The Black Rod

[originally posted July 20, 2005] The city is still buzzing about that unprecedented storm we experienced this weekend. While it was spectacular at ground level, imagine if you were flying through it. Well, the passengers on an Air Canada flight have one hell of a story to tell about just that. As the lightning was lighting up the sky over Winnipeg and the gale force winds were knocking trees over like ten pins, the airport was diverting all incoming traffic to Grand Forks. All except one. That unlucky plane heard the diversion message, but radioed back that she was coming in. There had been a loud crash on that plane and they didn't know what caused it. The plane was being knocked about the sky by the strong winds and the passengers were alternately crying hysterically and praying. The flight was given clearance to land, and it did. Then it sat on the tarmack for three hours until airport crews felt it was safe enough to reach the aircraft. ***************** We learned this week ...

...Let us say what everyone is thinking: Winnipeg entomologist Taz Stuart is guilty of gross incompetence and should be fired . His value has dropped further than shares in the Crocus Fund. And Mayor Sam Katz needs to know that his appalling judgement in backing hippie-dippy Taz unconditionally, means that he should be prepared to resign if a single Winnipeg citizen is infected with West Nile Virus. Playing games with the lives and health of Winnipeg residents cannot be forgiven. A simple sorry will never be enough. Not when you knew better and could have acted at any time, but chose not to. Why did we have to depend on the province to act decisively in the face of dangerously high levels of West Nile-infected mosquitoes when city officials were telling us there was no problem ? The press says the mosquito debacle is due to poor communications on the part of Taz, the new boy in the job of mosquito control. That's nonsense. Compare these two days of mosquito stories on CBC: Wednesd...

(written June 29, 2005) Who can resist a love story? Not The Black Rod. So we're all agog watching a romance rekindled right before our eyes. There's the knight in shining armour; let's call him Nicholas , come riding to the rescue. There's the damsel in distress; let's call her Crocus , about to be sold off by the evil villain. His name is The Receiver . The Receiver doesn't that just send a chill down your spine. And the best part of this love story is that its all true . Nicholas Hirst, the former editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, has come to save the beautiful Crocus Fund from the clutches of the Receiver so that she can bloom again in all her labour sponsored glory. But this has created a dilemma for the Free Press. We're sure you've noticed that the newspaper is putting out almost a story a day on the Crocus scandal, no doubt to atone for missing the biggest financial and political scandal in the province until the Auditor General called a news...

All the mea culpas from born-again investigative reporters who missed the Crocus story are enough to get Frances Russell to write another anti-Christian column. And instead of reciting Hail Mary's to get absolution, they've taken to chanting "Red Flags" whenever they interview or write about government officials. Sadly, it's only lip service, since they don't seem to know what the term means. They certainly don't demonstrate that they would do anything different despite their public declarations of guilt. One only has to look at how the news media treat O'Learygate , the latest scandal under the current government's watch, one which is replete with Red Flags . O'Learygate is named after Brian O'Leary, the superintendent of the Seven Oaks School Division --- and former NDP campaign manager --- who guided the division's unlawful foray into land development. He said he was only selling surplus land, land which wasn't needed for a new ...

Buried deep, deep, deep in the Winnipeg Free Press story about the Crocus Fund Scandal this weekend was a comment from John Doyle , the spokesman for the Manitoba Federation of Labour. Doyle was a little bit testy, to say the least. We imagine he's been hearing from a lot of union brothers and sisters who stand to lose a good chunk of their pension savings with the demise of Crocus. Anyway, Doyle wanted it clear that the MFL "strenuously denies any responsibility for misleading investors", as the paper put it. "I feel badly for these people. But there is no responsibility for the MFL in this ," was the way Doyle put it. We beg to differ, John. The Crocus Fund is sponsored by the MFL . The majority of the board of directors is appointed by the MFL. The MFL hired , or at least approved wholeheartedly of, the management. The MFL seconded people to sell Crocus shares. And the direction of the Crocus Investment Fund was set by the MFL. And that's really...

The provincial government's report on O'Learygate is packed with bombshells, blackguards and bamboozlers. The Seven Oaks School Division lost in the range of $200-300,000 on the Swinford Park land development, according to the report tabled by the Education Minister. Like true gamblers, the board is doubling up, hoping to recoup the loss and make some profit on the third and final phase of the project. But the Division's numbers have been so far off the mark that the Public Schools Finance Board, which oversees school board spending, is having coniptions, and is hinting that the public should brace itself for a sea of red ink when all the accounting is done. The report containing these details was released late last Thursday and reads like a reprise of the Crocus Fund audit : a runaway administration, unlawful activities, a total failure of oversight, inflated valuations, and a whistleblower dismised by a Cabinet Minister. And then, there is the shadowy NDP connections to...

It was February, 2002, the dead of winter, and officials of the Crocus Investment Fund got wind of an unhappy investor who was talking to Opposition members of the Legislature.They did what the Crocus Manual on Disgruntled Investors called for---they threatened him with lawyers to shut him up. Then they paid a visit to the Opposition members with the same message. It's now late spring, 2005, and the recipients of these "friendly visits" are talking about them for the first time. The threat of Crocus officials going all Sopranos on them is over. These days the only attorneys the former Crocus directors and managers are talking about, are criminal defence lawyers. After the scorching report on Crocus management practices by Auditor General Jon Singleton, the province has announced it is bringing in a special prosecutor from Ontario to examine the details and determine whether any ex-Crocus alumni will be making the perp walk soon. The Black Rod is big on justice, so we ar...

And so, with a wave of the Auditor General's magic wand, the truth is revealed. The Crocus Investment Fund stands before us exposed as a bedraggled panhandler and not the jaunty bon-vivant we have always believed. Auditor General Jon Singleton has shown us a nearly broke fund with a useless board of directors made up of the deaf (to complaints), the blind (to truth), and the dumb (and we don't mean mute), who have been misleading Manitobans for at least three years over the true value of its investment portfolio. Foremost in his recommendations were a series of references to numbered sections of the Criminal Code. We are sure the Special Prosecutor from Ontario will bring his handy-dandy pocket version to refer to, as he wades through the miriad of findings of questionable conduct and misleading statements. But we will help the layman, by explaining that the sections refered to by the Auditor for legal review generally start with "F" - he was too polite to use the w...

Today's topic: Will Crocus Bloom in Spring? [originally published January 28, 2005] You would think spring has sprung from all the references to Crocus this week. Sadly, they were talking about the embattled Crocus Fund, and the only sign of rejuvenation at Crocus is the PR campaign launched to coincide with the month-end conclusion of an independent review into evaluations of the fund's investments. First came the leaks to the Winnipeg Free Press over new board members. Then former director Wally Fox-Decent showed up on CJOB to say that while he always put investors first, but, well, James Umlah ...you know... I can't say any more. Next, Bob Jones, the former director of marketing, popped up. He had quit the fund for another job, but now he's back and talking to the press. Saying little, but talking more. And, wonder of wonders, the week was capped with the appearance of acting CEO Alfred Black right there in the flesh on CBC Television answering questions (NOT) ...