How can Stephen Harper be allowed to remain Prime Minister?

I can't see how to escape the conclusion that Stephen Harper lied to the House of Commons.

In the Commons, on February 28, he is asked about "the bribe". He says he's looked into it and there's nothing to "the story".

In the Zytaruk tape, which subsequently was released, he is asked about a million dollar insurance policy and he says he doesn't know the details, didn't forbid it, but didn't think it would work. He is quite aware of a proposal to Cadman involving financial compensation.

Any way to construct his statements as truthful would seem to involve a torture of language.

How can Stephen Harper be allowed to remain Prime Minister?


Commons Debates
February 28, 2008

Hon. Stéphane Dion (Leader of the Opposition, Lib.): Mr.
Speaker, Chuck Cadman was a man of great integrity but now we
learn that the Conservative Party tried to bribe him and that the
Prime Minister was aware of it. Mr. Cadman could not be bought.

Standing Order 23(1) states:
The offer of any money or other advantage to any Member of this House, for the
promoting of any matter whatsoever depending or to be transacted in Parliament, is a high crime and misdemeanour, and tends to the subversion of the Constitution

What was the Prime Minister thinking?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, as I said earlier, this story was raised with me two and a half
years ago. I looked into it. There is absolutely no truth in it.

From the Zytaruk interview:

Zytaruk: "I mean, there was an insurance policy for a million dollars. Do you know anything about that?"

Harper: "I don't know the details. I know that there were discussions, uh, this is not for publication?"

Zytaruk: "This (inaudible) for the book. Not for the newspaper. This is for the book."

Harper: "Um, I don't know the details. I can tell you that I had told the individuals, I mean, they wanted to do it. But I told them they were wasting their time. I said Chuck had made up his mind, he was going to vote with the Liberals and I knew why and I respected the decision. But they were just, they were convinced there was, there were financial issues. There may or may not have been, but I said that's not, you know, I mean, I, that's not going to change."

Zytaruk: "You said (inaudible) beforehand and stuff? It wasn't even a party guy, or maybe some friends, if it was people actually in the party?"

Harper: "No, no, they were legitimately representing the party. I said don't press him. I mean, you have this theory that it's, you know, financial insecurity and, you know, just, you know, if that's what you're saying, make that case but don't press it. I don't think, my view was, my view had been for two or three weeks preceding it, was that Chuck was not going to force an election. I just, we had all kinds of our guys were calling him, and trying to persuade him, I mean, but I just had concluded that's where he stood and respected that."

Zytaruk: "Thank you for that. And when (inaudible)."

Harper: "But the, uh, the offer to Chuck was that it was only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election."

Zytaruk: "Oh, OK."

Harper: "OK? That's my understanding of what they were talking about."

Zytaruk: "But, the thing is, though, you made it clear you weren't big on the idea in the first place?"

Harper: "Well, I just thought Chuck had made up his mind, in my own view ..."

Zytaruk: "Oh, okay. So, it's not like, he's like, (inaudible)."

Harper: "I talked to Chuck myself. I talked to (inaudible). You know, I talked to him, oh, two or three weeks before that, and then several weeks before that. I mean, you know, I kind of had a sense of where he was going."

Zytaruk: "Well, thank you very much."

And a representative exchange from the February 29th debates:

Hon. Ralph Goodale (Wascana, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the
government attacks the word of Mrs. Cadman, but her story is
consistent. It is confirmed by her daughter and by the Prime
Minister's own words.
In an interview taped in 2005 he was asked explicitly about the
insurance offer. He did not deny it. In fact, he confirmed an offer was
made. He confirmed it was about “financial insecurity”, not about a
nomination. He told Conservative officials to “make the case to Mr.
Cadman”.
Did the Prime Minister know that would be an indictable offence
under the Criminal Code?

Mr. James Moore (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of
Public Works and Government Services and for the Pacific
Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics, CPC): Mr.
Speaker, the member for Wascana is, as usual, misrepresenting what
the then leader of the opposition did say.
The member for Wascana was not at the meeting. Three people
were at the meeting. All three people said that no offer was made.
My colleague does not have to take my word for it. On a
nationally televised interview on Global, on May 21, 2005, in
answer to the question “Did he offer you a deal?”, Chuck Cadman
said “No, absolutely nothing. There was never any deal offered"

Baron of Arizona

Watched. Interestingly, Vincent Price's character gets six years in prison, just like Conrad Black. But hard labour, and after narrowly escaping a lynching.

Why we fight

Why is there so little discussion in Canada of the death sentence for blasphemy given to Sayed Pervez Kambakhsh, an Afghan journalist who printed off an article on women's rights from the Internet? Or is this just my impression?

I've searched the Globe & Mail and only find a couple of news articles. (I've tried searching for "afghan journalist death sentence" as well as alternate spellings of Kambakhsh.) I don't find Christie Blatchford, Defender of the Troops, weighing in on this, or Margaret Wente, Scourge of the Saracens (and of Polar Bears etc. but that's not pertinent.) Or for that matter Rick Salutin, who in his Friday column makes some sharp observations on Hillary Clinton's pantsuits.

Much the same in the Star, and the National Post. Maybe the commentary is just well hidden.

And yet it would seem to be very relevant to "our mission" in Afghanistan.

After all, a casual reader might get the impression that Canadian troops are fighting and dying to defend an Islamic Republic against Islamic insurgents. And wonder why they couldn't be left to sort things out between themselves, if they were more or less agreed on the outcome.

Of course, this would be a misconception, and I'm sure our punditry have chosen to ignore this case as it would unnecessarily confuse the Canadian people. Our prime minister has complained that we don't get what's at stake. And we might not get it even worse.

(It's quite possible I am missing something. Maybe there are fierce arguments raging through the mediasphere even as I type this. It's just I haven't noticed. I need to get hit in the head, like this. Good news, the Afghan Senate has withdrawn their support for the death sentence! Checks and balances! The system works!)

Update: No relevant questions in Hansard as far as I can tell. What do we pay these people for?

Quilapayun

Neruda Productions presents Quilapayun , November 10, Kitchener.

Odd that Rzewski should have been in town only a few months ago. I have been listening obsessively to his The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, base on the song by Quilapayun. Isabella attended a talk by Rzewski, and he mentioned how the publishers of the song had come after him when he had recorded the song (Imagine! Socialists!). What he minded was that to them his variations were not considered original but merely an 'arrangement'. He ended up splitting the proceeds with the songwriter. "Music should be free!" said Rzewski, "and if it's not free, steal it!" He meant his own music. (A friend reported that shortly after this Rzewski's oeuvre began appearing on Demonoid.) This story is as Isabella told me and I remember it, so it may not be entirely complete or accurate.

Solidarity

Here. I have to write this down. Am reading The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century by Sheri Berman and here's Corradini addressing the opening congress of the Italian Nationalist Association in 1910:

"For years and years the socialists ... have been preaching to the workers that it was in their interest to show solidarity with the workers of Cochin-China or Paraguay and to dissociate themselves completely from their employers and the Italian nation. We must drum it into the worker's heads that it is in their best interests to maintain solidarity with their employers and, above all, with their own country and to hell with solidarity with their comrades in Paraguay or Cochin-China"

And I just had to write that down. Because it is illuminating. Easy to disagree with but hard to resist the allure of -- this fuck the wretched of the Earth, what about us?

Stephane Dion

I think the man needs to learn some poker. Not that I know any. But some people recommend it for just these situations. I'm sure David Mamet would urge it upon him.

Here's a line for him, from Henry V:

We would not seek a battle as we are,
yet as we are, we say we will not shun it.


Of course he may not want to use this line, as it is the English taunting the French, after all. But the sentiment and style are what's called for.

He needs to remind Mr. Harper that Canadians have elected a parliament in which every party is a minority -- that nevertheless Canadians expect the parties to co-operate in governing the country -- and that it is the height of arrogance to declare that bills offered by his government are complete, perfect, unalterable, irreplaceable and desperate necessities of our country. He should also remind Mr. Harper that it is not in his power to call an election; only the Governor-General may do so; and if Her Majesty's Representative sees fit to call on him, Stephane Dion, he would gladly attempt to form a government that can govern the country by making astute compromises with the other parties in parliament; yes, even Mr. Harper's.

Anyway, that's how I imagine a game of poker being played. But it's possible I am thinking of chess.

Novels in Three Lines

Went to Wordsworths to see if "Novels in Three Lines" by Felix Feneon might have come in and was not disappointed.

Again and again Mme Couderc, of Saint-Ouen, was prevented from hanging herself from her window bolt. Exasperated, she fled across the fields.

It is a collection of faits-divers printed in Le Matin in 1906, written by notoriously laconic writer Felix Feneon and only preserved because his mistress collected them.

Amorous hatred caused Alice Gallois, of Vaujours, to throw acid in the face of her step-brother, and, accidentally, a passerby. She's all of 14.

Feneon was an anarchist. He was arrested after a bombing and detonators were found in his closet at his office in the Ministry of War. He claimed his father had found them in the street. Challenged on this in court he replied, "The examining magistrate asked me why I hadn't throw them out the window instead of taking them to the Ministry. So you see, it is possible to find detonators in the street." He was acquitted.

"May the will of Allah be done!" cried the Berber Igoucinem yesterday, at Bougie, before the guillotine.

(The name Igoucinem does not appear in Google.)

Translated, and with an introduction, by Luc Sante.

Vote for MMP

I'll be voting Yes in the Oct. 10 Ontario referendum on electoral reform.

Why? Let me think about that.

I suppose because I think we are ruled by alpha-dogs.

They win a majority with something less than %50 of the vote -- maybe as little as 37% as in the 1990 provincial election --

They win a landslide on such a slender basis.

And they think:

'Man, we're good! We can do anything we want!'

(And sometimes they do.)

Or, they don't get a majority. They get a minority with 36% of the vote, say, as in the 2006 federal election. And they think:

'We were that close!'

And then they govern for the next year or two as if they are playing a slot machine. Just the right shove might hit the jackpot.

I'm in favour of MMP because it will make a majority government very hard to attain, given the political ecosystem that tends to obtain in Canada.

I want the alpha-dogs to get into parliament and think:

'Crap! We're going to have to deal with those assholes across the aisle -- forever!'

I want the alpha-dogs to realize they are pulling the sled, not leading it.

(This will sound to some people like sadism. I freely confess it.)

KW Theatre Artists Threatened with Knife

Madji Bou-Matar, artistic director of MTSpace Theatre, and visiting artist Omar Rajeh, choreographer and artistic director of Maqamat Theatre Dance of Beirut, were threatened with a knife by an aggressive panhandler last night in downtown Kitchener.

Mr. Bou-Matar and Mr. Rajeh were on their way to prestigious Kitchener restaurant Twenty King Street (41 King St. W, Kitchener) to attend a dinner in honour of Mr. Rajeh, when they were approached by a panhandler. Politely declining his request for funds, they continued on, and were followed by a torrent of abuse. When they returned to have a word with him, the "gentleman" (as Mr. Bou-Matar referred to him) drew a knife and threatened to slash their faces. At this moment the police arrived and the man was arrested, luckily for him. After making a statement to the police, the two theatre artists continued on to the restaurant where the evening was spent in fine talk and disquisition.

Suffragette Koans

Congratulations to Waterloo playwright and artist Linda Carson whose play "Suffragette Koans" will receive its American premiere at the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles, September 14th - 16th.

Pinteresque

Pinteresque, June 14-23, at the Registry Theatre

presented by MTSpace

Directed by Majdi Bou-Matar
Video by Terrance Odette
Music by Nick Storring

Performed by
Badih Abouchakra
Nicholas Cumming
Anastaziya Tataryn
Stella Umeh

The Enlightenment

Link: PlayMyGame

K.M Hunter Awards

Isabella is one of the recipients of the 2007 K. M. Hunter Awards, in the multimedia category.

Intelligent Community of the Year

Waterloo

And look what this intelligence can accomplish!

Rzewski

Just downloaded from iTunes, Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, 36 variations for piano on the original song El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!, played by Stephen Drury. I confess I had never heard the original, not being a hard-core demo-goer (or even a demo-goer of any kind), but it is beautiful, and poignant, since of course it expresses a wish rather than states a fact. And in 36 variations we hear this theme lost, rediscovered, obsessed over ... a vision of lost solidarity, which is perhaps as good an ultimate end as salvation or enlightenment.

I saw Rzewski (and heard of his work for the first time) at the Open Ears Festival, at the Registry Theatre, where he played a piece called "Stop the War!" and a setting of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis and something else (I can't find the program), and as an encore something he called a nano-sonata, one of many.

Isabella also saw a talk given him where he said something like music should be free and if it isn't, then steal it!

So glad I was introduced to this amazing composer. Thanks, Open Ears.

Le Dernier Caravansérail

Found this at Twelfth Night in Waterloo. A film adaptation of Théâtre du Soleil's Le Dernier Caravansérail, directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, in a 2-DVD set with a booklet. Published by Bel Air Classiques and distributed by Harmonia Mundi. ISBN 2-240-02543-3.

Four and half hours in length cut down from the six hour performance. Interesting doc included showing how scenes in the film looked on stage (but "stage" doesn't really do justice to La Cartoucherie, a former munitions factory.)

It is based on stories gathered from refugees principally from the Sangatte refugee camp near Calais which was shut down in 2002. Episodic with recurring characters but no protagonist as such. The Taliban when they appear are like demons tormenting the damned; the pimps and other human traffickers only a little less so.

Mistaken For Love

Art Film Music

Back from Japan

We have been back from Japan now for I don't know how long -- three weeks? Both got sick when we returned. I especially had a hard time getting back to local time. It took me a week. While I had adjusted to Tokyo time in a couple of days. Because it was spring in Tokyo and we could lie out in the sunshine at Shinjuku Gyoen. Stayed at the Easton Hotel in Nakano-Sakaue. Every morning had coffee and pain au raisin at the Vie de France at the station. There was a Romanian restaurant just down the street but we did not go because Isabella thought it would be just too weird, to eat at a Romanian restaurant in Tokyo.

Saw a lot of Noh plays. 10? 11? Over three days. My impressions of Noh: refined, delicate, at the same time raw, primal. Refined movements, and I must presume the poetry; raw in the drums and drum calls and chanting. (I wonder what effect a soliloquy would have if punctuated with drum calls.) Abstract in the sense that objects or people have significance that is understood, and no effort is expended on illusion. So -- a golden tablet falls from heaven -- the stage hand brings it out and sets it down before the actor. Look! A golden tablet fell from heaven!

We also saw one scene of Kabuki from the 47 ronin. The strangest thing is the stage hand dressed as a ninja (and all the more visible for that) running out to crouch behind the main actor and wait patiently for minutes until his moment came -- to remove the tea tray! Unless he also represented the evil impulse moving Lord such-and-such to goad his companion into drawing his sword.

Tom Paine on Stephen Harper

"The world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any."

Tom Paine to George Washington in 1796. Quoted in William Christian's column in this morning's Record (unfortunately behind the subscriber wall), where he also expresses reservations about other leaders.

GenX Video ...

... is, as everyone knows, a mainstay of the cultural life of Waterloo and even Kitchener-Waterloo, along with the Princess Cinema. However, they seem to be in a turmoil at the moment, or else they have adapted something like Borges' Chinese Encyclopedia as a classification scheme. That is,

1. Documentaries
   
2. Movies sacred to the Emperor
3. The Criterion Collection
4. Nouvelle Vague
   
5. TV Series
6. New Arrivals
7. Armenian Movies
8. Stray Dog(s)
   
9. others
   
10. Movies made by Stanley Kubrick
11. Godzilla

Or something like that. Anyway, it is good that I was looking for a Criterion movie (The Fallen Idol), or else I would have had to ask someone for help! The horror!

Another thing. They have a sticker that goes on a movie to identify it as Gay. I can't imagine why this should be necessary. You pick up a movie and it has a picture of two members of the same sex in a state of undress, or it has a title with Gay in it, or something like that -- and you say to yourself, aha, this is a gay movie, that is not my glass of tea, or it is, whatever -- so what is the sticker for? So gay people can zero in on them quickly? Or so non-gay people don't pick them up and go eek!

Ok, it's this, I want to get out "Angels in America" and it has a gay sticker on it. I'll have to send someone in.