Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Explain me this

Doesn't this seem kind of weird to you:

Bernard Shapiro (the federal ethics commissioner) slapped conservative MP Gurmant Grewal and the conservative party on the wrists for unethical behaviour but he waited until after the election to release his report.

Meanwhile the RCMP which rarely holds press conferences, held a press conference in the middle of the election to announce that they are investigating liberal MP Ralph Goodale. Well that's a little odd, what's stranger is that they hadn't collected any evidence and hadn't been handed any proof, they based their investigation on a hearsay complaint by NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis. Wait a sec, don't they usually collect evidence before they start an criminal investigation?

Here's the weirdest part, the spike in trading was a massive sell-off in income trusts because they (alleged insiders) thought Goodale would raise the taxes on income trusts. He did the opposite, he lowered dividend taxes on regular companies and didn't touch the trusts. So in turn everybody that rushed out to sell their income trusts got screwed. If there was a leak, there would be no market action at all. Whoever had inside information, really had it all wrong.

It's unbelievable how the media completely missed this detail that completely reframes the whole situation. Something stinks here.

It's pretty clear that ethics are applied fast and loose within all areas of authority. It's a shame because this kind of stuff just makes it harder to convince people to vote in the first place.

No comments: