The Oil-for-Food Scandal – the Canadian Connection
Pierre Bourque has drawn attention to an article which appeared in Newsmax this morning. It describes the links of Saddam's "Oil for food" program to the Canadian government. The information provided is something that this site has been writing about for over a year now with little success. I expect that situation to change as the results of the U.S. and U.N. investigations become available. It now seems clear, at least to me, that the motives Jean Chretien had for not going along with the U.S. on the Iraq situation may have had much more to do with worry about what might be discovered in Iraqi records than any higher motives. Time will tell I guess but one thing is for certain. The situation is not going to go away anytime soon and anyone caught up in it is in serious trouble.
Update: The first U.S. convictions regarding the "oil for food" scam took place today in New York.
In the ongoing "Strippergate" we find a story in the Toronto Sun this morning which alledges another witness was present when Sgro promised help to a deportee that had worked on her campaign. Interesting but I have my doubts when you consider the position of said "deportee". His hearing is tomorrow.
The editorial board of the Toronto Sun levels a withering blast over the entire situation and the Globe and Mail reports that senior government officials wouldn't let Sgro's "little helper" quit because they feared the political fallout.
In the Victoria Times-Colonist we have a differet situation..."Mr. Dithers" playing footsie with terrorists. The Calgary Herald doesn't think much of this situation and I'm not surprised.
[...]
The news conference, where Martin defended his decision to consult Tamil leaders linked to the militant Tamil Tigers group, was held, ironically, in a downtown hotel that was blown up by Tiger suicide bombers in 1997.
Twelve people died and more than 100 were injured in the Galadari Hotel bombing, which also damaged the nearby Hilton Hotel where Martin and his wife stayed, and where he met the Tamil politicians yesterday.
The Tamil politicians contradicted Martin's claims, saying the flow of aid was being unilaterally decided by the Sinhalese-led government and not fairly distributed.
They outlined their own hopes now that Martin has engaged himself in their struggles.
[...]
I wonder how he'll wiggle out of this one?
Or this one?
[...]
“The government of Lebanon awarded a consortium led by Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Inc. and Canada Post a 12-year contract to modernize its derelict postal system in 1998 just weeks after the Canadian government announced a $925,000 grant for a university owned by the Lebanese prime minister's own private foundation.
Canada also provided an extra $281,000 in foreign aid to help retrain Lebanese postal workers, money that the federal foreign aid agency paid directly to an SNC-Lavalin affiliate as part of the Lebanon postal project….
Just two days before Martin arrived in New Delhi, the spiritual leader of Sikhism directed his religion's followers worldwide to reject the legalization of gay marriage, as proposed by Martin's Liberals.
The unprecedented edict by Joginder Singh Vedanti - likened by one Sikh Liberal MP to the Pope - followed a lively debate in the Indian press this month in which it was speculated that Martin had cancelled a planned visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar because of political concerns about the controversy.
Martin had to defend the legislation Tuesday after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
[...]
Does anyone get the feeling that our government is out of control?
