Tuesday September 12, 2017

September 11, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 12, 2017

Liberals enduring two scandal trials

Two Ontario Liberals went to trial last Thursday on Election Act bribery charges stemming from a 2015 byelection in Sudbury, but the stakes are also high for Premier Kathleen Wynne herself.

December 18, 2015

The Sudbury trial happens nearly simultaneously with another Liberal trial – related to the cancellation of two gas plants – which makes for terrible optics for the party. But while that second trial involves staffers for former premier Dalton McGuinty, the Sudbury scandal is one forged entirely under Wynne’s tenure.

The premier herself is set to testify on Sept. 13.

“Politically, it’s not good,” said Nadia Verrelli, an assistant political science professor at Sudbury’s Laurentian University.

Regardless of the outcome, it may focus the provincial election campaign – with a vote nine months away – on questions about the Liberals’ integrity rather than their policies, she said.

Pat Sorbara, at the time the Ontario Liberal Party CEO, faces two charges and Gerry Lougheed, a Sudbury Liberal fundraiser, faces one charge. They both deny wrongdoing.

September 29, 2015

In late 2014, the Sudbury riding became vacant when the New Democrat who won it five months earlier stepped down for health reasons. The Liberals had their eye on winning back a riding that until 2014 they held for about two decades.

Andrew Olivier, who was the Liberals’ candidate in the riding in the general election, wanted to run again, but Wynne had other ideas. She ended up successfully luring the riding’s NDP MP – Glenn Thibeault – to run for the provincial Liberals.

One of Sorbara’s charges relates to an allegation she promised to get Thibeault “an office or employment” to induce him to become a candidate, which both deny.

Sorbara and Lougheed are alleged to have offered Olivier a job or appointment in exchange for stepping aside for Thibeault, who was ultimately given the post of energy minister last year.

Wynne has said that she had already decided Olivier would not be the byelection candidate by the time Sorbara and Lougheed spoke to him, therefore anything offered was not in exchange for stepping aside. Rather, Wynne says, she was trying to keep him in the party fold. (Source: Global News)

Saturday September 2, 2017

September 1, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 2, 2017

Ticats’ Miserable Days, Summed Up

Football can be a dangerous, brutal sport. It’s particularly bad for brains. So far, most of the supporting evidence for that has come from studying the brains of dead players. Today, we’re going to change that.

For more than two years, The Spectator has been involved in a unique collaboration with a team of McMaster University researchers. We’ve been conducting sophisticated brain scanning experiments on nearly two dozen retired CFL football players to measure the long-term impacts of concussions and repeated hits to the head.

We believe this is the first study anywhere to report findings from living former football players using such a wide array of tests.

The results are “shocking,” one of our experts said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Meanwhile, In a span of less than a day, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats went from controversy to contrition over the hiring of disgraced former coach Art Briles.

Team owner Bob Young and CEO Scott Mitchell both apologized for adding Briles as assistant head coach on Monday, an offer that was rescinded following an outcry from fans and an intervention by the Canadian Football League.

“Clearly, what was being contemplated was totally unacceptable to the general public and the media,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “I think when we took a step back and had a chance to talk to the league and some of our partners and some of our fans, what we thought was an opportunity to give somebody a second chance was clearly not acceptable in relation to what had previously happened and what (Briles) had been involved with.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Thursday May 18, 2017

May 17, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 18, 2017

Here’s how Trump could survive — even if we learn the worst

May 11, 2017

Washington is abuzz with what we might call “tipping-point talk” — the idea that this time, really and truly, Republicans are on the verge of breaking with President Trump. The latest revelation stoking that chatter is the New York Times’s report that a memo by former FBI director James B. Comey indicated that Trump privately asked him to quash the probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s Russia ties.

Yes, some Republicans are speaking out more forcefully. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) now says that the scandals enveloping Trump are reaching “Watergate size and scale.” Other top Republicans are now calling for an independent commission or special prosecutor. And many analysts are discussing ways in which the latest Trump revelations — combined with Trump’s alleged demand for Comey’s loyalty — amount to obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense.

April 25, 2017

But even if we do establish clear evidence that Trump obstructed justice, it is easy to discern, based on what we are already seeing, a way that Republicans ensure that Trump survives this.

The wiggle room in proving obstruction of justice could end up meaning that, even if we come a lot closer to establishing that Trump did interfere in the manner reports have indicated, we could still genuinely fall short of proving his clear intent. More cynically, even if that standard is reasonably cleared, Republicans could take refuge in this murkiness and then buttress this position by arguing that we should not re-litigate the election simply due to Democratic sour grapes.

February 3, 2017

Remember, Trump has been assaulting our democracy on multiple fronts since the beginning, and Republicans have mostly looked the other way. There is an unfortunate tendency to cover these various stories as separate from one another, but Trump has abused his power in multiple ways that, ultimately, all trace back to the same autocratic impulse. In addition to the Russia affair, there’s also the unprecedented, middle-finger-brandishing lack of transparency around his tax returns, even as he backs tax reform that would deliver his family a massive windfall ; the laughably substandard ethics arrangement for his businesses and the perpetuation of likely emoluments clause violations; and the continued use of diplomatic business to promote Mar-a-Lago and steer cash into his pockets.

All of these — taken along with the alleged interference in ongoing probes — add up to a level of autocratic, above-the-law contempt for our democracy that is larger than the sum of its parts. And Republicans have effectively shrugged off most of it for as long as possible. So it’s plausible that even if obstruction of justice were reasonably well established, they’d find a way to evade taking it to its logical conclusion. (Source: Washington Post)

Thursday November 3, 2016

November 2, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 3, 2016

Wynne adviser to step down after OPP charges related to Sudbury byelection

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s top political adviser has stepped aside as head of the Ontario Liberals’ re-election campaign after being charged for alleged bribery during a 2015 byelection.

Patricia Sorbara, CEO and director of the 2018 Liberal campaign, and Grit activist Gerry Lougheed face Elections Act charges related to the Sudbury contest.

“In 2015, I said that if any charges were laid as a result of the investigation, then Patricia Sorbara would, of course, step aside and this will happen if charges are laid,” a stone-faced Wynne told reporters Tuesday.

Her comments came after the Star disclosed both Sorbara and Lougheed would be ‎charged Tuesday by the Ontario Provincial Police and before those charges were official.

Sorbara, 60, was charged with two counts of bribery, while Lougheed, 62, was charged with one count of bribery.

“This has been a complex and unprecedented investigation for the OPP anti-rackets branch, which has culminated in bribery charges under the Election Act of Ontario,” OPP Commissioner Vince Hawkes said in a statement.

The OPP, which said it “will not comment further in order to protect the integrity of the investigation and the ongoing court processes,” issued the 2 p.m. release 15 hours after the Star broke the news.

Police swore the information before a justice of the peace on Monday on the eve of formally announcing the charges. Their first court date is set for Nov. 21 in Sudbury.

The stunning development, coming against the backdrop of Nov. 17 byelection campaigns underway in Niagara West-Glanbrook and Ottawa-Vanier, followed almost two years of police investigation.

More serious criminal charges of bribery were stayed against Lougheed last April, while officers continued their probe into the lesser Elections Act offences.

Sorbara, who was Wynne’s deputy chief of staff until moving to the Liberal campaign last month, was never criminally charged.(Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday August 20, 2016

August 19, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 20, 2016

Health Minister Jane Philpott accused of misleading Parliament on limo tab

Health Minister Jane Philpott is facing accusations that she misled the House of Commons by failing to disclose controversial limousine travel she charged to taxpayers earlier this year.

April 25, 2012

In a response to a question placed on the order paper by Conservative MP Dan Albas about the use of limousines, Philpott’s department supplied an answer, signed by the minister, categorically denying any of the luxury vehicles were rented.

“With regard to government travel, for the period of Nov. 3, 2015, to April 22, 2016, the minister of health did not use rented limousines while on official business, within Canada or elsewhere,” the department wrote in its answer tabled in the House of Commons in June.

However, Philpott has found herself in the opposition crosshairs this week after it was revealed that she charged taxpayers $1,700 for transportation around the Greater Toronto Area on March 31, using a limousine service owned by someone who campaigned for her in the federal election.

The travel, to four events ranging from Hamilton to Markham and Toronto, took place during the time frame covered by the order paper question.

Philpott’s office has so far failed to provide any explanation for the discrepancy between her response tabled in the House of Commons and her expense accounts.

In an e-mail late to CBC News late Thursday night, her office said “the minister did not, and has not used a limousine.”

However, spokesman Andrew MacKendrick did not respond to e-mails and phone calls from CBC News to explain what kind of vehicle the limousine service provided. (Source: CBC News)

Published in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

Letter to the Editor, Hamilton Spectator, August 25, 2016

Spec loves to unfairly skewer Trudeau

Dependably Trudeau and Dr. Jane Philpott, busy limo-using cabinet minister, are ridiculed under an Olympic closing ceremony, end of federal Liberal honeymoon entitlement guise.

Might we expect a cartoon that captures the Liberal’s cabinet meeting last weekend? It was held at a dormitory at Sudbury’s Laurentian University and surely saved quite a bit of money. And that the limo-indulgence was accepted as money is being returned. A complex challenge; much easier to jump at the easy ones.

But, corporately at least, The Spec, to its credit, endorsed Trudeau so surely at least we can expect a bit of balance. Then again, how to deal with Trudeau’s presence at the last performance of the Tragically Hip. A positive cartoon?

Richard Ring, Grimsby