On Brian Larue and Andrew Prescott
A month or so ago I reported on independent journalist Brian Michel LaRue’s claim that Guelph Conservative activist Andrew Prescott, whose blog can be found here, was actually “Pierre Poutine.” I also noted that Prescott denied being Poutine. I said that Prescott might of course be lying, but on the other hand, that LaRue might be a crank. Someone with pretensions to being taken seriously as a journalist, yet uses profanity in their domain name, must of course be taken with a grain of salt.
At this point I’m beginning to side more and more with the notion that Prescott is telling the truth and that LaRue is a crank. I may, of course, be wildly off base on both points. But let me explain why. Especially because LaRue got quite, well, cranky a couple weeks ago over the fact that I had labelled him a crank, as you can see on his blog, Unfuckwithable.
On the one hand, Prescott has issued denial after denial that he is Pierre Poutine. He may of course be lying, and there are still unanswered questions about unreported payments to robocall service providers, again allegedly by Prescott. But so far the only thing pointing to Prescott are some vague press reports. The tar and feathers shouldn’t be brought out until we actually can be sure of the person we’re targeting, and so far, at least with Prescott, we’re not. Supposedly an Elections Canada report is due soon. The tar and feathers will still be available then, if needed.
In the meantime, LaRue has issued a serious of increasingly grandiose claims. He claimed to be putting together a master list of affected ridings; after days of teasers, it turned out to be pretty much the same as mine, only without sourcing. He claims to have access to a wide variety of confidential sources, including members of the Poutine circle and, in recent days, a variety of top secret diplomatic and intelligence correspondence obtained from God-knows-where. He claims this supports his belief that Senator Doug Finley was among the ringleaders of the Poutine scam and that certain Conservative ministers — Julian Fantino, I imagine — really do have dubious bank accounts stashed in the Cayman Islands.
Now, every single thing LaRue is claiming could well be true. But we’re well past put-up-or-shut-up time on this. LaRue complains that he hasn’t received appropriate respect in the professional media and that he deserves compensation for the time and resources he has invested in his work. Well, tough. That’s a blogger’s life. Plus, given that he hasn’t yet actually come forward with anything concrete to support his claims, he can hardly expect the rest of us to be willing to spend money (which in any case I don’t have anyways, being a poor humble blogger myself) essentially on spec.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and that’s why I would gently suggest to my readers — most of whom have reached conclusions of one kind or another on this — that they not be too harsh in condemning one man on circumstantial evidence in press reports, or too eager in accepting another man on what so far are pretty shaky grounds.
If Larue has all the documents he claims to, he should be arranging to release them. Perhaps whatever remnant is left of Wikileaks would be of assistance to him. Until then, I’m not going to rush in blindly with an endorsement.
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Saskboy
No endorsement at this stage required. No condemnation either. I love how he holds attention, you gotta give him at least that.
I’m impatient for the ebook too, it’s terribly inconvenient that it’s taking this long. He has recently moved and started a new job though. And yes, I wonder how his SIGINT claims can be true, because they are terrifying.
sassy
Andrew Prescott, whose blog can be found here
corrected link is here
timber
UnF’able LaRue is in some (many many) ways.. a far more intriguing character and story than tired ol Pierre Poutine.. Brian-Michel, like many of the indy Canadian bloggers has gone after the wide spectrum of electoral fraud, evangelism, secrecy, coverup, American electoral services, lies, liars, incompetents, and outright fools. Same with the mysterious Emily Dee.. what story is behind her marvelous research and essays..
or the reports from Rafe, Yuile, yourself-6th & Sask, Simon, Janet, Beaver.. Mound.. Thwap etc etc etc
Prescott though.. seems to just be what his personal blog claims he is.. whether his religion, morality, political views or robo techo-talents impacted one electoral riding remains to be seen. LaRue himself implies the Poutine is simply a classic red herring. Unfortunately (in my personal view), it seems that almost every federal riding in Canada has young guns like Mr Prescott ready willing and able.. on behalf of .. indeed an integral part of.. The Harper Party as well as The Harper Government. They are entrenched, highly capable.. deeply motivated.
The American and Canadian electoral service bureaus supplying live call, robo call and ‘electoral grooming’ are simply incredibly powerful extensions of the poutine in every riding, campaign, and every University.. Some of the Conservative young guns are so capable they jump like salmon upstream.. witness Mr Stephen Lecce’s incredible progress, from university politics to the PMO to Vaughn elections then right back to the war room in Ottawa. Certainly a far and away bigger fish than Mr Prescott, Lecce would understand exactly how war room electoral tactics unfold in the real and financially rewarding robo/live call world. The world that Mr Meier of Racknine excels in.. along with all those other agencies
At some point, Elections Canada will pronounce certain findings.. or recommendations.. or whatever they are allowed to do in the shifting sands of parliamentary rules or law. Del Mastro will bluster, Oliver will opine from his unique multi-portfolio position of resources/environment/energy/export .. Kenney, Flaherty, Baird. Clement, Finley et al will surge en masse.. in the hallowed hallways in a well coordinated deny/clutch/slash/bluster .. filibuster of pre-fabricated scientific and in fact, factual fact.. and a dizzied population and their mass media minders will sit dully on the floor.
The indy Canuck bloggers that never drank the cool-aid will decipher and sort the truth from the drivel, distractions and outright factualized fictions .. and Canada will stumble forward.. toward a distant ‘election’ .. to be conducted or orchestrated by the gracious hosts and leaders of .. the country.. The Harper Government, The Harper Party..
LaRue is a vital part of an idealistic hope for Canada… to heal itself
come to its senses, wake up and speak up .. and stand up …..
as are all the bloggers I’ve been following …
Whether Brian-Michel is ‘alluding to’ or actually has some/all of the documents or facts or testimonies does not change the fact that the acts took place.. via real people with agendas, real processes and technologies and tactics.. and there was.. and is .. Control, Communications .. and Marching Orders.. and Money .. and Invoices .. and cel phone records & GPS data .. and Emails ..
and.. I suspect there are disgruntled Conservatives as well.. women or men of conscience.. backbenchers
or volunteers.. or even non partisan consultants or vendors that have seen enough that they can’t remain silent.
Will Coyne.. or The Post guys.. or Kady … blow us away with a blockbuster Pulitzer discovery ?
Will LaRue.. or 6th receive a ‘package’ from a deep throat backbencher or volunteer in dark of night ?
Will a decent bureaucrat notice a receipt or work order, that dooms a government to ignominy ?
Will Elections Canada do what is was meant to do.. despite any interference or lack of funds or support ?
I’m angry.. I’m impatient .. I’m Canadian .. I can’t believe the behavior and actions of our current government.
Its almost incomprehensible (to me) that Canada may have to rely on independent and unpaid bloggers to fully inform Canadians and mass media, shame useless, incompetent or foolhardy politicians, document continous attacks on & attempted dissolution of our democracy.. the sellout/giveaway of our resources, and point out the laws & legal pathway to the government that was elected to act with integrity and distinction on our behalf, answer to our needs, protect our environment and borders and intelligently manage our varied resources.. whether they swim, grow in the boreal forest, are found underground .. or are planted in the spring.
saskboy
Timber, thanks for that. And I guess it has to be that way when I [and many others] refuse to pay less than $3/week to a newspaper telemarketer to fund the sort of fabled reporters we all hope McGregor and Maher and others will live up to be.
Very Skeptical
After corresponding with Larue, he can’t answer why he doesn’t simply release his data dump to Elections Canada. I offered to connect him to a lawyer who can shield his identity behind solicitor-client privilege.
Also, if I’d committed federal crimes by ‘hacking into’ government computer systems, I definitely wouldn’t brag about it on my blog.
The only plausible explanation is that he doesn’t have anything.
I mean, why not send your crucial evidence to the investigation?
He appears to be a delusional grandiose narcissist, who just wants to bask in the attention.
Very Skeptical
As if some deejay is going to hack into the country’s most sensitive networks.
He also claims to have worked at a bunch of media organizations who have never heard of him.
Anyway, he’s a time-waster.
Sixth Estate
Very Skeptical — According to Larue he’s currently living in the U.S., so he probably doesn’t have to worry too too much. But yes, it does seem unlikely that he’d announce he was cracking top-secret cables. That might be enough to warrant an extradition, and even if it wasn’t, announcing you’d done it presumably would prompt the techs responsible to immediately get to work closing the backdoor. Although he claims they haven’t.
So far, with the exception of some unsubstantiated claims and a handful of released emails that are quite vague and hardly “smoking guns,” assuming they are even real, Larue has not actually published anything he could not easily have gotten from other sources, including, in the case of the “affected ridings” list, Sixth Estate’s own list on the subject.
He also claims, I believe, to have sent some of his work to the proper authorities in Ottawa to see if they will investigate it. Again, who knows.
As I have said all along, I have been willing to report the fact that Larue is making allegations, just as I have been willing to report that they are not supported by evidence and that the people in question, in the case of Andrew Prescott, have denied any guilt. Larue can persuade me by releasing what he has. If he has anything. If not, well, an unsupported claim is just that.