Entitled to Their Entitlements

Whether it's chauffeurs or corruption, Canadians elected people who believe that they have a divine right to be scumbags.

But don't take my word for it:

There are 53 such bureaucrats with cars and drivers, that’s on top of the car and driver for the prime minister and his 35 cabinet ministers. As one Bay St. executive told me years ago, there are more dedicated chauffeurs in Ottawa than serving the corporate executives that run the biggest companies in the country.

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Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and staff took more than $100,000 worth of flights in the past year, records show. “It should not be free to pollute,” Wilkinson said earlier in announcing a 240 percent increase in the carbon tax.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau showed his support for Dominic Barton on Tuesday when he was asked about whether the ambassador to Beijing knew anything about the opioid sales boost advice that McKinsey & Co provided Purdue Pharma during his leadership tenure.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Trudeau was asked about Barton’s role in, and whether he had knowledge of McKinsey’s work in boosting the sales of drug oxycontin, which pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma made when he was with the consulting firm. 

“Dominic Barton is an extraordinary Canadian who is doing great work for us in China as Canada’s ambassador,” Trudeau replied. “He has a long history in business and economics, and is the right person to continue moving forward at a very difficult time in Canada-China relations.” 

“His leadership on working hard to bring home the two Michaels is a defence of Canadian interests, including Canadian commercial interests, and his continued engagement on creating opportunities and growth for Canadians makes him an outstanding representative,” he added. “I’m pleased to have him by my side on the international stage as we work very hard to stand up for Canadian values and to move forward on building a better future.”

(Sidebar: two nationals who will never return to Canada alive.)

Prior to his appointment as the ambassador to China on Sept. 4, 2019, Barton was the global managing partner of McKinsey from 2009 to 2018—the period when the consulting firm advised Purdue Pharma on ways to increase the sales of oxycontin, a highly addictive strong prescription pain medicine that contains an opioid.

Barton’s resume also includes extensive experience and relationships in China, where he was once based in Shanghai as the Asia chairman from 2004 to 2009 at McKinsey. He is also an adjunct professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In 2016, he assumed the role of chair for the Canadian Minister of Finance’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth.

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Authorities will not disclose executive pay for the Canadian CEO of a money losing door-to-door sales company in Nairobi that received millions in federal funding. Jesse Moore, a former Toronto child activist, earlier served in a youth leaders’ group with We Charity co-founder Craig Kielburger: “I could conquer the world.”

 

(Sidebar: this WE "charity".)

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denied that there was any conflict of interest when he failed to recuse himself from the decision to grant WE Charity the sole right to administer the Canada Student Summer Grant program this summer in an interview with CBC's Rosie Barton.

 

(Sidebar: sure, and everyone believes the SNC-Lavalin case was a simple misunderstanding.)

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Bill Morneau is dodging an MPs’ request to reappear for questioning over his involvement with We Charity, a member of the Commons ethics committee said yesterday. The ex-finance minister abruptly resigned August 17 under threat of a censure motion: “You need to come back and explain.”

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CMHC spent two years researching a new name then hid the costs from a parliamentary committee, internal emails show. The disclosures are detailed in Access To Information records obtained by Conservative MP Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard): “We don’t want THAT.”

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Federal regulators quietly granted fish farmers a waiver to use an unlicensed pesticide in the name of protecting Canada’s food supply. The waiver follows a 2018 audit that cited poor monitoring of pesticides in coastal waters: “How can they know?”