THE CO$T OF GREENINESS

Terrific Piece from FRESH START Recovery in Calgary

PANTS ON FIRE

Armstrong should have taken a page from elite-liar playbook

Disgraced cyclist has told some whoppers, but he is hardly in the league of master prevaricators such as Clinton and Mulroney

By Andrew Coyne, Postmedia NewsJanuary 19, 2013

Lance Armstrong confesses to Oprah Winfrey in a televised interview that he used performance-enhancing drugs, reversing more than a decade of denial.

Photograph by: George Burns, Harpo Studios Inc., The Associated Press, Postmedia News

Suffice to say the reviews of Lance Armstrong's performance on Oprah Thursday night were not good. Commentators debated whether it was more accurate to describe him as a sociopath or a psychopath. "He's got no morals and he's a disgusting human being," said a champion British cyclist. Arrogant, smug, evasive, he was all these things, it was said, and less.

All this, after an interview in which he admitted most of the major charges against him: that he had cheated his way to seven Tour de France victories, lied about it for years, then harassed and bullied those who called him out. I don't mean to say he laid himself completely bare: on several points he fudged, or refused to answer, as if an invisible lawyer were whispering in his ear, warning of the lawsuits and investigations to come.

But by the standards we have come to expect in these things it was relatively candid, blessedly free of self-pity. He'd told a lot of lies. Now he was telling the truth. Yet if he was expecting this confession to staunch the flow of vitriol, it appeared to have the opposite effect.

Because if there is one thing we expect of professional cyclists, it is that they will compete fairly and stay clear of drugs. And if there is one thing we expect, no demand of our public figures, it is that they will tell the truth.

Oh really. Listening to all this high dudgeon, I was carried back to last September's Democratic convention, and the rapturous reception given to Bill Clinton, the former president and noted perjurist in the matter of Jones v Clinton.

That may have been the most famous of his lies, but it was hardly the first. Clinton was well known as a liar - an "unusually good" one, according to Bob Kerrey, the former senator - long before he ever reached the White House. As early as 1992, the question posed by his candidacy, as defined by Michael Kinsley, was not is he a liar, ''but is he too much of a liar?" By the end the lies and abuses of power had piled up so high that Christopher Hitchens was forced to title his scathing account of the Clinton presidency No One Left To Lie To.

To be sure, this was very nearly his undoing at the time. But in the years since the impeachment drama, he has paid no price of consequence, beyond the temporary suspension of his membership in the Arkansas Bar Association. His books are best-sellers. His speeches pay six figures. He has become a revered figure in some circles, even as the word "Clintonian" has entered the language to describe an answer so precisely framed as to allow a claim of factual accuracy, while remaining fundamentally misleading. Talking of Brian Mulroney, he, too, is having a lovely time of it, is he not? Never known for his excessive devotion to the truth - "In office," wrote Mordecai Richler, "Mulroney lied regularly, even when it wasn't necessary, just to keep in shape" - the former prime minister only really hit his stride after he left office.
I speak, of course, of his clandestine receipt of $300,000 in cash from the international arms dealer, convicted fraudster and self-confessed briber of politicians, Karlheinz Schreiber. Mulroney has never adequately explained any of this business - what he did for the money; why he took it in cash; why he kept it in cash; why he did not declare it on his income taxes until years later; why the whole business was conducted without invoices, receipts, expenses or paper trail of any kind etc. etc. etc. - and each time he has been obliged to try has left more people convinced he was lying.

These eventually came to include the judge appointed to conduct an inquiry into the affair, Jeffrey Oliphant. Not only did he find Mulroney had given misleading testimony in deposition for his celebrated libel case against the government of Canada - wherein he claimed he "had never had any dealings" with Schreiber, beyond "a cup of coffee ... once or twice" - but that he had done the same at multiple points in his appearance before the inquiry.

Again and again, Oliphant's report dismisses Mulroney's testimony as literally unbelievable. "I must view with skepticism Mr. Mulroney's claim ... (I) question seriously the credibility of Mr. Mulroney's testimony ... I found Mr. Mulroney's evidence on this issue to be troubling at best and, at worst, not worthy of any credence ... I do not accept the reasons proffered by Mr. Mulroney." And so on.
To repeat: this is the former prime minister of Canada, testifying in a judicial proceeding, on the issue of his financial relationship with a man who had been in and out of his office as an unregistered lobbyist while he was prime minister and who had been paid $20 million in secret and illegal commissions by a European aircraft manufacturer for the sale of planes to Air Canada. And what have been the consequences of his repeated untruthfulness? None that I can see.

As Maclean's describes it in its current issue ("He's Back"), Mulroney is on a roll, feted as a statesman, in demand as a speaker, a member of several prestigious boards of directors and partner in the law firm of Ogilvy Renault. They're even naming halls after him. Throughout, Mulroney is lauded for his charm, his magnetism, even his "aura." It all sounds eerily like Clinton, to whom he is explicitly compared. So let us drop the pretence that we're all so scandalized by Armstrong because he lied. Granted, he lied about cycling, rather than mere financial dealings or affairs of state. But the reason he is in such obloquy, and Clinton and Mulroney are not, is not because his lies were worse, but because he's not as good at it: because he is not as charming - shall we say manipulative? - as they. Frankly, when it comes to conning the public, he is not in their league. Anyone can pull a con like Armstrong's. You just lie and keep on lying until someone catches you. It takes a master to keep the con going even after you've been caught.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Not a Creature was Smoking, Not Even a Mouse...

Staging Social Change

Our Friend, RANDY HAWES, MLA contributed this powerful and knowledgable endorsement for abstinence based recovery by a movie star

It's only an hour and a quarter, but why not listen to this while working..?

WHY SO SAD, BRAD?

Major Rock Star: Saw him here on stage on stage a few years ago: Yeletsky's Aria - Tchaikovsky - Dmitri Hvorostovski

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean (Motown 25th Anniversary Yesterday Today Forever ) The First Moonwalk King Of Pop on " Billie Jean " at the 25th anniversary of Motown. A moment of anthology ! 1983

GUest Blogger, Victor, Shines a Light on Our Town

We remember Sally when she won her Oscar. Her speech started with, " They like me, they really like me!"

Vancouver is the Sally Field of Cities. Let any group, anywhere, select Vancouver as a top city for anything, and the media gush. It becomes front page material.

This week, the Mercer Group ( is that a jazz band?) placed Vancouver in a top 5 rating. One of the criteria was weather. No Vancouverite can take credit for the weather. It is a free endowment. It would be ours to enjoy even if we were an urban backwater run by a delusional political cult of aging flower children.

Oh wait, we are.

So next week, rumor has it, the Cincinnati Linoleum Installers Union will select Vancouver as the best city for a convention. Clear the front page!

TIMELY HEALTH CARE?

DAVE BRUBECK, R.I.P.

Of course, being a prolific and inspired and constantly toiling musician, Dave Brubeck was much more than Blue Rondo a la Turk and Take Five.

Nevertheless, these two tunes are iconic and blazed into our finger-snapping consciousness.

Here is the New York times thorough obit.

And below is the music...

PART OF THE FABRIC OF 20TH CENTURY MUSIC

XTRA! XTRA!

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

DOCS HAVE BRAIN WAVE!

In what passes for newspapers these days, this shocking revelation was carried across the country this morning:

"Doctors in Canada are so skittish about the medical use of marijuana that a third of MDs who have been asked to endorse a patient’s access to the drug never agree to it, a Canadian Medical Association survey suggests.

Another 25 per cent of doctors who responded to the survey said they would “seldom” be willing to support a patient’s access to medicinal pot; 64 per cent are worried that patients who request medical marijuana may only want it to get high."

Duh? You think?

No doubt, the good docs were on a fact finding mission to Katmandu or Vegas at the time.

Oh, it was just a survey.http://bit.ly/TF1VrL

Who put the IQ juice in the office coffee?

Another One

Speechless

Crazy, Sensational, Beautiful, Inspirational

I've been obsessed with this piece since I was about 21. Turn the cell phone off and the speakers volume way up

From the Good Folks Who Bilked You the Canada LIne, will build Evergreen and, Lord knows, maybe the Broadway/UBC Ditch

November 28, 2012

Pierre Duhaime, former SNC-Lavalin CEO, arrested on fraud charges

By BERTRAND MAROTTE And PAUL WALDIE

Pierre Duhaime arrested Wednesday morning at his home and has been charged with three counts – conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud and making use of forged documents

Former SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. president and chief executive officer Pierre Duhaime has been arrested on fraud-related charges.

Mr. Duhaime was arrested Wednesday morning at his home and has been charged with three counts – conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud and making use of forged documents – said Anne-Frédérick Laurence, spokeswoman for the Quebec government's Unité permanente anticorruption.

He is being held in jail and will be released on bail, she said.

She said she cannot provide more details.

A second former SNC senior executive – Riyad Ben Aissa – also faces the same three charges, said Ms. Laurence.

Mr. Ben Aissa is currently being held in a jail cell in Switzerland.

Mr. Duhaime left the Montreal-based engineering and construction giant last March in the midst of a financial scandal related to improper payments through its international operations.

Investigations in that matter continue in Canada and Switzerland.

The provincial anti-corruption squad is investigating aspects of a billion-dollar contract SNC and its partners struck with the McGill University Hospital Centre to build a new hospital.

Arthur Porter, the former head of the McGill University Hospital Centre, resigned last year and has not responded to the allegations.

SNC and several other engineering firms were also targeted recently in a series of raids at their offices in the Montreal suburb of Laval.

Raids were also conducted at city hall as well as the two homes of Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, who recently stepped down amid allegations of widespread corruption and collusion between the construction industry and government officials in Laval, Montreal and other municipalities.

Mr. Duhaime left SNC amid allegations he overruled the company's chief financial officer and approved $56-million in payments to unknown agents to secure contracts for the company. The money has gone missing and another company executive, Riyad Ben Aissa who ran SNC's Libyan operations, is in jail in Switzerland under investigation for fraud.

At the time of his departure, SNC praised Mr. Duhaime's contributions to the company and portrayed his removal as a "retirement." The company also paid him nearly $5-million in severance.

Mr. Duhaime, who is from Quebec City, became CEO of SNC in 2009. Tunisian-born Mr. Ben Aissa ran SNC's activities in Libya as well as the company's construction operations worldwide. That year, according to the board, Mr. Ben Aissa approved a $30-million contract to an agent to help win a contract.
The company alleged Monday that the agent's arrangements were not properly documented, had nothing to do with the project and the identity of the agent could not be verified.

SNC said on Wednesday it has no knowledge "of the specifics of any charges that may have been laid against [Mr. Duhaime]" and cannot comment further.

"As we have stated repeatedly, SNC-Lavalin has and will continue to co-operate fully with all authorities who request our assistance," the company said in a news release.

"We have voluntarily turned over information that we have to local and other authorities for them to take any actions that they may consider appropriate.

"We are unequivocal that no unethical behaviour or illegal acts must ever be tolerated. We believe that anyone found to have committed any wrongdoing in connection should be brought to justice."

In 2010, the McGill University Health Centre project was given a gold award for project financing by the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships. The award cited the "innovative financing put in place by Groupe immobilier santé McGill, composed of SNC-Lavalin and Innisfree Ltd., as part of the overall project mandate."

British infrastructure investor Innisfree is SNC's main partner in the consortium financing and building the hospital.

Once finished, the health complex is to be leased to the Quebec government for 30 years.

"We're deeply troubled by the statements contained in the warrant alleging the fraud against MUHC, especially as we administer public funds for health purposes," Richard Fahey, spokesman for McGill University Health Centre, said in an interview.

The MUHC has been fully collaborating with investigators ever since they raided its offices for documents related to the case, he said.