Conservatives.. time to own up to the CIDA debacle

Uhm..  sorry?

Well.

First the good news.

The Conservative Party has opened a commanding lead in the polls over the Liberals according to two separate polls this week:

EKOS - showing the Conservatives 12.5 points ahead of the Liberals, Ipsos Reid - showing Conservatives 14 points ahead of the Liberals, and Taken as an average, that suggests about a 12.7% lead - the highest numbers since the last election.

Harris Decima - showing Conservatives 10 points ahead of the Liberals.

More telling - their lead has increased in Ontario, and now, they show a clear lead in Newfoundland, after getting shout out in the last federal election there, thanks to Danny Williams, they now are leading the Liberals on the Rock, by 11.1%. 

Life is good for Stephen Harper.

Except for this stupid, stupid Bev Oda situation.

Yesterday, we watched Stephen Harper march to her defence.  I would call that a tactical error that could have epic consequences if he's not careful.

Bev Oda, with the aid of Jason Kenney, has pretty clearly mislead Parliament.  Maybe it's time to just say, "I messed up, I made a decision based upon the political agenda of KAIROS and should have just admitted it."

Try to set aside partisan blinders for a just a moment if you will, and follow the sad, stupid story.

1. The Kenney Blunder:

In December 2009, Jason Kenney tells an Israeli audience that KAIROS lost funding because of its antagonistic attitude towards Israel, stating:

We have articulated and implemented a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism. What does this mean? It means that we eliminated the government funding relationship with organizations like for example, the Canadian Arab Federation, whose leadership apologized for terrorism or extremism, or who promote hatred, in particular anti-Semitism.


We have ended government contact with like-minded organizations like the Canadian Islamic Congress, whose President notoriously said that all Israelis over the age of 18 are legitimate targets for assassination. We have defunded organizations, most recently like KAIROS, who are taking a leadership role in the boycott. And we’re receiving a lot of criticism for these decisions. I can’t recall how many times I’ve been sued for some of the decisions that we have taken, but we believe that we’ve done these things for the right reasons and we stand by these decisions.

Now.

Read that and tell me - honestly - is there any doubt that Jason Kenney proudly told an Israeli audience that KAIROS was defunded because of their "leadership roll in the boycott" of Israel?

Clearly that exactly what he said, and I'm sure, exactly what happened.

And you know what?  I'm good with that.  NGO's are funded, in part, because they are NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS - that they are not political organizations, they are aid organizations - and when they decide to enter the political process, I think the government should pull funding.

But that's really not the issue, is it.

Because in the face of the complaint that the funding was pulled for political reasons, Kenney did a big 180 degree turn.

Nope.

That's not what I said at all.

And he throws the decision at Bev Oda.


2.  The Kenney Blame-Shift

In response to complaints over Kenney's comments, Kenney issues another statement, saying, effectively "I didn't say what you said I said, and if I did, you misunderstood what I meant."

While I disagree with the nature of KAIROS's militant stance toward the Jewish homeland, that is not the reason their request for taxpayer funding was denied. International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda – not me – is responsible for the Canada International Development Agency. And she has been clear that a cost-sharing program with KAIROS was not approved because it did not meet CIDA's current priorities, such as increased food aid.

Oh. Ok.  So when you said that the government was helping Israelis by pulling funding for unfriendly groups like KAIROS, you were just lying to your Jewish audience, taking advantage of an otherwise routine bureaucratic decision that could be used to "look like" it was in response to anti-Israeli actions.

Well, that's all better, isn't it.

Except then the spotlight shifts to Bev Oda.


3.  The Oda Blunder

Bev Oda, now being called on the table and asked to effectively square Jason Kenney's inconsistent statements, it being suggested that the PMO did in fact withdraw funding for political reasons, decides to step into the pile of crap herself:

On Oct. 28, she stood in the House of Commons and said: "All projects by CIDA are assessed against our effectiveness standard. After due diligence, it was determined that KAIROS did not meet government standards."

Jim Abbott, her parliamentary secretary, twice said in the House twice that CIDA wanted the cut.

Bev Oda did not suggest anything different.

So then.

It was just a bureaucratic decision based upon funding priorities.  Didn't meet the CIDA standards.

End of story, no?

Nope.


4.  The Sh*t Hits the Fan

All was well. 

Until the document turning down the funding was disclosed and showed what appeared to be an approved application for $7.1 million in funding, signed by two CIDA officials and Bev Oda, with the exception of a big "NOT" handwritten in front of the word "approved".

Well, that seemed odd.

So someone asked Ms. Oda about it, clearly suggesting that perhaps Jason Kenney was right the first time, and that government had over-ruled the funding approval on political grounds.

Bev Oda's response was equivocal in responding to the Foreign Affairs Committee questions December 9, 2010.

“I sign off on all the documents,” Ms. Oda told the committee.


“And you were the one who wrote the ‘not?’ asked Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guldwood, Ont.

“I did not say I was the one who wrote the ‘not,’” Ms. Oda replied.

“Who did then?” asked Mr. McKay.

“I don’t know,” responded Ms. Oda.

Later, she told the committee: “I cannot say who wrote the ‘not.’”

Of course, Monday, she was at least clear that the NOT was inserted AFTER the recommendation was made and signed by the two senior CIDA officials, making it pretty clear that the decision to decline funding was not merely an issue of KAIROS not meeting funding guidelines.

She still hasn't made clear when SHE signed it, which is, I think, pretty relevant to the whole issue going back to whether or not what Jason Kenney said in the first place is actually true.

Oh.

And by the way.

If I give you a cheque, which at it's simplest is a letter to my bank recommending that they give you $1.00, and then sign it to seal my intention - and you alter it AFTER I sign it to suggest that I had some different intention, such as, oh, giving you $100.00..  that is called forgery.

Just sayin'