Someone Tell Don

Gee now maybe the CBC will dis' him too.

Ezra Levant Disowned By The Sun

See:

Ezra Says Gay Bashers Are Muslims

Don Newmans No Spin Zone

Western Standard RIP

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Western Slander On Arar

Well I guess we won't be getting an apology from Ezra and the gang over their slanders against Mahar Arar and his family. The slagging and smearing continues in the ignoble press of the right in Canada. The tinfoil hat brigade is in denial. Talk about consipiracy theories the author of this little missive and the follow up commentators actually believe a Judge who spent two years in a public inquiry doesn't have all the facts. I guess they do...the ones they make up to continue slander Arar and his family.

That said, there is still at least one very large question O'Connor et al have not answered, for the simple reason that it is one those of us south of the 49th must address.

When we had Arar in custody, with the information (whatever its value) given to us by the Mounties, we could have sent to him to Guantanamo Bay, a slew of other military bases, or some holding facilities run by intelligence agencies in Europe.

Posted by D.J. McGuire on September 19, 2006 in Canadian Politics,

See

Arar

Ezra Levant



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Ezra, Levant, Western, Standard, Muslim, Alberta,

Lies of Our Times

Ezra LeRant and the Big Lie

Colour of conflict-Rule of law separates Israel from Palestinians-By Ezra Levant -- Calgary Sun, Mon, July 18, 2005

How did I miss this hmm, must have been overwhelmed with the historical revisionism being spouted off in the Calgary Sun by that other right wing columnist; Dink Byfield.

And low and behold here is another case of historical revisionism, the big lie of Zionism being blathered about by LeRant. It's the lie we all grew up with after the 1948 annexation and occupation of Palestine. That the Arab section was a desert and the Zionists brought agriculture, irrigation and productivity to the land.

What they did was actually take over olive groves and orange groves that has been the source of Palistines wealth for hundreds of years. Agriculture in Palestine 1948

Learning their lessons from Goebbels the Zionists created the 'big lie' to justify their 'Anschluss' of Palestine from the British protectorate because they needed 'Lebensraum'. And this 'big lie' is repeated again in LeRant's cloumn.

'Most of Israel is a desert. But half of Israel is lush green. It wasn't always this way. When Zionists a century ago set about building modern Israel, they had to build irrigation projects. Millions of trees were planted. Now Israel is a large agricultural exporter; in the words of its former prime minister, David Ben Gurion, the desert was made to bloom. But the land is only green in the Jewish areas of the country; Arab villages, especially those areas under control of the Palestinian Authority, are brown and dead. It is possible to spot the border between Israel and Lebanon or Syria by looking to see where the green ends and the brown begins. It's the reason why the pre-1967 border between Israel and Jordan was known as the Green Line. Why is this? Many explanations, no doubt -- the Zionist ideology was rooted in the land. The Jews invested in developing irrigation and other agricultural technology. But the real reason is the same reason why Israel is a success and Arab nations -- and the would-be nation of Arab Palestine -- are failures. '

Gee, LeRant what could that be?

"The Arab world doesn't have rule of law, while the Jewish state does.".

Gee Ezra would that be Talamudic law? Since Isreal is a religious state. And gee Ezra thats a broad brush stroke to paint all Arabs with, including peoples of the Middle East who are not Jews but are also not Arabs.

Some are Muslims so they adhere to Muslim Shira law. Some are Christians and they abide by the Old and New Testament laws, some rooted in Judaism. Some are communists, and they follow the Labour Theory of Value, a law of economics. Some have gone to Oxford and Harvard and follow common law of English origin. Some follow Napoleanic Law. Some are Druze and have their own community laws they have followed for centuries.

Nope not to racist zionist Ezra, the "Arabs" are all primitive lawless peoples, despite many of them being of the same semitic root cultures as the Jews.

Some of the Palestinians are not even Arabs, just as Kurds are not Arabs, but with the broad racist brush of the Zionist apologists like LeRant, they all get lumped together.

There is a simple reason, to deny the real history of the Zionist State in Isreal.

That it was founded by Zionist terrorists who so terrified the British and the UN that they succumbed to them, allowing them territory in Palestine.

The Zionist state and its military machine then spent twenty years pushing the Palestinian and Isreali Arab community out. As they are doing today destroying Palestinatian villages, olive groves and orange groves, in order to build their new Berlin Wall, err security wall.

Irrigation was not a Zionist invention, contrary to LeRant, it was adapted by them for use in Palestine. Until then irrigation was based on artisian wells and troughing used by the Palistinians. The introduction of large scale irrigation coincided with the development of capitalist agribusiness, that is large scale farming for export. While the Palestinians were farming on a village basis.

The types of agriculture which take place in Palestine are annual and seasonal agricultures such as grains and vegetables, or lasting agricultures such as fruitful trees. Grain plantation was flourished in Marj ben Amer, Gaza Plain, Bier Sheba and some of the inside plains; and vegetable plantation was flourished in the coastal plain around Java and Ramlah and in the Jordan Valley. The most important kind of fruitful trees is the citrus trees which were planted by modern manner of plantation. At the beginning, only the Arabs planted this kind of trees which increased in the period between 1895 and 1915; the Planted area increased from (6.600) donums to (30.000) donums, and the production increased from (18.199) tons to (64.000) tons. Citrus trees concentrated in the coastal plain between Haifa and Gaza and in the Jordan River. The Java orange is one of the best kinds of the Palestinian orange due to the thickness of its peal, its nice aroma and to its relative freedom from seeds. This kind of orange was being exported to Damascus, East of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, England and France. The exported orange in the years 1913/1914 reached about (1.553.861) boxes. Agriculture in Palestine during the British Mandate

Until the Isreali invasion of 1967 both Palestinian and Isreali agriculture were on par. It was the direct result of the annexation and occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank by the Zionist State that destroyed their economic competitors. The destruction continues today with occupation troops, settlers , and Sharon's Berlin Wall being built through the agricultural lands of the Palestinians.

So congratulations for repeating the 'Big Lie' of Zionism and embellishing it with a racist generaliztion of the non-Zionist people of the middle east. You win the Goebbels award for journalism.

Impacts of Water and Export Market Restrictions on Palestinian Agriculture
Agriculture remains a dominant sector of the Palestinian economy. It represents a major component of the economy’s GDP, and employs a large fraction of the population. Furthermore, the agricultural sector is a major earner of foreign exchange and supplies the basic needs of the majority of the local population. In times of difficulty, the agricultural sector has acted as a buffer that absorbs large scores of unemployed people who lost their jobs in Israel or other local sectors of the economy. Palestinian agriculture is constrained by available land and water, as well as access to markets. These constraints have been the object of political conflict, as Israeli authorities have limited available land, water and markets.

In 1967, Palestinian agricultural production was almost identical to Israel's: tomatoes, cucumbers and melons were roughly half of Israel's crop; plums and grape production were equal to Israel's; and Palestinian production of olives, dates and almonds was higher. At that time, the West Bank exported 80% of the entire vegetable crop it produced, and 45% of total fruit production (Hazboun, S., 1986).

The agricultural sector was hit hard after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thereafter the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Palestinian Occupied Territories declined. Between 1968/1970 and 1983/1985 the percentage of agricultural contribution to the overall GDP in the West Bank fell from 37.4-53.5% to 18.5-25.4% (UNCTAD, 1990). The labour force employed in this sector has also declined. Between 1969 and 1985, the agricultural labour force, as a percentage of the total labour force, fell from 46 to 27.4% (Kahan, D., 1987).

Don Newmans No Spin Zone

CBC Politics with Don Newman has a new ad on TV. Suddenly the show has become CBC's version of Bill O'Riley and Fox News with this ad quip; "I'm Don Newman, the spin stops here".

Politics with Don Newman taps into the decision makers.
Don brings you the inside look into what is happening in politics: Federally, provincially and the world.
The spin stops here.

Whoa big fellow that ain't quite truth in advertising. After all even though his business crashed and he is no longer publishing Western Standard, Don still had this guy on last week to talk about Alberta. And he is nothing if not right wing spin.

Of course as I have pointed out before this shows the CBC has given up its apparent "left wing bias" and is now cuddling up to the Conservative right in Canada. Despite right wing assertions to the contrary.

(Fox News Channel is a rare exception, and by no shear coincidence, is where the phrase “the spin stops here” came from before being stolen from Bill O’Reilly’s “O’Reilly Factor” by the state-run CBC).

SEE:

Ezra Levant Does Not Speak For Me

Conservative Broadcasting Corporation?

Contracting -out Broadcasting Corporation

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Conservatives Bash Canada

By and large Canada Day was slagged from the Right in a demagogic hatred not seen since the debates during the Viet Nam war in the American press. And at that time the Right in the U.S. responded with the simplistic 'Love It or Leave It'.

It seems approriate then to adopt this slogan and apply it to the current crop of virulent Canada bashing right wingers in Canada; those who are columnists in the mainstream, read right-wing, press especially the Sun newpapers and the National Post. The irony is that they get paid for their calumny. America is soooo much better than Canada, but their paycheques are made in Canada, and their health care and social benefits they despise are still delivered to them regardless of their opinions.

Canada basher Ezra Levant's Calgary Sun column; Canada Day looked like a Liberal campaign ad made his comment appropriately on July 4th, not July 1st. Showing his Canadaphobia is merely good old Americaphilia it comes down to the simplistic arguement that goes Canada=The Liberal Party.

Levant whose an out and out Republican like his other Calgary pals Anders and Kenney, wants not only deep intergration with the United States but would like to be American. He even goes so far in his All Things American are good by calling his national publication the Western Standard after the American Conservative magazine the Weekly Standard.

Typical of the right wing in Canada who once upon a time opposed the Liberals under Trudeau they embraced being Anglophiles, all that was British was good.
Levant hearkens back to this time honoured tradition of being an apologist for the good old days of British colonialism (the specious arguement being that
Canada would not be a country if the Brits had not defeated the French and that they 'allowed' us independence under the Act of Westminister) .

In his column he says: "Once upon a time, Canada Day -- when it was called Dominion Day, when we had our old flag, not Lester Pearson's new flag, in Liberal colours -- celebrated what really did make our country great".

It's not just the old union jack or the red ensign that Levant embraces but that other fine Anglo American tradtion; child labour, that so offended Charles Dickens.Decisions on young workers and sour gas deserve cheers

Like the vast majority of Alberta right wingers, Ezra is an Anglo-American apologist by ideology (he was an intern at the Fraser Insitute the voice of the neo-conservative agenda in Canada) while being a Canadian by the accident of birth. He and his ilk's final solution, to what he sees as a degenerate left wing Canada, is to call for Alberta to Seperate from the rest of Canada. Forgetting of course that this American identity is strictly a Calgary phenomena, being the largest American city north of the 49th parallel. Those of us in Redmonton would then demand the right to Seperate from a Seperate Alberta, which true to form would continue on its right wing path of being a one party state in the tradition of Mussolini and Stalin.

Meanwhile not to be outdone, in the city of Toronto another Sun columnist Michael Coren, a born again papist, Anglophile and proud homophobe, denounces Canada in his column: Canada Day? Bah, Humbug!
where he says: "The notion that this is the greatest country on Earth and that our cities are "world class" is, frankly, quite ludicrous. We have little history, few passable museums, mediocre galleries and minimal national pride".

Well there's a case of the pot calling the kettle black, hard to have national pride when those in your nation, the so called patriots continue to bash it in favour of the good old days of British Colonialism or by embracing modern era American Imperialism. Our neo-cons ideology is a mix of bad old Socreds and sad sack Republicans.

And like Levant that is what Coren says; Brits and Americans good Canadians bad: "That's not difficult, of course. We make dreadful television and movies, whether they are funny or not. There are diluted versions of American and British programs and politically tendentious films that are instantly identifiable. They're characterized by bad acting and unfailingly lugubrious plots that often include a hackneyed and out-of-context gay relationship.".

The fact that we make very good TV and have long supplied the humourless Americans with their funniest comedians, since the early days of Hollywood to Saturday Night Live, seems lost on Coren. And with his predicatable homophobia, he dismisses Kids in the Hall was a funny series in both Canada and the United States. But hey why worry about facts when you are bashing Canada and gays in one breathe.

The columnists are not alone in their hatred of Canada, as I pointed out in a recent blog comment on Medicine Hat MP Monte Solberg who expressed much the same senitiments after the same sex bill passed.

Jim Elves at Blogs Canada exposes the rants of the right wing Canada Bashers in blog space with his blog article Calling on the Right to Quash Canada-haters .

Like their paid brethern in Canada's right wing press these supporters of all things Conservative, once again come up with the solution to their woes is to take Alberta out of Canada. They love the one party state in Alberta but hate the one party State in Ottawa, which is actually now a minority government something Albertans have never tried.

What they hate is not a country, not a government in Ottawa, hell when Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives were in power they hated them as well.
Nope they hate Canadians, they want to be Americans.

We Canadians are basically a peoples who embrace a social democratic ethic, that we support individual rights when they are not only good for the individual but for the good of the community as well. The right wing is opposed to all that makes us Canadian.

Thus they oppose gun control in principle, despite the fact that the majority of Canadians approve of gun control and despite the fact it works according to Stats Canada; Gun deaths down in Canada.

And they fail to see that the Federal government billion dollar boondoogle over the gun registry is because it embraced the neo-conservative ideology of privatization and private public partnerships, and because they did not expect the provinces like Alberta, not to buy in (ok that was stupid, but the point is that cost all of us part of the billion).

These yahoos on the right in Alberta have a history that is ridden with anti-french, anti-semitic, anti-native, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-union traditions. A right wing based in the old Social Credit party and the KKK in Alberta.

Federally they became Preston Mannings Reform Party/Alliance/Conservative Party, they are Albertans first, Canadians second. Which much to their own chagrin puts them in the same camp as the Quebecois, whom they bash out of jealousy for their asymetrical autonomy.

This then is the politics of the right in Canada as embraced by the Levants and Corens, and by the Reform/Alliance/Conservative party of Harper. Simply put they are not just pro-American, but virulently anti-Canadian and anti- Quebec because we are both Social Democratic countries.

As long as the majority of Canadians and Quebecois embrace the politics of the left by voting for the NDP, Liberals and BQ, the Conservatives will remain a regional party of Alberta. Ralphs party on the federal stage. A party that wanted to create a firewall around Calgary but disguised their aristotilian city state aspirations for an American outpost in the heartland of Canada's energy market by calling for annexation of the entire province.

Albertan's who are conservative never think of themselves as Canadians, to do so would mean we would have to share our wealth with the rest of the country, rather than horde it in a mean spirited way. The Alberta Government and its Federal arm; the Conservative pary, want deep integration with the United States, hence their support for the right wing rump that calls for seperation.

Since the right wing is so concerned with democracy and applauded the American invasion of Iraq to bring down a dictatorship and give the people a democracy perhaps they will applaud if the Federal government did the same thing in Alberta to secure the oil reserves for all Canadians, and to bring democracy to the oppressed and exploited peoples of Alberta. But somehow I don't think so.

Once upon a time the conspiratorial right wing published a manifesto of the new right in America it was entitled "None Dare Call It Treason". The new right in Alberta has supped deeply at the cup of this kind of politics and encourage if not call for Alberta seperation outright. But I dare to call it what it is; Sedition and treason agianst all that is Canadian, and the rantings of Levant, Coren, Solberg and the bloggers continues to prove this time after time.

Western Slander

So the news is that Western Slander editor publisher Ezra LeRant has sent a begging letter via email asking subscribers to help bail out the magazine due to the economic crunch it is facing because advertisers and distributors are pulling out. Now why would that be do ya think? See here. Simon Pole asks; Western Standard Cash Crunch?

Well that never mattered to the Alberta Report, in fact they thrived on controversy it got them more subscribers. Which was always a matter of using that good old fashioned ad rag technique of cold calling subscribers and brow beating them to take out a sub.

Now that is how many an ad rag, you call them the Alternative weeklies in your city, or the niche press, or whatever, they are those free rags you see which are 80% ads and 20% content. Well that's how the business is done.

And Alberta Report did it by dropping copies in dentist and doctors offices, free of charge, just cold mailing free subs to them and so could prop up their publication numbers. Then they had the call centres doing cold calls for subs.

And despite three bankruptcies, one bail out by the Alberta Venture Capital Fund (yep you and me taxpayer) they still collapsed but that was after a record thirty years in business. A lot of ad rags collapse well before that. Though in Alberta the Report was not alone in its longevity, many of Moser Communications publications have lasted that long including his Native News.

I don't think this hail Mary pass by Lerant to save the Slander when Air Canada has dropped the mag, which is the Slanders version of the doctors and dentists office, will amount to much. The Slander is too young to lose distribution and ad business so early in its short publishing existence. Subscribers do not make up the shortfall never did never will, they are actually an ongoing expense. You need a call centre team doing both advertisers and subscribers, and ads bring in more money.

And for the heat he has brought on himself and his rag, well more folks will shy away with advertising, which is the real source of $$$$$$ that these kinds of rags survive on. Without which the publisher/editor doesn't get paid. So Ezra really is begging for his job. Delicious. And no amount of subscribers can keep the Slander afloat it didn't work for Alberta Report it won't for Ezra.

Also see

Standard Western Racism

The World According to Adam

Conservative Conundrum

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God bless Alberta

Taking a tact used by Stephen Harper this is how Farmer Ed ended his TV broadcast last night with this little homilie; And God bless Alberta. Hoping to appeal to Ted Morton's supporters I suppose. Since we are an oil state he should have been more inclusive and also said Allah bless Alberta, heck even Yod Heh Vau Heh bless Alberta as a sop to Ezra and his pals. All these are just another way of saying God. Whoever she is.

On the other hand the God of Capitalism is Mammon, and considering Ed is the servant of Big Oil perhaps that's whom was referring to.




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Idiot Provacatuer Redux

I posted a teaser, a portion of my article Idiot Provacatuer about Ezra LeRant and his Western Slander running the Mohammed cartoons on Vive le Canada, and what a firestorm of comments it generated you can read them here.




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Where is the Conservative Platform?

Well the Liberals and NDP released their campaign platforms complete with costing today. Where is the Conservative platform? Nowhere, nada, non-existant. Making it up as they go along. So that every time someone challenges them like say the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, they can say;

Conservative finance critic Monte Solberg said the report card was unfair because his party hasn't yet released all of its election promises. "It's hard to make a judgement, to say somebody's plan is poor if they don't have all the facts," Solberg said."Still, I won't lose any sleep over it."

Hmm talk about arrogance. Certainly a trait not limited to the Liberals.

Conservative hack Ezra Levant and his publication the Western Standard released the Liberal budget hours before the party did. Monte commenting on the leaked document said. "The Liberals are making it up as they go along,". Well hours later we have the Liberals document and no Conservative platform any where in sight.

The MSM and the Blogging Torys are cheering that Ezra got a scoop, Its not much of a scoop when its released hours later. The real scoop would have been if he had leaked the Conservative platform which he does have access to.


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Shandro hearing : Doctors testify about tense exchanges with Alberta's then-health minister

Story by Jonny Wakefield •  Edmonton Journal

Evening was approaching when Dr. Mukarram Zaidi’s teenage sons stopped their basketball game in the front of the family’s Calgary home and told their father someone outside wished to speak with him.


Justice Minister Tyler Shandro.

Zaidi slipped on a jacket and a pair of slippers and found Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro on the sidewalk at the end of the driveway.

“He was crying, emotionally charged, his wife was holding him,” Zaidi testified Tuesday during the first day of Shandro’s Law Society of Alberta conduct hearing. “He said, ‘You can’t do this to us, we’re getting death threats.’”

“I said, ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘Your post. You need to delete your post.’”

Attendees at the tribunal hearing were treated to the unprecedented sight of Alberta’s sitting justice minister facing formal sanction from the province’s legal regulator.

The hearing, which is taking place over Zoom, will determine whether Shandro’s interactions with doctors and members of the public during two months of his stint as health minister violated the code of conduct governing Alberta lawyers.

Related
Law Society of Alberta to hold hearing into Shandro's conduct

Shandro appointment during investigation puts law society in a no-win situation: experts

Shandro sat in a boardroom alongside his lawyer, who said Shandro was the focus of a “cyberbullying” campaign related to the UCP’s decision to end the government’s agreement with doctors. Grant Stapon argued the law society should not discipline his client for conduct he argues is unrelated to the fact Shandro is a lawyer.

Lawyers for the law society, on the other hand, said Shandro’s actions bring the profession into disrepute and discouraged members of the public from engaging in legitimate political debate.

Internet ‘meme’ at the heart of case

Shandro faces three misconduct citations under the Legal Profession Act related to incidents that occurred in February and March 2020.

In addition to confronting Zaidi, Shandro is accused of using Alberta Health Services records to access the private phone numbers of two physicians who were critical of him, as well as emailing — from his ministerial account — a member of the public who contacted Vital Partners, the health care brokerage Shandro owns with his wife.

During opening arguments, law society counsel Ken McEwan said the incidents took place against a backdrop of controversy following the Alberta government’s February 2020 decision to unilaterally end its 2012 master agreement with doctors , which governed pay schedules, codes and billing rules.

Around that time, observers began to comment on Shandro’s involvement with Vital Partners, which McEwan described as a brokerage that helps companies develop private health insurance benefit plans. McEwan said Andrea Shandro holds 50 per cent of the voting shares, with her husband controlling the remainder.

Related video: Alberta premier pressured justice minister's office on COVID charges: sources say (cbc.ca)   Duration 3:59   View on Watch

Tyler Shandro’s shares in the business are believed to be held in a blind trust, McEwan said, but added the law society has not been provided evidence of this.

Zaidi, a family doctor of Pakistani origin, is active in politics and met Shandro in 2018. Zaidi sat on the board of the United Conservative Party’s Calgary West constituency association — near Shandro’s Calgary-Acadia constituency — and lived in the same neighbourhood as Shandro and his family. Zaidi said the interaction made him nervous given the way political activists are frequently treated in his home country.

Wearing a red tie with a stethoscope around his shoulders, Zaidi testified that many doctors were upset about the state of primary health care in early 2020. On March 21, 2020, — days after Alberta declared its COVID-19 public health emergency — Zaidi posted a meme on his social media pages which drew attention to what he described as a conflict of interest involving Vital Partners.

The meme includes a photo of Shandro with a cartoon thought bubble, “So every Albertan that I can kick off health care is another client we can sign up for Vital Partners! We’re going to be RICH!”


Dr. Mukarram Zaidi in his medical clinic in Calgary on Nov. 23, 2021.

Zaidi said he regularly takes strong political stances but was nonetheless “intimidated” when Shandro, his “ultimate boss,” showed up at his home. Zaidi said Andrea Shandro made a comment about how “he (Zaidi) doesn’t care about us, he just wants his money.” The encounter ended after Zaidi went inside and deleted the post, replacing it with a conciliatory message urging people not to threaten the minister and his family.

While claiming he wanted to keep the incident “low-key,” Zaidi discussed what happened a week later after being contacted by a CBC journalist. After the news broke, Premier Jason Kenney faced calls to remove Shandro as minister of health. Kenney resisted, framing the incident as someone defending a spouse who was “being attacked and even threatened and certainly defamed.”

Zaidi accused Kenney of vilifying him, saying he never attacked or threatened Andrea Shandro and that he received death threats in the wake of the premier’s comments.

During a cagey cross-examination, Stapon said Zaidi posted the meme to embarrass the government and potentially leverage fee negotiations. He accused Zaidi of leaking news of the incident to CBC through “buddies” connected to the Alberta Medical Association, and of posting the meme despite an email from the AMA president urging members not to “cyberbully” elected officials and their families.

At one point, Stapon accused the AMA of engaging in a “political advocacy program … to discredit Mr. Shandro by any means possible.”

Stapon further argued Shandro took no steps to “kick” anyone off health care, and noted that Vital Partners does not deal in primary care but rather third-party benefits like dental, glasses and massage. He also disputed that Tyler Shandro had been crying when Zaidi encountered him outside his home.

Zaidi bristled at the questions, saying they were repetitive and urging law society lawyers to intervene. He stood by his claims and said he was unaware of the AMA email regarding cyberbullying until after he posted the meme.

Minister made sexual harassment claim against medical association official: doctor

The tribunal also heard from Dr. Lauralee Dukeshire, a family doctor who relocated to Nanaimo, B.C., from Red Deer in 2021.

Dukeshire confronted Shandro and Kenney at a February 2020 funding announcement at Red Deer Regional Hospital, a few days after the province ended its agreement with the AMA. She accused the politicians of refusing to sit down with doctors and called Shandro a “liar and a cheat” as he left the hospital in an elevator.

The next day, Dukeshire received a voicemail from Shandro offering to speak with her. She said she never asked to be contacted and was concerned about how Shandro got her private, unlisted number.

After consulting with the AMA, however, Dukeshire called Shandro back. She said he was initially friendly but became “defensive” when pushed on the AMA agreement.

She said at one point, Shandro claimed an official at AMA, who he named but she did not identify, “had sexually harassed his staff.” Stapon said Shandro was “surprised” to hear the claim because he had only male staff members.

Shandro’s hearing is scheduled to run through Thursday.

Minister Tyler Shandro tells hearing his family was the target of threats, harassment

Story by Paige Parsons • 

Alberta's Minister of Justice Tyler Shandro told a hearing Wednesday that a tidal wave of harassment and threats against him and his family were "perpetuated" by members of the Alberta Medical Association.


Justice Minister Tyler Shandro is testifying at a Law Society of Alberta hearing in Edmonton. He faces three complaints of unprofessional conduct.© Mike Symington/CBC

The minister is in the midst of a conduct hearing before the Law Society of Alberta, where he faces three complaints of unprofessional conduct that date back to his dealings with doctors and a member of the public as health minister in 2020.

Tyler Shandro was called as his own witness and spent Wednesday afternoon being questioned by his lawyer Grant Stapon.

He said beginning in the fall of 2019 through spring 2020, decisions he'd made as health minister — such as changing drug coverage and ending a physician compensation agreement with the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) — were causing increased anxiety.

Threats escalate

He said his security advisor compiled between 900 and 1,000 pages of threats of violence, death and otherwise.

In spring 2020, he said threats directed at his wife Andrea Shandro began to flood in, including threats of physical and sexual violence.

At the time, Andrea Shandro's operation of Calgary company Vital Partners had become the subject of public scrutiny.

Among other services, Vital Partners brokers supplementary health insurance, including for some coverage delisted through legislative changes advanced by Shandro.

Ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler had said Shandro was not in a conflict of interest because he had transferred his shares in the company to a blind trust.

Testifying Wednesday, Shandro described the suggestion there was a conflict of interest as a "conspiracy theory."

He said the threats against his wife were causing a great amount of distress, and that at one point a man showed up at her office and told people he planned to attack her.

It is in this context, the minister said, that his wife received a message from Janice Fraser on March 20, 2020.

Tyler Shandro's response to Fraser is one of the three allegations of unprofessional conduct he faces.

Earlier on Wednesday, Fraser told the hearing she was familiar with his work as a lawyer.

She was once a supporter of Shandro but had lost confidence in him.

Lost respect

Global NewsAlberta premier under fire over allegation of political interference
2:14

Global NewsAlberta premier says government ‘making strides’ on healthcare despite lack of funding from feds
1:08

cbc.caAlberta's premier calls mistakes learning opportunities
3:48


Fraser, who said she has worked in constituency offices and who has had involvement with various political parties including the United Conservative Party, the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals and Green parties, got involved in supporting Tyler Shandro's nomination for the UCP in Calgary-Acadia.

"He was genuinely concerned about fairness," she said.

But Fraser said she believed, despite Trussler's ruling, that the Shandros' involvement in politics and ownership stake in Vital Partners was a conflict of interest.

She said she visited the company's website, and sent a message to Andrea Shandro through a feedback form, writing that she'd lost respect for her husband and that all Albertans would consider it a conflict of interest.

"We will not forget!" she wrote before signing off. She told the hearing she was referring to not forgetting when the next election came around.

Power imbalance

Fraser said within an hour, she received a response from Tyler Shandro in which he accused her of sending a threatening email and told her to direct any further messages to him.

"Email her again and it will be referred to protective services," he said.

Fraser said she believed the minister meant he would contact the police, and said it triggered her PTSD and that she was "petrified."

"There was an imbalance of power between myself and a minister," she said.

She said she felt like she needed to do something to respond as a measure of self-protection, so she replied to Shandro, looping in media, police, various politicians and others.

"If I had been actually threatening, [then] protocol would determine that this should go to the Alberta sergeant-at-arms for review and they should be contacting me, neither of you should be!" Fraser wrote.

"However, your response to me is more than threatening and I will be providing this to the appropriate authorities as per this email."

She added that the incident made her lose confidence in the justice system and in Shandro specifically.

"I think it's important that people realize I would never hire Tyler Shandro as a lawyer again, or have him represent me," she said.

Engaging with affected parties

During his testimony Wednesday, the minister said his wife had noticed Fraser's message because she said she knew him.

He said Fraser could have contacted him, and that he found her message "inherently threatening."

"I think she knew going to Andrea . . . would be interpreted as threatening to our family," he said.

The minister said he believes that his response to her was appropriate and told his lawyer he doesn't think he did anything wrong.

Shandro also answered questions about another of the complaints — that he'd called two central Alberta doctors on their personal cell phones after-hours. He said he didn't know the numbers were private and that he was under the impression that they wanted to speak with him.

"I think politicians are expected to engage people affected by government policy," Shandro said.

Both of those physicians, and a third doctor who says he was intimidated when Shandro showed up at his home to confront him about a meme, testified at the hearing on Tuesday.

The hearing will continue Thursday, when Shandro is expected to continue testifying. His wife is also expected to be called as a witness.

Shandro begins testimony in law society hearing; Calgary woman says she was 'petrified' when health minister responded to criticism of wife's company

As settings go, it was unremarkable — a cluttered conference table in an otherwise nondescript Alberta law office.


Tyler Shandro at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on Feb. 20, 2020, 

when he was health minister.

Story by Jonny Wakefield •  Edmonton Journal

What was happening at that table, however, was remarkable, and likely without precedent — a sitting Alberta justice minister, answering questions about whether his behaviour brought the legal profession into disrepute.

Tyler Shandro began testimony Wednesday afternoon in his Law Society of Alberta tribunal hearing .

Shandro, who is currently serving as minister of justice, is accused of breaching the society’s code of conduct by contacting doctors and other members of the public in February and March 2020, when he was minister of health.

The incidents occurred around the time the Government of Alberta made the controversial decision to end its 2012 agreement with the Alberta Medical Association (AMA).

Shandro described what he called an “extreme” response from the AMA to the move. He said the AMA’s advocacy at times “became very personal” and led him to take action, both to engage with upset doctors and protect his family from what he considered a campaign of harassment.

During direct examination by lawyer Grant Stapon, Shandro said one board member of the AMA “had created the idea that I had killed a physician.”

“Had killed a physician, you personally?” Stapon replied.

Shandro added there were 1,000 pages of threats against himself and his family in his security adviser’s file, describing one incident in which a man allegedly visited his wife’s office and threatened to attack her.

Minister responded to comment on wife’s company website

The actions under scrutiny include Shandro’s decision to confront Dr. Mukarram Zaidi outside his home over a social media post, reaching out to two Red Deer doctors on their private cellphones, and contacting a member of the public who emailed his wife to criticize what she believed to be a conflict of interest

Janice Fraser testified Wednesday she was concerned about Vital Partners Inc., a third-party health-care benefits brokerage co-founded by Andrea Shandro.

On March 20, 2020 — days after Alberta declared its COVID state of public health emergency — Fraser used a comment form on the Vital Partners website to contact the company.

“Dear Andrea,” she wrote. “You and your husband Tyler Shandro (who I used to have a tremendous amount of personal and professional respect for up until 2020) are considered to be in a conflict of interest by Albertans. We will not forget! Sincerely Janice Fraser.”

Tyler Shandro soon responded from his government email address.

“Janice,” he wrote. “Sending threatening emails to my wife is completely inappropriate and must stop. If you want to believe lies about her on social media, that’s up to you. But you can send your threatening emails to this office and this office only. Email her again and it will be referred to protective services.”

Fraser said she was “petrified” by the “threat” to call protective services because she has PTSD related to previous dealings with the justice system as a victim. She previously worked in constituency offices and has held memberships in parties including the Liberals, the Greens, the Progressive Conservatives and the UCP. Prior to the 2020 email, she respected Shandro from his time on the Criminal Injuries Review Board, and for his pro-bono work related to the Calgary ring road.

At that time, however, she was frightened and decided to go to the media to protect herself.

“I’m just a nobody really, but the minister of health had time, within an hour, to respond to me, in a pandemic,” Fraser said. “It was pretty scary.”

‘I wasn’t harassing’

Alberta’s ethics commissioner previously said Shandro’s involvement in Vital Partners did not require an investigation because his shares are in a blind trust.

Andrea Shandro later responded to Fraser to explain Vital Partners’ role in the health-care system, but concluded by accusing her of spreading “misinformation” that had resulted “in hundreds of death threats to me, my employees, my children and my husband.”

Tyler Shandro later addressed his interactions with the public in a tweet, saying he was “first and foremost a father and husband” protecting his family.

Fraser said she was taken aback by the response.

“I wasn’t harassing,” she said. “I sent a comment on a public website that invited comments. I take quite deep offence to the association of my comment with death threats.”

Fraser said her interactions with Shandro undermined her confidence in both him as a lawyer and in the legal system as a whole.

“I would never hire Tyler Shandro as a lawyer again or have him represent me in any way,” she said. “He has displayed a complete incapacity to separate personal, legal professionalism, and politics.”

During cross-examination by Shandro’s lawyer Stapon, Fraser pushed back on the suggestion that the “we will not forget” was anything other than a reference to the upcoming provincial election.

“You’d agree ‘we will not forget’ is ambiguous?” Stapon asked. “It could have a number of meanings?”

“None of them threatening,” she replied.

Fraser added that in her view, Shandro’s response to her message confirmed her suspicions about the alleged conflict of interest.

The tribunal also heard testimony from Victoria Lane, Alberta Health Service’s chief privacy officer, who then-CEO Verna Yiu tasked with determining whether AHS breached privacy laws when it provided Shandro with the personal phone numbers of Red Deer physicians Dr. John Julyan-Gudgeon and Dr. Lauralee Dukeshire.

Lane said AHS should not have provided the numbers, which came after Shandro asked AHS vice-president communications Colleen Turner for help identifying two people who confronted him at a funding announcement at Red Deer Regional Hospital.

Lane said AHS should have sought the doctors’ permission to share their contact information or provided publicly available details. “That was a failing as an organization,” she said.

She also revealed Ivan Bernardo, Shandro’s personal legal counsel at the time, had contacted her asking for the numbers to review her findings. Lane refused.

During cross examination, Stapon noted that AHS, not Shandro, was responsible for any privacy breach, suggesting he was simply being an attentive elected official reaching out to individuals who raised concerns.

Shandro’s testimony is expected to continue Thursday.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield

Premier pressured justice minister's office to get rid of COVID charges, sources say

Wed, January 25, 2023 

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith looks on as Justice Minister Tyler Shandro talks during a November announcement. Smith's contact with his office over COVID-related court cases has been called inappropriate by sources familiar with the matters. 

(Jason Franson/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pressured the attorney general and his office to intervene in COVID-related court cases, according to multiple sources familiar with the interactions.

Exchanges between the premier's office and Justice Minister Tyler Shandro's office over several months included what sources characterized as attempts to influence cases.

"I would classify it as inappropriate," one source close to the situation said. CBC News has agreed not to name them because of potential professional repercussions.

Smith would ask for updates on cases or inquire whether it would be possible to abandon them, they said.

This specifically included the prosecution of Artur Pawlowski, a pastor charged with two counts of criminal mischief and a charge under Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act related to the Coutts border blockade.

Another source with knowledge of the situation confirmed Smith committed to taking that case to Shandro with the intent to make the charges go away.

CBC News has agreed not to name the sources, as they were not authorized to discuss these matters and out of concern they could lose their jobs.

Communications appropriate: premier's office

The premier's office says Smith's public statements explained her exploration of legal options to grant amnesty for pandemic charges.

"After taking office, the Premier and her staff had several discussions with the Minister of Justice and Justice department public servants, requesting an explanation of what policy options were available for this purpose. After receiving detailed legal advice and recommendations from the Minister not to proceed with pursuing options for granting amnesty, the Premier followed that legal advice," the premier's office said in a statement.

"All communications between the Premier, her staff, the Minister of Justice and Ministry of Justice public servants have been appropriate and made through the proper channels."

In a subsequent statement Wednesday afternoon, Smith called for CBC to retract its story from last week in which sources said the premier's office had emailed Crown prosecutors about Coutts-related cases. She called that story "outrageous" and "defamatory," adding that CBC had not seen the emails in question.

Smith has said publicly she asked the attorney general and his deputy minister to consider whether COVID-related cases were in the public interest to pursue and whether there was a reasonable chance of conviction before proceeding.

However, sources confirmed some of these conversations went beyond those considerations and veered into pressure.

"They're constantly pushing," a source said, adding that the minister's office has been resisting.

"I would interpret that as pressure."

The justice minister's office denies the premier issued direction.

"While Premier Smith requested briefings and they were provided, at no point in time was there any direction provided to the Attorney General by the Premier or her office. The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service acts independently and at no time has any political decision affected ongoing prosecutions," Ethan Lecavalier-Kidney, the minister's press secretary, said in a statement.

Relationship under scrutiny

The relationship between the minister's office and the premier's office over the approach to COVID-related court cases has been subject of recent public scrutiny.

An interview between Ezra Levant, who runs the right-wing media company Rebel News, and Pawlowski suggests there were efforts behind the scenes to get the government to help make the pastor's charges disappear.

Last December, on the morning of what was supposed to be his trial on offences connected to breaching public health orders in Calgary, Pawlowski's charges were stayed.

"Do you think someone called [the prosecutor] off? Do you think some big boss phoned her up that morning and said 'Hey prosecutor, you're throwing in the towel'?" Levant asked Pawlowski in an interview posted to Rebel's website on Dec. 20.

Pawlowski — who goes to trial on the Coutts-related charges next Thursday — responded.

"We have been working in the background on the political level, trying to talk to the UCP government to call their dogs off because this is pure vendetta," he told Levant.

"Maybe someone smarter than the Minister Shandro said 'Hey, this is not in our interest to wage the war against the ministers and pastors.'"

Artur Pawlowski/Facebook

Pawlowski's lawyers declined to comment on Wednesday.

"As this is a live situation that could conceivably impact trial next week, we are not in a position to comment on this situation right now," said Sarah Miller in an email to CBC News.

Levant has been instrumental in fundraising for Pawlowski's legal fees and publicly campaigning to get the pastor's Coutts-related charges dropped ahead of his Feb. 2 trial.

Smith herself was on the receiving end of a pressure campaign involving Levant earlier in the fall.

In October, following an in-person meeting, Levant advocated for the premier to drop COVID-related charges. He outlined what he thought she should do in a lengthy email to Smith's office. Levant confirmed the contents of the email and the meeting with the premier.

"The Premier was interested in any information that I could provide her about the situation on the ground and the mechanisms available to her to provide leadership on these issues," reads part of the email, obtained by CBC News.

It argued why some charges should be stayed or withdrawn and why the attorney general should intervene — specifically mentioning Pawlowski in the correspondence. CBC News learned the email was then forwarded from the premier's office to Shandro's office.

REBEL MEDIA'S EZRA LEVANT

"I expect that with the proper guidance and direction from the Premier's office, the prosecutions related to the Coutts protest (the non-violent cases, without firearms), other anti-lockdown protests, or offences under the Public Health Act … can all be withdrawn, stayed or otherwise discontinued," it reads.

In response to a request for comment Wednesday, Levant posted the letter on his website.

"I'm very proud of that letter, and I stand by every word of it," said Levant.

He said he has been public in his calls for pressure to be put on the attorney general to withdraw charges connected to the pandemic.

"I have no idea what Smith did or didn't do with the letter I wrote to her."

CBC News recently reported, based on sources, that a staff member in the premier's office had emailed Crown prosecutors several times last fall about ongoing cases related to Coutts border blockade charges. CBC News has not viewed those emails.

The premier said she had no knowledge of the matters and launched an email search, which her office said yielded no evidence of email contact.

The government later added that deleted emails would only be retained for 30 days, which would reach back to Dec. 22.

Two weeks ago, Smith backed down from a promise to seek official pardons for COVID-19 health violators, saying premiers don't have that power.

The premier spent several days clarifying conflicting comments on her contact with Crown prosecutors about these cases. She initially stated she had talked directly to prosecutors before then saying she had only spoken with her justice minister.

Smith said she wanted prosecutors to consider the reasonable likelihood of conviction and public interest but also that COVID charges are unique.

Premier's office calls for apology, retraction of CBC story alleging contact with Crown prosecutors
Story by Matthew Black , Lisa Johnson • Edmonton Journal

Premier Danielle Smith

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is calling on CBC News to retract and apologize for a story that cites unnamed sources alleging her office emailed Crown prosecutors regarding the handling of cases tied to last year’s Coutts border blockade.

In a statement Wednesday, Smith’s office referred to CBC’s reporting in a story published Jan. 19 as “defamatory” and containing “baseless allegations.”

“The premier calls on the CBC to retract its outrageous story, and further, that the CBC and the Official Opposition apologize to the premier, premier’s office staff, Alberta Crown prosecutors and those in the Alberta public service for the damage caused to their reputations and that of Alberta’s justice system,” the statement reads.

Smith goes on to note the CBC has amended its story to clarify that it had not seen any emails between her office and prosecutors.

“The CBC’s allegations and insinuations to the contrary are, once again, baseless.”

According to its journalistic standards and practices , CBC’s stories are required to be based on “information we have verified” and use “first-hand, identifiable sources” whenever possible while acknowledging the need for anonymity in some cases.

“If we do not properly protect our confidential sources, potential sources will not trust us. This compromises our ability to expose abuses of power.”

Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs for CBC, said that the organization stands by its reporting, saying the allegations are attributed to “trusted sources.”

“As is our practice, we gave the premier and her office an opportunity to react and we included that response prominently in the story.”

Earlier Wednesday, CBC reported in another story that the premier pressured the province’s attorney general and his office to intervene in court cases related to COVID-19 and public health measures, citing multiple unnamed sources.

The latest report claims the cases included that of Artur Pawlowski, a pastor charged with criminal offences and violations under the Public Health Act.

In its statement, the premier’s office references her prior stated intent of seeking amnesty for those charged with non-violent, non-firearms offences related to the pandemic.

It further claims that Smith and her staff had “several discussions” with Justice Minister Tyler Shandro and ministry officials “requesting an explanation of what policy options were available for this purpose.”

“After receiving a detailed legal opinion from the minister to not proceed with pursuing options for granting amnesty, the premier followed that legal advice. All communications between the premier, her staff, the minister of justice and Ministry of Justice public servants have been appropriate and made through the proper channels,” it states.

IT review found no evidence of emails

The latest report follows the release of what Alberta Justice referred to as a “comprehensive” review of almost one million incoming, outgoing and deleted emails from approximately 900 government email accounts belonging to prosecutors, their staff and staff from the premier’s office.

The review found no emails between the premier’s office and what the government described as “relevant” prosecutors.

The department noted that it has “no ability” to search personal email accounts, although any message sent from a personal email to a government address would have been captured in the search.

While the government’s Monday news release said the review covered four months’ worth of emails, CBC’s latest report said the government later added that deleted emails would only be retained for 30 days, which would reach back to Dec. 22.

Smith has changed her story regarding interactions with prosecutors over the past weeks.

Late last year, Smith said she asks provincial Crown prosecutors on a regular basis to consider whether such charges are in the public interest and whether they are likely to see a conviction.

But, her office walked that claim back soon after, claiming Smith had only spoken with Shandro and deputy attorney general Frank Bosscha, asking them to examine their options on outstanding COVID-related cases.

During a prior radio broadcast, Smith went beyond that, saying she urged Shandro and his deputy attorney general to consider whether the cases were in the public interest and whether there was a reasonable chance of conviction before proceeding.

Smith’s shifting stories raise concerns: NDP

New Democrat MLA Rakhi Pancholi renewed the Opposition’s calls Wednesday for a full, independent investigation by a third party and for the premier to take questions from reporters in person.

Pancholi said too many questions about the premier’s conduct and the government’s IT review of emails remain unanswered.

“This is an unmitigated mess from the premier, and what she’s doing is continuing the chaos and undermining Albertans’ trust and confidence in the administration of justice,” said Pancholi.

In response to the premier’s suggestion the Official Opposition is using the CBC story to smear the reputations of the premier, her office staff, Crown prosecutors and the public service, Pancholi pointed to Smith’s own statements.

“It is the premier herself who has stated multiple times on the record that she has contacted prosecutors and the attorney general related to cases that are before the courts or that are currently being charged,” she said, adding individuals who claim to have knowledge of interference should be able to give evidence, and should not be forced to speak anonymously to media outlets and fear retaliation.

mblack@postmedia.com
lijohnson@postmedia.com

Edmonton Journal 
Wednesday's letters: Smith started interference controversy herself

Does our premier have no shame? How many times do Albertans have to be confronted yet again with the premier backing down and/or clarifying positions she has personally trumpeted because of the controversy unleashed due to their thoughtlessness, personal bias or perceived political interference?


Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks with media at McDougall Centre in Calgary on Tuesday, January 10, 2023.

The recent controversy over potential interference with prosecutorial processes was brought on by no one else than by the premier herself. Subsequent discourse had been maneuvered to look for possible emails to capture the culpable. Yet much overlooked in this drama is the common practice within government, especially when dealing with sensitive issues, to use phone calls or side conversations to deal with sticky business — no paper, no emails, no recordings.

These conversations in provincial government are not recorded, so public accountability is easily deniable. The premier uttered the words that sparked the controversy. Was she so full of herself and so keen with bravado that she states unequivocally her acting at a time when action was called for, only to renege when confronted with the consequences for taking ownership for such personal attribution? I am tired of being taken for a naïve Albertan.

Ken Crutchfield, St. Albert

The World According to Adam

The new generation Tory Turk Adam Daifallah has weighed in on the Conservatives scandal and crisis with this. Emerson / Fortier, the Energizer bunny story

Where he says this about his elders; I fail to see how anyone can make excuses for what happened. I was particularly surprised to see two rock-ribbed conservatives whom I respect greatly, Ted Morton and Ezra Levant, engaging in excuse-making for these incidents on TV yesterday and today. They appear to have bought into the "it's for the greater long-term good" argument, the line the Harper people are trying to sell.

But Adam is from Ottawa and these guys are from Calgary....as I said before with the Calgary Gang in power at last it's the politics of Alberta that are being played in Ottawa.



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An End to Colonial Assimilation?

With the Harper Governments announcement that it was abandoning forty years of colonial assimilation that was Liberal Indian policy of Trudeau and Chretien. This is one Liberal policy I am happy to see torn up. Could this be a new beginning for Canada's First Nations peoples?

Statement of the Government Of Canada On Indian Policy, 1969

Presented to the First Session of the Twenty-Eighth Parliament

by the Honorable Jean Chrétien, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

The Government believes that its policies must lead to the full, free and non-discriminatory participation of the Indian people in Canadian society. Such a goal requires a break with the past. It requires that the Indian people's roles of dependence be replaced by a role of equal status, opportunity and responsibility, a role they can share with all other Canadians.

The policies proposed recognize the simple reality that the separate legal status of Indians and the policies which have flowed from it have kept the Indian people apart from and behind other Canadians. The Indian people have not been full citizens of the communities and provinces in which they live and have not enjoyed the equality and benefits that such participation offers.

Ironically it is a policy that Harpers grey eminence Tom Flanagan of the Calgary School agrees with.

“Europeans are, in effect, a new immigrant wave, taking control of land just as earlier aboriginal settlers did. To differentiate the rights of earlier and later immigrants is a form of racism.”

So sayeth Tom Flanagan, Stephen Harper’s advisor and mentor, a political science professor who the Tory leader first met at the University of Calgary.

In order to become self-supporting
and get beyond the social pathologies
that are ruining their communities,
aboriginal people need to acquire the
skills and attitudes that bring success
in a liberal society, political democracy,
and market economy. Call it assimilation,
call it integration, call it
adaptation, call it whatever you want:
it has to happen.
Tom Flanagan, First Nations?
Second Thoughts, pp.195-196.

And Harpers announcement would be more credible if this wasn't happening;

- Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice replaced some of the country's most seasoned federal land-claim negotiators with hand-picked choices who have comparatively less experience - including his former law partner. Critics say the unusual political handling of the lucrative contracts is further proof that Conservative vows to shun patronage were hollow at best. It will also slow down complex land-claim talks as new negotiators climb steep learning curves, they say.

And while the Harpocrite Government practices realpolitik to avoid a showdown with First Nations peoples, their reactionary right-whing republican base uses this opportunity to attack the leadership of of those same first nations as unconstitutional.

According to a press release from the right-leaning Canadian Constitution Foundatiom, prominent legal experts agree with Chief Mountain and Nisibilada that the “third order” of government created by the Nisga’a Treaty violates Canada ’s constitution. Retired Supreme Court of Canada Justices William McIntyre and the late Willard Estey, retired B.C. Court of Appeal Justice D.M. Michael Goldie, former NDP Attorney-General Alex MacDonald, the late Mel Smith, Q.C. and former B.C. Attorney-General Geoff Plant have all stated publicly that parts of the Nisga’a Treaty are unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

Chief Mountain’s constitutional challenge has received funding from the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a registered charity with a mandate to promote and defend Canadians’ constitutional freedoms.

The foundation's website says it was founded in 2002 to explain to Canadians "the role of the Constitution in their daily lives, to teach them how to recognize infringements and abuse of the Constitution in the world around them, and to help them defend its principles from improper decisions or actions of governments, regulators, tribunals or special-interest groups."

The foundation, which believes the Constitution only recognizes two levels of government - federal and provincial - has a board of directors comprising some prominent conservatives.

Its board includes Ezra Levant, publisher of the Western Standard magazine, and William Johnston, a family physician in Vancouver and president of Canadian Physicians for Life.

Foundation executive director John Carpay, a former Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says the Nisga'a dissidents claim that the treaty "violates their constitutional rights as Canadians. It does so by creating a third order of government that is not accountable to either Ottawa or Victoria. "

One Step forward two steps back. Of course recognition of liberal human rights vs. collective rights is what this is all about. Whether Trudeau or Harper, both the Liberals and Conservatives see assimilation of first nations as an imperative, no matter what else they say. It's what they do that counts.

For over 100 years, aboriginal children, about 150,000 of them - Metis, Indian and Inuit, some only five years old - were yanked out of their homes and jammed into residential schools, some hundreds of miles from their families. They were not allowed to speak their native language, many died from tuberculosis and others suffered sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

In a shameful attempt to cover their butts, governments passed legislation that made it illegal to resist giving up these children, thus legalizing cultural assassination.
Given this history and the documented facts, it was heartening to see 270 MPs vote to apologize, but it was mostly symbolic since Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to issue an official apology. In fact, he sent Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice out to say such an act could be years away. There is a word for the government's action, it's "disgraceful."

There are still 80,000 natives alive to whom it applies.

The Harper government continues to stall on what is an abomination. It sits on its hands despite the fact the Chretien government admitted in 1998 that native students had been badly treated, and in 2005 a compensation offer of $2 billion was introduced for surviving students. But in the meantime, a sneaky band of Tories has decided that a special investigative commission will travel across Canada before any apology is issued. This is a stubborn, hard-hearted stance, and the prime minister should be ashamed of himself.

Canada's decision to withdraw support for the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples coincided with a visit to Ottawa by Prime Minister John Howard of Australia -- a country that strongly opposes the declaration.

Shortly after Mr. Howard's meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in May, 2006, Mr. Harper called Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice to tell him to review Canada's position of support, government sources said yesterday.

Although previous Liberal governments had difficulty with the declaration that had taken more than two decades to craft, by 2005 Canada was fully supportive and actively encouraging other countries to sign on.

But the United States and Australia remained staunchly opposed. And Mr. Harper walked away from his meeting with Mr. Howard believing the declaration would be problematic, the sources said.

"It was very much the Prime Minister [Harper] directing Prentice to relook at this thing," a source said.

Mr. Prentice has since said there are concerns that the declaration is unconstitutional, that it could prevent military activities on aboriginal land and that it could harm existing land deals.

SEE:

Mike Harris and State Terrorism

Tories Crush Whistleblower

Land claim

Alcoholism Is Colonialism

Bev Oda Minister of Aboriginal Affairs

Hewers of Wood

Cardston Home of Bigots

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