Entries from November 2008 ↓

- CTV

A short while before the last election campaign a former business partner decided to take a run a me, and filed an action, along with a statement of claim with the courts. As are all such claims, it was one-sided. As always happens in disputes, my lawyer entered into negotiations with the other party – just as the election writ was dropped.

One week later, during the election, the statement of claim arrived in a brown envelope at a major newspaper. I was called by an editor and told the paper was about to do a significant story on the allegations it contained. Did I have a comment?

I told my lawyer to settle the matter without further delay, even though we had not yet filed a defence. And it was. The lawsuit was withdrawn from the courts and the action terminated by mutual consent. That meant no allegations were ever proven or substantiated by a judge or anyone else. That’s the way the judicial system works.

But not for Steve Janke. Some days later the owner and publisher of the site, “Angry in the Great White North,” which has as its motto, “A heat-seeking missile in the Conservative arsenal”, published the entire statement of claim on the Internet. This was despite the fact nothing had been proven true and that both parties had settled their dispute and the allegations were withdrawn.

Why did Mr. Janke do this?

Some weeks before the last campaign, Elections Canada sent a confidential letter to me, my official agent and the president of the Halton Conservative Association saying it had found an iregularity in the 2005-6 election since money had been transferred a few days before it should have been. The letter constituted a quasi-judicial document. And while no action was taken by the federal agency, the matter was consequential. It was also information the agency ruled was not public.

But not for Steve Janke. Within days he had published the letter in its entirety on his web site.

Why did he do that?

During September and October of this year, “Angry in the Great White North” published 17 articles about me, and made sure that CBC TV’s Susan Ormiston, and many other media people, were sent links each time. The site published a picture of my personal vehicle after I had parked it outside a store where I went to buy my wife a book. The site did a major and inaccurate posting on a former company I had founded and owned years earlier in the hospitality sector, suggesting improper business practices. It devoted four or five aticles to bogus allegations I had orchestrated news coverage on CTV. When I and others pointed out falsehoods and inaccuracies to Mr. Janke, he did not report them.

Why did Mr. Janke do these things?

Now I see that Steve Janke is being sued by my former colleague and ex-MP Blair Wilson, of BC. Wilson fell afoul of Elections Canada for a while, defended himself and had most charges dropped, save for some relatively minor ones. During that period, Angry in the Great White North apparently published all the alleged and unproven allegations, which the federal agency had not made public.

Why did Mr. Janke do that?

I see as well that Steve Janke has started an appeal for funds to defend himself saying he is the real victim. “So what is this lawsuit about? The truth, and being punished for telling it,” he whines.

Mr. Janke may be on trial. The truth is not.

And I’d predict this is just the start.

2008 deficit
$3.9 billion

Bay Street Bailout
$75,000,000,000

News: Ottawa 2009 deficit could hit $14 billion>

In the first two weeks of November, only 800-odd houses sold in Toronto, which was about 50% less than the same time last year. Prices were down and listings were up. At this rate there’s about a 2-year supply of homes for sale, so good luck if you’re trying to flog one.

But that’s just one punch in the gut. The Dow is now at the lowest point in over five years and the TSE’s lost damn near half its value in a few months. Small business people are being told their prime-plus-one lines of credit are now prime-plus-five and Visa card rates have been adjusted upwards to punish those who have trouble paying. That’s a genius move.

The Bank of Canada boss is saying out loud that the economy’s slipping, and interest rates will be coming down again soon – not that anyone will see it. The finance minister said today, “there will be a deficit if there is a deficit” which is not exactly what he said when trying to stay finance minister which was, “there will be no deficit.”

So far Ottawa has given a more massive bailout per capita to the Big Banks than Washington did. And while American politicians debated, agonized over and struggled with their rescue plan, ours never went for a vote in Parliament, was never discussed by a committee and was never even explained to the people, who are not on the hook for $75 billion in high-ratio mortgages. It was a personal disappointment that my former opposition colleagues were mute.

Layoffs are turning into an epidemic, and it’s this fact, not $40 oil (soon to arrive) which will do the most economic harm. Consumer spending is drying up by the hour, a fact you can see in car dealerships, furniture stores or any one of the deserted department stores coast-to-coast. Except Wal-Mart. That place is packed.

A long time ago I said real estate excess would lead us into this swamp, and it has. But the real killer is turning out to be debt. Corporations and families have learned very quickly that deflation knocks down incomes and asset values in just weeks, but that debt is the cockroach which survives every disaster. This means hundreds of thousands of Canadians by the Spring will have negative equity in their homes, with mortgages that exceed their falling property values. It means companies like Canwest can’t service billions in debt once ad revenues disappear. It sure has the entire car business on the edge of oblivion. Toyota, for example, which opens a $1.1 billion car plant in Ontario in a few days, and will then shut it down to decrease inventory.

Some people think a major Canadian bank will fail (not hard to guess which one) before this is over; that real estate in Toronto and Vancouver will decline by about half; and stock markets in T.O. and New York have at least three thousand more points to give up. Without a doubt, the federal government will be in deficit, unemployment will soar and the devil of deflation will be licking our ankles. On Thursday the core inflation rate in the US dropped the most in 61 years. Maybe ever. That’s just when the record-keeping started.

As tough as things feel now, the months to come will be far more intense. If you have not yet started a list of personal and family actions, I urge it. Suggestions will come here in the days ahead. Feel free to ignore them. Most will.
(From GreaterFool.ca)