November 29, 2012
So who thought using our tax dollars like it was their own little piggy bank was relegated to Montreal and the construction industry? Much bigger fish out there got caught today with their hand in the till. And bigger fish means bigger amounts of money.
In what could become the largest corporate scandal in Canada’s history, Quebec anti-corruption police have arrested Pierre Duhaime, the former chief executive of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Inc. and begun efforts to extradite another former company executive who is in a Swiss jail. Duhaime faces three charges — fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and using forged documents — related to the engineering firm’s contract to design, build and maintain the McGill University Health Centre’s new $1.3-billion super hospital. Riadh Ben Aissa, the former SNC executive who led the company’s construction business worldwide, is being sought on the same charges. Ready for the next sentence? $56-million worth of untraceable payments is being sought. Remember hurricane Sandy? It looks like the remnants will be around for many years to come. New York and New Jersey are asking no less that $80 billion from the Federal government in disaster aid. One minute. Isn’t the federal government broke? Aren’t they in the hole for trillions of dollars? Yes, Blanche, they are. And guess how much each and every American would have to contribute to get out of the hole? About $52,000 each. If you multiple that number by 314 million people, you will get the number of the deficit.
So what’s another $80 billion? Peanuts.
Could someone please tell Joe Biden that the election is over and he won? Today he went shopping in the first Costco to open in Washington DC. He went through the entire store and bought an apple pie (how American!), fire logs, (how homey!) and children’s books (how quaint…Blanche get the barf bag) amongst other things.
La Belle Province strikes again. If you tried very hard, you could not make this up. We quote from the Globe and Mail:
It wasn’t the conviction for employment-insurance fraud, nor the failure to pay provincial income taxes. Nor was it the raft of speeding tickets. In the end, it was his refusal to pay his rent that did the minister in. Daniel Breton was forced to resign on Thursday as Quebec environment minister over news reports this week that he owes thousands of dollars to landlords in Montreal. But here’s the best part of this story: Princess Pauline knew all about this dude and she still appointed him environment minister! Imagine how bad you have to be not to be chosen! Maybe rob a bank or fraud or forging documents? Wait! Maybe Pierre Duhaime could apply for the job of environment minister! We leave you with the idiotic hockey strike. What a bunch of losers, the whole bunch of them. Today’s brilliant idea was that the leadership from both sides step aside for the next bargaining session, leaving a group of owners and players to try and break the stalemate. We keep saying the same thing and we know it will work. Put them all in a room, throw away the key and don’t let them out till they reach an agreement. At this point we could even go a step further to expedite the process: no bathroom privileges. Blanche – ain’t that a bit nasty? You betcha buddy. But those boys need ta think of something else besides all that money they got. Hehehehehe.