"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 22 May 2013

The beat goes on

Yesterday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau used the words "doctored" and "whitewashed"  to describe  changes made in a  senate committee report on Senator Duffy's expense claims.

Today, Liberal M.P, Ralph Goodale used the word "doctored"  again in the same context.

Yesterday it was the N.D.P. party up to bat and again  today.

Question period in the House of Commons is in an uproar today as members .one after another, demand
answers and documents which they clearly believe exist and must be produced.

We are having our own debate about the situation in Toronto. What's wrong with that picture?

I can't see a problem.

I'm not comfortable about things turning around to accusations here. I've  removd the  negative comment  about Mayor Dawe .

I make two apologies one  to Mayor  Dawe and one  to the poster.

It was a good comment but  what's  going on  down there is unprecedented and doesn't really have anything to do with our affairs.

It has been compared to Mayor Berry in Washington . But it isn't true either.  At least  not  altogether.

Mayor Berry was arrested, charged , tried and spent six months in jail.

Now he's the Mayor again.

We've heard about a video. We haven't seen it  Many of the negative things said  about Mayor Ford  are accurate. But despite it all, Rob Ford was chosen by the electorate to be their Mayor.

What fascinates me  is  as much about the  people's right  to choose , as it is about a separate institution's  right to undo that  democratic decision.

It happens elsewhere in the world. Is it something we are prepared to accept. I don't think so.

I just heard Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday say the video under discussion was viewed  by two reporters on a cell phone in the back seat of a  car.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't quite see how Mayor Dawe got landed in the conversation in the first place. It must have taken quite a stretch of the imagination. Heck, I couldn't even get the GC streamed this week. Was it just my computer or did others find the streamed quit about 9:30?

Anonymous said...


If democratic government is going to continue to function in the spirit upon which it is founded, there must be a right of recall of elected officials. This would occur following a petition containing "x" thousand signatures, the number depending on a percentage of the population of the town, city, province or country.

This provision exists in a number of American states.

And in Switzerland a plebiscite can be used to change actual and existing legislation at any of the three levels of government.

Surely it is not necessary to suffer the embarrassment of someone like Ford through a full four years just because he was originally elected for that term.

Arnold Schwarzenegger came to be governor of California as a result of his predecessor's recall.

The trouble with Question Period and comments, both public and private, by politicians of all stripes is that they are filled with hypocrisy. When they smell the blood of their opponents they howl like hyenas. A week or a month later it is their own blood that is demanded and they hide behind their lies and innuendos.

Anonymous said...


Globe and Mail

Ford has just fired his chief of staff.

Says ex chief of staff and close Ford advisor Mark Towhey: "I am no longer the chief of staff. I did not resign."

Anonymous said...

Canadian Press " Senate turns over documents to Special RCMP Investigative Unit "

Anonymous said...

I have to laugh when a Chretien era Liberal like Ralph Goodale calls shenanigans on anything Harper does.How many of your readers can remember the HRDC Scandal which occurred before Adscam. Not to downgrade the the Duffy affair and especially the obfuscation with the 90K paid to Duffy by a Harper Aide,what is truly troublesome is those that call this incident proof the Harper Government is corrupt.To those I suggest they google Placeteco or Transelec followed by HRDC.The Liberal Media especially the Toronto Star relegated the news of both HRDC and Adscam to the backpages unlike Harper misgivings which are all page 1. In my opinion they both are worthy of page one as taxpayers monies are being wasted.Sadly hardly anyone knows about HRDC, truly an example of corruption at its worst.