Blue Like You

Several of my readers have just informed me of this breaking news regarding the Cadman tape - Tories say they have proof the tape was doctored!

Cadman Tape a phony, Tories say - Globe

Developing.

* * * *

Update: So as I understand it, this is related to an Ontario court order to stop the Liberals from using the tape - CBC.

Also see Conservative Queen - Cadman tape doctored! (Note how Steve spins the story in comments.)

Steve Janke - The tape that wasn’t there.

Stephen Taylor - Tories say Cadman tape was doctored: Supporting documents. Interesting segment from the document at Stephen’s site.

In part V titled The 1:46 mark , Section 12, it says, "…Mr. Zytaruk has been reported to have said that this gap in the audiotape occurred because I went to my car and then returned to add a comment. This is categorically false. .."

And yet Tom Zytaruk is sticking to his story in media interviews tonight. Very strange.

CTV - Author categorically denies Harper Tape doctored .

* * * *

Thursday Update :

Global provides an actual sound analysis. Watch this video. You can hear and see one of the edits.

Steve Janke has an excellent post up - Expert analysis makes Tom Zytaruk look to the Liberals for source of manipulation.

And via NB Tory Lady , we can say "I told ya so!". Check out Voice of the Association from March. Amazing.

Stephen Taylor - Tale of Two Tapes.

June 13 update: Audio expert won’t say who hired him for Cadman Tape - CTV.

Michael Coren exposes some of Ottawa’s juicier gossip in today’s Sun - More hypocrisy in politics.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t mention the latest ruckus which has been amply covered in today’s Post by Don Martin :

But the 55-year-old Mr. Toews’ public face of self-righteous morality is now clashing with his troubled private life. An MP dubbed the "minister of family values" by Liberals is embroiled in a messy divorce after fathering a child last fall with a much younger woman.

That’s his business, frankly , yet it might explain why Mr. Toews was demoted to the Treasury Board and immediately cloaked by invisibility, stewing in Question Period silence while his junior parliamentary secretary juggles tough questions on election financing irregularities.

Is it his business, Don? You’ve just made it the business of every Post reader in the world.

But Michael Coren has amply demonstrated that Toews isn’t the only one prone to the odd indiscretion:

…Just a few years ago it was widely known in Ottawa and media circles that a member of the Liberal government maintained a wife in one home and a gay lover in another. This certainly brought the man’s integrity into question. Because it was a secret arrangement it also exposed him to potential blackmail .

The story was never told due to a form of "gentleman’s agreement." It also was thought unfashionable and suburban within the achingly trendy journalistic class to write of someone’s homosexuality unless that person requested it. ..

So, how much lurid detail do we need to know about our elected officials’ private lives? They are human after all, and we all make mistakes. But should they be punished for behaviour that our society finds quite permissible in the mainstream? And how much privacy are they entitled to?

Perhaps we the Canadian public should insist on some kind of an Access to Tawdry Activity website where each MP’s sexual proclivities and/or transgressions against their partners can be publicly aired. Maybe we can also ask for a Gossip Input Section where any suspected activity and be posted and checked out by the appropriate morality police. Is this where we really want to go?

Personally, I think it’s unrealistic to expect our elected officials to live up to a higher standard of behaviour than our own.

I’d be happy if they if they simply raised their own standards up to the level of the current societal norm.

* * * *

Sunday Update : Joan Tintor - Short memories at the Globe . Via Jack’s Newswatch .

Monday Update : Talk about Bernier heats up, likely to be shuffled, Tories say - Hill Times.

And speaking of Chuck Cadman , these other news items would make him weep.

* * * *

Update : On MDL tonight, Pierre Poilievre hinted that the Conservatives would pursue their suit against the LPC regarding the smears in the Cadman affair. Meanwhile, the NDP feels it’s time to move on. However, it seems the Liberals would rather keep flogging this one.

Steve Janke - Cadman controversy is dead, but the Liberals uncover evidence of criminal activity .

Plattytalk - Apologies anyone?

Interesting thoughts here by Colby Cosh .

* * * *

Saturday Update : Matthew at the Politic has a great post on yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling.

Stephen Taylor - Chuck Cadman, RCMP closure and the last Liberal stretch.

* * * *

Sunday Update : The Star just wants to keep it going and going…

Just a few final (I hope) thoughts on the latest soap-on-the-hill. The NDP’s Paul Dewar has it right :

"I’m more concerned about (Bernier’s) ability to do the job because of his credentials as Foreign Affairs minister than I am in his pillow talk."

I have to admit that I’m less than impressed with Bernier, but do we really want to start investigating every Cabinet Minister’s significant others in titillating detail (past and present)? I really don’t think we want to go there.

However, we do need a competent Minister of Foreign Affairs, and I think Paul Dewar has every right to present any legitimate concerns in a respectful manner.

There is a very fine line between the public and personal lives of politicians. How we determine that boundary is exactly what defines us as Canadians.

Again we are witnessing the thinly-veiled symbiotic relationship of MSM and two of the opposition parties as they work together to smear this Conservative government. The only question is which one is actually the instigator here.

CBC’s Keith Boag reported on last night’s National (right-click on link and choose ‘open link in new tab’) , that the opposition parties knew about this for weeks , so why did they wait so long to raise an issue that supposedly relates to national security? He says that the opposition parties encouraged the media to report it before they dared bring it up themselves.

Why? Did they already know this story had no substance and they needed the media bandwagon to justify the invasion of privacy of the Minister and his ex-girlfriend?

Chantel Hebert confirms the conspiracy:

..But the inside story is that, behind the scenes, the Bloc (and the Liberals) had been actively lobbying the media to break the news for weeks…

To its credit, the NDP party does not feel that this is any of their business, which would tend to support the view that the Bernier’s relationship with Couillard hardly represents a breach of national security.

Or as Don Martin pointed out, "Julie Couillard has never been charged nor convicted of a crime, except falling for a political figure in a Parliament where guilt by association overrides the presumption of innocence."

But considering the lack of substantial policy offerings in the Bloc and Liberal parties, one can understand (but not forgive) their desperate attempt to grasp at any straw as they glumly watch their polling numbers stagnate if not decline .

And some members of the media are only too happy to assist.

* * * *

Update : Steve Janke continues investigating the conspiracy angle here .

Saturday Update : Gerry Nicholls has a great letter in today’s Post :

The Liberal Party of Canada has officially hit rock bottom. With all the important issues facing this country — war in Afghanistan, possible economic recession, soaring gas prices — the Liberals have chosen instead to focus public attention on the sex life of Cabinet minister Maxime Bernier. How sleazy. How sad.

It seems the once proud party of Laurier, King and Pearson, the party some have called the "most successful political machine in Western democracy," is now simply the political equivalent of The National Enquirer.

*   *   *   *

Sunday Update : The Chronicle Herald has a cartoon that I feel is in really bad taste. I don’t even want to link to it directly, but you can view it via National Newswatch. I wonder how many other past Cabinet Minister’s names could be inserted in that cartoon? I can think of one Liberal cabinet minister for sure. Oh, that’s right. Liberals keep their mouths shut. Uh-huh.

I’m sure that whatever the truth is regarding Dona Cadman’s disclosure to author Tom Zytaruk about an alleged million dollar life insurance offer, she likely never expected the story to cause her husband’s memory to be used by a Liberal MP and CBC ‘comedians’ as the butt of jokes and satire.

I wonder if she regrets any of this?

Duh!

My associate news-watcher spotted this little gem in the local section today - Committee ousts MP Goodyear for ‘dirty tricks’. It centers around a story based heavily on the Hill Times article “Parliament’s ‘toxically political’, MPs say…”

It would appear that Record reporter Greg Mercer has cherry-picked all the nasty bits about Goodyear, and made Karen Redman out to be some kind of Philly-smackin’ angel. Is he trying to influence the good people of Waterloo Region?

Mr. Mercer conveniently forgot to mention in his ‘news’ report a few other items in the Hill Times, such as:

…Earlier in the week, Conservatives introduced a motion at the Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics Committee to study the Liberal election financing practices which they say are the same as theirs, but Liberal committee chair Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Ont.) ruled the motion out of order. Mr. Szabo’s ruling was overruled by the committee with the help of the NDP and the issue came up as a point of order in the House and is now awaiting a ruling from House Speaker Peter Milliken (Kingston and the Isles, Ont.).

That would be the Liberal Speaker Peter Miliken, BTW.

Oh, and Joe Preston didn’t merely take Goodyear’s place, as reported in the Record. No, the Hill Times explains that this was decidedly against his will:

Chief Government Whip Jay Hill (Prince George-Peace River, B.C.) said what happened at Procedure and House Affairs was “pretty ridiculous” and that the committee has become more partisan because of the opposition’s refusal to open their election financing books to scrutiny.

“I think what transpired is completely inappropriate,” he told The Hill Times. “When they would not take [Mr. Preston's] stated intention of not taking the chair and they basically forced it on him, I don’t think it was appropriate. That’s the situation we find ourselves in at the moment and we’ll have to see what develops from here.”

But here in Liberal Land, Karen Redman can do no wrong. One wonders which came first - Did the Red media merely play back what they thought the population would want to hear, or did the editorial bent affect the Lemming brains here?

Mercer quotes her from the Times as saying, “I think it’s dragging the House of Commons to a new low.”

Lower than this, Karen?

I’m trying hard to get away from the computer for a while, but it just won’t let me…

Anyway, here is an assortment of links which I hope you find interesting. I often post these types of things for future reference. Blogger can be a useful tool for research with its search functions.

Threat to Freedom of Speech in Canada:
SDA - Macleans Magazine: A Case Study of Media-Propagated Islamophobia. Excellent comment by one of Kate’s U.S. readers:

As an American, I cannot believe what is going on in your country concerning that disgusting (and clearly dangerous) “Human Rights Commission” of yours. When criticism of government policy can be penalized as “hate speech”, you are no longer sliding down a slippery slope. Rather, you are in the muck. I will never again regret the appearance of flag burners in my country. I may disagree with them, at times to the point of fury, but I will regard their presence as a blessed sign that free speech is alive and well in America.
Posted by: Robert Pujat at December 10, 2007 3:57 PM

Tobacco Tax Protest:
LFP - Farmers to give Natives tobacco. Big tax loss for government.

The convoy would be illegal. Special permits are required to transport tobacco from Delhi to Caledonia. It is also illegal to transact tobacco outside the auction exchange in Delhi…

Will the OPP uphold the law?
Sex offender registry funds diverted, Tories say. (OPP diverted funds…)

Runciman suggested the OPP diverted some of the money for the sex offender registry to pay for policing the nearly two-year aboriginal occupation of a disputed housing development in Caledonia.

Isn’t that great?
Sun - Province failing Christopher.

Paying homage to Mother Earth:
Celestial Junk - Ecophobia: Taking Advantage of NHL Hammer-heads.
FLICK OFF, eh?

Making lots of green: A convenient £50m for Green Gore (Times, courtesy of National Newswatch). Also see Australia ’stalling Bali Talks’. Wow!! Wasn’t Rudd supposed to be the Environmentalist’s messiah or something?

Highly recommended: Angelo Persichilli - Dion’s Polluted Reputation.

Anyone got some darts? Suzuki as a guest columnist for the Star - Could there be a worse combination?

Lorne Gunter - Harper right to oppose Bali proposals.

Lorrie Goldstein - New Kyoto must include U.S., China.

Justice:
Big Blue Wave - The Unborn Victims of Crime Bill: It’s a go!
Thursday, Dec. 13 - Second Reading scheduled (first time debated)

Scantygate:
National Post - The NDP’s Nosey Nanny. BTW, isn’t there a screen of some kind that you can buy for a laptop so personal information can’t be seen at an angle by straying eyes?

Update: Dr. Roy says yes!!! Memo to James Moore - Put this on your Christmas list!!!

Steve Janke has a video for Irene Mathyssen.

Dr. Roy found the link to Irene’s imaginary diary!

What would Irene say about this??? (H/T Mary T in comments) - Don’t look, James!!!

Times Colonist - Sleazy NDP porn allegation dishonours all MP’s.

More grievances from the Eternally Offended:
David Warren - Suing for Silence.

Urban Funding:
Record - Lack of transit link to Toronto an ‘embarrassment’, Cannon says and Minister blames cities, province for bogged-down transportation.

O.K. Premier. C’est maintenant votre tour.

Health care Accessibility:
Michael Coren - Two-Tier Trauma

Ottawa Sun - New funding trims abortion wait times. “Now, new funding has cut the wait time to terminate a pregnancy to about a week”… Well, at least Smitherman has his priorities straight, right?

Potential Dion Replacements:
Maybe Chretien should try again? (Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know whatcha got til it’s gone…)

More to come…

This one’s separate post worthy, in spite of my self-imposed commitment to finish Warren Kinsella’s new book, The War Room. (I don’t want to pay a library fine, and I’m too cheap to buy it.)

Just like Trusty Tory, I don’t usually like going after Dippers, but my motives are different - The NDP is the CPC’s best friend for splitting the vote on the left. However, some things just transcend partisanship, and this is one of them.

The Star’s Ottawa Bureau-chief, Bruce Campion-Smith had an article in yesterday’s paper that contains a wakeup call of sorts for Jack Layton (Apology of sorts for ‘porn slur’).

In my opinion, Irene Mathyssen is just not MP material. Perhaps she could function as an Independent, but she has demonstrated that her mouth and her own selfish interests take priority over her sense of working with the team, and even over human decency.

After her (forced) formal apology to James Moore in the House on Friday morning, Mathyssen didn’t have the good sense to keep her big yap shut:

Yesterday, she publicly apologized in the Commons for not raising her concern with Moore privately.

“I recognize that would have been the appropriate step,” Mathyssen said in an interview.

But she maintains such photos have no place in the Commons.

“I think that is a mistake and I’m sure that he has learned that, the importance of prudence,” Mathyssen said. “What I saw was not appropriate.”

When I first read that, I assumed she had said it before the formal apology, but the subtitle in the article says, “Sorry for raising laptop photos publicly, MP tells House, but later calls images inappropriate”. So this was actually said afterwards!!!

Jack Layton has been notably absent from all this embarrassment; instead sending Libby Davies to be the cleanup attendant. I think he’s afraid that some of this dirt might stick to him. He probably wants to distance himself as much as possible from the ongoing train wreck.

So here’s my advice for Jack - Make use of the handyman’s best friend, and place it firmly over Irene’s mouth.

Or bite the bullet and dump her altogether. She’s not a team-player.

Her constituents should do the same come the next election.

Afternoon Update: Well it would appear that Ms. Mathyssen had a sudden change of heart (NDP MP sorry for ’scantily clad woman’ attack):

“The member has explained what those images were and I have accepted his explanation,” Mathyssen said Friday in the House, after cancelling scheduled events in her London-area riding and flying to Ottawa to make the statement.

Robert Fife says she’ll have to explain why she said one thing to her home-town paper, and then turned around and hoofed it to Ottawa for this volte-face. He offers his interpretation of how it likely went down:

“But I’m sure that the New Democratic Party leadership said Irene, you were wrong, completely wrong on this, you owe Mr. Moore an apology, get up there and unreservedly apologize and let’s put this matter to rest. That is what she has done.”

Meanwhile, I’m sure James Moore will be refraining from showing pics of his dog in the House from now on.

Post - Should James Moore be satisfied with today’s apology? John Turley-Ewart nails it:

Perhaps Jack Layton has also learned a lesson from this whole incident as well — that Ms. Mathyssen is a liability rather than an asset to a party with the pretension of having a conscience but a track record for being unscrupulous.

CTV video available via Jack’s Newswatch. H/T Plattytalk.

Platty wonders where Jack Layton is in all this. I’m thinking he wants to distance himself as much as possible from the stench. I’m sure Karen Redman wishes she hadn’t hitched her wagon to this train wreck.

Original morning post:

I was planning to go on a brief hiatus, but reader Ruth left this tip in a previous thread - Mathyssen stands by her complaint. (also posted at National Newswatch).

How can her constituents ’stand by’ her now? This is absolutely outrageous.

James Moore has shown a lot more class and grace in this situation than I would have. I have great admiration for him. He has taken the high road.

Mathyssen has succeeded in casting herself as a swarmy, vindictive fool, by not letting this go.

Even her fellow NDP members were apologizing and saying it was a lesson learned.

Mathyssen needs to take a time out, and as Karen Redman had originally suggested to Moore, take a close look in her heart and perhaps try to examine her true motives.