The Black Rod

So Greg Selinger lied to the public, lied to the Legislature, and lied to the press. Since when is this news ? Why do you think we call him the dirtiest politician in Manitoba? Even the most recalcitrant taxpayers caught on to his lying ways when he broke his (useless) word, during the last provincial election campaign, not to raise the provincial sales tax. He also openly broke the law to do it. Then he lied about why he lied, coming up with a new excuse for why he had to raise the PST as quickly as an old one was disproved. Now he's admitted another lie, but only because he got caught dead to rights by CJOB. In 2012 when it was revealed that NDP MLA's were gorging themselves on free tickets from public utilities and a raft of private groups to see the Winnipeg Jets, Selinger pretended to care. He told the MLA's to pay back the cost of their freebies, to apologize to the people, and to promise not to do it again.  He failed to mention that ...

Let's play charades.  We'll start. Four  words. Washing hands. Wringing.  Washing.  Soap. Dirty hands. Dirty. Okay, next word. Stripper pole. Pole. Pole...ish. No.  Start over.  Vote.  Voting.  Ballot. Oh, Pole-itics. Next word. Here. Now. Everywhere?   Map. Man. Manitoba! Dirtiest Politician in Manitoba! GREG SELINGER!!!! Do we win?   No. With Greg Selinger, everbody loses. In less than a week,  the Dipper Follies has become the best show in town, with everyone glued to their radio and television sets for the latest twist and turn. What melodrama!   Five dissident MLA's.  Careers on the line. Stare-downs. Ultimatums. Veilled threats of retaliation.  A resignation expected yesterday, today, tomorrow. Like Scandal, the TV show? No, more like NDP Friends, with Stan Struthers in the Joey role.   The dissidents are called the Rebel Five i...

Like most lawbreakers, Greg Selinger, Stan Struthers and Theresa Oswald think they're smarter than everyone else. In their arrogance, they're convinced the law doesn't apply to them. They can always rely on their apologists to run interference for them, whether it's Winnipeg Free Press columnist Dan Lett, inventing excuses for why the NDP needs to break the law, or Legislature reporter Bruce Owen, musing over whether breaking the law is wrong if government members do it. Make no mistake, the Premier of the province, Greg Selinger, has broken the law. He`s done it blatantly in the belief that nobody can do anything about it. He`s declared that he and the NDP are above the laws of Manitoba. But the law is clear: C.C.S.M. c. B5 The Balanced Budget, Fiscal Management and Taxpayer Accountability Act PART 2 TAX REFERENDUM REQUIREMENT Referendum required for tax changes 10(1) Subject to subsection (2), the government shall not present t...

Erin Selby used to pride herself for being an honest journalist. That was before drinking the NDP kool-aid. These days, as a cabinet minister in Greg Selinger's government, she finds herself sinking deeper and deeper into the quicksand of unethical influence peddling, secret backroom lobbying and slippery moral judgement greased by cheap excuses. Her most recent performance was in front of the Legislature's Estimates committee. She tried to do a dance of seven veils when questioned about the enticement of a free ticket to a Winnipeg Jets game from Red River College. She came up several veils short. She admitted she found the offer of a Jets ticket from Red River President Stephanie Forsyth irresistible. "Yes, I was asked by the president of Red River College if I would go to a Jets game with her, to which I accepted," she said. But it was business, she insisted. A chore that comes with being the Minister of Advanced Education. "One of th...

When Premier Greg Selinger released a list of 13 NDP MLA's who got free tickets to Winnipeg Jets games he forgot one name -- his own. On Oct. 9, 2011, the Winnipeg Jets played their home opener and Greg Selinger was among the invited guests, along with former NDP Premier Gary Doer and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Blogger Allison Pattison, a Creative Communications student at Red River College, wrote about Selinger's attendance at the game. http://passittopatty.blogspot.com/2011/10/fans-still-love-ya-jets.html . "The MTS Centre was packed to the roof. Literally. I would say about 80% of the fans in there were in white, which was a good thing because that means when the Jets request a white-out, fans will know what to do." "The game started off with a ceremonial puck drop; Rick Rypien's mom had the honour." "Along with Rypien's mom in attendance were a few other known names. Our Prime Minister Stephen ...

It started March 21st. It was near the end of a long, boring meeting of a committee of the Legislature at which the Opposition gets to ask questions about crown corporations like the Liquor Control Commission. Out of the blue, Ron Schuler (P.C. St. Paul) asked," Is the MLCC a season ticket holder of the Winnipeg Jets ?" The resulting discussion was hardly momentous. Roman Zubach, acting president of the liquor commission, answered,"We do hold 10 season tickets..." Schuler asked Jim Rondeau, minister responsible for the Liquor Control Act, "Has the minister been to any Winnipeg Jets games using MLCC Jets tickets?" "No," said Rondeau. "Could we have a list who has access to those tickets?" asked Schuler. Rondeau squirmed a bit about providing names of citizens who won tickets in contests but "(i)f it’s talking about board members or MLAs or Cabinet ministers, absolutely. I have no difficulty whatsoever providing that to you...

Talk about a rush to judgement ... In a case with no witnesses, no motive, no murder weapon and, if what was presented in court is any guide, NO EVIDENCE AT ALL, the RCMP considered the murder of Beverley Rowbotham solved within 3 weeks. Their conclusion: the husband done it because we can't find anyone else to pin it on and we got other stuff to do. ( See Part One - There must be a public inquiry into the bungled trial of Mark Stobbe http://blackrod.blogspot.ca/2012/03/there-must-be-public-inquiry-into.html ) Now we'll be the first to say that police always know more than they tell the public, and that its a losing bet to armchair quarterback a police investigation on the basis of years of CSI, Criminal Minds and Law-and-Order (all versions). But when they try to send a man to prison for the rest of his life based on a case so thin that it's invisible to the naked eye, the onus reverses and t...

A botched murder investigation. Check A prime suspect painted with a bullseye by police afflicted with tunnel vision. Check A dubious eyewitness who identifies the suspect with certainty at trial. Check An overzealous prosecutor who would go to any length to get a conviction. Check Sound familiar? The prosecution of Mark Stobbe follows the blueprint for a wrongful conviction exactly as writ large in a series of public inquiries in Manitoba in recent years. The only difference is that in those inquiries (Sophonow, Driskell, Unger) the juries convicted the accused on the evidence presented to them, and it was the NDP government that had to concoct reasons, such as those above, to toss the guilty verdicts, hold staged show trials to exonerate the convicted men on bogus grounds, and pay millions in compensation (except for a surprised Kyle Unger who got nothing.) In the case of Mark Stobbe, the egregious behaviour of police and prosecuto...