Short rant. Not much, really. Just hasta get said.
Government senator and Harper appointee Pamela (Pam) Wallin ‘misunderstood’ the admittedly lax and ineffectively enforced rules on government expense spending to the tune of approximately $180,000. In other words, she cheated the public on her expenses. She cheated the country for which she was supposedly representing. She cheated the government, the people and she tried to cheat the auditors. She spent, she lied, she obstructed and she obfuscated. And she did this on top of the staggering salary she gets for merely showing up now and then to do virtually nothing ‘cept what she is told to do by the Prime Minister and his inner political circle.
But eventually she got caught (by the CBC mostly) and so the government put the hammer down! “Pay up what you owe us or we will dock your pay!”
“Dock your pay!?”
Guys go to jail for smoking marijuana (Well, they did. I have a friend who did four years in Northern Saskatchewan for that). Guys go to war for their country and then get stiffed for medical benefits and such. Somebody shouts rape and some guy is ruined – even before the trial! The RCMP taser and shoot people who pose no real risk to anyone. None of that is fair. None of that is just. None of that is right.
But this has nothing right about it. NOTHING. Everything about this story is wrong and it just gets wronger and wronger.
Maybe a better way to put it is this: a guy steals a few loaves of bread over a few years and sleeps under a bridge in between times and they put that poor jerk in jail (maybe a taser or two). The elite steal and get away with it 99% of the time. When they get caught, nothing happens. Pamela Wallin will get her pay docked!???????
If you ignore for a minute the original sin (theft by any other name) and you ignore the lies and resistance (hiring lawyers to fight the auditors’ findings) and you ignore the uselessness of the function in the first place and the other $120-something in expenses they allowed along with her overly generous salary, you simply cannot ignore that her behaviour was not befitting that of an exalted senator. She violated the public trust. She was – in no way – acting on behalf of the people. The woman cheated her employer (and we are her employer!) – plain and simple. She’s a crook.
She should be fired. Canned. Booted out. Escorted from the building. Of course she should pay back what she filched but first she should be sent packing. Like, right now! And she should make restitution in some other way than being paid by the people to pay back the people!
What bloody nonsense! And the senate themselves are proposing this ‘way-to-pay-back’ as a solution! Is there any question about the need for the senate? Well, at least the unelected, pork-barrel style senate that we currently have…..
I don’t think so. They really have to go.
And it ain’t just Pam.
Our Off the Grid Home 
With apologies Jerry Reed; ‘Pam got the gold mine, we got the shaft!’ Greed pays and any one who does not know how to work the system and make like a bandit has no future in politics. Over paid, under worked at the public trough. This is Canada’s idea of democracy.
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This just highlights how the elite class lives far beyond the laws and morals that the rest of us have to obey.
This is just the tip of a very large iceberg. If you or I had been caught embezzling an employer, especially on such a large scale, a lengthy prison sentence would be assured.
What is needed in cases like this is a stump, a basket and a large hooded fellow with a very sharp sword. You know, just to keep the rest of them somewhat honest.
Watch for the CBC budget get trimmed instead.
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SpamspamPam
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Just found your site while reading one of my favourite bloggers, Laila Yuile.
I’m curious……..your little ‘off-the-grid homestead’ wouldn’t happen to be at Echo Bay, would it?
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Ha Ha!!! Me too. I love Laila and I love Laila’s blog !!
Now, I have to hunt around this neat looking blog….
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Great post! And let’s remember that this is Stephen Harper’s problem. He appointed here, saw her expenses – said they were fine with him. Yup, let’s keep the PM on the hook because you bet there will be distraction after distraction to bury Mr.Harper’s role in this scandal. #PMHarperMustResign
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oops… that should have read he appointed “her” thanks
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Thoroughly enjoyed this entry to your blog .. I’m sure thousands of us think along the same lines, It’s pathetic really, and I think collectively, we were asleep at the switch for way too long, and now that some of us are awake – well, it’s pretty late in the game.
I’m going to follow your blog for a while – you’re a good writer with a good mind! Also, I see a friend of mine here, and I like how she thinks too! Hey Priscilla Judd, fancy meeting you here!! LOL
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Thanks. Both of you. Seriously. I appreciate it.
I started two or so years ago and good writers advised writing every day. Like discipline. So, I did. Consequently there is a lot of blather on this blog. Most of it about living OTG. But some of it is quasi-political. Rants, really. But I confess to dropping the daily habit. I have been writing only twice a week lately. I didn’t think anyone really cared that much. You know……? Poor me…hafta go eat some worms in the garden….kinda feeling?
But a new reader or two is like a shot of adrenaline. Junk for the junkie. So, thanks for that.
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