Monthly Archives: July 2021

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a news conference in Ottawa on July 2, 2021.

Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

A U.S. data software company that runs Liberal digital voter outreach has been paid $1-million from parliamentary funds since 2016 to exclusively handle constituency case work for party MPs, raising more questions about whether taxpayer dollars are being used for election-related activities.

House of Commons rules require MPs to use taxpayer resources for parliamentary purposes only and not to subsidize the operations of political parties or re-election campaigns.

The Globe and Mail reported last month that NGP VAN, a political-campaign software company used by the U.S. Democratic Party, has received payments from the Liberal Research Bureau (LRB) and separately from the office budgets of Liberal MPs, which the party says are strictly for constituency business.

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Payments have also been received by Data Sciences, a Montreal-based company that oversees the Liberal Partys digital operations during elections. In campaigns, Data Sciences works with NGP VAN on digital election activities. The Globe recently reported that both companies are working together on constituency business for Liberal MPs.

Now, a contract with NGP VAN shows the company is being paid US$13,500 a month from the LRB, a taxpayer-funded office that supports Trudeau government MPs. The Conservatives, Bloc Qubcois and NDP have comparable groups.

The contract, a copy of which was obtained by The Globe, places more scrutiny on whether voter identification and outreach is also being conducted and what role Data Sciences plays in helping Liberal MPs manage NGP VAN software.

Data Sciences also provides technical support for Liberalist, a modified version of NGP VAN VoteBuilder software used by the Democrats during U.S. election campaigns. The Liberal Party licenses and manages this software to run its powerful voter-contact database.

Data Sciences is owned by Tom Pitfield, a childhood friend of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the partys chief digital strategist during elections. Mr. Pitfields wife, Anna Gainey, was Liberal Party president from 2014 to 2018.

Melissa Cotton, managing director of the LRB, said Data Sciences is being paid to provide support and technical guidance to MPs offices in using NGP VAN software for constituency casework.

However, the contract makes no mention of Data Sciences and explains in detail the technical support that NGP VAN provides, including being on call from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. to handle any problems. The contract also says the U.S. software company provides training to users.

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Its really a bit of mystery why Data Sciences and Mr. Pitfield are involved beyond the fact of the close relationship between the Prime Minister and Mr. Pitfield and the work that Data Sciences does for the Liberal Party, Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett said.

Ms. Cotton declined to offer an explanation for why Data Sciences was not mentioned in the contract. Data Sciences was not immediately available for comment.

The LRB contract suggests NGP VAN may be doing more than just constituency case work for MPs. It says MPs can select an individual survey question, activist code or early vote status, and that software can be used by canvassers and phone banks.

The contract also says the Washington-based company can handle records in a shared database of up to 4.5 million people.

Ms. Cotton said NGP VANs Liberalist is completely separate from the constituency casework the company does for MPs.

She said activist code is simply the term NGP VAN uses for form fields and categories across all of their products, which can help organize types of cases and correspondence. She said MPs dont use the software that identifies early voter status.

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It would also not be surprising to see general mentions of any softwares broader capabilities in contracts, even when that is not a focus for a client. Elections Canada does also provide the voters list to all parties members of Parliament every year to support engagement with constituents, she said.

And regarding phoning and going door to door, it is routine (in fact, encouraged) for MPs to be staying regularly in touch with constituents whether it is to invite them to town halls or round tables, or to hear their input on legislation and the governments work to deliver support for Canadians.

Ms. Cotton added Data Sciences offers training for staff in Liberal MPs offices in both official languages, which NGP VAN is not able to do.

But Mr. Barrett accused the Trudeau Liberals of using taxpayers dollars to directly or indirectly subsidize the political operations of the Liberal Party.

He said it is odd that NGP VANs software is being licensed exclusively to LRB in Canada if it is only doing constituency case work.

It would be immaterial to me if the company I used to manage my constituency case work [also] provided their software to Bloc MPs or Liberals MPs or Green MPs, he said. If its not political, why is their exclusivity that applies only to political affiliation.

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Commons expense records show LRB paid more than $75,000 to Data Sciences Inc. in the period between Aug. 1, 2019, and Oct. 1, 2020.

As The Globe reported in late June, Liberal MPs claimed a total of $74,290 in payments to NGP VAN in their fourth-quarter expense reports for the 2020-21 fiscal year. The amount MPs collectively claimed for payments to Data Sciences was more than $30,000.

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Liberal caucus office paid U.S. firm $1-million with taxpayer money - The Globe and Mail

"The Five" co-host and "Watters World" namesake Jesse Watters added a new bullet point to his resume on Tuesday when his first book, "How I Saved the World," hit retailers to the delight of his most liberal fan.

"My mother cried," Watters said. "My mother is from a very academic background, she has her doctorate, she has been in education her whole life she's very proud that I was able to write a book without any grammatical errors and have it published."

Watters regularly reads texts from his liberal mother on "The Five," and she isnt always happy with her sons presentation, commentary or ideology. Watters said he typically doesnt respond to his mothers "angry creeds" because she fires them off so fast and furiously, but he finally took the time to address her specific criticisms in the book.

Jesse Watters "How I Saved the World" hit retailers on Tuesday.

"I think liberals will enjoy that," he said. "My mom just thought it was very funny and it made her laugh and cry a lot."

JESSE WATTERS: 'HOW I SAVED THE WORLD' IS A CHANCE TO RESPOND TO MY MOM'S TEXTS WITHOUT BEING CHALLENGED

In typical Watters fashion, the book begins by simply declaring, "Im Watters and this is my book." Each of the 16 chapters sticks with the titulartheme, with names such as "How I Saved Journalism," "How I Saved Christmas," "How I Saved Hollywood" and, of course, "How I Saved My Moms Texts."

The "Watters World" host has observed a lot over the years while traveling America and considers himself a "cultural anthropologist" who studies liberals. While attempting to "save" various things, Watters built up a never-ending inventory of tales and experiences that he shares in his new book.

"I would go behind enemy lines," he said. "I would go to Martha's Vineyard when Barack Obama was vacationing there and traveled to nude beaches. And, you know, I was dispatched to go to mushroom festivals in Telluride, Colorado, and cannabis conventions and in Colorado or, you know, even the south side of Chicago, to spring break. I think Ive been to almost every Ivy League campus, kicked out of about half of all Ivy League campuses."

Watters feels going to "bastions of liberalism" and engaging with people who disagree has helped him understand what drives the left.

Jesse Watters has observed a lot over the years while traveling America and considers himself a "cultural anthropologist" who studies liberals.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA, DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS BASH AMERICA THROUGHOUT FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND

"I would go and I would actually talk to liberals. I would talk to people. I wouldn't just read about it or discuss it on TV. I was on the ground and participating and hearing from them and studying their mannerisms and what made them angry and what made them insecure, studying their behavior and see them get defensive or see them, you know, try to explain things that they thought they believed," Watters said. "That was enlightening to liberals in their natural habitat I think I gained some knowledge about their belief systems and how they're driven by emotion and an insecurity."

Watters said discourse in the United States would improve if liberals tried to engage with conservatives in order to understand the other side but it doesnt happen too often. Watters noted many liberal media members only interact with conservatives during election years, when theyre dispatched to places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

"Every four years, the media, it dawns on them that there is a whole world of people out there besides the cocoon of liberals that they surround themselves with in Manhattan, in Washington, or in their social media bubbles," Watters said. "It's funny to watch them take notice of things that everybody else in the country interacts with and notices."

Watters has a solution: Democrats could understand conservative better by reading "How I Saved the World."

"If a liberal read this book, it would be like holding up a mirror to them and they could see themselves from a different perspective," Watters said. "Id like liberals to also hate-read my book. I think sometimes, you know, you have to see what the other side is thinking and I think they would find it amusing ... maybe therapeutic."

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Watters is a busy man between saving the world, hosting two Fox News programs and raising a newborn son; Jesse Bailey Watters Jr.was born in April. However, he says the coronavirus pandemic allowed him plenty of free time to write the book.

"I was not going out to dinner, I was not going to parties. I wasn't really traveling. So it was a great excuse to buckle down and really get cracking," Watters said.

Read more from the original source:

Jesse Watters' 'How I Saved the World' hits shelves to the delight of his most liberal fan: My mother cried - Fox News

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The governments desire to rummage through your online presence and issue edicts on your musings has merely suffered a temporary halt

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Would-be Lord Overseer of the Internet, journalism consultant and (in his spare time) Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault experienced a petty setback recently.

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The Senate shut its doors before Mr. Guilbeaults desperate and arrogant overreach into communications and internet control, Bill C-10, could be passed.

To summarize: at least for the moment, you may still safely fire up your webcam to express your disappointment and concern in a YouTube video that there appears to be a whole church-burning frenzy out West.

You may do this, again, just for the moment, without worrying that some apparatchik in Mr. Guilbeaults office, or some backroom Liberal bureaucrat, ponders whether any or all of these messages should be allowed.

Steven Guilbeault experienced a petty setback recently

Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative MP who was one of the most vivid in opposition to C-10, executed a little online jubilato of his own over the news. I wish for no downpour on Mr. Ps parade.

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But be aware, Sir. The Liberals may have been frustrated in their first go at communications control, but should there be an election (which seems very likely), and should they win (which seems ever-so-sadly likely as well), they will exhume the monstrosity from the order paper cemetery, attach the electrodes, call for lightning, haul down the electric lever, and the sad, horrifying creature will walk again.

The governments desire to rummage through your online presence and issue edicts on your musings has merely suffered a stay, a temporary halt. Do not confuse that with any idea it has abandoned the ambition to wander where it has no business. The setback will only make the next attempt more dedicated and energetic.

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From all signs, such as the millions being distributed to Algoma Steel, and the appointment of the first Indigenous person to the governor generals office, an election is about to be called.

It looks seriously as if the government wants no space or time between the end of the pandemic and a rush to the polls. No space or time in other words to do something of a review of its handling of the COVID menace; no space or time in particular to give some accounting of its gargantuan spending during the same period the greatest spending ever during a time of the weakest Parliament and the least oversight. And finally, no space or time to survey how many thousands of businesses have gone under, how many jobs lost, and the psychological turmoil that was the inevitable consequence for those thus affected.

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It would be, at the very least, a small charity to give Canadians a respite from politics to regain so to speak their footing after this extremely challenging time, some time to accommodate moving back to something like normal, before asking them so precipitately to go to the polls. But apparently, such is not to be the case.

Doubtless recent polls showing the Conservative opposition weak and unprepared for an election, which is its own fault, is encouraging a decision to drop the writ early. Even news that Jagmeet Singh is a TikTok Superstar (I really cannot believe that headline, it out-Babylon Bees The Babylon Bee) will not spread undue alarm in the PMO strategy shop.

Likewise the comic-opera the Green party is currently running for the publics amusement and distraction, a kindly gesture in a time of anxiety, will not likely move them beyond their two-seat status.

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Charity has little scope in political strategies, and should the Liberals scent that a majority is within reach if they go quickly, then quickly they will go. If such proves to be the case I expect we will hear of grand designs; no doubt this weeks announcement of high frequency rail connecting the great cities of central Canada is just the first of many glorious initiatives.

But what I predict we will not hear is any unequivocal, definitive statement that the Liberals efforts to monitor and control internet communications, to set out guidelines for news and reporting, are no longer part of their priority agenda. If reporters let them, if they go unquestioned on this policy, I expect they will not speak of it at all, let alone give it any highlight in whatever platform they put forward.

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Of all the issues Canadians should be concerned with, that of potential government control over information, communication and news reporting is cardinal. There is always at least some hope that with unfettered reporting, the various scandals, sloppiness and misguided policies can meet with some exploration and even pushback. Extend the governments reach over communication and news and there follows a central injury to the politics of a democracy.

Which is why the victory of the Senates shutdown before passage of the infamous C-10 is but a frail and temporary one, and any celebration dangerously premature. The Liberals have clearly indicated where they want to go on this, and should they get a majority, they shall go there.

National Post

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Rex Murphy: The Liberals' monstrous internet-control bill is sure to be revived - National Post

Former federal Liberal MP Julia Banks has alleged she was touched inappropriately by a senior male colleague and subjected to a culture "underpinned by sexism and misogyny" during her time in Parliament.

In an extract from her new book, published in Saturday's Good Weekend magazine, Ms Banks alleged an unnamed Coalition minister slid his hand up her inner thigh during a function at Parliament House, around a year after she was elected in 2016.

"For a minister to do this in the prime minister's wing, which was full of Coalition MPs, he had to be astoundingly brazen," she wrote.

"I found it unbelievable. And I momentarily froze."

Ms Banks resigned from the Liberal Party several months after Malcolm Turnbull was rolled as prime minister.

She later contested the seat of Flinders as an independent but was unsuccessful.

AAP: Mal Fairclough

Ms Banks described the period between the leadership change and her decision to move to the crossbench as the "most distressing, gut-wrenching period" of her career.

"After the August 2018 leadership coup that installed Scott Morrison as prime minister, I felt the full brunt of a culture of fear and silence, underpinned by sexism and misogyny," she said.

She accused Mr Morrison of using a "Trumpesque tone" to try to dissuade her from announcing that she would not be recontesting her seat.

"During this period, Morrison was like constant, menacing, background wallpaper, imperceptibly controlling his obliging intermediaries to do his work for him," Ms Banks said.

"I would find out from various reliable sources that during the agreed 24 hours before I released my statement, there was intense backgrounding from the Prime Minister's Office and other senior Liberal sources to the media that I was a weak, over-emotional woman who had not coped with the coup week."

A spokesperson for Mr Morrison said he "absolutely rejects" claims about the nature of his conversations with Ms Banks.

"The Prime Minister was disappointed in Ms Banks' decision to quit the parliamentary party and had several conversations with her to understand what she was going through to see what support could be offered before she made her decision," a statement said.

"That included support for personal leave so she could take the time to recover from the upset many people suffered during that period. Several of Ms Banks' colleagues had similar conversations."

ABC News: Luke Stephenson

The statement said Mr Morrison was not aware of any allegations of sexual harassment Ms Banks had faced and that any such behaviour was "completely inappropriate".

It also pointed to the review of Parliament's workplace culture, being carried out by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, in response to former staffer Brittany Higgins' allegation that she was raped in a ministerial office.

"In addition, the government has released the consultation report provided by Stephanie Foster PSM into the processes and procedures relating to serious incidents in the parliamentary workplace," the statement said.

"This report has made some significant findings and recommendations to improve how serious incidents are prevented and dealt with in the parliamentary workplace."

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Former Liberal MP Julia Banks details allegation of inappropriate touching and sexism during time in politics - ABC News

MONTREAL -- With Quebec in the midst of deconfinement and women's aid organizations projecting an increase in domestic violence and sexual exploitation, the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) is imploring Francois Legault's CAQ government to speed up the pace of implementing the recommendations contained in reports tabled several months ago.

Describing her political party's campaign as a "cry from the heart" in the face of government actions deemed "timid", the official opposition's spokesperson on the status of women, Isabelle Melancon, implored the CAQ, during a news scrum on Sunday, to act "immediately."

She said the recommendations included in recent reports -- including the one on sexual exploitation and one on sexual assault and domestic violence, both tabled in December -- have been slow to be acted upon.

Melacon said time is running out adding that with deconfinement, abusive spouses will lose control over their partners and children, which could lead to a "horribly violent" situation.

"Halfway through the year, there have been 13 femicides in Quebec so far. The annual average is 12," said the MNA, adding that she was "shocked, outraged" that Quebec Deputy Premier Genevive Guilbault said a few weeks ago that the government will not be able to prevent all these murders.

"I'm sorry, but there are 190 recommendations that need to be put in place," said Melancon. "We need to start with that before we come up with a fatalistic comment like that."

Former vice-chair of the Special Commission on the Sexual Exploitation of Minors Liberal MNA Christine St-Pierre lamented that the CAQ is "taking baby steps" despite having had her team's report for "seven months."

During the pandemic, pimps "were in their living rooms and could get in touch with future victims, weave their web, declare themselves madly in love," she said before explaining that ultimately women, and boys as well, will be beaten and will have a lot of difficulty "getting out of this hell."

The recruitment and supply activities are "back on track", according to information she recently received from a victim of sexual exploitation.

Liberal Youth Protection critic MNA Kathleen Weil, who rounded out the trio, explained that with the end of school, "there is no one to report it," as teachers do much of the reporting.

"One of the measures that I put forward, that comes from the Laurent report, is to work the DPJ (Direction de la protection de la jeunesse), with the first line, with community organizations," she said. "That's something they should have put in place by this summer."

The government did not respond to The Canadian Press's request for comment by press time.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 4, 2021.

Original post:

Quebec Liberals launch a 'cry from the heart' for women victims of violence - CTV News Montreal