I sure don’t want to distract from any of the media’s determined steely-eyed focus, attention and investigative hoo-ha on the as yet unsolved mystery of the Liberal Party Adscam sponsorship corruption, at this sensitive time —what with an election going on and all. Elections aren’t the time to uncover liberal corruption! AFTER the election is when you resume that work!
OK that was fun but sorry—let me start again.
The liberal media has already, and with miraculous timing completely and with amazing alacrity forgotten (or feigned forgetfulness because they want to forget) about the most intriguing and hellacious scandal and political corruption story this great country had ever known. No more investigative reports. No questions of the Prime Minister or any candidates about sponsorship. Nothing to ask—nothing at all. All done! Nothing to see here folks! We’ve got an election to win!
Of course I should know better. The Liberal Party has declared that the issue has all been “settled” now. Hey! Just like gay marriage, and healthcare—for a generation! Their media is nothing if not obedient and helpful.
Excuse me while I tell my wife that my new year’s resolution to lose weight is an issue that’s been settled, inasmuch as I want to continue to eat more and more yummy chocolate. Betcha that won’t work out real well for me.
But despite the media’s important work at deciphering Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s “scariness” factor this week and their inquiries as to whether or not he in fact “loves Canada”, others in the non-news-media are concentrating on actual news of importance to Canadians rather than to liberals. Coincidentally, someone sent me an advance copy of a publication that is set to be printed this week. It’s called PAUL MARTIN & COMPANIES – Sixty theses on the alegal nature of tax havens, by Alain Deneault (Talonbooks).
It’s not news. It’s old. But unlike Stephen Harper’s “creepy grin”, it hasn’t been analysed and dissected to death 80 times over for the past ten years. It’s mostly about Paul Martin and how he’s hidden his massive corporation, Canada Steamship Lines, behind the veil of secrecy and lawlessness and tax-free profits of Bermuda—rather than in Canada where he currently “leads the world” (from atop his mountain of tax-free cash, perhaps?).
Untouchable by Canada’s bothersome tax collectors and regardless of the liberal dictums of corporate and personal wealth redistribution that mere Canadian plebians have to live by —that’s how our Prime Minister runs his company—or at least how “his sons own and run it” (—wink!). Our Prime Minister doesn’t much like paying taxes here in Canada where corporate tax rates are hideously high and regulations and labour laws are arduous—particularly for those who are like him—so busy looking out for minorities and their rights (except for the rights of the ones who work on his ships at sub-Canadian wage rates and sub-Canadian worker rights and standards).
The media so lacks any understanding of the ramifications of this story—or they fear them—that they don’t even bother to bring it up. Besides, it would take away from their determined steely-eyed focus on the Adscam sponsorship corruption scandal and the Goodale insider-trading corruption scandal, and others. Sensible people know that much of those scandals and the inherent corruption have been uncovered more by opposition party politicians and citizen bloggers than by the incurious (when it comes to liberals) media. And those totally mysterious “foundations” into which the Liberals have socked nearly eight BILLION dollars of taxpayer money away with little explanation and no media curiosity? Who cares! It’s not like it was Conservatives who done it!
So I’ll bring up a few excerpts from the publication. This first part is from the preface:
[…] since the transfer of ownership of CSL from Paul Martin to his sons, supposedly to avoid any risk of conflict of interest, was not done to insult our intelligence but rather to shield these assets from the disclosure of private interests that elected officials must produce for the Office of the Ethics Commissioner, an office created amid much pomp by the Prime Minister at the beginning of his mandate. In 2003, we therefore lost whatever meagre legal means we had to monitor the company’s dealings.
During the last Liberal term of office, there were many symptoms of the extent to which this offshore culture has infiltrated the government’s everyday practices.
The sponsorship scandal revealed the existence of secret funds in the order of Can$800 million, but did not reveal the terms according to which the state can grant itself funds that do not appear in its budget; these secret procedures are more jealously guarded than the money in question.
We learned later that private foundations, financed entirely by the government, received Can$7.7 billion from the public purse. In all likelihood, this money was set aside by the government to be reinvested under different names by members of the Prime Minister’s inner circle, who are generally well informed about the mechanisms of the world of finance, to serve private interests. These experts in the workings of offshore operations, without exception, are in a perfect position to covertly move money through unpublished accounts, for purposes shrouded in mystery, and make it reappear publicly when an election rolls around. Canada’s Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, does not have the powers to investigate these trusts.
[…] During its mandate, the government performed a convincing pantomime of tackling the bottomless problem of tax havens— these lawless financial spaces that make it possible to conduct accounting, financial, industrial or criminal operations with no checks or balances. Its consultation paper entitled “Enhancing Canada’s Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime,” released on June 30, 2005, was essentially designed to denounce small-time gangsters and supposed “terrorists,” creating the impression that only this class of people engages in money laundering. And yet financial scandals like Enron and Parmalat have taught us that upstanding companies engage in money laundering as well, and on a much more massive scale, and that it is impossible to make questionable transfers of funds without the cooperation of players in all sectors of the financial economy, be they auditors, accounting experts, credit rating agencies, the financial press, public authorities or others. But the Liberal government has good reason not to be reminded pf this fact. In fact, it was accounting firm Deloitte & Touche that the Liberal Party called to the rescue to attest to the integrity of its accounts during the sponsorship scandal, an accounting firm that was sued by the buyers of Parmalat for “false public communications” and “market rigging” and that caused assets of almost â‚
Writer and Executive Editor for ProudToBeCanadian.ca.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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