealt a stunning blow. It is hardly a surprise that the party's operatives are already working feverishly to contain the fallout.This one is major, and this is an example of a situation in which the new media has once again set the agenda.
Their efforts may be in vain. Even before the most recent testimony, the narrative unfolding at the Gomery Inquiry was enough to appall Canadian voters. It is looking more and more as if Adscam was in large part a scheme to funnel money from the federal fisc to elements within the Quebec branch of the Liberal Party. It will be months before we know the size of the payoffs and the identities of all the wrongdoers. Still, it appears that the scheme was of such a magnitude that it necesarily involved dozens of players. As such, it betrays a deep rot that must be purged from our governing party.
Comments:
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I'm glad you have the energy to post so much - this Gomery business is leaving me exhausted! I hope your getting some traffic for it. For awhile I was up to 500 hit per hour, about 60% of those were from Canadian search engines.
Not tons, but it's an important issue and I assume what I'm getting is dedicated Canadians trying to find out what is happening.
Also, since the Canadian bloggers are being threatened I think it's important for others to provide some support. Since reading that the government is trying to remove Gomery I came to the conclusion that this is every bit as bad as some of the worst scandals in American history.
If they manage to delay the trials, theoretically the publishing ban could extend for months. It's hard not to see some of what is happening as a move to suppress the worst of the story until these people are safely tucked away. I'm not saying that's Gomery's intention, but it certainly has to be in the minds of the Liberal strategists.
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Also, since the Canadian bloggers are being threatened I think it's important for others to provide some support. Since reading that the government is trying to remove Gomery I came to the conclusion that this is every bit as bad as some of the worst scandals in American history.
If they manage to delay the trials, theoretically the publishing ban could extend for months. It's hard not to see some of what is happening as a move to suppress the worst of the story until these people are safely tucked away. I'm not saying that's Gomery's intention, but it certainly has to be in the minds of the Liberal strategists.
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