We're not backing down! Except when votes are called

Reader Paul just pointed out that the Liberal website has changed. (07:38:00 PM)

Heh.

To refresh your memory, it looked like this earlier today.

Update - Headlines still there after all. This blogger obviously needs to get some sleep. Anyone else notice any changes?

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More huffing & puffing - Tories easily survive confidence vote. (Check out the wording of the Liberal amendment!)

Oh and what did PM Harper say earlier today? Something about this being the biggest mistake the Leader of the Liberal Party ever made or something to that effect? Check out Steve Janke. It's a bombshell.

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Tuesday Update:

Mike Brock - Parade of Incompetence.

O.K. Now please check out the Liberal website and tell me if the headline in question is still there (refer to Mike's link just above). I don't see it anymore.

Yet - "Liberals won't back off bribery allegations..." (Globe)

Star - Tories' support stays steady.

CTV - Harper Government easily survives final budget vote.

Curiouser and curiouser

Dona Cadman suddenly recalls an important event.


CBC spin = This doesn't mean it didn't happen - just that the PM didn't know about it.

Don Martin and another reporter are on CBC just now and are being very careful to use the word "alleged".

More - Cadman's wife speaks in support of Harper (CTV)

Stephen Taylor - Harper removed from Cadman related allegation.

Freedom in my Nationality - Maybe Dion jumped the gun eh.

Post - Dissecting the Harper notice of libel. (Note how they delete the offensive title)


Warren Kinsella weighs in - Cadscam gets complicated. Surprisingly supportive of the PM, for the most part. Now this guy knows from libel.


3:05 Update from Robert Fife at CTV - He said that Ken Dryden was overheard to have yelled at the PM in QP, "If this is true, you're dead! You're dead!"

Nice. Reminds me of this.


Good discussion going on at David Akin's blog.


Tuesday Update: Dona Cadman's website.

Province - Hard to make sense of this convoluted story.

Update: HARPER LAUNCHES LAWSUIT!!!

1:30 p.m. - Dona Cadman has a sudden memory jog - CBC. ("Dona Cadman recalls talk with Harper about insurance policy offer")

10:00 am - BREAKING: CTV - Harper files notice of libel over Cadman allegations.

Mike Duffy is talking to Jeff Allan right now! 10:30 Update - This segment is over now, but Duffy says things could get interesting in Question Period this afternoon. He predicts that the Liberals will abandon this line of questioning today. MDL should be a good watch this evening!


PM taking legal action against Dion, Liberals - Star.

Platty has the actual letter here - Care to repeat that outside?

CBL - Reid: Harper has served Liberals with notice of a lawsuit.

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Original Post: Opposition parties jockeying for face time...


The Globe's Brian Laghi reports today that the NDP is balking at the Cadman controversy being referred to either the Ethics committee or the RCMP. Pat Martin would prefer to have the matter referred instead to the newly-created Special Federal Prosecutor.

...NDP MP Pat Martin said he no longer wants the matter to be sent to a special ethics committee because the testimony given there is protected from being used in future prosecutions. Sending it to the RCMP is also problematic because of increasing unease with the national force, he said.

"After the dust settles, the ethics committee might want to look at the results and make recommendations to see if our ethical guidelines and standards are robust enough," Mr. Martin told CTV's Question Period yesterday.

The federal government has established the position of a federal prosecutor to look into such matters. The NDP and other parties are concerned because it is the role of the Justice Minister to decide which individuals undergo prosecutorial reviews.

But Mr. Martin said the Tories' reputation for transparency and accountability will be harmed if they don't forward the issue to the prosecutor's office. The Tories promised the creation of the office in the 2006 election campaign.

Some Liberals were surprised by the move and suggested that the New Democrats may be afraid that the Liberals would receive too much publicity if the committee were to look into the matter...

Meanwhile, some inconsistencies and questions continue to plague the story, such as whether there were two meetings or just one, and whether or not Cadman's assistant Dan Wallace was privy to the details - which Mr. Wallace flatly denies:

...Dan Wallace, Mr. Cadman's legislative assistant, was situated just outside the MP's private office during the meeting. Mr. Cadman met with senior Tories Doug Finley and Tom Flanagan just hours before the crucial vote. But Mr. Wallace has also said he doesn't know the details of any offers...

In any case, there is no doubt that the opposition parties are falling all over themselves in an effort to use this controversy as political ammo to discredit the current government.

The interesting thing will be to see how far they go trying to outmaneuver each other in order claim the glory for attempting to appear to be the more ethical alternative.

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Afternoon update: Afghan vote set for March 13: CTV.

While we're calling for investigations...

Diane Francis calls Shawinigate the 'Mother of all Scandals', and declares that it deserves a "full-blown Parliamentary investigation" - Ottawa: probe Chretien, Shawinigate:

...This one involved millions in government money in the 1990s spent by the Liberals in the riding, and to partners, of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
It’s timely again because on Friday the Ontario Appeal Court ruled in favor of the RCMP which has requested documents from the National Post obtained from a confidential source involving its Shawinigate series of stories.

The series dealt with potential conflicts of interest involving federal grants and loans to local constituents and a hotel called Auberge Grand Mere... (During Chretien’s tenure as Prime Minister there were years when his riding got more Ottawa money than did the Province of Alberta. Or half of Africa. That’s a scandal in itself.)

But the latest twist was reported on Saturday in the Post:
“The [court] ruling is the latest round in a nearly seven-year legal battle that began when the RCMP asked the National Post to turn over the material sent by a confidential source to reporter Andrew McIntosh.”
“The source alleged the document was a copy of a Business Development Bank of Canada loan authorization for a hotel in Mr. Chretien’s riding. The bank, the Prime Minister’s Office and a lawyer for Mr. Chretien were sent copies of the document and insisted it was forged.” That’s a scandal in itself.)

( . . . )

The press freedom issue is important but really a sideshow. Whatever happens on that front, Shawinigate has never been plumbed by an inquiry and the public deserves to know what went on inside the Chretien regime.

Something tells me Warren's not going to like this one.

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Update: CTV - Paper ordered to surrender 'Shawinigate' documents.

More at Jack's Newswatch.

And lost in all the uproar of various scandals was the passing of this important piece of legislation - finally: It took Canada long enough to raise the age of consent. (Winnipeg Free Press)

Does this Duck 'have legs'?

It would appear that I wasn't too far off-base after all with my comparison of the Ontario Lottery scandal to Adscam.

The Globe's Murray Campbell (Ghost of Gomery Helping Caplan Keep His Seat in Cabinet) suggests that Caplan et al have learned lessons from Paul Martin's reaction to the sponsorship scandal, and are now using a 'Don't worry be happy' approach instead of fire and brimstone.

"Let's just say the lessons of Gomery were well noted and often mentioned," said a senior government official.

However, I have a few problems with Mr. Campbell's column. First of all he seems to be indicating that Caplan's staff somehow coached the OLG on how to deal with the unwanted publicity:

When the Public Infrastructure Minister began feeling the heat over apparent misdeeds at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the advice from his staff to the agency was to fight hard if it thought it had been wronged.

And yet, we hear quite the contrary in this report by Keith Leslie:

The cabinet minister at the centre of Ontario's lottery scandal denied Wednesday that the Liberal government told the provincial agency responsible to launch a public relations offensive to refute reports that retailers were winning too many jackpots.

Interesting. So where did Campbell get his information from?


Leslie also notes that the opposition parties are not giving up:

The opposition parties said the involvement of two high-profile Liberals shows the premier's office was involved in developing the lottery corporation's response plan.

"These two partisan McGuinty operatives are having meetings to try and spin your way out of this scandal, but the premier's very own fingerprints are all over this," Tory said.

"If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it's probably a cover-up."

Campell seems to be of the opinion that the 'Circle the Wagons' approach is working, and that this whole thing will soon be off the public radar:

The opposition says it will keep up its attack, but the reality is that the story needs oxygen to survive. They are hoping for lottery-corporation whistle-blowers to emerge, but that may be a vain hope...

I don't know about that. Something tells me that this could very well be an issue for the opposition and taxpayers to take to the bank.

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Update: They're starting to jump ship!!!