Re: Still ANOTHER investigation into Harper govt finances....

[john.ku...@sympatico.ca]

Karen Gordon wrote:
> (K): With every day that passes, another election illegality involving the
> Harper Conservatives comes to light. Here's the most recent one which
> involves a Conservative Party support group raising money through a CHARITY
> to launder through the University of Calgary to fight Liberals IN ONTARIO.
>
> The 2006 federal election is looking more and more like the George W Bush
> election of 2000. It puts full credence to the statement made by Al Gore
> that it was 'American Big Oil that put Harper in power in Canada'. Big Oil
> and fraud, it seems now.
>
> Are we still wondering why Harper won't release a list of election donors?
> __________________________
>
> CanWest News Service - Sunday, April 20, 2008
>
>
> Liberals question Conservative link to anti-Kyoto group
>
> OTTAWA - David McGuinty was baffled when he first heard provocative
> advertising about global warming in the midst of the 2006 federal election.
>
> The radio spots criticized a consumer energy conservation program along
> with the climate change policies of the government of the day and appeared
> to come from nowhere, he said.
>
> "I was having to explain an awful lot about climate change at the door, as
> a candidate," said McGuinty, the Liberal MP for Ottawa South, in an
> interview. "So when I heard this, I thought, 'Well, why would anybody even
> run these ads in Ottawa? Why are they going here? And I didn't know they
> were going across the province in five zones at the time."
>
>
> The mysterious ads were part of a campaign launched by the Friends of
> Science - a group formed by retired academics and oil industry insiders
> who banded together in Calgary to stop the former Liberal government from
> committing Canada to mandatory targets to reduce its greenhouse gas
> pollution under the international Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
>
> The ads ran only in vote-rich Ontario during the election in the regions of
> Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Ottawa, Peterborough and Thunder Bay.
>
>
> At the time, McGuinty probably would never have guessed that the radio ads
> would result in a law enforcement investigation and an internal audit
> about the anti-Kyoto group's elaborate funding system which consisted of
> getting donations at a community charity organization to flow through
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> trust accounts for research at the University of Calgary for advertising,
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> lobbying and public relations activities.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Federal Liberals are now asking questions about the group and whether they
> are actually linked to the Conservative party.
>
> Although the university publicly released its internal audit of the
> accounts last week, it blacked out sixteen passages of the report on the
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> grounds that the information might "interfere with or harm an ongoing law
> enforcement investigation." ^^^^^^^^^^^
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Under income tax laws, donations to a registered charity cannot be used for
> partisan purposes, while elections regulations require third parties to
> register with the chief electoral officer before spending $500 or more in
> an election campaign.
>
> The audit revealed that Morten Paulsen, a veteran Reform and Conservative
> party strategist who was also a Tory spokesperson during the 2006
> campaign, was simultaneously in charge of a consulting firm that received
> at least $25,000 from the Friends of Science to develop the radio ad
> campaign and select which cities would be targeted right before Canadians
> went to the polls.
>
> When asked for comment, Paulsen declined to answer questions, explaining
> that he did not want to elaborate on current or former clients for
> professional reasons.
>
> Before the 2006 election, the Friends of Science pledged in a newsletter
> to have a "major impact" on the vote through their ad campaign. After
> Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative party formed a minority
> government, the group boasted in another newsletter that its campaign "was
> working."
>
> The ads generated 300,000 hits to the group's website in the days leading
> up to polling day, the Friends of Science said in a January 2006 newsletter.
>
>
> Federal Liberals even suggest that some ridings narrowly shifted towards
> the Tories in the targeted regions because of the ads, but Environment
> Minister John Baird shrugged off McGuinty's allegations that his
> Conservative party was aware of the ad campaign, and was now being
> influenced by the Friends of Science to adopt weak federal regulations to
> cap pollution from industry.
>
>
> "Blah, blah, blah," Baird said in the Commons last week. "(McGuinty) puts
> on his tinfoil hat and develops these great theories."
>
>
> More than half a million dollars flowed through the university accounts to
> pay a major public relations firm, APCO Worldwide and well-connected
> lobbyists such as Paulsen who contributed to producing and promoting a
> sophisticated video on the climate change debate, as well as the radio ad
> campaign, according to the audit.
>
> Although the University of Calgary has severed all ties with the Friends
> of Science and shut down the accounts which were set up in 2004 by
> political science professor Barry Cooper, the anti-Kyoto group is still
> using the same charity, the Calgary Foundation, to collect money and issue
> tax deductible receipts for anonymous donors.
>
> The money is now going through an independent think tank, the Frontier
> Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg, which has received at least $50,000
> since last fall, according to a document released by the Calgary
> Foundation.
>
> The Frontier Centre has indicated that it wants to produce a climate change
> video for children in schools.
>
>
> """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> You don't have to fool all the people all of the time;
> you just have to fool enough to get elected.
> """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Here's another good link to this:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Friends_of_Science