Your Corrupt, Craven, Vile, Deceitful, Treacherous, Nepotistic and Wasteful Government and You

They never fail to disappoint in this regard:

Twitter accounts used by the Canadian government have been caught in the U.S. government dragnet attempting to counter online disinformation, a recent iteration of the so-called Twitter Files released by journalist Matt Taibbi reveals.

Taibbi published a new thread on Jan. 3 which provides further details on how the U.S. government and its agencies interacted with Twitter to pursue its agenda. Internal company files are being released since Elon Musk took over in late October.

Taibbi’s latest thread is labelled “Twitter and the FBI ‘Belly Button,’” in reference to the bureau asking Twitter whether it should be the main point of contact between “industry partners” and the U.S. government (USG).

The mention of a Canadian link was in relation to a campaign by the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to counter Chinese propaganda.

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The controversial management consulting firm McKinsey and Company saw a thirty-fold increase in funding from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government when compared to his predecessor, Stephen Harper. 

Data from Public Services and Procurement Canada shows that McKinsey received $66,159,866 from the Liberals between 2015 and 2022. 

On the other hand, the Harper government gave the company a total of $2,236,015 while in office from 2006 to 2015. 

McKinsey has received flack in recent years over their involvement in consulting on Covid-19 pandemic policies, as well as financing China’s expansion in the South China Sea via the construction of artificial islands.

A large portion of McKinsey’s work was billed by two departments, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canadian Border Services Agency – making up 44% or $24.5 million of all contracts. 

 

Interesting: 

Radio-Canada's analysis shows that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has turned to McKinsey the most since 2015, with $24.5 million in contracts for management advice.

IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency account for 44 per cent of federal compensation issued to the firm.

McKinsey refused to answer Radio-Canada questions regarding its role and agreements with the federal government. The government did not provide copies of the firm's reports in response to Radio-Canada's request.

McKinsey's influence over Canadian immigration policy has grown in recent years without the public's knowledge, according to two sources within IRCC. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. 

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A federal department briefing note says that organized crime is suspected to be operating in the public sector, although the specific federal offices that are allegedly involved went unnamed.

“It is also suspected that organized crime groups are also involved in areas of the public sector,” said the memo from the Department of Public Safety, titled “Organized Crime” and obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter through Access to Information.

The note estimated about 26 criminal gangs to be active “within Canadian public sector agencies or departments.”

“According to the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada [CISC] the principal motivating factors for corruption in the sector are familial connections, romantic relationships and monetary benefits,” it said.

A 2022 report by CISC said that organized crime groups (OCGs) across Canada are “adapting and diversifying to further their criminal activity and increase profits” and have “impacts to the public and private sectors.”

The report listed some of the prevalent OCGs as “outlaw motorcycle gangs,” mafia groups, street gangs, and fentanyl and methamphetamine networks.

Tactics used by the criminal networks included infiltration of public housing and “trafficking drugs to vulnerable people,” and also using crytpocurrency to launder criminal funds and make money tracking more difficult for police.

“While infiltration of the public sector seems to occur mostly at the local or regional level, organized crime groups may be using the benefits for interprovincial or international criminal activities,” said the report, obtained by Blacklock’s.

The report added that a small number of OCGs in Canada are involved in infiltrating the public sector, which CISC said shows a “significant intelligence gap.”

“The actual proportion is likely higher as the involvement of almost two thirds of the assessed organized crime groups in this sector is unknown. Of those who are, some have ties with municipalities through associates or personal relations within major Canadian cities.”

The report also acknowledged that “infiltration of the Canadian public sector” by organized crime is a key issue.

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Too late to complain about it now, Bill:

Justin Trudeau’s “management and interpersonal communication abilities were sorely lacking,” former finance minister Bill Morneau writes in a new book. Lingering challenges were “not managed on a daily basis at the highest level.” The federal cabinet was “chosen not necessarily for what they brought to the business of governing but to the needs of promotion.” Morneau says the Prime Minister’s Office often told him to “give” quarrelsome colleagues “something to keep them happy,” so that “money became a means for the PMO to manage egos and relationships between cabinet ministers.”...

Morneau reveals early on what many suspected: when he resigned from the government at the height of the first COVID-19 lockdown in August 2020, it wasn’t primarily to seek the top job at the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, a global NGO dedicated to proposing growth policies for Canada and a bunch of peer countries. He did plan to try for the post, but he knew it was a long shot. Mostly he was furious at a campaign of embarrassing media leaks against him, orchestrated, he believed, from Trudeau’s office.

“I began by explaining to the prime minister that the leaks from his office about me and my ministry had become intolerable,” he writes. “They had grown in both number and degree of malice…”

Trudeau “replied that he was not aware of the leaks, and he had no idea where they were coming from.” Morneau doesn’t buy it. “Really?”

**

Why does this sound familiar?:

Twenty-five New Democrat MPs will pressure cabinet for legislation this year to regulate legal internet content, Party leader Jagmeet Singh said yesterday. Regulations should include censoring “misinformation,” he said: “It has to be the government.”

Oh, yes:

China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s policies on the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country moves to roll back harsh anti-virus restrictions.

The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers and issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts.

The ruling Communist Party had largely relied on the medical community to justify its tough lockdowns, quarantine measures and mass testing, almost all of which it abruptly abandoned last month, leading to a surge in new cases that have stretched medical resources to their limits. The party allows no direct criticism and imposes strict limits on free speech.

 

We wouldn't want to hear any more name-calling, would we, Jag?

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The CBC, self-described “industry leader” in equity hiring, has a less diverse workforce than the Department of Agriculture, according to Access To Information records. Managers disclosed most CBC employees are white, English-speaking men: “We believe in celebrating human differences.”

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Vacancy rates in federal offices run as high as 70 percent or more under a pandemic work-from-home policy for employees, records show. Cabinet quietly dropped claims it could save billions by selling empty buildings: “We are reimagining our workplace.”

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High personal and corporate income tax rates in Ontario are damaging the provincial and Canadian economies, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute released Thursday.

The fiscally conservative think tank says that because of federal and provincial tax increases over the past decade, Ontario has the third-highest top combined federal/provincial and federal/state personal income tax (PIT) rate in both Canada and the U.S.

Ontario’s top marginal PIT rate is higher than nearby American states with which Ontario competes for trade and investment, and is the third highest in Canada, only slightly behind Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, according to the study.

“High marginal personal income tax rates weaken incentives for individuals to work, save and invest, so this development has negative implications for Ontario’s long-term economic growth prospects,” said Ben Eisen, co-author of the report, “Broken Promises: The Persistence of Elevated Personal and Corporate Income Taxes in Ontario.”

Because Ontario accounts for 38% of the Canadian economy and almost 40% of its population, any economic damage done to Ontario through exorbitantly high taxes negatively impacts the entire country.

The study places the lion’s share of the blame for Ontario’s uncompetitive top marginal PIT rates on the Liberal Trudeau government in Ottawa and the Liberal Ontario governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne from 2003-18.