Prime Ministers Office (PMO)

Prime Minister’s Office hires human trafficking expert

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Benjamin Perrin

Benjamin Perrin has returned to the Hill and is now working as a special adviser in legal affairs and policy in the PMO.

Mr. Perrin’s name is likely familiar. In 2010, he published his first book titled Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking, an exposé on the issue of human trafficking in Canada, which was named one of the best books of 2010 by The Hill Times and one of the top books of the year by The Globe and Mail.

Environmental charity backs up whistleblower's claims of government intimidation

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Marketwire – January 26, 2012

ForestEthics has sent a statement to supporters confirming the veracity of Andrew Frank's claims that the Government of Canada targeted the environmental group.

In an email sent to supporters yesterday afternoon (January 25), ForestEthics co-founder, Valerie Langer confirms the veracity of Andrew Frank's claims: "While a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office denied using this language (An Enemy of the Government of Canada), he refused to comment when asked whether ForestEthics was targeted by the government. ForestEthics was targeted by the government. There's a good reason they wouldn't comment: it's true."

A Whistleblower’s Open Letter to the Citizens of Canada

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Andrew Frank

A Whistleblower’s Open Letter to the Citizens of Canada: Prime Minister’s Office Tries to Silence Pipeline Critics; Labels Environmental Group “Enemy of the Government of Canada” and “Enemy of the people of Canada.”

by Andrew Frank

Today, I am taking the extraordinary step of risking my career, my reputation and my personal friendships, to act as a whistleblower and expose the undemocratic and potentially illegal pressure the Harper government has apparently applied to silence critics of the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil tanker/pipeline plan.

As I have detailed in a sworn affidavit, no less than three senior managers with TidesCanada and ForestEthics (a charitable project of Tides Canada), have informed me, as the Senior Communications Manager for ForestEthics, that Tides Canada CEO, Ross McMillan,was informed by the Prime Minister’s Office, that ForestEthics is considered an “Enemy of the Government of Canada,” and an “Enemy of the people of Canada.”

Affidavit accuses Prime Minister's Office of threatening environmental charity

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Prime MInister Stephen Harper

Bob Weber – January 24, 2012

A former employee of an environmental group critical of a proposed oilsands pipeline says the Prime Minister's Office threatened a funding agency if it didn't pull its support for the group. A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper denies the allegations.

In a sworn affidavit released Tuesday to The Canadian Press, Andrew Frank says he was told by his supervisor at ForestEthics that a PMO official had referred to their organization as an "enemy of the state." The affidavit describes how staff were told their jobs were at risk after the official told Tides Canada, which supports the work of ForestEthics, that the government would "take down" all of the agency's projects unless it cut ForestEthics loose.

Canada’s top spy watchdog resigns following revelations

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Kathryn Blaze Carlson and Brian Hutchinson – November 10, 2011

Arthur Porter, the chair of Canada’s spy review board, resigned on Thursday amid revelations of his business dealings with a notorious international lobbyist and his own close ties to the president of Sierra Leone.

“Dr. Porter has submitted his resignation to me, and I have accepted it, effective immediately,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

Spy review board chief offered me job: Senator

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Brian Hutchinson – November 8, 2011

The federally appointed chairman of Canada’s spy review board and “Ambassador Plenipotentiary” to his native Sierra Leone offered a Canadian senator the position of honorary consul general to the African country, the National Post has learned.

Arthur Porter, a Montreal-based physician who also serves as the chief of executive of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), one of Canada’s largest public health-care providers with almost 12,000 employees, approached Conservative Senator David Angus and asked if he “would ever be interested” in the position as consul general to Sierra Leone in Montreal.

Canada’s spy watchdog’s questionable $200,000 deal

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Brian Hutchinson – November 8, 2011

The head of Canada’s spy review board wired $200,000 in personal funds to a notorious international lobbyist in a questionable aid-for-infrastructure deal in Africa, the National Post has learned.

Arthur Porter, the federally appointed chairman of Canada’s Security and Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), described in three interviews how he directed cash from a foreign bank account to Ari Ben-Menashe, a jet-setting, Montreal-based businessman who often acts as a middleman in negotiations between the Russian Federation and developing countries.

Ex-PMO aide Carson left Calgary school with debt

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Greg Weston – October 11, 2011

CBC News has learned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former senior adviser, Bruce Carson, charged thousands of dollars in personal expenses to the federally funded think-tank he headed for just over two years.

Robert Turner, a prominent Edmonton lawyer and chairman of the Canada School of Energy and Environment's board of directors, says that in one month alone Carson charged almost $28,000 in personal expenses to the school's corporate credit card, which is supposed to be used only for business.

Money launderer linked to Bruce Carson

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Joanna Smith – April 8, 2011

OTTAWA—A disgraced former adviser to Stephen Harper bought a home with an ex-prostitute — and convicted money launderer — before meeting the young former escort whose water sanitation company is at the centre of illegal lobbying allegations.

Bruce Carson, 65, bought a condo in downtown Ottawa with Barbara Lynn Khan, 43, who served time for money laundering and running a prostitution ring with her estranged husband in North Carolina before being deported back to Canada, public records show.

The Real Scandal: Carson's Alleged Actions are Legal

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Canada's lobbying rules are full of loopholes, and are barely enforced.

Duff Conacher – March 22, 2011

This week the organization I run, Democracy Watch, pointed out that the situation revealed by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network about former PMO adviser Bruce Carson is scandalous not only because of Carson’s activities, but also because his alleged secret lobbying is legal.

Due to loopholes in federal laws, the ethics commissioner and lobbying commissioner, along with the RCMP, didn't catch him because they don’t do random inspections, and no one will likely find Carson violated any laws – again because of loopholes, but also because of vague laws and weak enforcement by the commissioners, the RCMP, and Crown prosecutors.

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