FoneFraud: Stephen Harper vs Erin Brockovich
Yes, I’m introducing this line of thought, but bear with me.
As a sheer coincidence, I was watching the movie Erin Brockovich last night and a number of comparisons and situations struck me as they relate to the Conservative Party of Canada ‘Fone Fraud Fiasco’.
In the movie, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was the company being sued by hundreds of citizens of a little town called Hinkley. They almost seemed to be daring the public to prove them wrong. Is Stephen Harper basically daring anyone to challenge his authority on the situation at hand and is he defying all culpability and accountability in this situation? It sounded that way in the House of Commons yesterday.
Like PG&E, Stephen Harper seems to represent the ‘corporate head office’ that is limited in any kind of liability because the subsidiary being sued didn’t have direct and routine contact with the head office (despite the obvious control, demand for paperwork, dividends, benefits, profits, etc). According to Stephen Harper, there’s no knowledge of what happened, nor is there any history or documentation related to the Fone Fraud Fiasco.
Worse for Canada is the prospect that the organization responsible for investigating this fraud – Elections Canada – simply doesn’t have the resources available, possibly due to budget cuts, but realistically because they could never have imagined a crime so well organized, so well rehearsed and so immense to face Canadian voters.
Even worse still (yes!) is the prospect that if Elections Canada is not able to prosecute and jail the offenders in this case, politicians will likely expand their abuses of power and continue to exhibit their cynicism towards Canadian democracy as we wallow and weep in piles of paper and blogs.
Like PG&E victims, Canadians don’t know what to do, don’t know how to organize themselves and don’t really have a clue about how to approach the situation. We certainly can’t expect our media to act in our best interests, as they clearly don’t support Canada, but they do support the CPC.
Result: Our democracy will simply die from the cancer inflicted on us by our most cynical and teflon-coated politicians.
Is there hope?
Going back to the PG&E situation: the case was nearly a ruin. They couldn’t connect the head office with the local company, so it was doomed to go sideways in courts and appeals until the resources of the plaintiffs would be exhausted. Is Stephen Harper counting on the same situation to save himself from fraud charges? Without evidence, there is no case. Bits are trickling in, but they don’t seem to be enough to tip the scales against the Conservatives.
Until … Charles Embry, an ex-PG&E employee comes along and saves the massive class action lawsuit by confiding that he kept some of the files that execs with PG&E were so desperate to shred.
A hero by any account because he decided to do the right thing, Charles Embry took the high road and helped hundreds of people restore their faith in ‘the system’.
Will a Canadian version of Charles Embry step up to the plate and help blow this case wide open? Who will be the one person who will restore the faith of millions of Canadian voters who got robbed on May 2, 2011?
And who will Canada’s Erin Brockovich be if things finally start to heat up (as they should)? Can we trust Elections Canada and the RCMP to handle this case, knowing that so many of the senior managers have been placed by Stephen Harper?
Canada deserves better. Let’s demand it now.