Bill Blaikie must be so proud.

We don't know who's more insulting, politician Andrew Swan or reporters Mike McIntyre and Gabrielle Giroday.

But its clear that this trio is guilty of grossly misleading the public.

The team of McIntrye and Giroday should have been collecting accolades for their revelation that the teenager charged with killing a motorist by smashing into him with a stolen Hummer was a car thief previously convicted of involvement in another car crash where a taxi driver was killed.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/accused-thief-has-a-dark-past-79392032.html

Instead, by simply regurgitating the political lies of Justice Minister Andrew Swan, they negated their good work and deserve to share the disgrace.

Their Wednesday story concluded with the obligatory search for a solution:

"Attorney General Andrew Swan said provincial governments have been pushing Ottawa for changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act that would allow judges to take deterrence into account when sentencing young offenders."

"That hasn't happened yet. We hope to continue raising our voices," he said."

As any professed "professional" reporter in Manitoba should know by now, that's pure political spin by a government with blood on its hands -- the blood of ten innocent people killed by car thieves on its watch.

Andrew Swan must be itching for a free trip to Ottawa, obviously a perk of the job since his predecessors Gord Mcintosh and carpet-chewing Dave Chomiak both got to go.

But Swan doesn't need a jaunt to Ottawa to lobby the government. The Conservatives would change the law in a heartbeat.

They've tried, and been prevented by the Opposition, especially the NDP.

As we've reported in The Black Rod for years, federal NDP justice critic Joe Comartin openly, proudly bragged after the law was passed that the NDP was responsible for keeping deterrence and denunciation out of the Youth Justice Act. Sitting at his side in Parliament was none other than one of Andrew Swan's cabinet colleagues, Bill Blaikie, who shared in the pride of restricting the penalties against the car thieves killing and maiming people in Manitoba.

Has the federal NDP changed its tune? Not a whit.

Here's how the CBC reported the NDP position on changes to the act.

Tories to amend Youth Criminal Justice Act
Last Updated: Monday, November 19, 2007 7:53 PM ET
CBC News
The federal Conservatives want to tackle young offenders by amending the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Monday the proposed changes to the act that were tabled in the House of Commons the same day would allow judges to impose punishments aimed at "deterring and denouncing the young person's actions."
The proposed law would toughen sentences for young people to provide "meaningful consequences" for committing violent acts, Nicholson said.
"By tabling this bill today, we are working to hold young lawbreakers accountable to their victims and their community, and instil within them a sense of responsibility for their criminal behaviour," he said, at a news conference in Ottawa.
Another proposed change would give judges more power to detain young people considered a danger to the public.
The proposed changes to the act's pretrial detention provision would make it easier to keep young people in custody before trial if the youth poses a risk to public safety.
MP Joe Comartin, the NDP's justice critic, told the CBC's Politics, a nightly political interview show based in Ottawa, that he was skeptical of the proposed changes.
"Denunciation doesn't work," he said. "We know that from any number of studies done around the globe."
Deterrence is not a principle that's viable either, he said, adding that if the Tories really wanted to do something, they'd be looking at prevention, putting more police officers on the streets and more programs in place.

Why didn't McIntyre and Giroday report this news? Why give Swan a free pass to spread misinformation and lies?

Ignornance or laziness?
Or political bias?
Pick one or more.

It all adds up to the same thing, more proof of the great divide between the mainstream media and the facts which are available to anyone with an internet modem.

As for the pious wails of "What can we do?" from newspaper columnists, politicians, radio commentators (we mean you Richard Cloutier), and others who profess to care, all you need to do is read The Black Rod here
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2007/03/tackling-car-thieves-doable-solution.html

Know your local car thief

Who's stealing all those cars?

That, in 2002, was the burning question facing Winnipeg police---and Manitoba Public Insurance which was paying the cost.

Or, as the authors of the submission from the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy put it in their submission to the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing “Why was auto theft so attractive to young people that some would go out in -30 C weather to spend the day stealing 5 cars?”

MPI forked out some money to get the answer. They had to. The problem was costing them millions. And it was getting worse by the year.

Starting the very next year, 2003, to 2007, Winnipeg had the worst car theft problem in North America. In 2007, the theft rate here was 1714 per 100,000 of population. The city with the highest rate in the United States was Modesto, California, at 1048/100,000. The cost to MPI would eventually climb to nearly $40 million a year.

In 2002 MPI funded a study of jailed car thieves to get their answer.( “Pilot Study of Juvenile Auto Theft Offenders.” Jeff Anderson and Rick Linden, Unpublished paper, University of Manitoba.) The lives of 43 of the city's worst car thieves told them this story (as revealed in the WATSS award submission):

http://www.popcenter.org/library/awards/goldstein/2009/09-42(F).pdf

• Most lived in single-parent families. Over half had run away from home at least once. Respondents reported a high rate of criminal involvement among immediate family members.
• Respondents were not successful in school. They were 2-3 years below expected grade levels, and had high rates of truancy, suspension and expulsion.
• Average age of first involvement was 12 and the average age when they began stealing cars themselves was 13.
• Respondents were involved in a range of offenses in addition to vehicle theft.
• Most did little planning and seemed willing to steal cars any place and any time.
They used the vehicles for joyriding and for short-term transportation and usually just abandoned the vehicles.
• Respondents enjoyed the thrill-seeking dimensions of vehicle theft, which helps to explain why they often stole several vehicles in a day. Their thefts appeared to be a way of gaining status.
• Peers were important. Many respondents reported gang associations. Virtually all had friends who stole cars and most reported peer pressure to steal cars. This supports the conclusion that there is an extensive adolescent car theft culture in some parts of Winnipeg.
• Respondents had high rates of drug and alcohol use and were involved in a thrill-seeking lifestyle that included vehicle theft.
• Some targets were clearly more attractive than others. There was a strong preference for stealing older Chrysler vehicles.
• Most respondents were not concerned about the consequences and any fear they had was not sufficient to overcome the thrill of stealing cars or the peer pressure.

A few other points of the problem facing police popped out.

• Clearance rates were around 10 percent, indicating that conventional investigative and enforcement tactics were not effective. Analysis of court statistics showed that sentences for vehicle theft were typically very light, again suggesting that conventional youth justice measures would not alleviate the problem.

• Auto theft was part of the youth culture in some Winnipeg neighbourhoods. This conclusion was based on interviews with young offenders, and was reinforced by interviews with police, probation officers, and prosecutors.

Clamping down on repeat car thieves was one component of WATSS. The other was forcing motorists to install immobilizers. The award submission contains some insight into the success of that element of the program...

The Effectiveness of Electronic Immobilizers
The immobilizer program has been very successful. As of May, 2009 about 85 percent of the most at-risk vehicles had immobilizers installed. None of these immobilizers has been defeated. A small number of immobilized vehicles have been stolen, but these have resulted from people leaving their keys in the vehicle or from the theft of keys.
Installations of most at-risk vehicles will be complete by September, 2009. At that time, at least 75 percent of Winnipeg’s vehicles will have effective immobilizers.

Public Support
There was potential resistance to the compulsory immobilizer program. The city’s major newspaper editorialized that the program was “An Abuse of Power” and a popular tabloid columnist wrote several stories describing how after-market immobilizers could ruin vehicles and result in major disruptions to owners. The Task Force responded quickly to these attempts to shape public opinion. More importantly, MPI implemented a rigorous quality control program to ensure that installers and installation facilities were certified, carefully trained, and monitored by an independent standards organization.

They also established an Immobilizer Quality Control Group that people could call to ensure an immediate response to any problems with immobilizers. As a result , the failure rate of immobilizers was extremely low and the issue quickly disappeared as a public concern.

****

This mandatory program was phased in over 12 months. However, crime analysts noted that as favourite targets were protected, offenders began to target other vehicles, particularly those equipped with the General Motors Passlock II immobilizer....

While these immobilizers do offer some security, several of our experienced offenders had learned how to defeat them and passed this knowledge on to their peers.
Consequently, when installations of the first list were completed in September, 2008, a second list of most at-risk vehicles was established. Immobilizer installations in these vehicles will be completed September, 2009. Thus far there is no evidence of serious displacement to other types of vehicles. Because the remaining vehicles include a diverse range of makes and models (typically low-volume models), it is unlikely that offenders will develop enough expertise in stealing them to significantly affect theft rates. Also, technical experts believe that some actually have effective immobilizers but have not gone through the formal approval process.

MPI says the success of WATSS in reducing auto theft by more than 75 percent has resulted in savings estimated to be at least $30 million per year.

Violent crime in Winnipeg is way, way up and rising as MSM bamboozled

Winnipeg is paying a high price for turning police into babysitters.

And politicians who thought they would coast into the 2010 civic election, or the 2011 provincial election, on sharp reductions in crime are in for a hell of a surprise.

They've been busy this week patting themselves on the back for the "success" of the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy (WATSS)---they even held a special ceremony at the Legislature to announce WATSS was a finalist for an American policing award.

But they went too far when, with the shameful assistance of the Winnipeg Police Service, they tried to hide the truth from the public.

The car-theft suppression strategy, in a nutshell, consists of sending police on regular visits to the homes of the worst car thieves to make sure they're tucked into bed at night and have enough milk and cookies to last until the morning without needing to venture out of the house and steal a car to get some.

It's been so successful, according to its proponents (the government, the police, Manitoba Pubic Insurance), that car thefts have been cut 76 percent from 2004 to April, 2009.

And all that, allegedly, without a sign that the car thieves are just turning to other crimes.

As put in Manitoba's official submission to the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing, 2009:

http://www.popcenter.org/library/awards/goldstein/2009/09-42(F).pdf

Displacement or Diffusion of Benefits?
"There were concerns that if WATSS was successful in reducing vehicle theft there would be an increase in carjackings and in crimes such as break and enter and robbery.
However, there have been virtually no carjackings in Winnipeg and rates of break and enter, robbery, and theft from auto have declined over the past 2 years. Figures 5 and 6 show the relationships between vehicle thefts and theft from vehicles and break and enter. The evidence suggests a diffusion of benefits rather than displacement to other offenses. This is likely because the intensive supervision has helped the youth stay out of trouble and because the work of probation staff has helped some to change their behaviour."

HIT THE BRAKES!!!!

That's a lie.

There's no other way to say it.

In fact, the police officers who put their names to this report deserve to be identified: Insp. Tom Kloczko, Sgt. Gerry Mauws and Det./Sgt. Kevin Kavitch.

Maybe some MSM reporter can ask them why they thought they could get away with misleading the public so blatantly.

A quick glance at Winnipeg's Crimestat webpage will show you that home break-ins are UP a shocking 21 percent this year.

And muggings, strong-arm robberies, purse-snatchings and home invasions (tactfully described as Robbery/Non-commercial) are up 39 percent from last year.

We spotted the trend six months ago.
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2009/06/winnipeg-muggings-are-out-of-control.html

The MSM has still to catch on.

Break-ins to garages are up 5 percent officially, but since everyone knows most of these aren't reported to police, the real number is probably double or triple that.

And that's the meat and potatoes of the crime stats. Look at the periphery and it doesn't get any better.

Sex assault is up 52 percent.
Shooting incidents are up 12 percent.
Homicides haven't dropped.

Carjackings? Crimestat doesn't list those, but the newspapers do. Here's a sampling from a one-week period in late November-early December.

Assault, gun used in carjackings
By ROSS ROMANIUK, SUN MEDIA
3rd December 2009
Winnipeg saw two more car-jackings yesterday, with one incident involving an assault and the other a firearm.
-snip-
The first incident occurred about 1:45 a.m., when a male suspect holding a gun allegedly confronted two occupants in a vehicle on the 400 block of Alexander Avenue in the core area.
-snip-
The second incident saw a 64-year-old man attacked by two male suspects, who had found him in a vehicle parked on the 200 block of Cathedral Avenue in the North End.
The suspects forced the victim out of the vehicle, assaulted him and drove away in it.

Two suspects wanted in carjacking attempts
By SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 26th November 2009, 11:55am
Winnipeg police are searching for two suspects in a pair of attempted carjackings on Wednesday.
Police say the first incident happened around 9 p.m. in the 400 block of St. Johns Avenue. Two suspects, one armed with a gun, demanded that a 39-year-old woman hand over the keys to her vehicle.
-snip-
About 20 minutes later, two suspects approached a 42-year-old man and 38-year-old woman in the 300 block of Burrows Avenue. One of the suspects again had a gun.
The suspects demanded the woman's car keys but fled when the man exited the victims' home, said police.

A lazy reporter looking at Crimestat will read the bottom line and see a 12 percent reduction in the crimes being monitored.

But filter out car theft and there's a 12 percent INCREASE in crime this year.

We shudder at what next year brings.

We've said it before and we'll say it again. Nobody in government deserves credit for stopping the car theft epidemic because they're responsible for creating it in the first place.

If the Health Minister was responsible for spreading swine flu at a school, would you give her an award for the ambulances that took sick children to hospital, the ventilators that kept them breathing, and the wreaths sent to their funerals?

We used to have professional babysitters looking after criminals. They were called jail guards. They had a 100 percent success rate. Nobody in custody stole a car.

Then, in 2002, the Liberal government passed the Youth Justice Act which essentially removed jail as a deterrent to under-18 criminals.

The NDP in Ottawa, including Greg Selinger's right hand man Bill Blaikie, wholeheartedly supported the Act, to the point that their justice critic Joe Comartin bragged that they deliberately kept deterrence and denunciation out of the Act to reduce the sentences that judges could impose.

Car thefts in Manitoba skyrocketed in the following years.

The Manitoba NDP professed concern, but did little.

You won't believe what happened next. The Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy award submission spelled it out:

"(In 2006) A supervisor in the WPS Stolen Auto Unit looked at the relationship between the number of the top 50 offenders who were in the community each day and the number of cars stolen on that day (See Figure 3). This clearly shows that the more of this group who were on the street each day, the more cars that were stolen."

"Other crime analysis data supported this conclusion. For example, the police knew that certain young offenders preferred particular models of vehicles and when they were in custody or under effective supervision in the community, thefts of these particular types of vehicles dropped significantly. This finding highlighted the need for improving the offender-oriented approach used in the intensive supervision program."

The police-wait for it---had a meeting with Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh. He was so stunned by the finding, he found the money for another five police in the stolen auto unit. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Pure genius.

It took a highly trained, highly experienced police officer to notice that when car thieves are in jail, car thefts fall, and when they get out, car thefts rise. But it took "other crime analysis data" to test this wild leap in logic.

C'mon. A 80-year-old Tagalog-speaking grandmother with her Grade 3 education could have told you that, without any "other crime analysis data" or any smarmy social-worker blather about "improving the offender-oriented approach."

What the submission doesn't say is that the NDP has known all along what is necessary to stop the car theft epidemic---take the thieves out of circulation. And if the criminal law couldn't be used, the province had civil child-protection law that could. But they refused to use it because most of the car thieves were, ahem, aboriginal in appearance, and they've been given a get-out-of-jail-free pass from the NDP. So instead, we turned police into babysitters while crime crept up and up.

But it worked didn't it?

Oh, did it? Any car thief who was a teenager when the Youth Justice Act was proclaimed is now an adult and subject to real penalties, like prison. Deterrence anyone?

Another vital piece of information in this award submission has gone unreported. The rate of car theft has been ratched down by a phenomenal percentage without denting the "root causes" of crime. How 'bout that.

They stopped car theft by stopping car thieves.

Not by attacking poverty first, or homelessness, or illiteracy, or unemployment.

Not by building basketball courts or drop-in centres.

Not by buying them energy-efficient furnaces (the Tom Simms answer to poverty).
*************

Professional Reporters At Work
Winnipeg Free Press reporter Bruce Owen used the WATSS award submission (without saying so) as the basis for his Saturday analysis challenging the need for a police helicopter (we agree with his argument on that 100 percent).

But, uh, did he use it a little too closely?

Bruce Owen (Boots on ground better than helicopters in air, Winnipeg Free Press, Dec. 12, 2009)
"Police and justice officials feared that by going after car thieves, and by Manitoba Public Insurance bringing in a mandatory car ignition immobilizer program, there would be an increase in carjacking and in crimes such as break and enter and robbery.
That hasn't happened. Police say there have been virtually no carjackings in Winnipeg and rates of break and enter, robbery and theft from autos have declined over the past two years."

WATSS award submission, 2009
Displacement or Diffusion of Benefits?
""There were concerns that if WATSS was successful in reducing vehicle theft there would be an increase in carjackings and in crimes such as break and enter and robbery.
However, there have been virtually no carjackings in Winnipeg and rates of break and enter, robbery, and theft from auto have declined over the past 2 years."

Premier Greg Selinger to Hydro Whistleblower: You're Wrong

The first day of the December rump session of the Legislature turned out to be an unexpected day of revelations.

Hugh McFadyen revealed why he is the worst Opposition leader in living memory and why he's no threat to the NDP government with or without Gary Doer.

And unelected Premier Greg Selinger revealed why the NDP's "historic" Whistleblower legislation is--- and will continue to be--- a farce.

McFadyen went on the attack from the start, and promptly fell flat on his face.

Why, he asked the Premier, was there no mention of Manitoba Hydro in the Throne Speech, "when Manitobans are seeing their rates go up by 9 percent over two years with the prospect of severe rate hikes into the future."

Hon. Greg Selinger (Premier): "The member from Fort Whyte first makes a comment about the rates. Let's remember it was him-it was he that, in the last election, promised to increase rates to full market value and stick it to every single Manitoban with a 40 percent increase in rates, and he still-and he still has never apologized to the people of Manitoba for that dramatic rate increase."

Selinger 1, McFadyen 0.

Why, persisted McFadyen, didn't Selinger, as minister responsible for Hydro, try to get to the bottom of a risk-management consultant's concerns about Hydro when he first heard of them in 2007 instead of waiting for her to file a whistleblower complaint which only became public knowledge in 2009?

"I wanna ask the Premier: Why did he drop the ball so badly in first asking the provincial Auditor to look into this issue when he was well aware that the Auditor was in no position to do so?"

Tossed a soft ball, Selinger hit it out of the stadium.

Hon. Greg Selinger (Premier):"The Auditor-the Auditor General was requested by the Ombudsman to undertake this investigation. The independent officer of the legislation-of the Legislature was seized of this matter and asked for the assistance of the Auditor General. That is how the facts unfolded."

"The member opposite knows that. The member opposite, if he has any civility at all, would simply get up and apologize for his error of fact and his misconstruction of the facts."

But McFadyen, demonstrating he hadn't even bothered to read the Act before opening his mouth to stuff his foot in, wouldn't shut up.

Mr. McFadyen: "Mr. Speaker, the fact is that it was he and his minister who put out a news release in response to the whistle-blower's allegation, calling on the provincial auditor to do the special audit. She's come to the right conclusion, that she's not in a position to deal with the sensitive issues raised by the whistle-blower and raised by the government. They're the ones who put her into that position."

If he had taken the time to read the Legislation he would know that Selinger was 100 percent right.

The complaint was filed, as required by the law, with the Ombudsman.

It was Ombudsman Irene Hamilton who sat on it for three months and then turned it over to Auditor General Carol Bellringer. Bellringer then tucked the complaint under a carpet for another 9 months before returning it to the Ombudsman. The government asked for a speedy audit after Bellringer had already dithered for 8 months.

If McFadyen was less obsequious to Bellringer, he would have known it was her fault, and her's alone, that she was "not in a position to deal with the sensistive issues raised by the whistleblower."

Bellringer's conflict of interest in handling the complaint against Hydro was known almost immediately, yet she insisted for 9 months that it didn't matter that she had sat on Hydro's board of directors at the same time that the consultant was doing her risk analysis.

She only changed her tune when The Black Rod exposed the fact that Bellringer had never broken her connection with Hydro and had been sending a representative to Hydro board meetings from the moment of her appointment as the "independent" provincial auditor.

Selinger 2, McFadyen 0

The Winnipeg Free Press reported Tuesday that Ombudsman Irene Hamilton has no clue how to address the first whistleblower complaint ever filed under the province's Public Disclosure Act.

The newspaper says she "met Monday with MLAs on the legislature's management committee to get guidance on how her review should be conducted."

So what exactly did she do as the complaint sat on her desk for the first three months? If this isn't a classic example of bureaucratic incompetence, what is? She not only did nothing for 3 months, but apparently didn't even know "the scope" of what she was supposed to do.

It's no wonder then that, seized with enforcing the legislation, she sat on her ass for the next 9 months as the Auditor General ignored the complaint, even to the point of telling the CBC she was under no deadline to complete any investigation. None, except for Section 20.2 of the Act which read: 20(2) An investigation is to be conducted as informally and expeditiously as possible.

Which raises the question, what did Hugh McFadyen's favourite bureaucrat do for 9 months?

Apparently, it wasn't defining the scope of the review and determining what outside expertise is needed. The Ombudsman is now going to spend ANOTHER FOUR MONTHS to decide what exactly she should be doing.

Here's a hint: start with the declaration by the Opposition Leader in the Legislature Tuesday decrying " the treatment of this whistle-blower who has-who has had a campaign of smear and disinformation brought under the watch of this government."

Why aren't both of these government "watchdogs" brought before the Legislature to explain their incompetence? It's obvious that both of them breached the act by not acting "as expeditiously as possible" and a year after the complaint was filed neither of them knows what she should have been doing in the first place.

Greg Selinger revealed why.

According to the unelected Premier, who, as Hydro minister has been hearing Hydro's side of the case behind closed doors for 2 years, the whistleblower's complaint is baseless.

Yes, folks, the government has prejudged the complaint even before a single interview has been conducted, or a single document has been examined.

Here's how Selinger put it in the Legislature:

"Because it's an allegation doesn't necessarily mean it's accurate. It doesn't necessarily mean it's true. It means they have a right to have it investigated, and during that procedure they have the right to be protected, and that's exactly what's gone on here. The member opposite, he would like to move from allegations to confirm them as points of fact. The reality is there have been other independent reviews of the stability and the solidness, financially, of Manitoba Hydro, and they have come back with very solid results, that Manitoba Hydro is in excellent shape. "

It's no wonder then that Carol Bellringer was cocky enough to ignore the provisions of the Act requiring all complaints to be handled as expeditiously as possible. She understood full well that that was just window dressing, and that her political masters had already dismissed the conclusions of the Hydro consultant in advance.

Selinger, you have to understand, is the dirtiest politician in the Legislature. He's splattered with mud from the worst scandals to be exposed involving the NDP.

* When the NDP got caught for fraudulently claiming $75,000 in election rebates for the 1999 provincial election, Selinger figured charges would be laid for sure. He went running to the executive demanding a letter exonerating him from any blame. The NDP's new best friend, Elections Manitoba chairman Richard Balasko stalled the investigation until he could get rid of the auditor who uncovered the fraud, charged only Conservative candidates for election misspending, and did his best to cover up the NDP's offence.

Selinger, assured no charges would be laid, kept the secret for five years and now says it was just a simple misunderstanding.

* In 2007 we reported on the Selinger Memo, which, we wrote, " is clear evidence that the NDP conspired with the Crocus Investment Fund to hide the fund's liquidity problems from future investors even to the extent of letting them run a Ponzi scheme."
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2007/03/bellringer-fails-to-bridge-selingers.html

Crocus was supposedly under the eye of the ministry of Industry and Economic Development. But when Crocus reps outlined their vision for the next 10 to 15 years, IEDM officials declared there were issues of policy and practicality that had to be addressed first.

Fuggedaboutit, said the Crocus people. The plans "had already been cleared by those in higher authority"

Guess who.

Leaked cabinet documents, including the Selinger Memo, showed that Crocus had a back channel into cabinet directly to then-Finance Minister Greg Selinger, bypassing the alleged legal oversight of the Industry Minister.

That fact was kept from the public and provincial auditor Jon Singleton who, in the first diversionary use of public servants to take the heat off the NDP, was assigned to conduct an examination of how well the Industry Ministry supervised Crocus.

The NDP wasn't pleased with Singleton's Crocus report, so after he retired, they put in their own auditor who was sure to be more amenable to the government.

* Carol Bellringer's first job for the NDP was to take the heat off Education Minister Peter Bjornson who became enmeshed in the O'Learygate scandal when he lied to a whistleblower.
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2005/06/black-rod-exclusive-seven-oaks-land.html

Bellringer issued a report that said that the Seven Oaks School Division lost $300,000 on an prohibited land development, but that if they claimed they would eventually, sometime in the untold future, sell the land they already owned to themselves for $800,000, they could show a profit on the books today and get her okay.

* With more heat on the NDP, especially the finance minster, over the enormous risks Manitoba Hydro is taking with its $16 billion plans for expansion, who did they call to the rescue? Yes indeed, step right up Carol Bellringer.

First she pulled the rug from under the Public Utilities Board which has been trying for more than a year now to get Hydro to show them their risk analyses. Bellringer said she was going to do a report on Hydro's risk, by coincidence, and it would take her 18 months at least. So the PUB shouldn't hold their breaths for those reports.

And when it was revealed that the Hydro whistleblower's complaint had been in the auditor's hands for months, Bellringer said she was just wrapping it into her other risk study. So the whistleblower shouldn't hold her breath for a speedy investigation of her complaints.

And then we put too much heat on Bellringer and she fled the kitchen, leaving Selinger claiming credit, as the previous minister of the Civil Service Commission, for bringing in the very Whistleblower Act which he's working hard to undermine.

At least now the public knows they've got a clear choice in the next election: the dirtiest politician or the dumbest politician.

Who will do that risk analysis on that?

Climategate melts the credibility of the Winnipeg Free Press

How should a newspaper play the biggest story of the year?

Once upon a time that was a no-brainer. Page One was the only answer possible.

Today is not that time.

The no-brainers who work at the Winnipeg Free Press have decided that the biggest story of the year should be run on the second-last page of the third section of the Saturday paper.

Reporting news, it seems, is not part of the job description of today's "professional journalists."

"Stolen e-mails suggest scientists rigged climate data." blares the headline.
"Revelation challenges accuracy of computer-modelling research" declares the sub-head.

It seems a computer hacker has posted on the Internet hundreds of e-mails and internal "research" documents from England's Climate Research Unit (CRU). The story they tell is comparable in impact to the exposure of the Pentagon Papers in the Nixon years.

"The e-mail exchanges, between a group of powerful, life-minded scientists based in Britain and the U.S., written over the past 13 years, suggest they may have rigged their data, suppressed contrary information and conspired to control what should be an independent peer review process surrounding the publication of their scientific papers." wrote Richard Foot for Canwest News Service.

Oh, is that all?

You mean that the "settled science" that proves mankind is responsible for the global warming that's going to destroy the world is bogus? And that the skeptics who have been villified for the past decade are vindicated?

Frank J. Tipler is Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University, and one of the skeptics.

"The now non-secret data prove what many of us had only strongly suspected - that most of the evidence of global warming was simply made up. That is, not only are the global warming computer models unreliable, the experimental data upon which these models are built are also unreliable. As Lord Monckton has emphasized.... this deliberate destruction of data and the making up of data out of whole cloth is the real crime - the real story of Climategate."

"It is an act of treason against science. It is also an act of treason against humanity, since it has been used to justify an attempt to destroy the world economy."
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/climategate-the-skeptical-scientist%E2%80%99s-view/

Noooooo, say the defenders of the lies.

John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, said the emails have been "taken out of context" and the scientists were speaking in their own "high-level code" that cannot be understood by mere mortals. The emails were written "in the heat of the moment," declared Phil Jones, director of the CRU, and surely you don't think they represent what the scientists really thought.

You mean like when they discuss inventing data that doesn't exist and destroying data that does exist.

Or when they talk about the best way to damage the reputations of scientists who disagree with them.

That sort of stuff, eh, Jonesy?

Climategate broke ten days ago.
On the Internet.
It's been the burning topic on websites for a week and a half.

Yet the mainstream media has barely mentioned it. CBC hasn't yet.

Can you ask for greater proof of the gulf between events in the real world and the manipulated coverage that passes as news in the mainstream media? Who do you trust to bring you the news first---your daily "news"paper or your favorite blogger *?

We can't say it better than Alan, a poster on the CBC-watch website theteamakers.com:

Next to being inaccurate and unreliable, the worst thing that can happen to any news outlet, large or small, is to become irrelevant?
News Rehab http://www.theteamakers.com/2009/11/18/news-rehab/

The Winnipeg Free Press is three for three.

* The best and most comprehensive coverage of Climategate has been by Kate McMillan at www.smalldeadanimals.com, such as todays entry
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/012763.html

Bellringer forced to bail on investigating Hydro whistleblower complaint

Yer Out...

Less than 48 hours after The Black Rod exposed Carol Bellringer's cozy ongoing relationship with the Manitoba Hydro board of directors, she was headed for the showers in shame.

For months Auditor General Bellringer had insisted that the fact she had been a recent member of Hydro's board didn't mean she couldn't conduct an independent unbiased review of a whistleblower's complaint involving allegations of Hydro mismanagement.

Everything changed Sunday when The Black Rod revealed that Bellringer has been sending a representative to every single Hydro board meeting to take notes and report back to her on what is said.

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2009/11/exposed-manitoba-auditor-carol.html

This previously unreported unbroken connection between Bellringer and Hydro means that she has been getting one-sided reports into the whistleblower's complaint of mismanagement (at the time Bellringer was one of the managers) for months, if not years, before the whistleblower complaint wound up on her desk.

Oops.

On Monday, the axe dropped. (Our Legislature mole told us.) On Tuesday the news release was released.

"A disclosure made under the Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower) Protection Act had been forwarded by the ombudsman to the auditor general to be dealt with in accordance with the Auditor General Act.

"Carol Bellringer, the auditor general, has advised the whistleblower that, due to the sensitivity associated with addressing that disclosure, it has been returned to Irene Hamilton, the ombudsman. Hamilton has agreed to follow up the disclosure as originally filed under the Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower) Protection Act."

The auditor general "then bolted out the door for the day without answering any questions from reporters", according to Kevin Engstrom of the Winnipeg Sun.

That's not like her.

Up to Monday Bellringer has been vocal and aggressive in clinging to control of the whistleblower's complaint.

She shrugged off calls by the Opposition to recuse herself. She ignored editorials pointing out her conflict of interest. She dodged the attention of the press at a Hydro accountability committee meeting one week ago.

But when The Black Rod reported the news the mainstream media missed at that meeting, she walked her last mile with the Whistleblower brief:

· The revelation of the previously unknown communications channel from Manitoba Hydro to their former board member who is conducting an investigation of a whistleblower's complaint about Manitoba Hydro.

* A declaration by the Opposition that they rejected in advance the government-ordered expedited special audit because of the Auditor General's obvious conflict of interest.

* The committee's vote to reject Hydro's annual reports, spelling trouble for the NDP in the coming session of the Legislature.

Bellringer may have fallen on her sword to save unelected Premier Greg Selinger from further pain in having to defend the indefensible, but the damage she's done lives on.

She managed to waste nine months sitting on the whistleblower's complaint without interviewing a single person. The complaint was filed with the Ombudsman last December who turned it over to the Auditor General in March, which means in almost one year, absolutely nothing has been done with it.

The so-called watchdogs of the public interest have managed to make a complete farce of the Act designed to encourage whistleblowers to come forward.

- Ombudsman Irene Hamilton has to accept partial responsibility herself.

The act reads:

20(2) An investigation is to be conducted as informally and expeditiously as possible.

Nobody can claim with a straight face that this first test of the Act has been conducted "expeditiously."

Hamilton must act immediately to minimize the damage done by Bellringer to the process.

She must assign the investigation of the whistleblower's complaint forthwith to somebody with the expertise to understand the complaint.

Forget the fanciful politicians' advice of hiring some outside retired auditor general. We don't have the time for a layman to master the learning curve of the world of generating hydroelectricity.

The most obvious investigator-designate is the Public Utilities Board, which knows this stuff inside and out. And for more than a year now they've demanded Hydro supply them with inside risk studies, and Hydro has thumbed its nose at them. What poetic justice to assign the examination of the whistleblower's complaint to the PUB.

But Hamilton's job has grown since the complaint was first slipped to her.

She must broaden her enforcement of the Public Disclosure Act to include an investigation into breaches of the whistleblower's identity by Hydro CEO Bob Brennan.

The Act reads:
Purpose of this Act
The purpose of this Act is
(a) to facilitate the disclosure and investigation of significant and serious matters in or relating to the public service, that are potentially unlawful, dangerous to the public or injurious to the public interest; and
(b) to protect persons who make those disclosures.

5(2) The procedures established under subsection (1) must include procedures
(d) for protecting the identity of persons involved in the disclosure process...

Brennan has done everything he could do to identify the consultant who filed the complaint until there isn't a person at Hydro who doesn't know who it is. This must be censured, if only to send a message to furture employers.

And Hamilton must investigate the reign of intimidation Brennan imposed on all employees who might be friends with the whistleblower. This, too, cannot be condoned. To assume these employees would now file a complaint against Brennan is ludicrous. They must be sheltered under the umbrella of the legal protection provided the whistleblower.

- At the same time Rosann Wowchuk, the minister in charge of Hydro, must be stripped of her responsibility. She has proven an egregious lack the judgement.

Wowchuk defended Bellringer's independence at every turn, right up to the legislative committee meeting last Tuesday which produced the damning information that forced Bellringer to step away from the Whistleblower's complaint. She's obviously a good soldier for the NDP, someone who can be trusted to toe the party line regardless of the truth and the facts.

She's exactly the person the public cannot trust.

- And let's not forget unelected Premier Greg Selinger who held the Hydro portfolio for the first eight months the consultant's complaint languished, first in the Ombudsman's office and then in the Auditor General's listless hands. He had the responsibility to ensure the complaint was dealt with "as expeditiously as possible", and he failed.

He must apologize to the citizens of Manitoba.

Wait up, Carol. There's obviously plenty of shame to go around.

The easy-to-understand Risk Analysis that Manitoba Hydro doesn't want you to see---ours.

You don't need an advanced degree in Economics to understand why people are worried about Manitoba Hydro's finances.

All you need is a bank book.

Two years ago the Public Utilities Board looked at Hydro's multi-multi-billion dollar plans for expansion and it made them antsy. From what they could see, Hydro was taking risks worthy of high rollers at Monte Carlo. Maybe there was something they didn't know, so they asked Hydro to produce the risk analyses behind the expansion plans.

"Sure, sucker," replied Hydro.

So far they've managed to keep the PUB in the dark for another 14 months and counting, knowing that the government minister in charge of Hydro (and the current unelected Premier) Greg Selinger wasn't going to support the public watchdog over the NDP's milk cow.

What Hydro CEO Bob Brennan didn't plan on was the news that one of the consultants he hired to look at the risks, and who he thought he had muzzled, would be so concerned about what she discovered that she would become a whistleblower and make Hydro's high-risk expansion a topic of public debate.

Here's where you should get your bank book.

The way Hydro runs its operations is no different that the way you run your household. They just have more money to play with.

You work hard and save your money in the bank. When you have enough, you buy a GIC, a Guaranteed Investment Certificate. Your money is locked in for, say, 5 years and you collect interest that's higher than the bank pays on regular deposits. You use the money to help with the bills, buy stuff, or to build up your savings.

Hydro does the same thing. Thanks to hydro developments completed in the 1970's, we produce more power than we need in the province. We sign contracts with American power companies to sell them our surplus power at top dollar. The money we earn is used to keep our rates down.

See how simple that was.

But there will be a time when we will need that power and we won't have power to sell to the U.S. Hydro, therefore, is planning on playing the futures market.

They want to borrow (billions) to buy more GIC's (build three dams and a power line) to keep that interest (profits) coming in.

They've signed contracts with American customers who want our electricity; but it's the price that's got the PUB worried. Hydro promises the new GIC's will pay terrific rates which will pay off the loans and return big profits at the same time. The PUB is worried Hydro is promising Bernie Madoff rates but will wind up in line at the Steinbach Credit Union.

Then there's that 800 pound gorilla in the corner. For you, it's called Unemployment.

If you lose your job, you can't cash in your GIC's because they're locked in. So you borrow and hope you find a job before you need to go on welfare to cover the bills.

For Hydro, it's called Drought.

An average drought lasting an average 5 years will technically bankrupt the utility---the debt will be more than the utility is worth.

Hydro has been socking away money in a Scrooge McDuck-sized piggy bank to cover the cost of that average drought, but nobody knows how much we'll have to pay the Americans to keep up our end of the contracts we've signed.

If we can't produce the power they've bought, we have either to buy the contract out or buy the power somewhere else at whatever price its selling for and deliver it to the U.S. at the price we accepted.

That's the risk Hydro doesn't want anyone to know.

That's when Hydro goes on their own Welfare, which is another word for Y-O-U.

Now let's look at the specifics.

Hydro is currently building the Wuskwatim dam to provide power to Northern States Power starting in 2015.

Wuskwatim will be at least two years late getting into service, reducing the years of profit from 5 to 3. The PUB, in its 2008 report, said even then the dam was barely at a break even point. Two years of growing costs later, and with the Canadian dollar nowhere near the mid-80's U.S. that Hydro banked on, it's looking more and more that we're building a dam to provide subsidized power to the U.S.

The Wuskwatim dam is the last one we can build with the existing infrastructure. To build the other two dams on the books, we need a new power line---Bipole III.

The line has to be up and working in 2017 because we're committed to supplying power to Wisconsin Public Service in 2018. Hydro still has to hold two rounds of public consultations, then launch a 3 l/2 year crash construction schedule.

Only it gets worse.

* We also have to complete the Keeyask dam in 2017 as well to provide the power for Wisconsin. So we'll be building the pipeline and the dam at the same time on an extremely short margin of error.

* In 2020, only two years after Keeyask dam comes into service, our 15-year contract with Minnesota Power goes into effect.

* And Hydro has pencilled in 2022 as the in-service date for the Mother of All Manitoba Dams, the $5 billion Conawapa project to pick up the slack as the previous dams reduce the power they have for export because of the growing local demand for electricity.

Oh, and Bipole III will only carry Manitoba power to the U.S. border.

The Americans have to build their own power line to link up with it and distribute the electricity to their customers. Their line will cost at least $1 billion. And you can bet that if they are investing $1 billion, they are going to insist they get power into that line, Manitoba drought or no drought. They are in the business of business, not charity.

If there's a drought sometime during this tight construction period---all bets are off.

Now you see why Hydro is hiding its risk analyses.

Exposed: Manitoba Auditor Carol Bellringer's secret link to Manitoba Hydro's board

There are zero degrees of separation between the board of Manitoba Hydro and the allegedly independent office of the Manitoba Auditor General.

Auditor General Carol Bellringer sends a representative to each and every Hydro board meeting to take notes and report back to her what is said.

Hydro chairman Vic Schroeder dropped this bombshell at last week's legislative committee meeting discussing, among other things, the refusal by Hydro Minister Rosann Wowchuk to acknowledge Bellringer is in a conflict of interest if she conducts an audit into a whistleblower complaint of mismanagement by Hydro.

Bellringer sat on the board of Hydro immediately prior to being appointed Auditor General---and during the time the whistleblower was working for Hydro--- and she admits herself there is at least the perception of a conflict of interest. But Schroeder's revelation undercuts Bellringer's claim that she can use safeguards to overcome any perceived bias in her work.

The previously unreported unbroken connection between Bellringer and Hydro means that she has been getting one-sided reports into the whistleblower's complaint of mismanagement (at the time Bellringer was one of the managers) for months, if not years, before the whistleblower complaint wound up on her desk.

And it goes a long way towards explaining why Bellringer has sat on the complaint for nine months, doing exactly nothing about it even though she's legally bound by the NDP's vaunted Whistleblower Act to investigate such complaints.

Even prior to Schroeder's explosive admission, Opposition leader Hugh McFadyen served notice that "the credibility of the audit is now damaged beyond repair as a result of the lack of independence of the Auditor..."

McFadyen presented a letter Bellringer "wrote to somebody who had asked for an audit into Hydro, and in her reply dated August 14th, 2008 ... said, and I quote: Prior to my appointment as Auditor General in July 2006, I was a member of the Manitoba Hydro board of directors and thus, neither I, nor my staff, are in a position to follow up on your request as independent auditors."

"So I wonder," McFadyen asked," how, in August of 2008, that Auditor General is not independent, but now, in the highly politicized environment we're in today, suddenly that same Auditor General and her staff are suddenly, magically, independent?"

Wowchuk's reponse?

Ms. Wowchuk: Mr. Chairman, we had the Auditor General at Public Accounts here when the members opposite had the opportunity to ask the Auditor General about this very situation and she indicated that she had sought out advice and been given advice based on the time that she was on the Hydro board and at the time these allegations are made, that she was not in a conflict.

But Wowchuk acknowledged she has no communication with Bellringer, which means that any "advice" the auditor general allegedly received is secret and known only to the Auditor General.

She told the Public Accounts committee she "had discussions" with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba. The Institute of Chartered Accounts hasn't released to the public any letters providing Bellringer with loopholes to their conflict of interest regulations. So by what authority does Bellringer now claim to be cleansed of the perception of bias?

Wowchuk, the alleged watchdog of the watchdog, doesn't care.

The Opposition wasn't buying it. Having grown some backbone, they refused to pass acceptance of Manitoba Hydro's annual reports for the past 3 years, serving notice to unelected Premier Greg Selinger there's big trouble brewing just ahead of the coming mini-session of the Legislature.

* The revelation of a previously unknown communications channel from Manitoba Hydro to their former board member who is conducting an investigation of a whistleblower's complaint about Manitoba Hydro.

* A declaration by the Opposition that they reject the special audit in advance because of conflict of interest by the person doing the audit, the provincial Auditor General.

* A vote to reject Hydro's annual reports.

And not a word of this reported in the mainstream media.

Winnipeg Free Press reporter Mary Agnes Welch, who refuses to report details of the former consultant's complaint provided in an unpublished letter to the newspaper, did give Hydro another opportunity to slander the whistleblower.

Hydro boss attacks whistleblower's credibility
By: Mary Agnes Welch
18/11/2009 1:00 AM
The whistleblower who raised red flags about blackouts and bankruptcy was a "disgruntled consultant" who refused to take direction and whose allegations could never be substantiated, Manitoba Hydro boss Bob Brennan said Tuesday night.

Welch concluded with her personal shot at the consultant whose identify is protected by the Whistleblower's Act.

"The whistleblower, who has so far refused to allow her name to be published, has said she repeatedly offered to detail her findings and was rebuffed."

We wait for the Winnipeg Free Press reports on "The rape victim, who has so far refused to allow her name to be published, has said..."

If MSM reporters had bothered to listen to the answers provided at the Nov. 17 meeting of the Standing Committee on Crown Corporations
( http://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/hansard/3rd-39th/cc_06/cc_06.html )
they would have learned how much Manitoba Hydro CEO confirmed specifics of the formal complaint filed by the ex-consultant we've named Miss Whistle.

Miss Whistle:
"The multi-year drought analysis on this “future generation” build, including in-service dates, and contract dates, showed exposure to the Province of $7BN. Obviously, this is more than the retained earnings, and under any definition, would wipe out the entire “solvency” of the Utility."

Bob Brennan, Manitoba Hydro
"I think in the current IFF we're looking at, I think the amount of a drought that was the same as a period of '89, '90, '91-in that period, five year-period, if the drought was the same amount as that, I think it would cost us 2.4 billion or something. So that'd wipe out our equity. "

Miss Whistle
"...what was uncovered was there were “systemic and massive” computer system flaws - with obsolete computers maintaining the calculations. Massive system errors and inadequate mathematics were found in the power calculation of “blackouts” or reliability conditions - which could lead to faulty results in keeping the lights on.

Bob Brennan (ducking the question)
Mr. Brennan: First of all, I think the report said that we have old computers. Well, I don't think that's the problem. We're talking about software systems that are continually under review.

Miss Whistle
If it was learned, that the safety methods for keeping the lights on were programmed only by 1 or 2 persons (with source code and changes known only to them), on an outdated computer which hasn’t been changed since the 80’s, I think you too would be worried.

Bob Brennan (feigning ignorance to Manitoba Liberal Party leader Jon Gerrard)
Mr. Gerrard: Now, is it true that there are only one or two of your employees who know the programming or the source code for the software which controls the power grid?
Mr. Brennan: Not to my knowledge.
Mr. Gerrard: Approximately, how many people would-in the Manitoba Hydro - would know the source code?
Mr. Brennan: Oh, I really don't know the answer to that at all, but we have a lot of people working on computer operations; they'd be in the hundreds. But, you know, as a relation to that one specific system and there's knowledgeable-but, we could-I'm sure we could always have more people with knowledge in all kinds of areas. Like, we have some jobs at Manitoba Hydro where the individuals are known internationally as being people with a real knowledge. Well, some of those people are really, really hard to replace. But we will get to find out about all that. But I don't know the answer to it.

Miss Whistle
"The ICF consultants were told not to look at the computers."

Bob Brennan
"...so we decided to hire ICF and we took the two major issues and said, these are the ones that are, you know, really, really serious; take a look at those and see whether, what your opinion is on those."

The transcript also proves how much Free Press Mary Agnes Welch interjected her personal opinion into her story.

Mary Agnes Welch
"She also recommended that Hydro buy millions of dollars of software from a company in which she had a stake."

Bob Brennan
"The contractor also recommended the purchase of some software and the contractor had some solution for us to consider."

- For 14 months and counting, Manitoba Hydro has managed to keep the Public Utilities Board, which allegedly has the power to oversee Hydro operations, at bay, deflecting all requests for Hydro's internal risk analysis into their $14 billion plans for new dams and power lines.

- They thought they had succeeded in stifling the risk consultant who raised big problems with their proposed plans, only to learn she had taken her concerns to the government under the Whistleblower Act.

- Their former colleague Carol Bellringer has managed to delay the required investigation of those concerns for 9 months while Hydro engages in a compaign of slander against the consultant and intimidation against anyone thinking of coming forward to support her.

But the transcript of the Crown Corporations Committee suggests that Hydro's well of goodwill has run dry.

Brennan tried to defend his colleague Carol Bellringer, a proud chartered accountant, and the new bunch of CA's Hydro has hired to churn out a report they can use to deflect criticism. He found out the usual razzle dazzle doesn't work anymore.

Mr. Brennan:
Excuse me. I think I have to defend chartered accountants. Chartered accountants are a credible organization, full of ethics, and I have every confidence in the world that KPMG is credible.

Mr. McFadyen:
I have a lot of respect for KPMG as well. I know certainly Arthur Andersen was a great audit firm as well, and they were paid handsomely by Enron to produce the results that they were looking for.

Some Honourable Members:
Oh, oh

Next: The easy-to-understand Risk Analysis that Manitoba Hydro doesn't want you to see---ours.

Hydro's own drought calculations prove whistleblowers' tune on-key

It was July 26, 2007 when Manitoba Hydro dropped the bombshell on the Public Utilities Board.

The drought of 2003-2004 had traumatized Hydro. It knocked the stuffing out of Hydro's finances-more damage in a single year than anyone ever imagined. The utility ramped up computer simulations to show the board what the cost would be of a multi-year drought like, say, the five that have happened since 1929.

It wasn't a pretty picture.

A five year drought would cost Manitoba Hydro $2.7 billion.

A seven-year drought would cost $3.5 billion.

The numbers may be gi-normous, but that's not what made the PUB blanche. It was the graphs.





A five year drought (starting in 2008 for demonstration purposes) would increase the debt-to-equity position of Hydro to 95-5. That's like making Manitoba Hydro a penny stock.

Ask the Aspers what that did for Canwest Global shares, if you can catch them between meetings with their bankruptcy lawyers.

Oh, and a seven year drought would wipe out all of Hydro's equity



Given the high stakes, the PUB has become obsessed with drought. At first glance, that might seem unwarranted.

A five-year drought is expected once in 50 years, and the last one was only 18 years ago, 1987-91.

A seven year drought is one in 100 year phenomenon and the last was 1936-42.

But…a drought like the one that ravaged Hydro in 2003-2004 happens once ever 15 years---and another one is expected in the coming decade.

The PUB is worried that Hydro's management is not taking enough precautions. A special concern is Hydro's $18 billion plan for new dams to supply American customers.

Here's how the PUB raised the issue in a recent order:

"The 2003-04 drought demonstrated that MH's generally "aggressive" approach to export energy marketing, while conducive to higher profits in median or above flow scenarios, carries the risk of increased losses during drought or low flow years. MH has acknowledged this risk, but believes its present strategy (that is, depending on median water flows) provides greater longer-term financial returns. The Board is not so certain and would prefer an independent assessment be conducted and filed."

The PUB cited one example of how this "aggressive" approach to selling power to the U.S. backfired on Manitoba customers. Hydro sold power it didn't have, then had to be bailed out by a rise in rates.

"Some of MH's exports involve three to four month advance sales of firm energy, without the certainty that the firm energy sold will be available (i.e., precipitation may not replenish water resources). Such practices lead to reasonable results in the absence of poor water conditions, but significant cost consequences when water flows fall and imports have to be purchased to fulfill contract obligations.
This situation occurred in the summer of 2006/07 and, in the Board's view, contributed to MH's request for a 2.25% interim rate increase (granted initially as an interim increase and finalized by Order 90/08)."

There's a pattern of mismanaging water resources, according to the PUB's examples. In the '03-'04 drought, Manitoba Hydro exacerbated the losses by selling off power at cheap prices, then buying it back at a higher cost to meet obligations to American customers.

"MH cannot prevent droughts from occurring, but, arguably, could do more than was done in 2003/04 to mitigate the consequences of a multi-year drought. In 2003/04, energy from water held in reserves was sold at low prices (off-peak pricing) to boost that year's annual income, only for the energy to be required to be "bought back" from the MISO market to meet MH's export commitments, and then at much higher prices than what the energy was sold for."

And the PUB warns that power shortages (the kind that lead to power brownouts) are a possibility if Hydro's dam building suffers any unpredicted delays.

"10.4 New Generation and Transmission
MH is proceeding with the Wuskwatim Generating Station with a targeted in-service date of 2012/13. An Agreement has been reached with WPLP for purchase of all output, estimated to be 1,515 GW.h on average. This arrangement is expected to provide a 1,220 GW.h increase in MH's dependable power (4%).

Bipole III is slated to be in-service in 2017/18, and is expected to add 442 GW.h/yr to MH's dependable generation, this by reducing transmission losses on the HVDC system. The loss reduction could be 1,000 GW.h under average flow conditions, based on the existing Upper Nelson generation plant.

MH's 2007/08 Power Resource Plan indicates that by 2017/18 total generation plant output under a dependable flow scenario will be 28,845 GW.h, equal to base domestic load. At that point, and until Conawapa and Keeyask G.S. are constructed, exports would have be supplied from domestic load reductions, through DSM (demand side management) and by imports or MH natural gas generation."

And….

"In the absence of Keeyask, MH's dependable domestically generated energy of, then forecast to be, about 30,000 GW.h would just cover forecast 2022/23 base domestic load. In such a case meeting the new export commitments would require further domestic load reductions through DSM savings and additional imports or MH natural gas generation.

If either space heating conversions from natural gas to electricity occurred or new large industry or large industry expansion drew power, the situation would be more problematic."

Bankruptcy? Impossible.
Brownouts and blackouts? Impossible.

Oh yeah?

-30-

Explosive details of Manitoba Hydro mismanagement that are being ignored by

Here it is--- the Manitoba Hydro whistleblower's letter to the editor that the Winnipeg Free Press refuses to publish.

Among the explosive details in the letter:

* Hydro is using obsolete computers, computers more than 20 years out of date, to make the sensitive and timely decisions necessary to prevent blackouts.

* The source codes for the complex calculations that Hydro depends on to keep the lights burning are known only to one or two programmers, a fact that would horrify our American customers.

* Manitoba Hydro has hidden $7 billion in potential future losses from the Public Utilities Board.

* Bi-Pole III is so crucial to to Hydro's future plans that even a slight delay in getting it built threatens a catastrophic shortage of power. Hydro is hiding information from the PUB that shows rates would skyrocket if we have to build new gas turbines to make up for the power deficit.

* Hydro got the result it wanted from consultants hired to examine the whistleblower's complaint by telling them what NOT to look at.

The Free Press received the letter Nov. 10. A CBC I-Team report referred to the letter, but gave no details. The letter was posted on the CBC's website. This is the letter in full (with minor corrections in spelling, removal of unnecessary commas and clarification of dropped words in the earlier draft.)

Dear Editor
There have been some who think that the notion of bankruptcy and blackouts is incredulous for a Utility like Hydro.

In response, I would like to point out some facts. Even though Hydro is a Crown Corporation the word “bailouts” does not interchange with “bankruptcy” unless you are following the US model of companies like AIG.

To be specific, the risk reports that were sent to the CEO looked at the numbing $18BN spend out and proposed new debt as the Utility embarks on an ambitious spending spree, which includes sizable export contracts to the US. The multi-year drought analysis on this “future generation” build, including in-service dates, and contract dates, showed exposure to the Province of $7BN.

Obviously, this is more than the retained earnings, and under any definition, would wipe out the entire “solvency” of the Utility.

This $7BN was great cause for concern, and no responsible risk assessment would conclude that the public health of the company was fine. Subsequent consultants hired
to supposedly “look at the problems” were specifically given a scope that they not look at any of the new generation build out, Conawapa, or bi-pole III!

The risk number of $7BN was also being “withheld” from the PUB. The CFO also agreed and signed off on the number.

It was being replaced with a rubber-stamp consultant's report, whose analysis blatantly omitted any look at the bi-pole III and exposure to the Province of the future generation system. (see Page 21 of the publicly disclosed summary)

It did not include Government “bailouts” as a word to replace “bankruptcy”.

The comments about “blackouts” being impossible are also not based on fact.

To keep the lights on in the Province, Hydro’s computers rely on a complex formulae, which operates not just the reservoirs like Lake Winnipeg and Cedar Lake, but of course looks at the import tie-lines from the US, and Hydro’s ability to the run expensive gas units.

While it may be shocking to learn these problems exist, what was uncovered was there were “systemic and massive” computer system flaws - with obsolete computers
maintaining the calculations. Massive system errors and inadequate mathematics were found in the power calculation of “blackouts” or reliability conditions - which could lead to faulty results in keeping the lights on.

This could be seen as the equivalent of using rotary phones in the age of wifi and Bluetooth technology.

Manitoba Hydro now operates in US deregulation and the Midwest ISO. The rules of the game have changed. If it was learned, that the safety methods for keeping the lights on were programmed only by 1 or 2 persons (with source code and changes known only to them), on an outdated computer which hasn’t been changed since the 80’s, I think you too would be worried.

The ICF consultants were told not to look at the computers.
Don’t be too quick to assume the seriousness of the problem. In California ISO, no-one thought these things were possible - till they happened. (The California Independent System Operator is their non-profit counterpart to Manitoba Hydro....ed.)

Further, the Province, needs new generation like Wuskwatim, as quickly as possible to maintain enough energy to meet domestic demands (in other words to keep the lights on).

Beyond 2018 the shortage of generation in the Province is so extreme, that the new bipole III is in essence a “lifeline” to the Province.

Without it - you can’t stay afloat. That line, is not just a political talking point, it is an absolute necessity to keep the lights on in the Province. So who cares if it’s built west side or east side?

Without it - the lights cannot stay on in a multi-year drought.

You will face blackouts. So build it now, and build it quickly.

The risk analysis, shows catastrophic consequence, even from “slight delays” to bi-pole III going in service. Any setbacks, or any problems, would simply mean there is not enough generation to meet demand.

Just one delay in having that line come into the service is also of catastrophic risk to the Province.

In addition, the shortage of generation is so severe, that if the Export Power Marketing contracts (these US contracts being a huge contributor to Provincial risk and the bankruptcy problem) aren’t signed, the Province will need to go against its carbon friendly mantra and expedite the building of new gas turbines - dirty-old polluting thermal units - just to keep the lights on. These would have to be scheduled for 2019.
(Say bye-bye to low rates!)

These are facts. This information was also not being sent to the Public Utilities Board. The Province will need to build, potentially, new gas turbines to keep the lights on and rates would sky-rocket!

Even in 2011 and 2012 there are resource problems and a multi-year drought would threaten keeping the lights on---the same issue the PUB was raising.

Problems had accumulated in hundreds of pages of well-documented reports over 3-4 years. The CFO even paid me a bonus in Jan 2008 for my hard work and contribution!
During the fall of 2008, when I uncovered the computer-system errors in blackouts, I was so worried, I emailed the CEO directly.

The “Hydraulic Computer Report” which would have itemized line-by-line errors in massive computer system failures, which could cause the lights to go out, was sabotaged 24 hours after the CEO was notified that such problems exist.

The report was midway.

Computer failures of other exorbitant magnitude have also contributed to the billion dollars losses and the misforecasting of blackouts. Financial forecasts being incorrect also impact the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and profit sharing. I was told not to put any more in writing.

I realize now that what the Crown Corporation of Manitoba Hydro wants is just a “rubber stamp” consultant who will echo the publicity statements.

And I am proud to have been fired for having the courage to stand up for the truth and not just “yes” management to cover up such serious problems.

Contrary to the comments from the CEO, if I cared about money, I would have just “yessed” management to keep my job - but instead, ethics and integrity was more important. That’s called honesty ... not greed.

And that’s what WhistleBlower Protection laws are for…

Very sincerely,
A very ethical risk consultant in NY
**************************************

The next legislative committee hearing on Hydro is this Tuesday.

- Will the somnambulent Opposition demand answers from Hydro CEO Bob Brennan?

- Will the Government members continue to cover for the Auditor General who has kept the whistleblower's complaint under wraps for eight months while claiming she's not in a conflict of interest just because she sat on the Hydro board of directors for two years with her pal Bob Brennan?

- Will the MLA's demand Auditor Carol Bellringer be removed for wasting a month doing absolutely nothing despite being ordered in October to prepare within, 3 or 4 months, a speedy special audit of the whistleblower's complaint?

- Will the Winnipeg Free Press give Brennan yet another free ride in its editorial pages to slander the person who is supposed to be protected under the government's own Whistleblower Act?

- Will the MSM finally start to examine the explosive specifics of the inside information provided to the alleged watchdogs of Hydro? Or is that too much to ask of professional journalists?

More Hydro tomorrow...

Manitoba Hydro watchdogs sleep as the Whistleblower Act degenerates into farce

Manitoba Hydro has launched a campaign of intimidation to undermine the official investigation of a whistleblower's complaint of gross mismanagement.

Employees have been told that they will be fired for the slightest contact with the whistleblower no matter how personal and non-work related it may be. One Christmas card and there goes your pension. Phone and computer records have been searched to send a message---the all-seeing eye of Big Brother is watching everything you do.

And CEO Bob Brennan has sent letters to news media referring to the whistleblower as "a disgruntled consultant" in a further assault on her character and her credibility.

So much for the innocent public face of Hydro with which Brennan proclaimed that he welcomed the investigation and would cooperate fully.

The threats come as the Auditor General was informed that she will have to speak with current Hydro employees to confirm details of Hydro's operations now that Hydro has managed to stifle any examination of the complaints for more than a year.

Not that it matters to Auditor Carol Bellringer.

Three weeks after being ordered to do a speeded-up special audit into the Hydro complaint, she has done exactly doodly-squat. Zippo. She hasn't looked at a single page of information. Her performance can be summed up in three words---told ya so.

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2009/10/bellringer-olearygate-and-crocus-ndps.html

This, the first test of the government's vaunted The Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act, is degenerating into farce.

* The Hydro whistleblower's complaint officially reached Bellringer's desk 7 l/2 months ago. Before that it sat on the Ombudsman's desk for three months. And Brennan has been aware of the details for 14 months.

Bellringer told the CBC, as an excuse for her blatant inaction, that the act governing her office doesn't set time limits for investigations.

She can take as long as she wants.

And apparently she's doing her level best to stall the investigation to benefit her former colleague on the board of Manitoba Hydro, Bob Brennan.

* Brennan, a graduate of the Mussolini School of Management, bragged to the CBC Tuesday that he hasn't received a single written complaint from anyone alleging intimidation. So, let's see... the intimidation campaign is so successful nobody dares to complain of being intimidated, and that 'proves' there was no intimidation in the first place. Of course, Il Duce.

* This isn't just a test of the Whistleblower Protection Act. It's a test of unelected Premier Greg Selinger. How will he take to respond to this open and direct challenge to the authority of the Legislature?

Brennan has done everything he can to breach the Act. He did his best to identify the whistleblower without actually naming her, despite the assurance of confidentiality in the Act.

He revealed the complainant was a woman; he revealed her job with Hydro, how long she worked there and the time she was fired.

And in a breach of the Privacy Act, he discussed how much she was paid.

He's begun to attack her character in private letters to reporters, and Hydro is threatening to fire anyone who calls her a friend. Even the Constitutional right to freedom of association must bow to Brennan's megalomania.

* The provincial Ombudsman must immediately launch an investigation into Hydro's heavy-handed threats. She can't wait for the intimidation to succeed. She is entrusted with enforcing the Whistleblower Protection Act, and a failure to take a stand now makes a laughing stock of the Protection from Reprisal provisions in the law.

* Roseann Wowchuk, the Minister in charge of Manitoba Hydro and Crown Corporations accountability, must remove Bob Brennan from any role in responding to the whistleblower's complaint. He has demonstrated he is less interested in cooperating with the government watchdogs than in counter-attacking his accuser. This, in itself, is a blatant breach of the spirit, if not the law, of the Act.

* And Selinger must publicly defend the Whistleblower Act. He must denounce Hydro's campaign to intimidate potential witnesses. He must offer the protection of the Premier's office to anyone with vital information about Hydro's operations and possible mismanagement.

And, above all, he must replace Bellringer, who not only reeks of conflict of interest but has proven herself incompetent in handling the public's interest under the Act.

* And will someone poke the official Opposition with a stick to see if you can detect any signs of life?

Opposition "leader" Hugh McFadyen contorted himself into obscene positions to pat himself on the back after the recent policy convention. He couldn't stop blathering what a fierce campaigner he had become.

Yet here's an issue involving Manitoba's largest company possibly losing a billion dollars amid threats of power brownouts and the response from the Conservatives has been a few squeaks at a committee meeting followed by a relapse into dumb silence.

Next: When Manitoba Hydro explained how it could go broke (with pictures).

Bellringer, O'Learygate and Crocus: The NDP's Hallowe'en House of Horrors

Transcripts of meetings of Legislature committees are generally pretty dull reading. So why, we asked ourselves, were we getting a chill up our collective spines.

Suddenly, it was clear. Without knowing it, we had entered----
the NDP's Hallowe'en House of Horrors.

Page after page of last week's regularly scheduled Public Affairs Committee meeting were filled with demonic scenarios, ghosts of scandals past, and disgraces risen from the dead to scare us once again.

Continue reading at your own risk. There are no treats here.

Audits that go bump in the night or, Don't Call Me Quasimodo

Carol Bellringer knows how fishy it looks for her to be auditing her friends and colleagues at Manitoba Hydro.

But she's determined to plow ahead, the public's concern for ethics be damned.

"I don't actually believe that I do have a conflict, but we do acknowledge and accept the fact that there could be that perception with the public," Bellringer, Manitoba's Auditor General, told the Public Affairs Committee.

The committee got an in-camera briefing from Bellringer on plans for a speeded up special audit ordered by new Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk to address a whistleblower complaint into mismanagement at Manitoba Hydro. Afterward, Bellringer made a brief statement in the public session.

"I was indeed a member of the board of directors of Manitoba Hydro prior to my appointment as Auditor General. I was on the board from September 15th, 2004, until my appointment in July of 2006. I was chairing the audit committee, and I was on the board. I therefore signed off on the financial statements for the '05 and '06 fiscal years. There has been a reference to my signing off on the '03-04 drought year, which was not the case."

So there, you haters. Just because she was a trusted member of the same management team that's currently under scrutiny, doesn't mean she can't (ha ha ha) be scrupulously fair in judging their work, and, if need be, her own audits and knowledge of Hydro affairs.

Isn't that obvious?

And if it isn't, she told the committee, "the office has implemented a number of safeguards that we believe will--certainly we're hoping that-- they will alleviate any concerns."

Bellringer then proceeded to bamboozle the MLA's with ways she's devised to keep control of the investigation in her own hands while making it appear the opposite.

She's "had discussions" with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba.

Translation: I'm looking for loopholes to get around rules against conflict of interest. If I can convince the Institute of CA's to give me the okay, I'll be invincible against allegations that I'm breaching ethics, or ... whatever. Bite me.

And, she added, she's looking for a former auditor general from out-of-province to "oversee the entire process."

Translation: Bellringer's hand-picked consultants will conduct the audit, the hired auditor will "oversee" their work, and Bellringer will "oversee" him, writing the final report and submitting it to the Legislature.

The real issue is control, and Bellringer isn't giving it up to anyone else.

The government is counting on her.

* She sat on the whistleblower complaint for four months and did nothing with it.

* Then, once it became known in August that the Public Utilities Board had a copy of the complaint and was examining it, she tried to snatch control of the issue away from them.

* She announced with great fanfare that she intended all along to do a major study of Hydro's risk assessment practices and policies, which would incorporate the whistleblower's complaints, and which would take at least another year and a half.

Then, last week, as the various news media began running stories about the whistleblower complaint, the NDP moved to get ahead of the storm by ordering a special emergency audit from Bellringer, with results expected in about three months.

Bellringer, who has now had the file on her desk for nine months during which she's done nothing, says she can complete the job in the required time -- provided you overlook her cozy personal and professional relationships with Hydro board and staff.

Hey, Bob, call me.

Oh, and she's signalled to Hydro and the government that if she, and she alone, decides there's nothing to the whistleblower's complaint, she's going to deep-six the risk assessment study.

Starting an 18-month audit in the spring of 2010 would mean you finish it just about the time of the 2011 provincial election.

And who wants that, right Greg Selinger?

Do you want to know how frightening the idea is of this Auditor General throwing ethics to the curb so she can control the investigation of her boardroom pals?

The next chapter of the Public Affairs committee has the gory details. Read it and you'll know why Carol Bellringer must have no role in auditing Manitoba Hydro.

The Ghost of O'Learygate Walks Again or Tories: Dumber Than Carved Pumpkins

The second item on the agenda of the Public Affairs Committee was the special audit Carol Bellringer conducted in 2007 into "Property Transactions in the Seven Oaks School Division."

Do these elements sound familiar?
- Financial mismanagement by a board of directors connected closely to the NDP,
- huge losses,
- a whistleblower,
- a hasty coverup,
- a bogus audit, and
- two layers of whitewash from Carol Bellringer.

The Black Rod exposed this scandal, named O'Learygate after the man at the centre, Brian O'Leary, the NDP's former campaign manager. He most recently made the rogue's gallery again with the revelation of the NDP's 1999 election fraud on his watch, another horror Premier Selinger wants to forget.

Longtime readers of The Black Rod know the details of O'Learygate, so we won't belabor the point. New readers can catch up at

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2005/05/olearygate-land-development-ndp-style.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2005/06/black-rod-exclusive-seven-oaks-land.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2005/06/flagging-olearygate-3-stages-of-cover.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2005/09/education-minister-glued-to-olearygate.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2007/08/auditor-gives-olearygate-makeover.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2007/08/olearygate-follow-money.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2007/09/auditor-approves-enron-math-to-mask.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2007/09/olearygate-provincial-auditors.html

In a nutshell, the Seven Oaks School Board secretly used taxpayers' money to buy land, develop it and sell it off as residential lots. The board had been denied permission to build a new school, so they planned to create the demand for the school through the new subdivision they would create, plus the profits would pay for the land needed for the school.

They ran into two problems. They lost their shirts on the land development. And they got caught by a whistleblower.

When the whistleblower started asking questions, Education Minister Peter Bjornson lied to him and said everything had been done properly.

Tipped off that the jig was up, the Seven Oaks board worked frantically to get their land development approved retroactively, breaking every rule set up to catch and prevent such mismanagement.

The Doer government was eventually shamed into ordering a special audit which Bellringer conducted, shamefully. The Seven Oaks School Division produced two sets of accounts.

One showed that they lost more than $300,000 on the land deal, but the other miraculously turned the loss into a profit. How? By declaring that they valued the land they didn't sell at $819,000 if they sold it to themselves for a new school. Therefore, if they eventually wrote themselves an imaginary cheque for $819,000, they would erase the actual loss they paid to others, and "make" an imaginary profit of $500,000.

Makes sense to me, said Bellringer, without breathing a word about
- the lies told to the whistleblower,
- the lies told to the Public Schools Finance Board which was never notified about the land development,
- the outbreak of amnesia by the people who made the deals, or
- the panicky meeting where the paperwork was retroactively approved despite the rules that should have prevented it.

At the Public Affairs committee, Gerald Farthing, Deputy Minister of Education, was asked if his department ever independently verified the value of the land that Seven Oaks claimed was worth $819,000. Nope, he said.

Bellringer admitted she took the school division's word for it. In other words, Seven Oaks was allowed to audit themselves and the Auditor General rubber stamped it.

Is it any wonder that Bob Brennan, Hydro's CEO, welcome the special audit with a great big smile?

Hey, Carol. Call me.

Oh, and don't forget about the pumpkins. The Conservative members on the Public Affairs Committee, particularly Rick Borotsik and Heather Stefanson, were so totally unprepared they didn't know or understand a single thing about the very issue they were supposed to be examining. They hadn't spend even a minute researching O'Learygate as demonstrated by the appalling ignorance of their questions.

Bellringer showed her contempt for them by failing to bring, or professing she hadn't at hand, information the Tories wondered about but hadn't taken the time to learn themselves.

It was a scary performance by a bunch who claim they're ready to be a government. Now there's a nightmare.

Crocus The Undead Rises From the Grave

You can't kill it. No matter how many times the Crocus Scandal has been proclaimed dead, it rises to walk the land to scare investors (and Greg Selinger) all over again.

The Public Affairs Committee of October 2009 was examining the "Auditor General's Report - Examination of the Crocus Investment Fund, May 2005". Yep, it's taken four years for the legislators to get around to the Crocus audit. If that doesn't scare you, what will?

The MLA's by this time were acting like the undead themselves, showing little interest in the topic, when unexpectedly Larry Maguire (PC-Arthur-Virden) began asking pointed questions.

"He's alive. He's alive," we shouted.

Well, almost.

Maguire was questioning Hugh Eliasson, Deputy Minister of Competitiveness, Training and Trade, and a former member of the Crocus board. He asked in the most convoluted, mind-numbing way about what Greg Selinger knew as Finance minister at the time the Crocus Fund had turned into a de facto Ponzi scheme.

"Also, at times, I think he's even indicated that they knew about the fact that people were still investing, being encouraged to invest in Crocus at that time, when, in fact, the funds that were coming in were hardly offsetting the amount that some of the previous shareholders, earlier, were taking out."

I wonder if you can just elaborate on any of those occurrences, in fact, confirm that, in fact, sometimes the funds coming in and being collected and still encouraged to be collected in that '04 period, some of the latter parts of it were, in fact, hardly covering what was going out."

Eliasson ducked the question.

But despite the deputy minister's zombie-like mindless adherence to regurgitating the party line, he did reveal two new pieces of information regarding the Crocus debacle.

Eliasson sat on the board as a government representative from April 2000 to April 2001. He said he eventually resigned when he couldn't reconcile "the conflicting duties that a director had and a deputy minister had."

"…I began to seek legal advice as to what remedies could be taken, and there are several remedies that members of a board can take when they're presented with a conflict, but none of them seemed sufficient to me to give me sufficient comfort to carry out both those duties simultaneously, which is why I resigned from the board in April of 2001."

Mr. Maguire: And so you pulled yourself out because of the conflict of interest you felt because you were directly involved in the department in policy making? Am I correct there?
Mr. Eliasson: I wouldn't characterize it as a conflict of interest. I would characterize it as two duties that were in conflict or potentially in conflict.

And Eliasson finally answered the question everyone has been asking since the day the investment fund imploded five years ago. The government appointed a director to the Crocus Board to look after the interests of the public taxpayer. What was that representative telling the Finance Minister as the fund crashed and burned?

Eliasson took 102 words to answer the question. We can summarize his answer in one: nothing.

How can that be? Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoureux asked.

Mr. Lamoureux: You indicated the Province's appointment to the board was more for the shareholders' interests as opposed to the Province's interests. Was there any obligation at all in terms of that representative reporting to the Minister of Finance?

Mr. Eliasson: The director did not have an obligation to report to the Minister of Finance. The director owed his duty-his or her duty-to the shareholders of the corporation, and the actions of the director should have been in the best interests of the shareholders.

In other words, according to the NDP, they appointed a director to the Crocus board of directors to represent the taxpayer, but once appointed, he couldn't tell the government anything.

If that reasoning doesn't send shivers up your spine, you're dead.

EXCLUSIVE: HYDRO WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS BRENNAN LIED TO FREE PRESS

"It was Brennan who specifically asked me not to substantiate the findings."

With those 12 words, the woman who has become known as the Manitoba Hydro whistleblower has assured the need for a full-blown investigation of Hydro---and specifically its President and CEO, Bob Brennan.

"Brennan's comments need to be refuted as completely false and incorrect," she told The Black Rod in an exclusive correct-the-record expose on Monday.

Miss Whistle, as we'll call her, has gone to war over Brennan's sly campaign of attacking her credibility in light of the decision by the Public Utilities Board to look into her whistleblower complaint of gross mismanagement at Hydro. She had been a risk consultant for Hydro up to the day she gave Brennan an advance copy of a report she had prepared warning of huge and avoidable financial losses and the possibility of power blackouts.

His latest salvo against her came in the Winnipeg Free Press http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/hydro-warned-of-bankruptcy-64901057.html

Brennan insisted he had been unable to substantiate the allegations in Miss Whistle's report; he blamed her for refusing to waive the confidentiality clause in her contract so that Hydro could have another consultant examine her findings; and he sniffed that she was paid $500,000 ("a fortune") for next to nothing in results.

She wasn't about to let those attacks go unchallenged. She told us:

"There is no request of any information from the CEO to ask for any substantiation (which was very surprising to me) and in fact the opposite occurred, he deliberately asked me to put nothing more in evidence that could prove the serious and alarming facts that were brought to his attention."

" (I) was never asked to send information to another consultant until media reports started running, and over one year later, after the fact."

" Brennan's claim that none of the findings were substantiated are factually dishonest. Multiple explanations were provided to the CFO (Chief Financial Officer...ed) over numerous lengthy phone calls and hundreds of pages of reports and the CFO agreed with me. Any facts that were asked of me, by any executive were provided promptly."

"Therefore Brennan's statements are not true. It was, in fact, me, that pleaded with Brennan (as can be proven in emails) to substantiate the facts, and it was the CEO himself, who wanted no explanations documented in writing, leaving the "advance copy" of the report incomplete."

She even addressed Brennan directly.

"Your comment that work of no value was provided is incorrect. My reporting line was directly to the CFO, and emails show both the CEO and CFO, saying that I was adding immense value to the company even up until August."

To back up her point, she provided us with emails sent by, guess who--- Bob Brennan, himself---commending her for the work she had done for Hydro.

August 2008
" I appreciate the considerable time and effort you put into completing this report by the deadline date of July 31. Thank you again for the assistance you have provided to Manitoba Hydro."

July 2008 from the CEO
"I certainly appreciate your efforts in assisting Manitoba Hydro with identifying risks and opportunities in this important area of our business.
Thank you again for your consulting assistance and advice provided to Manitoba Hydro."

She notes that nowhere does Brennan ask for any further information to substantiate the elements of her report.

"He asked me for not one question!"

Miss Whistle also wanted to correct errors in the latest Winnipeg Free Press story.

The $500,000 paid to her firm was for 4-5 years of work (!). By contrast, she said, another consultant was paid $400,000 by Hydro for 3 months work.

Furthermore,

"I never said that about the Drought in FY0304. (That's insider-speak for Fiscal Year 2003-2004...ed.) What CBC said was correct and should be taken from their website."

Winnipeg Free Press error
"Mismanagement may also have cost Hydro more than $1-billion in the last several years, including the $436-million lost in 2003-2004 during a drought, the reports claimed."

CBC Winnipeg
"Bellringer was on Hydro's board of directors and chaired its audit committee in 2004 and 2005, examining data immediately after the period when the whistleblower report alleges that mismanagement, combined with a drought, led to the loss of more than $400 million."

*************

The battle lines have been drawn. If Bob Brennan thought he could intimidate Hydro's whistleblower it's obvious he's sorely mistaken.

It's also obvious that a full and immediate investigation of her complaint is necessary, both to address the concerns in her reporting to Hydro and to serve as an example to Hydro and to every other public utility and government service that whistleblowers will be taken seriously and no intimidation will be tolerated -- no matter how disingenuously its couched.

Do you hear that, Bob Brennan?

It's additionally obvious that the NDP government and their lap dog Auditor General must have nothing to do with any investigation of Hydro or the whistleblower's complaint.

Newly imposed Premier Greg Selinger used to be the Minister in charge of Hydro. Auditor Carol Bellringer sat on the board of Manitoba Hydro at the very time of the alleged mismanagement, yet claims to be blind to any perception of a conflict of interest.

It's no wonder that Bob Brennan, upon learning the complaint had wound up in Bellringer's lap, said he welcomed her investigation.

By contrast, he's dead set against having the Public Utilities Board look at the whistleblower's evidence.

He's managed to deflect for more than a year demands from the PUB for Hydro's risk assessments on its grandiose plan for $18 billion in new dam construction over the next 15 years. The government has supported his stall, proceeding with construction of the dams and refusing to order Hydro to turn over the information demanded by the alleged watchdog of the public interest.

*****
Miss Whistle cannot discuss the details of her whistleblower complaint without breaching a confidentiality agreement she signed as a consultant. The best summary of her concerns that we could find was in Saturday's Globe and Mail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/secret-complaint-could-bankrupt-manitoba-hydro/article1327802/

Secret complaint could bankrupt Manitoba Hydro
Whistleblower's report subject of intense speculation
Patrick White
Winnipeg - From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009

"Feeling that Hydro had given the consultant's report short shrift, the whistleblower filed a 70-page complaint with the Manitoba Ombudsman last December outlining the consultant's concerns:

* The company's $436-million loss in 2004 due to drought was largely avoidable.

* Manitoba Hydro had so badly miscalculated its energy supply that the province's lights could go off.

* Annual report filings regarding drought were incorrect.

* Power export forecasts were overly optimistic.

* The utility had lost more than a billion dollars because of mismanagement."

Editors note: Since many of the issues we raised over a year ago in the Black Rod overlap with the concerns of Miss Whistle, here are links to our previous research and commentaries.

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2008/09/who-will-go-broke-first-manitoba-hydro_08.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2008/09/manitoba-hydro-series-part-two.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2008/09/manitoba-hydro-series-part-3.html

Winnipeg's First Family of millionaire moochers have outdone themselves

Last week it was announced that "Penny" Lenny, "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" David, and Gigglin' Gail Asper had managed to ride their daddy's Canwest Global empire into the toilet.

It's been an open secret for more than a year that these business sharpies were headed for bankruptcy court. It was last October that Canwest shares officially became a penny stock. In 2000 the stock traded at $18.55 a share; it had collapsed to 93 cents in the fall (pun intended) of 2008. It hit bottom at 12 1/2 cents before bouncing up to a whopping 20 cents a share in September.

And now we learn that the Aspers' plan for restructuring includes stiffing their employees for their vacation pay.

When it comes to their own pet projects, they've got their hands out; when it comes to their employees, it's "talk to the hand."

Among their victims are local favourites Meera Bahadoosingh and Andrea Slobodian who left Global TV Winnipeg last month for new jobs with Shaw TV (Andrea in Calgary, Meera in Murda City).

It turns out the former Global employees had been working to subsidize the millionaire owners of the TV station. They've been cheated out of thousands of dollars as the Aspers play Big Shot for their Winnipeg sycophants.

With more than a year to prepare, you would think that Penny Lenny Asper, Canwest Global president and CEO, would have set aside the cash to pay the money owed to employees leaving the company.

He prepared alright.

When filing for bankruptcy protection last week, Canwest requested the court to set aside $9.8 million in bonus payments for "key employees" to keep them on the job during the restructuring instead of bolting for the exit doors to find new jobs.

And just in case...the executives have strapped on their golden parachutes.

As of last September, Canwest Mediaworks president and CEO Dennis Skulsky was being paid $750,000 a year in base salary and bonuses. If he loses his job, he's guaranteed two years base salary and the average annual bonus collected over the previous three-year period

In an email to staff last week, Canwest chief executive Leonard Asper, who last year collected a $900,000 salary and a bonus of $153,780, cried crocodile tears over the 60 or so employees he's cheating out of the money they earned. "We sincerely regret the impact to them," he sniffed.

Meanwhile, Canwest spokesman John Douglas said that any ex-employee screwed out of money can take a number and line up with the other creditors. They could, he said pompously, " be part of the claims process."

Such callous treatment of the "little people" should be a huge red flag to the local governments who have been treating the Aspers like royalty instead of the panhandlers they've become.

...because stiffing the help is a pattern with the Aspers, not the rich man's burden they pretend.

In 2008, back when David Asper was still considered a "playa", he spent like a drunken sailor to win CRTC approval for his planned takeover of the license granted to radio station 107.9 FM. The license was for a campus radio station, but the owners had done an end-around the CRTC, dispensing with actually enrolling students, and running it as a commercial hip-hop station under the name 'Flava'.

Phat David bought up the private owner of 'Flava' and set up a company called YO Management to run the station. He promised the CRTC everything under the sun to let him keep the license, including taking over all the debts to former staff owed by 'Flava'.

Enter Duvol Dryden, a DJ and Flava radio host who was owed $10,000.

Dryden, taking Asper at his word, tried to collect his money after winning a federal Labour Board order, only to get the royal Asper runaround at every turn. He finally wrote to the CRTC during the hearing process to plead his case.

Frank Magazine found Dryden's letter in the CRTC files, from which we quote:

"I was supposedly a student representative on the board. For the record, I was never a student in any affiliated school course," he wrote in his intervention. "I was never invited to a board meeting, I never saw or approved minutes of a board meeting, and I was never invited to an Annual General Meeting."

"I see that the new supposed management of Harmony Broadcasting includes David Asper. Mr. Asper is behind a museum of human rights that going to cost a few million dollars. Human Rights? Here I am being treated like a black slave, being cheated out of my wages by someone Mr. Asper wants to reward with a high-paying guaranteed job, and he's sitting there saying 'Nothing personal, boy. Just business.'"

Nothing personal. Sound familiar?

Local governments fawned over the Aspers when they were known as the billionaire family owners of a media empire, promising them tens of millions of dollars for their pet projects. In return, the Aspers played their roles as rich benefactors, although the recipients of their largesse were usually themselves (the Canadian Museum for Human Rights) or their millionaire friends (The Friends of Upper Fort Garry).

Now that they've been exposed as the better-off brethren of the begging bums on Portage Avenue, it's time governments got off their knees and sounded the forbidden words: NOT ANOTHER PENNY.

C'mon. Does anybody believe David Asper can pull $100 million out of his hindquarters and buy the Blue Bombers, build a new stadium and finance a high-end mall for the luxury set? This year? Next year? The year after? The year after the year after?

Haven't we heard that chorus before? Little sister Gail has been singing it for years with her pet project, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. You know, the one she's never been able to raise the money for despite years of begging.

Her last publicity stunt fundraiser was a grape-stomping event a local restaurant where she raised $25,000, which barely covers six months of globetrotting by the museum's Chief Operating Officer Patrick O'Reilly.

The museum hasn't been built yet and it's already on the verge of going belly up. $45 to $50 million in the hole. Not a hope of ever seeing that money without digging into the taxpayers' pockets.

The tradesmen better start asking for certified cheques in advance.

Just ask Andrea Slobodian and Meera Bahadoosingh what the Aspers' word is worth.

* H/t to The Great Canadian Talk Show

********
Professional Reporters at Work

Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press, Oct. 10, 2009, "Museum globetrotters"

"The museum is asking Ottawa to cover a $5.2-million budget shortfall this year by advancing money ear-marked for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Museum communications director Angela Cassie says the original star-tup estimates first submitted to Ot-tawa have since been revised to allow more of the work to be done this year.
The museum will still be at least $5 million short of annual operating funds when it opens, thanks to main-tenance costs and property taxes not originally factored into the price of running the facility. The museum plans to fundraise to cover some of those costs, but warned in its annual report released Friday that future operating budgets presented to government could include requests for more money."

James Adams, Globe and Mail, Oct. 14, 2009, "Human-rights museum dodges financial crisis"

"The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, still an estimated three years from opening its doors in Winnipeg, has dodged a financial crisis, thanks to an accounting sleight of hand.

In its 2008-09 annual report tabled late last week in the House of Commons, the museum announced that the government has approved a request for an advance of $5.2-million to meet its operating budget for the current fiscal year. The money is being "reprofiled" from the $21.7-million the Conservative government previously had benchmarked for the Crown corporation's operations in 2011-12.

Previously, the CMHR, the construction of which began this year, had been budgeted to receive $3.4-million to operate during the 2009-2010 fiscal year ending March 31. The $3.4-million was part of a $6.1-million operating package Ottawa provided for 2008-09 and 2009-2010."

Why Manitoba Hydro is keeping secrets from the PUB

Manitoba Hydro is waging an under-the-radar power struggle with the Public Utilities Board.

For over a year Hydro has been playing cat-and-mouse with the PUB, promising to deliver information the board wants, then reneging, promising, then reneging again. At issue is the utility's risk analyses for its plans to spend $18 billion over the next 15 years to build new dams in northern Manitoba.

The PUB wants to know how Hydro can justify the huge expense and what alternatives they have if Hydro's profit projections evaporate into thin air. The fear is that the entire cost of the new dams will fall on the shoulders of Manitoba electricity users, not to mention the very real possibility that we will be forced to buy electricity at an unknown price in order to fulfill our obligations to provide it to American customers at a fixed price----in other words, to subsidize the U.S. buyers.

Last September, The Black Rod examined PUB documentation to produce a three-part expose of Manitoba Hydro's dam construction plans.

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2008/09/who-will-go-broke-first-manitoba-hydro_08.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2008/09/manitoba-hydro-series-part-two.html

http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2008/09/manitoba-hydro-series-part-3.html

The bottom line:

"Manitoba Hydro's house of cards is built on the premise that the exchange rate will drop to 86 cents U.S., that a carbon tax in the U.S. prices coal out of the market, and interest rates stay the same for the next decade or so. Not one of these factors --- all of them have to come true for Hydro to make any money."

It's no wonder that the Public Utilities Board is becoming more and more worried, and Manitoba Hydro is doing its best to hide the facts.

It turns out that a month after The Black Rod's series, Hydro responded to the PUB's demand for their risk studies. The PUB amended its order by eliminating deadlines for Hydro to provide the information it wants. The main reason is that Hydro said it has always had the risk analyses, but has been keeping them from the PUB. Here's how the PUB reported that bombshell:

Board Findings
In Order 116/08 the Board indicated that a risk analysis should be undertaken incorporating all of the major risks faced by MH. The Board directed MH to undertake:
"a thorough and quantified Risk Analysis, including probabilities of all identified operational and business risks. This report should consider the implications of planned capital spending taking into account revenue growth, variable interest rates, drought, inflation experience and risk, and potential currency fluctuation" [Directive 12]
MH has indicated that it will be filing its Corporate Risk Management Report on January 15, 2009. That report may address the major risks of the Corporation however, the Corporate Risk Management Report has, in the past, not provided the information sought in Directive 12.
That said, in its October 8, 2008 reply MH candidly acknowledges that its prior filings of the Corporate Risk Management Report excluded the appendices to the Report.
The appendices apparently detail and quantify MH's business and operational risks.
MH now proposes to file the appendices, from the new Report, in confidence with the Board.

-snip-

To date, the Board has not been provided with specific analyses of the risks related to pending long-term export contracts, pending major capital construction for generation and transmission facilities, and the 'sticker shock' impacts on the longterm profitability of such ventures.
However, MH now asserts, in its October 8, 2008 reply, that its Corporate Risk Management Report will identify and quantify all major operational and business risks and provide an explanation of all risk mitigation measures undertaken or planned by the Corporation. Additionally, the expanded IFFs to be filed will include a projection of MH's capital structure showing the impact of capital expansion now planned or contemplated, with risks quantified.

To allow the Board the opportunity to determine whether MH's new filings by January 15, 2009 address the Board's concerns, the Board will vary this Directive by removing the deadline date. Should the Board require additional information after its review of MH's January 15, 2009 filings, the Board will consider further revisions to this Directive.

Well, guess what? January, 2009, came and went and Manitoba Hydro failed to give the PUB the information it wanted.

A new deadline was set---Sept. 30, 2009. Once again, nada from Hydro.

Hydro CEO Bob Brennan now says they need to provide the proper "context" for their risk studies and they'll provide the information when they feel like it and not before.

By stalling for a year, Hydro has managed to make a start on the money-losing Wuskwatim hydro project, and to ask for a waiver on environmental regulations to build a work camp preparatory to starting on the Keeyask dam. They know the PUB is powerless to stop them from plowing ahead with their plans.

Now you can see why the PUB has seized on a whistleblower's complaint about Hydro mismanagement, even though they technically have no authority to do so.

The hot-potato complaint has been circulating through the bureaucracy for well over 6 months. It landed in the hands of the Auditor General in April, six months ago. Carol Bellringer said she would get around to it sometime. But before she could apply the usual NDP whitewash, the complaint, with accompanying documents, was slipped through the transom at the offices of the Public Utilities Board.

They're examining the figures, and trying to determine how much to make public.

If they have a hard time, The Black Rod won't.

The. Most. Controversial. Black Rod. Ever.

For the first time ever, we need to issue a content warning. If you are easily upset by obscenity or descriptions of explicit sex acts, don't read on.

The witchhunt has started.

The first to be dragged to the stake is Stuart Murray, the newly announced Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. His crime? He's not pure enough for the homosexual lobby.

Detractors of the CMHR said from the beginning it was going to be a publicly funded tool to promote left-wing feminist/homosexual social engineering. Not so, insisted the museum's backers.

When reporting to the federal Heritage minister in 2008, Arni Thorsteinson, then-chairman of the federal advisory committee on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, wrote: (All emphasis herein is ours)

“There was a concern among respondents in the web-based consultations and focus groups testing that the CMHR could be influenced by political activities, or special interest groups in a manner that could affect, or be perceived to affect, the integrity and balance of its exhibitions and programs.”

“The Board will need to not only ensure that it remains autonomous and free from influence, but also to be seen to be autonomous and free from influence.”

Well, here's the real-life litmus test on interference by special interest groups, and the response from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is----dead silence.

The refusal to defend Stu Murray tells all you need to know about the influence certain special interests have with the board.

In January, Helen Kennedy, executive director the homosexual lobby group Egale Canada, sent an open letter to Patrick Riley, Chief Operating Officer of the CMHR, which began:

Dear Mr. Patrick O’Reilly,
As one of the initial supporters of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights...Egale Canada is gravely concerned about the stark omission of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) and our allies’ history, achievements, and voices on your website and fact sheets and in your newsletters and other publications.

Obviously they didn't get the response they wanted. So when the appointment of Stu Murray was announced by the federal government, Egale decided to flex its muscle. They want Murray to crawl. And they're sending a message to Riley, Thorsteinson, Gail Asper and Stephen Harper---we call the shots, policy or no policy.

Already the museum executive has begun to kowtow to the homosexual lobby, as we'll explain later. In the meantime, they're leaving it to their surrogates like former Liberal MP John Harvard and former NDP attorney general Roland Penner to attack Murray, and anyone who comes out in support of him, in the editorial pages of the Winnipeg Free Press.

The attack on Murray appears to centre on his vote as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in Manitoba against extending adoption rights to same-sex couples.

Since it's obvious you'll never see the other side of the argument in the CMHR or, we bet, in the Winnipeg Free Press (although we grant them permission to reprint this article in full) we decided to research it ourselves.

Proponents of the legislation said it was a natural extension of laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation, the newspeak term for, as former NDP cabinet minister Sidney Green put it in his own editorial page article, sexual gratification.

The Gay Report, published in 1979, was an 881 page compendium of pre-AIDS lesbian and gay male sexual attitudes and practices. 5,400 lesbians and gay men filled out a 16-page questionaire making it one of the largest surveys ever conducted of homosexual sex practices.

Among its findings:

99% engaged in oral sex;
91% had anal intercourse;
83% engaged in rimming; (licking the anus)
22% had done fisting;
23% admitted to participating in golden showers (peeing on another or being peed on);
76% admitted to public or group sex;
73% admitted having sex with boys (nineteen years old or younger)]
38% had partaken of sadomasochistic practices at least once
4% admitted to eating feces.
35% admitted to having had 100 or more different sexual partners

Debunking the Gay Report has become almost a cottage industry on the internet. Among the valid criticisms is that it was a survey similar to those that appear in magazines, and not a scientific poll; only about 1 percent of the surveys that were distributed were returned; and the bulk of respondents came from readers of Blueboy, a gay softporn magazine, which likely skewed the results towards the more extreme sex practices.

Since the AIDS epidemic, sex surveys of homosexuals have become commonplace among AIDS researchers.

There was a research study conducted between 2004 and 2007 by a team from the University of Windsor and the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT).

In one survey, data was collected from 922 "randomly recruited men" during Toronto Pride 2005. They completed a 73-item questionnaire about their sexual behavior and sexual activites in the previous six months.

54.7 percent reported having sex with a regular partner
26 percent said they were monogamous with their partner, although that's a flexible term because...
62 percent reported having a casual male partner and "significant numbers" of men reported having sex with casual and regular partners.
13.9 percent said they had sex without condoms (participating in the bareback scene)

"They reported having UAI (unprotected anal intercourse...ed) both with and without coming. BB men were significantly overrepresented in a specific set of social venues and they were more likely to have: (1) been sexually adventurous (e.g. fisting, SM, "party and play,"etc); (2) had five or more sexual partners in the previous six months."

Researchers conducted a separate survey of 34 men who reported having unprotected sex most or all of the time. The findings were hair-raising.

"SERO-SORTING
The men expressed concern about HIV transmission, despite their sexual practices. To manage their HIV many tried to sero-sort by dropping or looking for hints and cues, without directly asking about or disclosing HIV status. This was primarily because raising the topic of HIV status (positive or negative) with a potential sexual partner provoked strong feelings of anxiety, and caused concern about receiving a hostile response and possibly derailing an opportunity to have sex. This was especially the case for the HIV-positive men."

"HIV-positive men tended to presume that when a sexual partner did not bring up sero-status or did not introduce a condom, he was implying consent because he was HIV-positive or he accepted the risk being taken. These presumptions were especially attributed to quick-sex settings, such as baths, where a partner’s HIV status was often inferred based on his willingness to go along with unprotected sex. Men in the bareback circuit tended to share these presumptions."

"HIV-negative men were more likely to presume that when a sexual partner did not bring up sero-status or introduce a condom, he was HIV-negative."

"The men were also asked about the 1998 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Cuerrier case that stated people living with HIV have an obligation to disclose their sero-status to sexual partners..."

"Most felt that disclosure could be indirect, situational, or qualified and were concerned about the legal complications that could arise from ambiguous and subjective definitions of disclosure, and whether disclosure could actually heighten one’s vulnerability to legal problems. Some men rejected the obligation of HIV-positive people to disclose, on the grounds that sex is a shared responsibility in which both partners should take selfprotective measures. This latter perspective has been promoted by many AIDS service organizations (ASOs) for several decades and was also found to be consistent with the ideology of men in the bareback circuit."

The Ontario Men’s Survey in 2004 was a community project funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and GlaxoSmithKline Positive Action Program.

"AIDS service organizations and the people who organize and run community groups helped formulate the questions; gay dances, bars and bathhouses provided places where men could answer them. The goal was to find 5,000 men who would complete the questionnaire. That goal was met and surpassed" (with 5,080 men participating). Almost half (2428) of the participants were from Toronto.

SEXUAL ACTIVITIES WITH CASUAL MALE PARTNER(S) IN PAST 3 MONTHS
%
Deep kissing 77.8
Jerking off 77.6
Rimming 40.3
Sucking - condom 17.0
Sucking - no condom 80.3
Getting sucked - condom 14.4
Getting sucked - no condom 73.2
Fucking - condom 46.5
Fucking - no condom 21.0
Getting fucked - condom 34.5
Getting fucked - no condom 16.0

Number of casual sex partners in the
past 3 months
one 18%
2-4 46%
5-9 16%
10 or more 20%
Potentially risky activities with casual sex
partners without condoms
fucking 21%
getting fucked 16%

"The question: “In the past three months, when you have had sex with male casual partners, how often have you told each other of your HIV status?”
The answer: Not that often. Here’s how it breaks down:"
always disclosed status: 25%
sometimes disclosed status: 30%
never disclosed status: 45%

The ARGUS study was a 2005 Montreal gay sex survey conducted under the Canada, Quebec, and Montreal public health departments in which 1957 men filled out a self-administered questionnaire about their sex behaviours in the previous six months.

Among its findings:

9.2 percent practised fisting (defined as inserting all the fingers, a fist, or a forearm in the anus)
27.2 percent engaged in group sex
81 percent had one-night stands, including 34 percent who had six or more.
29.8 percent had unprotected anal intercourse with a partner without knowing if the person had HIV or not.
11.5 percent "intentionally" had unprotected anal sex with a casual male partner

But surveys are just unscientific snapshots. A better insight into the beliefs and behaviour of the homosexual community comes from their own official statements and policy stances.

Egale and other homosexual groups including Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario (CLGRO) opposed raising the age of consent to 16 from 14.

In a brief to the Justice Committee. CLGRO stated:
"There is a widespread belief that older, predatory persons lure young people into homosexuality. This is coupled with a refusal to accept that younger persons are capable of seeking and do seek out consensual same-sex relationships with older persons and, in fact, may be the initiators of such relationships. In addition, contrary to popular belief, a relationship with an older person may not in fact be damaging for a young person."

Hilary Cook, who served as chair of Egale's legal committee for five years before taking a seat on the board of directors, said it was unrealistic to expect teens to have sex only with those their own age.

"That's not the queer youth reality."

Egale's biggest bugaboo is the law against having anal sex with children aged 16 and 17. But given the lackadaisical attitude (above) to unprotected anal sex by the highest risk group for AIDS in the country, it appears a very reasonable restriction to protect children.

The biggest insight into the homosexual culture came in the legal battle between Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium, a gay and lesbian bookstore in Vancouver. Canada Customs was continually seizing books the story was trying to import from the U.S. The bookstore owners went to court to prove Customs was discriminating against them on the basis of their sexual orientation.

The case wound up in the Supreme Court where during the lengthy trial (1999-2000) the bookstore owners and their supporters argued that homosexuals should get special treatment under the laws against pornography.

EGALE Canada in their argument to the court said that
"sexually explicit lesbian, gay and bisexual materials challenge the dominant cultural discourse. They resist the enforced invisibility of our marginalized communities and thereby reassure us that we are not alone in the world, despite the apparent hegemony of heterosexuality. They reduce our sense of isolation. They provide affirmation and validation of our sexual identities by normalizing and celebrating homo-and bi-sexual practices, which mainstream culture either ignores or condemns. In short, they help us feel good about ourselves in an otherwise hostile society."

LEAF argued in its intervenor documents that

"the equality rights of heterosexual women are also affected by the targeting of LGBT materials. These materials benefit heterosexual women because they may challenge sexism, compulsory heterosexuality and the dominant, heterosexist sexual representations which often portray 'normal' heterosexuality as men dominating women and women enjoying pain and degradation."

Here are just a few excerpts of the court's majority decision which further outline the sexual orientation argument:

Reasons for Judgment, BCSC, para. 128. AR Vol. I, p. 131.
Court File No: 26858

"First the appellants argue that the “harm-based” interpretation given to s. 163 of the Criminal Code in Butler, supra, does not apply to gay and lesbian erotica in the same way as it does to heterosexual erotica, or perhaps at all."

***
"The appellants, supported by the interveners LEAF and EGALE, contend that homosexual erotica plays an important role in providing a positive self-image to gays and lesbians, who may feel isolated and rejected in the heterosexual mainstream. Erotica provides a positive celebration of what it means to be gay or lesbian. As such, it is argued that sexual speech in the context of gay and lesbian culture is a core value and Butler cannot legitimately be applied to locate it at the fringes of s. 2(b) expression. Erotica, they contend, plays a different role in a gay and lesbian community than it does in a heterosexual community, and the Butler approach based, they say, on heterosexual norms, is oblivious to this fact. Gays and lesbians are defined by their sexuality and are therefore disproportionately vulnerable to sexual censorship."

****
" The intervener LEAF took the position that sado-masochism performs an emancipatory role in gay and lesbian culture and should therefore be judged by a different standard from that applicable to heterosexual culture."

(Lead counsel for LEAF in its intervention in Little Sisters was Karen Busby who teaches your children in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba -- ed.)

****

"On the more specific issues, the appellants, and the interveners in their support, argue that in the context of the Customs legislation a “harm-based” approach which utilizes a single community standard across all regions and groups within society is insufficiently “contextual” or sensitive to specific circumstances to give effect to the equality rights of gays and lesbians."

****

"Portrayal of a dominatrix engaged in the non-violent degradation of an ostensibly willing sex slave is no less dehumanizing if the victim happens to be of the same sex, and no less (and no more) harmful in its reassurance to the viewer that the victim finds such conduct both normal and pleasurable. Parliament’s concern was with behavioural changes in the voyeur that are potentially harmful in ways or to an extent that the community is not prepared to tolerate. There is no reason to restrict that concern to the heterosexual community."

In short, the argument was that

- homosexual pornography is a core value of gay culture,

- laws against degrading pornography shouldn't apply to homosexual porn and

- sadomasochistic porn in a homosexual setting is positive and uplifting.

The Supreme Court didn't bite, and on that argument Little Sisters lost.

But back to the point. What does all this have to do with adoption by same sex couples?

We see that 30 years of sex surveys consistently record repugnant sex practices (rimming, fisting, peeing on partners as a sex act), widespread promiscuity, and a detestible attitude among a sizeable portion of the community (euphemistically called "sex adventurists") to having unprotected anal sex despite known risks of spreading HIV.

We see that they are upset at losing access to young teens (ages 14 and 15), and eager to gain access to older teens (ages 16 and 17 for anal sex) while insisting that children are old enough to make up their own minds about having sex with adults.

And we see them proclaim that sadomasochistic pornography showing homosexual men and women in pain and degradation is a core value of their culture.

This would be disturbing in the context of any family with children of their own.

But consider the idea of sending somebody else's children into this culture, and you see there is a valid argument for opposing adoption by same sex couples.

At the same time you can be certain you will never see this argument discussed within the walls of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights despite their pious claims to canvass all sides of controversial issues.

The CMHR has a 16-member content advisory committee. Three of those members are directly connected with LEAF, the pro-homo-porn intervenor in the Little Sisters case.

* Mary Eberts, a co-founder of LEAF;
* Natasha Bakkht, described as a member of the legal arm of the feminist movement, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF); and
* Diana Majury, an active feminist for the past 30 years who has been involved in both the feminist National Association of Women and the Law and LEAF.

In his report to Ottawa, Arni Thorsteinson said the Content Advisory Committee "would work closely with CMHR staff for the purpose of ensuring that the Board and CMHR have the capacity and authority to acknowledge conflict, provide a balanced perspective and acknowledge and manage controversy. The members of the CAC should be chosen to play the role of advisors rather than advocates for special interest groups."

Oops. Somebody forgot to tell CAC member Jennifer Breakspear whose mini-bio says she "is a human rights activist working on human rights, and lesbian, gay, transgendered and bisexual rights (LGTB)."

Right after the attack on Stu Murray was launched in mid-month, Breakspear was quoted in xtra.ca ("Canada's online source for gay and lesbian news, features, editorials, reviews, events, and business listings").

"His voting record concerns me," says Jennifer Breakspear, the executive director of Vancouver's queer resource centre, Qmunity. She is also a member of the museum's content advisory committee, which is conducting public roundtables across Canada. "I look forward to meeting him and asking him about his record and where he stands now."

Is that a fact?

How, exactly does that jibe with the principle that "members of the CAC should be chosen to play the role of advisors rather than advocates for special interest groups"?

Oh, wait. When you have FVC (favoured victim status) you don't need to play be the rules, thank you very much.

After all, who's going to read her the rules? Stu Murray?

Or maybe COO Patrick O'Reilly?

You know, the same Patrick O'Reilly who was to be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the Vancouver resource centre run by Breakspear the same weekend she was threatening Stuart Murray?

Is kowtow/kow-tow one word, or two?

The irony of it all is that Stuart Murray wasn't hired for any experience in the field of "human rights." He has a much greater role to play with the CMHR, which is why Gail Asper and Arni Thorsteinson are shivering at the thought of losing him.

The day of his appointment, CBC television news carried 3 slightly different stories about his joining the museum. The most important one was the middle story, which ran at 5:30 p.m.

That was the story that explained Murray was brought on board to achieve one goal---to raise the $45 million the museum needs to fill its budget hole. He was hired for his expertise in fundraising, demonstrated by his stint working with the St. Boniface General Hospital.

What Stu Murray brings to the job is his connections to people with deep pockets--- to business, to industry, and to governments in Manitoba and elsewhere.

Human Rights activists are a dime a dozen.

The NDP's gangfighters roll out their plans

Manitoba Premier Gary Doer sat stonefaced in the Legislature, staring at the raving man who stood beside him.

The man was bellowing at the top of his lungs, his arms flailing, spit flying from his mouth.

It was three days ago.

Doer watched as the madman ranted on and on, and the lame-duck premier counted the minutes until he could walk away from this madhouse to the sanity of a diplomatic posting in Washington.

But we don't have that option. For that lunatic in the Legislature was none other than Manitoba Attorney General Dave Chomiak.

What set off his bout of carpet-chewing was a demand from the Opposition for him to table his promised new gang strategy or resign.

Thursday, he rolled out his gang strategy.

He should have resigned instead.

His much touted NEW gang strategy turned out to be a cut-and-paste job of every "new" gang strategy the NDP has trotted out in the past decade.
The cornerstone of Chomiak's new strategy dates back seventy years --- a list of Public Enemies consisting of up to 50 adult gang leaders.

Dave Chomiak is channeling J. Edgar Hoover. John Dillinger better watch out.

A new strategy calls for new resources, right?

Chomiak the gangfighter thinks four more people should be enough.

He's adding three new hires to the provincial Criminal Organization and High Risk Offenders Unit to assist police to conduct an in-your-face program of applying constant pressure on active gang members on that list. Gee, you mean like the Criminal Organization High Risk Probation Unit that was part of the street gang containment initiative the NDP announced in 2000?

Does anybody remember 2005? July 15, 2005, to be exact. That's when the Winnipeg police made this announcement:

Project House Call Ringing in Results
Project House Call has been ensuring offenders in the community on court ordered conditions are living up their obligations or facing the consequences.
The task force was first run in May. Officers from the Winnipeg Police Service's Division 11 Community Support Unit (CSU) and Manitoba Justice's Probation Services Criminal Organization and High Risk Offenders Unit (COHROU) partnered together, identifying a list of offenders and doing proactive sweeps to check for compliance with curfews and other conditions."

"The average compliance rate has been 73%. Results on individual nights have ranged from as low as 59% to as high as 80%. The proposal for the project came from the front line staff of Manitoba Justice and the Winnipeg Police Service.
It's expected that Project House Call will continue to be run regularly throughout the summer."

Sound familiar?

Well, since nobody remembers what the NDP promised nine years ago or four years ago, a better analogy is the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy which has police officers babysitting the city's worst car thieves.

Hasn't it cut car theft by more than two-thirds in only two years? It's been a big success, other than the fact that while the street crimes police were making sure car thieves were comfortably tucked into bed each night, the gangs have grown larger, more aggressive, and have branched out into new fields.

* Muggings are up 35 percent this year alone (75 percent in District 3).
* House break-ins---up 18 percent citywide.

* Police district 4 (North Kildonan, East Kildonan, Transcona, and "Elmwood" area) is a real "success" story with auto theft down 38 percent while residential break-ins are up 28 percent, garage break-ins up 21 percent, robberies up 20 percent, and muggings up 39 percent.

The lesson here is that when you change priorities without adding more police, the old priorities suffer. And so does the public. Duh.

Chomiak also promised a new civilian analyst to create a new gang database for police. You mean something like the previously announced Manitoba Integrated Organized Crime Task Force which "brings together police resources to focus on intelligence-led enforcement to seriously disrupt organized crime at the leadership level." Or the previously announced Corrections Intelligence Unit which "co-ordinates intelligence on gang members who are on supervised probation or in adult and youth institutions."

Or just maybe, maybe, it will be like the old gang database?

It was such a useful tool in investigations and prosecutions that as far back as 2000 Winnipeg police were getting calls from police forces across the country for tips on how to set up their own.

Why do we detect the NDP's fingerprints in eliminating the Winnipeg gang database?

Was it because the police were collecting too much information on street gangs whose members were, ahem, aboriginal in appearance at a time the NDP had adopted a hands-off policy on those gangs?

As luck would have it, the NDP is in the midst of a race for a new leader, and all three candidates went on CJOB this week to reveal their gang fighting strategies.

The first shocker was that the NDP has expunged the word "holistic" from their dictionary. When they took office in 1999 they declared that henceforth the government would be taking a "holistic" approach to gangs in contrast with the Conservative government's prosecutions approach. They intended to eliminate gangs by building floor hockey facilities and hiring more social workers. Group hug, anyone?

The Tories had put the Manitoba Warriors street gang out of business and sent their leaders, including the brother of NDP cabinet minister Robinson, to prison. The NDP's holistic approach has let the Manitoba Warriors regroup and new violent gangs to spring up.

You can see why they need to change the lexicon. The new buzzword is apparently "community."

Andrew Swan wants to "build and strengthen our communities." He wants to "get communities involved" in fighting crime. How? By organizing citizens patrols.

He's "very interested in what police have to say" about fighting crime.

He wants more crown attorneys dedicated to fighting gangs.

And he wants "those at the top" to be targeted.

Oh, and if people don't feel safe in their communities, the NDP has a program for safety audits on their homes and free deadbolts for low-income people.

In other words, more of the same.

The Winnipeg Police Association thinks more-of-the-same is terrific strategy. They've endorsed Andrew Swan.

Greg Selinger knows who's to blame for the gang problem after 10 years of NDP rule---Gary Filmon.

The more social services a government provides, the greater the sense of security among the citizenry, he told CJOB. When Selinger was a social worker in the Nineties, he delivered social and recreational programs to communities like Gilbert Park. But throughout the 90's, he said, there was an "underinvestment" in social services.

So, blame Gary Filmon.

Selinger said the NDP has "done a lot" in 10 years of power, but, he conceded, obviously "not enough." So blame Gary Doer a little bit too.

His solution?

People need to be the "eyes and ears" of the police in the community. Police, for their part, need to get into the community through community policing and bike patrols.

And ("I am answering your question," he snapped at host Richard Cloutier), anyone committing a "violent crime against another citizen" should "pay the consequences."

But if we have to send them to jail, we have to provide them with training and education so they can enter the job market, he said.

In short, once a social worker, always a social worker.

Steve Ashton, still running against his own Party after 10 years of supporting it, said he would do things differently.

He wants to connect citizens to the police using the Point Douglas model in which community residents act as "eyes on the street" and call a special hotline to the police if they see any suspicious activity.

That's right. The way to fight gangs is to make a phone call and become No. 201 on the list of the calls in the queue.

He declared his own experience with the Taxi Board taught him a lot. Crime against cab drivers was cut 90 percent using cameras and shields, he said. We're not sure if that's a hint he supports surveillance cameras.

Then came the barrage: Community policing. Foot patrols in Manitoba Housing complexes. More police, concentrating them in high risk areas.

We're sure he meant to add kittens, puppies, rainbows and every other feel-good idea under the sun.

Oh, and he wants to recreate the Boston Miracle.

Here's how the Boston Globe described it:

"In 1996, police started Operation Ceasefire, which focused on identifying members of gangs, offering them ways out, and threatening them with federal sentences in prisons far away from their families if they continued to be violent. Clergy from the Boston TenPoint Coalition helped by offering services to gang members, such as job and education opportunities, to steer them from trouble."

There was an 18-month stretch when not a single youth in the city was killed. That's when people starting using the term "Boston Miracle." That's the part Ashton wants you to know.

What he doesn't want you to know is that after a few years of declining murder stats, the situation reversed. The number of gang killings began climbing each year. By 2005 the number of homicides had reached a 10-year high of 75.

Ashton's bottom line---he's supported every one of the NDP's failed strategies to fight gangs, but this time it's different. Uh huh.

Fighting Gangs. The Great Divide. People vs. Profs

A group of about 30 people marched from the North End to the Legislature yesterday.

There wasn't a university egghead in the bunch. Nor could you find a single Indian Chief or Nahanni Fontaine or any of the usual hate-the-police crowd who claim to speak for native people.

That's because the message the marchers brought to the politicians wasn't the message being peddled in Manitoba's universities or newspapers or by racial demagogues in the aboriginal community.

It was the direct opposite of the "special report" prepared by leftwing university professors for the attention of Attorney General Dave Chomiak, which embraced the "wisdom" of members of a violent street gang who said authorities should end a crackdown on gangs and concentrate on ending poverty.

The residents of the North End who made the long march didn't carry signs saying "End Poverty". Their message was "Stop the Violence." And it was directed at those same gang members and their ilk.

The march was organized by North End resident Daniel Ranville. Speaking as someone who lives in the neighbourhood where the gangs operate, his words were ashes in the mouths of the university professors and professional Indian spokesmen.

Native people are becoming ashamed of being aboriginal because of the actions of the gangs, he said. The violence is getting worse; more innocent people are being hurt; and the violence is most often directed by Indian thugs against aboriginal victims. The word 'criminal' is becoming synonymous with 'aboriginal.'

Decent, hard-working native residents of the North End are being tarred with the image, Ranville said. As the reporter Aldo Santin put it in the Winnipeg Free Press:

"Ranville, a social worker, said many aboriginal people in the community go to work every day, send their children to school and pay their bills. He said many of them are demoralized by the violence that is initiated by other aboriginal people."

The solution, said the marchers, has to come from the gang members themselves; they have to take personal responsibility for changing their lives.

"Some of us have come through these challenges and we can make a contribution to our community," Ranville said in the Free Press. "We’re marching to show that the situation is not as hopeless as it seems - challenging but not hopeless."

Will the voice of the people be heard in the Legislature? Don't hold your breath. Here's why.

The same day as the march, the NDP government, which has a hands-off policy when it comes to aboriginal street gangs, issued yet another news release on the topic.

September 16, 2009

MANITOBA JOINS WESTERN PROVINCES TO DISCUSS ANTI-GANG ISSUES:
CHOMIAK

Attorney General Dave Chomiak will meet with his western
counterparts tomorrow and Friday in Saskatoon to share
information on best practices and discuss initiatives for
fighting organized crime.

Why wait for the post-meeting news release when you can read the results in The Black Rod today. Look no further than....

Promising Practices for
Addressing Youth
Involvement in Gangs

Research Report prepared by
Mark Totten, PH.D
April 2008

In support of the Strategy,
Preventing Youth Gang Violence in BC:
A Comprehensive and Coordinated
Provincial Action Plan

Or....

Aboriginal Youth and Violent
Gang Involvement in Canada:
Quality Prevention Strategies
Mark Totten, M.S.W., R.S.W., Ph.D.

Volume 3: pages 135–156
March/mars 2009
www.ipc.uOttawa.ca (Institute for the Prevention of Crime, Ottawa)

Yep, same guy. He's the Director of Research at the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa, so he's got the clout to influence policy.

And what's his conclusion?

The answer to fighting youth gangs is---wait for it----more social workers.

Stop laughing.

You'll find it all in his B.C. report under the heading:

"The initiatives described below are proven to be effective in preventing membership in gangs and intervening with gang-involved youth."

The initiative that Dave Chomiak will be talking most about is called Wraparound. It's the latest buzzword in gangology.

Here's how Totten describes it:

• Wraparound is a complex, multifaceted intervention strategy designed to keep youthful offenders at home and out of institutions whenever possible.

* "A comprehensive continuum of individualized services and support networks are “wrapped around” young people, rather than forcing them to fit into categorical, inflexible therapeutic programs (Portland State University Research and Training Center, 2003). Individual case management is a cornerstone, although Wraparound is very different from conventional case management programs: in the latter, an individual case manager or probation officer navigates them through traditional social and youth justice services (Burchard et al., 2002).

* A collaborative, community-based interagency team (with professionals from youth justice, education, mental health, and social services systems) designs, implements, and oversees the project. One organization takes the lead in coordinating each individual Wraparound case.

The bottom line---more social workers.

There was another project that almost made the grade except for one teensy-weensy problem.

"• The Little Village Project (Spergel, 2006; Spergel et al., 2003) has shown the most positive outcomes of any comprehensive gang intervention program."

Little Village is an inner-city area of Chicago with the gang violence problems you would expect to find there. Starting in 1992, authorities launched a " balanced, three-pronged approach that encompasses prevention, intervention and suppression activities."

The outcomes were good except for one problem. The problem? "...there was not any major decrease in the overall gang crime in the Village (Spergel et al., 2003)."

As for What Doesn't Work in Totten's opinion..."Approaches described below are proven to be ineffective and should be stopped."

* ‘get tough’ approaches
* sending gang members to jail
* government education programs
* aboriginal leaders outreach

"Get tough and ‘lock ‘em up’ approaches have the exact opposite effect of that intended: incarcerating gang members and those at risk of joining gangs is very expensive, increases gang cohesion and recruitment, and in many cases results in these youth committing more serious crimes upon release. Instead, Wraparound approaches, based upon an integrated system of care model, result in significant cost savings and have excellent outcomes."

• Traditional detached-worker programs, which use social workers, youth and recreation workers or Aboriginal leaders who outreach into gangs are ineffective and can do more harm than good by increasing gang cohesion (Klein, 1995).

• Curriculum-based prevention programs targeting youth at-risk for gang
involvement, such as the American Gang Resistance Education and Training
program (G.R.E.A.T.) and the many Canadian primary prevention initiatives (see Appendix B) effect modest, short-term change. However, follow-up studies have fund program participants to be as likely as non-participants to become gang members in the long-term.

Uh oh. Check out what's in Appendix B:

2001 - 2006 Manitoba primary prevention initiatives (recreation, educational videos, booklets, primary and secondary classroom education, parent information, community collaboration)
• Lighthouses, Manitoba Justice.
• Project Gang Proof, Manitoba RCMP, Winnipeg Police Service, Manitoba Justice.
• Take Action: Street Gang Awareness, Winnipeg Police Service.

Memo to Winnipeg Police: Keep it up. You've got the scumbags squirming

After a lone gunman sprayed a North End wedding reception with bullets on July 25th, killing one woman and wounding a number of other guests, Winnipeg police began squeezing gang members for information.

The late July attack even roused Attorney General Dave "Six Months" Chomiak to drop the Manitoba NDP's ten year moratorium on disturbing aboriginal street gangs. He began babbling about adopting a new, new, new, new, NEW gang strategy aimed at the same gangs that have thrived on his government's watch.

It was all too much for six members of the Manitoba Warriors.

The police had been paying special attention to the Warriors, some of whom had been guests at the wedding, raising suspicion that they had been the targets of a rival gang. This small contingent couldn't take the heat, so they went running for help to the only people still dumb enough to fall for their con---university eggheads.

"So when these men approached us, saying that they wanted to convey their experiences of living in the North End, their thoughts on the recent events that have occurred there, and their insights into what it will take to make meaningful change, we took advantage of this opportunity."

"It was in this spirit that we met with six members of a North End street gang over two days in early August."

Sure enough, within a month, the eggheads, had whipped up a special report they titled "Violence and Street Gangs in the Inner City" (excerpted above) and submitted it to Chomiak to get him to call off the dogs.

Their message: gangs are not the problem, society is.

"Street gangs are the product of the poverty and systemic racism that have long been present in the North End," declared the authors--- Marxist professor Elizabeth Comack, Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Manitoba; flaming anti-capitalist Jim Silver, Professor of Politics at the University of Winnipeg; associate dean of the department of bleeding hearts at the U of M, Lawrence Deane; and every gang member's (almost) special pal, Larry Morrissette, the Director of OPK, a program to employ the unemployable.

Having bestowed the greatest accolade the Left can give, that of "Victim", on the violent gangs, the university eggheads then adopted the gang mentality and declared that the real enemy is---wait for it---the police.

But everything they see as wrong, we see as right:

"...in response to the perceived increase in levels of violence the Winnipeg Police Service has flooded the North End with officers and cruiser cars. (To which, we say Yay.)

As a consequence, the men said, the police have been “in their face,” as they are being regularly stopped and asked to account for themselves. (Double Yay.)

Sometimes this practice occurs when children are present, and it is so frequent that one man was stopped three times in one hour as he made his way around the North End. (Wow, a member of a violent street gang who has a long criminal record and brags he's not going to stop his life of crime is upset he's being stopped by police. Somebody call his momma.)

“It’s like the military in the North End now,” another said. “It’s all-out war on us.” (A great big Hooray.)

They likened the atmosphere now to what they understand to have been the case in big American cities, like Los Angeles, fifteen years ago. Police are swarming the North End. SWAT teams are present at funerals. “It’s like we’re under siege.” (Booyah)"

******
"The view of the street gang members is that flooding the North End with enlarged teams of police officers will not deter them from what they are doing. It will, rather, anger many residents of the North End who are not
involved with illegal or violent activities but who are targeted anyway because they “fit the description.”

***
"From previous studies done in Winnipeg’s inner city we know that most innercity residents do want a greater police presence in their neighbourhoods. But what they want is community policing where police are a positive presence and get to know the neighbourhoods and the children. Aboriginal people in particular do not want the aggressive style of policing involved in flooding the North End with cops and harassing people, because too often those harassed are guilty of nothing at all."

"The result of this intensified policing strategy, the street gang members told us, will be an angry response from the community and more disrespect for the police, which will generate yet more suppression and harassment, leading to a vicious spiral that is as likely to promote violence as to quell it"

To believe the university professors, people in gang-infested communities would sooner live with intimidation, murders, and drive-by shootings than have police patrol their streets trying to arrest the people responsible for the intimidation, murders and drive-by shootings.

Memo to university eggheads: Six loser gang members are not spokesmen for the North End or the Inner City. Nor do they speak for "aboriginal people". What planet do you live on?

These communities are filled with decent, law-abiding native and non-native people who welcome the police presence and want more of it. They may ask for community policing, but given second choice they'll take stepped up patrols and aggressive in-your-face harassment of gang members.

And if "aboriginal people in particular" don't like it, all they have to do is stop defending street gangs, stop making excuses for them, and join the fight against them.

Drive the gangs out of the community, and the police will stop looking for criminal suspects in that community. D-uh.

But that's too obvious for the eggheads. They would rather peddle the gang mythology. You can see why.

They write of their gang contacts with obvious admiration. And the gang gurus play their role for all its worth.

"... they talk about their work in much the same way as more conventional businessmen do, saying that it’s a “dog eat dog,” rough and competitive business that’s “all about money.” It is also a business in which “You can’t let anyone take advantage of you. You can’t be seen to be weak.” This situation is not new; it has been the case for at least the past 20 years. “If something is done to us, or to one of our gang, we have to retaliate. Otherwise, “they make us all look weak … and that comes down to money… If we look weak we can’t make money.... That’s what it’s 100 percent all about.”
Another said:
“We just do what we gotta do.” The struggle over illegal drug money have been very successful in mainstream life had his early life been different. All of them could have had different lives. “We’re not dumb guys. We figured out how to f’ing take over neighbourhoods, worked our way through prison, make mass money selling drugs.” It is very easy to imagine him as a successful high profile businessman."

But then, you see, these are big bad gang members with hearts of gold.

"What emerged most strongly during our meeting was that these men do not want youngsters in the North End-“the next me”-to go through what they have gone through."

They realize (cue the violins) its too late for them, but they want to prevent young children from following in their footsteps. If only these kiddies had good homes, playgrounds, and a future, they wouldn't join gangs. (pass the hankies.) The government should stop wasting money on attacking gangs, and spend it on ending poverty. (Why, why hasn't anyone thought of that before?)

It will take years. It will take millions. But, declared the professors, "If You Want to Change Violence in the‘Hood, You Have to Change the ‘Hood." Word. And Peace Out, nigga.

But the baby gangsters have nowhere to turn except thug life. They can't get normal jobs. They swear too much. They're covered in tattoos. They hate working regular hours.

Since they're not going to change, says the egghead report, society must change. The deviant life of gang members must become the new normal.

The model, they said, would be co-author Larry Morrissette's OPK program, which hires gang members and would-be gang members to renovate houses. It pays more than minimum wage and diverts the participants from a gang lifestyle by giving them pride of accomplishment. They don't have to quit the gang, and unless they commit "serious" crimes, they're still welcome.

With a budget of $450,000, the project currently has 9.5 employees. And with only $1 million more, it could hire the 30 other young Aboriginal men in waiting, most with street gang affiliations, who would like to join. Of course, since they can't get a real job anywhere else, they would have to be on the public dole forever, but that's the price society must pay.

(What those Marxist academics failed to do is a little arithmatic. OPK pays more than the minimum wage, meaning that each employee makes, say, a dollar more than the minimum wage, which would mean about $20,000 a year. At 9.5 employees, that's less than $200,000 annually in wages. So where does the other quarter of a million dollars go? Rent? Or executive salaries? And how much of that extra million would go to those executives, who would have more employees to supervise? )

The academics were, by this time, bursting with fresh? ideas. Why, they asked, shouldn't we hire gang members to work as “spokespersons for something different.”

Translation: pay gang members to tell kids to stay out of gangs. Their gang gurus said this would be a perfect job for them.

How original. This has only been happening for the past 15 years. How's it working, by the way?

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic. Remember, these academics are teaching your children. They're infesting another generation of youth with their hug-a-thug mentality.

'Learning from the Wisdom of Street Gangsters' is the heading they give to their conclusion.

"If we want to change the violence in the ‘hood, we would do well to heed the wise advice of these hard-headed men who know the ‘hood all too well."

"These street gang members, all of whom have served time in federal and provincial penal institutions, brought wisdom to this important issue that has been largely missing in the public debate about inner-city violence."

In a city where poor communities fight daily against the ravages of gangs, these ivory tower university eggheads have the audacity to glorify six members of a violent street gang. Instead of recognizing how they're being manipulated to keep the police from breaking up the gangs, these academics damn the police and praise the thugs. To add insult, they bask in the "wisdom" of the drug dealing criminals.

Not even the personal experience of their co-author deters them.

Almost two years ago, Larry Morrissette was interviewed in the National Post ('Real warriors hold jobs', Jan 20, 2008, Kevin Libin, National Post):

" But for every troubled young aboriginal he helps ... new gang members are minted every day. In many communities, it is no longer even an option.
"If you're native, it's almost like it's a given that you have to be part of some organization," Mr. Morrissette says. He packed up his family and moved to another part of town after his own son was knifed after refusing to join one of the gangs."

Swan is 1st, CBC was last, and what's new with Waub and Gary

We were surprised to see Minto MLA Andrew Swan as the first out of the gate to announce he wants Gary Doer's job as leader of the Manitoba NDP and Premier of the Province.

The first to step forward is always the sacrificial lamb, the least likely to succeed.

We thought for sure it would be Thompson rep Steve Ashton. He hasn't got a chance of winning, but he's the North's favourite son. Even after conceding, he could always claim he was a winner for forcing northern issues on the party's agenda.

Instead, Swan showed his political acumen by reaching for the Loser's ring first.

Swan is a cabinet minister, the Minister of Competitiveness, Training and Trade. That job is so irrelevant he can abandon it in the middle of a recession at the drop of a hat and nobody cares. Quick....who was the Minister of Competitiveness, Training and Trade before Swan?

Riiiiight. It was Scott Smith, who found the experience his ticket to obscurity.

The biggest asset Swan brings to the race is his rep as Gary Doer's chief cheerleader. Remember Spirited Energy? Even after the public laughed the slogan into irrelevance, Swan slapped on his Spirited Energy cape and annouced he was going to spend $2 million to expand the campaign to the rest of the country.

And when Opposition leader Hugh McFadyen said in the last election he would work to bring the Jets back to Winnipeg, Swan said the only one who could accomplish that was Gary Doer!

We'll give him this much, right now he's leading in the Muppet vote, given he's a dead ringer for Beaker.

At Swan's announcement, he was supported by the NDP's contingent of Strong Women---plus Erin Selby. What a public slap in the face to Greg Selinger, another cabinet minister on everybody's list to run for the leadership.

Here's the the public face of the NDP's women MLA's, including two cabinet members, who don't think Selinger is the best choice to lead the party. They prefer a divorce lawyer who spent 14 years driving wedges between couples. That's gotta hurt.

*****
You know what hurts? Giving CBC-TV news a big boost and watching them fall on their faces.

CBC got thumped badly in the story du jour Wednesday, the arrest of a woman for nearly beating a baby to death in Gilbert Park. In horse racing terms they were the 'also ran.'

CKY had the best coverage. Global didn't do badly, but announced they were withholding the baby's name because Child and Family Services "might" be involved. Yeah, that's what we want; a television station that gives us less information.

And, what's this? The CBC's Waub Rice voiced an entire story without his trademark sing song inflections. Has somebody been taking voice lessons?

****
Have you noticed how everyone in the MSM is avoiding the obvious? Prior to taking up his new job in Washington, Gary Doer has had, shall we say, a little work done? His famous snaggle-toothed grin is gone, replaced by some even, pearly-white choppers. And it's not your imagination, he does look younger, courtesy of a slight nip/tuck that lifted those jowls 10 years.

The big question is....did the Mrs. get something too?