Just A Few Things

The Tyee has a nice piece on the real Bruce Carson scandal:
Harper's key political troubleshooter and problem fixer gets lobbied for money for a new university think tank.

He then leaves the Prime Minister's Office and becomes executive director of that same think tank: the Canada School of Energy and the Environment.

It's mostly funded by a $15-million grant from the Harper government.

The former senior advisor alters the school's mandate to permit government lobbying and policy development on the oil sands.

He then lobbies for more federal money, $25 million, and gets it.

And, in keeping with the on-line privacy stories that have been large in the news recently, Here's a list of iphone and android Apps that outlines the information they collect on their users and email bank to company HQ.

A Canadian First!

Harper Government Scandal makes news site for sex toys! How did that happen? Remember, the name of the company involved is H20 Pros. What does that make you think of. Personally, it makes me think of water filtration devices.

PS. Speaking of H20 pros, here's the management team page for H20 Global Group, the group they spun off for lobbying purposes. Here's the bio for Christine McPherson, who is thought to be the mother of Michelle:

Ms. McPherson has devoted her career to Human Resources, Human Rights and People. She developed partnerships with Makivik, Qiqiqtaaluk and Unaaq to establish the Northern Shrimp Industry. In collaboration with them she developed training programs to train Inuit on board Northern Shrimp Trawlers. She has developed and delivered programs to create the Federated Architecture/ Government On-line and to facilitate process mapping with organizations such as the RCMP – DNA Databank and DND CFSSU Programs. She has just returned from 4 years in Doha, Qatar, where she worked on behalf of Sheikh Hamad bin Jabor Al Thani developing policies, procedures, process and labor guidelines.

She is passionate about people, the environment and the simpler ways.

I haven't had time to track down anything on the elder McPherson, but it would be interesting to find out what work she's done with the RCMP and federal government.

PPS. Although here's her linked in. Looks like she does HR.

PPPS. And has spoken out for gay rights and human rights (see towards bottom of page) in Qatar. Actually seems a fairly decent person.

Bruce Carson, One Of Stephen Harper's Closest Advisers

He had recently been fired by the prestigious law firm of Soloway Wright after a client complained his signature had been forged on a document transferring a cheque to Carson.

The Law Society of Upper Canada investigated, and a year later disbarred him for forging signatures of clients and misappropriating almost $24,000.

Almost a year after that, Carson was charged by Ottawa police with the misappropriation of funds. At that time, he was living on Colonel By Drive. The charges included two counts of theft, two counts of forgery and one count of uttering a forged cheque. In December, he pleaded guilty to the charges, and in February 1983, Carson was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

PS. Sorry if today's stuff is more cutty-pasty, linky vs thinky, than usual. I've been busy. Clearly what's interesting about all this is how close Carson has been to so many Tory bigwigs over such a long period of time.

Busty Hookers Redux?

Please Gawd, if you make Canadian politics interesting again I promise to try to believe in you.

Update: Bourque brings the porn! All hail Bourque!