Mr. "Not My Fault" At It Again

"[Anthony Rota made an] unforgivable error [in recognizing 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as] a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero [just prior to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's address to Parliament Friday, leading to Members of Parliament and dignitaries present in the House to enthusiastically offer a standing ovation]."

"It's for that reason, for the good of the institution of the House of Commons that I say, sadly, I don't believe you can continue in this role."

"Regrettably, I must respectfully ask that  you step aside."

NDP House leader Peter Julian

"I want to apologize for what happened and really tell you that the intention was not to embarrass this House."

"My sincere apologies to the House [of Commons], to each and every one of you who are in the House today, and to all Canadians for having been put through this."

"I wish to make clear that no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them."

"I accept full responsibility for my actions."

Liberal Anthony Rota, Speaker of the House of Commons, Ottawa

Yaroslav Hunka (right) waits for arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky  Alamy/Canadian Press

 

"What happened", of course was that the House Speaker surprised those present to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Canadian Parliament; they were present, along with parliamentarians and diplomats from other countries and invited guests to hear the Ukrainian president address the Canadian Parliament. Just prior to President Zelenskyy's address, Speaker Rota stood up and introduced the presence of a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian, a former military officer, as a hero-veteran to be applauded.

Yaroslav Hunka, introduced as "a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero", was a member of Mr. Rota's North Bay constituency. Someone had obviously recommended the nonagenarian to be present for the welcome of the Ukrainian president to Canada, as a special, surprise treat, to honour a man for his long-past military service. To believe that Mr. Rota took this upon himself without consultation with the Prime Minister's Office is to be delusional. But then, Justin Trudeau has never heard of "the buck stops here".

Prime Minister Trudeau is accustomed to taking credit for anything that occurs that could conceivably be kind to his faltering reputation. Any events that continue to tarnish his future legacy and black-eye the Liberal government he heads are someone else's ill-doing, most unfortunate but not his problem. So that when a man is introduced and made much of ceremoniously and applauded for presumed service and courage, but then turns out to have been a member of a Nazi SS Division created for Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, it is an event beyond his ken.

 

Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota issued a second apology on Monday before resigning on Tuesday   Reuters

 

When Mr. Trudeau was asked about apologizing himself for the invitation to a man who fought for Nazi Germany, embarrassing Canada on the world stage yet again, he merely shrugged and pointed out that Mr. Rota was the one involved, and his apology would suffice. Given the fact that the Privy Council Office and intelligence services scrutinize each and every invitee to Parliament, and that no antennae were raised of a man a simple Google search would identify as a Nazi collaborator, it's hard to take Mr. Trudeau seriously, nor should we.

Canadian Jewish groups publicly identified Mr. Hunka as having served in the First Ukrainian Division as an officer. Known as well as the Waffen SS Galicia Division, a purely voluntary unit comprised of Ukrainian nationals, operating under the direct command of the Nazi SS. The division "was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable", observed the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

According to Mr. Rota, following the Friday event, he became aware of more information causing him to "regret" his decision, extending his "deepest apologies" to the Jewish community. The initiative to recognize Mr. Hunka, a member of his Nipissing-Timiskaming riding in northern Ontario, was "entirely" his own. Although government opposition parties criticized and blamed the governing Liberals for not having properly vetted the man and for placing them in a position where they applauded and celebrated someone associated with the Nazis, the reality is he would have been completely vetted.

Trudeau & Company simply felt that the optics of a 98-year-old veteran appearing before the Ukrainian president was too good a virtue-signalling opportunity to pass up. Like all the other bungled enterprises of the Liberal government, like appointing a racist antisemite to a position of training for civil servants in human rights, it seems just par for the course for them to think no one would notice through the euphoria of the moment that they were being exploited and manipulated for the greater good of the Trudeau agenda. "Russian disinformation" of course was behind the SS Waffen revelations.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Speaker Anthony Rota 'acknowledged his mistake' in inviting a Ukrainian who served in a Nazi unit to the House of Commons. Trudeau says he wants parliamentarians to refocus on standing against Russian propaganda and disinformation.  CBC

Strange Admixture ... Environmentalism and Anti-Semitism

"The Green Party is self-destructing by focusing on Jews and allowing anti-Semitism and discrimination to thrive."

"What we are witnessing appears to be the Green Party's continued effort to exclude Jewish Canadians who are unwilling to check important aspects of their Jewish identify at the door."

"Expelling a party president and now attempting to expel a party leader in regards to a conflict a world away whose implications on the Canadian environmental stage are minimal would seem bizarre and overkill, except that the conflict in question deals with the Jewish state of Israel."

Former Green Party President Paul Estrin

Green Party Leader Annamie Paul listens to a reporter's question at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

"Palestinians are suffering, Israelis are also suffering as well as their loved ones in Canada and around the world."

"I regret if my choice of words caused harm to those who are suffering."

 Former New Brunswick Green MP Jenica Atwin

Less than a year ago the Green Party of Canada elected a new leader when its long-time leader, Elizabeth May, decided she would step down and let new blood and new passions for the environment lead the party she started. The party made headlines when it became the first in Canada to elect a woman as leader. Not merely a woman, but a Black woman. A Black woman who is also Jewish. A whole boatload of 'firsts', which they proudly put on display until Annamie Paul demonstrated an inability to separate her Jewishness from her environmental credentials.

During the Israel-Hamas conflict she issued an official comment as leader of the Green Party, regretting the conflict. Without condemning Israel as the aggressor, as evidently expected. Infuriating several Green Party members who quickly 'corrected' their leader. One of whom was Jenica Atwin who tweeted  Israel was guilty of "unthinkable" aggression as an "apartheid state". An apartheid state with 20 percent Palestinian Arab citizenship and Arab members of the Knesset; unthinkable to react militarily when it was attacked by Hamas in Gaza with a barrage of thousands of rockets.

Annamie Paul's Green Party adviser Noah Zatzman responded with a Facebook post accusing some Green Party members of anti-Semitism and bigoted MPs in Parliament in general to be defeated at the polls. Atwin soon departed the Greens to join the ruling Liberal Party of Canada where she was guided to a gentler declaration of sympathy for both Israelis and Palestinians in the conflict, deep-ditching her clear anti-Semitism to reflect the Liberal Party opacity on the topic. 

A clique in the Green Party led by its former leader, Elizabeth May, rid the party of the troublesome Noah Zatzman, mourned the loss of Atwin, fired their Jewish president sympathetic to Israel, and laid off their leader Annamie Paul's office staff in the interests of budgetary measures, at the same time denying her the required funding to run a campaign for a seat in Parliament at the upcoming federal election. Then went on to organize a leadership review after demanding she condemn her former adviser Zatzman, which she refused to do.

Annamie Paul proved too much a woman of passionate conviction and loyalty, perhaps not quite Black enough, and too obviously Jewish. Mourning the loss of Atwin who had criticized Paul for her pro-Israel stance, the leading lights of the Green Party who saw fit to give environmental concerns second place to condemning Israel for defending itself now seem quite determined to 'persuade' Annamie Paul that the leadership of the Green Party is not, after all, a good fit for her. On her part, she disagrees.

She has increased membership under her leadership and increased fundraising as well substantially from the year before. Elizabeth May, who seems incapable of surrendering her authority over the party, and equally unable to accept that it was her decision to step down, and do the right thing by supporting the new leader as she was supported by the members during her time as leader, refuses to publicly commit herself to stating her position on Paul's leadership.

She does insist, however, that the new leader apologize to Atwin who left the Green Party for greener fields in the governing Liberal Party. She issued a joint statement with another MP who cast blame on Ms. Paul's assistant, Zatzman for 'forcing' Ms.Atwin to cross the floor (even though it was revealed that Atwin was in discussion with the Liberals far prior to this event on leaving the Greens for the Liberals). 

 

"We are heartbroken at the loss of our dear colleague Jenica Atwin from the caucus. Unfortunately, the attack against Ms.Atwin by the Green Party leader's chief spokesperson on May 14 created the conditions that led to this crisis." And Elizabeth May, the past leader, has called on the current leader to apologize to Atwin. Obviously, fully in agreement with Atwin's anti-Israel, anti-Semitic attitudes. 

Pity, that.

"We see that we have candidates that are ready to get going and none of us need this distraction, so I'm certainly hoping that this is the end of this," 

 "I hope people will continue to support me. I hope I will be given the opportunity to serve and that's really what this is about,"  

"I want to lead us into the next election. I want to offer my service to our members and to Canada and I'm hoping that those that feel otherwise will wait until a more appropriate time to make a move." 

"It was very hard and remained very hard to be stripped of many of the tools that I need to be an effective leader," 

"This has been incredibly painful for me and for my family and I want to be upfront about that,"

"It is extremely hard to have your integrity questioned when you value it so much. It's extremely hard to have your commitment to human rights and social justice questioned."  

"The reason that I haven't [resigned] is because it should not be this difficult. It should not be this difficult for people of good will, people with experience, to offer it in service to their country."  

"There are too many good people that have found it impossible and I simply didn't want to be one of them." 

Annamie Paul, Leader, Green Party of Canada 

Green Party Leader Annamie Paul told reporters in Toronto Monday that she hopes those in the party who do not like her leadership can "wait until a more appropriate time" to challenge her. (CBC)

Contempt for Parliament

 

"Every week, my team reached out to the person in charge of Simon Marcil's riding office, so I can assure you that there has been a large number of citizens that have been assisted and contacts with municipalities despite the Member of Parliament's absence." 

"We made sure that all services were still being offered through the riding office."

There are rules that surround all these expenses, and all I can tell you is that he files his expenses to the House of Commons administration like any other MP. The administration then judges if the expenses are reimbursed after evaluating them."

"So all expenses that were disclosed publicly were determined to be in line with the MP expense rules. It's not up to me as the whip to judge those expenses."

Bloc Quebecois Whip Claude de Bellefeuille

"That decision is very strange, very very strange. He is an MP, he has obligations to his constituents. And part of that obligation is to be direct about what's happening with your situation."

"If you disappear for one year, it becomes a problem for representative democracy."

Mike Medeiros, Canadian electoral politics expert, University of Amsterdam

"The public assumes that if they're paying someone's salary, that the individual will be actively working for them. There's also an issue with transparency."

"If an MP stops working without announcing that they have a health issue, it creates space for a lot of speculation that is hurtful to everyone involved."

Louis Massicotte, retired professor, Universite Laval, expert in Canadian politics

Simon Marcil

"On December 16, the city and Exo [a local commuter train authority] announced the opening of the new Mirabel train station next month. This is a very important local file that involved an investment from the federal government."

"But Simon Marcil was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a Liberal MP from a neighbouring riding showed up."

"I've always gotten the impression from Marcil that he doesn't care about the work at all. It's interesting that you call me now, because I've been wondering over the past few days where our MP has been. How can a two-term MP like him just disappear?"

Mirabel Mayor Jean Bouchard

The Bloc Quebecois was formed as a national political party whose aim was to achieve separation between Quebec and the rest of Canada by promoting a Quebec-based separatist party, the Parti Quebecois. Their purpose was to succeed in having Quebec vote in a referendum overwhelmingly for Quebec sovereignty, total separation from Canada. That vote did take place, and by the slimmest of margins the 'non' vote won over the 'oui' vote and Quebec to this day remains within confederation. And while the popularity of the Parti Quebecois and its vision of separation has fallen in popularity, there will always be a disgruntled element within the French-speaking community in Quebec.

 

For years the Bloc, virulently separatist, was the leading opposition party in the House of Commons. Canadians, in other words, were paying the parliamentary salaries of a political group elected to public office to represent Quebec's interest in Parliament, that actively worked toward separation. Breaking up the country high on their agenda , in point of fact the only item on the agenda. Their presence in Parliament was of a party completely disinterested in the rest of Canada, active and involved only where such action and involvement focused on and benefited Quebec.

 

For decades, the wealthier provinces of Canada financially supported Quebec through transfer of equalization payments, a program designed to ensure that all the populations of Canada received equal provincial benefits. That was accomplished by extracting from wealthy provinces taxes to support less prospering counterparts.  Quebec was able to provide far greater benefits for its citizens than any other province as a result of those equalization payments, but it viewed this as one of its unique entltlements of which it has many, including partial autonomy. It calls itself a nation, its parks are designed 'national'.

 

And one of the elected parliamentarians it sent to the House of Commons is bleeding the Canadian taxpayer for a handsome salary for non-appearance at his workplace serving those people who sent him to parliament. Under current COVID distancing, he need only appear through remote connection. Bloc Quebecois MP Simon Marcil has been on unspecified medical leave from his duties in the House, an absence never made clear to those who voted him into office. He was originally elected in 2015 in the Greater Montreal Area riding of Mirabel. He collects his full salary as a MP of $182,600 along with expenses.

Since January of 2020 he has been on medical leave. Based on a doctor's note requiring a month of medical leave. Thereafter a new note was provided monthly to extend his leave on a dozen occasions leading to a year's absence. No one outside Parliament was aware of this little discrepancy, not those he represents, not the media. Until someone was curious enough to look into the matter. The party chose to say nothing, just to cover for their absent member, protecting his 'privacy'.

There have been other parliamentarians who have  gone on leave due to medical reasons and they have taken steps to announce those reasons, a reasonable enough expectation for someone voted into office on the premise they will devote themselves to representing the interests of the constituents who voted them into office for that very purpose. The mayor of the city of Mirabel who had himself announced that due to cancer treatment he would miss work for several months, was shocked by the MP's absence in the riding.

He had been privy to rumours of the medical leave taken by his MP but no one had advised him of the absence despite that there were times when he required assistance from MPs in neighbouring ridings on certain files with the federal government in the absence of his own MP. Unnamed former and current Bloc MPs claimed surprise at their party's decision to remain silent about the MP's absence. "I don't even know what Simon Marcil looks like", one of them admitted. They agreed between themselves that prior to medical leave the MP appeared to have scant interest in his job, describing him as 'lazy'.

 

While on medical leave, Marcil claimed $14,150 in expenses for his secondary residence at a remote village of 370 inhabitants in cottage country an hour north of Ottawa. House of Commons rules permit MPs who own secondary residences used as an alternate residence when parliamentarians find it convenient to work from Ottawa, are given allowance to claim an accommodation rate of $50 daily. He submitted that claim, despite not appearing in Parliament, remaining absent on sick leave.

The man is obviously short on ethics and enthusiasm for his obligations for which he is handsomely remunerated, but big on his entitlement to his entitlements as he interprets them, even those running afoul of the rules.

Oops, Yet Another 'Misunderstanding' out of Justin Trudeau's PMO ... What, You've Never Heard of Paid Volunteers?

"Then the next day the Prime Minister's Office kindly called us and said: 'You know that  announcement we just made, would you be interested in helping us actually implement?"' 
"After much consideration, we put up our hand and said: 'Of course, we're happy to be of assistance."' 
"I misspoke. Speaking loosely and enthusiastically, I incorrectly referred to the Prime Minister's Office."
"In fact, the outreach came from unelected officials at Employment and Social Development Canada."
"In fact, all discussions came at the instigation of departmental officials and they led discussions with respect to contract and program parameters."
Marc Kielburger, co-founder, WE Charity

"When our public servants looked at the potential partners, only the WE organization had the capacity to deliver the ambitious program that young people need for for the summer."
"WE organization is the largest national youth service organization in the country. They have networks in every corner of the country and organizations that they work with."
Prime Minister JustinTrudeau

Co-founders Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger introduce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau as they appear at the WE Day celebrations in Ottawa, Nov. 10, 2015. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

"What I find suspect is that the amounts are very large for charities, and the pattern of it suddenly happening after the Liberals are elected, with the spouse of the prime minister being a high-ranking volunteer."
"That can easily turn merit-based contracting and granting decision-making processes into a 'who-you-know' process where the charities that know the prime minister and who are associated with the Prime Minister's family are the ones that get favoured. It's illegal, and for good reason."
"The evidence is clear. It's an entire waste of money and also a violation of federal ethics law."Duff Conacher, co-founder, Democracy Watch 
"What's really concerning about these sole source contracts is that it's the oldest game in Ottawa, the nudge-nudge, wink-wink of putting out contracts just below the threshold to have them put out to public. And those are the contracts that tend to be given to someone who ran  your campaign, someone who was involved with you at the party level."
"WE [Charity] made a transition from being a grass-roots organization to being very, very tied to the Trudeau brand. Then they go from having no [government] contracts to suddenly getting a series of contracts handed to them. And then they get this $900 million program in the middle of a pandemic, with no history or no credible reason that they would be the obvious choice."
Charlie Angus, ethics critic, NDP
"We know the Prime Minister is not afraid of influencing decisions to benefit his friends. At this point, the Prime Minister is beyond the benefit of the doubt and must come clean about his involvement in awarding this $900 million contact to WE."
"The Liberals must immediately release the contract for this partnership and tell Canadians why their own government officials are unable to administer this program."Michael Barrett, ethics critic, Conservative Party of Canada

Trudeau says only WE Charity can administer $900 million student grant program

In COVID Canada 2020 Parliament has been dismissed. It is no longer relevant, in this new Canada-style democracy where the nation's prime minister accustomed himself to scheduling morning televised daily press briefings where he could announce matters of pressing importance to Canadians, entirely bypassing Parliamentary procedure and questioning from members of the opposition parties with respect to decision-making of matters of national importance, including how government (taxpayers') money is spent.

Canada's Prime Minister, known to muse admiringly over the efficacy of action of a 'basic dictatorship', in speaking in the past about China, has now manoeuvered himself into his very own basic dictatorship under the emergency measures enacted in an effort to control the viral pandemic brought to us by courtesy of that very same original basic democracy where the SARS-CoV-2 virus basically erupted. Now, under guise of the executive branch ably making opposition-unapposed decisions for the greater good of the nation, close to a billion dollars has been contracted out without tender to a Trudeau-favoured charity.

This is a man skilled at skulduggery, his patrician entitlement to unethically accepting costly gifts from sources that regularly lobby government, his career-ruining personal splenetic vendetta against the second-in-command of the Canadian Armed Forces on spurious charges of releasing secret information, his undermining the authority of the nation's Minister of Justice/Attorney General in favour of a Liberal-supporting corporate interest held in law to be responsible for illegal activities, all representing a mere fraction of his failure as a leader.

Now he has sole-source-granted a federal student volunteer grant program to a charity of his choice, claiming the selection had nothing whatever to do with him; it was all the work of a government agency acting on its own, unjustifiably claiming that the charity he supports represents the only national group capable of performing the function required: "[We Charity is the] only one ... capable of networking and organizing and delivering this program on the scale that we needed it ..."

Since 2017 under the Trudeau government, WE Charity also received close to $5.2 million in grants and contributions out of various federal departments; five times the amount of grants and contributes received by it from the federal government between the years 2012 to 2016 for vague services such as "Management consulting", "Public relations services", and "Other professional services not otherwise specified". 

This is the prime minister who as a feminist, isolated and fired capably effective female ministers who disagreed with his policies and divulged his propensity to interfere with and manipulate their portfolios.  This is the feminist who declared that women must always be "believed" when they made charges of sex assaults against men, who himself had indulged in just such an unwanted assault, but found exculpatory reasoning in 'men deciphering such situations differently than women'. A man who decries racism at every turn, yet found it delightful to disport himself in blackface costumery.

That old adage that  you get what you pay for, isn't always true. But in this instance the Canadian electorate twice voted in a government that has and continues to embarrass Canada on the world stage, to declare Canada a 'post-national' country, to fail in strenuously using diplomatic and trade options in protecting the welfare of Canadians held abroad on spurious charges of espionage, revelled in describing Canada as a country with 'institutionalized racism', and generally failed in the primary goal of any government, to govern honestly and capably.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau are flanked by We Day co-founders Craig Kielburger, left, and Marc Kielburger, right. MATT DAY/OTTAWA SUN

 

Canada Has Fumbled and Fallen

"We need to take stock of why we didn't get it. It is embarrassing because it really is a bit of a wake-up call for many of us Canadians who kind of thought, 'Well, why wouldn't they want us?' We're really internationalized. We have this wonderful commitment to multilateralism, we feel like we embody the United Nations' spirit of diversity and inclusion in this country."

"I think there's merit in being there. We can absolutely talk about the question of whether or not we had the chops to be at the table, or whether or not we had the investment in organization and all the other things to go into consideration of our bids, such as our official development assistance, peacekeeping and all the rest."
"But the merit of being at the table to me is still very much there. And organizations are only as good as the people who get engaged in them."
"We have wonderful rhetoric, wonderful ideas … and at the end of the day we really hope that others just, you know, bask in the glory of our wonderful ideas with very little money. And that's not how the international system works."
University of Waterloo professor Bessma Momani, senior fellow, Centre for International Governance and Innovation

"It would force us, over and over, to take defined positions when the strategy often for Canada is to choose the areas where we want to weigh in. We have made significant contributions to multilateral institutions in focused ways."

"I really think we're making a big mistake here if we treat this as any kind of referendum on how Canada is viewed in the world. I don't think it tells us anything about the way we're regarded in the world."

"So really, the argument I'm making is we were focused on the wrong institution and the wrong part of the UN system."

Janice Stein, professor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

The Security Council meets on Oct. 24, 2019, at United Nations headquarters. Canada was beat out by Norway and Ireland this week in its bid for a temporary seat on the Security Council. Mary Altaffer/AP/The Canadian Press

"Canada lost for many reasons. One of them was because of our government’s timidity. It chose to say as little as possible on many of the most emotive issues of the day, lest it offend a country and lose its vote."
"Until a few weeks ago, it was taboo for ministers to even utter the word “Taiwan.” On importing 5G technologies from China, we have seemed paralyzed long after our security agencies and most of our allies have declared they want nothing to do with it."
"Such a craven approach was a hopeless strategy to justify why Canada should have a place in the Security Council chamber."
"The reality laid bare by this stark rebuke is that Canada is hamstrung by a preachy foreign policy that has latterly become heavily based on imposing our domestic cultural orthodoxies on others. This has made us a preening nag, a bore and — as the vote by the 190-odd countries that make up the United Nations General Assembly demonstrates — largely irrelevant, except to ourselves."
"The government’s pious sanctimony has become almost cult-like since Trudeau foolishly declared that 'Canada is back', without providing a road map to explain where we had been or where we’re going."
Matthew Fisher, Columnist, Global News



"To this country's friends all around the world, many of you have worried that Canada has lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world."
"Well, I have a simple message for you. On behalf of 35-million Canadians: we're back."
Justin Trudeau, November 2015

Most Canadians had no idea that Canada had ever gone away; they were under the impression that their Canada was hale and whole. But the Liberal Party of Canada under its leader Justin Trudeau insisted that Canada, governed by the Conservative Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Steven Harper had lost its way. Mind, Mr. Harper was not averse to informing Russia's Vladimir Putin at a then-G8 meeting that he needed to 'get out' of Ukraine's Crimea after Moscow under his direction had annexed it.

Senegal's President Macky Sall, left, walks alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during an official visit in Dakar, Senegal, Feb. 12, 2020. The visit was part of the Trudeau's government's charm campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council. (Cheikh A.T/The Associated Press)

Whereas, in his zeal to gain votes for Canada's bid under the Liberal government to succeed in Justin Trudeau's vanity project to gain a temporary seat in the revolving UN Security Council, Mr. Trudeau managed to mislay his progressive stance on human rights as he stood smiling chummily beside Senegal's president as he spoke of his country's maximum penalty laws against its LGBTQ community. Not a word of objection passed the discreet lips of Canada's human rights champion on that occasion.

Canada's formal relationship with three of the most powerful members of the permanent Security Council nations is fraught with tension. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is persona-non-grata in Russia; so much for strained relations, while President Trump is somewhat disgruntled with Justin Trudeau's showmanship of disdain for the American president in a rather egregious dishevelment of nation-to-nation diplomacy, and caught in the net of a trade war between the U.S. and China; that nation of abusive human rights wouldn't help Canada to a lift on a rescue mission.

Canada has not stood very tall for human rights, justice and the rule of law in its relationship with Beijing, preferring to pursue genteel diplomacy and not rock the boat too strenuously, despite the effective state kidnapping of two Canadian citizens on trumped-up claims of national security in charging the two with espionage and clamping them in prison, denying them access to lawyers, keeping them incommunicado, subjecting them to unsubtle psychological torture techniques. 

Spending millions on bribing other UN member-countries to pledge a vote for Canada against the two other competitors for the two open seats, Norway and Ireland ... pledging millions in foreign aid, making common cause with dictators while throwing the human rights interests of collegial countries to the winds of chance, Canada did not do itself proud in abasing itself in unctuous servility to those nations whose record of abuses and anti-democratic values drew no credit on Canada. 

A security barrier that Israel erected to reduce the level of violence it had experienced for years became an unwieldy tool of recrimination on the part of Canada joining the usual anti-Israel crew in the United Nations to denounce a fellow democracy, along with the traditional Arab League and aligned critics to curry favour with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation nations in yet another condemnation of the Jewish state.

Trudeau and the Liberal government were happy to sell Canada's moral values out for a mess of pottage that they proffered in a grand sacrifice to be recognized by petty dictators and human rights abusers as being entitled to that elusive, vanity-project seat to satisfy glad-handing, back-slapping Justin Trudeau, happily smirking that 'Canada is back'. Only it failed to succeed. And Trudeau, flipping aside any embarrassment for Canada he has once again engendered on the world stage, carries on, business as usual.

The business at the present time being the continued erosion of parliamentary democracy in Canada under the guise of necessity because of the general threat of infection during the emergency response to SARS-CoV-2, making it unsafe for Parliament to assemble physically in the House of Commons' temporary quarters, recalling Members of Parliament back to Ottawa, in preference to holding Internet interfaces to conduct the nation's business and avoid inconvenient questions from the official opposition.

This, while Canada begins to open up, and children will be returning to the classroom, businesses will be re-opening, public arenas where people will gather will resume to a degree returning the country's public and private life to a version of normalcy, while it remains 'unsafe' for the governing Liberal Party to entertain thoughts of resuming Parliament as it is meant to be. And where Justin Trudeau saw fit to expose himself to potential infection, attending a crowded Black Lives Matter protest in his usual virtue-signalling style.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during the first hybrid parliament committee in the House of Commons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Electronic voting has been touted as a way resume normal operations in the Commons without all 338 MPs needing to travel to Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

Oops! Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

"On my first deployment to Kandahar [Afghanistan] in 2006, I was the architect of Operation Medusa where we removed 1,500 Taliban fighters off the battlefield ... and I was proudly on the main assault." (April 18, New Delhi)
"What I should have said was that our military successes are the result of the leadership, service and sacrifice of the many dedicated women and men in the Canadian Forces. I regret that I didn't say this then, but I want to do so now." (April 28, Ottawa)
"Every military operation our Forces undertook in Afghanistan, including Operation Medusa, relied on the courage and dedication of many individuals across the Canadian Forces. My comments were in no way intended to diminish the role that my fellow soldiers and my superiors played in Op Medusa."
Canadian Minister of National Defence, Harjit Sajjan

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan inspects a Guard of Honour prior to meeting with his Indian counterpart earlier this month in New Delhi. A speech Sajjan gave in India has stirred anger in military circles from those who thought the former soldier had overstated his role in Afghanistan.  (MONEY SHARMA / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

The first sentence above relates to how the Honourable Member of Parliament of Canada and Minister of National Defence portrayed himself to an admiring audience in India when he visited  New Delhi on April 18 and spoke before a group of security experts. Minister Sajjan obviously got carried away and let fly statements that he deliberately embroidered to portray himself in a heroic light to impress his audience. That he is Minister of Defence in the Liberal Cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau obviously didn't burnish his credentials sufficiently.

His statement of ownership of the military plans designed to meet Taliban in combat and defeat them in the process went beyond inflated; obviously the boasting of a needful ego to elevate the esteem showered on him by proud Indians in the country of his heritage; a Sikh from India, running for parliament in Canada, and subsequently in brief order being named to the cabinet as Minister of Defence. Minister Sajjan, in fact, had a professional role as a Vancouver policeman. And he was a member of Canada's military reserves, called to duty in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer.

A post in which he distinguished himself, and was well liked and respected by enlisted men and officers alike. All of whom now have an opinion of this man at variance with their original; a situation that he has himself skewed and certainly not in his favour, since many are now calling for his resignation. "Making a statement like that (of being solely responsible as the architect of the battle plans of Operation Medusa in the summer and fall of 2006) is completely contrary to our military ethos", explained the former soldier who had initially characterized Minister Sajjan's remarks in New Delhi as "a bald-faced lie".

It is the retired military officers who have spoken loudly in disappointed condemnation of the govenrment's Minister of Defence, still preferring not to have their names released in public since they remain involved in a number of military projects. Yet Afghanistan veterans who had fought during Op Medusa claim to be completely astonished that this man who had been held in great esteem would now claim to have been the fulcrum that supported and designed that combat mission. Characterizing his statements in India as being "really quite outrageous".

He never had been involved in the command's decision-making process, according to the former officers now criticizing the Minister. He was a major in a liaison capacity with Task Force Kandahar. Then-brigadier-general David Fraser, Canada's task force commander, the International Security and Assistance (ISAF) commander for Regional Command South, along with his planning staff and his battalion commanders in Panjwaii were those who represented the battle architects of Op Medusa. That particular battle was the first and only occasion when Taliban forces faced off in their thousands for a battle against ISAF forces.

Minister Sajjan might be forgiven for his lapse in integrity and truthfulness. Cabinet ministers usually take their signals from the Prime Minister. And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is inordinately fond of burnishing himself in whatever way he can, to portray himself as extraordinary and entitled and entirely admirable, a selfie-taking, applause-seeking narcissist out to impress at any cost. No one has yet suggested that Justin Trudeau step away from office in reflection of his unremitting self-promotion, but calls certainly have gone forward for Harjit Sajjan to do so.

After all, if the Minister of Defence chose to soil his reputation in such a tawdry fashion, how can he expect to retain the loyalty of the military his political position places him in the position to represent?

Carrying On

"His age is surprising as most terrorists are radicalized at a much younger age. It would be my assessment that he has probably had quite a troubled past, with involvement in drink or drugs leading him into criminality."
"Then at some point, possibly in the last decade, he has converted to Islam and changed his name."
"Then it appears that he has fallen under the malign influence of others who have encouraged or persuaded him to carry out this attack, possibly for money for his family."
David Videcette, (former) Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officer, security expert

Vigil in Trafalgar Square to remember the victims of the Westminster Terror attack. Credit Ben Cawthra/LNP

Strange how readily semi-exonerating reasons can be advanced by those in the field of security and intelligence in assessing the behaviours and intentions of religiously-driven psychopaths. It is as though to even conceive of odious acts of vicious terrorism must have a basis in the pathology of victimhood somewhere back in the perpetrator's history. Not precisely exculpatory, but vaguely sympathetic, understanding, as though to say, yes he committed an atrocity but circumstances drove him to it.

The circumstances of hatred of absolute misanthropy leavened with the yeast of a religious dedication to conquest, a religion jealous of its status on a global scale of influence and following, restive at number two on the theological hit parade, aspiring by all and any conceivable -- and many none too conceivable but undertaken with purpose regardless -- to wrest top spot from the reigning world religion in scope and popularity. After all, is there any other world religion that can boast having complete control over all aspects of followers' lives?

A religion whose scriptures narrated by god himself to the Prophet Mohammad teaches the faithful in Islam to hate, to aspire to slaughter non-believers because they are less than human and the world has only enough space for faithful Muslims. A recent video of impromptu interviews with pedestrians in a popular Turkish shopping zone featured an interviewer with a succession of men, all of whom when asked their opinion of non-Muslims commented they should be slaughtered for the sin of atheism, they are not human, but living scum. And this is a country linking Europe to the Middle East. (via @OnlineMagazin).

The now-dead London jihadist attacker Khalid Masood had a reputation of "violent extremism", according to British police, but he was not on their intelligence radar as an Islamist fanatic until he rampaged in a vehicle at 80 kilometres an hour along Westminster Bridge in London, killing three pedestrians, and then knifing to death a British police officer who was guarding the Houses of Parliament. A fitness buff, he was no doubt in good physical shape to manage the feat that locked down Parliament.

Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood has been called a hero as he tried to save the life of the policeman stabbed in the terror attack. Credit Stefan Rousseau, PA

He had a number of convictions to his criminal discredit beginning at age 18, a social misfit who went on to commit a variety of criminal acts over the decades. Authorities believe that his 'radicalization' into fundamentalist Islam took place during his many incarcerations. And he was known to live with his wife and young children in areas well known as representing  Islamist extremism.  There is no shortage of testimonials from neighbours who viewed him as 'normal', however.

"He was always polite and would say 'hello, hello' to me. You could tell they were religious, his wife always wore traditional dress. I last saw them just over a month ago. They had three children", said Kaodi Campbell, 25. A neighbour in Luton saw him only at night: "He was like a shadow, you wouldn't often see him. He was often in Islamic dress, black clothes with a hat", described Monica. And that's fairly typical for comments made by people of those who have committed odious acts; they were 'nice', they were 'normal'. He was 'polite, shy', said neighbour Katie Garriques.

And his association with Anjem Choudary, finally imprisoned for terror offences, a despicable Islamist preacher promising that the final Islamification of Britain was not long in the future, influential among his large following, marked him out as just another Islamist among many.  It makes some kind of grim sense that he was shot three times in the chest at close range by a bodyguard of the British minister of defence, as Masood was in the process of killing a police officer.

The United Kingdom is infused with a large Muslim immigrant population. Its largest, most populous city has a Muslim mayor. MI5 speaks of no fewer than ten thousand identified radical Islamists under suspicion, but not under surveillance, because no police or secret service or intelligence agency, or all combined with a common purpose to protect the common weal, has the infinite resources it would take to surveil them all. Masood was "known to MI5", and there the story stalled.

So, Britain, like Belgium, like Holland, like France, like Germany, trudges on. The modus operandi is an extremely popular one with Islamist terrorists; from the streets of Jerusalem to Germany and France, driving a vehicle with the intention of committing multiple homicides has succeeded and is incited by ISIL. The use of knives is hugely popular among Muslims wishing to inspire terror in others while committing themselves to violent murder against the unsuspecting.

The successful operation that just concluded on the Westminster Bridge and the corridors of British political power will inspire others to achieve similar fame.  Canada too had a taste of vehicular homicide in the death of Warrant Office Patrice Vincent, mowed down by another Muslim convert who then attacked police with a knife before being shot dead.  Another Islamist extremist shot dead Cpl.Nathan Cirillo, on duty at the National Cenotaph, then went on to storm Parliament before he too was shot dead, but not before locking down the Parliamentary Precinct and central Ottawa.

Parliament Hill shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau is shown here in a Twitter photo posted by @ArmedResearch. The RCMP has released the full, unedited version of his cellphone manifesto.  (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Their successes inspire others to emulate their attacks in the hopes that they too will become celebrated martyrs whose names will be inscribed in blood and fame in the annals of Islamist jihad, entitling them to direct entry to Paradise with all the attendant entitlements awaiting their arrival. A French Islamist drove a vehicle through a busy Antwerp shopping area Thursday, but his exploit was foiled as pedestrians, more accustomed in Belgium than elsewhere to dodge this type of threat leaped to safety.

And the man, identified as 39-year-old Mohamed R., was intercepted and arrested, French President Francois Hollande remarking on its coincidence with Wednesday's attack in London, commenting that the French citizen was "trying to kill people or create a dramatic event"; an amazing leap of intuition, or perhaps even a logical deduction....

Politically Correct Canada : The Cuckoo's Nest

"Are those who set forth these resolutions oblivious to the clerics who rally hundreds of thousands across the world — organizations such as Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, CAIR, ISIS, Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda, Taliban and Jamat e Islami, Sipah-e-Muhammad, TehrikNifaz-i-FiqahJafaria, JamatudDawa, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-jhangwi, TehrikNifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Islam, Jamiat-ul-Ansar, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Khuddam-i-Islam, Fatah Al Islam (Lebanon), Ansar Al Sharia in Libya, Jabhat Al Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) in Syria, the Haqqani Network in Pakistan and other offshoots of these jihadi movements?"
Khadija Khan, Pakistan-based journalist and commentator, Gatestone Institute

 

Resolution, M-103, introduced in Parliament by Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, whose purpose is to seek unanimity in condemning "Islamophobia," hasn't had the smooth ride to general agreement the ruling Liberals have agitated for. The Conservative Party of Canada attempted to reword the motion, removing "Islamophobia" and making the motion more generalized to focus on all religions facing phobic attacks, but was unsuccessful because the Liberals refused to delete the word specific to the idea that Islam is under attack.

It's a strange thing, this idea of the West walking on tenterhooks of empathy for a religion that goes out of its way to alienate other religions, to present itself as exceptional and the only monotheistic religion that the higher power itself has manifestly credited as the finished version of the spirit's instructions to humanity. So strange that one should take heed of the fact that Egypt's Al-Azhar university, Islam's most venerated and authoritative, refuses to condemn Islamic State despite its well-known atrocities committed in the name of Islamic jihad.

In fact, Al-Azhar University's curriculum "allows for killing a Muslim who does not pray, one who leaves Islam, prisoners and infidels within Islam [those who do not have a clearly specified creed or sect]. [It also allows] gouging their eyes and chopping off their hands and feet, as well as banning the construction of churches and discriminating between Muslims and Ahl al-Kitab [Christians and Jews], and insulting them at times." Peculiar practise for a religion whose faithful protest that it is a religion of peace and brotherhood.

Muslims conduct taraweeh prayers as they gather for Lailat al-Qadr, at Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, July 24, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih)

However, in Canada, provincial MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers last month introduced a similar motion tabled in the Ontario provincial legislature, and it was passed, demanding that  lawmakers condemn  "all forms of Islamophobia" and reaffirm "support for government efforts, through the Anti-Racism Directorate, to address and prevent systemic racism across government policy, programs and services". Those who have no love of these motions point out, fruitlessly that no similar motions condemning "Judeophobia" or "Christianophobia" have been put forward.

Christians in their ancient homelands throughout the Middle East are systematically, institutionally harassed and persecuted, forbidden in Saudi Arabia to practise their religion. Churches have been firebombed, parishioners have been threatened, attacked and killed throughout the region, and no new churches are permitted to be built. Most Arab countries have exiled all the Jews that lived there for thousands of years after the creation of the State of Israel, denying that Jews ever had a historical presence in the Middle East. Christians have been leaving the geography in record numbers.

But Arabs, fleeing sectarian conflict and murderous regimes to become refugees seeking haven abroad in the West are welcomed with open arms. Those nations that welcome them prefer to close their eyes to the very real fact that Islam is incompatible with Western democracy, and the Koran and the hadiths instruct the faithful in Islam that sharia law takes precedence over any existing system of justice where they seek haven. Islam, in fact, acts as a clear deterrent in its firm control over all aspects of life for Muslims, to their integrating into the social, legal and political fabric of a non-Muslim country.

Even though the Islamic world practices all manner of restrictions that reflect bigotry leading to the killing of apostates and homosexuals, where anti-Semitism not only thrives but is driven by Islamic scriptures and violence against women, female genital mutilation, child marriage, stoning, amputation, crucifixions, beheadings are recognized state methods of capital punishment, one must not breathe a hint of criticism against Islam. To state the obvious, Islamic authorities, driven by the public relations instruments of the Muslim Brotherhood, uses Western sensibilities to promote the notion of "Islamophobia".

The claims by Muslims that "Islamophobia" has run rampant throughout Western society and is instrumental in making life miserable for Muslims wanting only to live in peace and security, and that the obligation of Western societies is to restrain and restrict any and all expressions of doubt that Islam is the fount of peace that it claims to be, has met with resounding success. The liberal and left bent to accept at face value the claims of "Islamophobia" inciting to violence and intimidating Muslims, despite the reality of sharia law supporting violence against women and Muslim supremacy
supports the Islamist agenda.

Meanwhile, Jewish communities across Europe and North America are beset with a wave of anti-Semitism fuelled in large part by the presence of those very refugees from the Middle East and North Africa who have been taught from an early age through Islamic instruction and repeated endlessly in mosque sermons to hate Jews and to express that hatred often and with atrocious intent. The problem is also that anti-Semitism is pervasive throughout many societies so the tinder is there to be fired up by incitement to violence against Jews through the claims that Israel persecutes Palestinians.

Justifying hatred of Jews through expressions of denouncement of an "Apartheid" state is a specialty of Muslims, one that the liberal left takes up with enthusiasm, explaining that to do so is not to be confused with anti-Semitism, even while Jewish students are hounded out of universities for the sin of supporting Zionism, a return of Jews to the land where they historically arose. In the United States, over 120 threats against Jewish organizations in three dozen states in this new year, have surfaced relentlessly.

Vandalism has taken place at Jewish cemeteries, stunning and frightening the Jewish populations seeing themselves once again a target of hatred. In Canada, Jewish community centres in Toronto and London, Ontario received bomb threats. Threats were made against Jewish centres in New York, Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida and Maryland. The kind of vicious slander and threats that have being commonplace in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and elsewhere with the influx of Muslims has spread its venom everywhere.

Yet it is the Muslim communities who quiver and plead for the larger communities within which they live to condemn "Islamophobia", even while Islamist jihad unmercifully and without remorse slaughters sectarian rivals in Islam, and targets ethnic and religious minorities like Kurds and Yazidis for extermination. A government like Syria can once again mount a destructive campaign of blood-letting in vengeance against Sunni Syrians protesting that their Shiite government has for too long dispossessed them, while the world looks on.

Islamophobia? The surprise would be if no one took exception to the dysfunction of a religion claiming to focus on peace while inciting its faithful to exercise their duty to jihad.

Margaret Trudeau's 'Golden Boy'

"So this is something that no one who's worked in Parliament has seen before. There are traditions, there's a way of working that has to exist. There are things that require consent."
"A lot of the stuff, you know, it's the tip of the iceberg that you use here. There's a lot of the other parts of the work that have to be done working together collaboratively."
New Democratic Leader Tom Mulcair
 

"It's one thing for the government to use the tools that are available to it to implement its agenda. It's another thing to take away tools from the opposition, and that's what we're seeing."
"This [Liberal government] is now taking away the tools that are available to the opposition ... changing it from having a government and opposition in the House of Commons to a government and audience in the House of Commons."
"And that is something that is extremely undemocratic."
Conservative  House leader Andrew Scheer

In a still image from House of Commons video, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, centre-right, is seen reaching in for Conservative whip Gord Brown, centre, as NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, centre-left, stands by. The video shows the prime minister bumping NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, right. (CBC)

On Wednesday morning, the Trudeau princeling who was given the assent of 38.6 percent of the Canadian vote to become Prime Minister gave Canada a demonstration of his genetic inheritance, the traits he inherited from his proud mama, in a drama-charged, impulsive, narcissistic, entitled display of a petty dictator hard at work. Impatient with the pace of Parliamentary procedures, he left his seat to make his way across the floor with the intention of escorting Conservative MP Gordon Brown to his seat.

While so doing, and while Mr. Brown kept telling Mr. Trudeau to take his hands off his person, Mr. Trudeau violently elbowed another Member of Parliament, NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau painfully in the chest, to expedite her move out of his way. Another MP, Tracy Ramsay, heard the Prime Minister to exclaim: "Get the f---k out of my way" in approaching Mr. Brown.

A few moments later a confrontation takes place on the floor between Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Mulcair with both shouting at one another. A visibly upset Thomas Mulcair shouts at the Prime Minister: "What kind of a man elbows a woman? It's pathetic! You're pathetic!" This is an opinion quite obviously not shared by the man he is chastising with such passion, who feels that he is in control and all others should have the good sense to cater to him.

The Liberal government under this Prime Minister is not fond of being contested or challenged in any form. The thrust and parry of parliamentary debate when political opponents disagree on an issue is not meant by the government in power to pass a bill that would stifle debate, but this is precisely what Mr. Trudeau's Liberal government set out to do, to the outrage of the opposition parties. This situation cut a new low for any government in power.

And it is telling that it came from a Liberal government which promised during the election that it was prepared to do everything far differently than its predecessor. And so far, it  has; it has renamed government departments, gone out of its way to change legislation brought in by the previous Conservative-led government, and extolled its own virtues ad nauseum, even as it went about breaking one election promise after another.

"I am ashamed to be a witness to the person who holds the highest position in our country do such an act. I want to say that for all of us who witnessed this, this was deeply traumatic. What I will say, if we apply a gendered lens, it is very important that young women in this space feel safe to come here and work here."
"He made us feel unsafe and we're deeply troubled by the conduct of the prime minister of this country."
NDP MP Niki Ashton

Openly Transparent Hypocrites

"We think it should be public and there's no reason for that information to be hidden or considered confidential. It should be part of the budget, and why they [the federal Liberal government] decided not to release it is a different question."
"To be honest with you, when I look at these numbers, [there is] nothing there that hits me that should be kept secret or confidential or kept from the public. I don't really see anything that would justify this. I am puzzled why they are so sensitive about this."
"[But] it's not up to us to decide what is public or not. That is their information. They [Liberal government] own it."
Mostafa Askari, assistant parliamentary budget officer

"We as a party have always demonstrated a level of openness and transparency in how we've conducted our affairs and we will continue to set a very high bar on our expectations of how Canadians need to be able to see what politicians are accountable."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

A report from Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette, left, says Finance Minister Bill Morneau's budget lacks the transparency needed to properly analyze it. (Canadian Press)

The Parliamentary Budget Officer, although that office was given a legitimate and needed task, to overlook government budget to ascertain whether it was being conducted in the best interests of the taxpayer, was always given a hostile ride by the previous Conservative government. But never were primary figures enabling the Budget Officer to do his work, withheld at the demand of he PBO. The current prime minister, Trudeau, insisted that under his government accountability, openness, transparency represented an idealism he was proud to campaign on.

Now that he is prime minister, he has gone out of his way to counteract and reverse almost all legislation brought in by the Conservative government. Just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper was intent on putting his stamp and his conservative values front and centre during his administration, so too is Justin Trudeau doing the same -- with a vengeance and far more deeply than his predecessor, upturning legislation, renaming government departments, feeling himself immune from criticism.

Where the previous government became consumed with the need to balance the books, the current government is intent on pulling out all the stops to spend as much treasury as all the projects he has claimed to support will require. In so doing, though he campaigned on the notion that his government would bring in a relatively modest $10-billion deficit in its first year of operation, we're looking at three times that amount, and more, to plunge the country deeper into a massive debt load.

This is a man, this prime minister, who saw nothing amiss as a Member of Parliament, and then as Leader of one of the country's three main political parties, in speaking at various venues, some of them charitable, for hefty speaking fees. As though as an MP, handsomely paid for his services, he wasn't in any event obligated to speak on invitation and not charge exorbitant fees. When a public backlash resulted with that revelation, he no longer accepted such engagements, but now that his party and he are the government, that legacy lives on.

Now, the Liberal government is making key cabinet members available for one-on-one sessions with lawyers, lobbyists and corporate heads in exchange for financial support, selling $500 tickets to attend privately sponsored meetings with key government leaders. These may be legal in practise, but they come with a stench of corruption, an observation that should be obvious enough to make Cabinet and the Prime Minister step back from that abyss, but has not yet done so.

The Liberal government's much vaunted open-government strategy, an "open-by-default" strategy to demonstrate to Canadians how honourable and clean they are, has already fallen by the wayside. It is now obvious enough, as Mr. Askari of the PBO points out that the Liberal budget is nowhere near as transparent as those of previous governments. It is not leaving its books open for scrutiny by members of the House, as required.

The PBO on sending a formal request to the Finance deputy minister requesting the required data along with an explanation why the information has been ordered to be treated as confidential is still awaiting a response. The traditional year-by-year breakdown over a five-year period of new tax and spending measures cannot be completed as required. Without the withheld data relating to the last three years of the five-year period under scrutiny an incomplete and thus worthless report will result.

So much for Liberal transparency.