statism watch

Because they’re working together now that Ignatieff is the leader…? Into the memory hole with this story.

CBC News
February 6, 2009

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has dropped a $3.5-million libel lawsuit against the Liberal party over statements published on the party’s website suggesting the Tories offered a bribe to the late Independent MP Chuck Cadman.

Lawyers for both parties issued a joint news release late Friday, saying they’ve settled all issues in the case.

Neither side will make any further comment.

Harper launched the lawsuit in March 2008 after the Liberal party posted website headlines alleging two senior Conservatives attempted to bribe Cadman to secure his co-operation on a crucial budget vote that threatened to topple the Liberal minority government in May 2005. The headlines claimed Harper also knew about the alleged bribe.

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CBC News
February 6, 2009

Canada’s job losses in January surpassed anything seen during the previous economic downturns in the 1980s and 1990s, Statistics Canada said Friday.

With the economy staggering in recession, Canada’s unemployment rate shot up by 0.6 percentage points in January to 7.2 per cent as 129,000 jobs were lost. Almost all of the job losses were in full-time work.

Since October, the battered Canadian economy has lost 213,000 jobs.

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BBC News
February 6, 2009

Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data are “pervasive” in British society and threaten to undermine democracy, peers have warned.

CCTV cameras and the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy, the Lords constitution committee said.

It called for compensation for people subject to illegal surveillance.

The government said CCTV and DNA were “essential” to fight crime but campaign group Liberty said abuses of power mean “even the innocent have a lot to fear”.

‘Orwellian’

Civil liberties campaigners have warned about the risks of a “surveillance society” in which the state acquires ever-greater powers to track people’s movements and retain personal data.

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Yeah… that’ll likely be CSIS again, despite the ‘plausible deniability’ coming out of Lawrence Cannon’s department.

Flashback: CSIS faces review in Khadr case

CBC News
February 6, 2009

Allegations are emerging that a Canadian might have been involved in the torture of one of Britain’s last remaining residents at Guantanamo Bay.

Binyam Mohamed, 31, claims to have been tortured after being arrested in Pakistan in 2002. And he alleges that Britain was complicit in the torture and Canada may have also had a role in his rendition.

Mohamed was flown to Morocco after his arrest and interrogated. He alleges that after refusing to speak with Americans, a third-party intermediary, who called herself “Sarah, the Canadian,” was brought in.

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Naturally, this means Mike Lazaridis will step down from Jim Flaherty’s unelected panel of economic mandarins. Right?

Note also that if you read this article carefully, those culpable are paying NOTHING out of pocket.

Flashback: RIM execs, securities watchdog reach settlement

Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew, Toronto Star
February 6, 2009

Stock-option violations spark record settlement; billionaire Balsillie says `mistakes were made’

The Ontario Securities Commission has slapped $77 million in penalties and restitution against four company officials from Research in Motion Ltd., Canada’s high-tech superstar.

The amount ordered in the case, in which the commission says RIM employees raked in $66 million over 10 years from improperly backdated stock options, is the largest ever levied by the province’s stock market watchdog.

It may also be a sign that the commission, often criticized for being soft when it comes to enforcing stock market regulations, is getting tough.

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