“Health colleges routinely cut deals to shorten suspensions for members caught making fake billings if certain conditions are met, the Star found.

These conditions include ethics and accounting courses, remedial training and requiring the health professional to pay the college’s costs in building the discipline case.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/10/03/web-of-deceit-pharmacist-billed-province-for-dead-patients.html

http://www.ocpinfo.com/about/

“In the last five years, nearly 350 officers from police services in the Greater Toronto Area — Toronto, Peel, York, Halton and Durham — and the OPP have been disciplined for what their own services call “serious” misconduct, a Star investigation has found.

Roughly one in five of those officers was disciplined because he or she had been found guilty of criminal offences, including assaulting his or her spouse, drunk driving, possessing drugs and theft.

Nearly 50 of the officers were disciplined more than once; some were nailed for new offences just months after being penalized for past misconduct. One officer was busted for being drunk behind the wheel twice in one week.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/19/hundreds-of-officers-in-the-greater-toronto-area-disciplined-for-serious-misconduct-in-past-five-years.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/21/police-officers-caught-using-their-position-for-personal-gain-in-recent-years.html

“Twice in the last six months, CRA agents have admitted to me that Canada’s tax collector agency has broken Canada’s privacy laws.

Nobody seems to notice.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/why-did-revenue-canada-get-away-with-breaching-my-privacy/article22061423/

“According to officials at the ministry of public safety, which releases the report each year on RCMP’s crimes, most of the laws are broken during undercover operations.

The police immunity stems from a 1999 Supreme Court ruling that found that while police officers are not immune from criminal liability, Parliament could decide on some immunity if it were in the “public interest.”

In 2003, Parliament tabled an amendment to the criminal code that allowed officers and agents to break laws – with permission – on the condition the acts “were subject to a legal requirement of reasonableness and proportionality,” the 2012 report said.

In addition to the RCMP, the law breaking privileges extend to customs officers and immigration officers.”

http://ipolitics.ca/2013/06/07/undercover-civilians-allowed-to-break-law-during-cra-corruption-probe/

“For example, the rights and immunities accorded to [Parliament] Members individually are generally categorized under the following headings:

• freedom of speech;
• freedom from arrest in civil actions;
• exemption from jury duty;
• exemption from attendance as a witness.
  …”

http://www.parl.gc.ca/marleaumontpetit/DocumentViewer.aspx?Language=E&Print=2&Sec=Ch03&Seq=2

If you read about the shit that Rob Ford’s buddy Gene Jones did, and allowed to happen, it’s no wonder Rob Ford is up his ass with every inch of his taxpayer-respecting love — they’re both cut from the same cloth:

An executive assistant for one of the City Councillors was looking for a
new job and approached a recruitment firm for assistance. The firm
contacted the CEO and informed him that the EA was looking for new
opportunities. She had previously met the CEO during the course of her
work.

With no job competition or posting of the job opportunity, the CEO
created and gave her a new manager position.

While he acknowledged that TCH “absolutely” required that all open
positions had to be advertised, the CEO stated he did not advertise for
this position because, “[I]t’s my prerogative when I want to give that
position to the best person with experience, internally or externally …”

The CEO promoted the manager less than six months later and
appointed her to be a senior director with a raise of $30,000.

Ford thinks this guy’s a straight shooter and we should all be sucking on his dick. No doubt, Ford conducts himself the same way — and what’s wrong with that?

Now consider that in 2014 Toronto, Jones walks away with whatever “executive pay” he’s dolled out to himself and his friends, and of course a healthy and well-deserved severance payment of $200,000, on top of $1.6 million in severance for all of the people he fired without cause; and then there’s Rob Ford (personally responsible for getting Jones his job), who’s openly admitted to buying and doing hard drugs, is connected to gangs and murders, has broken every rule and many laws out there, yet still hasn’t even been given even a lousy traffic ticket, and is in fact running for mayor again.

Oh, and Crean, the woman who detailed the latest Ford-linked shitpile in one-hundred and eleven pages is the actual waste according to Ford, who’s practically choked up by the fact that corrupt assholes like Jones and Lisi aren’t being thrown honorific parades.

My issue isn’t so much that people like this exist — I think that that must reasonably be expected in any society. What concerns me deeply is the fact that this is now systemic: we have a system that welcomes corruption and criminality (as far as I know, Ford & co. still have full access to City Hall, etc.), and has been shown to attack only those who expose it.

Take, for example, the fact that no one has been able to show very much harm done by Edward Snowden’s revelations (do you suppose most governments already knew?) yet he’s public enemy #1 at the moment in the US. The most obvious harm done was to the government’s claim of “authority”, honesty, trustworthiness, etc., and its image wasn’t great to begin with.

That politics are tied to money is no revelation. And law+enforcement collude with politics to make for a perfect trifecta of “do as we say … or else”. It’s good old-fashioned gangsterism.

How else do you explain the fact that the Supreme Court unanimously allowed the government to defraud all Canadians to the tune of $57 billion over a period of three years? (strange how there seems to be no web history dating back to 2008 for this story — almost like they didn’t want people to know)

Oh, okay, they didn’t use the “defraud” word, they said (did I mention that it was unanimous?) that the government “illegally” seized $57 billion in Employment Insurance from Canadians in 2002, 2003, 2005.

You call it “illegal”, I call it “fraud”.

But the Supreme Court didn’t order a refund or an apology. Instead they simply said that the EI system had to be changed to make sure this never happened again.

It took ’em a few years but they finally did something.

The government completely gutted the system and “appropriated” the money elsewhere (part of the original complaint), steeply hiked up the amount that all Canadians would have to pay into the suddenly poor EI system, and have profited from it and made their own lives cushy and comfortable while trying real hard to ensure no one else benefits – especially not the people paying into the thing.

If you’re working “legally” in Canada, you are literally paying (and more now than ever) for the “illegally” seized funds that the government took from you under false authority years ago. And this is all based on the unanimous assessment and continuing consent of Canada’s Supreme Court.

Rob Ford, as much of an asshole as he is, is merely the symptom of a very sick system.

See, when I make headlines like the one above, I always get the feeling that new readers are going to immediately dismiss the accompanying posts simply because the headlines sound made-up. At the very least, they sound like hyperbole or some sort of truth-bending. The other option is that I’m just pulling the readers’ legs.

And yet, not only is the one-liner accurate, as is usually the case with the Fords, it actually doesn’t go nearly far enough.

The ethics thing comes straight from the mouth and hand of reprobascious Doug Ford who marched into a social housing project in his ward with a wad of cash and started peeling off $20 bills to hand out to residents. Such actions obviously prove, as they have since day one, that Rob and Doug are just two average guys like the rest of us — not the rich, privileged, “elite”, corrupt, greezee-haired, gold-chained mobster politicians that their “enemies” are (which basically encompasses everyone at this point). Obviously.

This obvious vote-buying isn’t a problem, apparently, since an election has not yet been called. But even if we were in an election period and something could be done (which it wouldn’t), it’s clear that there would be no consequences to the belligerent Ford reign. And, of course, it wouldn’t be Ford (either one, really), if he didn’t defend his vileness while simultaneously letting the world know what he thinks of morals and ethics:

It’s my choice [to grease palms]. He [Councillor Gord Perks] can think all the ethics he wants. It doesn’t even faze me.

The very same can be said of brother Rob who, as you may recall, is facing a libel suit for alleging that Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale is a pedophile, a claim made for no apparent reason in a now-missing Vision TV interview with fellow loquacious loser Conrad Black (Vision, part of rich media barron Moses Znaimer’s ZoomerMedia, is also being sued for the same reason). There’s absolutely no proof that I know of to back Ford’s claim — in fact, plenty to the contrary showing that Rob Ford is, as he always was, a lying, immoral, violent, crack-smoking jerkhole.

But, you know, he wouldn’t be Robbie if he didn’t stand by his bizarre off-the-cuff slander time and time again; and, of course, it wouldn’t be Doug if he didn’t defend his brother’s unconscionable bullshit the whole way.

Seems like these days you hardly have time to turn around before another casualty of the Rob Ford administration comes out of the woodwork.

Just today another two staffers have been “escorted” out of City Hall. This time around it was Brian Johnston, Ford’s policy advisor, and Kia Nejatian, his executive assistant. That makes five people in total. So far.

Then comes the news that someone involved with the crack video (at least in terms of being in it), has been arrested in connection with the murder of Anthony Smith, the guy standing next to Ford in the same video (at least in the still that’s been floating around). In fact, they’re all hugging it up, making Ford’s presence smack dab in the middle of the group just that much more suspicious.

And the “non-existent” crack video, as Ford vehemently claims, seems all the more real every passing day as additional details surrounding his staff’s efforts to hunt it down have emerged. Seems Rob was personally involved in trying to get his hands on the video that doesn’t exist.

There’s also that pesky rumour that Robbie’s been busy behind the scenes destroying records — presumably of his misdeeds. Regardless, that’s just plain illegal.

If that wasn’t all bad enough, both friendly and not-so-friendly politicians are all taking a step back and saying they want nothing to do with the Fords.

And in the meantime, as a little gift to all of his taxpayers, he hasn’t even mentioned the one thing he vowed to be fighting: excessive spending at City Hall, specifically a computer project that has ballooned from around $8 million to $70 million on his watch.

This project sounds eerily familiar to the MFP computer scandal … that one resulted in the creation of the conflict of interest rules that Rob Ford was the first one to test and get away with on an egregious technicality — and then wanted the watchdogs responsible for preventing a repeat of that fiasco to be gotten rid of (among others asking too many questions for his liking).

Basically, the muddle of corruption, greed, and criminality has come full circle, and the Fords are sitting right in the middle of it in one way or another.

But don’t worry, maintains Robbie … everything’s fine!

Although I tend to lace my political analyses with a lot more profanity and not so subtle calls to action, I’m heartened to see that the mainstream media seem to be waking up to what’s happening — at least here in Canada.

Christopher Hume’s piece in the Toronto Star today, for example, demonstrates a willingness to no longer tip-toe around the issues. Although I wish I could quote the entire article, the last few-ish paragraphs sum it all up perfectly:

It was painful to watch our prime minister and chief environmental scofflaw, Boss Harper, squirm in New York last week as he tried to talk his way out of his antediluvian attitudes to climate change.

It was just as excruciating to witness Sheriff Ford’s efforts to deal with reports of a video of him apparently smoking crack. The man has yet to mount any defence beyond, “ridiculous.”

Through it all we remain so polite, deferential and glad to be of use, that a good many Torontonians lined up to denounce the media that did them the favour of revealing the mayor for what he is, an overgrown man-child who does what he wants, the city be damned.

Harper, by contrast, knows what he’s doing. He knows his actions are reckless, but to him ethics are a nicety leaders can’t afford.

Neither Harper nor Ford respect government, its institutions or the positions they hold. Both believe themselves exempt. To them, Canadians are gullible or too preoccupied with getting by to hold them responsible.

As bad as things may be, Canadians are terrified they could be worse.

I applaud you, Mr. Hume, for taking a stand against the blithe illegality and corruption of our various levels of government. Now we just need more people to do the same.

Toronto’s top cop, Chief Bill Blair, sent out an internal video to his staff a couple of days ago to express his displeasure at some of his members’ conduct — things like beating handcuffed and defenseless suspects, turning off dashboard cams to hide their behaviour, lying to courts, etc. And part of his statement seemed to hit the nail on the head:

“…you don’t get to be an idiot in our uniform, you don’t get to be an idiot diminishing our organization and you cannot hide behind the badge to abuse the authority so carefully earned and so carefully used by all of us.”

Nice words, but as critics are quickly pointing out, if words are all there are, nothing’s going to change. After all, if there are cops out there who are not only not doing their job but willing to publicly break the law (while simultaneously collecting a hefty salary), I don’t think the situation is one that requires a stern tongue lashing.

Fordo does it again!

It’s bad enough to set the example that it’s okay to flagrantly break driving laws and talk on a cell phone while behind the wheel, but now His Ascended Fattiness has been caught driving past open streetcar doors on Toronto streets while passengers were boarding. Anyone who lives in the city knows that streetcars can’t come to the curb so drivers must stop to let passengers on.

Of course, this law doesn’t apply to the mayor who apparently gets to plow through anyone he chooses because he’s Rob Fucking Ford! How do I know it doesn’t apply? Simply because, despite having words with the streetcar operator, Ford once again got away without so much as the measly $109 fine. There was a streetcar full of witnesses, and it’s unlikely that most of them wouldn’t recognize our Illustrious Thickness at this point, so why the fuck aren’t the police charging him with breaking the law?

And what was Fucking Ford’s response? He’s apparently the one that “had comments” for the TTC operator and then lodged a goddamn complaint against him for having the gall to confront him! And Ford’s lapdog, Andy Byford, has said that he can’t comment on the complaint because,  “In the same way as normally we wouldn’t comment on specifics around a customer complaint, I’m not going to on this occasion.” Really, Andy? Last time I checked, Rob Ford was in his van or whatever the hell he drives, and not on the TTC, and hence not a customer. In fact, when was the last time Ford squeezed his fat ass onto public transit?

So in the long run, does it matter at all that the mayor once again brazenly broke the law, chided the operator for calling him on it, and then instead of trying to do the right thing tried to get the operator fired?

“As far as we’re concerned the matter is closed,” TTC spokesman Brad Ross said. “We’re not going to comment on the incident.”

Hooray! Another day of justice for Toronto.

To claim that certain right-wing Toronto Councillors are criminals is no longer a question, certainly not when they come right and admit it.

Giorgio Mamolitti has now shown utmost contempt for the democratic process, the law, common sense, and everything else he has sworn to uphold as a Toronto Councillor and has now publicly stated that he will do everything he can, including breaking the law, in order to prevent the democratically decided-upon plan to build LRTs.

This goes way beyond the mere infantile screaming and pounding of fists of the kind that Ford is doing, and even beyond the wholesale contempt that the Ford gang are showing for democracy and any semblance of common sense. I mean, it was bad enough that Fordo voted for Transit City, then illegally cancelled it when taking power, and then got all huffy and puffy trying to have it reinstated while simultaneously slagging the original plan. What that demonstrated was that Rob Ford’s plan was all about doing things his way and his way only.

That was bad enough.

It was worse that at the eleventh hour, the idiots Ford depended on other Councillors to put forward bullshit funding proposals, no doubt because such ideas went directly against each end every election promise that His Engorgedness made, and all because they had absolutely no plan, no backers, and no clue to back up their subway plan. They couldn’t even pull some ideas of the Transit City plan that Fordo killed, presumably because he can’t read.

And despite months of lies and rhetoric, none of Ford’s imaginary backroom deals with developers and his “public-private partnership funding” ever materialized, despite His Portliness vowing to do “whatever it takes” to win over opinions. I guess “whatever it takes” means “absolutely nothing”, and certainly with no basis in reality. In fact, to this date Ford has not managed to produce a single voice of support except for his Council lapdogs and his scumbag buddies at the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition who regularly take to telling anyone with any contrary ideas to “fuck off” and not-so-subtle threats of cutting off of heads — my own personal experience and certainly not preceded with any similar abuse. All 30 or so of them, clearly a fair and accurate representation of all “Toronto taxpayers” (a designation which, according to them, no one else belongs to).

Then Fatty and his cadre of myopic morons resorted to threatening various levels of government with his non-existent “Ford Nation” (more than once), which, of course, turned out to be just more unadulterated bullshit and hot air, while always taking the time to blame everyone but the overweight master for a complete inability to get anything done at City Hall. Clearly no other mayor ever got anything done, so that’s a fair argument, and Ford’s tenure as a Councillor of 10 years means he couldn’t possibly have an idea of how anything works. Yeah, they actually believe and defend this!

If this wasn’t bad enough, Ford fired the chief general manager of the Toronto Transit Commission for, literally, telling the truth and stating that he thought, in his professional opinion and many years on the job, that LRTs were simply the better choice given all the circumstances, all in a weaselly move hastily pulled behind the back of the chair of the Toronto Transit Commission while she was on vacation.

All of this nonsense, including Ford’s insistence on removing revenue sources like the relatively tiny Vehicle Registration Tax (saving the taxpayer a whopping $0.16 per day), or removing bicycle lanes on Jarvis Street, or the firing of Gary Webster, have easily and at the very least doubled the deficit that Ford vowed with haughty huffs and fat-stifled breaths to get rid of during his election campaign which, of course, he blamed on the preceding administration but which he clearly pulled straight of his voluminous ass.

No, that’s not all bad enough; now ass-licking minion Mammoliti has vowed that despite all of this, he is not only willing to stand behind his puffy master (a dangerous place to be in any event), but has openly and publicly stated that he, like Rob Ford, doesn’t give a shit about what the democratic majority decided, and is in fact willing to break the law in order to get what he wants. Why? Because his constituents (none of which have materialized, of course), have told him this. No doubt just like Rob Ford’s multitudes of subway supporters, which numerous media outlets have substantiated (to be a complete lie).

Folks, it’s become increasingly obvious what’s going on here: we have a handful of Councillors who are attempting to illegally usurp power at City Hall and destroy the democratic process in order to push their dystopian vision of a corporate-run, Fascist (the most correct and apt adjective), city that they rule over like the bloated autocrats they believe themselves to be (do any of their actions say otherwise?). They’ve demonstrated time and time again that even when they outwardly claim to care about the opinions of citizens, they really don’t — just watch a few hours of the budget depositions of 2011 and see how many time Ford walks out and Mammoliti screams and shouts about how he’s being offended and how people need to listen to him.

We have a responsibility to keep these people in check and, should the time come, we have the power of citizens’ arrest specifically to address times when corruption has overrun our institutions, not to mention the moral responsibility to stand up and defend the highest laws of the land. I’m not suggesting braking the law or going against the authority of the police — in fact, my vehement hope is that the law applies equally to everyone and that justice is also served equally. But should that fail, we musn’t allow our democracy to be overrun by admitted criminals; that itself is a crime.

Did you ever see Purple Rain? You know, the one with Prince — or the more endearing TAFKAP, as he’s now known? I didn’t either. Well, kind of … I vaguely remember a scene in which Prince was on stage, dolefully strumming out some sort of thin-moustached melodrama, and in the foreground were a couple of people talking about him, and to dissuade the one from approaching Prince the other said, ”He’s in one of his moods again.” Maybe I’m thinking of the Princess Bride. That was a good movie :)

Anyhow, I believe I’m in one of those moods today. It was one of those lurching days in which clarity decides to rear its ugly head – a light was cast on a vexing situation that’s been festering on my mind for a few months and – to be blunt – both shocked and pissed me right off. I probably shouldn’t go into detail because I have a feeling I’ll be wielding the business end of legal prosecution pretty soon; I can think of no other word than fraud, or something very close to it. Certainly some very odd dealings that I just can’t explain. You know? Stuff just doesn’t add up, like 1 and 1 is supposed to equal FF in hexadecimal. Yeah, that’s not even the same numbering system.

There are lots of fiddly little details that, hopefully, I’ll be able to share once it’s all done with. I think they’d make good reading if you have a few minutes on the shitter (get a netbook—best investment ever ;)). However, droning on about some vague misdoing is boring my tits off and I know the details, so let’s let’er rest a while there.

Besides, some things don’t need to be discussed because they kinda stare you in the face, you know?

Take the story about a young mother who was murdered in her car while tending to her two-year-old daughter. Yep, no way to put a frilly ribbon on that story; shot right in front of her little girl. The story is tragic no matter how you spin it; that kid’s just been handed a life sentence. Who’d argue with that?

But just beneath the surface there are things that aren’t quite right.

To begin with, Detective Sergeant Pauline Gray is quoted as saying, “I think the careful thing is not to look for a reason, because as far as I’m concerned, there is no reason.”

Did I read that right? The careful thing is not to investigate the motive because there isn’t one? Okay, well, for an officer to be making extrajudicial pronouncements at a press conference probably isn’t a great idea, but it also shows that the good Detective has been compromised. Clearly am emotional basket case. Hey, can’t blame her, but don’t we owe the mother and kid a proper, thorough, and unbiased investigation? The careful thing to do is to look for a reason, because as far as I’m concerned, there’s always a reason. I believe that’s the difference between first and second-degree murder — planning requires a purpose, or a reason, as they call it out west.

I also subscribe to Occam’s Razor which bluntly states that the simplest and most direct explanation is usually the correct one. Don’t over-complicate shit, I believe, is the original expression. If she had a jilted ex-husband, my odds are on him. But there’s another possibility; please allow me to connect a few dots…

She’s from Columbia where her parents still live. Upon moving to Toronto, she started a successful container shipping company. Initially she was sending a container or two a year (was that enough to live on?), but recently business had picked up to the sum of one or two per month. To and from South American countries. Do we need the white connecting lines here?

Okay, that’s just rampant coke-fuelled speculation, but any investigator worth their salt should be knee-deep in blow by now. To dismiss some possibilities because they may harm the reputation of the deceased person does them a disservice. And the little girl too. Even if some dark details are revealed, who knows what the circumstances were around those details?

If you’re a keener and read the story, you’ll note that I took most of the drug runner scenario from the Star piece. Almost verbatim, except that I took out a bunch of expletives. I still don’t know why The Star swears so much, it’s really off-putting. But the facts remain about the same. Possibly manufactured for my benefit. However, I still stand by my argument that a thorough and unbiased lookseeinto is the way to go.

It’s the same with the McCormack case. That’s the former police chief’s son (and also a cop), accused of pulling money from club and bar owners in exchange for favours. Hehe, no, not sexual ones. Although, you know, I shouldn’t judge … who knows? Definitely the accusation of money exchanging hands for services of some sort (no, no jokes about hand services, that’d be crude and never proven in a court of law). Impropriety on the one side, corruption on the other, but either way it was looking meaty.

I guess we’ll never know for sure how meaty because the case was thrown out of court for taking too long. If proceedings extend for five years, I believe, the court is obliged to remove them from before its just gaze. “And don’t let the door hit you on the way outtay”, in Latin.

Wow, my head’s really gone over to the lawyer side of the force. Maybe I’ve been spending my time in that headspace for too long and now I just zero in on any little litigious thing I see. I probably just need a good sleep – I mean, who knows, maybe I’ll dream up an out of court settlement. Or maybe cast a dark habeas corpus upon them from my slumber — the sleeping subconscious mind has mysterious powers, possibly even occult. I guess that path will be determined by my mood. Prince or Princess Bride?