Power Play

Ex Indian Canadian MP Quits Amid Tax-Evasion Charges

Sukh Dhaliwal, a former Indian Canadian member of parliament, has resigned as a British Columbia Liberal Party candidate in the coming provincial election amid tax-evasion charges, media reports said.

An emotional Dhaliwal addressed a hastily called news conference Friday at the Grand Taj Banquet Hall in Surrey, where just days earlier he held a fundraiser with Premier Christy Clark attended by 800 supporters, Vancouver Sun reported.

Dhaliwal's resignation came hours after the BC Liberals announced a review of his candidacy and confirmed that he only notified the party of the tax charges after The Vancouver Sun obtained the court documents and called for comment, the newspaper said.

Still, Dhaliwal insisted he was not pushed, but had decided with his family that he should quit the campaign.

The Sun cited Dhaliwal as saying he didn't know about the six tax related charges between 2004 and 2010, sworn on Oct 15, until the end of November after he had already been named the candidate for Surrey-Panorama on Oct 31, 2012,

Dhaliwal made a first appearance on the six charges in Surrey Provincial Court Nov 26 and was arraigned Dec 17. The case was back in court again this week and put over to Feb 21.

The charges relate to Dhaliwal's position as president of Genco Consultants Inc., which was founded on Nov 26, 1999 as a numbered company, the Sun said.

The two-page court document alleges Dhaliwal violated section 238 (1) of the Income Tax Act when "on or about Dec 23, 2011, [he] did unlawfully direct, authorise, asset to, acquiesce in or participate in Genco Consultant's failure to file a completed Corporate Income Tax Return or T2."

There is a separate count with identical wording for each of the years 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Each count also says that Dhaliwal was "served personally" with a notice

of requirement to file on Aug 24, 2011, according to the Sun.

Dhaliwal was a Liberal MP for Surrey-Newton-North Delta from 2006 until 2011, when he was beaten by the New Democratic Party's Jinny Sims.

Source (IANS)

Liberals React Angrily to Leadership Candidate's Arrogance and Ignorance

As 1,700 delegates from across Ontario get ready to converge on Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto to elect the next leader of the Ontario Liberal Party who will then instantly become the next premier of Ontario, the discussion is all about the contemptuous remarks Sandra Pupatello has made about fellow leadership candidates.

According to the Toronto Star newspaper, at a meeting with its Editorial Board, Pupatello said that the only reason she decided to enter the leadership race because of the terrible year that the Ontario Liberals had and her complete disdain for her fellow candidates.

Sandra Pupatello

Pupatello appears to have been utterly contemptuous and dismissive of her leadership rivals when she reportedly told the Toronto Star “when I stand back and look at the cast of candidates, even I would pick me.  I have to be plain about that”

Conveniently forgetting that Pupatello’s chief rival Kathleen Wynne announced her intention to be the next Ontario leader long before other cabinet ministers such as finance minister Dwight Duncan and Deb Mathews chickened out, Pupatello ignorantly claims that her main rival Wynne, Gerard Kennedy, Harinder Takhar, Charles Sousa and Eric Hoskins would not have entered the race if candidates with more name recognition had sought to succeed current premier Dalton McGuinty.

A Pupatello delegate from Windsor reacted to Pupatello’s reported comments by questioning whether she should even bother to attend the Toronto convention. “These must be the stupidest comments a politician can make” said the liberal convention delegate speaking on the condition of anonymity.  “I guess I have to think whether I want to drive all the way to Toronto in this bad weather because I now simply cannot vote for Sandra on the second ballot.  This is beyond the pale”, said the delegate.

A source within the campaign of a candidate who was widely expected to throw his support to Pupatello on the second ballot said that the remarks attributed to Pupatello “are absolutely insulting” and wondered whether Pupatello is unaware that “Hoskins is a Rhodes Scholar, Charles is an experienced banker, Takhar was a successful businessman (prior to entering politics) and Kennedy has more political savvy than anyone else in the race?”

A Kathleen Wynne supporter worried how Pupatello’s remarks would be used by one or both of the opposition parties in the next election.  “If Kathleen were to win the leadership can you imagine the ads that Hudak and Horwath would run in the next election campaign” he questioned referring respectively to the Ontario Progressive Conservative and New Democrat leaders.

By Friday evening it should be possible to assess if an “anyone but Sandra” sentiment has begun to form among delegates upset at Pupatello slagging fellow liberals. 

by Viresh Fernando

About the Author:  Viresh is a Toronto based lawyer, chartered accountant, writer and political analyst

The world is still round in Alberta....at least for four more years

Results are starting to come in Alberta #abvote , its a Tory majority.

For once Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, Dippers, Greens , Rhino's and everyone else are happy with the victory of the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta, well technically the defeat of Wildrose party.

Once again pollsters were way off the mark...those hundreds of champagne bottles that Wildrose supporters got...hmnn going to be a bubbly garbage tomorrow.

White people in Alberta can relax, don't have to live with the guilt of having elected a party whose candidates said white people are better positioned to serve than those who are not (yup in 2012 , in Canada some people believe that!)

Leech's comment : “When different community leaders such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader speak, they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian, I believe that I can speak to all the community.” This probably was the start of the decline of Wildrose.

Hudak had a majority in his pocket in the last Ontario provincial election. All he had to do was shut up and let the media do it work on the Liberal platform on immigrants.  Instead he went on overdrive with his comments on 'Foreign workers'  which was the end of his campaign. Immigrants with votes(lived in Canada for 4 or more years) would have voted against the idea in fear that newer ones might end up taking their jobs, when their turn was just coming!

More evidence that the right of centre is the place to be( I know B.C. is leaning more towards the pseudo communists). Canadian are getting more and more comfortable with the right of centre, but dont stretch that too far, just at arms length distance.  Anti Immigrants hate not only scares immigrants/minorities, but also the moderate vote that hinges on the right and left of centre. Its that vote in that bandwidth which determines every election in Canada and gets into panic mode when hate speech is thrown out during campaign.

Congrats to Redford on being the first female premier of Alberta. Hope she understands that this was NOT a vote for her but a vote against the Wild West Wildrose party.

 

Graco Trekko Stroller -US- $159 Vs. Canada- $269

We are stroller shopping and looking at a whole range of strollers. We have settled to choose between the Quinny Buzz, Maxi Cosi Foray, Britax B-Agile and finally something new today in Toys R us – Gracco Trekko caught our attention.  So I wanted to check online and out of curiosity wanted to check the reviews in US site and found something that is not new for Canadians- price for the same ditto product is $110 cheaper in US!

Graco Trekko in Canada Toys R Us ($269.00) Vs. Graco Trekko in US Toys R US ($159.99) . Why this Kolaveri on Canadians, esp on baby products ? Will Canadians be second class customers eternally to Corporate world? Will they keep giving us the excuse of  the buying power of US, when the collectively corporate buying power of Toys R Us between US and Canada is greater than just one of them, especially when the product is the same-ditto!

We don’t need to have a common currency or a border less state, we don’t need to change how our government(s) work, but as we advocate for free trade and new trade and economic coalitions and deals are being formed all over the world, its high time, some sanity prevails in the world’s largest trading bloc…and until then some of my business will be going south like millions of other Canadians who take billions of their spending options to the US, rather than be treated like second class customers in Canada.

 

The Gift Of 8 Movement – Be A Donor.

Trillium gift of life network has launched the Gift of 8 Movement with Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Most Canadians are compassionate to agree with organ donation, very few actually take the effort to sign up for it. The biggest misconception is that if you sign your donor card, that takes care of it. That is not true.  Here is a list of FAQ’s

This page gives you details on how your community is doing in terms of number of residents Vs. registered donors. In all only 21% of Ontario residents have registered.  My community of Unionville is 9% , Toronto is at 13% .

Registration is low due to many factors, including lack of awareness, misconception that a donor card is sufficient, apathy, cultural and religious beliefs and superstitions in certain ethnic communities.  47% of Ontario residents live in and around GTA and majority of them are visible minorities and immigrants. Many of them come from countries where organ donation practice is not very common and a greater emphasize is needed to promote it through healthcare teams (including incentives to doctors, pharmacists to educate and sign up more people on it). There are other religious beliefs that affects recruitment in certain communities.

TGL needs to have a stronger, better diversity outreach with its website and campaign in multiple languages through ethnic media and community groups. The greatest impact will come through an incentive program for Physicians and pharmacists, two major front line healthcare professionals that Ontarians engage regularly and trust.

For those who have simply being apathetic or lazy to sign up, its takes 3 minutes to do it. Just keep your health card number ready and follow the link below.

Here is a 3 minute process  you can do to register:

1) Visit: https://beadonor.ca/

2) click on Register Now , you will be taken to this page

3) Have you Health card number handy and just fill in the details

Congratulations! You are a registered donor, now get your family to do the same.

 

Tidbit from India this past week

Child malnutrition rampant in rural India

World Bank estimates nearly 60 Million children are without regular access to food (sounds like a low estimate) but what was not funny is that PM of the corrupt Congress called it a national shame. Someone needs to remind Manmohan Singh that his government is an international shame!

 Al Jazeera visited one district in Madhya Pradesh with particularly high malnutrition deaths and found there were no doctors at the government run nutrition centre. Video. The problem in India is not poverty, but corruption that goes top down. Politicians don't hesitate to steal the last morsel of roti from the poor as they did with the BPL (Below Poverty Level) cards. To show that India is improving on poverty eradication, they stopped issuing BPL cards, mostly in Northern states where rural poverty is high. India gives Billions of dollars in aid to other country for development when millions of children are dying of starvation in their backyard. Welcome to the modern India!

Iran hand in terror attack on Israel diplomat in India

The terror on Israel diplomat's wife in Delhi has created a new trend of scare for India on Terrorism. The terror attack is blamed on Iran, a friendly country to India and a new type of terror attack that India has never seen before in its land.  

Indo-Israel relationships has been steadily rising since 1992 with India accounting for nearly 50% of all Israel military sales. Counter-terrorism is unquestionably the biggest area and India is seen as the most pro Israel country in the world.

On another hand, India and Indians in general have good relationship towards Iran, both in public and policy. India and Iran have had on and off relationship for thousands of years with a large Shiite Population in India, but relationship has been on the upside since the 90's when both joined hands to support/fund Ahmad Massoud's Northern Alliance against the Pakistan run Taliban. India and Iran need each other to counter Taliban when they get back to power post 2014.

This terror attack in Delhi might not change how India-Iran work on Afghanistan and Central Asia, but it will change the view of Indians towards Iran and push them even more hard core towards Israel. Security experts in India are now echoing the views of Israel that it was an Iranian terror cell in Delhi behind the attack and Indians see it simply as another Islamic state attacking India...
This will open a new front on Counter terrorism in India with greater focus on Shiites and Iranian's living in India.Never a dull day in India!

Auspicious C-sections : mixing medicine and astrology

This was pathetic and most obnoxious news I read last week. Hindu's are opting for timing the birth of their child based on astrology and forcing women into C-sections. We in the West are trying to reduce C-sections and here people are pushing women for C-sections because some old fart said looking at a chart when is the best time for a baby to be born. This will only force parents and in laws to pressure even educated women into these this BS auspicious C-sections that is not in the best interest of the mother and hospitals in India will be glad to do it and rake more money.  Wonder if the BJP will issue a fatwa on this :) 

How free is free speech in India

Is India a bad country because its politicians are so corrupt that they will steal a roti from a malnourished dying child or is it a great nation because its people for thousands for years have shown resilience through ahimsa despite its violent rulers..I think it is the latter. 

An impromptu debate on Salman Rushdie at Jaipur lit festivals where Indians rally to support free speech,be it in favour of Rushdie or against him, but to decide through debates!

The reality was that the ruling corrupt Congress facing tough prospects in UP state elections (where 16% are Muslims and a target vote bank for Congress) played dirty games(as always) to stop Rushdie from coming for electoral gains.

There was some good quotes that I caught at JLF, couple of them in the exact words but more or less meaning it.. "We don't need to protect God, God protects us, We don't need to fight for God, God fights for us..."  and another one related to Rushdie.."movies are banned for various reasons either temporarily or permanently, but we don't ban the movie director or the other movies of the director, so keep the ban on Satanic verses, but why the ban on Rushdie.."

A great video, that Indians should be proud of, and support free speech! - An open debate on freedom of expression and tolerance -Tehelka

Eve teasing or sexual harassment -blaming the victim

This is what jet lag does to me..up all night reading up crazy good articles…found this one to be good to be shared- What have clothes got to do with sexual attacks? by Annie Zaidi.

Eve teasing (or sexual harassment as we call in West) is rather a common sight in India, esp in Mumbai and Delhi(as stats say) and often violent and cause of several deaths. My recent visit(to the south) made me feel the issue has dramatically reduced, thanks to increased media awareness and police enforcement and what I think is the greater opportunity for men to socially interact with women(thanks to a booming economy and workforce) but yet the issue is far from being dead and a deadly virus(like HIV)  that spreads from what seems to be fun and affects the innocent, who often get blamed for it.

The often used lame excuse by  some men(and some women) is to blame women for how they dress (in which case there should be no rape in Middle East!) and often law enforcement play the same game. In Banglore, the technology capital of India a ladies college has instructed all women to wear Sarees, what they deem to be ‘decently dressed’  and believe that eve teasing(sexual harassment) will magically disappear when that happens. While its commonly perceived that fair skinned women in ’sexy’ clothes are the target, a walk down any crowded place in India will prove that myth to be wrong. Women of all color and age are a target to these Vultures, though admittedly there has been an improvement over the years and yet common sight especially where young women folk together, be it outside colleges, beaches, malls or restaurants

Eve teasing has little to do with how Women dress and more to do with the attitudes of young(and old) men towards women. It is a disease that is prevalent among the young, old, rich,poor, educated, illiterate, urban, rural, religious,atheist in all segments of society. This BBC Story published recently Eve teasing in India: Assault or harassment by another name talks about the seriousness of the issue. Watch the video on how two young men were stabbed to death trying to protect two of their girl friends from eve teasers.

India’s history and culture that it preaches to the outside world often contradicts it actions.A land of Hindus who pray thousands of Goddess, make  hundreds of movies a year singing the praise of women, a country of billion + people where family planning is a big message for the government , the land of Kamasutra and tantric sex that has left the West amorous to India and yet a country where women in general, every one of them would have in their life time have faced a public sexual harassment case from men in a country where  the majority of them are still shy to ask for a condom in a store!  Welcome to India!

 

Barack Obama wasted his breath in India last year

I kind of agree with this article but it is also the West who has been hypocrital on this subject. Countries in the West did nothing when the Junta in Burma was massacring Monks and doing very little against the regime. They did not go after their allies in Saudi or Bahrain, but go after Libya...kind of selective and weird. India, on the other hand, did nothing when Uganda kicked out Indians or during the coup in Fiji or in the West Indies or in L.America...India did nothing to protect her diaspora...

A Facebook friend of mine said,"India is really a mouse that feels offended when people don't consider it to be a tiger" - agreed! That is India's problem. India thinks not taking sides and sitting on the fence is the best non-controversial solution. India also has an ismalic terrorism and insurgency issue to deal with and it needs to be careful that al-Qaeda and LET don't make India the number one target! But their actions on Sri lanka, Burma, are impotent, so with Fiji, Guyana...

See below for Dean Nelson's article in The Telegraph.

When Barack Obama visited India last November he lectured his hosts on the responsibilities which come with the world leadership New Delhi craves.

The price of our own freedom is “standing up for others”, he said, mentioning Mahatma Gandhi’s role in challenging apartheid in South Africa as a reminder. When peaceful demonstrators are gunned down the world cannot remain silent, President Obama said.

“If I can be frank, in international fora, India has often avoided these issues. But speaking up for those who cannot do so for themselves is not interfering in the affairs of other countries. It’s not violating the rights of sovereign nations. It’s staying true to our democratic principles,” he told his hosts.

He was speaking about India’s failure to challenge Burma’s military junta over its human rights abuses, but the assessment holds true for India’s criticism of this week’s military action in support of the United Nations resolution to prevent Colonel Gaddafi’s forces attacking civilians.

After American, French and British fighter jets finally struck Libyan forces as they closed in on rebel Benghazi, where a massacre had been feared, India criticised the action and said the air raids would “exacerbate an already difficult situation for the people of Libya.”

Britain and America may be inconsistent defenders of those living under dictatorships around the world. There were no air strikes against China to stop the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, no-one acted to halt the genocide in Rwanda, and the numbers of civilians killed in drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas are enough to ridicule Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

But on Saturday, as Gaddafi’s tanks and fighter planes locked onto their own people in Benghazi, anything but support for intervention would have condemned thousands of Libyans – who want only the same rights Indians have in the world’s “greatest democracy” – to a bloody end.

I didn’t like the tone of Obama’s lecture in New Delhi, and I do support India’s right to permanent membership of the UN Security Council as the home of the world’s second largest population.

But he did have a point about the kind of leadership India would bring: the kind that ducks tough choices and sticks to cobwebbed slogans, that wants the baubles of power but shirks its share of heavy lifting.

India has let Obama know he wasted his breath and reminded its other friends it isn’t quite the kindred spirit they’d hoped.

Soldier who lost legs says feds dropped ball on benefits

This is what really bugs me about the Conservatives. In every country, every culture, we always stand up for those who stood for us, but in Harper Canada, disabled Canadian soldiers from Afghanistan are treated poorly. It tells you a lot about Harper government and one very good reason why they should be voted out. This is no way to treat our Veterans!

It's the same in the US too. More than 50% of veterans live in poverty...what a shame!

There are a lot of individuales who join the forces because of the salary, perks,and education. But there a lot more people who enlist because their parents or grandparents served and they too want to serve their nation. They get sympathy and pride from everyone but little income!

See below for the Canadian Press' article on the issue.

A Canadian soldier who lost both legs in Afghanistan says the financial treatment of injured and wounded war veterans by the Harper government is an "abject betrayal" of the new generation of soldiers.

Maj. Mark Campbell, who stepped on a bomb in June 2008, said the new Veteran's Charter established in 2007 robs wounded soldiers of about 40 per cent of their income.

Campbell says the new system of lump-sum payments and income replacement pales in comparison to the post-Second World War practice of granting lifetime pensions.

He said the changes are akin to putting a couple of patches on a leaky bicycle tire, adding the $250,000 he received wouldn't be enough to pay for one day in his shoes.

Campbell said the Harper government should immediately revert back to the old pension arrangement and forget about attempting to fix the new legislation.

He said Canadians should be "outraged" at how poorly the government is treating its wounded veterans.