Ethics query may have led to suicide, MP charges

[stignasty]

Ethics query may have led to suicide, MP charges

CAMPBELL CLARK

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Ottawa — The federal government's dispute with Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro has escalated, with Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai charging that an inquiry by the commissioner may have led to the suicide of Mr. Obhrai's brother-in-law, and comparing Mr. Shapiro to the Nazi secret police.

Opposition MPs demanded yesterday that Mr. Obhrai apologize and that Prime Minister Stephen Harper fire him as parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

Link

[BubberMiley]

As for the “Gestapo chief” reference, he said he did not know Mr. Shapiro is Jewish.

I think it's scandalous that a parliamentary secretary is so out-to-lunch he doesn't know that somebody named Shapiro is jewish.

[geoffrey]

As for the “Gestapo chief” reference, he said he did not know Mr. Shapiro is Jewish.

I think it's scandalous that a parliamentary secretary is so out-to-lunch he doesn't know that somebody named Shapiro is jewish.

What ethnicity is Obhrai??

None the less, I call for an ethics investigation into Shapiro for this, and Obhrai and into Jewish people and into the Gestapo too!

I figure these opposition leaders have it about right, eh? Call investigations into everything irrelevant and ignore the real issues like Brison disclosing financial information to his Bay Street buddies or Valeri flipping houses to Liberal friends?

[yorkman]

It's not about Brison or the Liberals any more . Don't you get it? You are the government now.

[betsy]

It may be our government now....

But Shapiro's been appointed by the FORMER government...and very partisan with his investigations and decisions. This inquiry he's doing with Harper is clearly just politics, that's why he conveniently overlooked the recent cases of Brison, Valleri and Stronach.

This guy definitely has to go. Just a few months back, MPs were calling for him to resign. His credibility is zero.

[geoffrey]

It's not about Brison or the Liberals any more . Don't you get it? You are the government now.

Agreed. And our government will have a non-partisan ethics commissioner.

Shapiro is a paid academic liberal hack that has never seen a day outside of a classroom. Not the kind of guy I want making real world judgements about people. Toss him and get a real guy in to investigate Harper's actions.

We aren't saying Brison and Belinda are issues (besides that I think Brison needs to be charged). We are saying Shaprio has no authority to investigate due to his dismal failure as an ethics commissioner.

[stignasty]

Shapiro is a paid academic liberal hack that has never seen a day outside of a classroom. Not the kind of guy I want making real world judgements about people. Toss him and get a real guy in to investigate Harper's actions.

We aren't saying Brison and Belinda are issues (besides that I think Brison needs to be charged). We are saying Shaprio has no authority to investigate due to his dismal failure as an ethics commissioner.

Shortly after graduation, he and his brother took over and managed the family restaurant business for several years.

In 1961, he left Montreal to pursue graduate studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where he received his Doctorate in Education. After graduating from Harvard in 1967, he joined the faculty of Boston University where he later became Associate Dean of the University's School of Education.

Dr. Shapiro returned to Canada in 1976 to become Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario in London. Two years later, he was appointed Vice-President (Academic) and Provost of that university.

In 1980, he moved to Toronto to assume the position of Director of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), a post he held until 1986, when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario and since that time he has also served as Deputy Minister of Skills Development, Deputy Secretary of Cabinet, Deputy Minister and Secretary of Management Board and Deputy Minister of Colleges and Universities. In 1992, following his retirement from the Ontario Public Service, Dr. Shapiro joined the University of Toronto as a Professor of Education and Public Policy. In 1994, he was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. In September 1999 Dr. Shapiro was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2004, he became a Grand Officier, L'Ordre National de Quebec.

He is past president of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education and of the Social Science Federation of Canada. He has also served on the executive committee of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). He has been Chairman of the governing board of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation in Paris, and he has also been Chairman of the Board of Directors of both the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) and the Royal Military College of Canada. Currently, he is a member of the Board of both the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Institute for Research in Public Policy. He is also Chairman of the International Review Committee of the Leading Edge Endowment Foundation and a member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Learning Partnership.

Dr. Shapiro is the author of many articles on curriculum, public policy in education, the development of logical thinking in young people, and educational research and methodology. In addition, he has received honorary degrees from McGill University, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Yeshiva University, McMaster University, the University of Montreal, the University of Edinburgh, Bishop's University, the University of Nottingham, the University of Melbourne and the University of Glasgow.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/oec/en/ethics_commissioner/bio/

Since Mr. Shapiro is the Ethics Commissioner, and since he was put there under legal means, it is the responsibility of anyone claiming to respect our laws to respect his authority. For the Prime Minister (whose resume isn't nearly as impressive as the one above) to openly state that he's "loathe" to cooperate with the commissioner it is like spitting in the face of parliament and our legal system.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think Brison should be charged? What evidence do you have that he broke a law? I'm not saying that he won't, or even that he shouldn't be charged after the police do their investigation, just that from what has been released it's far from clear that he has done anything illegal.

[geoffrey]

Just out of curiosity, why do you think Brison should be charged? What evidence do you have that he broke a law?

The e-mail to the investment banker was clearly an attempt to disclose private government policy to a friend for financial profit. That goes beyond ethics, we are now into securities law and insider trading.

The exchange of information between the senior cabinet minister and an investment banker is absolutely a conflict of interest at the very least and Brison should step aside. If Brison made as much as a penny from that information (such as if that banker was Brison's investment guy), he could definitely be charged. He could probably be charged for just disclosing the information anyways.

You'll have to ask FTA or sage, I don't know as much on the topic from the government side. I know for sure I could never trade on that information though, and considering the CIBC investment group made a few bucks that day, it's pretty clear that he did.