I Guess The Barbados Has An Open-Door Policy Toward Felons

Few Canadians will forget this scene:



The people of The Barbados, however, apparently hold no animus toward foreign felons:

Dean Del Mastro and his cousin David are establishing a $26-million solar technology manufacturing plant and solar farm in Barbados, according to a report Thursday in the online newspaper Barbados Today.

The Del Mastros' company is called the Deltro Group, and Barbados Today states that David Del Mastro is the president and Dean is company director.

The article states that Deltro Group is expected to represent “stiff competition” for Barbados Light and Power Company.

“We are not just excited for ourselves,” Dean Del Mastro told Barbados Today. “We are excited for Barbados because we believe it has potential to really transform the economy in Barbados.”

The plant is expected to hire more than 160 people by next June, the article states.

Dean Del Mastro is Peterborough's former MP. He is currently free on bail after he was sentenced to a month in jail for electoral fraud.

He spent one night in jail in June, and then was released on bail pending an appeal. The appeal is going to court Jan. 4 and 5 in Newmarket. He was convicted of having overspent on his electoral campaign in 2008.

David Del Mastro is the owner of Deltro Electric in Missisauga. He'll be on trial in February over allegations of wrongful contributions to his cousin's 2008 campaign.

He allegedly had 22 of his employees and their friends each contribute $1,000 to his cousin's campaign, and then reimbursed them with cheques from Deltro Electric for $1,050.

But Barbados Today doesn't mention any of that. It is reporting that the Del Mastros' solar plant will be operating by March or April, 2016.

It's expected to include a solar farm that will produce electricity for sale at rates less expensive than Barbados Light & Power Compan

David Del Mastro told the newspaper that Barbados was chosen as a location to establish the plant because the government there was “dedicated to incentivize us to come here.”

Out of either politeness or ignorance, the online newspaper, Barbados Today, made no reference to Del Maestro's criminal conviction. You can read their story here by going to page 2 and 3 of the publication.

UPDATE: Conservative 'Team Gosal' Commits An Election Crime

Baljit Singh Gosal. the Con candidate seeking re-election in Bramalea—Gore—Malton, has apparently dispatched his 'team' to commit election crimes, as you will see in the following video. The perpetrators defend their actionss as just doing their job. May justice prevail on October 19.

Caught on camera: Conservative team destroying NDP and Liberal signs while putting up signs for their candidate. This is a criminal offence.Bal Gosal is is the CPC candidate for Brampton Centre.

Posted by Government for all Canadians, not just the wealthy on Friday, October 16, 2015

H/t Government for all Canadians, not just the wealthy

UPDATE: Apparently, Mr. Harper has met with the miscreants. A bit of a step down, perhaps, from his associations with Bruce Carson, Arthur Porter, et alia, some might say.

God, I Love The Perp Walk

Breaking With Tradition

... there were no reports of Dean Del Mastro breaking down in tears, a first for the former star of the Harper regime. Perhaps knowing that he will only serve one week in jail for his crimes lightened his mood.

CBC Truculence: Too Little, Too Late

About a year ago, I lamented the fact that the CBC, through Peter Mansbridge, seemed to be following a policy of appeasement toward the Harper government, probably in the forlorn hope of avoiding further decimation of its funding. Quite predictably, as we learned last week, that policy has proven to be an abject failure.

It is perhaps that realization that produced some 'fire in the belly' of last night's At Issues panel, which saw pretty much a uniform condemnation of the Harper regime over its gross and intentional misrepresentation of the true cost of the F-35 jet procurement program. The issue of ministerial responsibility got a pretty good airing on the panel.

I do, however, continue to be troubled by the presence of Bruce Anderson on the panel. Anderson, a senior 'spin' advisor, er, I mean public relations consultant, is described in his profile as 'one of Canada’s most experienced advisors specializing in issue, marketing and reputation management'. And it is through that lens that he evaluates the Harper regime misdeeds; as I noted in an earlier post when, on Tuesday's special panel, he wondered whether the issue will resonate with the public. He sang much the same tune last night, and while I truly hope that issues of public morality and basic democratic expectations cannot be reduced simply to public opinion, part of me fears that in this age of superficiality and a disengaged electorate, there might be some truth in his observation.

In any event, I hope if, on this Good Friday, you have about 15 minutes to spare, you will view last night's edition. As well, if you have an additional 3 minutes and 40 seconds to spare, I highly recommend for your delectation Rex Murphy's withering assessment both of Harper and Defense Minister Peter MacKay, describing the latter as an 'honourary cabinet minister' and an 'ornament.'

It is sad, however, that the CBC was unable to find its fortitude and integrity earlier, when it might have made a difference. I'm afraid that now, all of this 'sound and fury' does indeed signify 'nothing.'

The Star Exposes Another Harper Lie

More and more, people are seeing the bald mendacity of the Harper regime. Despite their claims of electoral probity and refusal to use U.S. firms in their campaigning, it turns out that 14 Conservative (will the claim be made that they were rogues?) did exactly that by signing on with Front Porch Strategies, a well-connected Republican company during last year’s election campaign; one of them was the offensively pugnacious Dean Del Maestro, who has done a fine acting job feigning indignation over what he calls Liberal and NDP smears in the House of Commons. Interestingly, but hardly surprisingly, one of the events orchestrated by the company for Del Maestro turned into a smear campaign against Michael Ignatief.

The Star also reports how the Conservatives use the resources of the powerful Conservative global organization, the International Democratic Union (IDU), a coalition of member parties including the U.S. Republicans, the Canadian and U.K. Conservative parties and, in the Australia, the centre-right Liberals.

Perhaps of even greater note is the fact that Senator Doug (in-and-out-Conservative crimes) Finley is a deputy chair at IDU.

What is that old saying? If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas. Clearly, corporate entities need to vet their clients more carefully.

Exactly How Dangerous Is Harper?

That is the title of a piece written by Gerald Caplan, in which he opines that the Harper Conservatives are like nothing Canada has ever seen before, a party that refuses to follow the customs and practices of past governments, a party that sees politics as a form of warfare with, I suppose, the rest of us as collateral damage.

This brief excerpt offers an ominous intimation about the voter suppression crimes:

Those of us who wouldn’t trust Stephen Harper if he told us today was Friday have no doubt who organized Robo-gate. In fact, I’m informed by a former Conservative operative familiar with both the party and technology that there’s far more to be revealed in this saga.

You can read the full piece here.

Tory Strategy: I'll Huff and I'll Puff

... until I get my way. Judging by this story of Conservative misbehaviour in Etobicoke Centre on election day, it's not hard to figure out someone's favorite bedtime story.

The Bizarro World of the Harper Conservatives

When I was a lad (a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away), I was a devotee of Superman comics. There was something about the son of Kryton's thirst for truth and justice that appealed to my boyish sensibilities.

One of the components of the Superman universe was the existence of a bizarro world, a world in which everything and everyone was the opposite of life on earth. For example, they said goodbye when they arrived home, and hello when they left. For them, good was bad and bad was good .... well, you get the picture.

I couldn't help but think of that world today as I read the latest ploy by the Harper government, led by the parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Dean Del Maestro, to divert attention from the crimes of his party by insisting that Adam Carroll, the man the Liberals say is behind the Vikileaks 30 Twitter account, testify before the Commons ethics committee next week.

His reason? He doesn't believe that the Liberal confession constitutes the full story. This, of course, while he and his gang of Parliamentary thugs insist that Conservative hands are as clean as the driven snow regarding the robocon voter suppression crimes.

God these guys make me sick.

The Sound of Subversion - A Robocall Recorded

So this is what subversion sounds like. The Star has obtained a voice recording of one of the fake calls in Guelph, giving instructions to the recipient to go to the wrong polling station.

What is that old saying about the banality of evil?

For Anyone Inclined to Give Harper The Benefit Of The Doubt...

I urge you to read Lawrence Martin's damning assessment of his dirty operations.

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

The face of unrepentant smarm:

The Conservatives: Farther Gone Than I Had Realized

The Harperites are more out of touch with reality than I realized if they think this Tory bought-and-paid-for hack is going to do them any good in their voter-suppression crimes.

The Public Responds To Conservative Voter-Suppression Crimes

While I normally spend little time reading readers' on-line comments in The Globe and Mail, these, I think, help to capture the fury more and more of the public is feeling over Harper-inspired malfeasance.