Jean-Pierre Blackburn, the federal Minister of Labour as well as the federal point man for regional development in Québec, racked up nearly $150,000 worth of airplane charters in 2006 yet somehow didn't declare any time in the air on those private jets as a travel expense -- according to documents released to the N Dippers under Access to Information. There were 25 flights in all on those planes. Blackburn did charge about $11,000 worth of flights on commercial airliners but that's it.
Maybe it's me, but I was under the impression that Harper ran on a promise to bring accountability to the government -- and that any quid pro quos would be transparent. So the question is this: Why were those flights done off the books if they were not related to Canada's national security? (And it's hard to imagine regional development falls under that parameter unless Blackburn was doing a top-secret mission on behalf of Stockwell Day visiting, say, the new generation of power dams in the north of Québec.)
Doesn't the fact the flights were not properly expensed suggest something weird is going on here? Was Blackburn offered something in exchange for this and if so what was it?
And what about the story of Harper's hairdresser / astrologer? When a reporter looked into it, he was apparently approached by an aide to Harper and told that ethics laws are for crooks and not those who follow the law.
Huh?
How do we know they're honest if they won't give us a chance to go through the documentation and prove it? Since when did neo-cons have the monopoly on virtue? Immunity only applies to what is said in Parliament and in its committees; it doesn't apply to what is done behind closed doors or on the golf course.
Or on a corporate jet.
Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.
No comments:
Post a Comment