Ottawa has been scandal-prone of late in its inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars. Here we have a story about the inappropriate use of government resources for partisan activity. Such abuse has come to light after documents were released under Access to Information. They describe a request from an official with the Vanier Liberal Electoral District Association for translation to Hélène-Louise Gauthier, the Director of HQ Accommodations for the Infrastructure and Environmental Operations Directorate for the Canadian Border Services Agency.
This request from the Liberal Party was fulfilled using a Government of Canada email address. It is unknown if this was done on government time despite government resources being used to respond to the request. The translated document was the agenda for the 2013 Liberal Ottawa-Vanier AGM.
Of course, it is inappropriate for government officials to be using government resources to do partisan work. I reached out to the Minister of Public Safety for comment. The Minister’s Office verified the documents and Julie Carmichael, the Vic Toews’s director of communications replied,
“We were shocked to learn that senior Liberal MP Mauril Belanger utilized a backroom Liberal operative to do partisan work at taxpayers expense. The CBSA is looking into this blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars. We call on Justin Trudeau to immediately discipline Mauril Belanger for this inappropriate behaviour and come clean to Canadians about any other backroom operatives using taxpayer dollars.”
A media firestorm broke out after it was revealed that the Prime Minister’s Office used taxpayers resources to make a political attack against the leader of Canada’s third party in Parliament, Justin Trudeau. Revealed via the Barrie Examiner, the attack was political but wasn’t done on behalf of a political organization outside of government. However in this CBSA example, taxpayer dollars were used directly to benefit the administrative goals of a partisan organization.
Your tax dollars are going to fund anti-Canadian propaganda that sympathizes with the Taliban and glorifies violence against Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister’s Office sent out an email late this evening condemning rapper Manu Militari for producing a music video that disrespects our men and women in uniform,
Shocking Music Video Glorifies Taliban Terrorists
Rapper Manu Militari has released a song and music video that glorify Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan. The shocking video includes a reenactment of a roadside bomb attack on a Canadian military vehicle and the murder of Canadian soldiers.
· This music video is outrageous and offensive and our government denounces it in the strongest terms.
· Our men and women in uniform have fought and 158 have died in Afghanistan in defence of the values that we hold dear.
· Canadian soldiers have been fighting in Afghanistan for over 10 years, longer than both World Wars.
· This music video glorifies terrorism and shows an utter lack of support to those who have sacrificed everything for us.
Despite strong words from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Canadian taxpayer helped foot the bill for the production of the Manu Militari rap video and they also help fund the rapper’s music career and national marketing.
MusicAction is a non-profit organization funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage and private broadcasters to produce and market the music of francophone artists. Since 1985, more than $90 million has been granted to this organization.
According to an annual report from MusicAction from 2008-2009, Manu Militari received the following funding from the organization:
$5,000 (Artist Management)
$20,000 (Album Production)
$25,000 (National Marketing)
Here is the video that is referenced by the Prime Minister’s Office (it was taken off of YouTube and now has been rehosted by Sun News),
And here are the roughly translated lyrics,
1431, Pashtunistan.
Before the first prayer of the day.
I leave my lair, a scarf tied around my neck.
My eyes scan the sky in search of a drone – as if I’d have time to run before the missile hits.
As I walk, I question myself about a thousand things at once but if I continue my journey it’s because [?] strengthens my faith.
I cross the rivers and the ravines of my tribal country. After many hours I finally make it to the side of the main road.
I get out my shovel, I hurry up to dig a hole in the ground to put an explosive charge of agricultural fertilizers.
Inside there isn’t any metal, the trap is undetectable. I just have to erase my tracks before going to the mountain.
I position myself strategically, I just hope that nobody spotted me by satellite.
I just try to calm my fear, ready for the ambush, finger on the detonator, I’m in no hurry, so I wait.
I’m waiting for the one, who should have stayed home.
I’m waiting, and as goes the old Afghan proverb: they may have the watches, but we have time.
I’m waiting for the one, who should have stayed home.
I’m waiting, and as goes the old Afghan proverb: they may kill the swallows, but they won’t stop the spring from coming.
[6 months earlier]
It’s been hours, the light has chased away the darkness, I realize just how close the road is.
Squinting, I may look stressed, but I’m reflecting – just like the sun on my RPG.
I’m aware that if I’m ever caught they’ll torture me or photograph me naked on all fours.
As if I was just a [?] I get wrongly accused [?]
As if [?] was like a cancerous virus, as if I had no children or no tenderness, as if I swept my cave with my wife’s hair, and I warmed myself at night with napalm.
As if I was a mentally ill, an extremist, but there are signs for thinking people.
I’ve been disfigured, I had acid thrown in my face, scratched out my image to better raze my village to the ground.
I’m not the kind that panics under fire, I have already kicked the butt of the British Empire.
I’m ready to do the same thing, I’m fighting for the same cause, I always refused the peace imposed by the occupier.
I’m far from being a beginner, I’m not afraid of wasting time, I’m ready, I have weapons and powerful arguments.
I want to free my land, is not about religion, turn off your TVs: I’ve never hijacked a plane.
I’ve fought against poppy cultivation, now if I’m growing it, it is to live, it’s you who’ve pushed me to do it.
I am not perfect. My way of life has created victims, but the attacks on my country have made me legit.
I’m waiting for the one, who should have stayed home.
I’m waiting, and as goes the old Afghan proverb: they may have the watches, but we have time.
I’m waiting for the one, who should have stayed home.
I’m waiting, and as goes the old Afghan proverb: they may kill the swallows, but they won’t stop the spring from coming.
I was about to fall asleep, when I detect the sound of an engine, which paralyzes my legs makes my heart race.
I lean hard against a rock, I am afraid of being poorly hidden. I look one last time to see if my weapon is ready to fire.
Death is so close, I’m already reciting the [?] The enemy approaches, I recognize Canada’s colors.
Like a hundred countries, adrenaline flows through me, in a few seconds they will understand how much I hate them.
The wait is almost endless, but I ready to make sure no one slip by me. Eventually the invader reaches my position, I feel so much stress I am feeling sick to my heart.
I let a first humvee pass, even a second disappears, but the third: say hello to the devil for me.
Remember the Liberal Party of Canada? The House of Commons third-place party has had the luxury of waiting in order to replace Michael Ignatieff with a permanent leader. Former Ontario NDP Premier Bob Rae has stepped in to fill the void in the interim, however, his critics suggest that his plan is to use the office of the Liberal leader to promote and entrench himself to give himself advantage in an eventual leadership contest.
Details are starting to emerge from various Liberal camps upset with this very real scenario. The newly elected Liberal President Michael Crawley was backed by a younger generation of Liberals who have influence behind the scenes of the party in Ottawa. The nightmare scenario for many of these Liberals would have been to present a “renewed” party with Sheila Copps as their President and Bob Rae as their leader. These Liberals have been moving Crawley to define the upcoming leadership race.
I’ve learned that Crawley and Rae will likely agree that the latter must hand over his “interim” title at the end of this spring sitting of Parliament as the House rises for summer.
Also, the projected date of the Liberal leadership race, according to my sources, will put the leadership election date in March or May of 2013. Rae will likely want a shorter race and I’ve heard that March 2013 would be his preferred date. This may indeed be the concession reached, despite the protestation of the other candidates.
As for these other candidates for Liberal leadership, I’ve heard the names David Bertschi, Martha Hall-Findley, Marc Garneau and David Merner.
