The Black Rod

Former CBC radio host Lesley Hughes thinks the way to prove she's not anti-semitic is by suing the country's major Jewish organizations dedicated to fighting anti-semitism. Go figure. Hughes, whose most current claim to fame is as a 9/11 Truther, says she's not being hired for freelance work because she's been labelled an anti-semite for something she wrote 7 years ago. She apparently hasn't considered that its her bizarre anti-American conspiracy theories that are the stumbling block. In that 2002 column published by Winnipeg's community newspapers, Lesley Hughes wrote: "Israeli businesses, which had offices in the Towers, vacated the premises a week before the attacks, breaking their lease to do it. About 3000 Americans working there were not so lucky." The context of her assertion was that the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, had "warned the American intelligence community ... about the attacks on the twin towers on that heartbreaking

Less than a month ago Manitobans learned the details of a carefully organized scheme by the NDP to defraud the public treasury of tens of thousands of dollars by falsifying 1999 election expenses to get public rebates they weren't entitled to. Why weren't we told about this eight years ago when Elections Manitoba uncovered the fraud? The man who can answer that question is Manitoba's Chief Electoral Officer Richard Balasko. And he refuses to tell. No wonder people suspect he has colluded with the NDP to keep a lid on the scandal. Pundits who should know better cry that it's a witchhunt, that Poor Richard is an honest civil servant being made a scapegoat. They are being willfully blind. Here are the top 10 reasons Balasko has to go. 1. Richard Balasko won't say why no charges were laid against anyone connected with the NDP's 1999 campaign for altering election returns and submitting information they knew was false to Elections Manitoba. Balasko has been consist

Manitoba's Chief Electoral Officer Richard Balasko had the responsibility of assuring the public that elections were fair and honest. It was on his watch that a forensic auditor examining the 1999 election returns discovered the NDP had engaged in an organized scheme to defraud the public by falsifying election finances to get rebates they weren't entitled to. In fact, he said, they had been doing this for every election in the past 15 years. Instead of informing the public, Balasko covered-up the information. He squeezed the auditor out by refusing to pay his fees. Then he allowed the NDP to silently refile corrected returns three years later and repay, without interest, the $76,000 they tried to scam from the public purse. Nobody from the NDP was charged, but election candidates and agents with the Conservatives and Liberals who made honest accounting mistakes were dragged into court. Balasko says he can't discuss his secret negotiations with the NDP regarding their 1999

The NDP government of Manitoba heaved a huge collective sigh of relief when the Legislature rose last Thursday. Big mistake. The government members, particularly Premier Gary Doer, thought they had dodged a bullet that came too close for comfort. For almost three weeks they were on the grill, defending themselves against revelations that the NDP defrauded the public purse of $76,000 in the 1999 election by falsifying financial returns. Imagine their relief when the session finally came to a close. Well, frying pan -- meet fire . Instead of heading to the cottage to relax, the NDP are looking into the abyss. Manitoba is hurling towards a constitutional crisis the likes of which hasn't been seen in living memory. Richard Balasko, Manitoba's Chief Electoral Officer, who's up to his neck in credible allegations that he's been in bed with the NDP ever since the 1999 election, thumbed his nose at the Opposition Tuesday. He was asked politely to come to a meeting of Opposition

One sentence. 33 words. That's all you need to read to understand why a public inquiry is needed into the NDP election rebate scandal. For the past three weeks the Premier Gary Doer has defended his party by arguing that Elections Manitoba has already answered all the questions about the NDP's organized scheme to falsify 1999 election finances in order to trigger $76,000 in unwarranted rebates. He goes on to add that every political party has in the past refiled their election returns and repaid money. And the kicker---the NDP cooperated with Elections Manitoba and abided by their ruling without kicking up a fuss. Here's a sample of what Doer told the Legislature May 28, 2009: "Obviously, Elections Manitoba had their legal advice. Our party had our legal advice. We- the instructions I gave to the party was to co-operate with Elections Manitoba . That's what they did . They co-operated fully through the matter. We could have disagreed with them and gone potentially

Gary Doer painted a bullseye on himself Wednesday afternoon. Then he gave the Opposition all the ammo it needs to shoot holes through his vaunted teflon reputation for personal integrity. Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen asked Doer a simple question five times during Question Period: who told you? Doer has said he learned in 2001 that the NDP falsified election expenses in 1999, to trigger unwarranted rebates from the public purse. But he refuses to give so much as a hint to when and how he was told. Five times he was asked, and five times he refused to answer. However, his deliberate silence on the issue constitutes an answer in itself. Gary Doer, the Premier of Manitoba, is obviously protecting someone. More to the point, he protecting himself. Because if the truth comes out, the electorate will see the Premier is a co-conspirator in the cover-up of a major election fraud, and is likely the instigator of a campaign of harassment and intimidation of the forensic auditor who uncovered t

How low have the standards for mainstream news media fallen? Look no further than the latest Excellence in Journalism Award handed out by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. The award was given to the Winnipeg Free Press, which Wednesday trumpeted its win without a trace of irony, shame, or the slightest understanding of the joke. Staff Writer celebrated the win this way: "The Winnipeg Free Press has won this year's prestigious Excellence in Journalism Award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation. The national award is given annually to a news organization for 'overall extraordinary performance.' The Free Press's body of work, including sending staff to cover the Afghan war, the puppy-mill investigation, Greatest Manitobans initiative and our Pink Paper helped garner prestigious award." More details surfaced deeper into the story: "The Free Press submission included the country's first paid-circulation Pink Paper, its investigative series into the pr

The disintegration of Dave Chomiak is not pretty to watch. Chomiak is at the forefront of the NDP's cover-up of its orchestrated scheme to falsify 1999 election expense claims to get rebates from the public purse. He's under a lot of pressure to keep the lid on, especially since he's a prime suspect in the fraud. No wonder he's coming apart at the seams. Every day it's the same thing in Question Period as the Opposition asks questions about the scandal. As soon as Premier Gary Doer lets him off the leash, Chomiak leaps to his feet, wildly waving sheafs of paper in his fists. His entire body quivers as he bellows at the Opposition for chasing "con-spy-raw-cies", spittle flying from his lips. The only break in routine are the days he's heavily tranquilized and responding in a monotone (we're not exaggerating, you've got to watch QP). But Crazy Dave is the norm. And somewhere in the midst of his non-sequiters ("I don't beat my dog.")

Midnight has tolled for Canada's Cinderella army in Afghanistan. Three years of combat and counter-insurgency has ground down the Canada's ability, and will, to carry on the fight. On April 30 a Canadian-built strongpoint in Panjwai district of Kandahar province was dismantled. Canadian military officials called it a tactical victory--- weasel words for 'we're retreating.' The strongpost was built two years ago to disrupt Taliban activity in the region of Musan, a community about 40 kilometres west of Kandahar Air Field. Military spokesmen said in a briefing to reporters that the post had done the opposite, drawing constant attacks and heightening Taliban activity. So the 65 Afghan national army soldiers manning the post, with their eight Canadian army mentors, were being drawn back to Kandahar City. They claimed the post was abandoned at the request of the Afghan military. Afghan officials said they had to leave Mushan because it had become isolated after Canadians