Wednesday December 5, 2018

December 12, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 5, 2018

Integrity watchdog urged to probe appointment of Ron Taverner as OPP commissioner. Taverner is a friend of the Ford family

Controversy is swirling over the Progressive Conservatives’ surprise appointment of a close friend of Premier Doug Ford to head the Ontario Provincial Police.

November 1, 2018

Toronto Police Supt. Ron Taverner, 72, was rubber-stamped by Ford’s cabinet to be OPP commissioner last week.

But iPolitics revealed Tuesday that the government quietly modified the job posting on Oct. 22, and this helped Taverner meet the criteria, as he was two ranks below the initial threshold to qualify for the job.

The original description on the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police website required all applicants to hold, at minimum, the rank of deputy chief or assistant commissioner, iPolitics found.

In the legislature, Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Sylvia Jones, who took the opposition questions after Ford ducked them, defended the unusual change.

“There was an independent hiring process,” said Jones.

“The cabinet endorsed the hiring committee’s decision,” she said.

December 13, 2013

Jones repeatedly refused to say whether Ford had recused himself from the matter when the decision was made last Thursday.

Conservative sources told the Star the premier was at the cabinet table when the order-in-council was signed last Thursday, a point Ford did not deny during a brief encounter with reporters.

“This is a man that’s served 50 years in this community with credibility,” he said, adding that he, himself, “absolutely” did not make the decision.

Taverner, a 51-year police veteran, is a unit commander in charge of Etobicoke divisions and a close friend of the premier. He succeeds Vince Hawkes, 56, who retired earlier this year.

As a Toronto cop, Taverner made $178,968 last year while the OPP commissioner made $275,907. That’s an annual raise of almost $100,000. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday October 31, 2017

October 30, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 31, 2017

Morneau not the only cabinet minister using conflict-of-interest loophole

Finance Minister Bill Morneau isn’t the only cabinet minister who used a conflict-of-interest technicality to maintain control of their assets while in power, the ethics watchdog confirms.

September 22, 2017

The office of Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson wouldn’t identify who else at the cabinet table holds controlled assets indirectly. It would only confirm “fewer than five cabinet ministers” do so, and they are not required to sell those assets off or put them in a blind trust.

The story was first reported by the Globe and Mail on Monday morning.

The Conflict of Interest Act covers assets that are directly held, a loophole Dawson has complained about.

The act defines controlled assets as “assets whose value could be directly or indirectly affected by government decisions or policy,” and includes things like publicly traded securities of corporations, registered retirement and education plans and stock options.

September 15, 2017

After being dogged by controversy over the shares and his use of private corporations to hold his assets, Morneau announced earlier this month that he would place his assets in a blind trust and divest shares worth about $20 million in his family-built company.

He later said he would donate to charity the difference in the value of his shares in Morneau Shepell between when he was elected in October 2015 and the day they’re sold.

Dawson is now considering whether to launch a formal investigation into whether Morneau had a conflict of interest in sponsoring a pension bill known as Bill C-27 while still owning shares in his family’s pension company. (Source: CBC News)

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Thursday August 22, 2013

August 22, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

Information watchdog blasts bureaucrats who ‘misled’ her

Information commissioner Ann Cavoukian has tabled a scorching addendum to her headline-making report on Liberal staffers illegally deleting gas plant emails.

Cavoukian on Tuesday released a 30-page supplement to her earlier 35-page report castigating Grits for apparently destroying emails related to the $585-million cancellation of controversial power plants in Mississauga and Oakville before the last provincial election.

In June, the legislative watchdog blasted Craig MacLennan, a former chief of staff to past energy ministers Brad Duguid and Chris Bentley, and David Livingston, former premier Dalton McGuinty’s last chief of staff, for failing to preserve records.

“In light of the information I now have, I would have arrived at a different conclusion regarding the ability of MGS (Ministry of Government Services) staff to retrieve the relevant emails from Mr. MacLennan’s email account,” she wrote Tuesday.

“However, the other findings in my report were not affected and remain accurate.”

In her appendix, Cavoukian maintains that bureaucrats “misled” her when they claimed MacLennan’s email account could not be retrieved then later found 39,000 emails either sent or received by him on a backup computer drive. (Source: The Toronto Star)

KATHLEEN WYNNE CARTOON from wes tyrell on Vimeo.

Wednesday February 15, 2012

February 15, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday February 15, 2012

Toews accuses critics of siding with child pornographers

The government says anyone who opposes federal plans to make electronic surveillance easier for police and spies is siding with child pornographers.

It’s the first salvo in a battle that will resume Tuesday when the government reintroduces legislation that would expand online monitoring powers.

The issue pits the desire of intelligence and law-enforcement officials to have easier access to information about Internet users against the individual’s right to privacy.

Asked Monday in the House of Commons about the coming bill, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a Liberal MP he could either stand with the government or “with the child pornographers” prowling online.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has warned against simply resurrecting a trio of previous federal bills to expand surveillance powers, citing several shortcomings.

Of particular concern to the privacy commissioner are provisions that would allow authorities access to Internet subscriber information without first getting a court’s go-ahead.

Toews office has said the government will strike an appropriate balance between necessary investigative powers and the protection of privacy.

Still, opposition MPs were alarmed by his comments Monday.

“Apparently if you care about civil liberties in this country you obviously side with child pornographers, murderers,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. (Source: CTV News)

Wednesday September 29, 2010

September 29, 2010 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 29, 2010

Is that Bettman or Booman?

The ideas have taken a few days to take root, but that’s because so many thoughts came to mind when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was introduced at the J.L. Grightmire Arena in Dundas Tuesday night before the Kraft Hockeyville game between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres.

To a chorus of boos, of course.

Why does Bettman insist on putting himself through the humiliation of hearing the catcalls? He heard them on the biggest stage when he presented the Chicago Blackhawks with the Stanley Cup in June. Tuesday he heard them at the 1,200-seat venue, which was full of children.

We understand why Bettman needed to be in the building on both occasions.

Obviously, he needs to be in the house when the league’s champions are crowned.

In the Dundas instance, he wanted to show he believes in the grassroots of hockey. We get that. Not to be overly cynical about it, it was also an opportunity for TV time.

Yet in hindsight, does it really help the image of the NHL — and the future of the NHL — when the guy running the league is being booed in front of several hundred children? Why bring on the hatred by taking centre stage at centre ice?

Surely, Bettman couldn’t have imagined the crowd was going to seranade him. Remember, Dundas is only a long slapshot away from the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, the place where the NHL commissioner so steadfastly refused to consider as a landing spot for the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes franchise last year.

Dundas is, in fact, now part of the amalgamated city of Hamilton. (We can imagine Bettman was jumping for joy when a community connected to Hamilton won the rights to the game over every other Canadian possibility).

The Dundas-Phoenix-Bettman connection also serves to highlight the raw joy children feel for the game and the uglier big business side of the sport. There was such a passionate fan base in Dundas that hundreds of fans lined up outside the arena in the pouring rain — the children played hooky to watch hockey, with the support of their parents — waiting for the arrival of the Sabres early Tuesday.

Meanwhile, as much as Bettman tries to convince the hockey world that the NHL can survive in Phoenix, save the franchise rallies in the desert sun have drawn smaller crowds than the one which stood in the rain to catch a glimpse of the mediocre pre-season lineups.

Can it really still be a surprise that another NHL season is about to begin without any concrete developments in the pursuit of new ownership in Phoenix?

Oh, and speaking of another unfulfilled passionate NHL hockey audience, 50,000 fans are expected to show up on the Plains of Abraham Saturday for a rally to support the return of a team to Quebec City.

Hockey in the South versus hockey in the North. The more things change, the more they stay the same. (Source: Ken Warren, Ottawa Citizen)