Did someone mislead a Parliamentary committee?

As most of you know, some of us have been speaking out against the decision of Canada Post to take money to distribute the racist, homophobic, Holocaust-denying Hitlerite rag, Your Ward News.  I’ve written extensively about their content – here and here and here – and my brother Richard Warman is now going after them legally.  Me too.

Yesterday, Judy Foote – the minister responsible for Canada Post, and the minister who hasn’t stopped Holocaust denial from landing in tens of thousands of Toronto-area mailboxes – appeared before a Parliamentary committee.  She was asked about Your Ward News by former cabinet minister Steven Blaney.

Here’s Liz Thompson’s account in iPolitics:

During her testimony, Foote was also questioned on another thorny issue involving Canada Post and controversial mailings of a publication entitled “Your Ward News.” Critics of the publication have accused it of publishing material that promotes Holocaust denial, racism, homophobia and sexual assault.

Steven Blaney, Conservative MP and former Public Safety Minister, asked Foote why Canada Post is distributing the publication, which goes to homes in the Toronto area.

Foote said she shared Blaney’s concerns.

“I am aware of the situation and I too have issues with the information that is being distributed – so much so that we have asked for a legal opinion on the content to see if there is any criminal aspect to it. I am concerned about the content.”

“We have talked to Canada Post and my understanding is that there was an incident where they had where they had legal advice and there wasn’t an issue that would have them withdraw it. But now that there is another piece of literature that is being disseminated, there are concerns. I too have concerns with it and we have asked for a legal opinion”

She gave that answer yesterday afternoon.  I find that timing interesting.

Here’s why: at 9:26 a.m. yesterday, six hours before Foote appeared before the committee – and long enough for Canada Post to have briefed her, because Canada Post was on the agenda at committee – Canada Post’s “Vice-President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary” issued a letter in which he stated that Canada Post had rendered all of the “legal opinions” on Your Ward News they were going to render. And they had decided, yet again, to do nothing.

So, I’m curious: did Canada Post deliberately withhold that information from their own minister?  Or did Foote tell the committee something that was, put charitably, factually incorrect?

Confused? Me too:

  • Foote says “another piece of literature” (it’s not literature, it’s hate propaganda, Judy) is still actively being reviewed by Canada Post’s crackerjack legal team – to wit, “we have asked for a legal opinion.”  She’s on the case!
  • Canada Post’s crackerjack legal team, however, has said in a letter that it has reviewed all that it is going to review – to wit, “it is a matter for the Courts decide, not Canada Post.” That is, they’ve washed their hands of it.  They’re not reviewing anything.

So who is telling the truth?  A legal review is happening, or no one is reviewing anything, legally or otherwise?  Which is it?

This case gets curiouser and curiouser.

I can tell you one thing: Richard and me – and many others – are not going to let this go.  We don’t give a damn who the government is.


On the menu at the State Dinner: lame duck

However much I would like to see the 22nd Amendment suspended, my guy Barack – who I have championed since 2006, unlike those dozens of young selfie-snapping PMO types who flew to D.C. yesterday! – is going to be gone soon. By this time next year, he will be giving speeches to Shriners for several gazillion dollars. Lame duck wasn’t on the menu, last night, but it may as well have been.

What matters is the next State Dinner (why do they always Capitalize That?). Who will it be with? Who will be there? And, more importantly, what will be on the menu?

Vote now, vote often!


State dinners are nice

…but this is much more important, actually. The terrible situation at Pimicikamak needs the attention of the federal government – fully – right now.

CROSS LAKE, Man. — A remote Manitoba First Nation declared a state of emergency Wednesday after six suicides in the last two months and 140 attempts in the last two weeks alone.

Officials from the Pimicikamak Cree Nation, known as Cross Lake, say health workers on the northern reserve can no longer cope. Band councillor Donnie McKay said the nursing station is only staffed by two nurses overnight.

“They’re going 24 hours and they’re ready to drop.”The community of 8,300 is traumatized and needs immediate help from the provincial and federal governments, McKay said. A meeting with Manitoba Health Minister Sharon Blady last month resulted in one mental-health worker being sent to the community for an eight-hour shift, he said.

“It’s ridiculous,” said McKay, who was called by distraught family members to a home a few days ago to talk a man out of taking his own life. “This wouldn’t happen anywhere else.”


The War Room it is

The people have spoken! (And thank you.)

The rejigged web site shall be branded thusly:

THE WAR ROOM
www.warrenkinsella.com

(That won’t be the font, but you get the basic idea.)

And, to those many, many folks who expressed interest in writing, thank you – we will be back to you soon, once the redesign is further along.