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Feds to monitor social media round-the-clock

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 30 November 2013 | 21.16

Big Brother is watching you — on just about every social-media platform you can imagine.

Tweets, public Facebook posts and YouTube videos could soon be subject to round-the-clock scrutiny by the federal government, a procurement document posted this week by Public Works and Government Services Canada suggests.

Welcome to media monitoring in the 21st century, when simply leafing through a stack of newspapers in the morning is about as antiquated as, well, newspapers.

'On one level, there is a creepiness factor to this, but then on another level, it's open data, it's open information.'- Mark Blevis, digital public affairs analyst

The federal government is seeking a firm that "continuously monitors social media content on a daily basis in near real time and (can) provide web-based, online media metrics and reporting capabilities."

That includes combing through "blogs, micro-blogs, social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter, forums and message boards, traditional news websites and comment sections, media sharing websites (videos, photos and user-generated content websites including YouTube)."

The contractor is also being asked to keep tabs on English- and French-language internet news sites and blogs.

Tone and reach

The document specifies that the contractor must be able to provide the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Part of the job will be to gauge the sentiment and tone of posts and to determine their reach.

The social-media monitoring service must also come with the ability to filter searches by country, language and key words.

The work, which appears to be on an as-requested basis, runs from next February until January 2019.

Digital public affairs analyst Mark Blevis of FullDuplex.ca said it's not unusual that a government would want to know what people are saying, although he concedes some might find that thought disconcerting.

"On one level, there is a creepiness factor to this," Blevis said in an interview.

"But then on another level, it's open data, it's open information. If it's publicly accessible, why should the government have any less privilege accessing it than anyone else in the public eye?

"What they do with it is going to be the big question."

'Early warning system'

Social media can act as an "early warning system" to alert authorities to major disasters, Blevis said, just as it can be used to track public opinion.

"It depends on the intent. Is it creepy? Yeah, for the vast majority of the public it will seem creepy because the sense is the government is looking over their shoulder," he said.

"But another part of me feels that this is a recognition that this where the conversations are happening now, and they're happening in plain view."

Public Works wasn't immediately available to comment.


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Mike Duffy deal: RCMP should probe Tory party’s role, Liberals say

The Liberals have written to the RCMP asking them to investigate the Conservative party's role in an alleged payment scheme involving Sen. Mike Duffy's contested living expenses.

Liberal Sean Casey sent a letter Thursday to RCMP commissioner Robert Paulson asking police to look into whether someone in the party promised to pay off Duffy's expenses.

Casey points to an RCMP affidavit filed in court last week, which suggests Conservative Fund Canada chairman Sen. Irving Gerstein was prepared at one point to use party funds to repay Duffy.

"He stated that it is something he would consider," RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton said following an interview with Gerstein in September.

According to the documents, the alleged agreement included a condition that once Duffy repaid the expenses, he would be reimbursed by a third party. Ultimately, Nigel Wright — Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff at the time — paid out of his own pocket when the bill — $90,000 — got too high for the party to bear.

Mike-Duffy-Nigel-Wright

Liberal MP Sean Casey wants the Mounties to investigate what role the Conservative Party may have played in the deal between Senator Mike Duffy and former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright to repay Duffy's expenses. (Reuters / CBC)

The Liberals point to section 16 of the Parliament of Canada Act, which makes it illegal to give or promise to give a parliamentarian money in an attempt to influence them.

It notes that the influence could relate to any "...controversy, charge, accusation...or other matter before the Senate or the House of Commons or a committee of either House."

"It seems to be you've got a promise to pay a senator in relation to a controversy which is properly before a committee. It seems rather simple," said deputy Liberal leader Dominic LeBlanc.

Gerstein did not return calls to his office Friday.

Casey pressed his case Friday during question period in the Commons.

"Could the attorney general explain why he has not asked the RCMP to investigate the actions of Sen. Gerstein and certain former PMO staffers, as I have?" he demanded.

"Why do I have to do his job for him, and what are they hiding over there?"

Paul Calandra, Harper's parliamentary secretary, emphasized that the RCMP have been investigating the Duffy repayment matter for months.

"The RCMP have put in a number of documents, which have been referred to by the opposition on a number of occasion," Calandra said.

"Those same documents show that the RCMP are investigating Nigel Wright and Sen. Duffy; Nigel Wright for repaying expenses that Sen. Duffy accepted but did not incur. Those are the people who are under investigation at this time."

The Conservative party did wind up covering $13,000 of legal fees Duffy incurred while his living expenses were under scrutiny.


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Canada-U.S. 'Beyond the Border' project beset by delays

A project meant to make it easier for trade and travel across the Canada-U.S. border is behind schedule, and can't even spend the millions of dollars allocated to it, according to a status report released today.

The Beyond the Border program was so important that Prime Minister Stephen Harper flew down to Washington, D.C., to announce it standing next to President Barack Obama.

But the report, released today, suggests major IT problems are leading to delays. With more than $117 million budgeted for 2012/13, only $49 million has been spent to streamline regulations and eliminate border delays.

Under one heading, "Addressing threats early," more than $47 million was reallocated from one department to another.

The agreement covers a range of trade and security measures meant to make it easier to get people and goods across the border. It set a number of deadlines over several years. The report refers to delays for implementing several of the measures, blaming IT problems.

"Delays occurred in spending on information technology requirements needed to be consolidated to address program requirements and streamline solutions," the report said, a sentence repeated under several headings.

"This necessitated a review across the solutions, which in turn delayed the start of certain projects."

A spokeswoman for Public Safety Canada acknowledged the delays but said the government is committed to delivering on the goals set out in the agreement.

"The Beyond the Border Action Plan continues to be a priority for the Government of Canada. While some initiatives have been implemented slower than anticipated, we are committed to fulfilling the Action Plan vision, delivering on a range of strategic initiatives and building upon key accomplishments," Josée Picard said in an email to CBC News.

The Single Window Initiative, which is supposed to make it easier to clear products by cutting the paperwork, is one of the programs that's been delayed.

"As the schedule for the Beyond the Border Action Plan is aggressive with the first major SWI commitment being planned for December 2013, [Canada Border Services Agency]... moved the major development of this commitment from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014," the report said in a footnote.

"As well, there is added complexity in relating to co-ordination and integration of the [nine] participating government agencies and the top [four] priority departments."

Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat who spent years in Washington, says it isn't all bad news for the government.

Some of the programs seem to be working well, he said, although the Trusted Traveller program, meant to pre-clear people to move them faster across the border, hasn't had strong pickup.

The prime minister and the ministers of each department involved may need to get more involved in the file, he said.

"What you need is probably greater ministerial directive to say this is important, you've got to move this thing along," Robertson said.

Treasury Board rules require annual reports for program spending budgeted for $100 million or more a year. Canadians should get more details on program delays next month, when the two countries release a joint implementation report.


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Christopher Montgomery: Senate white knight on Conservative blacklist?

Of all the questions left over from last week's release of a treasure trove of documents from the RCMP's investigation into the Senate scandal, one of the most nagging is this: Why is it that the one person who raised a red flag is no longer working in government?

Chris Montgomery

Christopher Montgomery served as director of parliamentary affairs in the office of Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton when she was government leader in the Senate. (LinkedIn)

Christopher Montgomery served as director of parliamentary affairs in the office of Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton when she was government leader in the Senate. Montgomery's name comes up time and again in the RCMP paper trail. Unlike others, though, the image that emerges is overwhelmingly positive.

When staffers from the Prime Minister's Office were pressing a Senate committee to amend its report into Senator Mike Duffy's expenses to go easy on him, the RCMP documents show Montgomery resisting.

On one page, police outline how "he (Montgomery) advised the PMO, specifically Patrick Rogers and Chris Woodcock, that they should not be involved in the Senate audit and reports regarding Senator Duffy."

"During his seven years in the Senate," the report continues, "he (Montgomery) cannot recall other times when representatives from the PMO actually attended meetings and insisted on wording of a Senate report."

As negotiations reached their heated conclusion, Rogers sent an email to Woodcock and Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, to complain. "This is epic. Montgomery is the problem."

In the end, the Duffy report was amended. By July, LeBreton had announced she was stepping down as government leader in the Senate, leaving Montgomery without a job.

In situations like these, a position is usually found in a minister's office or elsewhere in government.

But a senior Conservative source says there was nothing for Montgomery, blaming his run in with the PMO.

A friend of Montgomery said he felt out of favour; that he was not seen as a team player.

Montgomery eventually found work with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Contacted at his office in Calgary, he would not comment on the RCMP documents, the ongoing police investigation or his decision to leave Ottawa.

Montgomery is still highly regarded on Parliament Hill.

"He's a very good guy," said Senator Claude Carignan, who replaced LeBreton as government leader in the Senate.

"He's very good, very competent. He's an expert in Senate rules. We don't have a lot of persons with this expertise."

Carignan said he was in contact with Montgomery over the summer, before he was confirmed as the new government leader in the Senate, and before he could offer him a position in his office.

"During this time, he received an offer from the private sector that he could not refuse," Carignan said.

Others named in the RCMP documents had a far easier time finding work, including Rogers and Woodcock, the two PMO staffers who Montgomery scolded for trying to alter the Senate report on Duffy.

Rogers now works for Heritage Minister Shelly Glover. Woodcock is chief of staff to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.

When Glover appeared before the House of Commons Heritage Committee this week, Liberal MP Stéphane Dion tried to ask whether she hired Rogers or if he was placed in her office by the PMO. The question was ruled out of order.

Oliver faced questions about Woodcock the day before when he appeared before the natural resources committee.

"At the time that you hired Mr. Woodcock, were you aware that he'd been involved in the whitewash of a Senate report?" asked Liberal MP Geoff Regan.

Oliver called his question "appalling" and said his chief of staff brings "a wealth of experience" to his office.


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Senator Patrick Brazeau: Bring on the RCMP charges

Bring it on.

That's Senator Patrick Brazeau's message to the RCMP regarding any investigation into his expenses.

Brazeau was one of three senators suspended without pay on Nov. 5, for allegedly filing inappropriate expenses. No one has been charged with a criminal offence yet, the RCMP is still investigating.

In an interview with CBC Radio's The House, Brazeau told host Evan Solomon that he has nothing to lose and that it would have been a lot easier if the RCMP had charged him, because he would have been suspended with pay. Now he's prepared to put up a fight.

"I know I didn't claim inappropriate expenses whatsoever, so if there are going to be charges then bring them on and I'll defend myself," he said.

Brazeau maintains he did not do anything wrong and that he was suspended over the amount of $144.97. Nothing compared to the thousands of dollars Duffy and Wallin are accused of misspending.

Brazeau does not come up in the explosive RCMP court documents released last week. They reveal more details about the inner workings of the Prime Minister's Office and how involved it was in trying to fix the situation with Duffy's expenses.

But he has been watching the story unfold closely and calls it a "gong show" and said it proves what he's been saying all along, that he was thrown under the bus.

"All I can say, which is what I have said from the get go, is about a year ago I was told by a Conservative senator who sat on the committee overseeing all the expenses, saying that I was going to be put under the bus to protect Michael Duffy at the time."

As for the seemingly close ties between some Conservative senators and the Prime Minister's office revealed in the court documents, Brazeau was not surprised but is angry that the list of Conservative senators and staffers involved is long, but he is only one of a few without a paycheck now.

"Obviously we have a long list of Conservative senators and other staff members who were involved — but they are allowed to remain on the payroll."

Brazeau is actively looking for a new job, taking to Twitter to look for opportunities. But he's finding it difficult.

"I'm like any ordinary Canadian. I'm just looking to find some honest work so that I can provide for my family. And regardless if I'm a senator, if I still hold the title of senator or not, I still have to find work because the most important thing is my family," he said.

Brazeau said right now he's working on a book about his life and how government works. He's on chapter three.


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Union claims government officials misled MPs on worker safety stats

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 28 November 2013 | 21.16

A dispute is heating up between unions representing federal workers and the government over numbers the Conservatives are using to rationalize changes to health and safety laws.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada has accused senior officials with Employment and Social Development Canada's labour program of presenting misleading numbers to a committee of MPs studying proposed changes to the Canada Labour Code.

PSAC said the numbers presented at last week's meeting were wrong and don't tell the whole story.

"Any closer scrutiny of the numbers does not support what they're intending to do," said Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union with PSAC. "So I'd have to let other people draw conclusions about whether they intended to obfuscate or whether that's by accident."

At the heart of the dispute is the number, often quoted by government officials and the labour minister, that in 80 per cent of cases where a worker has refused work due to danger, an investigation and, in some cases an appeal, has made a finding of no danger.

This number appears to be the basis for the impetus to make changes to the legal definition of danger and to the process by which federal employees can refuse unsafe work.

"The members of Parliament were not misled. The information we provided was accurate," said Employment and Social Development Canada acting director General Brenda Baxter in an interview with CBC News.

But opposition MPs on the human resources, skills and social development committee felt the numbers were incomplete. They asked government officials whether, in those 80 per cent of cases, health and safety officers investigating took other enforcement action even if an actual finding of no danger was made.

The officials said they would have to go back and look through the data manually to determine that.

"If they are so slipshod that they are proposing these huge legislative changes without even taking the time to look at the numbers to support their proposals, that's crazy," Kingston said in an interview with CBC News.

Kingston said PSAC has already done the analysis the department said it had to do manually. The union crunched the numbers of a random sampling of 40 per cent of the more than 1,000 cases of unsafe work refusal investigations over the past 10 years.

Its analysis found that in 52 per cent of group refusals and 45 per cent of individual refusals there was some enforcement action.

Baxter said her department is trying to get its own analysis done before MPs vote on the legislation.

"We're working earnestly and putting in a great effort to respond to the questions raised by the parliamentarians," she said.

The changes to the Canada Labour Code are included in Bill C-4, the federal government's omnibus budget bill. The code covers about 1.5 million federal employees in sectors such as railways, shipping, pipelines and mining.

The legislation would change the definition of danger from the broad idea of a potential hazard to something that poses an imminent or serious threat to life.

One expert agrees unions have reason to worry about that.

"There's no doubt the threshold test that an employee is going to have to meet to justify a continuing refusal to work will be much higher than it is now. The spectrum of what constitutes a danger in the workplace is going to be significantly narrowed," said Ronald Snyder, a specialist labour employment lawyer in an interview with CBC News.

Snyder said a lot will depend on how Labour Minister Kellie Leitch and her staff interpret the definition when cases come forward. But he said regardless, the number of complaints will go down under the proposed definition, as will the number of decisions in employees' favour.

Another major change would see the minister have the power to decide, without an investigation, that a work refusal complaint is frivolous or vexatious and dismiss it. The employee could then be disciplined.

But Snyder said this change is a positive one as it will help cut down on frivolous complaints, which he said can be a problem, especially in the public service.

Kingston said frivolous complaints are not a rampant problem. Kingston co-chairs with the Treasury Board, the public service policy committee on health and safety, which looks at issues government-wide.

"If this was really an issue, then why was it never brought forward? It's never been raised," he said, adding he knows of dozens of cases where people should have refused work but didn't.


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Senate expense committee questioning Deloitte auditors

The Senate committee that dealt with Mike Duffy's ineligible expense claims — claims that are now the subject of an RCMP investigation — is meeting this morning to question three Deloitte auditors about potential interference in their audit.

But two of the main players in the controversy won't be there.

Allegations in RCMP documents released last Wednesday suggest Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein tried to manipulate the Duffy audit by directly calling Michael Runia, a partner at Deloitte.

Gerstein and Runia aren't invited to Thursday's internal economy committee meeting, however.

"The people from Deloitte who are appearing tomorrow at the Senate hearing are the ones who were invited," said Vital Adam, Deloitte senior manager, in an email to CBC News.

Conservative Senator Gerald Comeau, chair of the committee, says the committee wants to know whether there was interference in the auditing process, and if so, who did it and what was the nature of the interference.

The audit went ahead as planned. But Conservative senators on the internal economy committee changed a report prepared by Senate staff to soften the language and entirely remove criticism of Duffy for his spending.

A spokeswoman for Deloitte said the review "was conducted by a team of highly professional and objective forensic accountants."

'Work through senior contacts at Deloitte'

The RCMP affidavit says Gerstein called a contact at Deloitte on behalf of the Prime Minister's Office to try to have Deloitte drop Duffy from the investigation.

Referring to emails between PMO staff, RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton alleges they argued the issue would be closed once Duffy repayed the approximately $90,000 in inappropriate expenses.

"Today I asked Sen. Gerstein to actually work through senior contacts at Deloitte and with Sen. [Marjory] LeBreton," Nigel Wright​, then-chief of staff to Prime Minister​ Stephen Harper, wrote on March 1, 2013.

In an email to then-PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin, Wright went on to say he and the senators were pushing for Deloitte to find there was no longer a need for an audit into Duffy's primary residence.

Duffy was one of four senators who had expense and travel claims referred to Deloitte for investigation. The long-time Ottawa resident was claiming secondary housing expenses for his home in a suburb just west of Ottawa.

"The outcome we are pushing for is for Deloitte to report publicly that IF Kanata were the primary residence then the amount owing would be the $90,000 figure and that since Sen. Duffy has committed to repay this amount then Deloitte's work in determining the primary residence is no longer needed," Wright wrote.

'Troubling'

Senator James Cowan, Liberal leader in the Senate, said Tuesday he wants Gerstein to to appear before the committee on Thursday.

Irving Gerstein 20131120

The Senate committee that dealt with Mike Duffy's ineligible expense claims meets Thursday to question three Deloitte auditors about potential interference in their audit. But two main players, including Senator Irving Gerstein, won't be there. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

"I think the more troubling thing from my point of view with respect to Senator Gerstein was that he would have contacted the audit firm that was conducting the audit on behalf of the Senate," he said.

Liberal Senator George Furey said he'll wait to hear from the auditors, but noted there are allegations in the affidavit that raise questions.

"There are concerns raised that I find very troublesome," Furey said.

In the House of Commons Wednesday, the opposition grilled Harper about Gerstein's involvement.

"The RCMP says Irving Gerstein called Deloitte twice to interfere with their audit of Mike Duffy's expenses. He tried to back-channel audit information and then pressed on hoping that Nigel Wright's $90,000 payment would make the audit go away. So will the prime minister please explain to Canadians why Senator Gerstein still enjoys his complete confidence?" Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said.

Harper returned to familiar lines, pointing out only two people are known to be under investigation by the RCMP.

"What is at issue here is that Mr. Duffy made claims to repay inappropriate expenses when he in fact had not done that. That was actually done by Mr. Wright ... and that information was not properly disclosed to me or to others," he said.

Seven times the opposition asked why Gerstein is still a senator and why he's still in the Conservative caucus and seven times the Prime Minister gave a similar answer: "two individuals are under investigation as it should be."

The committee's executive met late Tuesday and agreed to open the normally closed-door meeting to the public.


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Jim Flaherty 'not aware' of Mint chair's tax-haven dealings

A spokesperson for Jim Flaherty says the finance minister was unaware that his good friend and law school classmate Jim Love, who was picked by the government to chair the Canadian Mint and who Flaherty himself appointed to two advisory panels, had helped some wealthy clients move money through offshore havens to avoid taxes.

CBC News revealed Tuesday that Love, a tax lawyer, helped heirs of former Tory prime minister Arthur Meighen shift $8 million through offshore havens in the Caribbean starting in 1996. Love said in court documents that the move "resulted in significant savings of Canadian tax"— an amount he estimated at $1 million.

The government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has declared numerous times over the past year that they are cracking down on the use of offshore havens. Following his budget speech last March, Flaherty railed against "people hiding their money offshore and avoiding Canadian taxes."

Christine Elliott, Ontario MPP, with Jim Love, Toronto lawyer and Canadian Mint chair

Flaherty's wife, Ontario MPP Christine Elliott, with Love, who she has known for 'many, many years.' (SNAP Whitby)

That same budget promised to introduce a snitch line for taxpayers to report anyone who has stashed funds offshore in an attempt to thwart the Canada Revenue Agency. "The CRA will target high-income taxpayers who attempt to evade or avoid tax using complex international legal arrangements," the budget said.

But Flaherty's press secretary said Tuesday that the finance minister didn't know the extent of Love's offshore dealings, particularly when he was appointed in 2007 to a panel advising the government on international taxation.

"The minister would not have been aware of details or specifics of Mr. Love's international tax practice," Marie Prentice wrote in an email to CBC News.

She said Love "made valuable contributions" to the panel's deliberations and was chosen for his expertise in international tax.

Friends since university

Love and Flaherty have been friends since they were classmates at York University's Osgoode Hall law school in the 1970s. But their links — professional and personal — go deeper than that.

Love's son worked in Flaherty's office, and Flaherty's wife sits on the board of the trust company run by Love.

The ties between the two men are sometimes financial, as well. When Flaherty ran for the leadership of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party twice in the early 2000s, Love donated a total of $63,100 to his campaigns.

Those contributions raised questions in Ottawa several years later, after Love was appointed by the federal Conservatives to three posts:

  • In 2006, he joined the board of the Royal Canadian Mint.
  • Also in 2006, Flaherty named Love to chair an expert panel on what would eventually become the registered disability savings plan.
  • In 2007, Flaherty named Love to the tax panel.

"Can you confirm whether his personal and political connections have anything to do with his appointment?" Liberal finance critic and former revenue minister John McCallum asked Flaherty at a House of Commons committee.

Flaherty retorted, "Mr. Love is one of Canada's leading tax experts. He knows a lot more about tax than you could ever hope to know. ...

"You should think twice before you go after much respected Canadians, greatly respected Canadians."

Flaherty's wife on company's board

Love's final appointment from the federal Tories came in 2009, when he was elevated to chair of the Mint's board. The same year, when Flaherty's wife, Ontario politician Christine Elliott, ran for the provincial PC Party leadership, Love's wife and three of his colleagues at his trust company donated $10,000 each to her campaign.

Elliott sits on the board of that company, called Legacy Private Trust, and on its audit committee. She also owns shares in the firm, according to Elliott's and Flaherty's public disclosures. 

If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca.

She said earlier this month that she has been on the board since Legacy Private Trust's inception and has known Love "for many, many years."

"I worked for Scotiabank from '84 to '88, and I worked in their international audit department, so I was familiar with the auditing of trust companies and internal controls, having visited many tax havens during my tenure. I spent a lot of time in Nassau, Cayman Islands, Channel Islands," she said.

"It was because of my involvement and my experience with that that he asked me to become involved as a director."

CBC News asked Elliott how much offshore business is done by Love and Legacy Private Trust. She said the firm has "not very many" clients involved in the offshore world but that she didn't know the precise breakdown. Confidentiality prevented her from speaking about the details, she added.

Denies company does offshore work

Flaherty was asked, as well, to comment on his relationship with Love. The finance minister did not agree to an interview but his press secretary, Prentice, responded to emailed questions.

She said Legacy Private Trust "doesn't have offshore issues."

In several communications with CBC News, Love has affirmed much the same: that his trust company is not involved in any dealings in the offshore world.

"Legacy Private Trust would have no reason to, because it deals only in domestic matters," he said in a phone call earlier this month.

Numerous court documents from the Meighen family lawsuit suggest otherwise.

In its own statements of defence, Legacy Private Trust says it was the investment manager for four Antigua-based holding companies through which the family's offshore wealth passed. Those companies kept their securities accounts at Legacy. Just two of them held $1.7 million in international stocks.  

If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca.


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New Snowden docs show Canada OK'd U.S. spying at G20

Top secret documents retrieved by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden show that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government allowed the largest American spy agency to conduct widespread surveillance in Canada during the 2010 G8 and G20 summits.

The documents are being reported exclusively by CBC News.

The briefing notes, stamped "Top Secret," show the U.S. turned its Ottawa embassy into a security command post during a six-day spying operation by the National Security Agency while U.S. President Barack Obama and 25 other foreign heads of government were on Canadian soil in June of 2010.

The covert U.S. operation was no secret to Canadian authorities.

An NSA briefing note describes the American agency's operational plans at the Toronto summit meeting and notes they were "closely co-ordinated with the Canadian partner."

The NSA and its Canadian "partner," the Communications Security Establishment Canada, gather foreign intelligence for their respective governments by covertly intercepting phone calls and hacking into computer systems around the world.

The secret documents do not reveal the precise targets of so much espionage by the NSA — and possibly its Canadian partner — during the Toronto summit.

But both the U.S. and Canadian intelligence agencies have been implicated with their British counterpart in hacking the phone calls and emails of foreign politicians and diplomats attending the G20 summit in London in 2009 — a scant few months before the Toronto gathering of the same world leaders.

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Secret documents released by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden have provided new insight about the level of U.S. and Canadian spying on allies and foreign diplomats. (The Guardian/Associated Press)

Notably, the secret NSA briefing document describes part of the U.S. eavesdropping agency's mandate at the Toronto summit as "providing support to policymakers."

Documents previously released by Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has sought and received asylum in Russia, suggested that support at other international gatherings included spying on the foreign delegations to get an unfair advantage in any negotiations or policy debates at the summit.

It was those documents that first exposed the spying on world leaders at the London summit.

More recently, Snowden's trove of classified information revealed Canada's eavesdropping agency had hacked into phones and computers in the Brazilian government's department of mines, a story that touched off a political firestorm both in that country and in Ottawa.

The documents have rocked political capitals around the world. NSA spies on everyone from leaders of U.S. allies to millions of Americans. Personal information has been scooped up by the agency's penetration of major internet and phone companies.

Economic and political espionage

The spying at the Toronto summit in 2010 fits a pattern of economic and political espionage by the powerful U.S. intelligence agency and its partners such as Canada.

That espionage was conducted to secure meeting sites and protect leaders against terrorist threats posed by al-Qaeda but also to forward the policy goals of the United States and Canada.

The G20 summit in Toronto had a lot on its agenda that would have been of acute interest to the NSA and Canada.

The world was still struggling to climb out of the great recession of 2008. Leaders were debating a wide array of possible measures including a global tax on banks, an idea strongly opposed by both the U.S. and Canadian governments. That notion was eventually scotched.

The secret NSA documents list all the main agenda items for the G20 in Toronto — international development, banking reform, countering trade protectionism, and so on — with the U.S. snooping agency promising to support "U.S. policy goals."

Whatever the intelligence goals of the NSA during the Toronto summit, international security experts question whether the NSA spying operation at the G20 in Toronto was even legal.

"If CSEC tasked NSA to conduct spying activities on Canadians within Canada that CSEC itself was not authorized to take, then I am comfortable saying that would be an unlawful undertaking by CSEC," says Craig Forcese, an expert in national security at University of Ottawa's faculty of law.

By law, CSEC cannot target anyone in Canada without a warrant, including world leaders and foreign diplomats at a G20 summit.

But, the Canadian eavesdropping agency is also prohibited by international agreement from getting the NSA to do the spying or anything that would be illegal for CSEC.

Canada's 'Five Eyes' partners

The NSA isn't Canada's only partner in the covert surveillance business.

They are part of a multinational partnership that includes sister organizations in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand — the so-called "Five Eyes."

CSEC has roughly 2,000 employees and an annual budget of about $450 million. It will soon move into a new Ottawa headquarters costing taxpayers more than $1.2 billion, the most expensive federal government building ever constructed.

By comparison, the NSA is the largest intelligence agency in the U.S., with a budget of over $40 billion and employing about 40,000 people. It is currently building what is believed to be one of the largest and most powerful computers in the world.

CSEC is comparatively much smaller but has become a formidable and sophisticated surveillance outlet. Canadian eavesdroppers are also integral to the Five Eyes partnership around the world.

The documents obtained by the CBC do not indicate what, if any, role CSEC played in spying at the G20 in Toronto.

But the briefing notes make it clear that the agency's co-operation would be absolutely vital to ensuring access to the telecommunications systems that would have been used by espionage targets during the summits.

G20 Report

A protester jumps on a burnt-out car as a police car burns in the background during an anti-G20 demonstration June 26, 2010 in Toronto. Top secret NSA briefing notes predicted vandalism by "issue-based extremists" was a more likely threat than al-Qaeda-type terrorists during the event. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

Much of the secret G20 document is devoted to security details at the summit, although it notes: "The intelligence community assesses there is no specific, credible information that al-Qa'ida or other Islamic extremists are targeting" the event.

No matter. The NSA warns the more likely security threat would come from "issue-based extremists" conducting acts of vandalism.

They got that right.

Protest marches by about 10,000 turned the Toronto G20 into an historic melee of arrests by more than 20,000 police in what would become one of the largest and most expensive security operations in Canadian history.

By the time the tear gas had cleared and the investigations were complete, law enforcement agencies stood accused of mass-violations of civil rights.

Add to that dubious legacy illegal spying by an American intelligence agency with the blessing of the Canadian government.

CBC contacted the Canadian and U.S. governments for comment, and answers to specific questions.

U.S. State Department officials would not comment directly on the spying issue. Instead they pointed to the fact President Obama has ordered a review of all NSA operations in the wake of the Snowden revelations.

In Canada, officials at CSEC offered no comment .


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How RCMP managed fallout from Alberta flood gun seizures

Documents obtained by CBC News show just how much pressure the Mounties were under to justify to their political masters the decision to seize firearms from evacuated homes at the height of the Alberta floods last spring.  

The emails paint a picture of a police force trying to juggle the demands of policing in an emergency with public and political criticisms.

The correspondence, obtained under Access to Information, begins on June 20, 2013, when the RCMP asked for help from the Canadian Forces because there were roughly 150 people trapped in trees and on rooftops.

Insp. Don McKenna explained the need for helicopters and boats with big engines to power through debris-filled water.

By June 25, the Mounties reported having rescued 38 people, locating 327 people in evacuation zones after entering 4,688 buildings, 754 of them by force.

But what the RCMP found in some of those homes created another operational challenge.

An email from an unidentified RCMP special tactical operations (STO) member describes the operating procedures in place for those searches.

"We did not search for firearms and only firearms that were in the open/in plain sight were to be noted and secured. The purpose of the searches were for people and animals in distress."

The officer added that no STO members seized firearms from gun cabinets, whether they were locked or not.

In total, the documents show the Mounties seized 542 firearms, 93 of them coming from a single residence.  When the people of High River found out, many were incensed.

On June 28, the Calgary Herald ran a story with the headline, "'Hell to Pay:'  Residents angry as RCMP seize guns from High River homes."

It only took a few hours for Mark Johnson, the director of issues management in the office of former Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, to send a link to that story to the RCMP and asked, "Is this taking members away from the work of disaster recovery?"

Subsequent emails indicate there were also some phone calls from the minister's office asking how many guns had been taken.

The inquiries did not go over so well inside RCMP national headquarters.

'A bit of a political issue'

Sgt. Julie Gagnon wrote to her colleagues, "They are getting involved in basic police work where we are only ensuring the safety/security of the population. Police do that kind of work when they go to residences that are unsecured. This is not taking them away from doing other things, they have to do it."  

Her boss Daniel Lavoie asked why political staffers needed the numbers, as did Alberta's Deputy Commissioner Dale McGowan.

"I'm not sure we should be releasing the number as it is quite a statement with that many unsecured guns out there.  A bit of a political issue I would think," wrote McGowan.

That was an understatement.

The very next day, the Prime Minister's Office publicly rebuked the RCMP by saying the force "should focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property." It added that all firearms should be returned to their owners as soon as possible.

Looking back on it, Staff Sgt. Abe Townsend says the statement was not appreciated. "They acted within the law and in the best interests of the community. The negative comments surrounding the manner in which the members were conducting their duties was discouraging," the RCMP staff relations representative said. 

The Alberta government had also taken an interest in the High River gun situation.

On June 27, Solicitor General Jonathan Denis wrote to McGowan to thank the Mounties for their dedication and commitment but also to get clarification on whether  weapons taken from private dwellings were being stored or confiscated. He also asked if there was a plan to tell Albertans how to retrieve their lawful property.

Back in High River documents show the two officers tasked with documenting each gun and making sure it wasn't stolen property were under a great deal of strain.  

On June 29, Staff Sgt. Ian Shardlow replied to a request to start returning firearms, "We are stuck at two resources to accomplish this. We have processed the guns from the first zone… we have a couple of concerns regarding the logistics of accomplishing this."  

The next day Shardlow reported having returned several firearms, including $25,000 worth of guns to someone who he said was happy with how the RCMP handled the seizures.

There was one procedural hiccup though. Shardlow wrote that he had been unable to reach the Canadian Firearms Centre to obtain transport permits for restricted firearms in cases where evacuees were not returning to their flood-damaged homes.

Guns turned in for safekeeping

By July 5, officers had returned 164 firearms but something else was happening. While several residents continued to slam the RCMP for kicking down their doors and taking their guns, others in High River started bringing their guns and large quantities of ammunition to the Mounties for safekeeping.

On July 10, people had surrendered so many firearms at the local detachment that lack of space was becoming an issue.  

Cst. Matt Allen asked for permission to rent a small shipping container."That would put two garage bays here at the detachment back in service. As of tonight's totals we have 109 guns in storage at the request of the owners. I anticipate this number will increase in the coming weeks."

One month later, the RCMP reported that 517 firearms had been returned, 94 had been turned in for destruction and 132 remained in storage along with 500,000 rounds of ammunition.

"The firearms in storage are made up of a small amount originally secured during the flood but the vast amount of them have been brought in after the flood by owners who have no place to safely store them for the time being," wrote Cst. John Rotheisler.


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Digital diplomacy spreads through Washington

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 26 November 2013 | 21.17

The Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., opened its doors last week to the city's digital diplomats for an event where they could brag about their use of social media and pick up some tips.

A dozen embassies and international organizations, including the World Bank and European Union delegation, participated in the "Digital Diplomacy Open House" that was held in partnership with the Digital Diplomacy Coalition. The groups had tables set up with materials and laptops and they gave presentations to showcase how they are using Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms to further their foreign policy objectives.

Digital diplomacy has been evolving quickly over the last three to four years and some countries, such as the United States and Britain, are way ahead of others. But in true diplomatic fashion, embassies in Washington at least, are trying to bridge the gaps by helping each other learn about and leverage the power of social media.

"If we are to be successful in this world of 21st century statecraft we can't stop learning and adapting," Katherine Baird, who is in charge of congressional, public and intergovernmental relations at the Canadian Embassy, told the packed room of attendees in her welcoming remarks.

For foreign ministries of governments around the globe, and their embassies, that adaptation means they now plan how to communicate with the public in 140 characters or less. Twitter has become such an important player that 'Twiplomacy' is common parlance in international affairs circles.

It also means getting ambassadors and foreign ministers themselves to jump on the Twitter train, it means creating videos for YouTube, it means maintaining accounts on Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr – it means a lot more work for public affairs and communications staff. 

Embassies get creative

Some embassies now employ staff who focus solely on digital communications. That's Jed Shein's job – digital director – at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He's also one of the co-founders of the Digital Diplomacy Coalition, a group that was founded last year by a handful of diplomats from various embassies, meant to serve as a forum for Washington's diplomatic community.

"You see varying levels of use and activity, but people realize they can't not be on it," Shein said about using social media. "They've got to be there. It's missed opportunity if they're not."

digital-diplomacy-italy

Andreas Sandre, left, is in charge of digital diplomacy at the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C. (Keegan Bursaw/Canadian embassy)

Shein said his embassy tends to create social media content that is a little more edgy and political than some of Israel's other embassies. At times their efforts have generated news coverage in traditional media which is an added bonus. Case in point: the fake LinkedIn page the Washington embassy created for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in September.

The bogus page described Rouhani as a "PR professional" and "nuclear proliferation advocate" and listed "illusion" as one of his skills. The profile was posted to coincide with Rouhani's appearance at the United Nations General Assembly. It created enough buzz on social media that news outlets picked up the story.

Social media is changing the way public diplomacy is conducted and it's giving embassies a bit more control over their messaging. It's also extended their reach far beyond local or national media markets.

"No longer do you have to rely on the press to pick up the quote that you want. You can create the messages that you want by putting out the content that you want," said Shein.

Ralph Posner, senior vice-president at Fleishman Hillard in Washington, whose firm does work for the Turkish Embassy, said embassies have to be cautious with their digital diplomacy.

"It's not without risk that's for sure," he said. "Embassies have to be careful and not get too far out in front of their ministries of foreign affairs back home."

Several diplomats at the open house said they are trying to use social media effectively so their efforts aren't wasted and don't backfire. It's not just being on Twitter that matters, for example, it's how it is used, they said. Language, and which one to use, also must be taken into consideration since the messages put out by embassies in America are read by both Americans and the expatriate communities. 

Canada connects on social media

The Canadian Embassy in D.C. has been playing the digital diplomacy game for a few years now. The "Connect2Canada" website was created in 2005 and in 2008 the embassy started tweeting under that name and created a Connect2Canada Facebook page to share news about Canada and bilateral relations.

Ambassador Gary Doer doesn't have his own Twitter account, but the communications team often writes on Twitter about his activities in real time using his name as a hashtag. The team also uses Flickr, YouTube and LinkedIn.

"Digital diplomacy is more than traditional diplomacy adapted to a new medium. Social media allows the embassy to engage, collaborate and share in real time," the embassy's deputy spokeswoman Alexandra Vachon White said. "The reach of accurate information can be expanded instantly."

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is active on Twitter and so is his department, along with embassies and consulates around the world that use various social media tools.

For Andreas Sandre, the Italian Embassy's press officer in charge of digital diplomacy in Washington, it's all about drawing people together.

"If you've ever been to an Italian piazza, that's sort of the idea," he said while manning his booth at the open house. "That Italian piazza that you can find in Venice, Florence, other small towns, you now find online through social media."


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Tories, Liberals hold 2 seats each in federal byelections

The Liberals and Conservatives each won two of the four federal byelections Monday night, a result that maintains the electoral status quo but may be seen as a partial victory for Justin Trudeau's party — which nearly pulled off an upset in a Manitoba Conservative stronghold. 

The Manitoba riding of Brandon-Souris had been too close to call all night. At one point, Liberal candidate Rolf Dinsdale had taken a slight lead, but Tory candidate Larry Maguire, a prominent provincial MLA, was able to claim victory, winning by just under 400 votes. Maguire secured 44.1 per cent of the votes compared to the Liberal candidate's 42.7 per cent.

"Thank you Brandon-Souris! Your support tonight is truly appreciated," Maguire tweeted shortly after his victory.

The Liberals did hold on to Toronto Centre, where Chrystia Freeland defeated NDP candidate Linda McQuaig. They also retained Montreal's Bourassa riding, where Liberal candidate Emmanuel Dubourg claimed victory.

"The NDP is no longer the hopeful optimistic party of Jack Layton," Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said in Montreal. "It is the Liberal Party tonight that proved that hope is stronger than fear."

'The NDP is no longer the hopeful optimistic party of Jack Layton.'- Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau

The race in Toronto Centre had shaped up into a contest between two journalists; Freeland, a former Reuters executive and author, and McQuaig, an author and former Toronto Star columnist​. Freeland won over McQuiag by a substantial margin — 49.1 per cent to 36.4 per cent.

In the Liberal stronghold of Bourassa, Dubourg, who won 48.1 per cent of the vote, will be replacing former Liberal MP Denis Coderre, who stepped down to run for municipal office and is the city's newly elected mayor. 

Stéphane Moraille, a former singer in the musical group Bran Van 3000, the candidate for the NDP, came in second with 31.4 per cent.

Dubourg's first post-election tweet reaffirmed his agreement with his party's stance on marijuana legalization.

"I am for regulation and therefore the legalization of marijuana," he wrote.

Conservative candidate Ted Falk claimed victory in the riding of Provencher in Manitoba.

Falk recorded a big victory, winning 58.1 per cent of the vote compared to Liberal candidate Terry Hayward who trailed with 29.9 per cent support.

The longtime Tory stronghold was most recently represented by former cabinet minister Vic Toews, who retired from politics in July after almost 13 years as the area's MP.

Of the four contests, the byelection in Brandon-Souris had become a priority for the party leaders as the normally Conservative stronghold was seen to be vulnerable, in part because the nomination process for Maguire rankled some Tories.

Ted Falk victory speech

Conservative Ted Falk delivers his victory speech at the legion in Steinbach, Man., on Monday night. (Chris Glover/CBC)

Trudeau had personally visited the riding three times, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair had visited twice and several federal Conservative cabinet ministers have made the trek to the riding.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has for weeks fended off opposition attacks about the Senate spending scandal, took the unprecedented step of sending a personal letter to Brandon constituents — an indicator of what's at stake in this riding.

Since Trudeau was chosen as the federal Liberal leader last spring, the party has risen from third place in the polls, back into first place, with the Conservatives slightly behind. The NDP has sunk back to its traditional third-place slot.


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Auditor general to table fall report on Tuesday

The federal government's $39.6 billion national shipbuilding procurement strategy will be in the public spotlight on Tuesday when Auditor General Michael Ferguson tables his annual fall report.

The Canadian navy will retire its aging supply ships and will have to wait at least 18 months before new ones arrive, federal and military officials confirmed last month.

The gap is the result of a bottleneck in the federal government's national shipbuilding strategy which will be at the centre of Ferguson's audit on Tuesday.

The audit report will be tabled in the House of Commons at 10 a.m. ET and will be followed by a news conference 90 minutes later.

CBC News will carry the auditor general's news conference live starting at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The fall audit will examine not only how the federal government has managed the acquisition of military ships to support the financial restructuring of its naval fleet, but it will also look at how the Canada Revenue Agency followed up on a list it received in 2007 of possible Canadians with offshore banking accounts, and whether Transport Canada has adequately overseen the management of rail safety risks, among other things.

Earlier this year, the largest ever leak of data from offshore tax havens included a list with the names of hundreds of Canadians on it. 

CBC News was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists group that was given access to the data from 10 locales, involving 130,000 people.

Since the train derailment in Lac-Mégantic last July, the federal government has taken steps to increase rail safety and the transportation of dangerous goods across the country.​ 

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced two weeks ago that the federal government will require railway companies to inform the communities their trains run through of the dangerous goods they are carrying.

The 2013 fall report of the Auditor General will contain the following nine chapters:

  • Follow-up Audit on Internal Controls over Financial Reporting.
  • Access to Online Services.
  • National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS).
  • Canada's Food Recall System.
  • Preventing Illegal Entry into Canada.
  • Emergency Management on Reserves.
  • Oversight of Rail Safety by Transport Canada.
  • Disaster Relief for Producers — Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
  • Offshore Banking — Canada Revenue Agency.

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Cleanup attempt on Wright-Duffy deal raises more questions

The prime minister's director of communications hit the talk-show circuit this weekend to explain Stephen Harper's handling of the Wright-Duffy affair, but may have raised more questions about how much Harper knew and what he did with that knowledge.

In question period Monday in the House of Commons, Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair pounced on the fact that Jason MacDonald referred to "the coverup that we now know took place" when he spoke to media interviewers about the repayment of Senator Mike Duffy's inappropriate expenses.

Why has the prime minister not dismissed everyone in his office involved in the coverup, demanded Mulcair.

Speaking for the prime minister, who was not in the House, Harper's parliamentary secretary Paul Calandra pointed out, as he did several times during question period, that only Nigel Wright, the prime minister's former chief of staff, and Duffy are the focus of the RCMP investigation of the repayment of Duffy's expenses.

Both Wright and Duffy are being scrutinized by the RCMP for possible criminal charges because Wright personally paid Duffy's expenses in exchange for certain conditions demanded by Duffy.

Jason MacDonald talked to CTV, Global and CBC Radio's The House on Saturday and Sunday about an email exchange detailed in documents the RCMP released to an Ottawa court last week.

The emails seem to relate to an early attempt by Wright to arrange for the Conservative Party to repay $32,000 of Senator Mike Duffy's inappropriate expenses as well as his legal fees.

In an email dated Feb. 22, Wright contacted Benjamin Perrin, Harper's legal counsel, as well as others in the PMO, and referred to "point three" in a legal agreement that had been worked out between Duffy and the Prime Minister's Office. Wright, as chief of staff, was the head of the PMO.

Keeping Duffy 'whole'

"Point three" was a demand of Duffy's, communicated through his lawyer, that "there be an arrangement to keep him [Duffy] whole on the repayment. His legal fees will also be reimbursed." Keeping Duffy "whole" is thought to mean he wouldn't be personally out of pocket over the reimbursement of his expenses.

In the same email, Wright said, "I do want to speak to the PM before everything is considered final." The RCMP documents relate that less than an hour later, Wright followed up with another email, saying, "We are good to go with the PM."

Once it became known that Duffy's ill-claimed expenses were actually $90,000, the Conservative Party backed out, and Wright stepped in to cover the debt out of his own resources.

MacDonald told several interviewers over the weekend, that "good to go" meant the prime minister was merely agreeing Duffy must pay his own expenses. Asked why the prime minister would need to approve such an obvious question, MacDonald explained it was because Duffy didn't want to co-operate, and Harper's word was necessary to compel him to pay up.

Senator Gerstein's role

MacDonald was also asked if the prime minister knew Senator Irving Gerstein, the Conservative Party's official fundraiser, approached the private accounting firm Deloitte to (unsuccessfully) persuade the auditors to halt their examination of Duffy's expenses.

MacDonald said the prime minister had no knowledge of Gerstein's intervention and also didn't know Gerstein was willing to have the Conservative Party repay Duffy's expenses as long as the amount was $32,000 and no more.

Harper has confirmed the party paid Duffy's $13,000 lawyer's bill, but has never explained what the legal work was for.

When MacDonald was asked why Gerstein still holds the position of party fundraiser, he didn't directly answer. In the House of Commons Monday, Mulcair also asked why Gerstein has not been evicted from the Conservative caucus.

To many of the questions, Calandra kept referring to an incident 17 years ago when Mulcair, then a provincial Liberal MNA in Quebec, was offered a possible bribe by the then mayor of Laval who is now facing charges. Mulcair has said he didn't know what the envelope was, and didn't report it to the police until 2011.

At one point, Calandra intoned "the poor NDP" who had to choose a leader whom he described as a "corrupt Liberal."

The NDP at times heckled Calandra with cries of "coverup, coverup, criminal activity."

Calandra did not provide an explanation why other people in the PMO, other than Wright, have not also been dismissed, given the RCMP documents make it clear they knew of the deal to have Wright pay off Duffy.   


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Byelection results: How the Liberals won the showdown

Cue the excuses and the spin.

The Conservatives nearly lost their safe Manitoba seat of Brandon-Souris Monday night and the NDP failed to take either one of the Liberal strongholds in Toronto (Toronto-Centre) and Montreal (Bourassa) while losing substantial ground in Manitoba.  

And before the losers start explaining that byelections are simply opportunities to send the governing party "a message" and that they don't really matter, remember the words of Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this month:

"Don't let anyone tell you this byelection doesn't matter — there's a lot on the line," he told Brandon voters in a letter.

Indeed there was — leadership. 

Federal Byelections 20131125

A supporter of Liberal Rolf Dinsdale reacts after Conservative candidate Larry Maguire extended his lead during a tight race in the Brandon-Souris byelection in Manitoba. (Trevor Hagan/The Canadian Press)

This was the first opportunity for all three parties to gauge the impact of the Senate scandal and another chance to test the appeal of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, neither of whom has led their parties in a general election.

When the prime minister called the byelections he could scarcely have imagined his party would come so close to losing Brandon and see the Liberals in the other Manitoba riding up for grabs, Provencher, do as well as they did.

'Don't let anyone tell you this byelection doesn't matter — there's a lot on the line.'- Prime Minister Stephen Harper

For the Conservatives, the Brandon result probably has many lessons, as it began with a messy nomination race that left many supporters feeling as though the party was rigging the race to install Larry Maguire, the local MLA since 1999. (The mayor of Killarney, a card-carrying Conservative, was angry enough to quit the party and run against Rolf Dinsdale for the Liberal nomination.)

It was also an example, perhaps, of the dangers of intervening so much in a local election when you are a prime minister trying to face down a (Senate) scandal in Ottawa.

Harper personally stepped in to save the riding late last week when he penned a letter directly to voters in Brandon. He poured scorn on Dinsdale for returning to his hometown only to run in the byelection, and he aimed his ire at Trudeau for his plan to legalize marijuana.

Harper also got as close to Brandon as is seemly for a prime minister during a byelection by travelling to Winnipeg last week to attend a Jets game and cut the ribbon on a nine-kilometre stretch of new road. All the while, the Conservative Party produced a national radio attack ad again focused on Trudeau.

The entire effect was to make it clear that the Conservatives see the Liberals and not the NDP as their primary threat. But with all that firepower spent, they undoubtedly expected a better return.

The other Manitoba riding

Things went better for the Conservatives in Provencher, where former cabinet minister Vic Toews last won with 70 per cent of the vote.

Conservative candidate Ted Falk followed the party's time-tested practice of avoiding debates and keeping public appearances to a bare minimum.

But then Falk marked Bullying Awareness Week by asking a local gay teenager whether he'd really been bullied.

Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau in Toronto

Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, right, made several trips to the riding of Toronto Centre to campaign with star Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Last February, Evan Wiens was promoting a gay-straight alliance at his school when students were caught on tape making derogatory comments. Falk questioned whether the taunts had been staged.

The NDP and Liberal candidates both called on Falk to apologize, to no avail. Falk won the election handily Monday night, but the story in Provencher is the drop in NDP support from 18 per cent of the vote in 2011 to eight per cent yesterday, while the Liberals increased their vote to 30 per cent from seven.

When the byelections were called, the Liberals only had 61 members in Brandon-Souris and 66 in Provencher. They now have roughly 300 and 150 respectively.

Those aren't robust numbers, but the party would be hard-pressed to remember the last time hundreds of Manitobans signed up to become Liberals.

Explaining why the Liberals did as well as they did in these Prairie ridings is more difficult. Sure, the Dinsdale name is a factor. Rolf Dinsdale's father, Walter, was the Conservative MP in Brandon for 30 years.

But when local Conservative screw-ups and the Senate scandal prompted voters to consider an alternative, that tossed open the door for both the NDP and the Liberals.

Mulcair and Trudeau each made several visits to Brandon as well as stops in Provencher, where they attracted large crowds.

People are always curious about the alternatives, but in this case they appear to have preferred the Liberals.

Even the NDP candidate in Brandon, Cory Szczepanski, told the Winnipeg Free Press, "I knew I had an uphill battle, I just didn't expect it would be against a Liberal."

'Not from here'

In Brandon, the NDP were probably hobbled when the provincial NDP government hiked the PST. But Manitoba voters have been good in the past at distinguishing between provincial and federal New Democrats.

So it may be here that we are seeing proof of the Trudeau effect on people outside the party.

Yet in Toronto-Centre, Trudeau had to work far harder than anyone expected to keep the long-held riding Liberal.

He showed up every few days to help his candidate Chrystia Freeland in one of the country's safest Liberal seats.

Now though, the NDP is nipping at the party's heels thanks to it borrowing a successful Conservative "you're not from here" strategy.

Author and journalist Freeland is originally from Alberta and spent 10 years outside Canada before returning to Toronto to run. And she had to rely on others to get noticed while mainstreeting, including her friends former prime minister Paul Martin and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

The NDP marketed its candidate, Linda McQuaig, also a well-known author and journalist as "From Toronto. For Toronto." The party also obtained celebrity endorsements and produced slick campaign videos.

For Mulcair, this was a chance to see how well his leadership skills, widely praised by pundits for his prosecution-like handling of the Senate scandal, played with regular Canadians.

But from the outset, he downplayed expectations for Bourassa, in suburban Montreal, calling it a "Liberal fortress."

Of course he is also fond of telling people his riding of Outremont was also a Liberal fortress until he won it in a 2007 byelection.

The NDP wanted to show Quebecers that Mulcair has what it takes to follow through on what Jack Layton achieved in 2011, when his late-hour surge ended up taking 58 of the province's 75 seats.

Instead, the NDP result stayed the same while the Liberal share of the vote grew at the expense of the Bloc Québécois.


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4 storylines to watch in today's byelections

Written By Unknown on Senin, 25 November 2013 | 21.17

Voters in three provinces are casting ballots in four federal byelections.

Monday's byelections have taken on greater significance thanks to hotly contested races between the opposition NDP and Liberals in Ontario and Quebec and the controversy over the expenses scandal in the Senate.

Here's are four things to know about the races as voters go to the polls.

1. Tory split raises Liberal hopes in Brandon-Souris

This byelection should have been a shoo-in for Tory candidate Larry Maguire, a prominent provincial MLA running in a Conservative stronghold.

But a controversial nomination process disqualified two potential candidates because of incomplete paperwork.

CBC byelection coverage tonight

Return to CBCNews.ca after polls close at 9:30 p.m. ET (8:30 p.m. CT) for full coverage of the results.

When to vote

Bourassa (Quebec):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

Brandon-Souris (Manitoba): 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Provencher (Manitoba):  8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Toronto Centre (Ontario):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

More information and where to vote in your riding at Elections Canada's website.

Maguire was acclaimed and that soured many Conservatives, one of whom left the party to run as a Liberal candidate. (He didn't win the nomination.)

Maguire has since been criticized for not attending two of the four candidates' debates and for a series of attack ads against his Liberal opponent Rolf Dinsdale, whom Maguire paints as a parachute candidate from Toronto, even though Dinsdale's father was the Progressive Conservative MP in the riding for more than three decades.

The Senate scandal in Ottawa isn't helping Maguire either.

Many voters say they're not happy with the Harper government and want to send a message. A byelection is a safe way to do that.

The federal party leaders sense that, and have made this race a priority.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has been here three times, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has visited twice and several federal Conservative cabinet ministers have made the trek to the riding.

Kelly Saunders, a political scientist at Brandon University, says this race could be a game-changer and foreshadow what could happen in the 2015 general election.

"This is Western Canada, where the Liberals haven't been able to build up much support. If they can win this seat in a safe Tory riding like Brandon-Souris, they will use that to build momentum. For Conservatives, they won't be able to take things for granted as they maybe have in the past," she says.

2. Liberals, NDP square off in Montreal

Voters in North Montreal's diverse Bourassa riding are choosing a new MP to replace Denis Coderre, who stepped down to run for municipal office and is the city's newly elected mayor.

Both of the perceived lead candidates were born in Haiti, which is seen as an advantage in a federal district where one in every five voters identifies as Haitian.

Though the district is comprised of varied ethnic groups and socio-economic statuses, employment is the dominating priority for voters, as the average annual income in Bourassa is $26,000 and the unemployment rate exceeds 13 per cent.

To replace Coderre, the Liberals chose six-year Quebec National Assembly MLA Emmanuel Dubourg.

"We will set up a roundtable consisting of elected municipal, provincial and federal governments to address issues of youth employment, as well as safety," said Dubourg. "The district's police commander said that the biggest problem he sees is domestic violence."

Dubourg's main opponent is the NDP's Stéphane Moraille, a former singer in the musical group Bran Van 3000.

"The NDP wants to introduce a tax credit for hiring young people," said Moraille. "We are on a crusade against the costs of credit cards that eat away at incomes. We want to attract investors to employ people."

The Bloc Québécois candidate, Daniel Duranleau, has also tried to appeal to the Haitian community in this historically federalist riding by promoting the work of the Quebec government during Haiti's 2010 earthquake.

"The Quebec government was very proactive and Ottawa worked at a much slower pace. In the end, those who have suffered are the people," said Duranleau.

The Conservative candidate, Mahmoud Rida, was absent during the candidates' debate.

The Green Party's candidate was former NHL player Georges Laraque, but he dropped out to address criminal fraud charges and was replaced by Danny Polifroni.

3. Media stars lead polls in Toronto Centre

The race for former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae's riding of Toronto Centre will likely be decided by two journalists. The riding has been Liberal red for 20 years and was vacated by Rae in June.

Polling suggests Liberal candidate and former Wall Street Journal reporter Chrystia Freeland is leading NDP candidate Linda McGuaig, an author and journalist. Veteran reporter John Deverell is running for the Green Party. 

McQuaig, a former Toronto Star columnist, was visited in her riding by Mulcair on Friday.

"It's a Liberal stronghold. We've known that since the beginning," Mulcair said while campaigning at a downtown subway station. "But people want to send the message that there is an option, that they're tired of alternating between Liberal corruption and Conservative corruption."

Trudeau has also visited what he hopes will remain his party's riding. Freeland has said the big issues for residents are the economy and jobs.

"People keep coming back to that," Freeland said. "A lot of people are worried about how Canadian politics is working."

At least one analyst believes the unfolding scandal in Ottawa might overshadow local issues at the ballot box.

"I would say the Senate scandal is now reverberating, so that's going to have an effect," said University of Toronto professor Nelson Wiseman. "Then the question becomes: is it going to benefit the NDP or the Liberals?"

Interest in the byelection appears high in Toronto Centre, with hundreds packing a high school gym last week. Conservative candidate Geoff Pollock told the crowd that if elected his party would "continue to create jobs, and that's something this government has done under the leadership of Stephen Harper."

But people here seem to be more concerned with the lack of affordable housing, public transit and federal subsidies.

"I hear constantly about the housing crisis in downtown Toronto — that is the number one issue," McQuaig said. "People are just overwhelmed by the lack of decent housing."

4. Conservatives appear safe in Manitoba stronghold

Manitoba's Provencher is widely expected to remain Conservative territory.

The longtime Tory stronghold was most recently represented by former cabinet minister Vic Toews, who retired from politics in July after almost 13 years as the area's MP.

The campaign leading up to Monday's vote has been relatively quiet compared to Manitoba's other byelection race in Brandon-Souris.

For the most part, Conservative candidate Ted Falk kept a low profile. He did not participate in any public debates, prompting his opponents to accuse him of hiding.

"We're busy trying to get the message out to our constituents," Falk told CBC News on Thursday, after a reporter tracked him down at a public event following numerous interview requests.

Still, polls and political observers, as well as many voters in the area, suggest he's the one to beat.

"Most of the area is Conservative-minded," said Frank Toews, a resident of Steinbach, Man.

But Falk caused a stir at the end of the campaign when he suggested in a newspaper interview that an openly gay teenager in Steinbach may have staged his own bullying incident earlier this year for a CBC News report about Manitoba's anti-bullying legislation.

Evan Wiens, 17, said he was hurt by Falk's suggestion and called on him to apologize.

Falk has stood by his questioning, but said he is "100 per cent against bullying."


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How the RCMP mapped the Wright-Duffy money trail

Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright

A deal between suspended Senator Mike Duffy, left, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, right, is being investigated by the RCMP. (Adrian Wyld and Sean Fitzpatrick/Canadian Press)

RCMP investigators have already pieced together an almost-complete picture of how $90,000 from the prime minister's former chief of staff ended up in Senator Mike Duffy's bank account. But they want more information to finish the narrative.

The money from Nigel Wright's personal resources was used to repay inappropriate housing and living expenses filed by Duffy over a four-year period.

The origin, purpose, deliverance and acceptance of that $90,000 could result in charges against Duffy and Wright. Court documents released this week show both men are being investigated by the Mounties for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. No charges have been laid and the allegations have not been proven in court.

In an affidavit filed in an Ottawa court Wednesday, RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton laid out how the money travelled from Wright to Duffy.

Although Duffy owned his Ottawa suburban home before he was appointed to the Senate, he declared that his P.E.I. winterized cottage was his primary residence, allowing him to charge secondary expenses for his house in the nation's capital.

The money route

Once it was established that Duffy had to repay his expenses, he took out a $91,600 mortgage loan from the Royal Bank. In his affidavit, Horton says, "I believe this loan was an effort by Senator Duffy to create a paper trail so he could show that he obtained the loan to repay the money, if ever asked."

Duffy would later tell reporters he voluntarily paid back the inappropriate expenses on his own, although he didn't believe he had done anything wrong. "It was the right thing to do," he said, explaining he'd taken out a bank loan to make the repayment

On the same day Duffy obtained the mortgage loan, he took $80,000 from his private account and put it into a line of credit he said was being used for renovating his cottage.

According to Horton, "He now had $91,600 from a mortgage loan, so having no need for it for the repayment, he put $80,000 of that money on his line of credit."

The officer believes Duffy knew a bank draft from Wright was on its way.

Three days later, on March 25, Wright arranged for a bank draft worth $90,172.24 to be delivered to the office of Janice Payne, Duffy's lawyer. The figure was the exact amount Senate administration staff calculated Duffy owed in inappropriately claimed expenses.

On March 26, a branch-to-branch transfer put $90,172.24 into Duffy's private RBC account.

On that same day, a personal cheque from Duffy for $90,172.24 made out to the Receiver General was delivered to the Senate.

Horton says in the affidavit that he believes this was Nigel Wright's money. One purpose of the 81-page affidavit is to persuade a judge to allow him access to bank records showing who transferred the money into Duffy's account, and from where.

That information would complete the picture of a complex routing of money designed to hide the source of the funds, and a plan to make it seem Duffy had used his own resources to repay his expenses.

Why Duffy's Senate debt jumped from $32K to $90K

A question that rises out of the RCMP documents is how the amount of money Duffy owed the Senate for inappropriate expenses escalated from $32,000, a figure Wright, in early February, initially thought was the correct amount — which the Conservative Party was apparently willing to pay — to $90,000.

The party balked at the higher figure, which Wright wound up covering since Duffy either couldn't, or wouldn't.

The smaller figure may have come from a Deloitte audit on Duffy's expenses, conducted in February, that concluded the P.E.I. senator charged about $34,000 in living expenses for the 18-month period the independent accounting firm was tasked to examine.

The audit shows Duffy collected a private accommodation allowance for his house in Kanata, an Ottawa suburb, because presumably he didn't have a mortgage.

The private accommodation allowance is $28 per day, amounting to about $10,000 a year. Had Duffy been able to show Senate administration he had a mortgage or a lease, he could have charged double that amount

But the the allowance for per diems or meals is much higher — $86 for every day an out-of-town senator is in Ottawa on Senate business.

Wright, an independently wealthy man who never personally charged expenses, didn't seem aware Duffy was charging per diems. When he found out, he told the RCMP, he was incensed that Duffy was getting paid for meals he ate in his own house in Ottawa.

Once the Senate looked back at the entire four years of Duffy's Senate tenure, his ineligible private accommodation costs and per diems jumped to $80,000 with another $10,000 for interest, as well as the payback of claims Duffy said he mistakenly made while on vacation in Florida.

Wright ended up reimbursing the entire amount out of his own pocket, saying in an email obtained by the RCMP, "I am beyond furious ... the money will be repaid."


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Iran nuclear deal gets 'deeply skeptical' response from Canada

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says he is "deeply skeptical" of the newly brokered nuclear deal with Iran and says Canada's sanctions will remain in "full force" against the country.

"We will evaluate the deal reached not just on the merits of its words but more importantly, on its verifiable implementation," Baird said at a news conference in Ottawa on Sunday.

He said that because of previous Iranian leaders had made hostile comments toward Israel, "we're deeply skeptical of the deal and the work that's brought us to this stage."

Obama reassures Netanyahu

U.S. President Barack Obama attempted to reassure a skeptical Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and said he wants to begin consultations with Israel immediately.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Air Force One that the two leaders reaffirmed the shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"Consistent with our commitment to consult closely with our Israeli friends, the president told the prime minister that he wants the United States and Israel to begin consultations immediately regarding our effort to negotiate a comprehensive solution," Earnest said.

The agreement reached in Geneva during talks between Iran, the United States and five other world powers commits Tehran to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for limited and gradual relief from crippling economic sanctions.

Baird also said Canada will maintain sanctions against Iran. Those sanctions include:

  • Restrictions on financial transactions.
  • A ban on bilateral trade (worth about $135 million).
  • No Iranian diplomatic representation in Canada.

"Past actions predict future actions and Iran has defied the United Nations Security Council, and simply put, Iran has not earned the right to have the benefit of the doubt," Baird said.

Baird said he would like to see Iran abandon its plutonium enrichment program altogether and to shut down all its centrifuges.

'Increased transparency'

South of the border, Obama hailed the deal's provisions as key to preventing Iran from proliferating. "Simply put, they cut off Iran's most likely paths to a bomb," he said.

A White House statement said the deal limits Iran's existing stockpiles of enriched uranium, which can be turned into the fissile core of nuclear arms.

The statement also said the accord curbs the number and capabilities of the centrifuges used to enrich and limits Iran's ability to "produce weapons-grade plutonium" from a reactor in the advanced stages of construction.

In addition Iran's nuclear program will be subject to "increased transparency and intrusive monitoring."

In return, the statement promised "limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible (sanctions) relief" to Iran, noting that "the key oil, banking, and financial sanctions architecture, remains in place." And it warned that any sanctions relief will be revoked and new penalties enacted if Iran fails to meet its commitments.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry joined forces with foreign ministers of the nations negotiating with Iran to push the deal through early Sunday, as the talks entered their fifth day.

Kerry said the first-step deal will make Israel — an arch enemy of Iran — safer.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is responsible for monitoring Iran's nuclear program, said there is no reason for the world to be celebrating. He said the deal reached in Geneva is based on "Iranian deception and self-delusion."


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Canadian banks to be compelled to share clients' info with U.S.

Starting next July, Canadian banks will be required to ask anyone opening a new account if they are now, or ever have been, an American "person."

It comes at the behest of the U.S. government and its efforts to "smoke out" tax dodgers.

The Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2010 and comes into force July 1, 2014.

The law forces all banks and other financial institutions outside the U.S. to search for customers who have certain "indicia." Those are markers that show the person may be a U.S. citizen or a former permanent resident who, under U.S. law, must file income tax returns to Uncle Sam no matter where they reside in the world.

The only other country with similar tax rules for expats is Eritrea.

When announcing the law, U.S. President Barack Obama said, "if financial institutions won't cooperate with us, we will assume they are sheltering money in tax-havens and act accordingly."

The threat is a withholding tax of 30 per cent levied on every transaction a non-compliant bank has coming from, or even passing through, the U.S.

"Bottom line is: there is absolutely no way that a large, modern financial institution like a Canadian bank or a large credit union could escape FATCA," says Marion Wrobel, vice-president of policy and operations at the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA).

Wrobel says his organization has been fighting FATCA since it was announced, calling it the "extra-territorial" application of American law.

"The only reason the Americans can do it is because it is a large economy, financial markets are integrated globally," Wrobel adds, "and it is virtually impossible for a large institution like a Canadian bank, an insurance company, a securities dealer, a large credit union to avoid being caught up in a FATCA net."

Starting July 1, 2014, banks will be required to scour the records of all of their customers with more than $50,000 in an account.

They will be looking indicators such as: place of birth, alternate addresses and phone numbers, and past residency in the United Sates. Every file with at least one indicia marker will be flagged as a "U.S. Reportable Account."

At the same time, anyone wanting to open a new account will be asked directly if they are a "U.S. person" as defined by the IRS. Anyone saying who answers affirmatively will be flagged.

Wrobel says refusing to answer the question could also land any Canadian in trouble.

"If you refuse to answer it you could be considered recalcitrant and your information could be reported."

So far the banks' protests have changed little. The best they have been able to do is take some of the heat off themselves directly. Canada is close to negotiating an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the U.S. to implement FATCA.

Once in place, the bank would no longer be required to send private customer information directly to a foreign government agency. Instead, Canadian banks will flag their customers to the Canada Revenue Agency, and — under the terms of the agreement — the CRA will be the one that automatically transmits all the information to the IRS.

To enact the IGA, the Canadian government would almost certainly need to introduce a new law or amend existing ones to allow financial institutions to breach the privacy of Canadian citizens and residents.

It's not clear how that can be done without running afoul of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Constitutional lawyer and expert Peter Hogg wrote to the Finance Department to express his concerns about the proposed deal.

In a copy of the letter released under Access to Information, he says: "To impose on financial institutions the duty to report to CRA (en route to the IRS) the names, addresses, place of birth and date of birth and details of the bank accounts of account-holders identified only by their place of birth in or citizenship of the United States, and all under the implicit threat of taxes, penalties or prosecutions by the IRS, seems to me to be a clear case of discrimination in contravention of [Section] 15 [of the Charter]."

He goes on to say: "There is no mechanism in the Model IGA whereby individuals who are suspected to be U.S. citizens would even know that their personal information was provided, " Hogg's letter argues, "thus there may be no opportunity to provide additional information or take other steps in order to prevent the transmission of this information from Canada."

At best, Hogg believes, it is an infringement "of liberty and privacy," but possibly also violations of at least three sections of the Charter.

The plan has critics around the world.

"I don't think it's pejorative to use the term 'fishing expedition,' that term has been used by the U.S. government already and people talking about FATCA — that's exactly what this is," says Allison Christians, the Stikeman Chair of Tax Law at McGill University.

She points out Canada and the U.S. already have a tax treaty that's been in place for almost 20 years, which allows the IRS to obtain information on specific individuals from the CRA automatically.

"But FATCA wants more," Christians adds. "They want not just the ones we have already identified; they want to, in the words of a former treasury secretary, 'smoke out' the Americans who are hiding."

And this is where many experts believe FATCA might not just be unconstitutional, but also misguided.

"It's not risk-based, it's not targeting known tax havens. It's looking at places like Canada, you know — Americans do not come to Canada for the low taxes," says Wrobel.

Perhaps to add insult to injury, the individual Canadian financial institutions being deputized by the IRS to sniff out wayward U.S. taxpayers need to cover the cost of the added scrutiny, monitoring, and reporting themselves.

The CBA estimates it will likely cost the big banks $100 million each to comply with FATCA.


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Middle-class votes sought for 1 big reason in today's byelections

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau can't stop talking about the middle class. In ads, speeches and in question period, the two party leaders refer repeatedly to middle-class families.

In a recent ad, Trudeau refers to them as his priority.

"Because my priority is the Canadians who built this country: the middle class, not the political class," he said

Mulcair also referred to the middle class in his speech to caucus at last spring's policy convention.

"Today, our country faces levels of income inequality not seen since the Great Depression, and the middle class is struggling like never before," he said in April.

"Middle-class wages are consistently on the decline. Yet the Conservative solution is to demand even more from you and to leave even less to our children and our grandchildren."

Despite that, it isn't all that easy getting politicians to define what they mean by the term.

"I think that the key thing to consider when we're talking about the middle class is the self-definition and our expectations around being in the middle class," said Chrystia Freeland, the Liberal candidate in the Toronto Centre byelection and author of Plutocrats.

"I think that that sort of combination of working hard, expecting that your own hard work will translate into a comfortable and secure lifestyle for you, and then a belief that if your children work hard and get a good education" they'll do well, she said.

93% say they're middle class

Nathan Rotman, national director of the NDP, said the middle class isn't easily definable.

Byelection coverage tonight

Return to CBCNews.ca after polls close at 9:30 p.m. ET (8:30 p.m. CT) for full coverage of the results.

When to vote

Bourassa (Quebec):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

Brandon-Souris (Manitoba): 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Provencher (Manitoba):  8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Toronto Centre (Ontario):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

More information and where to vote in your riding at Elections Canada's website.

"Certainly I think it's people who are struggling to make ends meet today," he said.

"People are saying well I hear that the economy is doing well, but I don't feel that it's working for me. I don't see the fruits of that strong economy in my day-to-day life... Certainly [people who are] not in the top one per cent and certainly not in the bottom five."

In fact, a specific definition of the middle class might be the 60 per cent of Canadians who make more than the bottom 20 per cent (more than about $10,000 individual income) and less than the top 20 per cent (less than about $60,000), 

Average annual individual income in Canada in 2011 was $39,300, with $29,000 clocking in as median income, the income around which half of households earn more and half of households earn less.

Average family income in Canada in 2011 was $66,200 and median family income was $48,300.

But the vast majority of Canadians identify as middle class, despite there being specific numbers to help people figure out where they fall.

That's an enormous pool of voters to try to attract. 

"Between lower middle class, middle class and upper middle class, you have 93 per cent of Canadians self-identifying," said Tony Coulson, group vice-president of corporate and public affairs at Environics Research. 

Parties direct policies to attract middle class

It's no wonder the Liberals and NDP want those middle-class votes. When politicians directly address the middle class, they're addressing almost everyone. 

Coulson says people may feel they're being reached out to when a politician says they're speaking to the middle class.

"When they hear, you know, I'm working for the middle class, I'm concerned about the middle class, those kinds of statements, they likely will feel some, some affinity toward that," he said.

The NDP and Liberals have both focused policies on appealing to the middle class, including the New Democrats' emphasis on household debt and lowering credit card fees, and the Liberals' references to making ends meet and affordable education.

One Conservative strategist says it's not only the opposition that's trying to appeal to those voters — it's just that the government does it more subtly.

Chrystia Freeland and Linda McQuaig rivals in Toronto Centre

Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland, left, and NDP candidate Linda McQuaig are facing off over the middle class in Toronto Centre. (Handout photos)

"It strikes me that it might detract from your credibility a little bit if you put it out there publicly that you are targeting a major demographic group like the middle class. It sounds tactical and it sounds kind of manipulative," said Yaroslav Baran, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategies.

"You'll see the Conservatives talking about families, families with children, consumers, taxpayers, seniors, seniors on fixed income, our brave men and women in uniform, etc. These are groups that it's easier for people to identify with or identify themselves as being a part of. They're more specific communities."

Coulson agrees that the strategy may not be targeted enough, since there are so many sub-types within the group of Canadians who call themselves middle class.

"Young urbanites, multicultural suburban households, aging folks in the inner suburbs and older people in small towns and rural areas," are all included, he said.

"So it's really a diverse group that falls within middle-class definitions and as a result the tactical outreach might need to be more tailored to those groups."

Byelections a rehearsal for 2015

NDP candidate Linda McQuaig has written several books about income inequality, including last year's The Trouble with Billionaires. Because so many people identify as middle class, she says it's better to look at income inequality as a measure. 

"In the last 30 years, virtually all the income gains have gone to the top. Particularly to the top 10 per cent, particularly the top one per cent. And when you get below that, what you find is incomes have actually stagnated or even declined," McQuaig said.

The four byelections on Monday allow the parties to rehearse their general election campaign messages.

Toronto Centre is particularly interesting with Freeland and McQuaig, two middle-class champion heavyweights, facing off.

It's so far led to fights over which candidate bought a more expensive home and has worked harder to keep professional jobs in Canada.

As Canada's politicians refine their messaging in the two years leading up to the next federal election, the focus on "middle-class priorities" is bound to get sharper.

"I think the middle class is one that encompasses most people and certainly is around, that talks to, to both the struggles that people have and how they see themselves, and I think that's an important way of reaching out and engaging voters," Rotman said.


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