Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Given his penchant for vote rigging, was Stephen Harper behind the Zaccardelli scheme?


In my opinion, there is little doubt from his self incriminating taped confession about Stephen Harper's prior knowledge of the "financial considerations" that were being offered by his party in order to influence Chuck Cadman's vote on a crucial confidence motion that would have brought the Paul Martin government down in 2005.

Which leads one to speculate about what involvement Stpehen Harper may have had in Giuliano Zaccardelli's blatant political interference in the 2006 election that did indeed bring the Martin government down, by announcing a criminal investigation had been launched into the income trust leak.

This blatant political interference took the form of Zaccardelli faxing a personally signed letter to NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis dated December 23, 2005. At 3:00 pm on a Friday, no less. At which point Judy Wasylycia-Leis felt compelled to release it to the media.

To what extent was Judy Wasylycia-Leis simply a pawn and foil for the Conservatives at large? To what extent did Harper conspire and scheme with Zaccardelli, who no doubt would benefit from a "tough in crime" Conservative government being in office?

These are matters that go to the heart of our democratic system and need answers. This is a matter deserving of a full public inquiry. Right after the full public inquiry of the Cadman matter.

CRIMINAL PROBE
Top Mountie ordered trusts alert to include Goodale
Zaccardelli's change deviated from rules, RCMP watchdog says

Globe and Mail
April 1, 2008

OTTAWA, TORONTO -- Former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli approved the release of information about a criminal probe into the income trust leak in the middle of the 2006 federal election campaign and directed that a news release name Ralph Goodale, then Liberal finance minister, an RCMP watchdog report revealed yesterday.

The move to include Mr. Goodale's name - a decision even the police force now says was not in keeping with past practice - was made in the absence of any policies or guidelines on handling such sensitive situations, said the chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.

Continued here

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stephen (I will never tax income trusts) Harper , Jack (Look at me) Layton , Judy (I am an expert) W-L & Giuliano (I never heard of Ralph Goodale) Zaccardelli are quite the crew.

Could this just be a coincidence??

Maybe , maybe not.

Either way , the impropriety that this presents should be enough to require further investigation.

It is fine to say that rules need to be changed--it is kind of like closing the barn door after the whole herd of horses has escaped.

The damage has been done in more ways than one--not only was Paul Martin`s gov`t removed from office but we inherited something far worse.

Shame on the whole works of them if they were indeed involved to the extent it appears.

Dr Mike.

Anonymous said...

The question of the day: "was Stephen Harper behind the Zaccardelli scheme?"

A few salient questions:

Did Harper have motive to do so? Yes.

Did Harper have access to Zaccardelli? Yes

Who had the most to gain from this alleged action? Harper and the CONs

Would Zaccardelli be well served by this outcome? Yes, after all he's a cop and Harper is "tough on crime"

Was it customary police practice to issue such a statement on a one off basis to a single individual (Judy Lots of Lies)? Absolutely not.

Was it customary of the Commissioner to name names like Goodale? Absolutely not.

Was it reasonable to think that Judy Lots of Lies would keep this matter confidential? Judy?, surely you jest.

Was the letter marked confidential and did it request the matter be kept confidential? No

Did the letter serve a passive role or did it serve an active role? The letter itself was passive, but the two phone calls that were made by the RCMP to track down Judy to make sure she knew there was a letter from the RCMP sitting on her office fax machine were not passive in the least.

What time of year did this take place? December 23, 2005, to days before Christmas and the Friday before a weekend.

Does Harper have a history of vote manipulation? Yes.

Did Paul Kennedy, the RCMP Complaints Commissioner, receive full co-operation in his investigation? Absolutely not, as the four senior most RCMP people on the file including Zaccardelli refused to co-operate in the investigation

Should the matter rest here? Only if you think compromising an election by the RCMP on blatantly political grounds is a healthy situation going forward.

Anonymous said...

11:23 Anon

Amen

Anonymous said...

anonymous said...

"Absolutely not, as the four senior most RCMP people on the file including Zaccardelli refused to co-operate in the investigation"

Isn`t this a fine state of affairs.

If you or I tried to pull the same stunt , we would find ourselves tossed ass first into the closest slammer for contempt.

Just because these guys are the law does not make them immune to it`s rules & regulations.

If they are immune , even worse.

It appears there is THEM , & then there is the rest of US.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!
Dr Mike.

Unknown said...

As surmised on Mike Duffy yesterday, Chreitien's personal buddy and appointee Zaccardelli did this as part of King Jean's revenge on Prince Paul. He despartely want Maritin to fail.

The good King hubris knows no bounds, the C-24 fundraising laws were designed to harm the Liberal party and make his personal reign look all that much greater.

This Liberal civil war has been going on for 25 years and surges strongly to this day.

Jay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jay said...

Harper and Zaccardelli did seem quite
buddy
buddy back in January 2006.

Anonymous said...

Blogger NVan City's George Pringle said...

"As surmised on Mike Duffy yesterday"

MIKE DUFFY? Surely you jest. Mike Duffy is simply an extension of the PMO.

He is Sandra Buckler in drag.

Mike Duffy has zero journalistic credibility. Everything he does is calculated in advance. The man is a shame.

Anonymous said...

The Cadman Affair - Reports of its death were greatly exaggerated
Kady O'Malley | April 1, 2008 | 10:14:54 | Permalink
kady.omalley@macleans.rogers.com

Well, this could get interesting: undaunted by a concerted Conservative effort to scuttle an investigation the Cadman Affair, the Liberals are now threatening to haul the Prime Minister himself before the Justice committee to explain just what he meant when he referred to "financial considerations" during a taped interview with Cadman biographer Tom Zytaruk. That is, if committee chair Art Hanger manages to stay in his seat for the two minutes necessary to hold a vote on whether to hold the investigation, which has so far proved to be far more of a challenge than one would expect.

At a surprisingly well-populated press conference -- haven't we been assured, by numerous Tory spokespeople, that Canadians don't care about the Cadman controversy, and that there is 'no story here' beyond the desperation of the Liberals to find scandal at the heart of Canada's most squeaky clean government? -- chief Cadman interrogator Dominic LeBlanc played a series of clips, video and audio, to back up his claim that the Conservatives -- including the PM -- simply can't keep their story straight on who offered what to Cadman, and when.

Other witnesses on the Liberal wishlist:

A trio of Harper confidantes and party officials; Tom Flanagan and Doug Finley, who have admitted to meeting with Cadman in the days befoer the vote and former Conservative MP John Reynolds;

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, who reportedly arranged the rendez vous between Cadman and Conservatives

Ian Brodie, who was executive director of the party at the time, but is now better known the PM's chief of staff

Taking questions from reporters after his presentation, LeBlanc noted that the chair has yet to explain why he won't allow the vote.
"He doesn't even say no, he just mutters and runs out of the room."

In any case, this should make this afternoon's Justice meeting even more of a cliffhanger. Will Art Hanger stick around to hold a vote? Tune in later today to find out.

(ITQ is sure that the government's official Cadman go-to guy James Moore will be holding his own media availability within minutes to debunk the debunking of his debunkage.)

Anonymous said...

Stephen Harper heard a knock at the door.

He went to the door & opened it a crack.

To his chagrin , it was the Ghost of Chuck.

The rest will soon be history.

Mary P.

Anonymous said...

As Mr Dion becomes the first Liberal leader NOT to become PM, and, as the once great Liberal party continue's its downturn one and all can look back at this post and its comments to fully understand how it happened. But, by all means...carry on the nonsense. billg

Anonymous said...

BillG said:

"As Mr Dion becomes the first Liberal leader NOT to become PM, and, as the once great Liberal party continue's its downturn one and all can look back at this post and its comments to fully understand how it happened."

...or not, as the case may be

Anonymous said...

...or not...
Yes, thats true, no one really knows, but, when you take into consideration that a greater number of Canadians would rather vote Liberal rather then Conservative, and, take into consideration Mr Dion's terrible numbers, and, take into consideration the Liberal's disappointing numbers, well, sooner or later someone smart is going to figure out a mismatched leader, poor policy and yelling scary scary just wont work, oh, and of course implying that the PM of Canada contacted the RCMP head honcho and rigged an election. If you like abstaining from voting and looking foolish and polling 26% by all means...keep doing what your doing. billg

Anonymous said...

Simple question for billg:

Given the federal election then in progress, who, in your view, had more to gain by including Ralph Goodale's name in the RCMP press release:

(1) Canadian democracy?
(2) Giuliano Zaccardelli?
(3) Stephen Harper?

Please advise.

Anonymous said...

Answer: Mr Harper and the Conservatives...silly question.
Did he also fill brown bags full of cash to buy victory in Quebec? Did he appoint Zaccardelli? Did he balloon a simple 2 million dollar gun registry into a billion dollar fiasco? Death by a thousand cuts, not Zaccardelli. Governments make mistakes, the past Liberal govt made plenty, this Conservative one will make just as many...its just part of leading. Get good policy, get a better leader and, as John Prine would say..'quit praying for bad luck and knockin' on wood". billg

Anonymous said...

Maybe it is time for a full government reorganization into a totally new structure--it certainly appears that this old party line system works no more.

Partisan party politics is all we ever hear about anymore----just take a gander at Question Period---what a joke--nothing is ever accomplished other than someone proves they can get off a better zinger than someone else----a total waste of time.

Everyone tries to accommodate the party line at the expense of you & I on the street.

Enough of the useless crap.

Time to come up with a new system that is devoid of the party nonsense.

Make a MP accountable to his riding citizenry , & not some holier than thou leader in some room in Ottawa or some board room in God knows where.

Let`s clean up this mess once & for all & try something different.

It s the present system that is broken--the symptoms are obvious-- the patient is dying.

There has to be a better way.

The world financial system is about to be reorganized or it will be the end of things as we know them.

Might as well fix the gov`t while we are at it.

Dr Mike Popovich.

Unknown said...

Of course, Paul Martin ultra-loyalist Jean Lapierre also surmised it was King Jean, the PM who appointed Zaccardelli, who behind this.

Most Conservatives say the same ting about Duffy, that's just your partisan anger when the truth is told.

BC voters spoke loudly in Quadra about the Liberal smear job on Cadman, keep the pointlessness coming and don't forget to watch your backs if anyone from the other leadership contenders are anywhere behind you.

Anonymous said...

Harper in the company of Zaccardelli the "day after" the election - this is NOT done. The RCMP is supposed to be at arms lenght of the government.

Air Canada probe - why did it take so long for Harper to have Zaccarrdelli resign - did he owe him something?

An inquiry should be held.

NDP/Conservatives working together to eliminate the Liberal party.