Saskatchewan MP Brad Trost Launches Petition Against Funding of Planned Parenthood

The Conservative propaganda machine goes to war

Fuck the Conservatives. Hopefully this isn’t in the news for a week and quickly forgotten about.

“

All detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons were likely tortured by Afghan officials and many of the prisoners were innocent, says a former senior diplomat with Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

…

“According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured. For interrogators in Kandahar, it was a standard operating procedure,” Colvin said.

He said the most common forms of torture were beatings, whipping with power cables, the use of electricity, knives, open flames and rape.

All Afghan detainees likely tortured: diplomat.
Transport minister opposed passenger rights bill contrary to public stance This is an access to Information document obtained by Canwest News Service showing an e-mail from a political operative in the federal transport ministerís office to top executives and lobbyists at Air Canada, WestJet Airlines and Air Transat, in which he pleads privately with Canada’s big airlines to step up their lobby campaign to kill a proposed passenger bill of rights. The government intended the block the release of the highlighted passages, but the full, un-censored document was sent to Canwest — apparently by mistake. Click for high-res photo

Transport minister opposed passenger rights bill contrary to public stance

This is an access to Information document obtained by Canwest News Service showing an e-mail from a political operative in the federal transport ministerís office to top executives and lobbyists at Air Canada, WestJet Airlines and Air Transat, in which he pleads privately with Canada’s big airlines to step up their lobby campaign to kill a proposed passenger bill of rights. The government intended the block the release of the highlighted passages, but the full, un-censored document was sent to Canwest — apparently by mistake.

Entitled to their entitlements

“Helena Guergis responds to the fact that she’s the second biggest spender in parliament on ten percenters, those monotonous riding flyers:

“I only spend what I need to spend,” she said.

Well, there’s a tiny bit more to it than that. Something about the $86,000 she’s spent blanketing her riding and others actually only being in the $75,000 range. And the typical, but, but, the Liberals thing. The official figures, however, show how steeply Guergis’ use of ten percenter flyers has climbed:

In the last fiscal period, Guergis’ printing costs were $86,808, a 55-per-cent increase from the previous fiscal period when she spent nearly $56,000. In 2006-07 and 2005-06, Guergis spent about $28,000 on printing.

She was second to Northumberland-Quinte West Conservative MP Rick Norlock, who spent $87,749 in 2008-09.

Across Parliament, spending on printing has nearly doubled since the Conservatives came into office. In 2004-05, MPs spent $4.8 million on printing; in the first full year of the Conservative government, that number jumped to $7.8 million, while last year printing costs were $9.4 million.

In the fiscal period ending in March, printing costs were a shade over $10 million.

…

Of the top-20 spenders for printing (from Norlock, down to Rick Dykstra, who spent $69,451), 19 are Conservatives, with the NDP’s Olivia Chow — who represents a riding in downtown Toronto — the only non-Tory. (emphasis added)”

“
In 1986, local fishermen came to the rescue of 154 Sri Lankans found floating off in lifeboats off the coast of Newfoundland. Those people were not subjected to what McLeod called “the political frenzy that’s occurring today,” suggesting that in the intervening two decades Canada’s policing of its borders has become progressively more exclusionary and reactionary. This fear was solidified on November 2, when Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, after accepting the fewest refugees in 10 years, dramatically cut the 2010 target number of refugees to be accepted by more than half. Opposition MPs assert that “by steeply dropping the targets, refusing to appoint Refugee Board members for 2 years, cutting $4 million in the department and allowing for board appointments not based on merit, Harper’s Conservative government is deliberately creating a crisis in the refugee system. The crisis is then used as an excuse to bring in draconian measures to close the door to the most needy and vulnerable.
run like the wind » The Ocean Lady: Rethinking “Illegal” Migration in Canada

Cities stuck with bill for Tory 'propaganda'

“The Liberals and NDP slammed the Conservatives for requiring provincial and city governments receiving infrastructure cash to buy an additional sign at each building project specifying that the federal government paid part of the bill under its Economic Action Plan.

“The billboards, which cost up to $4,250 apiece, are part of an extensive campaign by the federal government to promote its Jan. 27 budget, which was entitled the “Economic Action Plan.”

…

“While millions of Canadians cannot get vaccinated, the Conservatives are not only wasting up to $45 million on useless signs, but they actually want two signs, not just one, on every project,” [Liberal MP Ralph] Goodale said. “They are sticking municipalities with a big part of the cost. Local tax dollars are being forced to finance Conservative propaganda.”

The Curious Case of the Missing Tory

“We tried to interview Diana Dilworth, who wants to win the New West-Coquitlam by-election. We really did try.”

Raitt accused of expense abuse

Laws, rules, these are for the morally inferior, not Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers. Just like facts and evidence.

Ottawa won't pay lawyer for whistleblower

The Stephen Harper government is refusing to pay the legal bills of a federal official whose warnings of possible torture in Afghan jails sparked a political storm, The Canadian Press has learned.

The Foreign Affairs Department had given preliminary approval last month to Richard Colvin’s request to use an independent lawyer.

But it now says it won’t pay the first set of bills until Colvin’s lawyer, Calgary-based Lori Bokenfohr, itemizes for the Justice Department who she has been in contact with – a requirement that could be a breach of lawyers’ ethical rules.