884. Harper refused to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Canada WINNING the Nobel Peace Prize for Canada's INCREDIBLE Middle East peace initiative.
905. Harper's President of the Treasury Board, CON MP Tony Clement, stole $50,000,000 from the public purse on false pretenses, from money originally allotted by Parliament for alleviating congestion at Canada’s borders, and spent it beautifying his own Parry Sound-Muskoka riding on parks, walkways, toilets and gazebos. He would later falsely claim the money was dispersed for the G8 Summit. Clement is protected from being charged for this theft under Parliamentary Privilege. Auditor General Shelia Fraser investigated what happened to the $50-million, she could find little paperwork showing how it was decided the money be spent. Documents later unearthed through the Access to Information Act showed Clement was encouraging mayors in his riding to apply for this cash prior to the 2008 election – and used federal civil servants to help dole it out. When the $50-million scandal broke in 2011, Clement was not dropped from cabinet or even reprimanded. Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin wrote, “On the Clement case, team Harper’s strategy appears to be to simply ride out the criticism. Stonewall the media and the opposition until fatigue with the issue has set in and everyone moves on. It has worked in the past. It will likely work now.”
907. Harper’s proclivity for corruption was buried in the 2015 budget. After the government got rid of the long gun-registry in 2012, the RCMP was ordered to destroy its records. By then, however, an access to information request for this data had been made. The RCMP eviscerated the information anyway – which is a criminal offence if an access request is being processed. Suzanne Legault, Canada’s information commissioner, recommended charges be laid against the responsible RCMP members – which included high-ranking officers.But in its most recent omnibus bill the Harper government simply rewrote the access laws retroactively to erase the RCMP's mishandling of gun registry records – in order to protect these officers from facing criminal charges.This, of course, sets a precedent of simply arbitrarily changing laws in order to protect political allies. According to Legault: “We could, for example, with this bill, set a precedent whereby, if there were findings of electoral fraud, the government could just pass a law and say: ‘No, these provisions never applied.'”
908. Harper has had TEN of his CONs charged with crimes, ((SO FAR), as Election 2015 approaches: Michael Sona, Bruce Carson, Arthur Porter, Devinder Shory, Peter Penashue, Saulie Zajdel, Rahim Jaffer, Dean Del Mastro, James Bezan and Nathan Jacobson. Pamela Wallin could soon make it eleven!
938. Harper's staff have some VERY stupid rules. In fact, so funny they are asininely ridiculous. Here, let a reporter tell you about the dog they endure on the Hustings for Election 2015:
"Eventually, an RCMP sniffer dog was brought in to check all reporters' bags and camera equipment for illicit stashes of, one presumes, kibbles, Milk-Bones and other doggie treats.
No other political party does this to accredited journalists covering campaign events.
The police dog was a beautiful king shepherd.
Lest the idea occur to any ink-stained wretch to write about the dog instead of a canned speech, we were immediately told that the pretty dog could not be photographed.
We didn't try.
After all, you never know when a police dog might be an undercover sniffer.
Blowing the cover of undercover pooches serves no compelling public interest and might expose them, their families and other members of their pack to violence or even nasty social media howlers.
The certified kibble-free journalists were then ushered into a ballroom where Harper was to meet with Saultites [CONs from Sault Ste. Marie or 'The Soo'].
But these were not ordinary Saultites.
They were hand-picked Tories, every one carefully screened to ensure only the bluest of blue-blooded Harper supporters got in the room.
Everything was scripted with meticulous care.
There was no way the Conservative leader was going to be taken off-message by hecklers or tough questioning.
Even so, reporters were instructed that no interviews with these sterling supporters could be conducted inside the inn, largely eliminating the possibility of getting local reaction to Harper's speech.
Even getting identifications of people photographed with the Conservative leader was next to impossible."
This is the Harper team that runs Canada. Is it ANY wonder Harper has become the laughing stock of the whole world!
