Editorial Cartoon

Wednesday July 23, 2014

Wednesday July 23, 2014By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 23, 2014

Pen Canada hit with audit by Canada Revenue Agency, joining other charity groups critical of Harper government

The Canada Revenue Agency has launched a political-activities audit of Pen Canada, a small charity promoting freedom of expression that has criticized the Harper government in the past.

Two tax auditors showed up Monday morning at the tiny Toronto offices of Pen Canada, asking to see a wide range of internal documents.

Pen Canada’s president, Philip Slayton, says the tax agency gave notice of the audit two or three months ago, and that the group is “fully co-operating.”

Pen Canada represents more than 1,000 writers and supporters, including Canadian literary luminaries Margaret Atwood and Yann Martel, and presses for freedom of expression at home and abroad.

The group has been highly critical of the Harper government in recent years for the muzzling of scientists on the public payroll, and for alleged spying on Canadian citizens in concert with U.S. eavesdropping agencies.

This latest political-activity audit is among more than 50 that the agency has begun since 2012, which some critics have said creates an “advocacy chill” as charities self-censor for fear of losing their ability to raise funds through tax-deductible donations.

Saturday, February 2, 2013The wave of audits was announced by the federal government in the 2012 budget, and some groups have been under threat of losing their charitable status for more than two years. The list of targets includes Amnesty International Canada, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canada Without Poverty, and the David Suzuki Foundation.

The Canada Revenue Agency says its work is conducted without political direction from government. (Source: National Post)

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

Tuesday July 22, 2014

Tuesday July 22, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 22, 2014

Ukraine Separatists Yield, Allowing Bodies to Depart and Agreeing to Hand Over Black Boxes

After days of obstruction, Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine reached an agreement with Malaysia on Monday to surrender the flight recorder boxes of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner downed by a surface-to-air missile last week, and allowed the bodies of the victims to be evacuated by train.

The agreement, announced by the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, in a live television broadcast, appeared to represent a significant movement to end the standoff over the aftermath of the crash of Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which killed 298 people whose bodies lay for days in a wheat field in eastern Ukraine, an area controlled by the separatists.

The refusal of the separatists to permit unfettered access to the crash site has raised suspicions that they were responsible for the missile strike that felled the plane. It has also generated enormous international criticism of the Ukrainian separatists and of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Mr. Najib, speaking from Kuala Lumpur, said the agreement with Alexander Borodai, a commander of the separatist forces in the city of Donetsk, Ukraine, called for the bodies to be taken by train to Kharkiv, a city held by the Ukrainian government. Six Malaysian representatives were to oversee the transfer of the bodies in Kharkiv to the custody of the Netherlands. (Source: New York Times)

OTHER MEDIA

Posted at Yahoo News Canada.

FEEDBACK

Hamilton Spectator, Letter to the Editor, Wednesday July 23, 2014

Well, Graeme MacKay got the right cartoon with Vladimir Putin as the spider, and the aircraft in the terror web. By his inaction, Putin as much as says that he doesn’t care about humanity as a whole. What a disgrace. Imagine the blowback were it a Russian aircraft blown out of the sky on North American soil! And Canada’s response to Putin’s hand-sitting is pathetic at best. Where is the leadership we need? Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to smarten up.
G. Robert Warren, Hamilton

 

 

Saturday July 19, 2014

Saturday July 19, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 19, 2014

RCMP lay 31 criminal charges against Senator Mike Duffy

Mike Duffy’s fall from grace took another stunning tumble Thursday as Mounties charged the suspended senator with 31 counts of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in connection with the alleged misuse of taxpayers’ funds.

The charges set the stage for a dramatic trial involving a high-profile witness list that could include Nigel Wright, the former top aide to Stephen Harper, Conservative senators and perhaps even the prime minister.

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At the very least, the long list of criminal charges laid against the former Conservative senator will be an ongoing political headache for Harper in the run-up to the 2015 election. Duffy is due in court on Sept. 16, a day after Parliament is due to resume sitting following the summer break.

Months of investigation ended with the news that the former television journalist was facing a raft of criminal allegations of bribery, kickbacks and defrauding Canadian taxpayers — all related to his time as a senator.

“Investigators followed numerous leads and today’s charges are the result of a careful examination of the facts,” RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud told reporters at an Ottawa news conference.

In an unexpected development, the RCMP not only charged Duffy with fraud and breach of trust but added a charge of bribery in connection with the $90,000 cheque that Wright, Harper’s former chief of staff, wrote for Duffy to pay the senator’s questionable expense claims.

Questions about the $90,000 cheque have swirled around Wright and Harper, who has said he knew nothing about Wright’s decision to pay Duffy. Wright, who quit the PMO after it became known that he had written the cheque, had also been investigated by the RCMP. But police recently concluded there were no grounds to charge Wright.

Yet Duffy lawyer Donald Bayne questioned how Harper’s top aide could escape charges while the senator is now facing criminal accusations.

“I am sure that I am not the only Canadian who will now wonder openly, how what was not a crime or bribe when Nigel Wright paid it on his own initiative, became however mysteriously, a crime or bribe when received by Sen. Duffy,” Bayne said in a statement released late Wednesday.

“The evidence will show, that Sen. Duffy did not want to participate in Nigel Wright’s and the PMO’s repayment scenario, which they concocted for purely political purposes,” Bayne said. (Source: Toronto Star)

OTHER MEDIA

Illustrates a column in the Regina Leader-Post, July 22 2014 by Murray Mandryk “Duffy fallout may extend to Saskatchewan”.

Published in the Montreal Gazette, July 22 2014.

 

Thursday July 17, 2014

Thursday July 17, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 17, 2014

Mike Duffy is my father, Peruvian woman claims in a lawsuit

Beleaguered Senator Mike Duffy faced fresh controversy Tuesday after Maclean’s magazine published an interview with a Peruvian woman who claims to be his daughter.

The magazine reported that the woman, Karen Duffy, was born to Duffy after an affair with a convicted Peruvian drug smuggler who served time at a Kingston, Ont., prison.

The Maclean’s story says the alleged affair lasted for a few months in the early 1980s while her mother was on parole at an Ottawa halfway house.

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The 32-year-old woman told the magazine that she and her mother tried to reach out to the journalist-turned-senator over the past few decades, with no response. Karen ultimately decided to file a lawsuit in Peruvian court, determined to receive acknowledgement that Duffy is her biological father.

Karen, who has a family of her own, said she is not seeking money in the lawsuit and only wants “to have a relationship.”

“I want to meet him. I want him to know me, and share the things that are important to me,” the magazine quoted her as saying.

Her claims have not been tested in court.

Duffy, staying far away from the limelight he once occupied, had little to say.

“The Maclean’s story contains untrue allegations, made by a convicted narcotics smuggler, and which go back more than 30 years. I will respond to any legal process from Peru in an appropriate manner. I will have no further comment,” he said in a statement to CBC News.

Duffy was suspended without pay from the Senate for two years in late 2013. He is also currently facing an RCMP investigation relating to questionable travel and housing claims the senator made while in office, as well as a $90,000 cheque given to him by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright. Duffy has not been charged with any crime. The RCMP ended its investigation into Wright this past April, clearing him of any criminal wrongdoing. (Source: CBC News)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Reposted at Yahoo News Canada.

Wednesday July 16, 2014

Wednesday July 16, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 16, 2014

Concrete dumped in city sewer “not going anywhere”

The city will need to reroute sewage under the future James Street North GO Station after a truckload of concrete was dumped into an old sewer.

It’s believed a construction crew working on the site east of the MacNab Street bridge accidentally drilled into an 85-year-old trunk sewer last week then proceeded to pour in at least a truckload of concrete meant to fill caissons.

“We won’t be able to remove the concrete. We’re talking about an old sewer, at least 85 years old, made of three layers of brick. Now that it’s in there, (the concrete is) not going anywhere,” city wastewater director Dan McKinnon said Monday.

McKinnon said at least one truckload of concrete was dumped into the 0.9-by-1.2-metre, egg-shaped sewer tunnel before workers realized the mistake.

Spokesperson Vanessa Thomas said Monday Metrolinx is still investigating the incident, but an update on how it happened and what comes next wasn’t available.

McKinnon said he expects a new section of sewer line up to 100 metres in length will need to be built around the concrete obstruction but added project details are still being worked out.

City and Metrolinx officials were meeting with the GO Station contractor Monday afternoon to talk about a solution. McKinnon said the city is not on the hook for the cost, which he estimated could exceed $200,000.

In the meantime, the city has set up pumps and a temporary sewer line to keep sewage flowing in the area.

McKinnon said local basements shouldn’t be at risk of flooding because the area is served by a “backup system” — basically, a huge sewage holding tank under Bayfront Park that sucks up overflow in storms or heavy rains.

Metrolinx is building a two-storey GO station at James Street North that includes a platform extending under Bay Street North. The first phase of the new “mobility hub” is supposed to be ready in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games next July.

Metrolinx also had its hands full co-ordinating construction with a recently completed bridge replacement by CN over nearby Bay Street because the bridge abutments have to accommodate the planned pedestrian platform for GO. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)