cannuck

Banks & finance do NOT "make" any money for the economy or the country. They do little more than redistribute wealth from speculative activity - just as does any other welfare programme. I agree that we need to wind down the amount of fuel we use from petro hydrocarbons, but with mega trillions of $$ already in the infrastructure to do so, and many kinds of transportation without any other options, it will still be happening for a long time. Would work a LOT better if we simply stop wasting as much energy as we do for transportation that does NOT have to happen. Instead, we do everything in our power to do more of the wasteful BS that we do now, instead of learning to do less and more efficiently. In that vein: NOTHING burns my ass more than seeing a piece of garbage get built in a country where it will have zero quality, zero support and zero compliance with our work and environmental standards, stick it in a boat and piddle away the fuel to ship it half way around the world just to destroy the marketplace for a domestic or local company that intends to support its market and provide a quality product. Cultural problem. Similarly, when I drive down the US Interstates I see so many semis running deadhead, and worse yet I will see exactly the same load going one way as I see going the other. One of the keys to energy efficiency and resource management is anti-globalism.

I can only assume that you get a paycheque from SNC or they are your client. NOBODY else in this country wants an incompetent, organized criminal company working here, doing business from here, drinking from the public trough and bribing officials here and most of all taking work away from competent, ethical and legally compliant companies that bid honestly for the work. Nobody except you, the LPC and SNC, that is.

Anything to do with administering criminal law is not about being a "team player", it is about applying the law. SNC in any country without the LPC and PQ would have been locked up and had the key thrown away decades ago. She did exactly what she was entitled and responsible to do: examine the evidence and proceed accordingly...i.e. NOT to interfere with the decision that the prosecutor had arrived at after doing the same.

Canada leads the world in using thorium fuel bundles. They still have to be "seeded" with some uranium rods (to sustain reaction), but nuclear development is still in its infancy. Ultimately, when someone gets it right, we can use thorium fueled, sub-critical mass ("pebble bed") gas cooled reactors and have both safety and simple waste management issues. Of course, fusion will do that as well, but still a fair way down the road, I think.

That is definitely the quotable phrase of the day.

For the time being, it is important to realize that the Athabasca Oil Sands are far, far greater than any other deposit of hydrocarbons on Earth. They are also very difficult and expensive to extract. Reality is: we will not have a petroleum economy forever, but we WILL have one for decades or even centuries into the future. The current model is based on extraction of existing natural deposits, and due to the nature of our bituminous/asphalitic heavies, we will be able to run flat out and not put a dent in our reserves before everyone else runs out. What I expect is that we will be far more able to synthesize everything we need from atmospheric carbon and water as the real need to do so becomes unavoidable. Hydrocarbons will be around forever, but extracted petroleum will not - so as Taxme has indicated, time to get what we can from what we have while it is still viable. The real issue for sustainability is population, not resources. We are breeding 7++ Bn people to live on a nice 1Bn planet, and nobody is doing diddly squat to fix that genuine #1 problem.

While that may be true, the corruption and rule-by-special-interest perfected by Power Corp....er...sorry, I meant LPC is a real problem for Canada that needs to be fixed. That fix has come from within. She may well be the Liberal to do it. It would be great for the opposition to represent the people instead of the trough.

I was delighted to see her come fourth and give her account (and notes, recordings, etc.), and I think she deserves a future in the political landscape of this country. I could not agree more with her position on prosecutorial independence and political interference. BUT: as much as I believe you are right about she and Elizabeth May making a great pair, I think her ambition is to fix the Liberal Party - and that gives her a far bigger stage on which to play than being part of a fringe party.

In fairness, what little Harper did, he did quite well. It's just that he didn't really do that much, nor that much different from what the rest of the middle-of-the-road crowd would or did do. He just managed to do it without being a slimey criminal in the Liberal mold. Still, there was no assault on the institutions of the looney left - one of which - the CBC - is what took him down. Canadian voters aren't that smart (I mean, shit, look at what they elected after Harper).

For the sake of debate, I would love to disagree with you, but I don't.

Thanks for posting that. I had forgotten about adscam and the legislative response.

Criminals get barred from government contracts for a very good reason - and that reason is exactly what SNC has done many, many times at home and abroad. It is not the tax bill that concerns the LPC, it is the kickbacks they will lose. Once again, one may lose their SNC job, but the work will be don and all you need to do is go over to Hatch, Amex, etc. and the same job will get done by the same people - legally.

Yes, SOME of the employment at SNC in Canada may well be in support of their foreign business - but since they are barred from World Bank funded jobs, the only places they can work are those that require bribery and kickbacks to enter and sustain. It is illegal for Canadian companies to do so, thus the problem of sustaining a criminal operation stays on the table, it does not go away with this one instance. The work in Canada, however, will always be the work in Canada - regardless of who wins the contract. Know the address well: I have to swallow a bit of vomit every time I drive by or walk in.

DPA may be within said framework, but it is her responsibility and ONLY her responsibility and authority as Minister of Justice to apply the laws of the land based on the evidence available to her. That job MUST be above partisan politics of any kind, and I applaud her for doing so. You may find her ideology is "biased", and I guess I have to agree. Who could imagine a Minister of Justice that thinks criminals should be prosecuted for their crimes? EVERYONE in the construction, engineering and energy businesses knows how corrupt SNC is now and always has been. When you chose of your own free will to work for the Mafia or any other well known criminal organization, you expect the law to be ignored because you made such a poor choice?

You can apply that logic to little Turdeau but it seems to escape you when it comes to your employers at SNC. Again, there will be no job loss, they will simply move over to employers who can do business without resorting to organized criminal business models.

In your own words : "bring" jobs, and in second instance "create" and...etc.

I would say that a $10MM bounty on the head of every Yank they can murder is a pretty clear statement.

Uh...yeah. The guy is back in Canada. THAT alone is sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation of any and all involved.

Your lack of reasoning and understanding is sufficient to qualify you as a genuine Canadian voter. SNC has "created" jobs in this case how?????? The Federal infrastructure projects are the Federal projects - things we as a country need done and things any government will have done. Doing them doesn't "create" any jobs, it simply assigns the work to whatever qualified bidder is successful at getting the contracts. The issue is HOW do you get such a contract. In the case of SNC, they do so by fraudulent representations (and billing) bribing politicians and officials of whatever place they seek to bid - thus why the have been eliminated as bidders worldwide by the World Bank and why the government of Canada is seeking to prosecute them under the laws of this country for their extremely well known behaviour as criminals when seeking privilege to take such work from legitimate bidders in this country. If a federal project is in let's say BC, the work will employ people in BC, only a few support staff in Quebec. What DOES go to PQ is the profit, and what goes in the normal course of business from PQ to the LPC is a share of that profit, paid in advance and as we can clearly see, directed by the PMO, the Leader of the LPC, his office staff and the Clerk of the Privy Council. Offering, paying, negotiating and/or receiving any such benefit is a criminal offense in this country (and every other on Earth) - and those who have done so in SNC, the LPC and employees of the Government of Canada (such as the Clerk of the Privy Council) have also committed criminal offenses and need to be prosecuted under the applicable laws. We may point fingers at JWR for any number of reasons, but in the end, she did what in the history of Canada and Quebec NOBODY has yet to do - stand up to her own party and enforce the laws of this country as was her responsibility as AG of this country. We have had SNC doing this in Canada for DECADES, and it is broadly known throughout the engineering and construction communities that THIS is how SNC built their company to the size that it is. AND, in all of that time, NO AG has prosecuted them for crimes that have obviously been committed literally thousands of times. It was of course not the Liberals who charged SNC officials with their crimes regarding Libya - it was the Euros and MEXICO - for F's sake they are so corrupt even the damn Mexicans couldn't stand them!!!!!!!!! These were not allegations, they were CONVICTIONS, and of course it is a slam dunk in Canada. BTW: notice how in Quebec, one of the execs charged here in related case got off scott free by simply having the LPC instruct the prosecution to delay long enough to allow a court to rule lack of speedy justice. What is needed far more than just the conviction of the criminals involved, but a serious inquiry into everything and anything involving SNC in this country and literally EVERY official and politician who has enabled them and/or benefited from their actions.

As I believe I mentioned in the other thread: The CBC gave Butts the heads up to start covering the lies about two weeks before any story was printed - that was not long after they received a big whack of cash meant to preserve the "independant media". I imagine they would have paid back their bonus by helping to line up the op eds. Not sure if she will be able to remain a Liberal, but to clean up at least one tiny part of that rat's nest of corruption and croneyism she certainly deserves to become leader.

And, those opportunities for Canadians have changed how?????? ANY other company that is NOT breaking CRIMINAL laws do NOT have such an opportunity because the LPC and PMO and CPC have interfered to try to give a criminal organization the very special privilege of continuing to buy business from their faudulent acts and bribery of public officials and politicians. The PM, the AG and every other elected official are directly responsible to the people of this country to uphold the law, not guarantee privilege to criminals to continue their illegal ways. As far as the jobs go, once again, I and many others here will continue to remind you that the same work will get done when the tender is called, regardelss of who wins, and they will have to employ the same number of people to do that work - and many/most of them will probably be former SNC employees.

Sorry, Bud. When you swim in a giant pool of shit, you will come out smelling once in a while. Just don't swallow.

I would not bet against you.

I have been waiting for a while to see if anyone here knows or even suspected WHY the Clerk of the Privy Council would so far overstep the bounds and dignity of his office to spue that line of partisan rhetoric. You will notice that the CBC, CTV, Global, and I suspect all of the print media anxious to get THEIR handout from Butts/Morneau of the $600,000,000.00 "independent" media slush fund won't scratch the surface or sniff around to find out where that awful smell is coming from. Remember the name of the criminal organization that is trying to buy their way from being convicted of their crimes or simply paying a fine? Anyone care to recall WHO is the Chairman of the Board? Ever heard of Kevin G. Lynch, PC, OC???? You may remember his a bit better if I remind you that he was....wait for it...previously the Clerk of the Privy Council. What REALLY pisses me off is that nobody in the CPC has bothered to inform Scheer of that. Still don't think that the knee pads and lipstick in the PMO is reserved for entertaining SNC???

Trans Mountain is a mini-pipeline, but it DOES go to tidewater so will probably concentrate on shipping dilbit to export markets of Asia. Vancouver is not a very welcoming place for petroleum exports, though, so it would never by my first choice (Prince Rupert would). We need Trump to deliver on the gap in TCPL's Keystone XL since the continental market is far more critical to Athabasca production. Of course, I will always squawk for no dilbit, and upgrade to ship syncrude. But, you are right. It is a start.