THANKS! RAHIM

If as goes the saying, the best defence is a good offence, then Infrastructure Minister, John Baird, is on track comparing Rahim Jaffer's lobbying attempts with the Liberal sponsorship scandal.

It's to be remembered that the sponsorship kick-backs uncovered by the Auditor-General in her damning 2005 report hastened Jean Chretien's departure from politics, and crippled Paul Martin's efforts to hold-on for the Liberals.

What is being exposed by the endless list of revelations related to Mr. Jaffer's alleged preferential treatment over questionable business proposals is the sordid, sleazy underbelly of Ottawa politics, regardless of which Party wields power.

Though it seems true that Mr. Jaffer and his partners..."got no grants, no money" as a result of any of his meetings with politicians or bureaucrats, it's also clear from documents tabled with the House of Commons committee which has been looking into the matter that some of his requests were "prioritized" by government officials.

In addition to the documents tabled with the Parliamentary Committee, scores of others are also in the hands of the Federal Ethics Commissioner, and the Federal Lobbying Commissioner; and most likely as well with the RCMP who have been called-in to investigate "unspecified" allegations against Mr. Jaffer's wife, Helena Guergis, the Harper Cabinet Minister who was turfed from her job and the Conservative Party caucus.

It may have taken the Federal Liberals the better part of twenty years to end-up wallowing in sleaze so bad it cost them their government's reputation. The Conservatives appear to be quick studies and perhaps on the verge of a wretched downward slide into the abyss.

During Question Period, members of the Opposition have implied that the Conservatives purposely created a "loophole" in the Federal Lobbying Act that allows parliamentary secretaries to ministers to meet with lobbyists without filing reports of their encounters - A practice it seems Mr. Jaffer and acolytes were following on their schedule of meetings along the corridors of the House of Commons. Meetings, which at least in some cases, were arranged right from (and into) the Office of Minister Guergis herself after Mr. Jaffer suffered his own Parliamentary defeat in the election of October 2008.

This past week, the Conservative Government was ordered by the Ethics Commissioner to stop dressing-up over-sized photo-op Federal stimulus cheques in partisan colours, logos and slogans. And, it came under heavy fire for appointing a Judge to the Quebec Superior Court who, as a lawyer in private practice, once represented the Hell's Angels biker gang. For a party twice elected on a platform of accountability, openness, transparency and a "tough on crime" agenda: The criticisms' gotta sting!

The reluctance of the Liberal Party to exploit more fully these opportunities speaks of their own lingering vulnerability over the much maligned "sponsorship scandal," and the weakness of its Parliamentary leadership. Maybe everyone will catch a breather this week if tensions ease because of the Prime Minister's absence from the House to attend meetings and commemorations in Europe.

So far about the only thing that has gone right in the imbroglio is former Minister Guergis' silence over the "unspecified" allegations and accusations which hang over her head. Once she accepts the Parliamentary Ethics Committee's invitation to testify, or the RCMP break their own silence; who knows where all this may be heading?

It may be tempting to manufacture an issue to trigger a snap election (Afghan detainee documents perhaps?), before the other shoe - In this case Helena's much maligned PEI boots - drop to the floor!

UPDATING THE AFGHAN FILE

The House of Commons seems fixated on whether some of the Rules of Order have been broken over the release of documents related to Afghan detainees. The Government meantime is only happy to oblige, when it so pleases, by laboriously dumping hundreds of pages of paperwork, frequently just a few hours before the next session of an Ottawa Military Police Inquiry over the issue that (quite frankly) matters very little.

That this mindless bureaucratic paper jam is stalling the inquiry into the manner detainees were treated five years ago conveniently distracts from the real issues of our Afghanistan deployment. Frankly this was (and sadly still is) "war" and that is stuff that happens. But the inquiry and the Harper Government's intransigent fashion of releasing mounds of redacted documents and thousands of censored pages of records hides from view a seemingly absolute lack of strategic planning to get the hell out of there by next winter.

Canada's firm commitment to remove our military from harm's way in Afghanistan is less than nine months away. While the American deployment in Iraq was on a much larger scale...it's now taken the U.S. more than 3 years to out-deploy. Our trucks, tanks, assorted other vehicles; and the tons upon tons of supplies, men and equipment...plus the aircraft, drones and almost 7 years of accumulated military odds and ends aren't going to suddenly disappear from Kandahar Province and magically reappear at CFB Petawawa overnight (or wherever they came from). But, obviously "mum's the word" on that front.

There are reasons to be cynical about what all this means: The Americans are clearly focused on the old Taliban Capital of Kandahar City with President Obama's ramped-up deployment of about 130,000 additional forces in Afghanistan. Politicians and military officials in Canada have already conceded that we'll continue to "play a role" in the strategic reconstruction of Hamid Karzai's increasingly despotic country. Just a few days back the Commissioner of the RCMP noted that his police force is ready for an enhanced deployment in Afghanistan. Great! Let's deploy a para-military force in lieu of a real one. Canadian agencies like CIDA and some NGO's say they're standing put. Lest I digress: I guess they'll "stay-put" indoors because it's currently too dangerous for United-Nations personnel to step outside in Kandahar City. I am really not sure our government (hopefully not with the duplicity of the opposition) is being all that candid and sincere about the Afghanistan commitment beyond next February.

South of the border just this week a group of retired U.S. military officers, members of the strategic group - Mission Readiness - reported that American teens are "so fat" that fewer of them can meet the military physical fitness standards. The report says that almost a third of Americans aged 17 to 24 are too overweight to join the military. The report says..."many young Americans are simply too fat to fight"...and that threatens national security by putting military recruitment in jeopardy.

And: - In a sixth annual report from "Active Healthy Kids Canada", the agency assigned an "F" for physical activity levels for most Canadian young people because they don't meet recommended physical activity guidelines....

I am seeing a trend here: Increasingly sedentary behaviours could some day end all global conflict. I can't wait!

CRYING-OUT FOR AN INQUEST

Although the long legal process has just barely begun; at some point (sooner rather than later) Ontario's Chief Coroner will be compelled to call an inquest to probe the circumstances surrounding the murder of Ottawa Constable Eric Czapnik.

The police community is generally very protective of its own. It was though clearly obvious this week when in an unrelated matter, Ottawa's Police Chief, Vern White testified that he..."has no usefulness" for an officer convicted of a crime; that his message was directed at the RCMP's botched multiple efforts to unload Officer Kevin Gregson who is now accused in Czapnik's murder.

In the wake of the Constable's massive funeral last week, the union which represents Ottawa Police Officers went on the record to demand an inquest into what was an obviously preventable incident. It is likely to be a probe the RCMP may resist fearing another black mark against the sullied reputation it has acquired beginning (perhaps) with the case of Maher Arar; the Mayerthorpe, Alberta murders; the very public turfing of Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli; and the death of Robert Dzikanski at Vancouver's airport just to highlight the most sensational.

If the Polish Community here and abroad was angered by Mr. Dzickanski's treatment; it was deeply saddened by Constable Czapnik's murder...and it appears the RCMP is the constant in both instances.

At a late December news conference, Ottawa Chief Vern White observed that the accused, disgraced RCMP officer Kevin Gregson, was clearly out to "to kill a cop" on December 28 by wearing two RCMP issued bullet-proof vests, and carrying several other police paraphenalia before slashing (unprovoked) Constable Czapnik's neck in the early morning hours of the 29th.

Gregson was suspended from, but still an RCMP Officer despite a criminal conviction in Saskatchewan; an order "to quit the force", and violating a court order by attempting to meet with the current Commisionner, William Elliott by going to Mr. Elliott's private residence. Can't you just fire incompetants any more? It seems to me at least that the RCMP, as any citizen would, had a certain responsibility to report Officer Gregson's irratic (and as it turned-out dangerous) behaviour to the local police department.

That's why Constable Eric Czapnik's murder demands an inquest!

WAR AND THE RCMP

Here in the American deep south a popular slogan of the pro-life movement claims that..."A Nation That Kills Its Own Children Is A Nation Without Hope". I see it displayed frequently on automobile bumper stickers and wonder how its proponents explain away the deaths of thousands of young American men and women on the War fronts of Iraq and Afghanistan?

Canadians too should perhaps ask the same question of our commitment to the war in Afghanistan. Lest I digress further; I was struck by reports a few weeks back about the most recent recruiting drive for our iconic national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

I reflected once more on the police force's recruiting efforts during the past few days as the news reported that the Commissioner of the RCMP, William Elliott, had been publicly feuding with the Commission For Public Complaints Against the RCMP. It seems that senior officials of the police force are miffed at the chair of the Complaints Commission, Paul Kennedy, for his frank opinions about the use of Tasers on a 15 year-old Inuvik teenager, as well as in relation to the infamous death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport in October 2007. It's worth noting for the record that Mr. Kennedy's term as complaints commissioner ends this week. The Harper "Tories" have not renewed his term, nor named a successor.

Back to my story: After years of falling short of its target the RCMP fielded almost 1800 new cadets in 2008-09, which according to the police force is the biggest annual increase in its ranks in 136 years of policing. Commissioner Elliott and his officials have claimed that the surge in recruitment is one of the notable successes of the RCMP reform process launched in 2007 when Elliott's predecessor, Giuliano Zaccardelli, was dumped unceremoniously for lying to a Parliamentary Committee.

Back in 2007 the mismanagement and scandal plagued police force had become a Canadian embarrassment which was described at the time by a government task force on the reform of the RCMP as having a leadership structure that was..."horribly broken." Amen!

While it is certainly good news that our national police force is able to count on powerful new recruiting numbers to swell its internal ranks; me thinks that some of the credit may lie elsewhere than in the RCMP's reform measures, including their $12,000 signing bonus for joining-up...

There are a myriad of reasons; economic, disciplinary and otherwise, while each year a substantial number of young Canadians enroll in our honoured military and para-military institutions. RCMP Commissioner Elliott and his officials may want to take credit for their effective campaign which has so far resulted in a recruitment surge at the RCMP. It may also signal and reflect a shift of attitude in young Canadians who prefer to serve their country on Canadian soil, rather than fear being blown to bits in the military while serving in Afghanistan.

SPEAK SOFTLY...CARRY A BIG STICK

Paul Palango and I are contemporaries. He may not remember me. I remember him a reporter at the Hamilton "Spectator". We covered City Hall in the mid-seventies when I operated the CBC's one-man bilingual News Bureau in the city.

Following a distinguished journalistic career, including national editor of The Globe and Mail, Canada's newspaper of record, Mr. Palango, now based in Nova Scotia, is on his third book exposing and debunking the country's love affair with the myth of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP.

Proud though we all are of our national police force created in 1874, Mr.Palango has argued for several years that our elite guardian of the peace, the RCMP, have for years been mired in an unending litany of organizational, legal and political controversies that would have pretty much ruined any other organization.

I envy his courage in an unrelenting effort to shine light on the poor health and integrity of what appears to be a dysfunctional organization that administers a system where some have argued, sometimes with success, that not every citizen is treated equally.

This weekend, Paul Palango has published: "Dispersing The Fog" - "Inside the Secret World of Ottawa and the RCMP". It chronicles the RCMP involvement in the case of Maher Arar, wrongly arrested and tortured at the request of American Homeland Security. The Income Trust scandal in the midst of the 2006 Federal Election that some argue handed victory to Stephen Harper; and the ongoing fifteen year old Brian Mulroney-Karl Heiz-Schreiber Airbus affair.

Maybe it's a generational thing for me, but Mr. Palango's personal life must surely be "squeaky clean". Otherwise, I sure would not want to piss-off the RCMP, not even "tweak" their ego. In this case Paul Palango is on his third tome, a "hat-trick". "Dispersing The Fog", follows two other books about the national police force: "Above The Law", and "The Last Guardians". In each he's championed what he describes as the very real and articulate concerns of Canadians who have questioned for some time the ability or willingness of the RCMP to carry-out its duties.

"Dispersing The Fog" comes to the sad conclusion that in Canada we presently have a two-tiered system of justice. If one believes in the principles of our democracy, the book is a "must read".