WTF TORY

From The Globe and Mail:

Stephen Harper wasted no time in bringing back three defeated candidates, appointing former Quebec cabinet minister Josée Verner to the Senate and reappointing Larry Smith and Fabian Manning.

Minutes after he finished answering questions from reporters about his cabinet shuffle, the Prime Minister’s Office sent out a release announcing the three appointments. So Mr. Harper did not have to address the issue in public.

From The Globe and Mail:

A bill to fix a heavily flawed five-year-old plan to sell cheap Canadian medicines to impoverished countries is set to die because the New Democrat who sponsored it has resigned and the Conservatives are unlikely to allow another MP to take it over – a courtesy that was once extended to Stephen Harper.

The House of Commons must give unanimous consent for a bill that has been abandoned by one member to be sponsored by another. In this case, when Judy Wasylycia-Leis quit her job as a federal MP to run for municipal politics in Winnipeg, her New Democrat colleague Brian Masse was willing to take over Bill C-393, which aimed to reform the Canadian Access to Medicines Regime.

There is precedent for such a handover. In 1997, when Mr. Harper quit his seat in the back benches of the Reform Party caucus, the House unanimously agreed to let Preston Manning take over his bill to establish the terms and conditions that must apply to a referendum relating to the separation of Quebec from Canada.

But Richard Elliott, the executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, said Tuesday he has been told there will be no such goodwill extended with regard to Ms. Wasylycia-Leis’s bill.

From the Toronto Star:

Rahim Jaffer finally showed up to testify a second time before the parliamentary committee probing allegations he was illegally lobbying government officials and peddling his political influence.

But despite his expressed desire to set the record straight he mixed up his facts under intense grilling from MPs about apparent inconsistencies in his earlier testimony.

Also: Jaffer blasts PM, Tories - CBC

From The Toronto Star:

The Harper government used a pervasive message-control tool to persuade Canadians their foremost purpose in Afghanistan was building schools and fostering democracy rather than waging a war that was turning bloodier by the day.

An investigation by The Canadian Press shows The Conservatives systematically drafted “Message Event Proposals” as part of a quiet campaign to persuade Canadians their country was primarily engaged in development work to rebuild a shattered nation rather than hunting down and killing an emboldened insurgency.

The government used MEPs to literally script the words it wanted to hear from the mouths of its top diplomats, aid workers and cabinet ministers in 2007-2008 to divert public attention from the soaring double-digit death toll of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

While the message was being massaged in Ottawa, the reconstituted Taliban unleashed a fresh wave of attacks on NATO troops and innocent Kandaharis.

“Desired soundbite: ‘Canada’s mission in Afghanistan is refocusing its mission towards development, reconstruction and diplomatic efforts,’” says an MEP prepared by the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic wing that serves the Prime Minister’s Office.

The document, among hundreds of MEPs obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, was prepared for a 2008 media tour by Arif Lalani, then the Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan.

Other records show the government went so far as to script an identical set of quotes and talking points for two returning aid workers, who were supposed to be giving separate interviews on their “personal perspective” on progress in Afghanistan.

The cuts have come to light in the wake of Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth’s blunt advice to foreign-aid groups earlier this week.

She warned groups they’ll face a backlash if they don’t “shut the …. [fuck] up” on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s refusal to include abortion in his G8 maternal health initiative.