Exoneration with Decorum, but of Course
Ujjal Dosanjh was exonerated by Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro yesterday. In addition, Gurmant Grewal was lambasted for ”entirely inappropriate behaviour”. The report speaks for itself.Â
Now if we, here at the Stageleft Basement Bunker Editorial Board, chose to behave in the same manner as our Conservative Blogging cousins did under a Liberal government, we would immediately start adding wood to the indignation oven (on second thought, make that uranium to the indignation reactor; it is cleaner after all) and cry “scandal”, “foul”, “corruption”. I mean why on God’s green earth was this report not released during the election campaign? It must have been a conspiracy involving the highest levels of influence and media (possibly even Gomery) to keep the Liberals from winning, we would argue if we were to mirror our Conservative blog pundits.Â
While we promise to keep you Blogging Tories on your toes, we will keep the discussion slightly more fact based and with only polite, respectful, discourse, rebuttal and rebuke [cough].Â
Balb, pass the Grey Poupon would you my good man?Â
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Indeed I will, Treehugger. Might I trouble you for a clean doily and another slice of that delightful shortbread of yours? I really MUST get the recipe.
TH:
Unless I’m the one interpreting this story wrong, I think you might have misread this one. From the Nat Post link:
>>”In a news release, Mr. Shapiro said the 13-page report was completed and ready for release on Friday, but that he decided to hold it back until after the election to “avoid any perception” that his office had deliberately released a report that contained comments on Mr. Dosanjh and Mr. Murphy while they were involved in the electoral process.”
Shapiro’s report was highly criticial of Dosanjh and Murphy, even though they were exonerated of any code of conduct breaches. I get the sense from the Post’s story that Shapiro was more concerned his report would negatively impact the Libs, than the Conservatives, since Grewal wasn’t running this time.
Personally, I think it would have been a wash, in terms of the hit to each party.
Mike H,
After reading your response above, I was worried that maybe I just can’t get a point across when writing anymore, however, Balb seems to have understood that this post was satire, mocking Con bloggers and their tactics over the last few years. An underlying point was that “truth” wasn’t…
Oh nevermind.
Huh? I just liked the shortbread.
Sorry TH, I must be satire-challenged today.
Aren’t you saying that Liberal bloggers would be complaining about the withholding of the report, if they were mirroring the behaviour of their conservative counterparts?
You’re not supposed to do satire when discussing your political adversaries. It’s both low-brow and pretentious…and hypocritical…or something.
Anyway, they really don’t like it, so stop doing it.
Yes Mike H, partly.
It was a mock of the folks from places like SDA and AGWN who thrived on posting, with fever pitched indignation, every hint of impropriety, every allegation, conspiracy theory and just plain rumour that involved Liberals even if the “story” they were chasing was without merit, fact or logic.
Quite obviously the Commissioner’s report should not have been released during an election, IMHO, but this post was not attempting to legitimize it’s findings as much to point to the foolishness of suggesting that there is any kind of conspiracy associated to not releasing it during said election – as our Tory friends have done in feeding frenzy like fashion over the last few years with any number of similar issues.
>>”You’re not supposed to do satire when discussing your political adversaries. It’s both low-brow and pretentious…and hypocritical…or something.”
Absolutely.
Why resort to satire, when you can play it safe and stick with insults like “fucking tool. “
You visit places like SDA and AGWN and think that I need an intervention… blogger heal thyself
Why resort to satire, when you can play it safe and stick with insults like “fucking tool.”
I’m multi-dimensional. So sue me. Besides, I’ve said way worse things…which I’m sure you’ve googled and are poised to cut-and-paste here any minute now…
One thing Grewal’s got to be pleased about is that no one seems to mind that he/someone editted the tapes, very badly. Every audio guru that listened to the recordings said there was no doubt that they had obviously been spliced. After the first few days of the story breaking that part of it seeemed to be forgotten. Strange.
“You visit places like SDA and AGWN and think that I need an intervention… blogger heal thyself
”
Touche!
Did anyone else notice that Stephen Harper refused to meet with Shapiro during that time to discuss what he knew and when he knew it?
I mean, just to feed the “scandal and conspiracy” fire some more…
“I mean, just to feed the “scandal and conspiracy†fire some more…
An EXCELLENT point Mike. Now that is the spirit of the post!!
>>”I’m multi-dimensional. So sue me.
Have you got any money? It has to be worth my while.
>>”Besides, I’ve said way worse things…”
Who am I to argue with your damage control strategy, Ti-Guy.
>>….which I’m sure you’ve googled and are poised to cut-and-paste here any minute now… ”
I’ll save them for some other occasion. Actually, I didn’t google you, I happened to remember the ” fucking tool ” comment from a visit to the Blahg Lagoon a few days ago.
And yet my poetry, which makes most men weep, you ignore.
Philistine. Probably from Calgary.
*bleah*
“And yet my poetry, which makes most men weep…”
Hah. You want “poetry that can make most men weep”? At the annual Bunker Fundraiser, Bingo and Propagandathon, I saw Treehugger empty an entire stadium with his unforgettable rendering of “The Proleteriat Shall Pound The Blinkered Bourgeois Bosses Into The Dust of History With the Jackhammer of Righteousness, Oh Baby Oh Baby Oh Baby”. It was a true Vogon moment.
I’m never at the cool parties. Mustard on shortbread, Vogon level poetry…
Although, now that I think of it, you probably had the Black Eyed Peas there, didn’t you? You can’t really stage an event (from opening your Best Buy to having a Nice Game Of Football), without the Black Eyed Peas shoving their way to the front of the line and singing about the chick’s lumps. Ugh. I’m not coming back out into public until they’re done.
>>”And yet my poetry, which makes most men weep, you ignore.”
I don’t “ignore” it Ti-Guy. No offence, but your stuff just doesn’t measure up to the poetry I can read on the walls of most bathroom stalls.
>>”Philistine. Probably from Calgary.”
Nahhh. Not even close. The Calgary part, that is. Actually, I’m practically Robert’s neighbour, now that he’s sleeping on heating grates in my favourite city, London.
I don’t “ignore†it Ti-Guy. No offence, but your stuff just doesn’t measure up to the poetry I can read on the walls of most bathroom stalls.
See? No regard for art.
You really are humourless, Mike H.
>>”See? No regard for art.
You really are humourless, Mike H.”
What a comeback.
Ouch *yawn *. Ouch *yawn*. Ouch *yawn*. This Philistine has just been beaten like a baby seal.
Well, I could have gone with something like this, but I’m trying to be nice.
Ti-Guy:
I’m sure the Mike H who posted that would be embarrassed (then again, perhaps not. I shouldn’t speak for him). In any event, that Mike H isn’t me. I’ve never posted a solitary word at Calgary Grit.
Don’t take my word for it. You could probably confirm by asking the host there to give you an IP address, then compare it to mine (feel free to give it to him, SL).
I think we’ll have to rename you ” Nice Try-Guy.”
The Black Eyed Peas were not invited and did not appear. They are a silly band, of insufficient gravitas and foolishly clothed.
We also managed to keep Sting and Bono out, although I understand they performed an acapella “Masters of War” in the parking lot near the “Wear The OUTrage Leisurewear” booth. Nice guys, but high maintenance, know what I mean?
My apologies, Mike H. I thought it was you.
You think this report would have swayed the election? The only people who care about Grewal are bone-headed bloggers.
PeterP, on January 26th, 2006 at 1:10 pm, said:
“One thing Grewal’s got to be pleased about is that no one seems to mind that he/someone editted the tapes, very badly. Every audio guru that listened to the recordings said there was no doubt that they had obviously been spliced. After the first few days of the story breaking that part of it seeemed to be forgotten. Strange. ”
Very, and it is this part of the story I keep harping about whenever I comment on the Grewal affair anywhere. The scandal was not the conversations, it was the false specific criminal allegation of Liberals selling Senate seats for MP votes made by Grewal, vouched for by Harper and the CPC, confirmed in the May 31 05 release of the recordings which again Harper and the CPC vouched for as complete and unedited after they had 12 days to review, transcribe, and translate these recordings, all to end up finding out that the May 31 05 recording was heavily edited and done so to make the Liberals look worse and Grewal look better, and the final insult to injury turns out to be unedited the recordings conclusively disproved the Senate seat selling allegation.
Why is this relevant since Grewal did not run this time out? Harper vouched for the authenticity and completeness of the May 31 05 recordings. He claimed that any Liberals complaining of editing or missing material from that release were using a desperate smokescreen to avoid dealing with the Senate seat selling allegation. Once it was clear that the May 31 05 recordings were heavily edited and that the allegation Grewal, Harper, and the CPC had been pounding the Liberals with for three weeks was a fraud, and was a fraud from the beginning suddenly Harper and the CPC go silent except to continue to claim it is all a Liberal scandal and that they did nothing wrong. At the minimum Grewal knew all the time it was false, he was the one making the recordings in the first place. So the questions are, when did Harper find out the allegation was bogus, that the May 31 05 release was edited, and who did the editing and why was there zero accountability by the CPC for endorsing this fraud? Instead of showing transparency and accountability Harper played cover-up. He claimed the only scandalous conduct was the Liberals on the recordings. That Grewal was a good man being falsely persecuted by the media and Liberal war room. He refused to deal with the Ethics commissioner for several months instead handing him off to a staffer.
This was the most serious scandal the CPC has had in its short history, and the actions of the party and leadership in how they dealt with it was very revealing. That for all the talk of accountability, honesty, and transparency Harper and the CPC proclaimed loudly at every opportunity when it came time to walk the walk Harper and the CPC instead chose to pretend they did nothing wrong. That is anything but honesty or accountability, and it certainly isn’t transparency. That is why it is relevant, because of Harper’s actions and inactions since he was in this scandal up to his neck from the outset. He endorsed the allegation, he pounded the Liberals with it for weeks, and once it came out the scandal was bogus he went silent except to say the CPC had nothing to be ashamed of or to apologize for, indeed he continued to defend Grewal at all times. It is his actions that still need to be explained to the Canadian people, yet few CPC supporters even acknowledge the reality that their party and leader fed them propaganda and spin to cover up a massive fraud perpetrated by Grewal/Harper and the CPC. Indeed, they still want to believe it is a Liberal scandal and that the CPC did nothing wrong. Well, if they refuse to hold their own party to the same standards they demanded of the government it is hard to call it anything other than blatant hypocrisy and/or blind partisanship.
Hopefully the persistence of some of us combined with the possibility of a legal suit against Grewal by Dosanjh will help bring this out to the general public. They need to know just how far the CPC and Harper are willing to go to slime an opponent as well as how willing he and his party are to lie to Canadians when one of their own has done wrong. Making false criminal allegations followed by faking the evidence to support them is an entirely unheard of type of scandal in Canadian political history, making this a truly unprecedented scandal in our history. It MUST be revealed for what it is, and such a thing can NEVER be allowed to be considered acceptable in our political culture/environment, it is simply too serious and dangerous/corrosive to our belief in the rule of law as a fundamental precept of our democracy.