Conservatives Defund National Welfare Council to Fund Ministers’ Friends
Well, not directly. But I can’t help noticing that the $1 million which the Diefenbaker-era National Council of Welfare would have used next year to publish its regular reports on child poverty and welfare levels in our country, if it hadn’t been shut down, instead got spent on this very important and highly worthy cause:
Rabbi Mendelsohn submitted a proposal on behalf of his Ottawa-based national organization to expand the Chabad in Markham. The project promises a new fully accessible social hall, kitchen, classrooms and gym, and programs for the disabled.
A briefing note to Ms. Finley from Human Resources officials said the internal federal assessment found “a number of weaknesses” with the proposal and gave it 53 out of 100.
“Given that the cut-off score was 82/100, this project was not one of the 25 sent for external evaluation,” states the Aug. 26, 2011, memo obtained by The Globe and Mail under Access to Information.
The rabbi in question is a declared “good friend” of foreign minister John Baird, whose office freely admits that he intervened on Mendelsohn’s behalf. After that happened, Finley ordered a new evaluation of the project, and it got an even lower score. As a result, she approved it.
The good rabbi, who is either a wily old cynic or a complete twit, opines that his “gut” feeling on the whole matter is that organizations like his aren’t well-known enough to get a “fair shot” and that they’re entirely “deserving” of such ministerial favours. My gut feeling is that the money should have gone to a project which actually met the criteria for funding, or, barring that, to a decades-old government institution like the National Welfare Council. I draw this comparison in order to demonstrate that, far from this government being a “responsible financial manager” or whatever the rhetoric of the day is, what they are actually in the business of is transferring money from the public sector to their friends, allies, and supporters.
Both the Enabling Accessibility Fund and the late National Council of Welfare are administered by Minister Diane Finley, the wife of Senator Doug Finley of election money laundering infamy. The fact that she would intervene in this manner shows both why my own Pork Barrel project is so important, and also why it is so unable to track the true extent of this government’s corruption. Not without the government posting full and frank details of every granting program on the Internet, which, come to think of it, is exactly the sort of easily afforable transparency and accountability measure which the old Reform Party, and the old Harper, said was a grand idea.
On a somewhat unrelated subject, I am deeply disturbed at the possibility that this government’s penchant for deleting websites will mean rich troves of reports on vital subjects to Canadians will shortly vanish from the Internet once the Welfare Council and the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy are shut down in the coming months. Precautions are being taken to ensure that this will not happen.
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Sam Gunsch
re: “… exactly the sort of easily afforable transparency and accountability measure which the old Reform Party, and the old Harper, said was a grand idea.”
This has got to be among the most clear trademarks of Harper/Con’s:
Doing the complete opposite on transparency and accountability compared to what Reform/Harper promised while in opposition, and compared what P. Manning was about in his holier-than-thou, sanctimonious whining which he exploited to build the Reform base of us (men of honor, principle, uncorrupted, poor me victims out here in the hinterland) vs them (big gov’t corrupt liberals, arrogantly oppressing the salt of the earth).
The biggest hypocrites of the last and this century to-date.
Redundancies such as holy/sanctimonious are necessary to attempt to express the appropriate level of disdain merited by their self-serving behavior and contemptible treatment of the citizenry.
Linda
Harper is a Neo-Nazi Reformer of his, Northern Foundation Party, from 1989. They said, the skinheads organized Harper’s party. I remember reading in disbelief…Harper claim of being Christian. No Christian behaves as Harper does.
Harper and his so called “Conservatives”, have been a litany of, lies, deceit, thefts, corruption, dirty tactics, dirty politics and Harper definately, doesn’t mind cheating to win, with his robo-call election scam. Over half of Canadians did not want Harper as P.M…he knew it, he cheated. Now 2/3 of Canadians, want Harper gone.
I believe, Harper has several law suits against him, so bad is his evil and corruption. Helena Geurgis, treated horribly badly by Herr Harper. While all the time, Harper has a many times convicted criminal working for him, Bruce Carson. Another criminal is, Gordon Campbell.
The Veterans are suing Harper, for throwing them away, after they were so terribly wounded for life. The Veterans who lost limbs and other wounds, Harper has no more use for. These young military people, don’t even have enough money, to support their family’s. That’s exactly how evil Harper is. Young people, must be discouraged of going into the military, because they are throwaways to Harper.
I believe there are a few law suits, regarding Harper election fraud, of the robo-calls.
ICC Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, is going to summons Harper for, war crimes and crimes against humanity. I think Harper is to be tried in the Hague.
I know I read somewhere, some of the F.N. may sue Harper for crimes against humanity. Harper’s cruel negligence of the F.N. has gone around the world. It was so bad, the F.N. called in the U.N.
All of us know of course, about Harper and his henchmen, thieving and wasting our tax dollars. the amount of money stolen, is obscene.
Sixth Estate
Neither Harper nor any other Canadian official will ever be called before the ICC. Sorry.
Alison S
This is just sickening. Apart from the blatant corruption, the Federal Government has no business transferring funds to strictly religious concerns whose main occupation is not the general welfare.
Oh, and the rabbi is a very close personal friend of John Baird is he? Very interesting.
Sixth Estate
Well, this isn’t the first time they’ve given money to religious organizations in dubious circumstances, and it’s hardly the worst. For instance, certain MPs’s churches have received funding. I’ve written about it in the past:
http://sixthestate.net/?p=357
And to be honest I’m not sure whether the “dear friend” comments cited in the Globe mean years-long intimate friendships, or more recent “political” friendships, if you take my meaning. It may well be the latter.
Still, yes, it is very interesting. It’s hard to think of a non-questionable explanation for why a project which flunked the scoring assessment got an okay for a considerable sum of money based on the minister’s say-so.