This Is Why Journalism Is Vital To Healthy Democracies

At a time when traditional journalism is weathering both economic and political storms, we should all take a moment to reflect on the vital role it plays in healthy democracies. The following story, about a joint investigation by The Toronto Star and The National Observer of FINTRAC, (Canada’s money laundering and terrorist financing enforcement agency), is illustrative of this truth.

As I previously wrote, FINTRAC chose to keep secret the identity of a bank that it penalized for failing to report a suspicious transaction and committing hundreds of other violations in its dealings with a controversial client. Thanks to journalism's dogged determination (which is not cheap, by the way), the mystery is over.

It took 10 months of media scrutiny and public outrage before Canadians learned Manulife Bank of Canada was the mysterious financial institution behind a $1.2-million fine for money-laundering violations.

The decision to confer anonymity upon this giant financial institution was puzzling, given that the same day in April, a handful of much smaller companies — facing far less severe fines — were publicly named by FINTRAC. This is all part of a pattern:

Over the past eight years, FINTRAC has named 40 companies for violating the law while keeping secret another 55.

Left unanswered is the reason for this double-standard, especially disturbing given the scope of Manulife's malfeasance:

-Manulife’s fine, which was reduced twice from an initial $1.8 million, was for five different types of violations of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing law, involving a failure to report transfers totalling at least $12.2 million.

-The bank failed to report one suspicious transaction to FINTRAC — labelled a “very serious” violation that experts say undermines Canada’s system to detect financial crimes and trace dirty money.

-Manulife also failed to report 1,174 outgoing international electronic transfers of $10,000 or more, 45 deposits of $10,000 or more in cash and four incoming international electronic transfers of $10,000 or more.

-The bank was also fined for failing to “develop and apply compliance policies and procedures.”

Curiously, for much less serious violations, FINTRAC showed no such penchant for secrecy. Those named and shamed included one whose misdeeds seem relatively minor:

Mahdi Al-Saady, CEO of Altaif Inc., an Ottawa-based money exchange and transfer company, was hit with a $42,600 FINTRAC fine — and publicly named — in 2014.

The violations for which Altaif was fined included failing to report the sending and receipt of money transfers of more than $10,000 — two of the same violations the unnamed bank was found to have committed.

The fact that Altaif was named is, of course, not the issue. The real question is why all who run afoul of FINTRAC are not treated the same, with the rules rigidly applied.

I have my own suspicions, but I leave it to informed readers to draw their own conclusions.

UPDATED:The Momentum Continues

The Trump resistance movement, about which I have previously written, is showing no signs of abatement. It surely is the bright spot in our increasingly dark times.

in today's paper, the Star's Daniel Dale writes that rank-and-file Democrats are giving no quarter to those in Congress intent on supporting the Orange Ogre's platform:

Their primary goal, for the moment, is to protect the Affordable Care Act, the threatened health-care overhaul the Tea Party tried to prevent from coming into existence. More broadly, they want to show lawmakers there will be consequences for supporting virtually any part of the president’s program — at the very least, being pestered at every turn when they come home from Washington.

One of the sharpest weapons they are wielding comes from an online manual called Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.

Written by about 30 former Democratic congressional aides and posted on Google Docs in December, it provides step-by-step advice, based largely on Tea Party tactics, on how to get members of Congress to listen.

With at least two groups in every district, it

has racked up more than 16 million web views and spawned 5,300 Indivisible groups around the country.

And the protesters are making there voices heard:

In Utah, [Utah Rep. Jason] Chaffetz, chair of the House oversight committee, faced a raucous chorus of demands to investigate the president. In Iowa, a pig farmer in a baseball cap warned Sen. Chuck Grassley that he wouldn’t be able to afford insurance without Obamacare. In Arkansas, a woman told Sen. Tom Cotton, her voice raw, that Obamacare was the only option for her dying husband.

Some Congressmen are cancelling their town halls rather than face their constituents' wrath, while others have tried moving their gatherings to conservative areas of their state, to no avail. It didn't work for Brat, despite moving his meeting to

a conservative town of 3,500 where the mayor says people care more about NASCAR than politics. But he was greeted with a barrage of skeptical queries on health care, the environment, Social Security and Trump himself from constituents who drove up to two hours to dog him again.

When Brat said Obamacare was collapsing, they shouted: “No!” When he said he supports repealing and replacing the law, they shouted: “With what?” When he insisted that Obamacare hadn’t slowed the growth in health costs, they shouted: “You’re misinformed!” and “Fact check!”

None of this is lost on the politicians.

Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks said last week that the town halls might prevent Republicans like him who are against the Affordable Care Act from securing the votes for repeal.

“Because these folks who support Obamacare are very active, they’re putting pressure on congressmen, and there’s not a counter-effort to steel the spine of some of these congressmen in toss-up districts around the country,” Brooks told an Alabama radio station.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable aspects of this resistance movement is that many of those involved have never been politically active before. The installation of Trump in the White House has radicalized them, unleashing forces to be reckoned with.

"Power to the people," it would seem, is becoming much, much more than a mere cultural slogan from an earlier time.

UPDATE: In a NYT op-ed today, Paul Krugman writes that democracy itself is very much on the line, and an outraged populace may be our last defense.

The Company They Keep

Although I consider myself a hard-bitten cynic/realist, a report by Daniel Dale in today's Star has left me decidedly dispirited. Dale, our Canadian expert on Trump who has followed the Orange Ogre very closely since the primaries, asserts that what used to be called 'mainstream conservatism', is now falling into line with Trump's diseased worldview:

This year’s CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference], which ended Saturday, was less an indication of a battle for the soul of conservatism than evidence that conservatism is now what President Donald Trump says it is. With a conspiracist openly hostile to Muslims running the world, the gap between the kooky fringe and the centre of the movement has vanished. And on issues from Islam to trade to Russia, the centre has shifted to fall in line with Trump’s worldview.

The demographic of attendees is one indicator:

Libertarians, seniors from liberal-leaning northern Virginia and suspiciously well-coiffed 20-year-olds seeking careers as Republican operatives make up a disproportionate percentage of the crowd.

Even there, there was no sign of a dissident movement. Trump had 15-per-cent support in the CPAC “straw poll” during the campaign last year. His approval rating in this year’s straw poll was 86 per cent.

People who were never invited to past CPACs, indeed, were shunned, are now on the main stage:

Seven Breitbart figures appeared on CPAC panels. Not including the Breitbart man who now serves as chief strategist to the president.

As Breitbart’s chief executive, Stephen Bannon used to antagonize the conference organizer, the American Conservative Union, by hosting a counter-event called “the Uninvited” for speakers deemed too incendiary on issues like Islamist extremism.

Consider some of the other invitees:

-Frank Gaffney, an anti-Muslim “security” advocate.

-Clare Lopez, who warned of a supposed Islamist plot to infiltrate Canada.

-Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party and Brexit engineer.

It is said we are judged by the company we keep. If this year's CPAC invitees are any indication, mainstream, traditional conservatism is hanging out with some 'very bad dudes,' to use a Trumpism.

Perhaps what we are really witnessing is a fire sale of the American soul.

All You Need To Know About Kellie Leitch

The picture below conveys all one needs to know about Kellie Leitch. In the right-hand corner is an ad placed by that very strange lady in Breitbart.

Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch is running advertisements on alt-right website Breitbart news.

The advertisements include calls to dismantle the CBC, oppose the carbon tax and to screen immigrants for “anti-Canadian values.”

“We’re running ads about screening for Canadian values and dismantling the CBC because Kellie’s been very clear that those are her policies, that when she’s prime minister she will implement,” said Michael Diamond, a spokesperson for Leitch’s campaign.

Thanks for providing such clarity, Kellie.

Trump's Bitter Harvest

This may not surprise us, but it should still horrify us.

In the middle of a crowded bar, Adam Purinton yelled at two Indian men to "get out of my country," witnesses said, then opened fire in an attack that killed one of the men and wounded the other, as well as a third man who tried to help.

Kevin O'Leary Laid Bare

I have never cared for that blowhard known as Kevin O'Leary. A shallow man intellectually, he appears to have only two reasons for seeking the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada: ego and a thirst for power, likely the same imperatives that impelled Trump to run for the U.S. presidency.

As Mark Cuban observes in the following, it is the latter motive that seems to most drive the failed Canadian/American businessman:

Growing Momentum

A short time ago I wrote about the resistance movement that has developed and grown since Donald Trump's installation in the White House. A natural question to ask is whether or not the initial enthusiastic momentum of such a movement can be sustained. So far, the signs are good:



Consider this lady's powerful rebuke of Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton:



The passions of the people can be a potent force for evil or for good. Let us all hope it is the latter that prevails.