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The
O'Brien / Kilrea / Baird scandal
A collection of articles and commentary regarding the mayor of Ottawa
before and since he was charged with influence peddling.
Some
older articles:
Mayoral
candidate Piotr Anweiler throws support behind O'Brien
This
article supports Mayoral
Candidate Jane Scharf's complaint that the media focused on
O'Brien to the exclusion of other candidates.
Niece
knew of mayor's alleged offer
Why
Kilrea thought he had a deal
Kilrea
ran for mayor hoping to make a difference
Larry
O'Brien decides to run for mayor
(and it's revealed that he joined
Harper's Alliance Party in 2000).
March 2008
People Ottawa Mayor Larry
O'Brien thinks he's better than
They all saw
the wisdom of stepping down until their legal cases were resolved.
January
2008
Jan.
18 - Ottawa's
criminally
charged Mayor Larry O'Brien still hasn't stepped down from his seat in
council or even from his high horse. He's
busy complaining that the Ontario government cares about keeping crack
addicts alive
- you know, to give them a chance to recover and lead productive
lives. The only product Larry seems to support is over-crowded
jails -
the better to justify privatization.
With Scary Larry's objection to "acting like Big Brother" does anybody
believe the treatment centre he dreams of will be publicly controlled?
Only those who have slipped into Bizarro World - and there seem
to be a number of city councilors in that condition. If
any facility is constructed, Larry will most likely be a major
shareholder, and the centre will be a regional one, designed for
maximum profit, because he's an old coot who enjoys playing "Big
Daddy". The police will be instructed to round up as many
customers as possible.
I don't wish ill on anybody, but if by some wharping of the ethers
Larry ends up convicted of influence peddling and actually does time,
will he hope for some bleeding heart, leftist, Big Brother compassion?
What struts like a rock star and is
twice as unfit for municipal office?
NPost:
Ottawa mayor feeling the pressure over bribery charges ...
councillors are becoming uncomfortable with the situation. [Alex
Cullen] said if the mayor doesn't do something soon, he thinks
councillors will take matters into their own hands. Councillors
cannot oust the mayor from office, but they can bring political and
public pressure on him to step aside or give up some of his power.
YYC: Scary Larry says: "I feel like a rock star ... It must
be a bigger story than I thought". Duh ...how astute is that!
One can only hope that the media that focused
almost exclusively on O'Brien prior to the election - to the point
where voters hardly knew there was anyone else other than the incumbent
running - can find some redemption now in focusing on what's right and
proper.
Good on Alex Cullen for
daring to speak out after the city lawyer told councillors to stay
mum. I'm happy to help keep up the pressure. You can too.
What's good for a city employee (being
suspended when charged with even minor offences) is even better for a
silly rock star.
December
2007
Will Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien be left
swinging alone in the wind?
YYC: Is CFRA withdrawing its support for O'Brien?
Are they trying to
distance themselves from the criminal charges as the federal
conservatives have attempted to do? News writers generally leave their
personal clues in their closing paragraphs.
O'Brien
Must Think Ottawa Residents are 'Stupid': CTF O'Brien
campaigned on a "zero means zero" platform during the 2006 municipal
election campaign, but the 2008 City of Ottawa property tax increase is
4.9 per cent ... O'Brien suggests the actual property tax increase for
the day-to-day running of the city is 1.5 per cent, noting 1.44 per
cent covers the Ottawa Police Service and a two per cent infrastructure
levy.
But National Research Director of the CTF Adam
Taylor says O'Brien is "trying to pull a fast one" on Ottawa taxpayers.
Taylor adds O'Brien must think Ottawa
taxpayers are "stupid", saying the Mayor should strive for a tax freeze.
Canwest:
Mayor to Marry
YYC: Silly old coot and criminally charged Mayor of
Ottawa is getting himself a trophy bride. So he's
just a typical weak ego with fading powers, and she wants to play the
role of Barbara Amiel. When are women ever going to learn? They are
both very sad cases.
And he fancies himself a birthday
present! Well, he's no gift to the City of Ottawa, and I for one
want a divorce.
Ottawa City Council misguided by city lawyers? ... Permalink
Ottawa's Marjorie Robertson
has done some legal research and written a letter to City Councillors
explaining exactly why she believes they "must act to safeguard the
office of Mayor and the integrity of the work of council". She
makes
the case that city councillors were "misguided" by city lawyers to keep
silent.
The Baird Connection ...
From the Ottawa
Citizen: The exact charges against Ottawa Mayor Larry
O'Brien are:
under Criminal Code sections titled: Frauds on the Government (121),
and Influencing or negotiating appointments or dealing in offices (125)
- Pretending to have influence with the government or a minister,
contrary to Section 121(1)(d)(ii), and negotiating an appointment
contrary to Section 125(b).
Which means that John Baird is in big
trouble if O'Brien gets backed into a corner where he has to prove he
wasn't pretending.
Baird says his appointment book shows no
appointment with
O'Brien. Would anybody write down the date and time that they
plan to
meet with someone to cook up a smelly deal? No doubt Larry has no
record of an appointment with Baird either, nor of his meeting with
Kilrea behind Tim Horton's - yet admits he met him there even if he
doesn't admit to the content of their conversation.
In much the same manner, although Baird denies
ever discussing
Kilrea with O'Brien, he does say he "might have" run into him at Hy's
Steakhouse. They knew where to find each other - at a pricey
steakhouse a short walk from the Hill, the place to lunch - and
both of them show signs of having lunched frequently and well.
These two were so friendly that Baird was
advising O'Brien on the light rail project before the
latter had officially taken office - and was actually "sticking his
nose in" long before the election in which O'Brien ran, and deliberately
delayed transfer of funds for the proposed light rail project
until post-election, at which time the project was scrapped under
O'Brien's administration.
Doesn't that suggest that Baird saw the future
through O'Brien,
that he and O'Brien had already been chummy? I think so. As
early as
October 10, 2006, a month before the election, pundits were saying: "He
[O'Brien] risks looking like he’s in cahoots with Baird".
Not long after that came the huge media push
in favour of O'Brien to the virtual exclusion of all the other
candidates.
Humorous tales of Scary Larry and Big Baird
...
SGoods:
How would the Onion write about Canada today? Antics of public
figures not fair to comedians or Canadians.
YYC: I'm glad to see that Straight Goods doesn't gloss over
the connection between Scary Larry and Big Baird.
 John Baird is a fun loving
guy. He enjoys a little game of Catch me if you Can now
and then. At this very moment he's playing hide and seek with
environmental activists he promised to speak to in Bali (CTV),
and tossing off knee slappers like: "Canada will not accept any
[Kyoto] deal unless it includes major polluters like the United States,
China and India." Ooooh, tough guy, eh?
Not too long ago Baird
was saying, "Talk is cheap. Canadians have seen too much
talk and not enough action, and we're committed to the action side."
Once we
figure out where that is, he was then heard to mutter, his little eyes
peering querulously at each other.
Can't you just picture Bush's writers giving Baird's writers his most
recent lines? Okay, our guy will say the US won't accept Kyoto
unless third world countries are forced to, and your guy will say
Canada won't do it unless the US is forced to. What a gas!
Greenhouse that is! Stop it, yer killin me.
O'Brien:
I am not a crook *...
CBC/YourViewOttawa:
Should Mayor O'Brien resign? This is not just any criminal charge -
he is accused of manipulating the election and thus may not be the
legitimate mayor of Ottawa ... Larry, please swagger yourself out of
the Mayor's chair pronto ... don't let the door hit you on the way out.
YYC: O'Brien says he wants to hear from the
public. Well, the public is speaking. And as far as
listening to councillors is concerned, the consultation meeting last
night was over almost immediately after
city lawyers told councillors to keep their mouths shut.
Canwest
reports: "In a taped interview with the Ottawa Citizen on
Jan. 12, O'Brien confirmed that he had met with his rival twice and
acknowledged that he spoke about his opponent's out-of-pocket campaign
expenses.
"O'Brien also acknowledged that he later spoke to a lawyer about what
he could and couldn't do to entice someone in or out of a campaign
race."
Clearly the mayor wanted to take Kilrea out of
the race, and his ethical standards are so low that he sees nothing
improper in that. By his own admission, he wanted to be able to
tamper with the election - but without getting caught.
For future reference, I've created a separate
page to keep track of posts on this issue. It includes a CBC
timeline of events leading up to the charges.
You need to write to the media with
copies to city councillors if you are interested in preserving
democracy and ethics in government. The online polls at right
wing media outlets are against O'Brien stepping down. Those are
the opinions he will heed. CFRA
- 71% against - Ottawa
Sun - 51% against.
* Nixon
Tell Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien to step down
... Permalink
Sample letters and email addresses here
Reuters:
Ottawa mayor charged with bribery, says could quit
YYC: What kind of man is this who is slapped with extremely
serious criminal charges and doesn't immediately show respect for the
office and the taxpayers by removing himself? One who has lower
standards of moral character and action, that's who.
He claims to want to hear from the public - so
Ottawans, tell him to get to lost - now - with a copy to all council
members and to the media.
Those in other provinces who watch the goings
on in Ottawa should feel free to write as well. This case has
connections to the federal
government.
Scary Larry charged at last ...
"I swore an
affidavit and I passed
a polygraph and gave a statement to the OPP as did 45 other people so
whatever the OPP decides, that's fine," said Kilrea.(Ottawa
Sun)
Wahoo! Just heard on the radio that Ottawa mayor Larry
O'Brien is finally being charged with bribery. O'Brien is yet
another "God-fearing" crook associated with Stephen Harper.
From an O'Brien bio
brag: "Mayor O'Brien is a past member of
the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Science and Technology (ACST)
..."
From Canada.com
(October 20): O'Brien bribery probe reaches PM's inner circle
And let us not forget O'Brien's close
association with Allcon John Baird.
There most definitely needs to be an
investigation of John Baird, but if the Harper crew's public
dissociation from Mulroney is an indication of how they deal with
friends in trouble, they may find a way to leave O'Brien hanging in the
wind.
O'Brien certainly pulled a Mulroney
when he demanded
that the police either pee or get off the pot. No doubt he
feels protected by the Harper machine, but the machine appears to be
breaking down.
O'Brien is a solid example of how the New
World Order - first spoken of by
George Bush Sr. - was intended to infect all three levels of
government. Rudy
Giuliani was America's example.
O'Brien literally gushed
about meeting George W. Bush at Montebello describing Bush as ""a
remarkable man," with whom he felt a deep connection because of their
common faith-based and family values. "I (said) God bless you and all
your actions, because I knew he was a man of faith as I am.""
A different example needs to be made of this hideous Harper implant
into Ottawa municipal affairs.
Related YYC articles:
>The
Great Yellow Ribbon Debate
>Out
with O'Brien or Bust - Homeless Action Strike
Below is
the
Ottawa Sun
article quoted in "Out with O'Brien or Bust"
Thu, April 26, 2007
From the Ottawa
Sun
Squawks and doves
By SUSAN SHERRING
Oops. He's done it again.
Apparently with his lips moving before his brain stepped in, Mayor
Larry O'Brien has managed to offend a fellow mayor, the city's street
people, and many on city council.
The city's pigeons probably aren't too happy either.
Last week on CFRA, O'Brien drew comparisons between street people and
pigeons, suggesting people not give out money to panhandlers.
"And we did that with real pigeons about 25 or 30 years ago and, lo and
behold, you barely ever see a pigeon around here. You start doing that
with the panhandlers -- you stop giving out those toonies -- and
they'll stop hanging around here."
Then he accused Perth of shipping their homeless here.
"They do that in Perth and other cities," O'Brien said. "They give them
a bus ticket to Ottawa for God's sake."
On Tuesday, Perth Mayor John Fenik was calling for an apology.
And yesterday, O'Brien's colleagues at city hall were doing the same,
criticizing the mayor for his comments.
"I think it's really dehumanizing when you see the mayor of our city
comparing our most vulnerable citizens to pigeons," said
Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans. "I have a real problem with
that."
She's not alone.
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Georges Bedard is also calling on O'Brien to make a
public apology.
"It's very unfortunate, and it took away from the real issue," Bedard
said.
Add Bay Coun. Alex Cullen to the list of councillors calling for a
public apology.
"It dehumanizes those who are destitute, people who have real problems"
said Cullen.
Any chance the mayor will make a public apology?
Who knows?
The mayor refused to talk to reporters yesterday, physically covering
his mouth as he rushed past them after the city council meeting.
As has often been the case when O'Brien puts his foot in bird doo-doo,
it seems the mayor's office would prefer to keep him under wraps.
Of course, this isn't the first time O'Brien has made this kind of
comparison.
Asked to explain how he would deal with the city's homeless in an
editorial board meeting with the Ottawa Sun during last year's election
campaign, O'Brien set off on a bizarre analogy about how the Carp dump
keeps seagulls away.
"At the Carp dump, they have a scarecrow set up, they had a massive
seagull problem. I went out there and there were no seagulls. I asked
how they did it. They said, 'We have a shotgun that goes off every 15
minutes, but the shotgun and the scarecrow doesn't do it on their own,
but once a week we use a real shotgun and we shoot a bird. And there's
nothing that scares these birds more than occasionally seeing one of
these birds drop into the water.' "
So where exactly was the connection between seagulls and the homeless?
O'Brien, suddenly realizing what he was saying, quickly tried to
explain.
"Can I clarify that? You have to arrest the odd person. You have to
have enforcement, you need to enforce the law in a very visual manner
and people will get the message. It's not going to happen overnight."
It was during that same meeting that O'Brien first accused Valley towns
of exporting their problem.
"People in, what is it, Pembroke, one of their strategies is to give
the people a bus ticket to Ottawa in terms of dealing with the
homelessness. No, it's true, they get a bus ticket to Ottawa. So, if
we're a destination resort for some of these people, it doesn't make a
lot of sense."
In a very short time, O'Brien has outrageously offended several sectors
of society.
His silence is being heard loud and clear.
Either he's sorry for what he's said, or he's happy with the message
he's sent out.
Which one is it?
Letters to the editor should be sent to feedback@ott.sunpub.com.
===================================
NEWS RELEASE
From the website
of John Baird, MP
For Immediate Release
November 29, 2006
John Baird Meets with Mayor-Elect Larry O'Brien and Transport Minister
to Tackle Issues Affecting Ottawa
(Ottawa) - Making Ottawa an even better city to live, was the topic of
the first meeting local Member of Parliament John Baird (Ottawa
West-Nepean) had with Mayor-Elect Larry O'Brien. Transport Minister
Lawrence Cannon (Pontiac) was also on hand to discuss the future of the
city at the introductory meeting in Mr. Baird's Parliament Hill office.
"I look forward to working with Mayor Elect O'Brien over the coming
weeks and months to get things done for Ottawa," said Mr. Baird. "This
meeting was a great opportunity for us to tackle the issues affecting
the residents of Ottawa and kick off a productive working relationship
to better our community."
Issues of interest to both the Federal government and the City were
discussed, including the city's plan for light rail transit, the
Congress Centre expansion project and the National Capital Commission.
Further information:
Office of John Baird, MP
Ottawa West-Nepean
613-996-0984
yayacanada
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