Stephen Harper and his "rogue representatives"

Sept 4, 2008 : Harper says alleged Cadman bribe 'preposterous'

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told a court that an alleged offer to the late MP Chuck Cadman of a $1-million life insurance policy in exchange for his vote in the Commons in 2005 is “preposterous” and that only “rogue representatives” of the Conservative party could have done such a thing. 

Harper says he authorized party officials Doug Finley and Tom Flanagan to meet with Cadman May 19 to assure him that if he rejoined the Conservative caucus he would automatically secure the party nomination in his B.C. riding and get all the party help he needed to campaign. 

Harper said that when Dona Cadman first asked him in September 2005 if he knew anything about Conservative representatives offering her husband a $1-million life insurance policy, he did not know her husband had told her about it and did not ask where she heard that."

Sept 4 2008 : Harper testifies he OK'd approach to Cadman, unaware of insurance offer

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has testified that he personally authorized an offer made to late MP Chuck Cadman in 2005 in exchange for his help defeating the Liberal government. But he maintained he knew nothing about an alleged offer of a $1 million life insurance policy to get Cadman's vote, saying he only approved an offer of campaign financial support in the event of an election."

Sept 9 2005.  Tom Zytaruk, biographer of independent MP Chuck Cadman, interviews Stephen Harper [h/t PaulGraham for audio] in the Cadman driveway on Sept 9 2005. Harper was accompanied by executive assistant Ray Novak and Carolyn Stewart Olsen, then Harper's press secretary. Excerpted : 

Zytaruk: "I mean, there was an insurance policy for a million dollars. Do you know anything about that?" 

Harper: "I don't know the details. I know that there were discussions, uh, this is not for publication?" 

Zytaruk: "This (inaudible) for the book. Not for the newspaper. This is for the book." 

Harper: "Um, I don't know the details. I can tell you that I had told the individuals, I mean, they wanted to do it. But I told them they were wasting their time....But they were just, they were convinced there was, there were financial issues.

Zytaruk then asks how official these 'individuals' are.

Harper: "No, no, they were legitimately representing the party. I said don't press him. I mean, you have this theory that it's, you know, financial insecurity and, you know, just, you know, if that's what you're saying, make that case but don't press it...."

Dona Cadman affidavit :  

"After my meeting with Mr. Harper concluded, Mr. Tom Zytaruk interviewed Mr. Harper for approximately 10 minutes in my driveway. When that interview concluded Mr. Zytaruk came into my house and I told him that Mr. Harper told me that he had no knowledge about a $1 million insurance policy offer made to my husband by Conservative Party representatives." 

Mike Duffy tries unsuccessfully to tone the story down ...

Steve Vai on Mike Duffy's take on his interview with Chuck Cadman via Galloping Beaver :

"Duffy was trying to tone down the story, offering up a conversation he had with Cadman, wherein he said he didn't want to vote against the budget, for fear he would lose his seat in an election and the insurance he had as an MP because of it. Duffy said Cadman was concerned that he would die and his wife would suffer. What nobody has picked up, Duffy actually connects some dots here. If Cadman was concerned about his insurance as an MP, then what better way to allay his fears in voting with the Cons, than to offer him assurance on that score. Insurance was on Cadman's mind, according to Duffy, which puts the offer into complete context."

Update : Which brings us up to today ... and the RCMP's charges of "criminal conspiracy" within the PMO of breech of trust, fraud and bribery
PM didn't know staff asked Conservative Party to pay Duffy's expenses: spokesperson

"Harper’s director of communications, Jason MacDonald, says Harper had no idea his staff had asked the Conservative Party to pay Sen. Mike Duffy’s ineligible expenses, ... and didn’t know PMO staff wanted a Senate report into Duffy’s expenses sanitized, or that the party’s chief fundraiser tried to influence the independent audit of Duffy’s claims."

Just another case of "rogue representatives" in the PMO again.

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Image at top from CBC At Issue panel..

Harper's Parade of Perps with Perks #8

Please welcome Senator Irving Gerstein, chief Con bagman and in-and-out election scheme perp, to Harper's Parade of Perps with Perks for what the Mounties allege was his role in trying to kill off the Deloitte audit into the expenses of Mike Duffy.

At a Con Party meet earlier this month, Gerstein announced to the party faithful :

“First, I made it absolutely clear to Nigel Wright that the CFC [Conservative Fund Canada] would not pay for Senator Mike Duffy’s disputed expenses,” the Ontario senator said.
“And it never did.”

Having the Con Fund pay off Duffy's expenses had actually been the PMO plan all along; Nigel Wright paying them instead was merely a later variation on that plan when the amount was three times what they expected. 

More serious is the attempt out of the PMO to muscle the Senate into shutting down the Deloitte audit using "back channels", and to hide it from the public and the RCMP with the complicity of Senators Stewart Olsen, LeBreton, and Tkachuk, all of whom previously publicly stated they knew nothing about doing a deal with a number of PMO staffers to change an audit, whitewash their reports on it, and hide the Duffy money trail. 

PMO staffer Patrick Rogers on March 8, from the RCMP ITO : 

"Senator Gerstein has just called. He agrees with our understanding of the situation and his Deloitte contact agrees. The stage we’re at now is waiting for the senator’s contact to get the actual Deloitte auditor on the file to agree. The senator will call back once we have Deloitte locked in."

Harper continued to deny in QP yesterday that he knew anything at all about the actions of all these people he personally hired for the PMO or appointed to the Senate. 
The RCMP ITO notes there is "no evidence to suggest that the Prime Minister was personally involved in the minutiae of those matters", and Nigel Wright has also said Harper was unaware of the specific details.

So what. That's what the six people in the PMO wrangling out those specific details were for.

The Perps with Perks Virtual Boxed Set ... with perp bios .. to be continued...
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Ford Family Circus Show

SunNews VP Kory Teneycke explained he canned FordNation after the very first episode because the talking points repeated numerous times throughout the 40 odd minute show that finally made it on air took 5 hours to record and "a day and a half" to edit.

I'm guessing the 4 hours of outtakes were indistinguishable from the good stuff.

But in case you missed it : social elite gravy train ... only human not perfect creating jobs subways ...  saving Toronto billions of dollars ... largest number of votes in Canadian history ...  lowest tax increases in North America ... can't change the past ... best attendance record on council ...moving forward ... subways ...  can't change the past ... average guy fighting for the little guy.

Pretty much a repeat of the same guff Mayors Rob/Doug gave Mansbridge on Monday as well ...

William Wolfe-Wylie at PostMedia : 

Rob Ford lies three times in first minutes of Peter Mansbridge interview

It's time for media to call out lying liars when they hear them lie

"In the first two-and-a-half minutes of his lengthy CBC interview Monday, Rob Ford told three lies. They were uncontested by Peter Mansbridge, and it went downhill from there.

The first lie: “The people elected me with the largest mandate in Canada’s history.”

The second lie: “Having the lowest tax increase of any major city in North America.”

The third lie: “I’ve showed up every day to work for the last 13 years.”

He refutes each of those lies and then goes on to ask the hard questions. 

Does the mayor know Anthony Smith? What was in the packages Lisi dropped into his car so secretively? Does the mayor still have connections with drug dealers? Did he pay the utility bills for a crack house? Did Lisi act on his orders or suggestions when he allegedly sought out the crack video? Do the mayor’s homophobic and racist remarks while under the influence reflect his true opinions?

Rob Ford was not stripped of his powers because of recreational drug use. It was because the mayor has consorted with criminal elements, lied about it, and then refused to speak to police about it on the advice of his lawyer. He was stripped of his power because council realized they can no longer trust him, that they no longer know what influences him and that he refuses to answer questions that desperately need answers.

The whole column is excellent. Thank you, Mr. Wolfe-Wylie.
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"Ford family circus" coined by Cathie from Canada.
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Rob Ford Apologia

Tell me this isn't what immediately went through your mind when you heard the *pussy* apology and the SunNews FordNation "reality show" announcement on the same day.
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Ford shitshow resumes and what really matters

What a screaming shitshow that was today. 

Inside the Toronto city council meeting, Mayor Rob Ford and his handler/brother Doug Ford were unsuccessfully fighting off an unenforceable council motion to have Rob Ford step down temporarily while demanding everyone else on council submit to mandatory drug screening. 

Grilled about the infamous photo of himself with 3 men - one of whom, Anthony Smith, was soon after shot and killed while Khattak was shot and survived - outside the Windsor Street crackhouse described as an ad hoc 2005 Ford campaign office, Rob Ford said repeatedly today that it was "not a crackhouse" and : 

"I had never met these three men in my life. They came out and asked me to take a picture with them." 

Meanwhile outside the council meeting, more info was unredacted by Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer.  Drugs, sex workers, drunk driving, Oxycontin, bullying, racism, lewd remarks to women, and trying to punch out staffers will make headlines tomorrow but never mind all that - here's what's really important from the police ITO [bold mine] :

"The mayor did indicate to [former Rob Ford press secretary]CHRISTOPOULOS that he knew Anthony SMITH."

"On May 19, 2013 ... it was decided that no further interviews would take place in relation to the suggestions that Mayor FORD was smoking crack or the possibility that the recording is on the cell phone of Anthony SMITH that was stolen at the time of his murder until Project Traveller was completed. The concern was that any additional interviews would potentially compromise Project Traveller in relation to the arrests, recovery of fireams and narcotics." [page 36]

Thursday update ... 

FORD NATION: CANADA'S ULTIMATE REALITY SHOW?

Ford brothers to host show on Sun News Network

Apparently the shitshow has been picked up by FoxNewsNorth Sun News.

"Following the cancellation of their top-rated radio show, we approached the Fords about hosting a show on our network," said [former Harper spokesy] Kory Teneycke, Sun News Network vice-president. "We are delighted to announce they have agreed."

"Rob is like Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh," said Councillor Doug Ford. "You just never know what he is going to say."

Bobblehead Trifecta

The Toronto mayor's office is selling a Rob Ford bobblehead as a fundraiser for United Way. The Robbie Bobbie looks a whole lot more like Doug Ford actually and certainly the old Steve bobblehead could do with an update too so here's the whole teacon trifecta.

h/t Willy Loman

Monday am update : While the budget meeting goes on upstairs at city hall, Rob and Doug and 7 city staffers are down in the lobby working the bobblehead sales line which goes round in a circle like caterpillars on the rim of a saucer. 
Doug Ford : “I don’t think there’s a politician in the country, including the prime minister, that could have bobblehead dolls and have them line up around the corner.”
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Wed update : Judge releases some more details from police Ford/Lisi ITO : 

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The Brothers Ford, in reruns

~~~updated below~~~

Seven years ago, a loud and drunken Rob Ford, then a city councillor, was at a Maple Leafs game at the Air Canada Centre. He was shouting things like "My sister was a heroine addict and was shot in the head" by way of making conversation at people seated near him. 
A couple seated two rows in front of him asked him to “tone it down a little” and Ford blew up at them, as quoted in various accounts :

"Who the fuck do you think you are? Are you some kind of right wing Commie bastard? Are you a fucking teacher? Do you want your little wife to go over to Iran and get raped and shot?"

He was escorted from the stadium by security guards.
Initially Ford denied it : 

"This is unbelievable," he told the Star. "I wasn't even at the game, so someone's trying to do a real hatchet job on me, let me tell you."

But unfortunately Ford had handed out business cards to people seated near him at the game and the couple he yelled at, who were from out of town and had no idea who he was, used one to look him up and wrote a letter of complaint.  

Later, Ford spent what he called "the toughest day of his career" issuing apologies :

"I reflected on it last night, and talked to my family. I came forward and admitted it. That's all I can do. I mean, I'm not perfect," said Ford.

“I made a mistake. I'm only human. I don't know what more to say. I sincerely apologize.”

"I feel terrible about it. My wife and I had a little bit too much to drink . . . I made a mistake that will never happen again.”

Doug Ford said he knew nothing about it.

In 1999, Rob Ford was pulled over and busted for DUI and possession of marijuana in Florida. He copped to one charge, paid a fine, and did 50 hours community service with his football team in Canada. 
Asked about it during his 2010 run for mayor, Ford denied it : 

"No to answer your question," Ford said.
"I'm dead serious. When I say no, I mean never. No question, now I'm getting offended. No means no."

When presented with the arrest details, Ford explained : 

"The reason I forgot about the marijuana charge ... is because that same evening, I was charged with failing to give a breath sample," he told reporters.

... although court documents and an affidavit from the Miami-Dade police officer who made the arrest show Mr. Ford was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.  

"I'm not perfect," Rob said. "I owned up to my mistake."

Again, Doug Ford said he knew nothing about it.

On Tuesday, Doug Ford was aggressively calling for Toronto Police Chief Blair to step down for doing his job. 
Hours later Rob Ford wandered out alone into a scrum of reporters and announced, after months of denial, that he had smoked crack cocaine due to being drunk. 
Doug, who had been unable to reach Rob by phone all morning, characterized Rob's crack confession as the worst day of his own life. The two of them later held a presser in which Rob read out an apology for his crack-smoking to Toronto ... and to Doug, who he was at pains to state knew nothing about it.

It's been their standard MO for years but it isn't working for Rob. 

Edward Keenan : Doug Ford. Worst. Brother. Ever.
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10am Update : And a new Rob Ford video surfaces. Lovely.
So who is so close to Ford he's actually present to record him saying :

"Cause I'm going to kill that f**king guy. I'm telling you it's first-degree murder .....  I will, f**k, when he's dead, you help make sure that motherf**ker's dead. I need 10 minutes to make sure he's dead."

but would then release sell it to the media? Ford must be able to tell from the dining room angle who shot it.
There's no date to it ... maybe it's a response to that WWE wrestler Iron Sheik challenging him to fight?
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Noon update : Sooey Says : Schadenfreude, eh? No, Mr. Minister of Whatever, we’re way past schadenfreude ... 

Kathy and Rob's mom do a bizarre tv interview today, blowing off any suggestion of rehab for Rob and demonstrating for 20 minutes what privileged enabling really looks like.
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10pm Update : Remember this guy, Scott MacIntyre, Kathy's ex?  He broke into Rob Ford's house 18 months ago demanding money owed to him and threatening to expose the Fords to the media if they didn't pay up. He was jailed for possession, turned up in court with a broken leg from a jailhouse beating and pled guilty, ensuring no further related evidence would be released. 
Tonight in the Toronto Sun : 

"A former common-law spouse of Kathy Ford who vowed to expose the Ford family to the media was savagely beaten in jail because he was a “bother” to the mayor, a judge told his sentencing hearing.

At the sentencing hearing, both Fords generously urged leniency and freedom for MacIntyre."

The news report doesn't mention whether Rob Ford's surprise night visit to the jail in March demanding to see a different prisoner is related to MacIntyre's beating.
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CBC The Fifth Estate : The Rob Ford Story
 New - interviews with Rob Ford crack video broker Mohamed Farah
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Rednecks, Lies, and Videotape

With his unofficial driver Sandro Lisi busted for trafficking and extortion, Rob Ford advised his talk radio bunker listeners on the weekend that he would get himself an official chauffeur. 

That's great and all but according to the Toronto Police Oct 2 ITO, when the two of them were not popping in and out of gas station restrooms from their separate vehicles, it was sometimes Rob Ford who was driving Lisi around so I'm guessing the actual driving is not the main problem here.

Montreal Simon and Haroon Siddiqui point out the similarities between Harper and Ford today, to which I would add two more :

• Both of them have overcome their privileged backgrounds to fashion themselves as populist outsiders fighting the elites on behalf of the Con base and FordNation, and
• Neither of them give a shit what you think about that.

Photo with Ford quote from G&M media reporter Steve Ladurantaye via CC
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Ford timeline graphic with map and bios from NaPo
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Well at least now we know ...

... why there are so many photos of Rob Ford squinting up at the sky :

Ford himself has been the target of a police investigation that witnessed and photographed him in months of on-the-ground and airplane surveillance ...

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Rob Ford and friends

Oh that's so unfair of me -it's a couple of years old. Ok, here they are again after another fishing trip last year.

But it was this pic of Steve showing up to do a Toronto subway funding presser with Ford last month that had me convinced the Ford crack video was gone forever. Well, that and the fact people in and around that vid were getting shot and arrested or beaten up with pipes.

Why would Steve risk being associated with him?


The Star Today : Police have the video that appears to show mayor smoking crack, Blair says

“I have no reason to resign,” Ford says. Ford friend Alexander Sandro Lisi charged with extortion related to the video, police chief says

"It's safe to say the mayor does appear in the video,” Blair told reporters.

Blair said he has seen the video. His reaction? “As a citizen of the city, I am disappointed.”

In the 44 days, Lisi and Ford had 349 “points of telephone contact,” the documents said.   

Ford helped Lisi escape police surveillance at least once, letting his friend sneak into City Hall’s underground employee parking lot, according to allegations in the police’s ITO.  On Wednesday, July 24, a detective sergeant with the force’s mobile support unit followed Lisi as he weaved his way through side streets near the Westway.  Lisi “was followed to the downtown core where he began to circle the area of Bay Street and Queen Street West, executing U-turns on several occasions,” the police said.  Lisi eventually dipped into the underground lot at City Hall.   Ford, waiting at the entrance, “swiped him into the controlled access area,” the police said. 

Earlier versions of the story said police obtained the vid from deleted files on a hard drive obtained in their Dixon Road sweep back in June. Recent versions now say Oct. 29.

Sun News, whose coverage of the Ford crack vid has run mostly to complaining that the Star has it in for Ford and how any idiot could have faked the vid, was still running with that slant up til an hour ago when they suddenly broke off mid rant about the media and went with :

A special afternoon 28-page edition jam-packed with startling revelations about the alleged video showing Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. 

free of charge at select downtown locations.

The Star broke the original story and the Sun excoriated them for it week after week. Now the Sun are trying to horn in on their revenue from it. 
Wankers.

Well done, Star reporters
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