Party of One (65 page)

12
  CPIC: Canadian Police Information Centre. This is a computer database that allows law enforcement agencies across the country to access centralized information about aspects such as wanted persons, judicial orders, stolen property, etc. It is maintained by the RCMP.

FINTRAC: Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. This is Canada’s financial intelligence unit. It reports to the minister of finance, and its mandate is to track money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities.

13
  Del Mastro is charged with overspending in the 2008 election under the Elections Act. His case went to trial on June 23, 2014.

Lisa Raitt was investigated by the ethics commissioner over a fundraiser organized in the office of the president of the Port Authority, where she had once been CEO. She was cleared.

14
  The RCMP report cleared both Guergis and Jaffer of all the allegations received from the PMO. Guergis is referring to Jaffer’s careless driving conviction. She lost her place in caucus because of something her husband did. The groundless sex/drugs scandal diverted everyone’s attention from the much more dangerous Afghan detainee scandal. This is much like the PM’s Twitter red herring that refocused the media’s attention when the Arthur Porter scandal was breaking.

ten
· F
AREWELL
D
IPLOMACY

1
  My first interview with Paul Heinbecker for this book took place on June 30, 2012. See also “Canada’s ‘one-sided’ position on Mideast conflict could undermine its international influence,”
Hill Times
, July 15, 2014.

2
  In a diplomatic way, Heinbecker is saying others in the room may not have agreed with his point of view about Iraq, but that his advice carried the day with Chrétien.

3
  In November 2007, Harper attended a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda. He stepped off the government airbus, gave an awkward wave to the cameras, accepted a
bouquet, and disappeared. Everyone was tired after a long flight. None of the Canadian journalists saw Harper or his communications staff for two days. Rahim Jaffer was on the trip and recalled witnessing Harper swearing and yelling at his staff. Harper was furious that after a meeting with British prime minister Gordon Brown, he had another meeting his staff had scheduled with the prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh. Jaffer recalled, “He screamed at Ray Novak and kicked over a chair. He would get angry around his staff because no one leaked.” Both Tom Flanagan and Bruce Carson have described similar incidents.

4
  A fact check showed the State Department cited figures provided by TransCanada, indicating that 50 permanent jobs would be created once the pipeline was completed. Obama said something similar in a
New York Times
interview done in Galesburg, Illinois, on July 24, 2013.

5
  See “John Baird vacationed for free at historic Macdonald House in England,” CTV News, June 19, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2014, from
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/john-baird-vacationed-for-free-at-historic-macdonald-house-in-england-1.1333451
.

6
  Re: using foreign aid to subsidize mining, see Aaron Wherry, “Is this foreign Aid?”
Maclean’s
, January 19, 2012. Retrieved August, 2014, from
http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/is-this-foreign-aid/
. See also Daniel Leblanc, “CIDA funds seen to be subsidizing mining firms,”
The Globe and Mail
, January 29, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/cida-funds-seen-to-be-subsidizing-mining-firms/article1360059/
.

7
  Stats Canada would rely on the census. In the 2006 census, only 29,435 people self-identified as Tamils in the GTA. This may be due to the 2006 Canadian government designation of the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization. See: “The Truth about Tamil Statistics,” in the
Star
, April 4, 2009. The 2011 census showed 143,300 people with Tamil as a mother tongue, mostly in the Toronto area. They are an important voting demographic for the government.

8
  Morsi was elected, the junta was not.

9
  Ezra Levant and others such as Charles Adler at the
Toronto Sun
were very upset. Adler called Clement China’s “useful idiot.” The
Sun
story called the museum “Canada’s shrine of shame.” Conservative MP Rob Anders was also very critical. After Harper returned from China in
February 2012, tweets from the base were often not kind. The “Commies” had once been the enemy. See Ezra Levant, “Canada’s shrine of shame,”
Toronto Sun
, July 14, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/13/canadas-shrine-of-shame
.

10
  Although the US condemned the shelling of a UN school in Gaza by Israel, Canada’s prime minister kept his government’s hard line saying, “Obviously no one likes to see the suffering and loss of life that has occurred. That said, we hold the terrorist organization Hamas responsible for this. They have initiated and continue this conflict and continue to seek the destruction of the state of Israel.” See “Harper sticks to hard line on Hamas; US condemns Israel’s deadly shelling of UN School,” Reuters and Associated Press, reported in
The Globe and Mail
, July 29, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2014. from
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/21-palestinians-killed-in-gaza-as-israeli-shelling-continues/article19840971/
.

eleven
· B
AD
B
OYS

1
  Although the PMO quietly put out the story that the photo was taken during Netanyahu’s trip to Canada in March 2012, staff did not contact iPolitics demanding a retraction of the 2010 date, as they usually do when they believe errors are made. I kept the date from the Mackenzie Institute site, since all their other dates were accurate.

The Mackenzie Institute (MI) had once shared office space with the NCC at 100 Adelaide St. in Toronto. The NCC had also provided initial funding and continued to use the Mackenzie Institute for research on foreign policy. The right-leaning institute presented itself as an independent organization concerned with issues of political stability, terrorism, warfare, and extremism. It was set up in 1986 as a non-profit group by Middle East intelligence expert Maurice Tugwell.

Tugwell had been an intelligence officer in the British military and participated in the Bloody Sunday massacre in the Bogside district of Derry in Northern Ireland. In the subsequent inquiry into the atrocity, Tugwell had to apologize in 2010 for falsely claiming that the fourteen people shot dead by British forces that day were armed members of the IRA. They were, in fact, unarmed protesters, seven of them teenagers.

It was reported that Stephen Harper was once a board member of the Mackenzie Institute. One of the institute’s main preoccupations was political Islam. Members have compared the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Funding for the MI came from individuals, corporations, and foundations, although none were identified, nor were the member lists published. The institute was also interested in oil security.

According to their old website, the MI is an “independent non-profit organization concerned with issues related to political instability and organized violence.” It provided research and commentary, and it claims to promote informed debate. “The Institute is also concerned with the social and political stability of Canada, and works to enhance it when it can.” Named after Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the first European to reach the Pacific from Upper Canada in 1793, and the first to trace the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789, the organization appears to have ready access to Stephen Harper. After the January 2006 election, top-ranking members of the Mackenzie Institute were some of the first people to pose for photo ops with the new PM, posted on their website under the heading “Members in Action.”

2
  Eran Peer, “PayGea quits Israel activity without warning,”
Globes
, April 2, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-1000738361
. Report said “Jacobson was close to leaders in Canada’s Conservative party. His aides say that he considered himself as a mediator between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and Canada’s Conservative Party.” See also Moshe Lichtman, “Nathan Jacobson behind clearers in ICC pornography affair,”
Globes
, July 15, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-1000862242
.

3
  See Aaron Derfel, “Alleged Quebec hospital fraudster Arthur Porter defies cancer odds inside Panama prison,”
National Post
, July 14, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/14/alleged-quebec-hospital-fraudster-arthur-porter-defies-cancer-odds-inside-panama-prison/
.

4
  On August 8, 2014, Porter was tear-gassed and trampled during a prison riot that erupted during a routine search of cellblock 6 in the La Joya prison outside Panama City. Most of the 506 foreign prisoners in the cellblock had been arrested on drug charges. Porter’s family feared for his life.

5
  An ITO or Information to Obtain is a document written by police outlining a case. It is shown to a judge to obtain a court order to search someone’s home, office, or computer or tap a phone. It is used to obtain more evidence to support charges. A judge decides whether to publicize part or all of an ITO.

twelve
· F
ORKED
T
ONGUE

1
  See “Natural Gas: Fuelling British Columbia’s growth.” Topic paper prepared for the Business Council of British Columbia, May 2010. The natural gas sector in BC grew from $1.1 billion in exploration and development in 1999 to $7.9 billion by 2008, and became one of the “leading drivers of the provincial economy.” It is the largest direct source of natural resource revenue for the province of BC. See also James Munson, “The Drilldown: Christy Clark’s LNG push hits a snag,”
ipolitics.ca
, August 1, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2014, from
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/08/01/the-drilldown-christy-clarks-lng-push-hits-a-snag/
.

2
  “Oil sands ‘allies’ and ‘adversaries’ named in federal documents.” CBC News, January 26, 2012.

3
  In a ground-breaking decision, on June 26, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada gave the Tsilhqot’in Nation a big victory. It affirmed their Aboriginal title to over 1,700 square kilometres of frontier land in BC, giving the First Nation the right to protect their waterways and largely intact ecosytem.

4
  Each year all bands must sign contribution agreements with Ottawa to receive funding for health care, education, and other services. If the bands don’t sign, they don’t get the money. In 2013, bands were given very little time to review the document. When they did, they noticed changes in the fine print in appendices that could be interpreted as agreeing to support resource development on their lands. They had not been alerted to the changes. Bands signed under duress. Health Canada also uses contribution agreements.

5
  Paul C. Webster, “Canada curbs Aboriginal health leadership,”
The Lancet
379 (9832), June 9, 2012. See also CTV News staff, “Maternal health: Should Harper focus on First nations first?” CTV News, May 27, 2014, updated May 28, 2014; and Kim Mackrael, ‘Ottawa commits $3.5 billion to improve maternal health,’
The Globe and Mail
, May 29, 2014.

6
  Kinder Morgan Canada operates a number of pipeline systems and terminals in Canada, including the Trans Mountain Pipeline which runs from Alberta to BC. It transports about 20 percent of liquid petroleum products produced in Alberta to markets in Western North America.

7
  “Canadian Forces spent virtually all of 2013 watching Idle No More protesters,”
National Post
, June 1, 2014; “CSIS spying on citizens at alarming rate, FOIs reveal,”
Vancouver Observer
, February 26, 2013; “The Conservative government just doesn’t get it when it comes to privacy,”
Huffington Post
, July 8, 2014.

8
  “Supreme Court sides with Métis in historic Manitoba land claim dispute,”
The Canadian Press
, March 8, 2013.

thirteen
·A T
ANGLED
W
EB

1
  Greg Wetson, “Senate Expenses scandal left no paper trail, really?” CBC News, September 2, 2013.

2
  “‘The prime minister agreed I had not broken the rules’: Duffy’s account of the PMO’s ‘fake payback scheme,’” Postmedia News (no byline), October 29, 2013. Article references Gerstein’s two-hour visit. The names of who he was there to see and who was with him were redacted from documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

3
  A source close to this matter recently told me that it was the late Senator Doug Finley who advised the Conservative Party not to pay off Duffy’s debt. Finley, who is considered the mastermind of the Conservative election triumphs, including the important breakthrough in Ontario, died on May 11, 2013, of colorectal cancer. Finley was in the Senate May 8, 2013, where he debated and moved the third reading on Bill C-383, the Transboundary Waters Protection Act.

fourteen
· W
RECKING
B
ALL

1
  MacKay used one of only three search-and-rescue helicopters in Newfoundland to pick him up from his vacation at Burnt Rattle, a private salmon camp on the Gander River in July 2010. The Cormorant helicopter costs about $32,000 per flying hour to operate, and the trip took half an hour. An informed source told me that the PMO had called, ordering MacKay to be at a meeting at a certain time, making the
helicopter ride necessary to make it on time. Then someone in the PMO allegedly leaked the story.

2
  Wright was interested in politics even in high school. He was a member of the Young Conservatives in university, and backed Mulroney in his 1983 leadership campaign. In 1984, Wright interrupted law school at U of T to become a speech writer and policy advisor in the Mulroney PMO. (He worked as executive assistant to senior policy advisor Charles McMillan.) Wright also assisted Mike Harris in Ontario, and helped Kim Campbell to become the first female PM. (Wright went to Onex in 1997, the same year Harper went to the NCC.)