01.13.2025 10:09 PM

Hmmm.

I’m just a simple County lawyer, but I’m kind of wondering why the Heritage Department would be funding a self-governing First Nation with an annual budget of $30 million – when the government already has two ministries that are supposed to be dealing with First Nations instead: Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Must be a coincidence.

In completely unrelated news, I will sleep really well tonight.

“Former federal heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez, who is running for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party, is facing questions about his decision to hold a meeting with an Ottawa lobbyist and friend about one of her clients that received funding from his department.

NDP ethics critic Matthew Green said Mr. Rodriguez should not have attended the meeting with Lisa Kirbie, founder and chief executive of the consultancy Blackbird Strategies, when he was heritage minister because it created the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The meeting in November, 2022, on behalf of Ms. Kirbie’s client, Kluane First Nation, was declared in the lobbying register by Ms. Kirbie…But Mr. Green said Mr. Rodriguez should have erred on the side of caution and recused himself from the meeting with Ms. Kirbie. Ministers should step aside from official meetings with friends, he said, as they could pose a potential conflict of interest under ethics rules.

“Meeting with a lobbyist who is a close friend and an active advocate for a client receiving government funds creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, whether the funding was in the pipeline or not. This is really problematic all around,” Mr. Green said.

“We have lots of questions to ask. There is no way he [Mr. Rodriguez] should have attended the meeting. You should not meet close friends who have a financial interest in your relationship whether you perceive it or not.”

“Minister Rodriguez’s resignation in order to run for the Quebec Liberal leadership while narrowly avoiding opposition accountability because of the prorogation, still leaves the stench of insider dealings for well-connected friends of the Liberal Party,” he added.

Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett, responding to questions about Mr. Rodriguez, accused Liberals of “helping their Liberal insiders and friends while Canadians suffer.”

…The subject matters discussed at the Nov. 21 meeting, according to the lobbying register, were aboriginal affairs and arts and culture. Ms. Kirbie also registered a meeting the same day with two senior heritage department officials: Mala Khanna, associate deputy minister at Canadian Heritage, and Paul Pelletier, director general for Indigenous languages.”

 

2 Comments

  1. Steve T says:

    The brief answer to your initial question: Because they can.

    The longer answer: because many things associated with the First Nations file are seen by government as an un-critique-able gravy train. “Reconciliation!” is the rebuttal, lest anyone question it. “Racism”, too, if you push back too hard.

    Yet another example of how everyday Indigenous people get screwed, while a small slice get rich in their name. Band chiefs, the AFN executive, government bureaucrats, etc. all make out like bandits with moneys set aside for FN. Regular FN folks, not so much.

  2. The Doctor says:

    This government has been such a spigot of money for rent-seekers it makes me gag. And once they’re out of office I guarantee a slew of fiscal horror stories. I mean COVID programs already were.

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