OfficiallyScrewed

Ottawa City Councillor Gets A Nice Plug At Taxpayer's Expense

Mulder

As of last week, the Runge newspaper called the Kanata Courier stopped printing its’ usual article by our Kanata Councillor Peggy Feltmate. Some feel it is the newspaper’s way of appearing non partisan. But others wonder if it isn’t a way for them to get some cash from potential candidates instead of providing space for free.

What’s the big deal you might ask?

Well this may seem like a small item in a small newspaper in a small part of Ottawa, but in last weeks Courier, it appears that the incumbent councillor has used city funds to pay for a quarter page ad which highlights her name, her position and her photo in the top half of the advertisement. Although I don’t think any law was broken, this is just an awful tactic that I (and many others) do not like because it is my tax dollars that paid for promotion of her name and photo in the lead up to the municipal elections. (click image to enlarge)

Councillor Feltmate may say that the Expo is what was being promoted, but you can look at the advertisement and judge for yourself.

I must point out that the contact info is Feltmate’s city email address so one can only assume it was tax dollars buying the space. Why should Feltmate use her own campaign funds when our tax dollars are far more effective until the election?

I did notice the councillor has her usual weekly column in the EMC, another local Kanata newspaper. The new edition of the Courier should be on my doorstep tomorrow. If there is another “special event” which the Councillor takes advantage of, I will be sure to add another post tomorrow evening.

Once again, the taxpayers get OfficiallyScrewed.

Refugee Status Vs. Old Age Pension In Canada

Mulder

Apparently, there is an email circulating which discusses the difference between the funds provided for Old Age Pension vs. the funds provided refugees to Canada. It goes as follows.

CANADA PENSION

Only in Canada.

Do not apply for your old age pension. Apply to be a refugee. It is interesting that the federal government provides a single refugee with a monthly allowance of $1,890.00 and each can get an additional $580.00 in social assistance for a total of $2,470.00.

This compares very well to a single pensioner who, after contributing to the growth and development of Canada for 40 or 50 years, can only receive a monthly maximum of $1,012.00 in old age pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Maybe our pensioners should apply as refugees!

I wanted to do my due diligence so took a quick peek around the Government of Canada website for refugee funding and found the $580 RAP (Resettlement Assistance Program) money but could not find where the $1,890 came from.

If anyone out there is aware of where this $1,890 monthly allowance comes from, I would appreciate knowing because if this email circulating is true, it really says a lot about how poorly we have Officially Screwed our senior citizens.

ADDENDUM – I found the Old Age Security payment charts. There is obviously some variation on the amount from the email floating around. You can see the whole grid below and for much more info click the link above. The Guaranteed Income Supplement from the government site is $1006.19. This is not quite the $1012 claimed in the email but pretty darn close so I give the email some credibility here.

While digging for the source of the $1890, I did find the one time household start up page but this is not a monthly allowance. It simply helps refugees start up a household with initial clothing, food, cleaning supplies, phone hookup, etc.

Caledonia Natives Hurt In Fire, Medicine Man Invisible As They Get Taken To Tax Payers Hospital

Mulder

There was a fire in one of the partially built homes on the disputed land in Caledonia. You can read about this in the Hamilton Spectator

In an effort to further piss off those supporting this land claim I would like to ask “Where is the medicine man?”

Six Nations Fire Chief Michael Seth said the blaze in the unfinished home had been extinguished by the time his firefighters arrived at the Argyle Street South property. He said the injured were people on the site, “that were fighting the fire prior to our arrival.”

They suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to hospital.

In my opinion, our health care system is a co-op. We all pay taxes into it, and we all get a certain amount of free healthcare. Yet natives are tax exempt.

I am expecting some major backlash in my comments on this one but I really couldn’t care less. I think we are all here in Canada as equals, only some are treated more equal than others. My goal is to expose the inequalities and this is a big one.

John Mark Something Or Other Distracts MSM From Real News

Mulder

The swarm was hot for two weeks.

Every major news agency had press following every move of John Mark Karr. CNN and others were even so blind that they were broadcasting what he ate on his flight over the ocean, how many times he went potty and what flavour toothpaste he brushed with.

They let us know that he wears boxers over briefs, that he enjoys washing his hair twice with shampoo before applying a single layer of conditioner. They even let us know he has owned two cats, a dog, two guinea pigs and three hamsters in his life and that he prefers ribbed vs. non ribbed condoms.

They let us know he is allergic to bee stings but loves mixed nuts, enjoys a nice bordeaux with his seafood and that he actually likes the taste of orange juice right after brushing his teeth.

We found out he was a bed wetter until he was 13, that his favourite colour is fuschia and that he was in his high schools version of Grease, where he played the role of Kanicky.

Ok, so all the bullshit above was made up by me. I paid absolutely no attention to this guy other than to flip the station or turn the page everytime his name appeared in the press.

Why the media circus for two weeks?

I think something big just happened somewhere and not one reporter was available to cover it thanks to this story.

ADDENDUM  JMK prefers Tim Hortons 12 grain bagels to low fat blue berry muffins.  His blood type is O positive.  He has a mole on his left buttock and a small birthmark in the shape of a sickle on his right thight.  He is circumcised.  He was a virgin until he was 17, and his first three girlfriends were named Carmen, Jacqueline and Soulesha.  He has never been married but has his patterns picked out.  He enjoys playing badminton with traditional wood racquets instead of the new carbon fiber.  His eye sight is perfect but before he had laser surgery his astygmatism was +2.25 in his right eye and -1.50 in his left eye.  He is also reported to have put dimes in his penny loafers in his youth to be different.

(ok, sorry, I woke up ornery over this and felt like writing more bullshit about the guy)

Ottawa Librarian Chooses Gay Pride Parade Over Clean Toilets

Mulder

Ottawa Chief Librarian Barbara Clubb has okayed the use of the Bookmobile as a float in this weeks Gay Pride Parade.

This is the same Chief Librarian Barbara Clubb who did nothing when a pile of steaming crap was left in the mens room of the downtown branch despite several complaints. At that time the Library’s story was “There isn’t enough money in the city budget for instant cleanup”.

Yet we have money to fill the gas tank of the bookmobile and drive it around the city in the Gay Pride parade.

So it is obvious to me that Barbara Clubb feels the Gay Pride Parade is a better way to spend our tax dollars than to have a steaming pile of shhhhhhhhhhaving cream cleaned up off the floor of our library.

I think it’s time the city of Ottawa find a new chief Librarian.

Once again, the tax payers get Officially Screwed.

Thanks Ontario Teachers For Making Our Kids More Stupid

Mulder

Ontario Elementary Teachers Federation voted to reduce the number of annual report cards from three to two.

Am I the only one who sees a problem here?

I wonder what my boss would do if me and the other sales guys said we were going to cut our customer visits by 33%. I’ll tell you what they would do. They would fire all our asses.

Once again, the honest taxpayer is getting OfficiallyScrewed.

My wife pays very close attention to the homework the kids are assigned and we work hard to strengthen their basic reading, writing, and math schools.

But how many parents rely on the report cards to determine how their kids are doing? How many kids are going to find the halfway point too late in the year to pull their bootstraps up?

I’m pretty upset at this. How could teachers have possibly gotten by for decades doing three report cards and all of a sudden it is too much?

Perhaps if the schools stopped teaching left wing politics and stopped giving lessons to grade schoolers on how to put a condom on and focussed on the three R’s and the report cards, the world would work just fine and dandy.

"I hope this doesn't mean we will face additional significant costs."

Mulder

Whenever a politician speaks those words, hide your wallet. In what is a surprising turn of events for the citizens and some councilors, but NOT a surprise to the City of Ottawa, this whole affair looks to spell disaster for Canadian tax payers.

THE ALGONQUIN First Nations have asked the city to stop its proposed light rail transit project until a land claim against a portion of the route has been resolved.

Algonquin Chief Kirby Whiteduck told the Sun yesterday that his council has asked the city not to proceed with the construction that will take the rail line through a portion of the National Capital Commission’s Greenbelt between Leitrim and Hunt Club roads.

…

The province has also said the group has a good case. Negotiations began in January but it could take years before a final settlement is reached with compensation including a mix of Crown land and money.

Here we go. The first of the “add on” costs has started.

City solicitor Rick O’Connor said the city only learned of the issue from the federal government in March and that the project has received environment approval from the provincial and federal governments and will move forward.

“As far as we are concerned it won’t delay the project,” he said.

So the city was aware of the Algonquin claim in March (or earlier), which is about 4 months before they approved the route and no one was notified of this and they plan to go ahead with the LRT. Since negotiations have been ongoing since January, it means others have been aware for at least 6 months and not one peep during the LRT negotiations.

I guess every city is allowed its three quarters of a BILLION dollar Goof Up.

Way to spend our gas tax revenue Mayor Bob. Good job. Ram the LRT through and then stiff Canadians with the compensation bills.

How Do You Spell Conflict Of Interest? EmCeeGeeYouEyeEnTeeWhy

Mulder

Or M-C-G-U-I-N-T-Y for those who prefer the actual letters.

Today I am livid. Why?? This is why.

Earlier in the day, OPP Commissioner Gwen Boniface announced that Ottawa police would investigate the actions of provincial police officers during an assault on two television camera operators at the protest scene.

First of all I live in Ottawa and it is MY property taxes paying for the Ottawa Police force. Since the city of Ottawa amalgamated our police force has dropped by close to 25% (252 now vs. 330 before amalgamation) in terms of the number of officers we have on the force. The city has grown from 780,000 (in the areas that amalgamated) to 845,000 now, the property taxes have gone up and now we are sending our boys to Caledonia to investigate the assault of the TV crew that OPP officers stood by watching.

Secondly, our illustrious Premier, the Yellow Bellied McShifty, whose family is very closely tied to our community was elected in Ottawa South. Does this not smack of a conflict of interest? McShifty has been at the heart of this whole conflict since it escalated out of control and having the Police force that protects his jurisdiction do the investigation is simply wrong.

Every citizen of Ontario has a big reason to be worried about this “investigation” *nudge nudge wink wink say no more* and every citizen of Ottawa has two reasons to be ticked off.

OfficiallyScrewed … again.

H/T Dust My Broom for the Globe and Mail quote.

ADDENDUM:  Today the Ottawa Police Chief Vince Bevan announced he will be stepping down in 6 months. Hmmmmmm … a man with good morals announces his retirement on the same day his police force is announced to be investigating the OPP affair in Caledonia.

ADDENDUM II:  Sandra Blaikie of A Channel was just giving her pre show info to CFRA and said Vince Bevan’s resignation was totally unexpected.  Double Hmmmm….

Want Another Bong Hit Nancy?

Mulder

I often hear stories of people who don’t remember what happened the night before, or when they were in college, or when they were on that day-glo covered busride across the US with Ken Kesey and Neal Cassady in the 1960’s but to hear about someone railing for the opposite of something they voted for is not familiar to me…until today.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is calling on the president to immediately declare that the U.S. will start bearing the costs of evacuating its citizens from Lebanon, instead of charging them, saying, “A nation that can provide more than $300 billion for a war in Iraq can provide the money to get its people out of Lebanon.”

But the president isn’t authorized to reverse the policy — which requires citizens to pay commercial fare plus a dollar for government evacuation — since it’s encoded in the 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act. That law was approved by the House and the Democratic controlled Senate in 2002. Pelosi herself voted for the measure.

I think Nancy Pelosi should contact Kevin Trudeau and take his Mega Memory course.

H/T to ShamTheToryMan