The dirty bird is at it again. And this time, he's really, really mired in the mud. The Canadian Armed Forces sexual harassment reckoning has proved once and for all that the battle of the sexes is the ugliest form of warfare. Would that it also meant there were no pigeons in a foxhole...
. . .
The usual media reports — up until this point, primarily (if not exclusively) coming from Pentagon mole Mercedes Stephenson at Goebbels News — would have you believe that the Catholic Church-level crisis over sexual abuse in the Canadian military is only a problem for Justin Trudeau and his government — in particular, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and for whatever reason, Chief of Staff Katie Telford.
But a closer look reveals what the partisan hacks of the MSM won't go into detail about, in their breathless quest to make something sleazy "stick" on Justin Trudeau in the absence of an actual blue dress in his office that doesn't exist. Namely, that the problem is endemic and transcends partisanship — but also, that none other than Stephen Harper and his troglodyte Tories left another land mine for the government that followed.
So last Friday, while Justin and Sophie were getting their first Tru-Doses and the cobra chickens of the twittersphere were all squawking nonsense about their relationship, the Blackwater bros on the defence committee were grilling a former staffer on their current favoured conspiracy theory, that the Trudeau government engaged in a supposed "coverup" of inappropriate behaviour involving high-ranking General Jonathan Vance. (He is the very model of a pervy maple general.)
The staffer in question, a fellow named Elder Marques, never actually said that the complaints registered to various departments were of a sexual nature, but that he presumed they could have been — and that he intended to keep Katie Telford appraised of any new information if it came up.
Thing is, the former military ombudsman tasked with investigating also said previously that there wasn't any formal complaint to follow up on.
But the cons' ears perked up immediately upon hearing those magic words — Katie Telford! — as "proof" that Trudeau himself not only knew about Vance's behaviour but conspired with the nefarious "centre" in the PMO to cover it up. Supposedly, we are to believe (or Andrew Coyne does anyway, because there's no conspiracy theory about his hated cousin that he won't latch onto) that this was because Trudeau also faced allegations of a similar nature around the same time (if you believe Wormtongue Kinsellout, that is), and/or that they needed Vance on side to "railroad" a decorated officer acting ever so honourably as a whistleblower for other aspects of purported Liberal "corruption".
The thing about both the Vance and Mark Norman cases is that they actually have Harper's fingerprints all over them (or cat paws). But the MSM only reports one side of the story, pretending that who was left holding the bag is who was actually at fault.
So of course, now that this guy testified on one fake scandal, Skippy et. al. want to haul him in for that other one, because if it wasn't for WeGhazi, they'd have nothing.
Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but I'm going to offer some conjecture of my own — and again, this is just a personal "pet" theory. I certainly hope to be proven wrong.
It's conceivable that because he worked in Morneau's office, that there are some holdover loyalists who weren't happy with the way the whole resignation happened, or the circumstances. Officials in Finance had reportedly been having friction with the PMO for some time, which apparently came to a head when Morneau's pick for Bank of Canada governor (a white male) was elevated over Telford's (a woman, who would be the first woman in that position). So when Morneau left at the height of the WeGhazi fracas (there were other disagreements besides that matter), his replacement was, of course, Chrystia Freeland, the first woman FM — and evidently, Katie's pick.
Now I'm not saying Morneau is a misogynist. But the Finance realm more broadly is of course, a traditionally old boys' club, as is the military. The reaction from that man cave of money men and peen-possessor pundits to Chrystia Freeland's herstory-making budget last week was tepid at best and... shall we say, "testerical" at worst. Ranting and raving about deficits and scaring the public into believing that it's the absolute worst thing in the world, instead of focusing on what's actually being paid for — in other words, obsessing about the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
What better way to knock her out of the spotlight, and all the good press for a budget aimed at leveling the playing field for the post-pandemic economy, than by knocking the feminist prime minister for a loop and painting him as a hypocrite? Just like they did (or tried to do) with Jodygate, only worse this time because it involves actual sex. The endgame being to dampen the rock-solid support from women that the Liberals have been enjoying for six years and counting, even if they'll never convince women to support the fetus-fetishist party themselves.
(And moreover, there apparently was some tension over Trudeau and Freeland teaming up with Mark Carney to design the economic recovery plan, so there remains a further possibility that all the press attention over the LPC Convention that led up to the budget didn't sit well with some people either.)
But again, this is purely my own theory based on what I know about LPC backroom infighting involving exiled finance ministers, minority governments, and a depraved, scandal-hungry opposition desperate to go after a popular yet polarizing PM. Marques might be an intentional troll or he might just be an unfortunate stooge, an NPC.
If you're not doing so already, go follow @MsAmyMcPherson on Twitter and pay attention to her blog, Free the Press Canada — it's a treasure trove of in-depth reporting on the so-called "scandals" (read: hit jobs) concocted by the Canadian right-wing, their press friendlies, and in some cases, their American backers. She used to be a journalist with the CBC before they became the Click Bait Corporation aka Conrad Black Corporation. Now she's independent, a truth-teller (or as Jake Tapper would have it, a Tru-Anon), which is why the MSM wants nothing to do with her research (but will give oxygen to cranks like Jesse Brown and Vivian Krause).
What Amy has discovered is that this whole thing was yet another setup and that Skippy has a lot to do with it. I can't wait to see her full investigation. I want to read it even though I'm angry it'll go nowhere.
Recall that it was Skippy who took a particular sadistic pleasure in grilling the unflappable Telford over the WeGhazi nonsense the first go-around. Now the Cons want to haul back Telford yet again to smear her even worse over the Vance matter — in other words, "standing up for women" by publicly abusing another woman. (I digress of course, but the Bloc is in on this too — how convenient once again for the alleged no-goodnik Yves Blanc Cheque, who also wanted Telford le fired, to point fingers at Trudeau vis-a-vis "vous, aussi.". Éric Lapointe must be so proud.)
It's also Skippy who can't get any traction against Freeland on his own, so of course, let's bring in a woman to hide behind.
It's also worth noting that the Q sphere that conjured up that same nonsense about Justin and Sophie and was pushing WeGhazi as the Canadian version of "Clinton Cash" (which later morphed into Pizzagate, and that into QAnon) has been trying for the longest time to paint the LPC as a "fake feminist cult" and Trudeau as its Keith Rainere (for no other reason than the idiot Bronfman girls' uncle Steve is a key LPC fundraiser), with Telford its Allison Mack or Ghislaine Maxwell.
You know who was pushing Q crap about Telford and her husband when that crap was going down? You guessed it, Frank Stallone Pigeon Poilievre. The base eats this stuff up like pigeons take to shit.
Thing is, it's not just Skippy who is implicated in this. He's one of a few at the forefront. It's also O'Toole himself — and his backer, Jason Kenney. Premier of the province known to be the laboratory for Canadian Republican American Plutocrat (CRAP) fascism — and current employer of Harper fils.
When the first problems about Vance showed up, they were Stephen Harper's veterans' affairs minister and defence minister, respectively. Two more cogs in the old-boy network (and Kenney a friggin' incel at that). If the names John Baird and Jamie Watt don't mean anything to you, you haven't been paying attention. But neither has the MSM. Which is why the whole apparatus is going above and beyond to get rid of the prime minister who's doing what he can with the limited tools he has, to hold them accountable. In favour of one of their own. Operation Dishonour indeed.
The thing is, the military police themselves pushed to close off the Vance matter during the Harper government, while O'Toole apparently followed the same protocols that Sajjan did in addressing it, even as the Cons try to get his head on a platter for a supposed "cover-up." Just like they want to get Telford's, as they claimed Gerry Butts during the Lavghazi hit job — because their ultimate target is, of course, Trudeau. If they can scalp a brown guy in a turban and the PMO consigliere who happens to be a woman while they're chewing away at the rest of Trudeau's team, all the better.
But the facts are clear: Harper knew. Harper did nothing. Only Trudeau wears the blame, though, because of course, the perky Pravda propagandist at Shaw-Corus conveniently has amnesia about anything prior to 2016.
And, just out of curiosity... since Brivanagate set a precedent, and those in the ranks of Liberal Twitter were "just asking questions" about Mercedes' own personal contacts with one of O'Toole's few good men — though she denies it, of course — have we ever gotten any independent confirmation of who's telling the truth? Because the way I see it, all you militant mercenaries of the media mafia
What's really distasteful is that an actual victims' advocacy group pleaded with all politicians to stop using their experiences as cynical campaign fodder to score dunks on the government or push their preferred agenda. (Like the NDP, a segment of which apparently wants to abolish the military altogether.) That's what the Liberals tried to do a few weeks ago; nevertheless, the Axis of Evil persisted, and so here we are.
Fortunately, Sajjan announced yesterday that a highly respected former Supreme Court Justice turned prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Louise Arbour, is going to take charge of how the recommendations in a previous report should be implemented going forth. Marie Deschamps, the author of that earlier report who was also a Supreme Court Justice, welcomed Ms. Arbour's leadership on the file and looked forward to seeing how she would broaden its scope. An actual serious project rather than the narcissistic showboating at the committees.
But the punditry, of course, was quick to react that the government was just kicking the can and deflecting responsibility. Well, OK then. Can't win for losing, I guess. Sock man bad, and also, turban man bad. Might as well do nothing, then, which is exactly what the axis of evil wants.
One last note: the guy over at Simon's blog who obsesses about polls more than even the most hardcore politics junkies seems to be convinced that the numbers are showing doom and gloom for the Liberals, because they "can't stay out of controversy." No, what happens is that they get shit flung at them and the media breathlessly reports that they should stop running into shit. But considering the circumstances, they're doing pretty good, and an actual campaign should see them do even better. I expect a hit to come in like clockwork next week, because of the smear job, but I don't expect this to be deciding ballot question in September. One word: Pandemic. I rest my case.
Ultimately, change will come in this institution, while the QAnonservatives exploiting people for their sick personal gains will just have to go back to the Fuhrerbunkers in mom's basement and start over. The feminist government of the Trudeau Liberals, meanwhile... will continue to soldier on.
