A Week's Worth of Corruption

Have we had enough yet??

1. eHealth Ontario's CEO, Sarah Kramer, was "fired" today, because of spending irregularities and $5.5 million worth of untendered contracts, given to her friends. She also received $114,000 in a bonus, 3 months into the job, which is more than twice the accepted limit. Her salary was $380,000, and now, 8 months into the job, they are giving her $317,000 to go away. You see, even though the government (David Caplan) says she was "fired", she actually resigned "for the good of the health project". Sure, I believe that's what she had in mind... NOT!! How long has this organization, and its predecessor, worked and sucked millions out of the system, with absolutely nothing to show for it? They've paid people to read the newspapers, and talk to people on the subway, and listen to voice messages, while many families don't have family doctors, and many health services have been delisted. Well, at least we know where the money's going - into the greedy pockets of the people we entrust to run our government.
2. After paying David Dingwall $417,780 in compensation to go away after his "spending irregularities" at the Royal Canadian Mint, now the mint has "misplaced" some of the gold, silver and other precious metals. They suggest it may be just poor record keeping, but just between you and me, I think the thieves have struck again!
   
3. RCMP officers (once a proud & honourable force) are trying to block an inquiry from placing blame on the officers who tazered Robert Dziekanski to death. His crime? He didn't speak English and was becoming frustrated and may have threatened them with a stapler.
   
4. Police can now confiscate your property, with no evidence of any wrong doing and without any charges being laid. They only need suspicion. I'm providing a link to the news article, because without it, I wouldn't believe it. http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/edward_greenspan/2009/06/08/9709551-sun.html. I think it's safe to say we've become a police state.
5. Brian Mulroney stands accused of taking bribes while in office. Why else would he accept a couple of envelopes full of cash and then not report it. It is rather ironic though - the thieves in Ottawa have caught one of their own. What ever happened to honour amongst thieves?
6. The head honchos at CPP have given themselves a $7 million in bonuses, despite losing $24 million in pension funds because of their poor investment decisions. Why can't I get a huge raise when I screw up at work and cost the company tons of money? Oh that's right - I'm just a slave, working to serve my masters. That's what all the working class are. Slaves. I just wish they'd kiss me first.
7. First we gave billions to Chrysler and GM to keep them going. They went bankrupt anyway. Now we're going to give them billions more to help them rise from the ashes. Poor management, excessive salaries and bonuses, lack of foresight and crappy products led to their falls. Oh sure, we want more of that! Even their bondholders wouldn't trade their bonds for shares in the company. Workers agreed to have their wages slashed, but did the executives? Sounds like that whole working class as slaves again.
   

All this money lost, and how will it be replaced? By increased taxes - just suck more out of the working class so all those thieves in government can have more to steal.

I wish I could move to a country that treats its citizens well, respects them, and takes the responsibilities of their office and the duties entrusted to them, seriously, with honour. But alas, I feel that does not exist in this world. Greed and power are destroying this country. How long are we going to take it? In France, the government is afraid of its people, and for good reason - they won't put up with crap like this. Here though, we are afraid of our government. Is that democracy? Is that freedom? And how can we fight back? They've taken away our right to own firearms. If we try a national work stoppage, they'll arrest us and throw us in jail. That's been threatened before during union strikes.

Who will pick up the gauntlet and organize a reform? Because change we must. There is nobody in government with honour and ethics, in any of the parties. Our style of government is severely flawed. Who has a better idea? Who can lead us out of this purgatory we've become? So many people are homeless and starving - is this still the land of opportunity?

Let's see it for what it truly is... a corrupt government and system which is trying to enslave the populace, while taking away all of our rights and freedoms. I have neither the knowledge nor the power to organize a reform group or revolt, but I will proudly stand beside someone who does - for Canada!


This work by Suzette Leeming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.

Ethics Lost

I've been thinking a lot about the ethics and morality that exist in our world today, or not.

We've been through Bill Clinton having oral sex in the White House, the Jean Chretien's Liberal Adscam, Stephen Harper's Conservativea circumventing the election rules, Martha Stewart's inside trading, the head of Canada Post forced to retire because of outrageous expense reports, Brian Mulroney making deals with criminal people while in office, Worldcom's accounting fiasco and the resulting aftermath, and so on and so on.

And now the Toronto Catholic School Board trustees, living high off the hog while they operate the school board on a deficit. Expenses such as car allowances, cell phones they're allowed to keep, Dominican Republic vacations, extravagant dinners, and gold plated benefits. Even lingerie was expenses - now how does that relate to education?

Recently, Ryerson University wanted to expel a student who put together a study group on Facebook to solve an engineering problem they were supposed to work on individually. The school called it cheating. HELLO!?!?

Why are we surprised when we catch our children cheating or even wandering into grey areas? They see the news, they know what's happening. It's become the business style du jour. Grab what you can before they kick you out - if they catch you!

Call me naive, but I expect more from our government than having them act like pigs at the trough. I expect more from major corporations than having them think up more creative ways to screw us. And I really expect more from a group that puts a religious name on themselves. They're greedy, selfish, pigs, marauding as pious Christians, which makes me sick.

I'm more sympathetic in situations where someone steals (call it what it is) because they are in financial need, but these are people who are already rich - looking to get richer. The people who end up paying are the poor and the working class.

How long are we going to take it? The only way to approach this situation is to start charging people AND SENDING THEM TO JAIL!! At least our children will then realize that it's wrong. We need to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. Let's throw out the corrupt politicians, and charge them for their misdeeds, or at least for breach of public trust. The laws were created for all of us, but authorities seem to leave the rich alone while they harass the rest of us.

Have we become such a complacent society that we will just keep taking this? The one thing I really hate about getting older and wiser is that I don't like what I'm learning - what I'm seeing and hearing. I'm becoming disillusioned.

Am I the only one that feels this way?