The Grewal recordings fraud
There has been among too many online Canadian conservatives a tendency to dismiss the questions surrounding the Grewal recordings as nothing more than a Liberal party and Liberal controlled media conspiracy to discredit Mr. Grewal and his recordings to protect the Liberal party. Yet this has been a problem of the CPC's own making from the outset. Indeed, it was the actions of the CPC that have given the Liberals protection from the contents of these recordings, yet there is an unwilliness by too many conservatives to recognize this. By making the Liberals victims of a fraud by the CPC they cover the sleaze from the Liberals in the recordings and caused the damage to mainly happen to the CPC and it's leader. Indeed, the continued refusal to explain how the CPC made false and unsupported specific criminal allegations against the Liberals continues to do damage to the CPC as well as provide all CPC opponents a major weapon to use to attack CPC honesty, credibility and trustworthiness.
Lets go back to the beginning, shall we? All information regarding this matter can be verified at Buckets of Grewal.
First, back on May 18 05 Mr. Grewal comes forward with eight minutes of selected excerpts from his secret recordings of negotiations to cross the floor with two senior Liberals, Minister Dosanjh and the PM's Chief of Staff Tim Murphy. These excerpts are portrayed as evidence of the Liberals being willing to exchange Senate seats for MP votes, something clearly criminal under Canadian law. However, until the full recordings are released to put these excerpts into context it is premature to take these excerpts and the claimed meaning of them at face value. For the next twelve days the CPC leadership has control over these recordings saying only that they were translating and transcribing these recordings. It is also important to note that during the May 18 05 newsconference it was claimed there was four hours of recorded material. As well, during this period the CPC was claiming they would release the full recordings so that all Canadians could review the evidence for themselves to make their own minds up about the criminal behaviour of the Liberals.
May 31 05: The first "full" and "complete" release of the recordings is announced to the Canadian public and it appears to place the context of the excerpts so as to corroborate/prove the CPC charge of Senate seat selling. The first thing that is noticed is that there is only 75 minutes of material, not four hours. Secondly, the audio quality is poor, and worse, there are a few points where it sounds like sloppy editing had occured noticeable to the naked ear. Immediately the Liberals in the person of Minister Dosanjh that there are missing conversations and apparant editing of the released material. The CPC leadership and Mr. Grewal stand by these recordings as full, complete, unaltered, and pristine. This goes one for two days, with the CPC claiming the Liberals have no case to make about editing, and that it is all a smokescreen.
June 2 05: There is a clarification note issued by the CPC known subsequently as "the suicide note". However, the clarification claims only a technical glitch caused a few seconds of material to have been deleted and that the new release reflects this. This is the first indication that there is something really rotten going on here from the CPC. As well, one of the two excerpts in that note have never been seen in any of the other transcripts to date, suggesting thatthee is still unreleased recorded material out there.
June 3 05: There is increasing evidence that these recordings released and vouched for of May 31 05 as unedited and unaltered had been edited. This comes from various sound experts hired by various media organizations, and they all conclude alteration occured. The first signs of CPC backpeddeling regarding the completeness of the May 31 05 release is seen when Peter MacKay goes from claiming the recordings were "pristine" to not being willing to defend "...anybody's veracity or whether the tapes are pristine." It is discovered that instead of a few seconds of new material 15 minutes of new material had been released, and that some of it does not reflect well on Mr. Grewal, indeed, has him asking for a Senate seat for his wife and the Liberals rejecting any such appointment "outside of politics".
Weekend of June 4 05: It is discovered that there had not just been a release of 15 minutes of new material to the previously released recordings of May 31 05, but that an additional 20 minutes on top of that has been added as well. This is done without the CPC ever bringing any formal attention to this fact. Yet they also release an updated transcript that reflects the new material released. With this additional material it becomes clear that the intital criminal allegation made by Mr. Grewal and Mr. Harper and the CPC about the Liberals being willing to sell a Senate seat is completely unsupported, indeed, refuted. At this point it has become clear that someone within the CPC has clearly and intentionally made false claims of Liberal criminality, born false witness to Canadans on that allegation, and intentionally released edited recordings to substantiate the false claim thereby perpetrating a fraud on Canadians.
Today: Ever since this chain of events has become clear the CPC has steadfastly refused to either back away from Mr. Grewal and his allegations, or to explain how so many edits happened in the May 31 05 release that was declared as complete, especially considering that this version was the only one to corroborate the Senate selling allegation. This puts the credibility of the entire CPC leadership, particularly Mr. Harper at serious issue. Mr. Grewal's credibility is also nonexistent since he made the original recordings and had to know that the Senate seat allegation was false when he made it. What we are left with is a Leader of the Official Opposition being willing to be a party to an intentionally fraudulent criminal allegation against a sitting government. To the best of my knowledge this is truly an unprecedented event in Canadian history. Indeed, to this day Mr. Harper stands behind Mr. Grewal, as do too many online conservatives. There has never been any attempt by either the CPC leadership or these defenders of Mr. Grewal for the events that occured during the period between May 18 05 and Jun 6 05. Whenever there is any challenge made regarding this matter to the CPC supporters it is dismissed as a smear campaign being unfairly and unjustly waged against them and Mr. Grewal, and that anyone that asks for an explanation is either a part of the Liberal smear machine or has been brainwashed by said smear machine. In other words the facts as they actually exist on this matter are completely ignored, and the condict of the CPC in this matter is ignored as well. We are only supposed to focus on Liberal misdeeds, the CPC is supposedly blameless of any fault here, despite the clear evidence to the contrary.
This degree of disconnect from reality is more than a little disturbing. I also have serious problems with anyone making false criminal allegations, especially when they follow it up with falsified evidence. That is what happened here, and I would be just as upset by it if it were any other party and leader. It does not MATTER the party or person, what matters is the fraud itself, and the severity of such a dishonest act occuring and being continually supported despite clear evidence that it was a fraudulent act. If a party and party leader is willing to make false allegations and fake evidence in a matter this serious, it forces wondering what else they would be willing to make false claims about and attempt to use false evidence to substantiate it with. Canadians can not and should not trust ANYONE that would do such a thing.
Finally, it should be obvious to anyone that once Mr. Grewal's credibility was impeached by his own recordings he would come under intense scrutiny, especialy from the media, where some other issues of concern have shown up. Yet this also is somehow all part of the orchestrated Liberal smear campaign. It should also be obvious that this also brings into question the credibility of both Mr. Harper and his party. After all, if they are willing to lie in this matter, why should anyone trust that they would keep their campaign promises either? When you are a party that makes as one of it's primary reasons for supporting their party their committment to principles, ethics, integrity and honesty, this is exactly the worst thing to have hanging over your head as evidence that you would be no better than the current government, possibly even worse. Indeed, this matter is a great defence to any rhetoric regarding the unethical conduct of the Liebrals in Adscam, especially since that is a more traditional money scandal as opposed to this new type of scandalous conduct by Mr. Grewal and the CPC
This is a serious and major problem, and the CPC cannot be allowed to avoid answering for it. Mr. Harper cannot be permitted to escape answering for this fraud perpetrated upon all Canadians by him and his party. I make this pledge here, that until this is matter is properly dealt with and explained that I will not allow it to drop or fade from view. I consider this matter to be far too serious to do so, as well as a type of corruption new to our politics, and of a type that MUST be stamped out from the outset before it gains any acceptability. This type of serious deception regarding criminal allegations is simply unacceptable, no matter who commits it.
Lets go back to the beginning, shall we? All information regarding this matter can be verified at Buckets of Grewal.
First, back on May 18 05 Mr. Grewal comes forward with eight minutes of selected excerpts from his secret recordings of negotiations to cross the floor with two senior Liberals, Minister Dosanjh and the PM's Chief of Staff Tim Murphy. These excerpts are portrayed as evidence of the Liberals being willing to exchange Senate seats for MP votes, something clearly criminal under Canadian law. However, until the full recordings are released to put these excerpts into context it is premature to take these excerpts and the claimed meaning of them at face value. For the next twelve days the CPC leadership has control over these recordings saying only that they were translating and transcribing these recordings. It is also important to note that during the May 18 05 newsconference it was claimed there was four hours of recorded material. As well, during this period the CPC was claiming they would release the full recordings so that all Canadians could review the evidence for themselves to make their own minds up about the criminal behaviour of the Liberals.
May 31 05: The first "full" and "complete" release of the recordings is announced to the Canadian public and it appears to place the context of the excerpts so as to corroborate/prove the CPC charge of Senate seat selling. The first thing that is noticed is that there is only 75 minutes of material, not four hours. Secondly, the audio quality is poor, and worse, there are a few points where it sounds like sloppy editing had occured noticeable to the naked ear. Immediately the Liberals in the person of Minister Dosanjh that there are missing conversations and apparant editing of the released material. The CPC leadership and Mr. Grewal stand by these recordings as full, complete, unaltered, and pristine. This goes one for two days, with the CPC claiming the Liberals have no case to make about editing, and that it is all a smokescreen.
June 2 05: There is a clarification note issued by the CPC known subsequently as "the suicide note". However, the clarification claims only a technical glitch caused a few seconds of material to have been deleted and that the new release reflects this. This is the first indication that there is something really rotten going on here from the CPC. As well, one of the two excerpts in that note have never been seen in any of the other transcripts to date, suggesting thatthee is still unreleased recorded material out there.
June 3 05: There is increasing evidence that these recordings released and vouched for of May 31 05 as unedited and unaltered had been edited. This comes from various sound experts hired by various media organizations, and they all conclude alteration occured. The first signs of CPC backpeddeling regarding the completeness of the May 31 05 release is seen when Peter MacKay goes from claiming the recordings were "pristine" to not being willing to defend "...anybody's veracity or whether the tapes are pristine." It is discovered that instead of a few seconds of new material 15 minutes of new material had been released, and that some of it does not reflect well on Mr. Grewal, indeed, has him asking for a Senate seat for his wife and the Liberals rejecting any such appointment "outside of politics".
Weekend of June 4 05: It is discovered that there had not just been a release of 15 minutes of new material to the previously released recordings of May 31 05, but that an additional 20 minutes on top of that has been added as well. This is done without the CPC ever bringing any formal attention to this fact. Yet they also release an updated transcript that reflects the new material released. With this additional material it becomes clear that the intital criminal allegation made by Mr. Grewal and Mr. Harper and the CPC about the Liberals being willing to sell a Senate seat is completely unsupported, indeed, refuted. At this point it has become clear that someone within the CPC has clearly and intentionally made false claims of Liberal criminality, born false witness to Canadans on that allegation, and intentionally released edited recordings to substantiate the false claim thereby perpetrating a fraud on Canadians.
Today: Ever since this chain of events has become clear the CPC has steadfastly refused to either back away from Mr. Grewal and his allegations, or to explain how so many edits happened in the May 31 05 release that was declared as complete, especially considering that this version was the only one to corroborate the Senate selling allegation. This puts the credibility of the entire CPC leadership, particularly Mr. Harper at serious issue. Mr. Grewal's credibility is also nonexistent since he made the original recordings and had to know that the Senate seat allegation was false when he made it. What we are left with is a Leader of the Official Opposition being willing to be a party to an intentionally fraudulent criminal allegation against a sitting government. To the best of my knowledge this is truly an unprecedented event in Canadian history. Indeed, to this day Mr. Harper stands behind Mr. Grewal, as do too many online conservatives. There has never been any attempt by either the CPC leadership or these defenders of Mr. Grewal for the events that occured during the period between May 18 05 and Jun 6 05. Whenever there is any challenge made regarding this matter to the CPC supporters it is dismissed as a smear campaign being unfairly and unjustly waged against them and Mr. Grewal, and that anyone that asks for an explanation is either a part of the Liberal smear machine or has been brainwashed by said smear machine. In other words the facts as they actually exist on this matter are completely ignored, and the condict of the CPC in this matter is ignored as well. We are only supposed to focus on Liberal misdeeds, the CPC is supposedly blameless of any fault here, despite the clear evidence to the contrary.
This degree of disconnect from reality is more than a little disturbing. I also have serious problems with anyone making false criminal allegations, especially when they follow it up with falsified evidence. That is what happened here, and I would be just as upset by it if it were any other party and leader. It does not MATTER the party or person, what matters is the fraud itself, and the severity of such a dishonest act occuring and being continually supported despite clear evidence that it was a fraudulent act. If a party and party leader is willing to make false allegations and fake evidence in a matter this serious, it forces wondering what else they would be willing to make false claims about and attempt to use false evidence to substantiate it with. Canadians can not and should not trust ANYONE that would do such a thing.
Finally, it should be obvious to anyone that once Mr. Grewal's credibility was impeached by his own recordings he would come under intense scrutiny, especialy from the media, where some other issues of concern have shown up. Yet this also is somehow all part of the orchestrated Liberal smear campaign. It should also be obvious that this also brings into question the credibility of both Mr. Harper and his party. After all, if they are willing to lie in this matter, why should anyone trust that they would keep their campaign promises either? When you are a party that makes as one of it's primary reasons for supporting their party their committment to principles, ethics, integrity and honesty, this is exactly the worst thing to have hanging over your head as evidence that you would be no better than the current government, possibly even worse. Indeed, this matter is a great defence to any rhetoric regarding the unethical conduct of the Liebrals in Adscam, especially since that is a more traditional money scandal as opposed to this new type of scandalous conduct by Mr. Grewal and the CPC
This is a serious and major problem, and the CPC cannot be allowed to avoid answering for it. Mr. Harper cannot be permitted to escape answering for this fraud perpetrated upon all Canadians by him and his party. I make this pledge here, that until this is matter is properly dealt with and explained that I will not allow it to drop or fade from view. I consider this matter to be far too serious to do so, as well as a type of corruption new to our politics, and of a type that MUST be stamped out from the outset before it gains any acceptability. This type of serious deception regarding criminal allegations is simply unacceptable, no matter who commits it.
posted by Scotian | 5:07 PM
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