Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Spin continues

I read two interesting accounts today about what Andrew Frank said. The first  was from the Wall Street Journals MarketWatch, which started with this statement"ForestEthics has sent a statement to supporters confirming the veracity of Andrew Frank's claims that the Government of Canada targeted the environmental group.  In an email sent to supporters yesterday afternoon (January 25), ForestEthics co-founder, Valerie Langer confirms the veracity of Andrew Frank's claims"

The second report was Straight.com, which started with this statement "An environmentalist claims that Stephen Harper's office threatened to revoke Tides Canada Foundation's charitable status, but the group's CEO says that this comment is "inaccurate".

Interesting spin being put on this issue by these two sources. The Straight is interested in the effect that muzzling of this charity will have on other charities,  and wonders what other groups the government will go after. This article ends with the following statement:
"If Frank's whistle-blowing allegation is correct that the Prime Minister's Office threatened Tides Canada, then one wonders who might be next on the government's hit list.

We all know that Stephen Harper can't be trusted to play fair with anyone he perceives to be an enemy. Maybe it's time for the NDP leadership candidates and Liberal Leader Bob Rae to propose a long-term solution to prevent prime ministers from throttling registered charities for partisan political purposes. The best way to do that would be to craft legislation to create an independent charities commission."

The Wall Street Journal article discusses the letter in light of the governments contempt for freedom of speech and  ends with this statement "Andrew Frank's original open letter ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/79228736/Whistleblower-s-Open-Letter-to-Canadians  ) to Canadians has been read more than 55,000 times since Tuesday morning (January 24), sparking an online movement to reveal the truth and hold the government to account for its contempt of the most basic rights of Canadian citizens, including freedom of speech and freedom of expression"

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