Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW
He also offers his thoughtful perspective of Stephen Harper’s last 10 years in his recent eBook, The Harper Decade.

Categories: Capital Read, Inkless Wells

Rights and Democracy: Let's go to the video

by Paul Wells on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 11:19am - 176 Comments

From yesterday’s Power Play with Tom Clark on CTV News Channel, footage of most of the show, featuring Ed Broadbent complaining about the goings-on at Rights and Democracy; Aurel Braun complaining about Ed Broadbent; MPs complaining about Rights and Democracy, except for the Conservative fellow who complains about Paul Dewar; and Mike Robinson and Rick Anderson, rising above the fray. I had believed only Steve Paikin, on the public broadcaster TVO, would be able to devote a full hour to this controversy. Tom Clark is full of surprises.

There was a journalists’ panel at the bottom of the hour, and the guy sitting next to Joel-Denis Bellavance sure had a lot to say, but that doesn’t appear to be part of the online archive.

UPDATE: From the Inkless emailbox, this missive from Ezra Levant.

Hi Paul. In your Power Play segment, you mentioned that the 2007 audit of R&D was leaked to me by Aurel Braun.

In fact, I did not receive it from him. And as you probably know, that audit was reveleaed in a scoop by the National Post’s Graeme Hamilton, based on an access to information request. You can read Hamilton’s original story on the audit here: http://ezralevant.com/Waste%20at%20R%26D.pdf

Cheers.

Ezra

Always happy to reflect other arguments. I’ll note, however, that I can’t find any reference to this later audit, which tells a dramatically different tale, anywhere on Ezra’s site.

Tags: Aurel Braun, Rights and Democracy, Tom Clark

More by Paul Wells

knick

Given the fate of recent whistleblowers, some of the 47 could be having second thoughts until the whole affair gets aired publicly, like yesterday and here. This issue was likely one of those expected to fly under the radar during prorogation.
wellwell

If the Conservatives are wise, they will never let Braun out of his bunker again. Thank goodness we have the fifth estate in this country to look into things – and with prorogation, journalists have more time on their hands to poke around (another unintended consequence for Mr. Harper). Something tells me Dewar and the foreign affairs committee won't let go of this either.

Joops

If the Conservatives are wise, they won't let Dykstra out again either.
http://intensedebate.com/people/PolJunkie PolJunkie

"If the Conservatives are wise, they will never let Braun out of his bunker again."

My thoughts exactly. This Aurel Braun character is clearly a zealot with no political savvy. Can you imagine what he would say to the Foreign Affairs Committee?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

That's the fundamental question here.
wellwell

In the "M.P. panel" segment, I was shocked to see how touchy and abrasive Rick Dykstra was in response to Dewar's straightforward assertion that the foreign affairs committee has oversight. Usually, Dykstra comes across as a happy, if less than brilliant, warrior. This news story must be rattling the Conservative backbench.

Joops

I agree – Dykstra was nasty and came off looking ridiculous. Unbelievable.

Joan Tintor

Admittedly I haven't checked the CTV video player recently, but I recall that video of the journalists' segments from Mike Duffy Life and Power Play were never available when I looked for them either.

I always suspected that it was the journalists themselves (or their outlets, if not CTV) who had something to do with that. Maybe someone could ask Power Play's producer.

kcm

I'd like to see them too.

http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

in rewatching the Braun clip I cannot help but note that a great deal of Braun states as fact flies in the face of much of what Paul has written here based on his won digging and what he has read elsewhere.

For example, the cavalier manner he suggest that Beauregard could easily access all relevant information, notwithstanding what Paul has reported that suggested he was only able to see it based on a copy of the evaluation obtained through an access to information request.

it would be really good to see what points Paul raised with Clark.
staffer

Ok, i've tried following this, and can't seem to get my head around it. If anyone can post a 5 sentence summation, I'd be very grateful.

Dot

Try twitter.
JamesHalifax

1. R&D has a history of mis-spending tax payers money on perks for R&D staff, and making the occasional donation to groups that support terrorism.

2. Harper appointed people to the board who do not approve of these activities.

3. R&D staff who are used to the perks, and are sympathetic to Palistinian groups who detest Israel don't appreciate the new direction provided by these appointees.

4. The usual suspects accuse Harper of destroying democracy based on Conservative ideology.

5. Paul Wells wrote a story on it. Here we are.

Hannah

Is Braun running the organization??? Yes, of course because Canada is under a "Bushi=Harpie administration" So those type of creatures are the ones who are hired by Harpie-bushi to help him with his "agenda". Do canadians really want to be represented by a guy like Braun (by the way in the video he spoke like President Hugo Chavez- by the way you can watch him on tv every sunday, and you will see what I am telling you)? God! Good Luck Fellows if you still thinking that you are still experience a democracy.

JamesHalifax

Hannah…..I bet you're the type who thinks 911 was an inside job right?

Hannah

No Jamie, I am the type who was lucky to live, work and study in several countries. But you, Jamie, I supposed you are the type who unfortunately never experience that. Am I right?

JamesHalifax

Actually Hannah, my job requires that I travel extensively. Sometimes to the worst places you can imagine, surrounded by people who want to do bad things. I have worked and "studied" in more countries in a single month than you have in your life.

You still haven't answered the question about whether you're a "Truther" or not.

wsam

If Canadian Conservatives don’t think Canada should help Palestinians (by, for example, cutting off aid to the relevant UN Agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA), or encourage the development of civil society in Gaza and the West Bank, why don’t they say it?

Why claim this is about insignificant oversight (UNRWA), or that this or that Palestinian agency is tainted by a connection to terrorism.

Is what they are doing that indefensible?

Why cannot Conservatives take responsibility for their beliefs? Why cannot they defend their actions?

It’s the same with the decision to prorogue. Are Conservative arguments so flimsy they are unable to argue they are acting in Canada’s national interest?

Canada’s foreign policy is in the process of being radically re-shaped. But all we get from the PMO is platitudes. Ridiculous bits of nonsense. Table thumping denunciations of the scary brown terrorists. Snide remarks about the opposition hating the troops. Are Conservative ideas so unpalatable they cannot be discussed in public?

Or does their contempt run so deep they, once again, do not feel the need to explain themselves?

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

Or maybe because Mr. Harper has an unconscious sympathy with the Israeli mind set …

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators…

paranoids attract and all that …

wsam

____But most Canadians who care at all about the issue are sympathetic to Israel. Some aren't, obviously. But most are. Certainly, in the upper echelons of the Liberal Party, Iggy, Rae, Colter, etc … sympathize greatly.

Previously, Canada’s foreign policy, while striving to appear neutral, as it should, was always broadly sympathetic to Israel, even on the contentious Palestinian issue. At a basic level, Canadian diplomats feel more comfortable in Tel Aviv than they did in Yasser Arafat’s Gaza compound. Likewise Canadian soldiers doing peacekeeping or other UN duty in the Golan Heights or Lebanon.

The difference now is the hyper-partisanship with which our government has taken sides. As with so many other files, Harper’s Conservatives have abandoned even the pretence of neutrality, political or otherwise, while pretending nothing substantial has changed.

It’s the pretending which gets me. They lack the confidence to come out and defend their ideas.

http://intensedebate.com/people/auntie_em_m auntie_em_m

hidden agenda, 'member?

Holly Stick

Maybe they are acting out of religious zeal, while realizing that most Canadians do not support fundamentalism and Christian Zionism being imposed upon the Government of Canada.
wsam

The Harper Conservatives are unrequited neo-conservatives. That’s the most obvious way to understand what they are doing, it seems to me, or at least this particular wing of the modern Canadian conservative family.

I mean, it's crazy. Post-invasion of Iraq, neo-conservativism is the right-wing equivalent of being an unrepentant Marxist after the fall of the Berlin wall. Your ideas failed. Learn. Develop new ones.
John W.

Harper Conservatives are sort of a coalition , if you will, between Reform Party and Harris Ontario PCs.
Not much difference between Harris and Harper governments. As we know the Harris ideology and methods had tragic consequences.
http://intensedebate.com/people/NorthernPoV NorthernPoV

I lived through (survived?) the Harris years.
Funny, I don't think they were so much ideology. They acted like petulant rubes from the backwaters of Ontario that could wait to wreck all the fancy modern things in urban Ontario
http://intensedebate.com/people/auntie_em_m auntie_em_m

Teachers felt that ideology …

kcm

'It’s the pretending which gets me. They lack the confidence to come out and defend their ideas"

Bothers me too. Yet more evidence that the big chip on the shoulder, inferiority complex of Canadian conservatism is alive and well.

Jan

Thanks for that article. It explains a lot.

Holly Stick

Someone asked what good Rights & Democracy has done. One thing is helping women as refugees from gender persecution:
http://www.web.net/ccr/gendergcom.htm

Of course you can visit their own website, which talks about what they are doing (if the bullies haven't taken it down yet)

For instance, their work in the Congo:
http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/what_we_do/index.php?id=…
Holly Stick

Of course, Kairos was also working in the Congo, helping victims of rape, but the Government of Harper cut their funding. The Government of Harper does not really care about women, or Africans for that matter.

JamesHalifax

Holly, as a woman, what laws would you rather live under?

Sharia law
Jewish law

R&D did no favours to women by supporting groups who prefer the former over the latter.

As for rape……in Israel if someone rapes a woman they are prosecuted and then go to jail.
In muslim countries….the raped women is subject to being whipped, or stoned to death.

Choose wisely.

barry

Wow, you are such a hasbarist it's almost laughable.
Why don't you head back to one of the 'worst places you can imagine, surrounded by people who want to do bad things' as you mentioned in one of your many, many earlier posts.

JamesHalifax

a Realist barry…..realist.

As you obviously don't like to see the ugly truth in some things, I suggest you stay in Canada. Wouldn't want you to be shocked by the truth beyond our borders now would we?

barry

Oh, is that what zionists refer to themselves now?
JamesHalifax

ahhh……there we go.

Pretty much confirms my suspicions barry. for you….it's all about the Joooosss….right?

as a footnote, I'm not jewish or zionist….frankly, I'm not even religious. Don't give a flying fig about religion, other than when it's a religion of violence that wants to kill Westerners.

Holly Stick

R&D is helping women who have been raped. You are not.

JamesHalifax

No Holly….R&D is helping themselves to our money, that seems to be their main concern. They're using this money to fund terrorist groups and their sympathizers and some pin money expenditures under cover of "charity work" to prevent rape. Harper appointed a couple of folks to the board who are trying to stop this practice. The staff at R&D don't like this, because then they'll need to raise money for their anti-Israeli causes the old fashioned way……..get it from people in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver who tend to visit Mosques now and then.

As for your response Holly, you haven't provided one. What would you prefer:

Sharia Law
Jewish Law

I know it's difficult, Holly, because answering "Sharia" law….you'll end up looking like an idiot who's simply spouting off on a message board when you have clearly not given any thought to the real issue. Answering "Jewish Law"…..you will have proved my point.

Life is about choices…….try and make the right one.

Holly Stick

Wow, you are starting to sound like a Muslim-hater.
JamesHalifax

One may note that Holly hasn't answered the question.

Ahem:

Jewish Law

Sharia

??

http://intensedebate.com/people/PolJunkie PolJunkie

This was my first chance to see Aurel Braun in action. Harper's got himself a serious problem.
Anon Liberal

Braun's choice of weasel words is instructive. He describes the three organizations in dispute as "terror-linked, toxic organizations." They're not terrorist organizations but "terror-linked". What the hell does that mean?

He also argues that these three organizations would "offend the good conscience of the Canadian people". Now how the hell would Aurel Braun know what offends the conscience of the Canadian people (as opposed to offending the neocon conscience)?

ahm

I've been glossing B'Tselem's website. I am fascinated that although the majority of their material does refer to Israel's actions, they also denounce the use of rockets and mortars fired at civillians, and refute arguments made that these are appropriate responses to the IDF. They also have some decent information on Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence. I'm not sure what else they should be doing to reduce their toxicity; perhaps it is a question of degree? If they were to report in higher quantity and in greater detail and with stronger words the actions of Palestinian terrorists launching rockets into civilian populations in Israel?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

It must be font size or colour.

JamesHalifax

Anon Liberal

Terror linked – provides the resources to purchase weapons that the other guy uses to kill Israelis.
Terrorist – uses weapons purchased by "terror-linked" organizations funded by Canadian dupes, to kill Israelis.

Does that clear it up for you?

barry

#
JamesHalifax

Mod Note: Comments calling for the death of individuals will not be tolerated at our blog. Additionally, we have never made any anti-Semitic comments nor are we anti-Semitic. If you want to accuse us of anti-Semitism, I ask that you provide specific examples from our blog to that effect. Considering you tried to slander us and violated our comment moderation policy further comments from you will not be published.

#
on May 8, 2009 at 1:49 pm | Reply JamesHalifax

Whatever floats your boat.

Don’t worry, I won’t be back.
barry

#
JamesHalifax

Mod Note: Comments calling for the death of individuals will not be tolerated at our blog. Additionally, we have never made any anti-Semitic comments nor are we anti-Semitic. If you want to accuse us of anti-Semitism, I ask that you provide specific examples from our blog to that effect. Considering you tried to slander us and violated our comment moderation policy further comments from you will not be published.

#
on May 8, 2009 at 1:49 pm | Reply JamesHalifax

Whatever floats your boat.

Don’t worry, I won’t be back.

barry

I posted the above comment from another blog to show exactly what kind of person JamesHalifax is. His comment was removed from the blog for the reason 'calling for the death of individuals'.
Yet, he's spouting continuously on a blog discussing Rights and Democracy?
what an ass.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

Too bad he can't keep his word.
JamesHalifax

barry, since you are obviously interested in what I have to say, perhaps you would be so kind as to tell people what site you found that comment on. Since you are obvioulsly a fan of that site….what you are saying here is not surprise. The administrator on that site is as hostile to Jews as barry seems to be.

As for "calling for the death" of anyone…..that's a bogus line the mod used when I called him on some of his comments. As for the person who's "death" I called for………If memory serves me correctly, it was Omar Khadr.

I'll make the same comment here too…………the yanks shouldn't have saved Omar Khadr….they should have put a bullet in his head. Thats not calling for his death, that's preferring it.

JamesHalifax

As for the "kind of person I am" barry………I'm the kind who doesn't obsess about Jews or think they are in a secret conspiracy to rule the world. Unlike the folks who run the blog where you found that comment.

Don't worry barry…..given your mindset, I'm sure you will NEVER be banned from that particular site. You fit right in with the others' there.

Inshallah.

barry

To be honest, that was the first time I had come across that particular website.
It's quite easy to do a search to find all of your insightful comments especiallly with regard to your unhealthy obsession with all things muslim.
Cut the crap, you know damn well what this whole story is really about.
It's about zionists vs. the rest of us.

JamesHalifax

Well, barry. Apparently you were in such a hurry to discredit my views, you didn't realize that there was a chance I would tell people where you found it. You didn't realize it would be a reflection more of yourself, than of me, and to say you "happened" upon that site…….is a copp out.
The owner of that blog uses the EXACT same arguments you do on this site. In other words, you would be welcomed on that anti-semitic site because you share their views. Whereas, I…..I'm PROUD to have been banned from there. I don't fit in with that crowd.

You do.

As for my unhealthy obsession with muslims…sorry, my obsession is with terrorism….and in case you hadn't noticed, Barry, the vast majority of terrorists today are muslim. That's just a fact. Deal with it.

as for "Zionists vs. the rest of us"…..

I am not a zionist…..but if not being a zionist means I have to be lumped in with people like you, (the rest of us) then I'm willling to give it a shot.

barry

Go right ahead and tell people where I found it. I believe it was called Muslim Watch, or something like that. No surprise you would post there.
Here's another one of your gems:
Personally, if I were an israeli, I would line up all my tanks, trucks, and howitzers on the edge of Palestinian land and wait. Every time another rocket flew into israel….I'd launch an attack. I would completely destroy everything and everyone for 1000 yards from my starting point and then stop again. And wait. If another rocket came over….I'd go again. etc…etc…

JamesHalifax

And that's exactly what I would do barry….what's your point?

As for the site you mentioned….it wasn't a site to Watch Muslims….it was a site for muslim's, and they spent most of their time discussing Jews, Israel, and how they'd don't really care for either.

You know barry…..right up your alley. The difference is this….when I posted there, I was arguing AGAINST everything they stand for….whereas you no doubt agree with the premise of that site as evidenced by an earlier comment you made. It went something like this;

"It's about zionists vs. the rest of us. "

Which by the way, sounds much like the ideology espoused by ahmedhinijad, Al Queda, HAMAS, Hezbollah…etc..etc…etc….

Keep digging barry. You reveal yourself every time you type.
barry

Likewise James. Likewise.
JamesHalifax

I mean to reveal myself barry, that's WHY I type. If you don't like what I say, fine, that is your right.

You on the other hand, type euphemistic drivel to HIDE what you really stand for.

When you talk about ZIONISTS, what you are really referring to is Jews. In other words, you feel like this,

"It's about the Jews vs. the rest of us"

which is revealing enough to prove everything I've written don't you think?

Inshallah Barhmed, er, barry.