Why The Rush? Is Conservative Panic Driving So-Called "Scandals"?

For awhile I thought that it was Andrew Scheer... That he had convinced himself that if only he could lie loud enough and hard enough and often enough, he might topple the government and the CPC would let him stay and he could be PM... 

But then other pieces began to come together. Why do you suppose the CPC is engaged in a say-anything, do-anything hell-bent panic-stricken drive to get the Liberals out? Power, certainly. But they had power before... 

They didn't do nearly half of what they wanted to, and much of what they did has been reversed. Quite a bit of legislation has been overturned in constitutional challenges. 

A scorecard of the Harper government's wins and losses at the Supreme Court of CanadaIn one of starkest examples in Canadian history of two branches of government openly turning against one another, the red robed members Supreme Court of Canada have spent months systematically shooti…https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/scoc-harper-gov-scorecard-741324

Harper exhibited "charter activism", in opposition to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It can be justifiably stated that Harper hates the Charter. He hates it for a number of reasons, not the least is that it was created by a Trudeau. 

Harper's Charter Activism - Policy OptionsWhen it came to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Stephen Harper was often anything but an incrementalisthttps://policyoptions.irpp.org/2016/03/13/harpers-charter-activism/

He was so peeved by what he called "activist judges", one of many nods to American right wing jingoism, that he attempted to vilify the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. 
cbc.ca/news/politics/…

Now, why, you might ask, do I keep bringing up Stephen Harper? He was voted out as PM in 2015. He resigned his seat rather than sit in opposition to another Trudeau. It's because the CPC is still Stephen Harper's party. 

Jason Kenney and Scott Moe both have Harper on their provincial payrolls, directing their governments. And you can bet Scheer and whomever takes his place will have Harper on speed-dial looking for direction, advice, orders... 

Varcoe: Former PM Stephen Harper on Alberta's new economic recovery councilA 12-member panel, led by economist Jack Mintz, will be advising Premier Jason Kenney on issues surrounding the province's economic recoveryhttps://calgaryherald.com/business/varcoe-former-pm-stephen-harper-on-albertas-new-economic-recovery-council

cbc.ca/news/canada/sa…

Harper is still running the CPC. He may be relegated to being Oz, the man behind the curtain, but he is not done what he tried to do to Canada.

 He blames Canadian media for his defeat, which is amusing as US companies own almost all Canadian media. 

Former prime minister speaks about the liberal bias in Canadian mediaFormer Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Dennis Prager discussed the extreme media bias in Canada, making it more difficult for conservatives to get a foothold in Canadian politics.https://thepostmillennial.com/former-prime-minister-speaks-about-the-liberal-bias-in-canadian-media

And so, given that Harper is still very much in play, and even if he wasn't, his acolytes still occupy most CPC seats, one might wonder what has precipitated this full-on barrage of made-up scandals directed at the Liberal Party. 

Well, the amending formula for the constitution requires 2/3 of the provinces representing at least 50% of the population, and senate approval, to agree to re-open the constitution, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 
solon.org/Constitutions/….

Right now, the conservatives control Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. And Quebec has shifted right and are amenable. There's there 2/3 of provinces and 50% of the population. 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:…

But Saskatchewan has an election coming up in November 2020. If, on the outside chance, the good folks of Saskatchewan decide they want a change of government, the perfect constellation allowing a re-opening of the constitution is gone. 

It is, I grant you, a slim chance. But the CPC are not about to let this opportunity slip away without a huge ugly fight. 

If they can get all the stars aligned, they can eradicate the Charter and change the constitution, so that none of their legislation can ever be overturned in the courts again. They will have absolute power. 

This is an ambition talked about in conservative circles. They want to offload federal responsibilities onto the provinces, create a "small" federal government, And be free to pass whatever laws they please without interference. 

This is tantamount to completely rewriting what Canada is. People need to understand this. Without our constitution and charter as they stand now, many people will be vulnerable to having their rights stripped away. Universal health care would be in jeopardy. 

It could open the door to two-tiered health care, normalize for-profit education, introduce for-profit prisons, where the prison corporations can sue provinces or the feds if the supply of slave labour is not kept to a certain level. 

Capitalizing on Mass Incarceration: U.S. Growth in Private Prisons | The Sentencing ProjectThe War on Drugs and harsher sentencing policies, including mandatory minimum sentences, fueled a rapid expansion in the nation’s prison... Read More »https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/capitalizing-on-mass-incarceration-u-s-growth-in-private-prisons/

In short, if the CPC get what they want, if they can topple the Liberal government before they lose the necessary number of provinces to open the constitution and gut it, we are looking at becoming a clone of the US. 

Please remember that Harper hates Canada and everything we stand for. 

Text of Harper's speechhttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/text-of-harpers-speech/article1131985/

He would dearly love to see us Americanized, as would his proteges in the CPC. And the UCP (Kenney, looking straight at YOU). 

Fortunately, I believe Canadians have a lot more sense than to vote for the CPC. We should be seeing now, from what is going on in Alberta and Ontario, and Manitoba, and the rest of the conservative led provinces, that they are not acting in our best interests. 

The public good is not a concept they extol. They are in it for themselves and the corporations who reward them. How do you suppose CPC MPs got so rich under Harper? Not from their salaries as MPs, that's for darned sure. 

The whole lot of them need to be audited, and then tossed to the curb. They are not here for us. This is not your grandparents' conservative party. This is an offshoot of the US Republican Party. Do not be confused. 

They want to remake Canada and not for the better. This is why they are so desperate to get into power before provincial governments change hands. 

What If... (Liberal "Scandals" May Be CPC Inventions)

So, here's a "what if..." Bear with me. What if the CBC is rife with employees hired during the reign of the Harper appointed board who are in place to pursue character assassination of any PM who is not CPC?

What if the RCMP is rife with conservatives who are reluctant to investigate conservative shenanigans like Jason Kenney's leadership campaign? I mean, yeah, they go through the motions for the optics, but stall and hope public interest fades away...

What if the former ethics commissioner, Mary Dawson, is a Harper loyalist who turned a blind eye on Harper's ethical shortcomings but has suddenly become a vocal critic of PMJT despite the obviously unprofessional and unethical position it puts her in?

What if some civil servants have a side mandate to undermine PMJT and the Liberal government and take advantage of opportunities to plant landmines like the photo of PMJT with Aspar Jatwal in India? Or the photo with Joshua Boyle?

What if the CRA is rife with CPC loyalists who continue to not investigate offshore wealth? What if the legal branch of the civil service is rife with CPC loyalists who keep taking Indigenous children and vets to court to obstruct appropriate funding to make the Liberals look bad?

What if the Saudi arms deal and the secret China deal that Harper signed have kept the current government hogtied despite public sentiment that urges a different response to these governments?

What if Harper loaded the deck so that anyone who succeeded him would face a shitload of problems, even without his puppets, Scheer and Poilievre, and his lackeys in the media, Fife, etc, continually trying to undermine and topple the government? Phoenix, anyone?

I'm just speculating here. But, things Stephen Harper was known for were holding a grudge and planning for contingencies. It seems pretty clear he felt he should have been PM for life.

What would he stop at in efforts to make life as miserable as possible for anyone who defeated him? At least 24 secret orders-in-council. More than any other government, even wartime governments. What did he do?

Harper had a decade to make changes in the civil service. To make it reflect his vision to some degree. Potentially to make it hostile, or at least uncooperative, to his successor. I am just encouraging people to look beyond the narrow view we are getting from MSM and the CPC.

And if you can totally embrace all the conspiracy tales that have been coming at us from MSM and the CPC, why do you feel what I am speculating about is so absurd? Does it have to do with your own biases and beliefs?

Why is it easier to believe that the Liberals are paying back WE for them occasionally hiring members of PMJT's family for speaking engagements in the past than to believe that 10 years of Harper led to some fundamental changes in how the civil service behaves?

The Trudeau speaking fees were not even high in the scope of speaking fees. Definitely not lucrative enough to throw away masses of political capital for. Misjudgment of the optics, maybe, but there does not seem to be any substantive evidence of malfeasance or bad motives.

Pierre Poilievre attempted to churn up a scandal about renovations that had been planned for years by the NCC, suggesting Trudeau was building himself a palace with public money. Think about that. The CPC assumes people don't know how things work

.

They make stuff up and throw it out there, trying to find something that will stick. Think about the source. If they tried to feed the public a fantasy about a secret palace, shouldn't all the "scandals" they rant about be put under a microscope? Think critically.

Here is some background to what I have been speaking about with respect to Harper "stacking the deck":

The UCP IS a Crisis in Alberta

Wild fires and floods get people's attention. You can see them happening. And people act. But there are other threats that move along under the public radar. There's an announcement here and there, but it seems many people are not stringing them together... 

The UCP set up a War Room, ostensibly to counter foreign threats to Alberta's oil and gas sector. But what else are they doing? We see them on Twitter, shouting down criticism of the government. But what else are they doing? 

Also, let us not forget that the War Room is set up as a black box independent corporation, immune from freedom of information requests or public audit. So we can't know what they are doing with our $30M each year. 

Privacy and legal experts question war room’s FOIP exemption, raise privacy concernsCorporate laws mean the newly minted Canadian Energy Centre, which will be headquartered in Calgary, will require consent before collecting personal i...https://www.thestar.com/edmonton/2019/10/15/privacy-and-legal-experts-question-war-rooms-foip-exemption-raise-privacy-concerns.html

And whenever there is something Jason Kenney wants to remake to suit his philosophy, he creates a panel and fills it with like-minded people, folks he owes a favour to, and lets the panel know what the desired report will say. 

UCP gave 'non-partisan' MacKinnon panel chair speaking notes, op-ed advice, documents showGovernment staff had a hand in crafting a May 2019 speech and newspaper editorial for Janice MacKinnon, the chair of the Blue Ribbon Panel into Alberta’s Finances, according to internal emails.https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/ucp-gave-non-partisan-mackinnon-panel-chair-speaking-notes-op-ed-advice-documents-show-1.4790831

But, hey! A panel recommended this. After listening to the public. Even if what the public actually said is not necessarily reflected in the report. It gives Kenney the perception of arm's length rule. Cover to act on what he really wants to do without personal culpability. 

Then there's Bill 1, ostensibly created as a response to the rail-line blockades by the Wet'suwet'en, in effect they give the government the power to deem any public protest illegal and punishable by harsh penalties. 
ablawg.ca/2020/06/17/bil…

Bill 27, the Trespass Statutes (Protecting Law-Abiding Property Owners) Amendment, seems designed to kill several birds with one stone. First, it protects the agriculture industry from whistle-blowers when animals are being mistreated... 

New laws try to muzzle those who protest on behalf of animalsThe Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act hopes to stop animal advocates from exposing abuse and neglect on farms, transport trucks an...https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2019/12/04/new-laws-try-to-muzzle-those-who-protest-on-behalf-of-animals.html

It also protects those who run facilities where people are mistreated. 

Opinion: The pandemic has revealed the value of undercover work. Yet governments are making that illegalIn Alberta and Ontario, legislation has been passed that makes abject conditions in private spaces, from senior care to farms, even more difficult to exposehttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-pandemic-has-revealed-the-value-of-undercover-work-yet/

Second, it protects those who injure or kill a trespasser on their property from civil litigation. That the bill was retroactive to before the UCP were in power suggests it was designed to help one case for which Jason Kenney expressed sympathy and even donated money. 

This would be the case of Edouard Maurice, who shot a trespasser on his farm. 

UCP proposes more protections for rural property ownershttps://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/ucp-proposes-more-protections-for-rural-property-owners

If it was intended to prevent Maurice from going to court in a civil suit, it worked. 

Beyond Local: Update: Lawsuit against Maurice dismissed in courtEddie Maurice discontinued his $150,000 counterclaim against Ryan Randy Watson on Jan. 16.https://www.cochranetoday.ca/beyond-local/maurice-suit-dismissed-in-court-2026490

Quite apart from the appearance that the government interfered in a court case, the normalisation of shooting trespassers that this Bill advances is incredibly alarming. 

Also alarming is Todd Loewen's motion to consider creating a civilian corps to assist police. The UCP insists this will not be a militia, but more like Neighbourhood Watch or Crimestoppers. But Neighbourhood Watch and Crimestoppers already exist... 

Alberta politicians voted to explore a civilian corps to ‘assist’ police. Here’s what that meansThe bill has revived the conversation around rural crime in the province.https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/06/23/alberta-politicians-vote-to-explore-the-idea-of-forming-a-civilian-corps-to-help-police.html

So what exactly will this "civilian corps" do that would be different? And how is this motion being interpreted by Albertans on the right? I rarely give oxygen to Rebel media but in this case, the comments on this subject are illuminating. 

Did Alberta just commission a militia? - Rebel NewsThe fearless source of news, opinion, and activism that you won't find anywhere else.https://www.rebelnews.com/did_alberta_just_commission_a_militia

Further to policing, the UCP introduced Bill 18, to have Alberta set up its own (redundant) Parole Board. And they are looking at cancelling the contract with the RCMP and setting up their own police force. 

Braid: The Alberta Parole Board is here. The Alberta Provincial Police may not be far behindhttps://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/braid-the-alberta-parole-board-is-here-the-alberta-provincial-police-may-not-be-far-behind

The Alberta Parole Board (no doubt filled with UCP supporters) will feed red meat to the base in the form of keeping people in prison longer while costing Albertans for a service already provided federally. 

Apart from cancelling the services of the RCMP, who are presumably continuing to investigate the Kenney leadership campaign, we should all be mindful of how his buddy, Doug Ford, tried to manipulate the OPP guidelines to hire a friend as commissioner 

Qualifications lowered for OPP commissioner job, allowing Ford family friend to apply - iPoliticsTORONTO — When the top job with the Ontario Provincial Police was posted in October, Ron Taverner couldn’t apply, because his rank was too low. Two days later, the job requirements were changed — pav…https://ipolitics.ca/2018/12/04/qualifications-lowered-for-opp-commissioner-job-allowing-ford-family-friend-to-apply/

Speaking of investigations, Jason Kenney fired the Elections Commissioner who was investigating him. How convenient is that? Who wouldn't want the power to fire anyone who launches an investigation into one's questionable activities? 
nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/c…

So, in the UCP, we seem to have a party that is solidifying it's hold on power, while rolling out a barrage of legislation that attacks health care, education, environmental protections, worker's rights and safety, the poor, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ2+ community...

It's important to remember all these pieces. One at a time, they are not as in your face. They lack the impact to cause public outcry and action. But taken together, they are every bit as much a crisis as a wildfire or a flood. Pay attention. Kenney is just getting started.