Valeri's Big Deal II

Here’s a little info about why the FBI takes public corruption so seriously.

Check out question number 2:

Q: What kinds of crimes are involved?
Dan: They run the gamut. Embezzlement. Voter fraud. Subsidy fraud. Illegal kickbacks. For example, a health inspector might threaten to report code violations unless a restaurant owner pays a bribe. Or a government official might award a contract in exchange for free work on his home or some other favor.

Now, isn’t Valeri having work done on his home for $205,500? hmmm… Check out the Spec’s latest report here.

See a story on flipping in the U.S. here.

Just to clear things up a little, on Monday I’ll give a call to the FBI’s Public Corruption office and clarify if what just happened in Canada would send red flags up in the United States. Perhaps their laws are a little different there than the are here. At least we know they are enforced over there.

It seems that Valeri is intent on intimidating a blogger – threatening to sue and all for scrutinizing what appears to be shady dealings. If he does, he’ll have every blogger in Canada and the United States and the rest of the world converging on his repression of freedom of opinion and the expression of it.

So perhaps he should ask himself how many others he should intimidate by threats of lawsuits? Valeri is a public official that should expect public scrutiny - especially if there is an appearance of a conflict that appears to be an elobarate way of getting financing to 1) either support an elaborate a political campaign donation by by-passing the Elections Canada Act or 2) an elaborate kickback in order to secure government contracts for the donator.

Valeris' property issues came up in a National Post article last fall, obviously that info was obtained by a freedom of information request. Ah or did Mr. Valeri forget we have FoI laws in Canada?

Perhaps he should sue the Privacy Commission for allowing these laws in the first place – in a democracy of all places. Sheesh! What will our lawmakers think of next?

Why shouldn’t his dealings be scrutinized? The guy he sold his property to has donated to the Liberal Party AND he got some pretty big contracts with Economic Development Canada.

What about that big FlipGate in Toronto at the end of the 80’s or early 90’s when a bunch of lawyers were flipping apartment buildings and ended up getting caught and thrown in jail?

Oh yeah…bty…I heard that Valeri had his guy give an affidavit to say “nothing happened”. Heh…isn’t the proof in the facts that are out there already?

Just so my readers know and can be aware of …

There was a Supreme Court Decision in 1995 regarding a kickback scheme between an ex-Crown Attorney giving money to a dirty cop for forwarding clients to him that were charged for drinking and driving.

Each client the cop would give the lawyer, the lawyer would give the cop $200. The lawyer approached a “good” cop about entertaining the deal but the cop did the right thing and went to his superiors.

Anyway…the evidence was obtained even though the lawyer had his “clients” sign an affidavit saying that “they did nothing wrong”. He was caught and charged.

If anyone wants to learn more about that SCC decision see Walter Kingsley Kirti Wijesinha v. Her Majesty the Queen, indexed as R. v. Wijesinha, File No. 24015, judgement on May 31, 1995 and the reasons delivered were on September 21, 1995.

What is also important in this case – but may not be relevant here – is that the term “course of justice” was concluded to include investigations.

The investigations the Crown was considering were of administrative tribunals and disciplinary bodies – such as the Law Society of Upper Canada or the College of Physicians and Surgeons, are only two examples.